[P-Marlowe]

So did the passage of the twelfth amendment in 1804 destroy our Republic?

You are arguing apples and oranges. I'm not interested in your idiotic analogies. The 17th Amendment basically destroyed the 10th Amendment and transferred all that State power to Washington.

Senators now represent themselves and the corporations that contribute to their re-election rather than the States to which they come from.

Previously Senators had to go before their State Legislatures every 6 years and beg for the opportunity to keep their jobs. Now all they need to do is to get enough American Idol viewers to think that they will bring them other people's money and give them goodies and they get themselves re-elected by the mob.

Senators now are beholden to low information voters and corporate sponsors. They routinely ignore the best interests of the States from which they hail.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Beg to keep their jobs ? Hell, by the latter half of the 19th century, they were bribing them. It was so audacious and without shame that a directly elected body was the only way to curb such open corruption of state legislators — and you want to go back to that ?

[xzins]

It makes a big difference if your senator sees himself working for the federal government or sees himself working for the state.

If the state is your boss, then YOU are the one standing there saying to any encroaching federal government, “Hell NO!”

[dennisw]

The 17th Amendment basically destroyed the 10th Amendment and transferred all that State power to Washington.

You are right about this but I wonder if this was the intent of the 17th Amendment or an unforeseen consequence?

 

 

What would the Senate look like without the 17th Amendment?

Scott Bomboy April 8, 2013

It’s the 100th anniversary of the 17th Amendment, leading us to consider what today’s U.S. Senate would look like if its members weren’t directly elected by voters.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The answer is simple: It would be probably be controlled by the Republicans, with a chance that it could be a filibuster-proof majority.

Related Link: Happy Birthday, 17th Amendment!

Given that the House is already controlled by the GOP, laws enacted by the Democrats in the past two years may not have fared well with a Republican-controlled Congress.

Prior to 1913, when the 17th Amendment was ratified, state legislatures elected two U.S. senators to represent them in Congress.

Members in each state House and each state Senate, in most cases, would meet separately to pick a candidate as its representative in the U.S. Senate.