Photo credit: Bulatlat
|
Donald Trump was right. The system is rigged but not in the way he would have us believe. Our system is rigged in a way that gives a minority of voters holding points of view completely out of sync with most Americans, a nearly perpetual grip on power. We have a structural bias in our institutions of government and electoral processes that empowers voters from rural, conservative, small states with political clout far exceeding their share of the population, making a sham of the concept of “one person, one vote”. There are a variety of factors creating a playing field that is nowhere near level. The main culprits are the Electoral College, unchecked gerrymandering and a United States Senate that gives two Senators to each state regardless of population. To make matters worse, the situation is exacerbated by the filibuster, requiring an extraordinary majority to pass nearly anything in the Senate. The Electoral College Unfortunately, the roots of this structural bias go back to compromises made to appease slave states dating to the writing of our Constitution. The Electoral College is certainly at the root of the problem. James Madison, a slave owner historically viewed as the father of our constitution, conceived the concept of the Electoral College as a way to include counting the enslaved population of slave states in apportioning Congressional seats without actually giving them a vote. As a result, we have elected four presidents who lost the popular vote but won the Presidency based on the biased structure of the Electoral College. Today, we have 5 reactionary Supreme Court Justices appointed by Presidents the majority of voting Americans did not support. Gerrymandering The power to draw the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts gives tremendous power to those who draw the lines, especially when the Supreme Court refuses to level the playing field by allowing state legislatures to disregard racial and political sensitivities in the process. Like the Electoral College, gerrymandering is rooted in America’s history of slavery and voter suppression. Gerrymandering became a tool in post-Civil War America, especially in southern states, to minimize the ability for black citizens to build political power and opportunity. Republicans have become masters at racial gerrymandering in the 21st Century, using the tactic to take and hold majorities in state legislatures, including states that regularly cast more ballots statewide for Democrats. The United States Senate The structural bias in our system is most evident in the United States Senate. The framers of the Constitution, at the insistence of smaller states, struck a compromise giving each state two Senators as a check on the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, whose members were to be elected according to population. It is unlikely the framers could possibly have imagined a country with so much disparity in state populations. Thus, we have a system that is terribly biased to the benefit of states with significantly smaller populations. For example, the combined population of North and South Dakota is 1.65 million. California has 39.2 million people. The Dakotas have 4 United States Senators compared to 2 for California. Thus, the Dakotas with only a tiny fraction of California’s population, have twice as much power in the Senate as the nation’s most populated state. Add to the population disparity of the Senate, the archaic filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation, and we have a situation giving a significantly disproportionate amount of power to sparsely populated, conservative states. The fix The only way to right this wrong is at the ballot box. In Pennsylvania, we need to elect a new majority in Harrisburg, elect more Democratic members to Congress and claim the open United States Senate seat in 2022. That is how we do our part. Thanks for reading, Kristine |