This is one of the reasons that the U.S. Senate can so cavalierly dismiss your concerns.
They realize that most Americans have bought into this myth that they will always be there, and that there's nothing you can do about it.
That Grand Kleagle Byrd can be there for seven terms, and will be elected for an eighth, or that The Swimmer will continue to befoul the Senate chambers until his cirrhotic liver explodes during the middle of one of his patented tirades, and there's nothing that you can do about it.
That is dead-wrong!
The same way that ordinary people nearly elected Ollie North, and elected Tom Coburn, and got rid of so much dead weight during the 1994 elections...
The reason that body is so unaccountable is because people allow it to be so.
Perhaps you stand a chance, if you either (a) are in complete control of your Party's senatorial nomination process, or (b) you live in a sparsely-populated State. But even then, look at South Dakota's perpetual reëlection of Tom Daschle.
It's not because people have bought into any "myth"—it is a direct result of the fact that you literally have better odds of winning the lottery (in a populous State) than you do in effecting the outcome of the Senatorial election.
The Senate was never intended to be popularly-elected. With a populace as utterly ignorant of the principles which make up our Government, I completely understand now, exactly why that is...