The 17th amendment took this away from the states and gave the power to the parties instead.
The other difference was the lack of formal elections and the need for constant campaign fundraising, which boosted the power of the parties over the candidates who desperately needed their organization.
-PJ
Senators soon discovered that they could vote however they liked and still serve their entire term. And so they did.
As for fundraising, state legislators are just as beholden as the US House.
If what you want is for Senators to have to vote as instructed by a bunch of other politicians, you’d have to give the legislatures the ability to remove them at at will. I don’t like that idea a whole bunch. I don’t see how that makes anything better. I don’t see how state legislators are special creatures who favor liberty and hate federal power, I think that’s naive. The RINO ones are scum and the dem ones are pond scum, just like House members, just like Senators, just like local politicians.
All of that stuff went out the window in the early 19th century. The Senate never lasted as the body the Founders envisioned. As soon as the members discovered they had no LEGAL obligation to resign if they disagreed with the legislature’s instructions on how to vote, that was the end of the “vision.”
I’d add, too, that we’re really too populous a country now and should’ve been broken up into numerous smaller countries. Representation laid out in the Constitution was for a nation of 4 million, not for over 300 million. A Senator in 1789 was more like a State Senator for a county of a few hundred thousand today and for a Congressman, more on par with a State Representative or even a Councilmanic district.
I’ve said many times we need to change those who are eligible to vote. 18, for starters, is too young, and they have no proverbial skin in the game unless they’re active duty military. Those that receive any benefits not already paid in (via welfare or subsidies) have no business casting a vote. Those that work for the government or gov’t contractors receiving taxpayer money should not have a right to vote (military and law enforcement excluded).
Take it further, probably only those who have served in the military and own property (excluding those above) should be able to participate in voting. Removing the parasites and disruptors from the body politic would go a long way into restoring sanity to our government and would clear out a huge chunk of the left out of office.
In the end, voting should be a privilege, NOT a right.
Then, maybe, after you do that, you could repeal the 17th and attach it to a modifier of “serves at the leisure of the state legislature and subject to recall at any point.” But not before.