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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   36292 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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while the Senate was supposed to be a more aristocratic institution.

All this means is that the Senators represented a different set of constituents. If you think that the primary job of a Senator back then was not to represent the interests of those constituents, you are mistaken; I guarantee you that a Senator who did not adequately represent the interests of state legislatures who appointed him (or, perhaps more accurately, the interests of those with influence over those legislators) would not be reappointed

If you think that the primary job of a Senator back then was not to represent the interests of those constituents, you are mistaken

I'm not, though. If you think the primary job of a Senator was supposed to be representing the interests of their "constituents," you are cynical and reductionist. The primary job of a Senator was, and is, to lead. I appreciate a good realpolitik as much as the next Mottizen, but venal oligarch-wrangling (or similar) is not the job of Senators, even if it is too often how they get the job. Physicians must somehow collect payment from their patients, but it would be totally mistaken to say that it is the primary job of a physician to collect payment from their patients.

I was responding specifically to your attempt to contrast the job of Representatives versus Senators pre-17th Amendment, specifically your claim that is was only the former were meant to represent their constituents. That is obviously not correct.

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