[cmendel]

The problem is that our system is broken. Wildly popular policies can't pass because of republican obstructionism in the senate.

Worse, the senate is hugely anti-democratic. It's not 1/3-1/2 of the population; its the reps of 4/25.

""The 25 most populous states contain nearly 84 percent of the 50 states’ total population. So 16 percent of the country controls half of the seats in the United States Senate (and that’s not accounting for the fact that DC, Puerto Rico, and several other US territories have no representation at all in Congress).""[1]

Source to [1]: https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22215728/senate-anti-democratic...

I actually highly recommend reading the above. I found it insightful.

[neither_color]

>25 most populous states contain nearly 84 percent of the 50 states’ total population. So 16 percent of the country controls half of the seats in the United States Senate

Not really, the flaw here is seeing each "blue state" as 100% blue and each "red state" as 100% red. A blue state can be simply a matter of a single blue city surrounded by red counties. The holdout states give a voice to the people in holdout counties whose lifestyles are at the whim of a super-majority in the city.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/upshot/2020-electio...

I prefer a government that does as little as possible and leave it up to each local population to do what's best for themselves. This thread, after all, is about the federal government abusing its people with the war on drugs. Changing the faction in charge and making things even easier for them doesn't solve that problem as that faction is then subject to corruption too.

[belltaco]

>the flaw here is seeing each "blue state" as 100% blue and each "red state" as 100% red

The so called 'flaw' is exactly how the Senate works. A 51% red state will be represented by 2 100% red senators, and same for blue.

>The holdout states give a voice to the people in holdout counties whose lifestyles are at the whim of a super-majority in the city.

So instead the lifestyles are controlled by a super minority?

[cmendel]

Whether government corruption is inevitable is frankly irrelevant to the broader question of political representation. I understand very well the (R) v (D) distinction is predominantly Rural v Urban. I believe in democracy and, as such, believe that people, not land should vote. Any system that is as so incredibly unrepresentative is unjust.

If 1% of CA moved to Wyoming; Wyoming would be majority Californian. Them having equal representation in a co-equal political body is insanity. Wyoming has a population half the size of the city of San Jose.

As an aside; I find the coding of land to be deeply misleading. https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/hpB3wkTVkPJsrJ6-qjtbU...

[vkou]

> The holdout states give a voice to the people in holdout counties whose lifestyles are at the whim of a super-majority in the city.

Every non-geographic minority group in this country somehow manages to deal with this problem. What makes rural conservatives require such a truly exceptional level of representation?