I last wrote upon the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Before her death she was asked in an interview with the BBC a question about the Trump presidency, she brilliantly said “…the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle; it is the pendulum, and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it will go back”. Yet, this idea of public attitudes shifting left and right from time-to-time doesn’t quite explain why the swings have been so far left and so far right. If you are like me, you have noticed the polarity and extremes have been magnified and the partisan divides have grown. One might say generational differences are to blame, or maybe even social media’s current stranglehold on America. While perhaps those things may be part of the problem, they fail to recognize important institutional changes and calls for more changes that have taken place. Regardless, the severity of the problem begs the question and requires a thorough and thoughtful analysis to bring forth ideas and solutions that are actually within our control to implement and restore the faith in our Union. The current climate can be explained by a lack of respect given to minority parties by those in power. Specifically, the Senate, it’s tradition of rules like the filibuster, and the electoral college all perform critical functions with regard to respecting the minority party and maintaining the balance of power. Despite the important functions of these institutions, the call to dismantle them is growing louder. But doing so would not only be a mistake, but it could be catastrophic during a time when the national mood feels eerily revolutionary. It’s time we restore faith in the system by strengthening our regard for minority interests.
Puzzled as to the origins of our society’s recent fracturing as we may be, the Founders knew the human heart well and eloquently explained its tendency toward factionalism in Federalist 10. Madison wrote “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction… that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority”. This shows the Founders bore in mind society’s tendency to form rival factions in competition with one another and the tendency for the majority to oppress the minority when they designed our government. The fingerprints of this concern can be found in our federalist government as evidenced by the formation of the Electoral College, a bicameral legislature with the Senate posessing equal representation among the states, and the use of the filibuster over time by both parties in the Senate. The Founders understood we must respect minority interests or risk man’s propensity toward factionalism tearing at the balance of power to a point of instability. In essence, Madison told us to beware of pure unchecked majority rule. Yet the calls for majority rule have presented themselves in a push to eliminate the Electoral College, the erosion of the filibuster, and an attempt to influence the balance of power in the Senate by urging statehood for Puerto Rico & Washington D.C. While seemingly progressive, the result of these changes would regress the public discourse further and threaten the balance of power in the Senate and in our elections.
Within the Senate, the filibuster is under threat. When Reid and the Democrats under Obama moved to use the so called “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster in certain situations they eroded a crucial Senate rule designed to give respect to the minority party in the Senate and therefore minority factions in America. The filibuster permits a single Senator or group of senators to block an unpopular measure by continuing the debate of the bill. To end a filibuster, three-fifths of senators (or 60 out of 100) is required to end the debate via a cloture vote. This requires senators to be mindful of the wishes of minority factions and it encourages bipartisanship. To get bills passed in the Senate, the two parties are forced to work together. When Reid invoked the nuclear option, he was warned by McConnell, “You’ll regret this and you might regret it even sooner than you might think”. As we know, the elimination of the filibuster for nominations paved the way for McConnell to fill an unprecedented number of vacancies on the federal judiciary including three Supreme Court Justices during Trump’s one-term Presidency. While the filibuster has not been eliminated entirely, it has been limited over time and removed for certain types of votes and the calls to eliminate it are growing louder. But these calls ignore its use both parties historically and the importance it has in giving a voice to the minority. The erosion of the filibuster from Senate rules was the Democrat’s way of ending stalemates so that they could make progress during a period of national frustration and gridlock in Congress. In actuality, it had made it so bills are passed along party lines and it has had a detrimental effect on the country in many respects.
All of this has increased the type of power politics and polarity we see today by raising the stakes of elections. When simple majorities in the Senate are all it takes to pass a bill or get through a nomination, whoever is in power matters more. This means competing factions have a lot riding on who wins and take on an attitude of “whatever it takes” which is not good for our democracy or public discourse. This helps explain the pendulum swings to the far left and far right. We have seen the impact through the raising of the national temperature which reached a boiling point this week when demonstrators violently took over the nation’s Capital. A simple majority in the Senate being able to pass bills gives too much power to any party and gives rise to extreme partisan agendas passed in a game of political tug-of-war which poses a lose-lose proposition for both parties and the people. Indeed, a brief examination of history will moreover show us what happens when the victors (the majority) treat the losers (the minority) poorly. After WWI, the Allies treated Germany harshly in the Treaty of Versailles via the War Guilt Clause. It is widely believed the national embarrassment Germany faced as a result of the harsh provisions of the treaty led to a build-up of resentments and the rise of the Nazi Party. This rise led to yet another world war, the advent of the nuclear bomb, and unprecedented death and destruction. After the failures of the Treaty of Versailles, we learned our lesson—or learned it again because the founders already knew what would happen when minority interests were suppressed. When WWII concluded, we invested in Germany and Japan and sought to rebuild them. Today, they are among the most prosperous nations on Earth and are some of our strongest allies. This teaches us that respecting the minority is a principle we cannot afford to neglect—that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
Today the new democratic controlled Senate hasn’t been the majority party for even a full week and Biden has yet to take the oath of office. Despite this, no time has been wasted. We have already seen Trump and other conservatives banned from big tech platforms, calls for more investigations, and numerous other examples of the majority treating the minority harshly. But the silencing of opposition and push to increase majority rule are extremely unpopular with the minority comprised of nearly half the country. There is no unity or peace in mob-majority rule. Resentments are bound to grow as a result of these unwise actions. The call to erode institutions such as the filibuster, the electoral college, and the balance of power in the Senate will have dire consequences for our public discourse. It will build resentment, further the divide, and take away the voice from nearly half of the country. It has been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is time we check the power of majority parties by restoring the integrity of the filibuster, maintaining the balance of power in the Senate, protecting the electoral college, and preserving the institutions of government designed to give a voice to minority interests. The hardest thing for those in power to do is to surrender that power. Accomplishing this will require leadership, but will result in more bipartisan cooperation, a restoration of order to our discourse and politics, as well as lower the national temperature—a result that is urgently needed.
About the Author: Silence Dogood II is a Military Veteran, Resident of Fairhope, Alabama and is a self-described conservative libertarian and economic voter.
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