Sean CastenNov 17, 2023
To quote a Senator - and friend: "I've got a plan for that!" Thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/us-senate-bias-white-rural-voters/
Why the Senate is increasingly skewed on race, parties and policy

People of color get significantly less representation than White voters. And that’s not the only way the Senate is skewed.

The Washington Post
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
1. Our founders didn't come up with the Great Compromise of 1789 out of some highfalutin idea about the best form of representative government. They did it because it was the only way the individual states would agree to be United.
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
2. Think about it: there is no theory of political efficiency that opines that some set of arbitrary geographic borders should have representation independent of population. And we know this is a really dumb idea for two reasons:
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
3. First, while many mimicked our bicameral, constitutional government, NONE have copied the geographic representation of the Senate. (No state legislature provides equal representation to counties, after all!)
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
4. Second, EVEN OUR FOUNDERS knew this was a dumb idea. You can tell because in Article V (which details the process by which you can amend the constitution) they expressly prohibit amendments that would weaken the relative power of the states in the Senate.
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
5. In other words, the folks who refused to join the Union unless they got over-represented also understood that this could easily be amended away so they insisted on that carve out.
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
6. For further proof of that point, note the OTHER part they said you couldn't amend until 1808 - the first and fourth clauses of the 9th section of Article 1. That is, allowing states to "import" persons and to set taxes based on the 3/5ths clause. [ahem]
Show threadSean CastenNov 17, 2023
7. The filibuster of course serves only to make an institution *designed* to not represent the will of the American people incapable of even representing the will of the US Senate.
Show threadNichol Brummer

@SeanCasten the filibuster is also a strange way of using internal rules of one chamber of congress to override the constitution. If they want, the house could also have it. As with the 'leaders', that effectively have a veto on which ideas even get a chance to be discussed for voting on. They have a pre-veto.

All rather questionable if that is constitutional.

Nov 17, 2023 at 10:05pmWeb