Recently NPR hat on experts who predicted that if
this trend that's happening right now in the United States continues in just a few short years,
we are going to be a country that is 100% minority rule. And don't worry, conservatives, I'm not
talking about the minorities that you don't like. I'm talking about a minority of US citizens
having authority over the majority of US citizens. Here's what they mean.
This is from Mara Liasson. Right now, the Senate is split evenly in half, but the 50 Democratic
senators represent 41 and a half million more people than the 50 Republican senators. By 2040,
if population trends continue, 70% of Americans will be represented by just 30 senators and 30%
of Americans by 70 senators. That has a lot of implications like for the Senate filibuster,
where a party that represents a shrinking minority of voters can block almost all major legislation.
The dangers of minority rule are plenty. But what's happening right now when we
pretty much already have minority rule is that the Senate is where legislation goes to die
and it's not going there to die
because of the will of those constituents. We need to be perfectly clear about that. It's going there
to die because we're so partisan that we can't put our blinders aside. We can't put tribalism aside
to do what's right for the American public. That's the problem. Millions of Americans,
millions and millions and millions of Americans, whether they're in red States or blue States are
suffering right now due to inaction from the United States Senate. Raising the minimum wage
to $15 an hour, believe it or not, is actually going to help more red state voters and citizens,
not just voters, than blue State citizens. Right. Red States tend to benefit the most from that.
If we were to forgive student loan debt, that benefits people across the spectrum.
Medicare For All of course would benefit everyone. But we can't have any of these good things.
We can't have any good ideas, infrastructure, investment as well, creating a green jobs program,
that is tremendously going to help people in red States that traditionally rely on fossil
fuel industry for their jobs. But we can't do that because we already have minority rule.
And we have minority rule because of the partisan hacks that are packed into that US Senate. The
only two options are abolish the filibuster now and forever, it is gone, or abolish the Senate.
If we can't change the rules, get rid of the entire body. Guarantee every single state,
you know, a certain number of representatives and then have several representatives at large
to replace the senators. But they all come into one
body. The bicameral legislature was a great invention at the time.
But this country's founders could not have foreseen one, the tribalism that has taken
place in the United States. Two, the expansion of population that has happened here in the
United States and three, the concentration of the populations here in the United States.
And I don't mean to, you know, crap on a state like Wyoming,
but Wyoming should not have as much power in the US Senate or in Congress
as New York or as Texas or as Florida. Yet you could have a Senator from Wyoming that could
single handedly destroy legislation to improve the lives of individuals down here in Florida.
Representation based on population is truly the only way to go forward. It is the only
way to have an honest and fair Congress. And I know people living in smaller States say, well,
that means I won't get nothing. Yeah, you already don't get anything. So why does it matter if we
just destroy it all and rebuild it into something that might work for us all in the future?