Should the United States Senate be abolished?

[Suburbia]

50-50 Senate with a Vice President Harris breaking ties may not be enough. Moderates like Manchin, Sinema, Tester, Warner, Hassan, Romney and Collins decides the fate of legislation. That is not enough. Why compromise and drag on and slow down? Why 10 GOP votes for legislation to pass through? Why a filibuster rule meant to slow legislation down when those 10 votes won't come? Cotton, Rubio, Johnson and Cruz won't come on board? Hell no they won't.

"The Senate is filled with white male senators representing states with a smaller population, but an overrepresented voice. Why does Manchin matter and not Padilla's voice? Why does McConnell and Cotton matter and not Gillibrand or Warren?"

Should the Senate be ABOLISHED? How can that be done?

[Ancestral Republican]

Yes.

And the House should be more proportional to population, as well. Wyoming should have no congressional representation, at all.

[SnowLabrador]

We should abolish the Senate, yes. But it will never happen.

[lfromnj]

Yes.

And the House should be more proportional to population, as well. Wyoming should have no congressional representation, at all.

Even by a formula which doesn't guarantee every state one district Wy would still get a house seat.
The real Rotten Boroughs in the house are areas like TX and Cali and NYC

[Ancestral Republican]

Yes.

And the House should be more proportional to population, as well. Wyoming should have no congressional representation, at all.

Even by a formula which doesn't guarantee every state one district Wy would still get a house seat.
The real Rotten Boroughs in the house are areas like TX and Cali and NYC

Texas 2nd district should be abolished

[Alben Barkley]

Switch to a parliamentary system which is basically just the House, except the Speaker is Head of Government and has all the power the president currently has. Also no gerrymandering; districts are drawn by non-partisan commissions. DC, Puerto Rico, and every other US territory gets at least one representative. They don't even have to be states for this (that way we can keep a nice round 50), they just get representation because they are citizens and their tax dollars are used for government decisions.

The Senate can still exist kinda like the House of Lords does, but it has no real power except advisory/honorary. Repeal the 17th amendment and just allow states to appoint esteemed citizens as these honorary Senators. This part is optional though, it can also just be abolished. Either way, basically all power currently given exclusively to the Senate (confirming justices, etc.) is given to the House where there is no filibuster and simple majorities can decide most things.

The president can still exist, still be directly elected, still live in the White House, still be the nominal head of state. But their power/role would be ceremonial like a constitutional monarch. The Speaker of the House would now be the Commander-in-Chief with the nuclear codes, etc. The president can meet with the Speaker and give counsel, but ultimately can't overrule Congress with vetoes.

Yes, I am basically conceding that the British system is superior in almost every way to the one we have, much as I hate to admit it. "Checks and balances" are overrated. It just leads to gridlock and nothing ever getting done. At this point I'd rather even governments I hate get the chance to implement their policies, and if they suck we can just vote them out every 2 years. That should be more than enough of a check anyway; the constant threat of being voted out (combined with districts not drawn to too heavily favor one party) should ensure no government takes too unpopular, radical action.

[Suburbia]

We should abolish the Senate, yes. But it will never happen.

Why not?

[lfromnj]

Yes.

And the House should be more proportional to population, as well. Wyoming should have no congressional representation, at all.

Even by a formula which doesn't guarantee every state one district Wy would still get a house seat.
The real Rotten Boroughs in the house are areas like TX and Cali and NYC

Texas 2nd district should be abolished

Anyway the point is regarding the house there isn't really any major population bias in favor of smaller states. Some like Delaware and previously Montana had overpopulated seats. There is just more variance at these smaller levels. Texas and CA basically approach the average. However if we go by the old definition of Rotten Borough which was your old username then districts like CA21/CA16 are Rotten Boroughs. They have way fewer voters than even Wyoming.

[Ancestral Republican]

Yes.

And the House should be more proportional to population, as well. Wyoming should have no congressional representation, at all.

Even by a formula which doesn't guarantee every state one district Wy would still get a house seat.
The real Rotten Boroughs in the house are areas like TX and Cali and NYC

Texas 2nd district should be abolished

Anyway the point is regarding the house there isn't really any major population bias in favor of smaller states. Some like Delaware and previously Montana had overpopulated seats. There is just more variance at these smaller levels. Texas and CA basically approach the average. However if we go by the old definition of Rotten Borough which was your old username then districts like CA21/CA16 are Rotten Boroughs. They have way fewer voters than even Wyoming.

Wyoming shouldn't be a state.

[Ancestral Republican]

We should abolish the Senate, yes. But it will never happen.

Why not?

Would that not require a 2/3 majority of states?

