The 17th was a terrible amendment.
I’m surprised as can be that the states bought that. It was their only direct input into the federal government.
It was like having a national board of state assemblymen working for them up in Washington DC.
How was a House of Lords better?
I’m surprised as can be that the states bought that. It was their only direct input into the federal government.
Yes. I do wonder, tho, if there couldn’t be a workaround . . . suppose that the state legislature limited the names on the ballot for senator to two candidates, and those two were nominated by the state’s legislators, each of whom would cast only one vote. Thus, the Republican legislators would nominate a senatorial candidate, and the Democrat legislators would nominate another.Thus, the state legislative majority could consider that it had nominated the state’s senator, subject to a veto by the state’s voting public. And I’m not even certain that a constitutional amendment would be necessary to allow that.