The Seventeenth Amendment

XVII
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

I don't feel a need to spend a lot of time on this one, because we did cover it briefly when we covered Article I:

http://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-constitution-article-i.html

After 103 years, it feels more normal to us to have direct election of senators, but there was a time when it was different.

Some concerns with the old system were that it was more prone to corruption and to deadlock, but there are some interesting things about that. While the potential for corruption is obvious, often concerns about it did not end up being substantiated. That could just mean that some things are hard to track down, but it is nice to think that people did not abuse the system.

For the concern on deadlock, this was attributed more to inexperienced legislators as states were added, and then as they gained experience it became less common. It is good to know that there is growth and development.

I think for our day and age, it feels better to feel like we have a voice in who our senator will be. In many ways our government is more representative than democratic. There are good things about that, but there are shortcomings as there is with any governmental form. When there are places where our voice can be more direct, that can feel very right.