• prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 hour ago

    The Senate was never meant to be proportionate, and that would be perfectly fine if the House was actually proportionate.

    Edit: I’m not going to respond individually to the same point(s)… The US is a federation of states. Whether you like it or not, the country was set up this way on purpose. And believe it or not, there was a lot of thought put into it.

    There would be zero point to having a bicameral congress where both houses were proportional representation. Why not just have one at that point?

    Each state has its own legislative, executive, and judicial branches. They are each microcosms of a nation within the nation. The Governor is akin to the President. State legislatures are the same concept as federal legislatures, and state judiciary is analogous to the federal judiciary. But each state has some leeway in the actual specific ins and outs of how those positions operate. And it can vary slightly state by state. This has its pros and cons, but it was completely intentional.

    It makes perfect sense to have a congressional house made up of representatives from each of those states to represent their state’s interests in the federal legislature. The interests of a state as a whole do not always align 100% with the will of the people. People are stupid, and often wrong.

    Does that make sense? It is one thing if you are advocating to eliminate the concept of states entirely. But as long as we have the federated system that we do, it makes complete sense to have a legislative body made up of two representatives from each of those states.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 hour ago

        Maybe… I would have to think about that more before agreeing. Also note, I made an edit to my comment to clarify my position for the “the senate makes no sense” people.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      16 hours ago

      That in no way makes it perfectly fine. It’s an undemocratic kluge when trying to get individual states that were acting as independent entities to sign on. The founders weren’t prophetic visionaries handing down the perfect democracy. They were horse trading for practical goals and dealing with the limitations stemming from literal horses being used to carry messages.

      There’s a reason when we regime-change we don’t install clones of our own system.

    • expr@programming.dev
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      21 hours ago

      While that’s true, it doesn’t make it right. All representation should be proportionate.

        • expr@programming.dev
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          36 minutes ago

          First of all, not all state legislatures are the same. Nebraska has a unicameral system, and despite the issues with the legislature, it’s overall a much better system than a bicameral one. A bicameral state legislature makes even less sense than a federal one. The federal government should be unicameral.

          This isn’t 1789. We aren’t some loosely federated collection of colonies anymore. We are one nation, and no citizen should have greater voting power than another. The interest of a state can be effectively represented by that state’s representatives working together towards a common goal.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            15 minutes ago

            So you give an example of a state being somewhat independent and doing things differently, and then immediately talk about how we aren’t that? The exact thing that you just described?