Bicameral Nightmare

[Keith Broaders]

A bicameral legislature is a lawmaking body composed of two separate chambers or houses (typically an upper and lower house) that share authority to create legislation. Designed to prevent the abuse of power, it promotes checks and balances, requiring both houses to agree on laws. 

The bicameral legislature in the States were created to prevent the majority of the voters in the large  metropolitcan counties from completely dominating the voters in the smaller rural counties.

If the Senate and the House of Representatives at the state level both represent the same constituency the senate fails to accomplish what it was created to do. 

When the Supreme Court  ruled in the 1960's that all legislative districts in the states needed to be based on population the state's senate became a second version of the House.

Now the voice of the small rural counties is barely a whisper and the large metropolitan counties get whatever the  majority of their voters wans.

The state senates were created to represent the best interests of the entire county community rather than powerful individuals and factions.

Since 1788 the people and the counties were both represented in the  state legislatures. The bicameral legislature protected both the people living in the  large metropolitan counties and the residents of the small rural counties a seat at the bargaining table..

James  Madison, the Father of the Constitution believed that the Constitution was written to prevent  powerful individuals from exploiting a minority.

The 55 men who wrote the Constitution were a collecction of wealthy white men that claimed to represent "We the People", but were not overly concerned about the general welfare of the millions of people they considered to be inferior.

Accordding to the words of Thomas Jefferson governments derive their just power from the consent of the people, but less than 1/10th of 1%of the 4 million inhabitants of the united States actaually gave their consent by voting to ratify the Constitution.

i Supreme Court rulings in the 1960's our the Supreme Court turned the state's bicameral legislatures into unicameral legislature with two housesrepresenting the  same constituency.

Instead of having checks and balances we created a potential for a tyranny of the majority.

The states all had a voice and vote on all proposed legislation. in the senate.

In Article 5 in the Constitution there is a clause that prohibited Congress from ever proposing an amendment that would deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the senate ae without its consent.

In 1913 Congress violated the Constitution by  proposing an amendment that would allow for the direct election

When this amendment was ratified our bicameral legisltures became a uncameral legislatures with two chambers representing a single constituency. This amendment made the tyranny of the majority inevitible.

The bicameral legislature was established to prevent the states and counties with the largest populations from completely dominating the people living in the  states with smaller populations.

The 17th Amendment removed from the small states and the small counties the abilityto prevent the tyranny of the majority.