4 ms·

I'm not expressing an opinion on abortion or agriculture. Let's talk about "disproportionate" representation. Idaho is home to 1.6m people (http://www.census.

I'm not expressing an opinion on abortion or agriculture. Let's talk about "disproportionate" representation. Idaho is home to 1.6m people (http://www.census.gov/popest/data/state/totals/2014/tables/NST-EST2014-01.csv http://www.census.gov/popest/data/state/totals/2014/tables/N...). It has 2 votes in the Senate, like every other state, or 2% of the total, and 2 votes in the House (http://www.house.gov/representatives/#state_id http://www.house.gov/representatives/#state_id), or 0.46%. According to the Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/popclock/ http://www.census.gov/popclock/) the United States has a population of 321m. Therefore Idaho has 0.498% of the US population. Accordingly, it is underrepresented in the House and, like most states, overrepresented in the Senate. Overall, Idaho has 4 out of 535 votes in the legislature, or 0.748%, meaning that Idahoans have about 1.5 votes per person. That's a very small margin, especially considering both the underrepresentation in the House and the tiny overall representation. Just how disproportionate is this? Well, if you took away just one representative, the state would be underrepresented overall, as well as being grossly underrepresented in the House. Granularity works against us here; there is no way to fairly represent states with moderate populations like Idaho. Perhaps this should be telling us that we really aren't one nation and shouldn't attempt to govern such a large number of diverse people with a single set of laws. Again... regardless of what I personally think about abortion or ag-gag laws.

laGrenouille 11y ago
The issue with your math is that you're incorrectly assuming that a vote in the House is equally powerful to one in the Senate. On the contrary, a seat in the Senate is far more powerful due to procedural differences, significantly longer terms, and the smaller size of the body. When just looking at the representation in the Senate, Idaho has 4% of the votes but only 0.49% of the population... A factor of nearly 10. The make-up of the US government was always intended as a way to balance equal representation by state (Senate) and population (House). The problem is that while the original 13 states were relatively uniform in size we have since created states with vastly different populations (Wyoming is 68x smaller than California!).
- harryh 11y ago
  Idaho has 2% of the votes in the Senate, just like every other state. Not 4%.
rayiner 11y ago
1.5 votes per person is a huge margin when you're voting on national law that binds everyone. I'm sympathetic to the idea that we should not try to govern such a huge diverse nation with one set of laws. But then we should get rid of the Commerce Clause. States should be able to erect trade barriers to keep other states from undermining their social policies with race to the bottom behavior.
- fredkbloggs 11y ago
  This depends on what you mean by "trade barrier". Is a labeling law a trade barrier? I don't believe that it is. The Canadian objection to the US food labeling laws seems misguided to me, for the same reason that opposition to California's GMO labeling proposals seems misguided. My solution to this is to radically reduce federal power (basically back to what the founders intended). That would let the states decide whether they want ag-gag laws, and also whether they want to mandate "made in an ag-gag state" labeling. Seems fair to me. Apparently seems fair to you, too. So why are we commenting on a federal court decision?
  - rayiner 11y ago
    I mean any sort of trade barrier. E.g. California can ban imports from Idaho unless Idaho repeals right to work laws. The problem with federalism as implemented in the U.S. is that the method of apportioning votes gives small rural states disproportionate influence while the Commerce Clause neuters the ability of large states to use their natural economic leverage to the benefit of thei citizens. You should either have one nation, with everyone getting one vote, or a collection of nation states that can use their full range of natural advantages against other nation states.

laGrenouille 11y ago

The issue with your math is that you're incorrectly assuming that a vote in the House is equally powerful to one in the Senate. On the contrary, a seat in the Senate is far more powerful due to procedural differences, significantly longer terms, and the smaller size of the body. When just looking at the representation in the Senate, Idaho has 4% of the votes but only 0.49% of the population... A factor of nearly 10. The make-up of the US government was always intended as a way to balance equal representation by state (Senate) and population (House). The problem is that while the original 13 states were relatively uniform in size we have since created states with vastly different populations (Wyoming is 68x smaller than California!).

harryh 11y ago
Idaho has 2% of the votes in the Senate, just like every other state. Not 4%.

rayiner 11y ago

1.5 votes per person is a huge margin when you're voting on national law that binds everyone. I'm sympathetic to the idea that we should not try to govern such a huge diverse nation with one set of laws. But then we should get rid of the Commerce Clause. States should be able to erect trade barriers to keep other states from undermining their social policies with race to the bottom behavior.

fredkbloggs 11y ago
This depends on what you mean by "trade barrier". Is a labeling law a trade barrier? I don't believe that it is. The Canadian objection to the US food labeling laws seems misguided to me, for the same reason that opposition to California's GMO labeling proposals seems misguided. My solution to this is to radically reduce federal power (basically back to what the founders intended). That would let the states decide whether they want ag-gag laws, and also whether they want to mandate "made in an ag-gag state" labeling. Seems fair to me. Apparently seems fair to you, too. So why are we commenting on a federal court decision?
- rayiner 11y ago
  I mean any sort of trade barrier. E.g. California can ban imports from Idaho unless Idaho repeals right to work laws. The problem with federalism as implemented in the U.S. is that the method of apportioning votes gives small rural states disproportionate influence while the Commerce Clause neuters the ability of large states to use their natural economic leverage to the benefit of thei citizens. You should either have one nation, with everyone getting one vote, or a collection of nation states that can use their full range of natural advantages against other nation states.