Why Wyoming Has More Power Than California in the Senate

The United States Senate is one of the least democratic institutions in the Federal Government. It shuts out millions of Americans and dilutes the votes of most of the country. And yet every law has to go through the Senate, and so do most federal judges, including Supreme Court judges.

This is the first episode in our new series 'You vs The System', where we look at how American institutions actively work against you and your vote. When the U.S. Constitution was written, having a Senate was a compromise that made sense for the time. But the U.S. today is bigger and far more diverse, and the Senate was not designed for that. So is the Senate an impediment to progress? And if so, what can be done to fix it?



#Election2020 #USA

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[LAWrath]

The 1st step to get anything at all done is to get Corp.$ OUT of politics.

[JeremyToh]

Puerto Rico should quit the union that doesn’t represent them.

[ChillStreamsLive]

Yes. The Electoral College, "Checks and Balances", the Senate, The House, The President....

It's all broken.
Completely dysfunctional.
I've played unfinished video games less broken than this government!

[nyyanks]

1) The Senate was not designed to represent the people.
2) If Democrats want more Senators, they need a more simple, moderate platform so they can compete in more states instead of fantasizing about abolishing the Senate or breaking up larger states.
3) Once they have enough Senators, they can kill the filibuster and expand the House, which has a real proportion problem. This would also improve the imbalance issue with the Electoral College.
4) If Dems didn't want a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court, they should have turned out more in 2016 when the balance of SCOTUS was on the line, but the "Bernie-or-bust" crowd didn't think that was important enough.
5) It's not a bad thing that the federal government can't pass laws quickly without some kind of check.
6) Many progressive policies can be enacted at the state level.

[Ngamotu]

Perhaps Americans could take some ideas from other nations. In Germany for example, their upper legislative chamber, the Federal Council, which is much like the US Senate, is comprised of members who represent individual states. The difference is though that the number each state has, is to an extent determined by population. So no state has fewer than 3 members, however, the number of members goes up based on population, but only to a maximum of 6 members.

If a state has a population of at least 2 million it gets 4 members, or if its population is at least 6 million then it gets 5 members, and over 7 million the state gets 6 members. After that, no matter how large the population of a state they don't get any more members on the Federal Council. This is what's called degressive proportionality, and is intended to give smaller bodies more votes than a purely proportional distribution alone woukd allow. The catch with the Federal Council though, is that those members aren't elected by the people, but instead are chosen by their state governments.

[lytteot]

The more I learn about US politics and democracy the more I realize is far from what I think it was. A constitution is not a bible, you can amend it to represent the dynamics of today's life. What was correct 200 years ago, might not be today.

[Phrancis]

GOP priorities don't revolve around wanting a fair democracy for all Americans and I say that as a former Republican. They know how culture and demographics are changing and they want minority rule with the false logic that a "constitutional republic" isn't a form of democracy and that the Constitution isn't a "living document" that was supposed to evolve with a changing society. And when the built-in structures like the Senate or Electoral College aren't enough, gerrymandering and voting suppression will clearly happen far more in red states.

[dariusrucker]

It's supposed to be like this. Are you really now just reading the constitution?

[rjung_ch]

The US is just so unequal in so many areas, this being just another one. Sad, isnt' it?

[viktorbryce]

Create more than 2 Party Lines that as of now retain the greatest amount of power. We don't have enough Party Lines to make compromises. We need a more diversified pool. That way we got more voices to represent the people. It should be principal representation for everyone not just a failing 2 Party System.

[phoenix]

"The senate would need to vote to get rid of itself. " Right? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂

[idiotbox]

Money and Religion in government are the issues. end of story

[Midnightspecia]

We really need to split up the state of California....The six California’s was a good idea. Maybe even split New York, Texas, and Florida.

[rypatmackrock]

As a Californian that has now lived with in the three largest metro areas, and seeing the prospect of breaking up our large state; I really think another option that must be considered during elections is to simply reach out, vet candidates, and campaign in typically rural red states like Wyoming and others. I find when we focus on breaking up the larger blue states like California, and possibly Texas that is turning purple as we see, we kind of inherently leave out those other rural red states. Even if they have been voting red or conservative over the past several years, doesn’t mean we should completely ignore them. We should reach out to the people that live there, what are their issues, how they see the current political dynamics, and what can they offer from their states. After that, we must offer substantive policies, argue in favor of them and vet candidates that will carry the torch all the way to DC.

[dwainpannell]

Uh.... this whole clip is based on a false premise: that the Senate represents the population. It doesn’t. It represents each State equally. The population is represented in the House of Representatives. Same reason we have an Electoral College: so the majority in more populated, larger states cannot dominate the minority in rural, smaller states. IOW, it’s working as intended: Check and Balances.

[franksought]

Not to shit on the video but the reason every state gets to senators is because it is the equal house the founding fathers designed it that way so in the Senate every state has two voices in Congress Wyoming has one so it was a compromise

[blndpblo]

0:24 you’re making it seem like a bad thing that small states have a voice. The senate is a good thing because if it didn’t exist the legislative branch would be dominated by California, Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. The senate gives everyone an equal say so five states don’t control everything. The country as a whole should have a say in what gets done instead of just the population centers.

[ThingOfSome]

So ... the American political duopoly is the problem? Yep.

[jdpalm]

It's the United States of America and not the United People of America for a reason. This agreement we have was signed by the states and not the people.