April 8, 1913: The 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified. It allows for voters to directly elect the U.S. Senators from their States.
Until then, the federal Constitution decreed that a State's Senators be elected by its legislature. This allowed for terrible corruption, and the buying of Senate seats. Now, the people could choose their own.
Not that it has stopped candidates from trying to buy their seats, from spending insane amounts of money on campaigning. But this is still a better way. Here in New Jersey, I'd sooner trust 4.3 million of my fellow residents (the number of people who voted in our last Senate election, re-electing Democrat Cory Booker in 2020) than 41 (or more) Republicans in the State Assembly and 21 (or more) Republicans in the State Senate.
April 8, 1913 was a Tuesday. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. The hockey season ended the month before. And the baseball season wouldn't begin until the next day. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.
No comments:
Post a Comment