Equal representation—except in the Senate
Did you know that 16% of the population of the US can elect 68 Senators? That is a majority large enough to override a presidential veto? That’s because the 34 smallest states have 68 Senators but only 31.69% of the population—so 16% of the population (a large voting majority of those states, since the total population includes many ineligible to vote—children, for example—and many who don’t bother to vote; indeed, if only 50% of voters bother to vote (which is about right), then 9% of the population could elect those 68 Senators.
Another way to look at it: the 23 smallest states have 13.59% of the US population—and 46 Senators. Coincidentally, African Americans are 13.5% of the population. If the Senate had 46 African American Senators, what would you think if someone said, "That seems about right: they’re 13.5% of the population"?
I’ve blogged about this before, and today in the Washington Post Alec MacGillis has a column on the topic:
Wonder why President Obama is having a hard time enacting his agenda after sweeping to victory and with large congressional majorities on his side?
Look to the Senate, the chamber designed to thwart popular will.
There is much grousing on the left about the filibuster, the threat of which has taken such hold that routine bills now need 60 votes. Getting less attention is the undemocratic character of the Senate itself.
Why, for example, have even Democratic senators been resistant on health-care reform? It might be because so many of the key players represent so few of the voters who carried Obama to victory — and so few of the nation’s uninsured. The Senate Finance Committee’s "Gang of Six" that is drafting health-care legislation that may shape the final deal — without a public insurance option — represents six states that are among the least populous in the country: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Maine, New Mexico and Iowa.
Between them, those six states hold 8.4 million people — less than New Jersey — and represent 3 percent of the U.S. population. North Dakota and Wyoming each have fewer than 80,000 uninsured people, in a country where about 47 million lack insurance. In the House, those six states have 13 seats out of 435, 3 percent of the whole. In the Senate, those six members are crafting what may well be the blueprint for reform.
Climate change legislation, which passed in the House, also faces daunting odds. Why? Because agriculture, coal and oil interests hold far more sway in the Senate. In the House, the big coal state of Wyoming has a single vote to New York’s 29 and California’s 53. In the Senate, each state has two. The two Dakotas (total population: 1.4 million) together have twice as much say in the Senate as does Florida (18.3 million) or Texas (24.3 million) or Illinois (12.9 million).
Was this really what the founders had in mind? One popular story tells of Thomas Jefferson asking George Washington what the Senate’s purpose is. "Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" Washington asked in return. "To cool it," Jefferson replied. To which Washington said, "Even so, we pour legislation in the senatorial saucer to cool it." A nice tale. But what if the coffee gets so cold that no one bothers to drink it? Or if the Senate takes its coffee black in a country that opted overwhelmingly for sugar and cream?
Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota (pop. 641,481, third smallest), chairman of the Budget Committee and one of the Gang of Six, does not see any problem. Asked whether it is appropriate that his vote counts as much as those of senators from states 20 times as large, he was flummoxed. "One would hope that people would support the Constitution of the United States," said Conrad, who was reelected with 150,000 votes in 2006, when Virginia’s Jim Webb needed 1.2 million votes to win. "This was the grand bargain that was struck when the Founding Fathers determined the structure and form of the United States Congress." He added: "Are you proposing changing the Constitution?"
Well, maybe. Regardless, there’s nothing wrong with taking a closer look at how things came to be the way they are…
