the states ratified it after the election of democrat woodrow wilson in 1912 . He was the one who did it.17th was after the 16th.
During Wilsons eight years as president, Congress passed two constitutional amendments: prohibition (18th); and womens suffrage (19th). Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act (the 18th amendment), believing it to be unenforceable, but the law, designed to enforce Prohibition, was passed over his veto.
http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/constitutional-amendments
Two other amendments were ratified while Wilson was President: income tax (16th) was ratified in February 1913; and direct election of Senators (17th) was ratified on April 8, 1913.
The splitting of the Republican Party resulted in the election of Woodrow Wilson. Shortly thereafter, the new Democrat-controlled Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1913, which was enacted with President Wilsons signature on October 3rd, 1913 and 17th amendments and he had a democrat congress
With the Republican Party split in 1912, he led his Democratic Party to control both the White House and Congress for the first time in nearly two decades.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
In his first term as President, Wilson persuaded a Democratic Congress to pass a legislative agenda that few presidents have equaled, remaining unmatched up until the New Deal in 1933.[2] This agenda included the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act and an income tax. Child labor was curtailed by the KeatingOwen Act of 1916, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1918. Wilson also had Congress pass the Adamson Act, which imposed an 8-hour workday for railroads.[3] Although considered a modern liberal visionary giant as President, Wilson was “deeply racist in his thoughts and politics” and his administration racially segregated federal employees and the Navy.[4][5]
griculture and food production through the Lever Act; took over control of the railroads;
http://www.conservapedia.com/Seventeenth_Amendment
“The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913 during the progressive era of Woodrow Wilson.”
also from this site
http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/constitutional-amendments
“Two other amendments were ratified while Wilson was President: income tax (16th) was ratified in February 1913; and direct election of Senators (17th) was ratified on April 8, 1913.”
you cherry pick a few things and try to spin to absolve the evil democrats/communists of any blame. Obamacare , all democrats voted for that. defend that . 1965 immigration act defend democrats there. and woodrow wilson and his democrat congress passed the income tax in 1913