Just as the death in a plane crash, on February 3, 1959, of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper marked the "day the music died" for many rock and rollers of my generation, ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment is viewed by many supporters of "states rights" as the day that federalism died.
How so? Do you agree that the 17th Amendment killed federalism?
By the way, real federalism is not about states rights, it is about the liberty of we the people in the several states to be governed closer to home, by our duly-elected neighbors and friends in the state legislature, rather than by a one-size-fits-all national mandate handed down by Congress.
Here are the relevant constitutional texts:
Original Art. I, section 3: "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote."
Seventeenth Amendment (ratified in 1913): "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."
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