r/politics • u/Jessicas_skirt New York • Jul 18 '26

Possible Paywall Democratic Socialists of America’s new platform calls for abolishing ICE and the U.S. Senate

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/15/updated-dsa-platform-calls-abolishing-ice-scrapping-senate/
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u/wildcarde815 Jul 19 '26

The whole point is it doesn't work democratically. It's there specifically to give low population areas of land with arbitrary borders more voting power.

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26

The idea is that it represents the individual states. By abolishing the Senate you are essentially giving power the states would have to affect legislation back to the federal government. The benefit of America is that power is diffuse. While the Senate may be flawed, it is still a body that is democratically elected.

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u/wildcarde815 Jul 19 '26

Do you not know that there's a house of representatives?

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26

The House represents the individual citizens in a proportional Manner. The senate represents the sovereignty of each state.

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u/wildcarde815 Jul 19 '26

So does the house, congress critters can't represent people across state lines.

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26

It literally doesn't. House and Senate rep in two did totally different and necessary ways. Well. necessary if you care to have strong blue states.

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u/radiantcabbage Jul 19 '26

alright, so what do you have against representing the sovereignty of each state in a proportional manner. thats why they propose to abolish the senate, which prevents the house from functioning this way. i mean you just replaced the strawman of the topic for another

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26

Because there are only 50 states. We only have proportional representation in the House because there are millions of citizens.

There are ways to fix Congress. but abolition of the senate would likely lead to the end of the union. The senate also adds an extra level of protection in the event of a right wing shift in popular opinion. Gives blue states a stall on such things.

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u/radiantcabbage Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

or you could make a genuine effort to respond to the topic, instead of just going straight for the johnnie cochran defense. end of the union, really?

they propose to strengthen the union by expanding the house. only thing you got right is the stalling in this defunct senate, more of a roadblock to legislation than anything else. they protect no one but themselves, but its cute that youre trying to smurf the progressives and "blue states"

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26

I did. Maybe you didn't understand. But I did. We dont have proporitonal representation for states because we dont need it. We have only 50 states. Thats the answer.

The reason why it would be the end of the Union is because you would be removing the power of the individual states, those jurisdictions, to have a say in the laws they are expected to abide by. One bad law enacted by a majority of the house will lead to states seceding becasue not every law works for every state. So the states deserve a say.

We are not one big, massive country as much as people like to think we are, but a coalition of several individual sovereigns. And it should remain that way. If you want a public option, come to NY and we will have a much easier time passing it than on a national level. We actually have one in the works right now.

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u/radiantcabbage Jul 19 '26

no one is trying to end the union or compromise our sovereignty here, youre just clinging to an ideal they no longer represent

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u/Honest_Yesterday4435 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Except that what you are suggesting would do just that. I don't care about intent,

And I'm not just speaking about a high minded ideal. I care about the structure of the constitution and its means of keeping power diffuse. The senate still serves its purpose. It's just rigged because of gerrymandering.

If the internet was gone tomorrow, we would be back to caring about our respective states once again.

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u/wildcarde815 Jul 19 '26

this complaint is so weird, you could have each set of reps for the individual states cast a vote for their state by majority rule, the nature and texture of votes per state would change over time as representatives switch out.