How can we have democracy when half the population holds 20% of the Senate?

[thucythucy]

169. Let me see if I have this right.

The two senators from California, which is a blue state, represent something more than thirty million people. The two senators from Wyoming, a red state, represent a very small fraction of that amount, less than half a million, last time I checked. Yet the (Republicans) from Wyoming carry equal weight with the (Democrats) from California, and that's fine with you?

You honestly think that the reason we don't get more progressive federal legislation is because the arguments for such legislation aren't "persuasive?" Like Republican senators can be persuaded by rational argument? Seriously?

Or is it that senators from Wyoming and other small red states use the senate's arcane rules to block progressive legislation, block liberal court appointees? That's what I see happening. Senators from red states, who generally represent vastly smaller constituencies, carry the day over senators from blue states, who generally represent many millions more.

It's a system rigged to favor rural conservatives over urban liberals. If you're a rural conservative that works just fine. But the existence of the Senate, this great drag on democracy, is why the US lags far behind the rest of the industrialized world in everything from environmental protection to health care. Hell, even the House of Lords has been downgraded by the Commons in Britain.

I admit, it is better than it used to be: until the early 20th century federal senators were appointed by state legislatures, not elected by popular vote. Maybe someday we'll amend the system further, so that a few red state voters won't have such a disproportionate hold over the nation's agenda.

BTW, could you give me an example of the "big states" running over the rights of "little states"? Seems to me it's generally the other way around: on issues from marriage equality to pay equity for women to abortion rights, it's the little states trying to impose their "morality" on the rest of us. Which is why my federal tax dollars are more likely to go toward subsidies for agribusiness (in red states) than nutrition for poor children (in blue AND red states).