You know what’s wrong with this country? Wait, that was only a hypothetical question. Who yelled out “The designated hitter?” Geez, it’s a lot worse than I thought.
What I was talking about is the terrible gridlock in Washington D.C. and how nothing seems to get done. I admit that is not a new problem but it is an issue that has gotten much worse in the last 40 years. I’m going to place the blame firmly on one body of our government, the United States Senate. There was a time when Senators from both sides of the aisle would fight like dogs on the Senate floor over all kinds of issues, then they would go out at night to a party together. They hated each other until someone started paying for the drinks. The next day they would return to work in the Senate then work out a compromise that would benefit the country. That is where the phrase “my esteemed colleague from the state of …,” comes from. They knew it would be their opponent’s turn to pick up the tab the next night.
Today the Senate is “my way or the highway,” a form of politics. It’s party in the country above. It only takes one Senator to stop any legislation. Said Senator may use that power to stop great legislation they support and benefits their state, just because it was proposed by someone from the opposing party.
Today’s Senate is divided evenly. 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Many people argue that shows that our country is evenly divided. These are the same people who will try to convince you 2 and 2 is 5, the sun rises in the west and Sally Field really deserved her second Oscar, (Really, did you see that movie?). The fact is, while there are an equal number of senators, the Democratic members (Yea, I said it, Democratic. I don’t believe in using bad grammar in arguments), represent over 41 million more citizens than the Republican senators (how would they like it if we call them Rube-publications). Why the discrepancy? We can thank our Founding Fathers for that one. The same authors of our Constitution that guaranteed us that men are the only ones who can vote, African-Americans are only 3/5ths of a human being, and anyone can walk around with a concealed weapon of war. How do you hide your bazooka when you’re dressed for the beach?
What our fore-fathers did was created a bicameral (no, not a sexual preference…geez, you guys have dirty minds) branch of our government to represent the people of this country. The House of Representatives represents the voters directly. That’s why it’s called the “people’s house.” The number of seats are determined by our population and are supposed to be divided into fairly divided districts. Yea, right, but that’s another rant. The word gerrymandering was created to define that process. I think it’s easier to correctly pick every winner of March Madness…I got one team right.
The Senate is a bit different. There are two members from each of the States and the number of members depends on the number of states. While this was created to protect smaller states from being dominated by bigger states, it is just the opposite. A state like Wyoming with only 575,000 residents has the same number of Senators as a state like California with a population of 40,000,000. It would take the bottom 23 state’s combined to even get close to California’s population Now, I’m going to do math. The 23 states with the lowest population have a combined 46 Senators compared to California’s 2. I think the correct mathematical term for that is they have a “boatload more” representatives. I would have figured this out sooner but I confused my Crypto Currency app with my calculator app on my phone. In a matter of 20 minutes, I was rich for a few minutes, then broke, then rich again, then broke again…it goes on.
We all should know how our government works because, were supposed to take Social Studies in high school, or we did when I was in school. The way that some of these politicians spread lies and disinformation on Twitter and Facebook, I think they studied Social Media instead. Maybe we should make anyone who gets elected to congress to watch the After School Special cartoon that shows how a bill becomes a law. That’s about the level these folks can comprehend issues and the Bill character sings and dances. How cool is that?
This inequity in Senators needs to be fixed. After a couple of minutes on Google and Wikipedia, and with my vast knowledge of everything unimportant, I think I have a few ideas to fix the problem. We need to set up new rules that define what a state is.
First, to become a state, they need to have a city large enough to be considered a “metropolitan area.” If the guy running the one gas station in town is sitting in a chair out by the pumps, shooting the bull with the other 10 residents of the town, that does not qualify. In a few states, that’s the state capital.
The state has to have at least one professional sports franchise. Really, if you don’t have a pro-team to root for, your state should not be able to hold up legislation that would benefit states with multiple teams. The exception to that is Alabama. The Crimson Tide football team is pretty much a professional sports franchise, so they get a pass. Kansas would be out because the pro-teams with Kansas in their names are actually in Missouri. Sorry Jay Hawks.
You do not qualify to be a state if you don’t have an area that has traffic gridlock. Waiting for the snowplow to clear the interstate or being stopped by a flock of sheep crossing the road does not count. People (voters) cause gridlock and your state needs more people. Of course, considering how these small states tend to allow unquestioned gun possession, road rage could turn into a shooting war.
You can’t be a legitimate state unless a section of your state wants to succeed from your largest population area. Like how downstate Illinois wants to break away from the Chicago area or how the rural north of California wants to break away from the rest of the state and its metropolitan centers. The problem with this idea is the big cities are the ones that pay the bills and most of the people in that state live in or around those big cities. Kind of like a child that runs away from home…until it’s time for dinner.
Another possible solution to the imbalance of our representation in Washington D.C. is to combine several smaller states into one large one. For example we could make a super state that would include Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. This would result in a state with a population of just over 10 million people. It would be a quarter of the population of California and the11th most populated state. They would need a large metropolitan area, so we would let them annex Kansas City. It would give them a couple of professional sport franchises and Missouri would still have St. Louis. It would also eliminate 12 Senators. Imagine how much money our country could save by not having to pamper a dozen Senators and the revenue saved by the elimination of all those pork barrel bills they tend to generate. Another benefit would be that the Senate would be a whole lot quieter. The older Senators who like to nap during sessions will enjoy that.
Now that I have fixed that problem, on to a new one. Here are my thoughts on cold fusion.
bbriley.net 