Repeal the 17th Amendment NOW!

How many US Senate races have been decided in this past election based on one stray comment from one of the candidates?

How many Senate seats flipped from one party to the other because the entire party was a bad brand which sunk competitive races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other swing states?

A US Senator casts votes on monumentous decisions which affect the entire country for decades. The candidate who represents the entire state for six years should not be decided based on such arbitrary metrics as the political platform of the national party or the private failings at one moment of the race.
Public opinion is as powerful, and as volatile, as ever. Twitter is tweeting away whether it twists the truth or infuses twits with a sense of wit.

The Internet carried the message for candidates from both parties. How many flyers did you get in the mail?

For a long time, I did not understand why the Framers created indirect representation for the Senate and the White House. With the barrage of media and private opinions perverting political outcomes, now I understand why. Mass opinion is easy to influence, to amass behind one candidate when the other candidate missteps of fails in some way.

The popular vote is populated with people who go with the needs, wants, fears and tremors of other people. The "low-information" vote weighs heavily and reigns supreme in most elections. The Framers were not necessarily being "arrogant periwigged" elitists about the whole thing, but human nature, even the most restrained and refined, can give in to the herd or crowd mentality.

Populists, as much as elitist or monarchical passion must be restrained.

The Seventeenth Amendment invoked direct election as the way to protect the people. Yet "the people" is an abstraction as best, a distraction much of the time, and infraction breaking into insurrection in many other cases. The electoral college and the indirection of senators must be supported and reinstated if we expect our leaders to make decisions in the best interests of the country, not just their covetous constituencies.