[Jacquerie]

Nice. I would only add that removing State agency from the Senate opened the door to the consolidated government the Anti-Federalists predicted. The "parchment barriers" of our Constitution, as James Madison described, was worthless unless backed up by competing interests. The 17th Amendment, after a few decades, effectively and for all practical purposes, repealed the 9th and 10th Amendments.

For instance, if Senators were responsible to the States rather than the rabble, would:

Scotus have stolen intra-state commerce power from the States in 1942?
The EPA get away with oppressing the States with nutty rules?
The States subject their public schools to federal oversight?
Obamacare have passed?
Add your own.

Fundamentally, absent the 17th, would Presidents have bothered to nominate judges hostile to the 9th and 10th Amendments?

The 17th must go.

[WXRGina]

AMEN!