End the cloture fiasco

I sent this letter to my Senator. I suggest you do the same.

Also added are some comments from Mikey. I agree with him completely so

they were just pasted in.

What do you think?

How could we get rid of the Senate as now constituted?

Dear Senator Kerry

I am writing to you in anger and disgust at the way the paralyzed US Senate has allowed itself to become the laughingstock of the democratic nations of the world. It is embarrassing for all of your constituents to see our Senate , theoretically ruled by a Democratic majority, strangled by ill considered and antiquated procedures. It must even be hard for you to realize that you have no personal ability in this environment to care for any of the people’s business. This state of permanent filibuster has to end.

As a long time supporter, who even spent time walking the streets of New Hampshire for you in 2004, I implore you to join with Senator Harken and others to demand a rules change which ends the paralysis of the cloture system.

If you in the Senate are unwilling to get rid of the right of filibuster then please, allow the filibuster to return in all its glory. Let the Republicans filibuster away on whatever irks them and let the American public view the spectacle on C-Span.

No one can reasonably argue that such a spectacle would actually get in the way of the Senate’s current business because you aren’t doing any business. The senate is doing nothing! You are paralyzed and collectively impotent. I urge you to work for real change and that means ending the current fiasco caused by the Senate’s cloture rules.

Sincerely yours,

+++++++++++

My heart is in violent agreement with everything you wrote, but a small insistent voice in my head keeps reminding me that the Senate is doing exactly what the framers of the Constitution intended. The function of the Senate is to resist change. As students of history, the founding fathers knew that most political change is for the worse, and legislative changes driven by the passions of the moment are the worst. It is remarkable that the system they devised 251 years ago still manages to creak along at all, but our real problem is that our Constitution is now fundamentally broken.

This is a painful thing for an American to conclude. After all, the Constitution is the focus of our civic loyalty and the essence of our national identity. We swear to preserve, protect and defend the ideas embodied in those musty scraps of parchment. But the stubborn truth is that a system designed for an 18th century agrarian society of small farmers and slave plantations is proving to be utterly dysfunctional for governance in a post-industrial world.

You have correctly identified the Senate as the most broken part of the Constitutional order. The Senators from Wyoming representing about 540,000 people have exactly as much voting power as the Senators from California representing about 37 million people. And the 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia, and many thousands more who live in our island territories, have no representation at all.

In an odd way, the Brits, having no formal written Constitution, are better off than us. Through an incremental Parliamentary creep, they have actually managed to implement fundamental change in the structure and function of the Hose of Lords. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords ]. We would need a Constitutional amendment to do anything like that.

One logical alternative would be to decouple the Senators from the states (which are mostly broken, dysfunctional entities as well, but that is a topic for another day.) For example, one Senator might be elected from each of the 94 Federal judicial districts, plus 6 appointed "at large" by the President. Longer terms (10-12 years?) might focus Senators more on legislative business and less on re-election cycles. Many countries with Parliamentary systems appoint their Senators ( distinguished elder political, cultural or economic leaders, or cronies of the Boss, depending on the local tradition) rather than electing them.

Don't bitch, organize! If the Senate is broken and dysfunctional, the Constitution provides a remedy. The present nationwide backlash of anger against the Senate as an institution provides a real opportunity to resurrect the long-neglected but increasingly urgent agenda of Constitutional reform.