THE GANGS OF DC

According to Alec MacGillis, a “reporter” on the national staff of the Washington Post, it’s all the Senate’s fault:

Wonder why President Obama is having a hard time enacting his agenda after sweeping to victory and with large congressional majorities on his side?

Look to the Senate, the chamber designed to thwart popular will.

Looks like Alec missed out on high-school civics. The United States is a republic, not a democracy. James Madison (Remember him? Founding Father? Fourth President?) defined a republic in terms of representative democracy as opposed to direct democracy.

There is much grousing on the left about the filibuster, the threat of which has taken such hold that routine bills now need 60 votes. Getting less attention is the undemocratic character of the Senate itself.

What really frosts MacGillis is the Senate’s resistance to health–care reform. Never mind that voters in all states are expressing concern; the “little people” don’t know what’s in their best interest.

Why, for example, have even Democratic senators been resistant on health-care reform? It might be because so many of the key players represent so few of the voters who carried Obama to victory -- and so few of the nation's uninsured.

Six states that are among the least populous in the country; Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Maine, New Mexico and Iowa hold 8.4 million people -- less than New Jersey -- and represent 3 percent of the U.S. population. North Dakota and Wyoming each have fewer than 80,000 uninsured people, in a country where about 47 million lack insurance

In the House, those six states have 13 seats out of 435, 3 percent of the whole. In the Senate, those six members are crafting what may well be the blueprint for reform..

Let’s see. North Dakota has a 2008 population of 641,481, of whom MacGillis claims 80 thousand lack health insurance. That’s roughly 13%. Wyoming: population 532,668, also with 80 thousand uninsured (MacGillis again). Roughly 15%. In 2008, the U.S. population as a whole was 304,059,724, with about 47 million uninsured - about 15%.

Um, Alec, from the uninsured numbers you yourself have given, it looks like those “anti-democratic” Senators are doing a pretty good job of representing the minority interests of all States.

Go back and reread what you yourself wrote:

Look to the Senate, the chamber designed to thwart popular will.

Was this really what the founders had in mind? One popular story tells of Thomas Jefferson asking George Washington what the Senate's purpose is. "Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" Washington asked in return. "To cool it," Jefferson replied. To which Washington said, "Even so, we pour legislation in the senatorial saucer to cool it."

Why yes, yes it was they had in mind. Think about it – and go back and reread a civics textbook.