The 17th Amendment is stupid:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years….
But let me start at the beginning. Article I § 3 cl. 1 of the Constitution originally established the election of Senators through the state legislatures. The Federalist #62 laid out numerous arguments for the Constitutional framework of the Senate and its method of selection.
The senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages….
Years later, Alexis de Tocqueville made some observations about the Senate in “Democracy in America.”
The Senate is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguished generals, wise magistrates, and statesmen of note, whose arguments would do honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe.
We went from great statesmen like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John Calhoun prior to the 17th Amendment, to that of Al Franken.
