It's time to put these self centered money grabbing traitors in their place. REPEAL THE 17TH AMENDMENT!
Make the Senators answer to their State Legislatures, not CHINA! REPEAL THE 17TH AMENDMENT!
REPEAL THE 17TH AMENDMENT!
I consider that one of the most important FR stances of all, which I've been calling for since I joined in '99. Apparently "saner" voices say the 17th was a necessary remedy for corrupt state legislatures and over-representation of rural districts. Doh -- but it merely moved the corruption from one place to another and, worse, entrenched it in urban centers with no structural framework to get around that.
My logic has always been that the direct vote of Senators distances voters from their state legislators, which creates less accountability for them than anything ever before. At-large Senators have zero accountability to minority opposition. My D senators don't have to care about my voice, but they'd have to listen to my representatives who do have to care, even in a D-majority district. I know this from personal experience, btw.
But the 2020 election has demonstrated an even greater need for removal of the 17th: Senatorial elections are just as compromised as the national election, since all they need to do is pump urban votes to win the state EC votes. D's will cheat in '22 as bad as in '20 in order to keep the Senate.