[BuckeyeTexan]

The Senate will be elected absolutely and exclusively by the state legislatures.

We need a do-over on this one. Why did we change this? I think Scalia addressed this change as one huge mistake.

[Publius]

Did you read my essay about the Senate in this episode? I explained it in detail.

[Billthedrill]

Populist sentiment, I would guess, a passion for "democracy" without the understanding that there would be a cost for direct elections of Senators. And so there has: it has taken away a principal dependency of the federal government on the state.

It has had some other interesting effects, though - a state government such as Idaho's, my own, that is firmly in the grip of the Republican party, can send Democrats to the Senate, including Senator Frank Church for four terms. That may be good or bad (don't start me on Church) but it wouldn't have happened had the 17th Amendment not been ratified.