Virginia is a perfect example of why the 17th amendment is truly evil. The VA state legislature is overwhelmingly conservative. If the 17th amendment were to be repealed the VA state legislature would replace both of our current Democrat lunes with sold Conservative Republicans. The 17th and the 16th A’s need to be repealed.
The Founding States had established the federal Senate partly for the following reason. Senators were elected solely by state lawmakers for the purpose of protecting the interests of their respective states in Congress.
For example, senators could kill House appropriations bills which the House could not justify under Congress's constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers. After all, such bills signed into law would ultimately end up stealing 10th Amendment-protected state powers and state revenues associated with those powers.
In other words, the 17th Amendment has helped to foster the growth of the unconstitutionally big federal government by allowing low-information voters, voters who have probably never been taught about the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers, to elect federal senators who promise voters constitutionally indefensible federal spending programs.