Sasse proposes ending direct election of U.S. senators

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25. Republicans have been trying to turn back the clock for decades.

What the want is to eliminate all amendments to the Constitution except the 2nd. Then they would be free to establish the right-wing Christian religion as the state religion and the law of the land, and only white male property owners would be allowed to vote.

Sasse’s proposal ties into something I’ve read by Republicans for a few years without really understanding the distinction they were trying to make and that is an emphasis on the US as a republic, not a democracy. It’s true that we are not a direct democracy where citizens vote on laws, but I think Republicans are working on the idea of more power being in the hands of state legislatures. Prior to the 17th Amendment, it was the state legislatures that selected senators. It appears that Sasse wants to return to those days, where corruption and patronage were the game. The state legislatures are a huge part of the problem with the Electoral College because most states award all their EC votes to the popular vote winner instead of apportioning votes based on actual vote counts, thus representing the minority votes. If all states moved away from winner take all, we would have better representation of the overall popular vote winner.