Charlie,
I would still vote against the 17th. Most of current turmoil is because we are trying to have one system for the whole country using 51% majority. This maybe makes sense for core ideas – slavery, civil rights, but for the rest, we could live nicely with CA having Obamacare (at their own expense) and Utah having RomneyCare. This country has hat most countries in the world do not – open competition between state governments, not just private businesses. If you don’t like CA taxes – you can easily move to TX. Much easier than from Poland to Germany.
So, progressives in it’s desire to achieve their goals quickly, starting 100+ years ago, federalized all issues, and ruined the good thing. Presidential elections will be less dramatic if we were to exclude vaccine shots, medical insurance, fracking, business taxes, and other non-federal issues. Presidential debates would be about China, Russia, and Mexican border. Last year, they even skipped foreign debate, concentrating on more “important” issues.