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Reading up on it, the amendment of Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution provides for the direct election of Senators by the people of a state rather than their election or appointment by a state legislature. You'd rather revert to such an appointment by Legislatures, often more corrupt than the people, and at the discretion of the majority party? No thanks, I'd rather We People have a more powerful say in who is our Senator.

Thanks for posting this great essay.

The conclusion from the article suggests that with or without the 17th amendment the senators would de facto be chosen by the people.

If there is anything good about the 17th amendment is that it just made it more clear what was really happening.

In my mind, one of the worst things that happened is when the Supreme Court decided that all state reps had to be chosen according to population.

This meant that over time all of the important decisions within the state would be made by those living in the one or two most populous urban centers.

Those decisions and those elected politicians could then go on to influence who made it into the House of Reps or the Senate.

So now all of our elected reps owe most of what they have gained politically to urbanites.

It would be nice if at the state level there were an equal number of votes for farmers, ranchers, suburbanites, and urbanites rather than proportional votes making the votes of the farmers, ranchers, and suburbanites mere formalities.

Reading up on it, the amendment of Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution provides for the direct election of Senators by the people of a state rather than their election or appointment by a state legislature. You'd rather revert to such an appointment by Legislatures, often more corrupt than the people, and at the discretion of the majority party? No thanks, I'd rather We People have a more powerful say in who is our Senator.

Corruption existed before and after the 17th amendment. The difference is that the 17th amendment reduced the amount of influence the state legislatures could bring to bear against the congress. And since congress is more powerful the corruption has a greater affect.