r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 1d ago

California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
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u/LordChunggis 1d ago

I think the founding fathers would have framed the senate a little differently if they had thought a state like California was even a possibility.

My brother and I have heated arguments on the senate. He says the senate is functioning as intended, "protection of the minority," I call it tyranny of the minority when California and New York have the same Senate representation as South Dakota and Wyoming.

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u/GreyLordQueekual 1d ago

The Senate was originally intended to function and grow in similar fashion to the House, the idea was scrapped pretty early because the smaller farm colonies saw little reason to be beholden to the ones with major cities dealing with the expansion of early industrialization.

The Senate in the form we use has always been about minor States controlling major States, then we stupidly allowed the House to cap itself almost a century ago, all but guaranteeing more control from smaller States and adding to part of our current tyrannical minority State system.

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u/LordChunggis 1d ago

Having one chamber skew left and another skew right based off state vs. population seems like it would be decently balanced. But I only learned today, from this Reddit thread, that the House is capped.

Low pop states are getting to double dip in a clear contrast against how the system was designed to function. But I've never heard anyone talk about this problem before, have any modern politicians talked about reform on this?

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u/GreyLordQueekual 1d ago

Uncapping the House today means those 400+ politicians voting for themselves to have proportionally less power, this is a no go from pretty much all Rs and the majority of Ds. Reform within Congress must be forced by the population and we lack systems and accountability to do such things within the scope of law, even before Trump.

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u/LordChunggis 1d ago

So, it falls into the same category as term limits. It's a nice thing to have, but no politician will willingly do it. I love our politicians...