Amendment 17: Direct election of U.S. Senators

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Here we have a very important change in the way that Senators were elected to Congress. Previously the citizens were not voting directly for Senators as we do now. This is significant in the fact that we gain more control of the beliefs and representatives we want from our States to get legislation passed. Placing more power in the citizen's hands is always and good thing and this amendment did exactly that. Electing your own Senators by vote give much more control of the ideals you want represented in our government.

This video is dated but brings up valid questions of the 17th amendment originally interpreted by our Founding Fathers. Since politics has changed, the popular vote of Senators is less effective in actually deciding the outcome. Things like private groups and lobbyists hold more power than they should, and Senators are less representative of the general vote. This is something to think about to uphold the original intentions of this amendment, to hand power back to the populus and get a Senator that votes in line with the majority that had selected them.

I liked this video because of the modern approach and the talk-show feel. They overviewed the topics of electoral colleges, and even suggested having a day off work to make sure we can get voters to the polls. This is extremely important because of impact of voter turnouts. Even with the 17th being less relevant today, we have so many more people not voting, or not representing their ideals, and the government is showing it. We have Senators and officials not aligned with States and just a general mismatch of elected officials. We need to address changes that can make the 17th more relevant again and have better representation in positions of power.