The US senate is broken. Imagine a state like Wyoming with less than 600,000 residents having the same power as California with nearly 40 million citizens. Equal status for small states and large states in the senate was the Founding Fathers’ way of ensuring that the representation of all states be given equality.
Fortunately (and unfortunately, for some!), US Constitution is a social construct amongst us; not a religion. WE SHOULD REFORM WHAT DOESN’T WORK.
System Reform
I think the following reforms will bring equality to the process:
- Puerto Rico & District of Columbia are recognized as US states (52 States) and allocated Congress Representatives and Senators as per their fair share
- All Territories gain formal recognition in Congress.
- Senate will be expanded for Equality.
Senate Equality Plan
Each state will get additional senators. The formula for new senators is have 1 additional senator for every 4 representatives. No state (or territory) will have less than 2 senators. Check this table below:
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Thus, US Senate will expand from 100 senators to 199 senators. California will have 15 Senators, the maximium in the country. There isn’t much for GOP to criticize because the Electoral Vote count for 2016 election doesn’t change (Trump: 357 — Hillary: 283). It’s a different issue that i think we should move to National Vote totals.
Under the new system, small states still wield a lot of power. California with 68x the population of Wyoming, still has only 7.5x the power in the senate. That’s why i call this equitable, not equal.
I am hoping that this reform will bring additional reforms — states send both GOP & Dem senators with this expanded list. It will be a poor result if all 15 Senators from California and all 11 from Texas are from one party.
What do you think? Irrespective of whether such reforms will really happen, do you see the merits of such a system?