The 14A has nothing to do with stripping powers from the states. It has everything to do with holding states to respect our rights enumerated in the plain text of the constitution.
When a senator is looking over his shoulder to see if his state's legislature will recall him, he tends to do the bidding of his state...which is how The Founders wanted it to be.
But, this concept is foreign to those who believe in a unwritten constitution.
Like the 16A, the 17A is how power was taken from the people and the states.
If the Father of the BOR ( George Mason) were alive today, I would imagine, that he would believe that an 'Unwritten Constitution" is in fact alive and well.. For the simplest of reasons, he did not confer total authority on the proposed written constitution, even refused to sign his name to the document.
Mason in my humble opinion, was the smartest of all the Fathers, including that esteemed 'Polymath" Dr. Franklin
The 17th is based on the concept of " majority rule"...
Again, in my humble opinion, the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th amendments close any and all ambiguities espouse in the BOR..
To fully appreciate the document, we must stop looking thru the prism of 18th century America, and look thru the prism of 21st America.
The Founders, of which, some were indeed, petty tyrants, understood that " the vanity and presumption of Governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. They left the power of making new amendments to their posterity, and, advancing the document and individual liberties thereof..
We are all Constitutionalist, we are all textualist, however we also need to exercise our natural God given right 'to think".. A right that is no where stated in the written text.. We must apply " Penumbra Reasoning" to the terse text.. Or simply read Griswold v Connecticut..
Interesting debate folks.
My .02
CCJ
