The 17th Amendment Ruined the Genius of the Constitution and Killed Federalism

When the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia, two of their primary concerns were creating a government with checks and balances and one that respected state’s rights. For these reasons under the original scheme the Constitution provided for the election of the Senate by its respective State Legislature.

The theory behind this is that the House of Representatives was “The Peoples’ House”, while the Senate was to represent the interest of the State and hence be elected by the State Legislature. This then in turn required the people to put hard thought into the election of its State Legislatrues and Congressmen, who they were most familiar with anyways. How many of us can proclaim that these days, scary!

The Federalist #62 commented on this idea as follows:
“It is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the two systems.”

Federalist 62 highlighted the necessary linkage between the State Legislature and the Senate. A senator was thus a State Legislature’s representative in Congress. The entire system was known as the “Three Legged Stool”: the People, through the direct election of the House of Representatives; the States, through the selection of the Senatorial delegation; and the Federal government (itself a three-legged stool of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches).

The second concern was to provide a check and balance between Federal interests and State interests. States were conceptually sovereign states (duh “United” States) and were to retain their independent flavor and advocate these via their Senators. By having the state legislatures elect Senators, they thus provided a balance in Washington by limiting the influence of the Federal government’s scope and responsibility.

Since the States had an interest in keeping the Federal government out of the States' business, the States, through the Senate, formed a powerful check on attempts by the wealthy and powerful to quickly influence matters at the Federal level.

Through the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, occasionally states became deadlocked and delayed sending a senator to Washington. Thus an Amendment for direct election was hastily approved to thwart this problem. This in practice is not a successful solution, when you put into context the recent election of Al Franken. This short sightedness removed one of the legs from the stool and hampered the representation of State interests. Senators now elected by the people are likely to run on national issues alone and special interest which gain press coverage vs. the interest of their state, which it is their job to represent. Further this action has made irrelevant in the people’s mind the election of their state legislatures. Honestly, do you know who your state representative is? Funny how the people closest to you with power to affect your life, are the ones we are now least acquainted with.

Well we have created a house of barons, who use their wealth and the national news cycle to run for office based upon their views of very narrow national issues and special interests. All this for a decision made by the same generation who enacted and the repealed Prohibition. Therefore, I say we get out our wigs, powder them up and get our Founding Fathers on and repeal the 17th Amendment.