Your observation is correct. The 17th Amendment is the result of poisonous progressivism, but not Wilson. Wilson was not the protege of Harry Potter.
The 17th Amendment is due to the big government agitation of Theodore Roosevelt, who sent out his personal henchman Taft to get the whole ball rolling.(In a highly influential speech in June 1909) Roosevelt agitated for senatorial reform for “the direct election of senators” for years.
It’s in the Progressive Party Platform of 1912.
All of the blame for the Income Tax goes to the guy on Mount Rushmore. All of it.
Correction, the inheritance tax is in the progressive party platform, not the income tax.
As this thread is originally about the 17th amendment, I also had that on my mind.
All of these issues TR agitated for. The death tax, the income tax, and the change to the senate.