In writing about the pending budget bill that is currently awaiting a vote in the US Senate, Noah Berlatsky makes an excellent point in a post at Public Notice.
As Republicans have spiraled into fascism, they’ve become less and less concerned about popular opinion.
When confronted with constituents demanding she oppose a bill that would cause mass death, for instance, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst responded callously, “we all are going to die.” Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell argued that the GOP should just ignore public opinion; people who lose Medicaid, he said, would “get over it.”
There is little doubt that this bill is unpopular.
See this clip of Harry Enten discussing these polls here (screenshot above taken from this clip).
I have argued for years that a core problem of American politics is the unresponsive and unrepresentative nature of Congress. (For example, here I am griping about this general issue almost 14 years ago.)
If legislators do not feel the need to be responsive to broad electorates, the system cannot function appropriately.
The House is too small. Seats are not competitive. Single-seat competition distorts citizen preferences. Primaries are more important than generals.
Couple those House dysfunctions with a Senate that allows a minority of Americans to have massively disproportionate sway, and we get a Congress willing to pass a massive spending package that at best has a net support of -19%.
Polls reflect the fact that this bill is a debacle. Democrats hate the bill; when its provisions are explained fully, they oppose it 91 percent to 6 percent. Independents don’t like it either; 80 percent oppose it to 8 percent who support it. But stunningly, even Republicans dislike the massive giveaway to the rich, and oppose the bill 61 percent to 23 percent.
That’s not how representative democracy is supposed to work.
I am not saying that a more representative system would automatically produce just, moral, and good legislation. I am just saying that a more representative legislature would have to better serve the collective needs of the country instead of brazenly cutting needed programs for the least advantaged, so as to help the wealthiest among us.
At a minimum, a more representative system would create a healthier incentive structure for politicians than what we continue to witness.
