Rollo, this ain’t my first time at the rodeo. This subject has been endlessly debated at FR and every aspect of it.
Your points have been cited by others and refuted. A state legislature doesn’t have some magic insight into U.S. Senators that a regular electorate does. This notion of electing statesmen upholding the rights and interests of the states isn’t going to happen.
The country knew by the end of the 19th century that the U.S. Senate was a joke. Political bosses and hacks/puppets. They weren’t grandly defending the states, they were defending themselves, special interests and their own power. The country demanded direct accountability. The 17th didn’t pass in a vacuum, it had to be ratified by those same state legislatures because they knew the people would toss them out of office if they didn’t.
There wouldn’t be a fiscal conservative ever elected to the U.S. Senate again except by accident. Each Senator would be battling to outdo the other in looting the treasury on behalf of his or her state. That would be their sole goal in office.
It wouldn’t matter if a state legislature were Republican or Democrat in that regard. Look at Texas, which until not long ago had two left-wing RINOs in control of the State Senate (Dewhurst) and House (Straus). Had there not been a popular vote for Senator, the junior Senator from Texas would be the RINO Dewhurst instead of Conservative Ted Cruz.
If you couldn’t get Texas to elect a Constitutional Conservative to the Senate via the legislature, which state would ?