This week, Aung San Suu Kyi will walk to the podium in an assembly hall in Myanmar (Burma) and call to order representatives of the 135 ethnic peoples who make up the population of the country. In convening this Second Panglong Conference, she is resuming the work her father, Aung San, began in 1947, and left unfinished because assassins ended his life.

A widespread sentiment among more extreme conservatives -- including a surprising number of prominent Republican candidates, former candidates, office holders, and former office holders -- is that the 17th Amendment should be repealed.