Jeff Jacoby, the conservative op-ed columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote a great column today. It's about the argument to expand the House of Representatives. It's well-argued, and I think it's right on.
The colubm is here.
He points out that our ratio of one rep for approximately 674,000 people is way out of whack with the rest of the 'democratic' world. He even contrasts it with Iraq--the parliament that the Iraqis are going to vote for at the end of the month has one legislator for each 91,000 people. That's in line with a lot of other democracies, such as the UK (1 per 91,000), France (1 per 104,000), Canada (105,000) and so on.
He furthermore gives a historical overview of how our house
did expand over the first century of the republic, until it got 'stuck' at 435 members even as our population exploded.
I completely agree with Mr. Jacoby's column. Furthermore, I wrote him a note and told him so, even pointing out that I was a liberal and was amazed to be agreeing with him! He wrote me a very nice note back, and told me that one of his copy editors, after he submitted the column yesterday, wrote him saying "My God, Jacoby's in favor of bigger government?!?!?" But he's right--it might be 'bigger' but it's more efficient and more democratic.
As he points out, the House of Reps is supposed to be the 'people's House'. One rep per almost 700,000 citizens belays that. He proposes tripling the members of the House. I think that's about right.