We have a problem with the US Senate. Well let's be honest, we have a problem with our entire federal government. Gerrymandering, extremism, party before country, disenfranchisement. You name it and if it's bad for our democracy, we're doing it. Let's hope, for the moment, that the House can hold out and stay competitive for the time being. That may be overly optimistic given the voting laws the repubs have implemented across the country, but for the sake of addressing the Senate, we'll table the House for now. The Senate and the Presidency are the keys to the Supreme Court and SCOTUS has become a serious problem now that the repubs have stolen a two thirds majority of it. We could fix that pretty easily if we stole it back by changing the number of justices in the SCOTUS to thirteen and let Biden appoint four new justices. This would be justified considering the bullshit the repubs pulled in order to get the super-majority they have in SCOTUS now. But we have a couple repubs masquerading as Democrats in the Senate preventing that at the moment. So here we've come around to it. If we could get a reasonable majority of actual Democrats in The US Senate, we could actually do something about the Supreme Court, voting rights, women's right to choose and hundreds of other issues that need to be addressed. Getting a Democratic House happens periodically but getting a Democratic Senate is happening less and less often. Why? Why, in a country where most people vote Democratic are the republicans usually winning the Senate? Simple. Senators are two from each state. Regardless of that state's population (or lack thereof) and many states are primarily rural or farming states. It's no secret most Democratic voters are concentrated near cities while most repubs are in more rural areas. So effectively the repubs have several states "in the bag". This block of republican states virtually guarantee the repubs will have the majority in the Senate most of the time. This is allowing a smaller minority of the population to dictate to the majority what the laws will be. It's allowing our Supreme Court to make decisions in a lopsided fashion against the better judgment of the majority of people in our country. And I mean that phrase "better judgement" in every aspect. Third graders exhibit better judgment than our current SCOTUS.
So then how to fix this without inviting more Democratically inclined territories to become states? (which we could also do with a better Democratic majority in the Senate).
The pandemic has had at least one beneficial effect, many people can now work from anywhere. We're no longer obliged to live in a big city near a specific geographic workplace. Many people are already taking advantage of this and relocating to less expensive cities and states. Imagine if one million of the Democrats leaving California relocated to Iowa or Nebraska. Two million to Kentucky or Tennessee. Five million to Florida.
Why the heck would anyone in their right mind who enjoys big city life be willing to move to Iowa!? To save the country? Because you are getting paid to live there? Say what again? Paid to live there?
I propose an organization much like the DNC (but who does not give money to fake Democrats like Manchin) that tracks and organizes how many Democrats are needed and in which districts. Subsidizes housing for Democrats in those areas. Those Democrats looking to move away from Democratic strongholds that can afford to lose millions of voters and still maintain Democratic majorities would be prioritized. Won't the repubs catch wind and do the same thing? Let them. There are more Democrats than repubs, that's sorta the point isn't it?
It's time for "The Great Relocation". We can take back our democracy and get better housing in the process hehe. Now, I just need one of you to tell Bill Maher or someone with a big bully pulpit (and wallet) about this so they can get the movement (pun intended) started.