>> Turns out with the creation of extremely wealthy robber barons, it was possible to buy state legislatures and by extension senate seats. And it is still possible today.
Not only is it possible today, it has become essential as a result of the 17th Amendment. The cost of a Senate seat today exceeds $5,000,000. The power of incumbency is greater than it ever was before, even in the progressive era of bosses and machines (which is the reason a term limits amendment needs to accompany the repeal of the 17th).
The entire plan backfired, just as the Framers knew at the time it would.
The Framers' concerns were more about states, who after all, were opting in to a different government than the one we now have, maintaining control. They fully recognized that a national government's tendency toward subsuming its constituent states was a very real threat. The election of senators by state legislatures was seen as a way to help prevent that from happening, in that the candidates would not be subject to the whims of a great campaign (like the Obama campaigns, which managed to suck in voters who were even more incompetent than Obama himself) or emotional frenzies which occur within the voting public.
And one need only look at the mess it has created. The Senate is now held hostage to a corrupt leader who at times is more powerful than the president himself. Incumbents are exceedingly difficult to unseat, no matter how pathetic (once again, Reid comes to mind, but there are many others). The Senate has become nothing more than a good ole boys network mired in partisanships where the fate of the nation is secondary to political interests.
And the country has suffered terribly as a result. We have a national government that is totally out of control and routinely works against states' interests (see: Obamacare) yet there is no counterbalance from the states to stop it. In effect, the "check" on the House has become even worse than the body it is supposed to be a check on. |
