What is causing the political discourse and how we mend it.
The people do not have adequate representation. Prior to the United States of America there were two main powers in governments, the State and the Federal. And as empires would grow large, so to would the powers. This could cause the two to be at odds. And when the State and Federal fought it was the people who would suffer, sometimes they would pick a side or start a revolution. That’s how empires fall. Our founders designed our government to balance and check the two powers by adding a third in the House. They gave power to the people.
Imagine the House of Representatives as a large plate and the State and Federal powers as two small spheres. The two powers can move around without bumping into each other, and if they get out of line the people can tip the plate and move them where they need to go. The people have control in their government. Congress is supposed to evaluate the House representation every 10 years and for the first 120 plus years we added representation as the population grew. In 1911 Congress passed a bill capping the representation and in 1929 they made it permeant. They capped the people’s power. Our population has tripled since then. The added population brought added power and that power should have been disbursed evenly to all three, but the House is capped, and power is only being disbursed to the state and federal. And now those two spheres have grown but the plate has remained the same. There isn’t enough space. They are bumping into each other and if the people try and tip the plate, one could fall, and then everyone would suffer.
In 1911 the citizen to representation ratio was 1:220k, by 1970 it was 1:450k and today it’s 1:756k. The people’s power has been diluted. Our representatives can’t hear us because there are too many of us and not enough of them. If we want to give people a chance to be heard again, if we want them to feel like they have power again, then we need to give it to them. We need to uncap the house, bring the representation ratio down closer to 1:400k. Look at a district 10 in Virginia below. It takes an hour and a half to get from Rappahannock to Loudoun. That makes it difficult for regular Americans to have a say in their federal government. That weakens the people’s power. It also makes it easier for a small group with wealth and cunning to corrupt and control that power.
People ask me “you want to make government bigger?” No. The House is the people’s way to reign in government. I don’t want to make the government bigger; I want to give the people the means to limit it again. Our founders understood that an overreaching federal government could lead to oppression and a state government left unchecked could divide the union in two. If we want to solve our political discourse, we need to make the plate bigger. Give the State and Federal room to move around and give the people some control back.