- cross-posted to:
- brainworms@lemm.ee
A resolution called for ending the ability to vote for U.S. senators. Instead, senators would get appointed by state legislatures, as it generally worked 110 years ago prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913.
“We are devolving into a democracy, because congressmen and senators are elected by the same pool,” was how one GOP delegate put it to the convention. “We do not want to be a democracy.”
One of the reasons that the 17th Amendment was passed was because so many State Legislatures were failing to send Senators that the Senate was getting hamstrung. Then there were States that sent two sets of Senators, one from each party, and the Senate had no way to distinguish which ones should be seated!
I'm sure those two things sound familiar to anyone whose been paying attention to US Politics for the last few years.