Mortshnefran wrote:Northwest Slobovia wrote:Mortshnefran wrote:The 17th amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. senators. The constitution as originally written created the bicameral legislature for a reason.
I agree. The Founding Fathers were perfect, and knew it, which is why they had no disputes among themselves and saw no reason anybody should tinker with their perfect form of government. Thus, they set the Constitution in stone. Those inconvenient 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments should go on similar grounds as the 17th, and the 3/5ths rule reinstituted posthaste.
because that is totally what i am arguing
But is just as silly. As
http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html points, out, the original system broke and broke badly:
17th Amendment
One of the most common critiques of the Framers is that the government that they created was, in many ways, undemocratic. There is little doubt of this, and it is so by design. The Electoral College, by which we choose our President, is one example. The appointment of judges is another. And the selection of Senators not by the people but by the state legislatures, is yet another. The Senatorial selection system eventually became fraught with problems, with consecutive state legislatures sending different Senators to Congress, forcing the Senate to work out who was the qualified candidate, or with the selection system being corrupted by bribery and corruption. In several states, the selection of Senators was left up to the people in referenda, where the legislature approved the people's choice and sent him or her to the Senate. Articles written by early 20th-century muckrakers also provided grist for the popular-election mill.
The 17th Amendment did away with all the ambiguity with a simple premise — the Senators would be chosen by the people, just as Representatives are. Of course, since the candidates now had to cater to hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people instead of just a few hundred, other issues, such as campaign finances, were introduced. The 17th is not a panacea, but it brings government closer to the people. The Amendment was passed by Congress on May 13, 1912, and was ratified on April 8, 1913 (330 days).
In short, the senators did not advance the interest of the states, but instead produced a number of unresolvable problems.
The concentration of power in the hands of the federal gov't has little to do w/ the 17th amendment, and more to do w/ unrelated political solutions to other problems, for example the New Deal and the rise of the military-industrial complex.