I think the point that Bernstein pressed regarding the Senate seniority system is quite valid. The longer a senator has been there, the more "power and authority" he has, via appointments to committees and as head of them. There is absolutely no regard for whether the appointee is a blithering idiot or actually can read (the Constitution would be a good starting point) or add 2 + 2 and come up with something closer than 17.9.

Compounding the seniority problem, several states have "term limit" clauses in their own laws, effectively preventing any Senator representing them from ever achieving, under existing seniority rules, a position within the Senate from which the state can be heard. (For some states this may be a blessing - Kansas has had Brownback for more than long enough.)

Even if "the people were to be educated" and good persons could thereby be elected, there is no way - in the Senate especially, but also in the House - for personal merit or moral rectitude to succeed within the existing systems (except by outliving/outlasting those more senior, by which time the original "innocence" is unlikely to survive).

John