Proponents of the Senate filibuster contend it protects the influence of voters in the minority. But how much “protection” do they need?
The Senate is structured so each state, regardless of population, has equal representation. That means Wyoming, with less than 600,000 inhabitants, has the same clout as California, with over 39 million people. That gives each resident of Wyoming roughly 65 times the influence of those in California.
The Electoral College may have made sense in America of the 1700s, but today it’s simply a means by which the minority can subvert the will of the majority of voters. The 2016 presidential election is the latest example of this. Recent legislation in some Republican-led states would exacerbate this by allowing the state’s legislature to override the Electoral College designations determined by the voters.
The filibuster further allows the minority to block the will of the majority. Since this is in the Senate, that’s a protection on top of another protection.
We may be stuck with the Constitution-based Senate structure and the Electoral College, but the filibuster stems from arcane tradition and not the Constitution. It needs to be abolished. There are enough other “protections” for the minority of voters.
