In the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election, there was a tremendous amount of chatter about abolishing the Electoral College, or finding some way to reform it so it was more small ‘d’ democratic. I was one of those people who took part in that chatter. Mind you, I had been advocating for the EC’s demise long before 9 November 2016. My objections went back to my high school days in the 1980s.
As a part of that chatter, I attempted to engage with some of my more conservative pals (yeah, I know, why try...) about the EC and why it should go. After much back-and-forth, with assertions that my desire to be rid of the EC would lead to the rabble of the nation running the show (ummm…..?), I retorted with “And I suppose you think getting rid of the 17th Amendment is also a good idea?”
Answer — “Absolutely”.
Me, in my head, “Holy. Shit.”
The idea that anybody but the voters of a state would get to choose who their U.S. Senator is might seem like a crazy idea. But for decades (and yes, I’m simplifying here some), it was definitely not the voters, but the state legislatures who did the choosing. The 17th Amendment said essentially, let the people decide. Nothing wrong with that, right?
And yet there are voices who say, hold the phone, let’s not allow direct election.
But why?
In reading their rationales, some of which can be found here, here, here, and here, one strain comes through — that we cannot trust the people to make that decision rationally; that we need another layer of protection between those who do the governing and those who are governed.
In other words, let us elites be the ones who choose those Senators, not you, the great unwashed masses who take the time to vote.
Mind you also that repealing the 17th would leave the choice of Senators in the hands of legislators for many of whom owe their seats to the ridiculous gerrymanders that are pervasive in many states.
While repealing the 17th may not be at the top of the list of surveys asking voters what needs to to be done to aid our democracy, make no mistake, it is lurking out there. For sure, amending the U.S. Constitution is a heavy lift, as well it should be. Repealing the 17th would be such a lift. As VOX pointed out in 2018:
For the most part, this effort, if successful, would take away a power voters have that they seem to like having, and give it to a group of politicians who don’t want it, all in an effort to recreate the political problems of the Gilded Age. Where’s the upside?
There is no upside. For pretty much anyone.
So the next time you hear one of your conservative pals babble on about repealing the 17th, remind them that doing so would not fix our democracy. Not even close.