Our FFs wanted to avoid having political parties. The notion of course was that we'd vote for someone local that we respected who would then "do the right thing", either as elector or Rep. That lasted until Washington left office, if that long.
I don't think how we select Senators is really an issue, or at least it's not one where changing the process would make any real difference at this point.
Back in the day, the franchise for who could vote was restricted to those who paid taxes, which generally meant those who owned property (it varied by state who could vote). Poor folks couldn't vote, poor men that is, generally speaking. As the FFs were NOT poor, this made sense to them. Folks who had skin in the game would vote, in effect, if you paid for it, you had a voice.
This was of course viewed as "not democratic". I think Franklin defined democracy as two wolves and a sheep ... you know the rest.
I became convinced that ANY large human enterprise will be badly flawed, inefficient, rife with corruption and greed, etc. ANY.
