Monday, October 1, 2018

A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Here's an interesting fact upon which to cogitate:


The following nine Republican United States Senators represent fewer people in the United States Senate than Ben Cardin and Chris Von Hollen represent from the single Democratic state of Maryland:
Nebraska: Ben Sasse, Deb Fischer
Idaho: Mike Crapo, James Risch
South Dakota: John Thune, Mike Round
Wyoming: John Barrasso, Mike Enzi
North Dakota: John Hoven--the other US Senator is a Democrat, Heidi Heitkemp.


Another way of thinking about it: Ben Cardin represents 6,016, 447 citizens while Mike Enzi represents 585,501 citizens.


And yet Enzi's vote on Supreme Court nominations, on whether or not Roe v Wade gets undone counts just as much as Cardin's.


Or, to put it another way, each Wyoming voter has a voice 10 times louder than each Maryland voter, on whether or not abortion will be kept safe and legal, whether or not a restaurant owner can refuse to serve Black customers in his place of business, open to the public, on the grounds his deeply held religious beliefs tell him Whites and Blacks should not mix in his restaurant, or in his hotel or in the public school his children attend, or whether we should have a national health care system or Medicare for all.


One might ask, why should a person living in a state which is mostly prairie run the lives of people in Baltimore?



1 comment:

  1. You make a very interesting point. Given the state of our politics today, however, it seems very unlikely we could make any significant change in the way in which the Senate and House are configured. However, electing the President (who represents all of us) by popular vote (and scraping the Electoral College) seems like something that really makes sense and might be more doable (especially if the Democrats get in in November).

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