I've talked about this many times. Now, the background on this issue that likely has escaped many people.
We tend to think that Amendments to the Constituion are good - after all, it takes a lot to get them ratified. However, consider the 18th (Prohibition) that had to be reversed by the 21st. How about the 16th (income tax)? How about the Equal Rights that failed to get ratification?
It turns out that the Founders had this process right and that it didn't need to be messed with. However, in 1911 the Senate introduced and narrowly passed the 17th Amendment and sent it to the House which narrowly pased it in 1912, and the States ratified it in 1913.
In a nutshell, the 17th Amendment calls for the direct election of Senators by the people - just like the House of Representatives.
There was a reason - and a very good reason - the Constitution was written as it was in this regard, and it really shouldn't have been messed with.
Each State was given Representatives in the House based on population, with every State getting at least one and the largest States getting the most. The decennial census is the Constitutionally privded instrument for determining how many Representatives each State gets beyond their one that is guaranteed.
Representatives can only be impeached by their membership, but the stand for elcetion every 2 years which really should keep them in line in terms of ethics and representing the will of their constituents.
The Senators were originally appointed by the Stete legislatures to represent the interests of the States. Each State got 2 Senators - all States were equally represented in the Senate. While the Constitution doesn't mention impeachment of Senators (and the 17th Amendment doesn't either), it seems reasonable that they could have been recalled or replaced by the legislatures if they were not representing the will of the States.
If we still had this today, Ben Nelson would not be going against the will of his State. Harry Reid would have been recalled.
As it exists today, a Senator is entirely immune from censure or removal from office except by internal rules of the Senate - whatever those might be. Constitutionally they serve for 6 years regardless of what they do in office. No one, save their own members, can discharge them.
What happened to checks and balances? It went out the window of the 17th Amendment.
This needs repealed if we ever want to see a Senate responsible to the will of the States and more closely resemeble the will of the people through their locally elected and responsive State repreentatives.
Since Congress would never initiate such a proposal themselves, Article V of the Constitution also provides that two-thirds of the State legislatures can call for an Amendment-proposing Convention. Once the repeal has been proposed as an Amendment, it would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the States to take effect. This directly benefits the States so they might want to consider it.
While it might seem that the direct election of Senators makes them more responsibl;e to the people, the opposite has proven to be the case.
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