The largest commercial advertiser in the U.S. in 2019 was Amazon at $6.88 billion. In comparison, the Democrats and Republicans spent $14 billion on the election! The result? The biggest spender won 89.2% of House races, and 71.9% in the Senate. Democrats maintained a majority in the House but lost a handful of seats. Republicans may lose their majority in the Senate if they lose the two seats to be decided in runoffs early next year.
With this kind of spending, we clearly are no longer a representative democracy!
A more fundamental problem is that each state gets exactly two senators — regardless of population. Thus, Wyoming and California each get two senators even though the population of California is almost 70 times that of Wyoming. Again, not democratic. One solution is to follow the British example and organize the Senate like the British House of Lords, which can delay legislation but not block it completely.
On a different front, 400 bills passed by the House are being blocked from discussion by Mitch McConnell. He represents Kentucky, which has a population of 4.5 million, or roughly 1% of the USA. Kentucky ranks 26th in population but, thanks to McConnell, ranks an astonishing fourth in federal money received — roughly 2 1/2 times as much as they contribute.
At least we got a clear decision in the presidential race. At least if we ignore Trump’s desperate and unfounded cries of “fraud”.
Frank Fish, Taylorsville
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