What with all the drama I’d forgotten about Senator Robert Menendez, (D) New Jersey, who and is soon to go on trial for federal corruption charges and could be expelled from the Senate if he’s convicted.
The thing is, if he’s found guilty he’d be replaced by Governor Chris Christie, who is bound to choose a Republican; and that could impact health care and a host of other issues dear to the Democratic cause.
I have no idea if Menendez is guilty or not but let us pray he is not.
I’m beginning to wonder at the wisdom of a system that puts so much power in a the hands of so few people. Millions of lives can be destroyed if ONE, one of them votes a certain way. The land and water can be destroyed at the whim of Scott Pruitt and his evil supporters in the White House and Congress.
For that matter the people’s voice was taken from us by the Electoral College which in its infinite wisdom put a crazed neoNazi moron into the White House.
What to do.
I’ve seen arguments calling for the Senate to be disbanded. Yet, the Senate has proven less insane than the House. On the other hand, we have Mitch McConnell (no further comment necessary).
Maybe we should have powerful regional governments, super-states as it were?
Or what about permitting equal representation in Congress for all? This would mean increasing representation to reflect population. Right now the citizens of California, for example, have far fewer representatives in Congress than they should resulting in gross under-representation. And since the EC is tied directly to the number of representatives the Presidential election is skewed to lower population Red states. Meanwhile the District of Columbia has no representation in Congress at all, and the fate of its citizens frequently resides in the grubby paws of people like Trey Gowdy.
Fact: as long as a minority of people is allowed to hold power over the majority, and especially if they have malign intent, such as stripping Americans of our voting rights, gerrymandering to assure fortress districts regardless of actual population, but finally as long as an evil political party, which is also a minority party ie the Republicans holds so much power over the majority we are going to have big problems.
I sure hope ol’ Senator Menendez isn’t guilty. If he is I hope his trial lasts until Christie is replaced with a Democrat.
www.nytimes.com/...