Part two of Cassandra's series, treating the legislature, is here.
Part two of Cassandra's series, treating the legislature, is here.
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I still don't get the 17th Amendment argument. Grim says:
The immigration issue is a clear example of the Senate being less responsive to the popular will. Because of longer term limits and greater geographic accountability, many Senators have taken moderate positions on immigration that are at odds with the demands of their constituents.
And historically, the idea of the Senate as ambassadors of the States had disappeared by the late 1830s. Senate candidates campaigned for popular support. The Lincoln/Douglas debates are the best known example of this. Lincoln got state Whig legislative candidates to agree to select him as Senator if they won. Then Lincoln campaigned for the Whigs and the Whigs campaigned for him. Douglas, who had done the same, won because he had helped more Democrats win.
In 1841, Governor Polk declined to convene a special session of the Tennessee legislature to fill a Senate vacancy on the grounds that in the last election of state legislators, the members "had not been chosen [by the people] with the selection of Senators in view." Article The choice of state legislator had become more about a choice for U.S. Senate, arguably reducing the role of state legislator to elector, not enhancing the role of the state.
One thing the 17th Amendment would have changed would have been the result of the Lincoln/Douglas debates. More Illinois voters selected a Whig ticket in 1858, but because of gerrymandering, more Democrats won.