The 17th's sales pitch was to stop the railroads from "buying" too much influence in congress. It is basically the same pitch that is being used in today's campaign finance reform.
The big differnce between then and now is that the States were appointing the Senators when the "buying" was occurring. I agree that Senators are bought and paid for now, and that the States have a flimsy hold on their Senators, but how did the buying also occur when the States were appointing the Senators during the railroad days?
I believe that the answer to that question is that we were just finishing up settling the west and the industrial age was dawning. There were still wide open spaces with little people in the west and many former Territories were only recently made into states. Maybe the Old West attitudes were still in force in the Territorial governments.
I don't think the same buying power would exist in today's world if the States were willing to flex their muscles more.
-PJ
Can you imagine Robert Byrd advocating something like this? No way!
What worries me about all these so-called "reforms" is that they are just exactly that: RE-forms. They are not improvements. They may actually be re=forming for the worse.
Another sad fact in this matter is how shallow thinking rules so much of politics. If you say something will stop corruption, including getting rid of the police, you will have your followers in today's system.