After losing another three Senate seats last night, increasing Republicans’ majority to at least 54 seats, many on the left are calling for abolishing the Senate altogether.
The movement received its first boost after Vox co-founder, Ezra Klein, said it would be a “crisis” if Democrats win the “House popular vote” but not the House itself.
After it became clear Democrats would win the House — but not the Senate — this criticism shifted toward Congress’s upper chamber. Many began tweeting the total votes Democratic Senate candidates garnered versus Republican candidates, juxtaposing those numbers with the total seats won, as means of arguing the Senate isn’t “democratic.”
And here’s podcaster Mike Pesca:
Of course, these people are neglecting to mention that the most populous state, California, had a Democrat vs. Democrat Senate race, so the vote totals will inevitably skew Democrat. And that the purpose of the Senate is not “democracy,” but rather equally representing states in Congress.
NBC’s Ken Dilanian cryptically warned that coastal states won’t long tolerate the influence of non-coastal states:
After being reminded the Founders created the Senate so that states were equally represented, Dilanian mocked the Constitution for also protecting “slavery.”
A Slate and BuzzFeed writer, Evan Hill, tweeted a similar sentiment:
Progressive indie rocker Mikel Jollett complained that the Senate is fundamentally flawed in that it doesn’t “reflect the will of the people.”
The founder of the left-wing activist organization, If Not Now, Max Berger, said America’s federalist republic “simply must change.”
Author and journalist David Simon called the Senate an example of “undemocratic corruption”:
One of the hosts of Internet Today said upholding constitutional traditions is “one of the dumbest things about this country”:
Slate and Huffington Post writer, Mar Hughes, declared “the Senate must change” because its current equal treatment of states is “unacceptable”:
Writer David Klion suggested keeping the Senate in its current form enables racism: