The Senate

Time we took a hard, impassioned look at the U.S. Senate without the usual lament that the system is broken. The seeds of its dysfunction were planted a long time ago, 1789 to be exact.

When 13 sovereign colonies decided that the Articles of Confederation was little more than a mutual defense treaty, too much emphasis was lavished on trying to preserve the continuing myth that the several states could really be treated as sovereign . None of the later states had even a colorable claim to sovereignty at the time of their admission. They were merely a portion of territory cut out of lands, acquired from France by purchase and Mexico by conquest. We created a Senate for the “states” treating them of equal importance (lest the feelings of the smaller ones would be offended and opt out of ratification.) The House was to represent the people. Originally we provided for the election of Senators by the Legislatures of the several states, until a century of abuse and corruption led to the adoption of the 17th amendment and the direct election of Senators. Now we live with the tyranny of the minority.

Senators enamored of their own, rule making power, bestowed upon themselves all manner of extraordinary powers, far beyond those originally contemplated now serve as tools to frustrate the will of the people and the President. Filibuster, super majority votes on ordinary legislation, the power of one Senator to hold up consideration or voting on a bill, secretly and without giving, any reason, all of those self-created devices to inhibit and frustrate the powers of the House and the Executive in the performance of their constitutional duties. Yet they complain, that the system is broken.

Reconsider why we have a Senate at all ? Perhaps it should be stripped of any but symbolic functions, similar to the British House of Lords. Under our current system, seven states, with a population so small that they are only entitled to one seat in the House of Representatives, still have 14 U.S. Senators, equal in power and authority to Senators from states whose populations number in the millions.

It was foreseen that whatever compromises were necessary to bring the Constitution into effect, it was a flawed solution and would need readjustment and change. The fact that we have already amended 27 times is ample proof of the imperfections of the system and the fact that it is time to rethink the Senate, reshape its function and restrict its abusive powers.

On Writing

Up late, unable to sleep, to capture the parade of recollections we call dreams. It appears that writing has become an optional activity when sleep is illusive or television programming is poor or abysmal.

Reexamination of what were once seemingly good ideas for writing themes now seem more like exercises in futility. Either preaching to the choir as I perceive my family and friends to be or casting pearls before swine as I perceived the total effect of my letters to the editors, however pithy and correct I deem them to b e.

Still ego suggests that so many good one liners held in reserve ought not be wasted. In a era of bumper strip philosophy and simplistic oversimplification as the rule in political discourse it would be pointless to add yet one more voice to the cacophony.

If I write only for me (a self-deception) I might as well turn it into a mantra and save the ink and paper. Still, I think I have some insights and clarity on a few issues, but no one is listening then it can’t really matter. Maybe I can write my upscale version of a political dead sea scrolls, get some plastic tubing and bury them in the backyard for some yet to be born archeologist to discover in some remote future. EGO - unseemly for one with Buddhist inclinations - wanting to let go.

Still and yet, I feel I may still have something of significance for my sons or grandsons, some little shard of insight which might serve as a prism for their own perspectives.

For the now, with my ego and ambitions appropriately atrophied, I am reduced to dividing my concerns between organizing my next several doctors’s appointments and delivering a daily can of cat food (alimony payments) to my alienated cat, Flower, now in residence down the block.