The United States Senate: Part I

It is in my opinion that the greatest body of government ever conceived by man is that of the Senate.

It is also in my opinion that in this day and age the United States Senate is at an all time low; with regards to effectiveness, membership, and prestige. . .

There was once a conversation between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington concerning the purpose of the Senate. Mr. Jefferson, in a rather Socratic manner, asked the Republic's first executive what role the Senate should play. Mr. Washington used an analogy to answer his colleagues question; stating that the Senate was much like a saucer as which to cool liquid prior to serving. This speaks volumes as to what role the Senate ought to be playing.

No longer is the Senate likened to a cooling saucer where issues are allowed to simmer in debate, but rather the Senate has begun to covet the House of Representatives. . .

The House of Representatives, formely the only branch of government directly elected by the people of the Republic. It was designed so that the citizens of the Republic would have direct influence on the matters of government and public policy. A member of the House would be elected to the body and would bring with him the concerns and issues that directly effected his consituents. With a voice in the government, under the guise of the a Representative, the people had influence over what matters were of most concern to them. If their elected Representative did not effectively advocate their needs and demands they had the opportunity to select a better person to represent them every two years.

The idea behind the formation of a lower house within the Legislative Branch of government was to allow the citizenry adequate representation in government. All issues would be discussed, debated, and voted upon in a timely fashion. The requirments for filling the office of Congressional Representative is that you are a citizen and past the age of 25 years. As mentioned above, every two years the entire body of the House of Representatives would stand for re-election. At the time of founding the House of Representatives, and to a large extent today, it was/is relatively easy to run for and win a seat in the lower house.

All a candidate must do to achieve a seat in the House of Representative is pander to the needs and fears of your consituency. This means if your district is heavily agricultural and the cost of producing cattle meat and milk is going up, while the selling price of both is going down, you must stake a claim to reverse such a trend. Currently candidates for the House use issues such as Abortion, Gay Marriage, and need for Higher/Lower Taxes to win a seat in the House. It is certainly not that difficult to work your base or consitutency into a frenzy over a particular issue in order to win a seat in the House. With such frequent elections mixed with low required qualifications almost any man, woman, and child could be elected to the House of Represenatives.

Now I have nothing against the system by which the framers chose the House of Representatives to follow. It is a system which allows the common citizen generalist a voice and some semblance of influence over the legislative branch. Coming out of the pre-revolutionary era, where representation was a luxury, the framers invisioned a clever system by which to give the American people a voice. What I do take issue with is the United States Senate's ever increasing move toward mirroring itself with the lower house. . .