Thad Cochran, Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders.

[Virginiá]

Refusing to give up their seat? The people could just vote them out.

Sure, but I think that that doesn't do justice to some very real realities of the American political system. Not only do Senators like Cochran and often the party itself work to keep down potential intra-party challengers, but voters are often very incumbent-friendly for no real reason other than that person has been in office a long time. All of this makes it pretty difficult for anyone, Republican, Democrat or Independent, to unseat them.

Personally, I would even settle for a limit as high as 3 terms. That is 18 years. Throw in a maximum age limit and we would really be getting somewhere. This isn't really a partisan idea. I know it's highly unlikely a Democrat would ever win a Mississippi Senate seat, except for maybe some freak Vitter-like scenario. This is about maintaining a government that has at least some unobstructed flow of new ideas on both sides of the aisle, and isn't bogged down by extremely old generational incumbents who simply refuse to let a new generation have a shot at molding the future of the country they, not the old people, will inherit.

So the Senate IS supposed to be full of the elder folks of the government.

Including people who are so old that they can't even think straight anymore? Elders doesn't necessarily mean those who have been there ~30 years and/or are literally dying in office. There is a difference.

[Virginiá]

What do you think of simply repealing the 17th amendment and going back to having state legislators select Senators? Too partisan to do today?

Yes, for one, I object in part because I want a say in who my Senators are. The fact that so many legislatures have majorities reinforced by gerrymandered maps really doesn't help, either. I know some states would lean a certain way regardless, but those kinds of maps harden party majorities and thus would add Senate seats to the long list of things gerrymandering has infected.

I also strongly object on the basis that people don't pay nearly enough attention to their state government, particularly legislators, to fulfill their role in this process. Everything is national, orbiting around the president. There are not even close to enough voters who are sufficiently informed about what is going on in their state governments to be able to hold them accountable.

Either way, this is kind of a moot point. I doubt there could ever be enough support to do away with direct elections of Senators. There would need to be a broad, national consensus for such an amendment to be ratified.

[Virginiá]

After all, John McCain is re-elected last year at 80 years old and even though he suffers brain cancer, I think he can at least complete his six-year term since his mother Roberta McCain is still alive today at 105 years old so they are sharing good genes.

I don't know:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/health/gupta-mccain-glioblastoma/index.html

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It's possible, but good genes and his mother's age is irrelevant here. He is at the mercy of this type of cancer now.