The legitimacy and efficacy of the U.S. Senate could be dramatically increased by a simple internal Senate rule change: go to population weighted voting. Each state would still enjoy the constitutionally mandated “equal suffrage” via their two Senators. But, via this new internal rule, each Senator’s votes would be weighted by the number of people they represent.
The Constitution allows each congressional chamber to “...determine the Rules of its Proceedings” (Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 2, Clause 1). This power is why the Senate has been able to create its anti-majoritarian filibuster rule. It’s now time to use this rule making power to functionally overcome the greatest blight on our democracy, the malapportionment of the Senate.
Why on earth would a small state Senator agree to this? The shortsighted may not. But appeals to basic political fairness, “moral suasion”, delayed implementation, and some financial arm twisting may be enough to get to the simple majority needed for this internal rule change. (It’s even possible that a few Republicans from large/under-represented states would support this.) Well targeted grassroots efforts to build support for this new rule (call it Rule #45, since there are 44 of them now) could play a role similar to what they did a century ago to force the Senate to be directly elected.
If support for Senate Rule #45 becomes a broadly understood litmus test for candidates from both parties, people power may just prevail. And the Senate would be transformed into something truly American.