Manchin and Sinema show how our Constitution is screwing us.

[Cyrano]

The population of the United States is about 320 million people. Two of those people are determined to fuck everyone.

The Senate is not a democratic institution. California has a population of about 40 million people. Wyoming has a population of somewhere around a dozen people, yet both states have two senators.

It's in the Constitution that each state is entitled to two senators. This was decided by those who wrote the Constitution so that smaller states wouldn't be steamrolled by larger states. (It was a compromise to get the smaller states to vote for the Constitution.)

Turns out it's the smaller states that are doing the steamrolling.

It's been said many times that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Perhaps it is.

Two shits from two different states are telling hundreds of millions of Americans to fuck off. Their children, their spouses, the lives of all of them are meaningless. We're talking about people who respond only to their donors/owners, -- Sinema, Manchin and so many others.

How do we change this? How do we fix it? How do we escape the insanity of a minority of Americans? Let me know when you have the answer.

In the meantime, everything Manchin and Sinema are doing is aiding and abetting the American Nazi Party which most people still refer to as Republicans.

We are a broken country. But, as long as the Democratic Party has the presidency and a razor thin majority in the congress, we have a long shot at saving democracy. But this opportunity won't last for long. The clock is running and the Republicans are doing everything in their power to run it out, -- with the help of Manchin and Sinema.

[Tomconroy]

1. Joe Manchin is the sort of Democrat that there used to be a

Lot of: fiscally conservative, protective of what he perceived his state's interests. He supports Obama care and wants to raise taxes. We are lucky to have him in a deep red state. Sinema, I don't understand.

[Irish_Dem]

16. I think the key to understanding Sinema is in her psychology, not her politics.

[brooklynite]

2. The single chamber legislature you desire..

Would have overturned ACA in 2010, and probably would repeal the Voting Rights Act.

[dsc]

19. the court has already repealed the VRA for just about all intents and purposes

and had they done so, they would have paid the price and we would be in power with way more ability to get stuff done. Elections ought to matter. Currently they don't. That is a problem. Our country voted, by a non trivial majority, to have Democrats in charge. In any other democracy we would have a legislative majority that would be able to rule with an iron fist.

[jimfields33]

3. A constitutional amendment can fix this ASAP

That’s the only way it will change. Absolutely no other mechanism available.

[Tommymac]

4. It's The Filibuster. It is NOT part of the Constitution - It is only a racist rule of order.

We are doing a very POOR job of getting this part of the message out.

90% of The People think the filibuster is somewhere in the Constitution - IT IS NOT.

It is simply a Rule of Order implemented up by past racist Senators to keep the Political Minority in Power and the minority populations in the USA in the gutter. Including women, poc, poor folk, non English speakers, and those with different sexualities.

Without it, We The People can overcome the disparity in the makeup of the Senate.

[brush]

8. Thank you, this is it exactly. The filibuster is a vestige of enslavement...

and still functions in much the same way it was designed for...to give the Senate minority the power to keep racism and second-class citizenship against actual minority citizens of the nation in place.

It should've been gotten rid of long ago but resistance, mostly from the republican party, is strong.

If gotten rid of, the US Senate will become a majority rule legislative body again, just as every other legislative body in the nation is.

[AZProgressive]

5. We could abolish the Senate

Which is unlikely or adding states such as DC and Puerto Rico and even if they elect Republicans I doubt they would be like ex-confederate states.

Abolishing the Senate has been proposed before

House Member Introduces Resolution to Abolish the Senate
April 27, 1911

Photo of Victor Berger
"Whereas the Senate in particular has become an obstructive and useless body, a menace to the liberties of the people, and an obstacle to social growth; a body, many of the Members of which are representatives neither of a State nor of its people, but solely of certain predatory combinations, and a body which, by reason of the corruption often attending the election of its Members, has furnished the gravest public scandals in the history of the nation. . . ."

This text formed the preamble to a constitutional amendment introduced in the House of Representatives on April 27, 1911, by that chamber's first Socialist member, Victor Berger of Wisconsin. Continuing evidence of corrupted state legislative elections for U.S. senators and the Senate's apparent reluctance to follow the House in passing a constitutional amendment to require direct popular election of its members inspired Berger's resolution. It provided that all legislative powers be vested in the House of Representatives, whose "enactments . . . shall be the supreme law and the President shall have no power to veto them, nor shall any court have any power to invalidate them."

In his brief time as a member, the Milwaukee Socialist had made more enemies than friends among his House colleagues, which may explain why many in that body jumped so quickly to the Senate's defense with talk of enforcing the House ban against public criticism of the Senate.

As with nearly all of the more than 11,000 constitutional amendments introduced from 1789 to our own day, Berger's proposal died silently in committee. Yet, less than seven weeks later, perhaps nudged by Berger's gesture, the Senate approved its long-delayed direct-election resolution, which would soon be ratified as the Constitution's Seventeenth Amendment.

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/House_Member_Introduces_Resolution_To_Abolish_the_Senate.htm

Other than that I have no idea or solutions when it comes to the Senate where Republicans have more states.

[Fullduplexxx]

6. We need a system to override the objections of senators

[czarjak]

7. "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'", "Any means necessary" They mean it!

[world wide wally]

9. We do NOT have a democracy in the USA.

A real democracy goes by the adage "Majority rules". Wyoming has as many Senators as New York or California and less than 1/5 as many people or voters. On top of that, we have the filibuster which means that one Senator can over rule the will of 300 million people on a whim.
It's time for REAL change in this country.

[MichMan]

11. We were not established constitutionally as a democracy

A "real" democracy would be ruled by referendums. Many things that have been ruled constitutional like gay marriage, unreasonable search & seizure, women's rights, abortion and civil rights likely would have never passed under such an arrangement.

[marie999]

14. We are a Democratic Constitutional Republic

[sarisataka]

10. Why is it so hard to understand

The Senate has nothing to do with population. Complaining about it from that perspective makes as much sense as complaining I can't use my car as a fishing boat.

[Amishman]

17. agreed. Our system was designed for force decisions by consensus of both population and states

This is a feature, not a bug. It prevents a few states or regions from having excessive control of the nation as a whole.

I do not consider this to be a problem at all.

Keep in mind, we are actually at greater risk of losing the House next year than the Senate.

[Celerity]

12. 333 million, & there's really no viable 'constitutionally possible atm' fix for the long-wave

systemic flaws.

Here are some of them:

The Senate itself

The Electoral College

The 2nd Amendment

The lack pf proportional representation

The power manifestations emanating from the 1st Amendment and its penumbra, when actioned with a near absolutist view

The multi-decade rise of the 'imperial presidency'

The now-captured Supreme Court, and its lifetime appointments

Many elements of the American superstructure of federalism, for example when the system gives individual states (especially those that have ill intent) too much systemic control over national matters

[BlueCheeseAgain]

13. The problem isn't Manchin and Sinema. It's the 50 Republicans.

When people say those two are holding things up, it makes it sound like the vote would be 98-2, but the 2 is winning. In fact, it's 48 on one side, 50 on the other, and we need these two to join the rest of the 48.

Also, while WV is a small state, AZ is actually larger than average. AZ is in fact under-represented in the Senate.

[marie999]

15. We will never get 3/4 of the states to change the Senate.

[Buckeyeblue]

18. The Senate was designed to prevent too much from getting done

It was designed to protect a new republic. Our issue today is not the Senate. It's the fact that Republicans have become the party of fascist who want to burn the country down.

If that ever happens the world economy will crush us.