U.S. House of Representatives The following is adapted from a speech delivered on January 11, 2017, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.
The Senate prides itself as being the greatest deliberative body in the world. When Jefferson asked Washington why the Constitutional Convention created the Senate, Washington compared it to the hot tea Jefferson cooled in a saucer. “We pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”
The Founders designed the two houses of Congress to have different perspectives and temperaments. The House, representing smaller constituencies and constantly up for re-election, would reflect the hot passions of popular will. This is a vital component of representative government, but more is required in making good decisions. The Founders knew, as Benjamin Franklin put it, that “Passion governs, and she never governs wisely.” The Senate, with longer terms and generally larger constituencies, was designed to temper passions with reason, which requires deliberation. A lot of deliberation.
Central to ensuring this deliberation is the unfettered freedom of debate accorded in the Senate. While the House rations time parsimoniously, often to just a single hour of debate even on major legislation, the Senate insists on giving all its members the widest possible latitude to hold a question up to every light........The parliamentary tactic of a minority thwarting the will of the majority by talking a bill to death is nothing new. The Roman Senate’s rules required business to conclude before sunset. Cato the Younger discovered that he could block Julius Caesar’s initiatives by talking until dusk descended on the Senate chamber. Caesar responded by throwing Cato in jail.........
But beginning in 1970, the number of filibusters exploded by a magnitude of 36-fold........ The filibuster thus entered the couch-potato world of virtual reality, where an actual speech is no longer required to block a vote. Today the mere threat of a filibuster suffices to kill a bill as the Senate shrugs and goes on to other business. The filibuster has been stripped of all the unpleasantness that discouraged its use and encouraged compromise and resolution..........Once the Senate removed all the fuss and bother of the filibuster, filibusters became common.......To Read More.....
My Take - Interesting article, and though I think this is well done there's one point missing. When the Constitution was written there was a reason the Senate was created in the way it was. That was to be a brake on the passions generated in the House. Senators were appointed by the states! The House represented the people and the Senate represented the states, and the word state didn't mean province or territory then. The word state meant a sovereign nation, which is exactly what the States were.
Senators were in effect de facto ambassadors from the states to the central govenment to create a balance of power between states - their rights - and the central government. In short - the Senate was created to prevent the central government from getting out of control - which it now is.
In 1913 the 16th and 17th amendments were passed - and there's evidence they weren't passed legitimately, but that no longer matters - which gave the federal government the right to tax income and strip the states of their right to appoint Senators, and they created the FED. All laying the ground for destroying the Republic created by the founding fathers.
1913 was a seminal year in American history and the vast majority of Americans are completely unaware of it. In point of fact - the vast majority of Americans are completely unaware Senators were chosen in any way other than being elected.
Why?
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