October 31, 2009 06:34 PM UTC

Amendment 28

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• by: JO

Perhaps rather than “St. Michael” vs “St. Andrew,” we should be focused on more appropriate terms, such as Lord Michael vs Lord Andrew.

I refer here to the Great Anachronism, filled with Anachroids aka “Senators” but more appropriately called Lords, as in the British House of Lords.

Long time since Jimmy Madison was faced with a great problem: persuading slave-holding states to join a stronger federation that conceivably could someday challenge the basis of their economies. Solution: the Senate, roughly modeled after the House of Lords and nominally an assembly of Wise Anachroids who would be free from the pressures of those who say “ain’t” and “Howdy, podner,” eat with their elbow on the table, and were to be represented in the House of Rabblesentatives. And, let us hasten to note, the Anachroids are free to establish their own rules and ways of operating, making an anti-democratic institution even more so (59% of the votes is insufficient to pass legislation), free of interference by the president or that other house.

It wasn’t long before the pressures Madison hoped to relieve boiled to the surface and were temporarily quelled by the Compromise of 1820: a brand new state carved out of an older one, Maine from Massachusetts, to balance the desired addition of a new slave state carved from the Far Flung Territories. It was in the Senate that this compromise was reflected, nowhere else.

Rather than review subsequent details, I move that we take it as read that times have changed, the role of states has changed in our everyday lives just as the role of the federal government has changed vis a vis the states in 1789.

Time has come to pass the 28th amendment: Upon passage of this amendment, the powers of the Senate shall be limited to postponing for a period not to exceed one year legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

The underlying notion is that just as the Senate was modeled after the House of Lords, sort of, so too should it now follow its older cousin and become a chamber of consultation, suitable for honoring those whom the President would honor, but removed from the business of governing.

At its root the 28th amendment is about the mathematics of democracy. As it is, the 500,000 Cowboys of Wyoming have equal representation as the 30,000,000 Beach Boys and Girls of California. Indeed, the 21 least populous states combined (Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Iowa) have fewer people than California (31 million to 33 million) but 42 votes in the Senate to California’s two. Other mathematical games are also possible (e.g. just 10 states, with 20 votes in the Senate, represent about half the population), but in our heated discussions about The Appointed One versus The Ghost Campaign, let us also bear in mind that just 250,000 Cowboys can undo all the effort and money spent to send a “Democrat” to the Senate from Colorado.

And this doesn’t even begin to address the question of the rules of the Senate that allow Senator No of Oklahoma to thwart the will of 59 other senators, or even more (by blocking an Executive appointment single-handedly, for example) just to be a cursed sonofabitch or to impose his 12th century thinking on the 21st. As an aside, does anyone imagine that Hamid Karzai doesn’t fully realize how U.S. “democracy” works? Do as we say, not as we do, Hamid. Sure thing.

Can’t be done, you say? Senate will never agree to abolish its perquisites, its vise-grip on national life (“No, public option health insurance will not cover Viagara, any more than our plan does.”)?

I disagree. Jimmy M. foresaw the need to change his first draft and provided for amendments. If white men can be persuaded to give up their sole grip on power, so can 60 Anachroids. It won’t happen in 2009, or in 2010. But YES WE CAN be heard, Yes We Can have democracy in this country suitable for the times in which WE live.

In the meantime, let’s stop this nonsense, which I confess to introducing, about sainthood.

For us, here and now, it’s a question of Lord Bennet or Lord Romanoff? Let the Voice of the Privileged Be Heard.