What you assume is that Democratic state legislatures are peopled with the same types as the Democrats on the national level. Not true. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The Democrats in West Virginia’s state legislature do not give a hoot about the green weenies. They care about their states interests such as the coal industry.
You have more direct control over state legislatures. They represent far less people and therefore are more accountable to the people. If they send a left wing looney to the Senate and their constintuency is not left wing, they are going to hear about it. Even worse than Federal Congressman do.
I don’t know about you, but local Democrats that are around where I live are nothing like the national Democrats. Oh, I’m sure that they would get corrupted to be like Chucky Shumer when they got on the national level because they would have to answer to national interests. That’s the whole point, because they are local, they are not like the Chucky Shumers of the world.
Without the 17th amendment, the Senate would be peopled (Democrat or Republican) by people more concerned with the states interests and not the party or national interests. Sure, there would be special interests involved, but they would be at the state level, not the national level. The original legislature was made up of the House who answered to the people and the Senate who answered to the states. Party interests took a back seat in the Senate. There are many Democratic Senators such as Ben Nelson, Evan Bayah, Jim Webb, Blanche Lincoln who voted for this health care bill because they were pressured by their party to go along with the leader of their party. Under the former system, they would be pressured by the interests of their states which many of the states are not for having more unfunded mandates put upon them whether they be Democrat or Republican.
Actually, I’d say the people in the legislatures are WORSE, because they get far less coverage by the media. Since virtually all legislatures are gerrymandered (most especially ones in Democrat hands), they are only accountable to the party. This presumption that the legislators are somehow “less dirty” or “more accountable” is absurd. I look at mine as a prime example. It took us 140 years of climbing out of the muck and mire to get total control of the legislature, and one scumbag little traitor punk to stop that reality last year (and we may still see a replay next year at the next organizational session).
Every year, the Dem party becomes more and more of the same lock-stepped Statist/Socialist mindset, from President clear down to Councilman and Dogcatcher, and I think for folks that think, “Well, MY member isn’t that bad,” perhaps they should take a closer look, because I guarantee you, they probably ARE that bad, and worse. That somehow these other Democrats would vote better is a fantasy. I want the U.S. Senators directly accountable to the people, it’s the only way to give us a fighting chance to elect one in ALL 50 states, otherwise by repealing the 17th, you throw it all away, and you can write off half the states, because the possibility of their ever electing a Republican again is zero. We need more accountability in this country, not less.