Regardless of all the arguments in favor of repealing the 17th Amendment I think that's a non-starter. Senators have been popularly elected for over 100 years. Who is going to go to the electorate and tell them they won't be doing that anymore?
That would be the state legislatures, the governor, individual assemblymen, etc.
It would require a lot of change management, for sure. There would need to be a lot of political advertising on the matter.
A credible legislative ad might be around the message that the legislatures work day in and day out on the nitty gritty details of local bills affecting the voter, and it would be in the best interests of the voter to let the legislatures select the most knowledgeable and influential people to represent the interests of those bills in Congress.
The ad would say that the states need to align what Congress does with what the states do. Currently, the states are forced to accommodate what Congress does.
The opposition ad would be that the voter knows best, that this is an assault on democracy, yada yada yada.
-PJ