It used to be that the US SENATE WAS APPOINTED by state legislatures, while the House was direclty elected by the people. Now, as James Taranto points out, we have reversed this.
... There's already a branch of Congress whose members are chosen by state legislatures: the House of Representatives.

The Founding Fathers conceived of the House as the branch of government most responsive to voters' shifting moods; the Senate, with its longer terms and legislative appointments, was to be more deliberative. But in an inversion of the original constitutional order, today Senate elections are far more competitive than House ones. Every decade state legislatures gerrymander districts for a combination of partisan advantage and incumbent-protection, meaning that most representatives hold safe seats until they retire.

[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.08.06b.htm ]

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