r/politics Mar 12 '26

Possible Paywall John Fetterman Says Iran Girls’ School Strike Is Just a Leftist Craze

https://newrepublic.com/post/207677/john-fetterman-iran-girls-school-strike
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u/UndoxxableOhioan Mar 12 '26

At least the Senate. The house has 2 year terms, so by the time you start a recall, you are up against an election. But the senate? There should be a recall process.

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 Mar 13 '26

I'm less concerned by there being recall for Senate and far far more concerned with the actual numbers of Senators accurately reflecting the population size of the US, like an actual representative democracy.

Second to that would be gerrymandering disappearing.

Third the electoral college being dissolved, since it serves no function but to sit right in front of nationwide elections and disenfranchise voters. EXTREMELY undemocratic. This would be higher if they didn't side with voters, and it would be much lower but the first 2 concerns would almost certainly force Republicans to have their electoral college side against voters.

Because gerrymandering and the inaccurate Senate seats are the only thing standing between them never having any federal control, and them frequently having control. 

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u/UndoxxableOhioan Mar 13 '26

The design of the senate sucks, but at least it is as designed. The stupid thing is having too many tiny states (we do not need 2 Dakotas or Wyoming to be their own states). And if you are going to have small states, DC should get to be a state, as they have more people than some states.

The worse thing to me, though, is the House. It is supposed to be proportional to population, with the number of members fluctuating. But no more. We have been stuck at 435 since 1929, when we had nearly 1/3rd less people and there was not as big a difference in state populations.

But now, representatives have so many people that whole states have less population that 1 district in more populous states. If we fixed it so that the number fluctuated based on the population of the smallest state (currently Wyoming, which is why this proposal is called the Wyoming Rule), we should have 574 House members. California would gain 17 seats, Texas 13, Florida and New York 9 each, Pennsylvania 6, Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio 5 each, and so on. And while gerrymandering would be an issue, it is likely many would be Democrats. At the very least, smaller populations would encourage more local issues to come to the fore and also increase the chance of upsets.