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I'd be fine with requiring a 60% vote of the house, or votes representing 60% of the population. 40% of the senate represents less than 12% of the US population
by jowiar 14y ago
I'd be fine with requiring a 60% vote of the house, or votes representing 60% of the population. 40% of the senate represents less than 12% of the US population.
The Senate exists for one reason only: The slaveholding governors of Carolinas, Georgia, et. al would never have ratified the constitution if it was thought that slavery had a snowball's chance in hell of being abolished by the federal government.
- MichaelSalib 14y agoI'm a little shocked that this is being down voted given that its recounting what I thought was the consensus view of historians....
- caf 14y agoInterestingly the Australian Senate was modelled on the US Senate, in as much as it was intended to give the smaller states a brake on federal power (and similarly was really a necessary carrot in order to get the smaller states on board with federation). It's now a directly elected proportional-representation body, so 60% of Senators in that body would tend to represent a similar proportion of voters.