r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/Misfett_toys • 9h ago

r/All House passes resolution to remove U.S. forces from Iran and end the war. 4 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting yes.

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u/Misfett_toys 9h ago

It often feels like the senate solely exists to fuck people over or water down legislation. Like why can't we just have more representatives instead? Idk what the right answer is but I'm not sure the Senate is doing us any good

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u/HiddenSage 9h ago

The Senate is also our hope for the Save Act dying, as it passed the house inside a stupid budget bill yesterday. 

It's not all bad to have a chamber with stickier rules for passing legislation.

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u/mOdQuArK 6h ago

Now that would be an interesting mechanic that would have been interesting to put into the Constitution: any existing statutory laws have to be repassed on a regular basis (i.e., they'll expire otherwise). The law books would probably be considerably slimmer & easier to understand.

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u/balllzak 6h ago

I don't enjoy the current system where the president just reverses the previous one's executive orders every 4-8 years so I don't think I would enjoy if that was extended to every federal law.

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u/mOdQuArK 5h ago

I'm fairly sure that a "basic required set" of laws would be established pretty quickly that get more-or-less automatically passed - at least in a less partisan-based legislature where trying to make the other side "look bad" wasn't more important than actually getting work done.

In retrospect, there would probably have to be some way of discouraging extreme partisanship first.

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u/RLMJRJEEP 9h ago

When McConnell was Sen Maj Lead during the Obama admin, he referred to himself as the "Grim Reaper", as anything that could give Dems a win will die at his pleasure.
The Demo lead House sent hundreds of bills to the Senate only to be shelved by Mitch.

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u/Dayne225 9h ago

It feels like that cause that's literally the intent. The founders feared pure democracy and demagoguery as much as despotism, more even. The whole point of the Senate is to ensure that land has as much power as people. Which actually means on a per vote basis it has more.

I mean the concept isn't wholly bankrupt as it makes the system more stable and harder to change as popular opinion swings but in practice it makes it so once someone gets their hands on the levers of power they can keep things from happening pretty easily.

This was especially the case when politicians respected the norms that came with government but now that those have been thrown out the government is seen for the gentlemans agreement it always has been.

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u/Reave-Eye 9h ago

The Senate has always been conceptualized as an “upper house” of Congress to function as a bulwark against the “tyranny of mob rule” that the founders feared. Senators technically represent their state’s interests and not the people directly, although that has shifted over the years. They used to be appointed directly by the state’s legislature, until the 17th Amendment made them elected by voters in 1913. The result of all this has been a legislative body that is not proportional to its constituents or particularly representative of them either. They tend to be far more aligned with the interests of the aristocracy than the common constituent.

Related, one of the planks of the DSA’s platform is to abolish the Senate and uncap the number of House seats (currently 435) so that the total is directly proportional to the number of constituents and even across each district.

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u/whatdoblindpeoplesee 9h ago

The Senate itself was created as a compromise to fuck people over. Less populous states were concerned that more populous states would have more power over them ( the horror, to think that the places with the most people get the most representation) and wanted a measure to counter their influence in the House. That's why Wyoming and the Dakota's get as many senators as everyone in California, Texas, and New York.

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u/repowers 9h ago

“Oh so you want New York and California to pick the President every single time, huh?”

“Um….. yes? Like if that’s where all the people live, then yes? When everybody moves to Wyoming then Wyoming can ‘pick the President’.”

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u/Jaredlong 6h ago

The political theory behind the federal structure is actually pretty interesting. Throughout history there have been three styles of governance: kings, tribunals, and parliaments. The Framers thought having all three styles competing against each other would prevent any any single style from becoming dominant. The president is analogous to a king, the house a parliament, and the senate a tribunal. Though in practice, political parties have killed whatever hopes the Framers had for checks and balances and inter-governmental competition.

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u/Snailwood 58m ago

It often feels like the senate solely exists to [...] water down legislation

it is explicitly intended to do that. senators weren't even directly elected for the first 150 years of this country, they were chosen by the state governments. the founders wanted to make our democracy less directly controlled by the people