On Feb. 16 the Kennebec Journal published a letter to the editor in which Peter Sorois wrote that we ought to elect our senators as we do our members of Congress. He thinks we should use the Electoral College to determine the numbers of senators. I’m sure many of your readers would agree with Peter. It’s actually a horrible idea and deserves a rebuttal.
We already have the People’s House. The House of Representatives is supposed to represent the people through the Electoral College. As it currently stands, the Senate and the House both are dysfunctional as we the people continue to vote for these leaders and they continue to pander to us for re-election.
What I doubt Peter and many of your readers understand is that senators are supposed to represent the states, not the people. They were originally to answer to our state legislative branch. That’s because we’re supposed to be a republic.
One way to correct our dysfunctional government in my opinion would be to repeal the 17th Amendment and give the power of electing senators back to our state legislators. The legislature would pick the best and brightest among themselves to represent the states in Washington. As political whims of the state shifted between political parties, so would the senators. This would reflect the true will of voters of Maine, also giving us a true republic, as our Founding Fathers envisioned, while forcing our federal senators to answer to the leaders of our state government and the legislatures to answer to their constituents.
This move would eliminate big money, corruption and any need for term limits. We could at least fix one branch of our government.
John Hopkins
Manchester
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