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The fact that the Founders set out to create a system where rural American’s voices weren’t drowned out by larger, more urban, States is one that we hear over and over. Especially among Republicans. What they don’t say is the result is a system where land has more value than people, at least when it comes to both the Electoral College and the Senate. The two most consequential elected bodies in the nation.
Anyone with even basic knowledge of American politics knows the Electoral College elects the President, who has plenty of power himself. This includes writing Executive Orders as well as, more crucially, nominating judges to federal benches, including to the Supreme Court. The Senate then has the power to confirm or reject these nominees to lifetime appointments on these courts, who can then rule in their own right. The courts can strike down any laws that don’t fit their personal constitutional interpretation and even meddle in elections themselves.
The first issue here is half the US population lived in only nine States in 2016, which means 18 Senators next to the other half’s 82. Democrats won by almost 18 million more combined votes in the 2018 Senate races yet the GOP increased their majority by one for a 53–47 seat edge.
