Reply #7: Beck was the first one I heard talking about it. Here's a bit of his spiel.

[Jim__]

The 17th Amendment changed that and instituted direct popular election of United States senators: Two senators from each state, elected by the people. And since that time, states have had no direct representation in Washington.

In 1821, Thomas Jefferson warned: "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."

Progressives will tell you that the change was needed because the states were becoming too corrupt. Well, what's happened since? It allowed special interests to lobby senators directly, cutting out the middleman of the state legislatures.

Has anyone else noticed that senators routinely get large influxes of campaign cash from outside the state? Remember Chris Dodd? I didn’t know anyone in Connecticut who was ready to give money to Chris Dodd. Yet he was getting tons of cash nationally. How is that representative of Connecticut?

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At least that's what he was saying on that particular day. The real reason? Probably corporations can more easily control state senators.