Is the Senate Broken?

In the article "The Senate is Broken", author Christopher Hayes asks the question that is on a lot of people's minds here lately: Is the Senate Broken? HE mentions the founding fathers and their intentions to keep the mob from ruling, while also keeping out the riff-Raff, and their apparent feeling that maybe we would have more trouble governing ourselves than we thought. In most respects, they were successful in their goals. However, one aspect has not been so successful, the Senate. It has grown more undemocratic over the years and the imbalance of representation is much more severe. According to Hayes' article, California has 68 times the population of Wyoming, but equal representation in the Senate. Filibusters have evolved into "de facto super majority requirement", and one individual can essentially bring the entire body to a halt. Is it time to look at our processes and make some changes?

This article was appropriate this week due to our classroom viewing of the Bill Moyers Journal this week. Some of the same points that were brought up on that journal are made in the article from The Nation mentioned above. The fact that people in all media sources are arriving at the same conclusion lends credence to the thought that maybe it is time to evaluate our processes and possibly change some aspects of government.

I personally feel that the founding fathers are probably rolling in their graves. They never could have anticipated the future we live in now, nor could they have anticipated the way that money makes the world go around. The idea of the republic and democracy still thrives, but it is mired in the endless money grabbing that goes with politics these days. It's a shame that something so idealistic could be bastardized by monetary concerns, but that is a fact of life in this day and time. Special interest groups and lobbyists make large campaign donations, and in return, expect consideration from their pocket Senators in the form of legislation and earmarks. Rarely is it the public best interest that Senators move and shake. The fact that any overhaul in the system would probably have to originate in the body of government that needs to be overhauled means that it will probably never happen.