Originally Posted by
Grapemask
But national doesn't have anything to do with letting cornfields decide elections instead of people. The founders very specifically wanted elections to be decided by majority will - that was the whole point of the 12th amendment. They wanted minority party losers to have veto power, but they didn't want them to end up in any chamber of power. When every election after Washington required a shady backroom deal to keep the minority from getting too much power, the Jeffersonians said "fuck it" and threw in the 12th. And then 30 years later, Andrew Jackson said "lol" and got the states to switch from ranked choice, proportional allotments, and majority wins to plurality winner-take-all wins, and fucked it all up.
Even the Senate would probably have resulted in a 13th amendment if it was in the state then that it is today. The founders hated the Senate. Madison said, "Dude, this compromise is so stupid that I don't even want to talk about it" in Federalist 22. But had the minority party been able to hold the Senate without a massive struggle, the Jeffersonians would have fixed that, too.
All of this talk about balance is mostly a modern addition by Republicans trying to explain why they should get to have power when everyone but the loonies hates them.