If you ask this question to a politically left leaning individual he might say the problem started with Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.
If you posed this same question to a conservative, he would probably say Woodrow Wilson or possibly Franklin D. Roosevelt.
I believe that neither is correct and we must look deeper to see where this drift to socialism or communism, which is the ultimate goal for all those who hate the free enterprise system of economics, first started.
I think the problem was the enactment of the 17th amendment.
Wikipedia tells us: The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote.
The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures.
It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, allowing for state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held.
Reformers introduced constitutional amendments in 1828, 1829, and 1855, with the issues finally reaching a head during the 1890s and 1900s.
Progressives, such as William Jennings Bryan, called for reform to the way senators were chosen. Elihu Root and George Frisbie Hoar were prominent figures in the campaign to maintain the state legislative selection of senators.
By 1910, 31 state legislatures had passed motions calling for reform. By 1912, 239 political parties at both the state and national level had pledged some form of direct election, and 33 states had introduced the use of direct primaries.
Critics of the Seventeenth Amendment claim that by altering the way senators are elected, the states lost any representation they had in the federal government and that, in addition to violating the unamendable state suffrage clause of Article V, this led to the gradual "slide into ignominy" of state legislatures, as well as an overextension of federal power and the rise of special interest groups to fill the power vacuum previously occupied by state legislatures.
The last sentence of the previous paragraph sums up why Washington D. C. has been called by some “ The countries most corrupt city”. Maybe that’s the reason senators are rarely seen in their home states. They probably feel more at ease mingling with lobbyists, media people and many other like minded individuals than they do talking to Angelo Caruso the home town pharmacist.
Of course, it's very easy in this environment for favors to be exchanged.
Think about this idea and let me know what you think.
Until next time. Bill
For other posts go to American Veterans United
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