When you can't win elections, protect minority rule
If current trends continue, it’s predicted that by 2050, 70 percent of Americans will live in just fifteen states. Which means they’ll be represented by 30 members in the Senate, while the remaining 30 percent of Americans will have 70. Not insignificantly, the 35 states in which that 30 percent will reside are mostly Red.
The implication is obvious: Minority rule becomes permanent. Rule by those who think climate change is a hoax, who’d rather get rid of immigrants than see their schools improve, who’ll settle for limited access to health care as long as those schools don’t let trans people use the “wrong” bathroom. People who think Trump is God’s prelude to sending Jesus back; who consider freedom of the press their enemy and liars their friends. Who’ve been convinced those warning how widening wealth disparity threatens America are communists. It’s the opposite of original intent.
We’re about there. Our 20 smallest states have fewer combined inhabitants than California’s 40 million. Californians have two senators; those others have forty.
Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, et. al., were brilliant, but theirs was a country of thirteen states and 4 million people. If their compromise on a bicameral Congress was largely to protect smaller states, they can’t have foreseen the enormous imbalance that would ensue. If they envisioned a Constitution that would allow their democratic republic to function forever, they failed. When the views of a distinct minority wholly supplant those of the majority, democracy is no longer.
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https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-when-you-cant-win-elections-protect-minority-rule/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=e1ab5648c3-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-e1ab5648c3-228635337
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