Save the Senate

While Rosenfeld’s article raises some interesting concerns about the nature of American democracy, his proposal to abolish the US Senate seems to conflict with some of the tenets of American ideology that he holds so dear. Majority rule is the basis of democratic rule, and in its truest form, the “will of the people” translates into the “the will of most people”. In the case of the House of Representatives, the nine largest states represent the 218 votes needed for a voting majority. True, these nine states make up roughly 50 percent of the US population, but what happened to the good old American ideal that says everyone has a voice?
The Founding Fathers realized that majority rule can be a very dangerous thing. The purpose of the system of checks and balances is to protect against this “tyranny of the majority” and to provide a forum for everyone’s voice to be heard. Should the Representatives from New York have more say on an agricultural reform bill than all the breadbasket states of the Great Plains combined? Would the Congressmen representing the half a million people living in Wyoming even find it worth a trip to the Capitol to vote? The Senate protects the interests of these states which (although they may have a small percentage of the US population) may have a disproportionate share of land or natural resources.
The US system isn’t perfect by any means, but it attempts to heed the popular will while preserving the minority voice. It seems like Rosenfeld’s beef with the US system would be better addressed by reforming resource allocation and federal funding to the states, not by abolishing the US Senate.