Reply #10: It doesn't take much to be considered "liberal" in the US Senate. Allow me to explain. [View All]

Take the state of Mississippi and the state of California. In the US Senate, both of them get two seats, yet California is many times larger in terms of population than Mississippi. Essentially, there is a built-in bias in favor of small states. Incidentally, that means the Senate chamber is biased in favor of Republicans. In an election between a center-rightist and a far-rightist, a center-leftist would be considered "far left."

The Senate was envisioned as a compromise between small states and large states at the last constitutional convention; however, at the time political parties in the US had not yet come into formal existence. If political parties were a regular fixture of politics in those days, I'm fairly sure the Senate would not exist or exist in a different form because few of the larger states would agree to such a handicap. Likely, the system would've more resembled a parliamentary system built on something like proportional representation as opposed to our presidential system. In such a system, it's extremely difficult for one party to gain a majority of the seats, and people like Washington would've rather that be the case because they distrusted political parties.

As it stands, our system can enable one party to gain domination over all branches of government. That way lies tyranny, and if we had to build a new country from scratch, I would be extremely opposed to re-instituting the presidential system.

Our system won't change unless major stress is applied. Unfortunately, I believe the only reason FDR won was because of the Great Depression. Without it, people like him could not have gained power. I don't honestly see any evidence that America will elect another person with views in common to the Social Democrat or even Socialists unless there was no option left, and that's the real tragedy. Like a bunch of people in a cave who refuse to see the light at the entrance of the cave to escape.