[Roll Roons]

Trump won Montana by just under 100K votes, Wyoming and North Dakota by 120K each, South Dakota by 110K and Alaska by 36K. While that's only 15 electoral votes (soon to be 16), it's still 10 Senate seats, 9 of which are held by Republicans. And it would take less than 500K to swing all of them. Bear in mind that as recently as 2014, Democrats held 5 of these 10 seats.

Meanwhile, Biden netted nearly 2 million votes out of LA County, 480K from Alameda, over 400K from Santa Clara, over 320K from San Francisco and over 500K each from Manhattan and Brooklyn. He won California by over 5 million votes and New York by just under 2 million. It would also help if they were able to get it together in Florida and North Carolina.

Point is that Democrats seem to just be running up the score in safely blue states. Don't hate the game just because you've lost the ability to win.

[Alcibiades]

Trump won Montana by just under 100K votes, Wyoming and North Dakota by 120K each, South Dakota by 110K and Alaska by 36K. While that's only 15 electoral votes (soon to be 16), it's still 10 Senate seats, 9 of which are held by Republicans. And it would take less than 500K to swing all of them. Bear in mind that as recently as 2014, Democrats held 5 of these 10 seats.

Meanwhile, Biden netted nearly 2 million votes out of LA County, 480K from Alameda, over 400K from Santa Clara, over 320K from San Francisco and over 500K each from Manhattan and Brooklyn. He won California by over 5 million votes and New York by just under 2 million. It would also help if they were able to get it together in Florida and North Carolina.

Point is that Democrats seem to just be running up the score in safely blue states. Don't hate the game just because you've lost the ability to win.

So you’re saying that your vote should count less if you live in a big state? Why should Democrats not be rewarded for increasing their margins in California? For that matter, why should Republicans not be rewarded if they can cut the Dems’ lead there? Maybe the rules of the game are fundamentally broken.

[Thank you for being a friend...]

No.  Just make the small changes necessary to make it functional and truly a deliberative body worthy of the American people.

[Gracile]

Ideally yes, and expand the size of the House/make it more proportionate.

[Crumpets]

Either abolished or dramatically reformed. One that I would support would be making the Senate elected via a national vote with proportional representation, but fat chance of that happening any time soon.

[Suburbia]

What happens to Sinema and Manchin? Do they get normal jobs?

Who makes Supreme Court nominations and who confirms? The House?

[Ancestral Republican]

Trump won Montana by just under 100K votes, Wyoming and North Dakota by 120K each, South Dakota by 110K and Alaska by 36K. While that's only 15 electoral votes (soon to be 16), it's still 10 Senate seats, 9 of which are held by Republicans. And it would take less than 500K to swing all of them. Bear in mind that as recently as 2014, Democrats held 5 of these 10 seats.

Meanwhile, Biden netted nearly 2 million votes out of LA County, 480K from Alameda, over 400K from Santa Clara, over 320K from San Francisco and over 500K each from Manhattan and Brooklyn. He won California by over 5 million votes and New York by just under 2 million. It would also help if they were able to get it together in Florida and North Carolina.

Point is that Democrats seem to just be running up the score in safely blue states. Don't hate the game just because you've lost the ability to win.

It's nothing to do with a game. You sound like Trump, acting like he mastered 5D hungry hungry hippos because he exploited white supremacy in isolated hollers of Arkansas while most Americans didn't want him. Land and artificial borders should not dictate whether your vote matters.

[Joe Republic]

The green states have the same total population as the orange states.

Green states: 8 senators
Orange states: 70 senators

Either abolish it, or otherwise do something to it.  This is absurd.

[Stuart98]

Should threads be posted to the right subforum rather than the wrong subforum?

[brucejoel99]

Clueless as to why bronz posted this in the elections board rather than the process board, but I digress.

In any event, it depends on how the process is pursued. Are we writing a new Constitution up from scratch? Then sure, abolish it. But if we're just limited to the constitutional amendment process as promulgated in the status quo, entrenched "equal suffrage" clause included, then rendering its powers toothless like the Lords would be a much more achievable goal.

[President Johnson]

I wouldn't switch to an unichameral legislature, so no. However, its members should be elected by districts like at the state level.

[Agafin]

It should be expanded to 3 senators per state. That way, every state gets to have a senate election every two years.

[SnowLabrador]

It should be expanded to 3 senators per state. That way, every state gets to have a senate election every two years.

That wouldn't solve all our problems, but I do agree that it would be better than the current system.

[beesley]

Yes, but so should the House of Representatives. A new Congress should be new.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Perfect world we’d pass an amendment making the house elections 4 years, sync up the senate with tht and make the senate a proportional body