Ironically, having an appointed upper house is much more common in nations that are NOT Republics. Prime examples today are the United KINGDOM and the DOMINION of Canada, both of whom have appointed upper houses, with the Queen as head of state.
When we declared independence from England and decided to put an appointed upper house into effect, we were retaining one of the old features of the old King George pre-Republic era. Other nations that abolished their monarchy and established Republics, like France, did away with the old arisocratic ways much quicker. Even the UK itself almost immediately did away with an appointed upper house when they were briefly a Republic in the 1600s. In their case, they simply abolished the upper house and let the House of Commons have sole legislative authority as the "rump parliment". Appointed upper houses in free republics are an oddity.
As a Canadian, I’ll proudly point out that the term “Dominion of Canada”, a reference to Psalm 72:8 “He shall have Dominon from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth” - which is echoed in Canada’s national motto “Ad Mare Usque Ad Mare” (from sea to sea) - is no longer current.
It hasn’t been used officially since the 50’s and was essentially legally abolished by the Canada Act of 1982. Canada signs all of it’s international documents “Canada” and not “The Dominion of Canada”.
Also, our Senate, while appointed, hasn’t opposed an Act passed by our directly elected lower-house in my memory. If they did it would almost certainly result in an immediate change in our Constitution.
The original intent of the founders was to have a weak central government, with the states retaining most of the political power. That is why the senate was appointed by the states. The house was the peoples house, and the senate was the states house. Now, both houses are run by political parties and special interest groups. With elected senators came campaigns with donations from special interest groups and political parties. The senate is no longer the states house. I say the only way to put the republic back and end this run on socialism, is to repeal the 17th....