The Senate Was Created to Block Mob Rule, which is Why the Socialists Want the Body Abolished.
There is a tale, which may be apocryphal, about a breakfast which took place between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. During this breakfast the two great Virginians discussed the finer parts of the Constitution. Washington, in explaining the benefits of the Senate, offered a metaphor when Jefferson took his hot coffee and poured it into a saucer. Washington pointed out that the Senate was like the saucer, “We pour legislation into the Senatorial saucer to cool it.” His point was that the Senate could protect liberty by altering the legislation coming out of the popularly elected House of Representatives. One of the main concerns of Jefferson’s was that a majority, perhaps in a temporary irrational frenzy, might try to use the power of the Federal Government to steal money and liberty from the minority. Safe to say that Washington and Jefferson weren’t socialists. And to their great credit neither man could get elected to the New York City Council today.
Indeed, the founders were skeptical of majority rule, so they created a second body of Congress, the Senate, and gave it a couple key pro-liberty features. First, they gave the Senators a little more political insulation with six-year terms, so the members of that body might be more likely to block popular but bad legislation. And secondly, the Senate offered equal representation for small states, so their residents could have some protection from majority rule overreach.
Well, last week the Democratic Socialists of America, released, “Workers Deserve More”, their manifesto, where they outline the radical changes that they hope to bring about if they ever take power. And among their many horrible ideas, was the pledge to abolish the Senate. My first observation is the irony of their promiscuous use of the word “worker” considering that so many of their most vocal adherents are affluent and idle. When it comes to work, my guess is that if you were to add up, for the purpose of gathering economic data, the production of all the socialists in America, I highly doubt that collectively they produce enough goods and services to even register as much as a blip to the GDP.
But why do the socialists hate the Senate? Well, they hate the Senate for the same reasons that pro-freedom, and pro-liberty minded people love the Senate. Mainly that the Senate is a speedbump for all legislation, and of course the beauty of our Constitution is that it is designed to make it tough to ram through radical and partisan bills. The socialist wants to radically alter the American Government, America’s economic system, and society, and doing that will take the passage of a lot of bad bills.
And in the current Senate, even without a filibuster, none of the socialist agenda could get through. My view, which I think is similar to the view of the framers, and of pro-liberty minded Americans is that it is better that 10 good bills die, than one bad bill gets passed. It should not be easy to pass new laws.
The socialists also hate the Senate because it is a non-majoritarian body, that is every state, no matter her population, has the same number of votes. Unlike the House of Representatives, Senators represent constituencies that vary in size. Small, lightly populated red states have equal power with big, highly populated blue states. For the socialists the people that stand in their way live in small to medium sized red states. Look at it this way, if the South, the Sunbelt and the Midwest, retain their political power then socialism will never take hold, and the socialist will never attain power. It is the Senate, and its equal suffrage makeup, that is the main obstacle for the socialists.
The good news is that eliminating the Senate will be very difficult and maybe even impossible, because Article V of the Constitution says that “no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”
The Constitution is a beautiful thing. It created great protections for liberty and seemed to anticipate vile people who, in the name of social justice, would attempt to take away our freedoms and liberty. It is as if the framers of our Constitution caught a glimpse into the 21st Century, and they saw AOC and her millennial generation on the horizon.
David is the author of two books: Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.
Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books
5 comments
David,
The illustration “Workers Deserve More” is being used for nothing but to mislead actual “working” Americans.
Now to call these Democrats socialist is grossly incorrect, they are dam Communist with a globalist agenda.
These disgusting Virginia Democrats are the worst. They want nothing but to feed off of the working class via income taxes, property taxes, higher energy, housing and healthcare costs.
If any of these disgusting Democrats were to ascend to a Federal position, they would then vote to sign all of our Constitutional Rights to an UN American globalist governing body.
And I must reiterate;
Disgusting Virginia Democrats absolutely DO NOT care one ounce about working class Virginians or workers in general.
They past a couple of bills this past session, signed into law by Disgusting Democrat Abigail Spanberger. Now with this legislation its leadership would have implemented policies that would benefit the “worker” but NO it couldn’t do that.
Closer to November I will comment on this legislation and the ineptitude that Disgusting Democrat Mark Warner will bring to this.
In the meantime in Virginia,
watch illegal immigration, illegal employment (sanctuary employment) and fraud grow.
The Bullshitting Elephant is dying, on life support.
How do we know?
1. Previously, when anyone posted a comment that was not in line with the article being commented on, the “offensive” comment was removed within minutes. Now, opposition comments remain in place for days, some even for weeks.
2. Dying – or maybe already dead – audience. Look at the comments on the articles. Same names and pseudonyms for the last year.
3. The authors. Same old, same old.
4. No “Sunday memes” today.
This is exactly what was going on at your nemesis “Bearing Drift” before it went under, to be replaced by a cut-and-paste site.
Here’s something else for you morons to lose your minds over: Spanberger just reversed Youngkin’s illegal order that removed the civil rights of 60,000 former felons who had no criminal record after there sentences were completeld.
Here is some background.
Virginia is the only (maybe one other) state that takes away the civil rights of anyone convicted of a felony. Convicted felons lose the right to: vote, serve on a jury, serve as a notary public. Also lose the right to possess a firearm.
After a felon has served his/her term these rights can be restored, but, restoration takes a positive action on the part of the individual – and no one tells them about the restoration process. To restore your firearm rights, appeal to the judge who sentenced you. To restore the other rights: Contact Secretary of the Commonwealth, get a certificate stating that you have completed your sentence, carry the certificate with you to the Registrar’s office to register to vote; to Clerk of the Court to get back on the jury list, or, become a notary. NO ONE BOTHERS TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS PROCESS.
This is a holdover from Virginia’s 1909 Jim Crow constitution which made it all but impossible for Blacks to vote.
Interesting story. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell (Rep) knew nothing about this. He heard about it, asked his Atty Gen Ken Cuccinelli to research the issue. Cooch found that over 300,000 former felons could not vote. Of those: Over 60% were Black; over 10% had completed their sentences more than 15 years ago and had no criminal record since. So – McD asked Cooch what he could do as Gov to restore these people. Cooch told him he must restore ONE AT A TIME BY SIGNING A RESTORATIION ORDER. McD, a Rep, told Cooch to start sending him restoration orders. This took place when McD had about 4-5 months left in his term. In all, McD restored the rights to about 10,000 former felons.
The next governor was a Democrat, Terry McAuliffe. McD told him about the restoration, McA continued the process. Then, Gov McAuliffe decided to restore the rights of about 200,000 with one order. Virginia Republicans lost their minds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They appealed to the state Supreme Court who ruled, no, governor, you have to do it one at a time. Since then, governors have laboriously singed off on one at a time all through their terms.
Governor Red Vest discovered the former felons’ rights were being restored, so, advised by his AG what-was-his-name (?), he reversed 60,000 restorations.
Spanberger reversed Red Vest’s move and now we are back to what McDonnell started.
Of course, we know you MAGAts will go batshit crazy because, as we know, the only people who commit felonies are Those People and the will all vote for Democrats. Excuse me . . . meant to say “They will all vote for the communist socialist dumbocrats.”
There is a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November that will change the VA constitution so rights are automatically restored upon completion of sentence. Needless to say, VA Repubs are all in against the amendment. Next thing we know, you’ll restore the 1901 Constitution, and we can get those n#####s in the back of the bus where they belong.
What they really want is the creation of a Soviet Poliburo who will appoint a dictator.
The Dems/DSA lust for centralizing power is to crush our foundational separation of powers, eliminating our minoritarian rights of personal sovereignty to make us serfs.”Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” – Churchill