Perhaps Phyllis holds a similar view. Certainly she's hitting that theme in her column.
First the GOP must die.
Everything else comes after that.
Look what came after Reagan. That’s my point.
Think of what comes after Trump or Cruz, or both.
We have to reign in Washington DC. They will never do it themselves, never. So there will be no conservative future unless the states can participate again as an essential component of the Republic.
The 17th Amendment has deceptively over a hundred years neutered and subordinated the states and that is why we have a centralized federal government that is so powerful it can dictate every aspect of our lives. It also imposes perverted social dictates that fly in the face of human history.
The present structure having evolved from the 17th Amendment, is unsupportable and unsustainable to a free people. And we need not repeal the 17th to redress state suffrage, we can be clever in structurally rearranging the relation between state and federal government by other means that will serve to check federal power.