David Sirota: Tyranny Of The Tiny Minority

[babylonsister]

Tyranny Of The Tiny Minority

Wondering why Congress rarely passes anything the public wants? Then grab Thomas Geoghegan's 1999 memoir, "The Secret Lives of Citizens."

The book shows that, like the Da Vinci Code, the answers to such important questions are often out in the open, encrypted only by our inability to step back and see them. And when you crack this particular mystery about Congress, you learn not only why Washington is paralyzed, but also where to look for domestic progress, and how stopping bills — rather than passing them — is probably the only way to end the Iraq war right now.

As Geoghegan notes, in the 100-member Senate, just 41 "no" votes kills most legislation with a filibuster. You might think that if 41 percent of our representatives oppose a bill, maybe it should die. After all, civics class taught us that the Senate is supposed to protect the voice of a significant minority.

But here is what civics class didn't teach: With each state getting two senators regardless of population, 41 percent of the Senate often represents not a significant minority, but an infinitesimal one.

Using Census figures, Geoghegan discovers that the 11 percent of Americans living in the least populated states have enough Senate votes — 41 — to sustain a filibuster. Yes, 89 percent of the population may support a policy, but 11 percent of the population has the senators to block that policy's enactment. When you go further than Geoghegan and consider the election-focused mindset of politicians, you see the situation is even more absurd.

Lawmakers trying to keep their jobs only need support from a majority of those who turn out to vote. In those 21 least populated states with filibuster power, that majority is typically about 7 million voters, based on turnout data. That's just 3 percent of America's total voting-age population wielding enough Senate representation to stop almost anything.

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http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota.html

[Demeter]

1. The Abuse of Power Never Stops Around Here

The tyranny of the thinly populated West has always been the thorn in America's side, but never to the point of threatening the end of the country before...

[Warpy]

2. Senators represent states, not the population within them

and it was set up that way so that the agrarian southern colonies wouldn't be ruled by the highly populated, industrial north. It's why senators were originally chosen by their state legislators, not democratically.

Is it an anachronism? Possibly. However, the tyranny of the majority can also create an uncomfortable situation.

[Skittles]

18. but

what about the south pushing their crap on all of us?

[End Of The Road]

10. breaking up the country...

Let's talk about this. I am not certain that it is a bad idea. Sometimes I think it is the only way out of our problems. The federal government is broke, financially & morally. There is an ideological "civil war" in this country that makes forming and working within coalitions extremely difficult, hence making progress of any sort unlikely. We've got regional issues that uniform regulations from Washington cannot effectively address.

If 36 states agreed to secede and form a new government, what would be the downside? I haven't completely thought this through, so I'm asking for your ideas and opinion. I got the idea from Arizona, which introduced just such a resolution (don't think it passed, not sure, but regardless, it wasn't taken very seriously).

I think Bush and the neo-cons are, perhaps deliberately, trying to ruin us, and I wonder about the possibilities of starting over.

[Demeter]

12. The Red States Would Be Screwed

Personally, I don't find this to be a drawback.

[End Of The Road]

13. So there is some merit to my idea! n/t

[MmeG]

16. If California were a separate country

It would rank about 6th in the world in terms of GNP - right after France. I am all for the Republic of Cascadia, where the western chunk frees itself from the rest of the US.

[Hawkowl]

17. Yes!

Breaking apart the country into say, west coast, Northeast/Great Lakes, and then the Red sates would greatly mitigate the damage the U.S. does to the entire world. The red states would be weaker than Brazil. The west coast about like France? Sign me up.

[T Wolf]

3. We now have a country in which the landed gentry in the agri states rule

and the people (remember them?) in urban areas have less power than their population should warrant.

The reality of those red/blue maps is really true - vacant land means more than an occupied dwelling.

Until (and this will probably never happen) this is corrected and both the electoral college is eliminated and proportional representation becomes the law, we will continue to be ruled by Bumfuck flyover-state yahoos.

[Igel]

11. Less "rule" and more "hinder".

It means that the status quo is retained more often than you'd expect, not that new intiatives are necessarily imposed.

To instate proportional representation in each house would, I think, be rather pointless. To the extent that the states are divvied up in a way to ensure equal representation per person in the House, the two chambers would yield essentially the same results.

The difference between a 455 person House and 100 person Senate, and a 555 person "Legislature" would consist entirely in length of term. This might help--trivially, given the numbers--any short-term political swings in the country, but then the same argument could be repeated: They should all have the same term lest people that voted 5 years ago have more representation than those who voted last year.

[groovedaddy]

4. What's wrong with this picture?

It's a democracy in name only.

[End Of The Road]

5. This is why the legislature is bicameral

The biases of one branch should be countered by the other (in theory anyway).

Furthermore, internal Senate politics has as much (probably more) to do with how a Senator votes than gaining the approval of those at home.

Hell, I just want a return to the Constitution pre-Bush. Then we can quibble about this stuff.

[Demeter]

6. From Your Lips to God's Ear

and may it be soon!

[november3rd]

7. A Class by Himself

For somebody who espouses solidarity, David Sirota is in a class by himself. I don't mean socially or economically, but in terms of perspicacity and insight.

I hope his column proliferates.

[treestar]

8. It may not be perfect proportion, but it's not a tyranny

It is meant to keep big states from running roughshod over small states.

[ShortnFiery]

9. Yes, but why didn't bills BALANCE out when democrats were in the minority? nt

[chill_wind]

14. Sirota. Simply the best.

Always in command of his facts and numbers. He loves the truth. I love him. K&R.

[leftofthedial]

15. and that doesn't even count the few dozen ultra-wealthy families

for whom our "government" actually works