Has anyone noticed that the House and Senate have reversed their roles in the past decade? The House has traditionally been the democratic body, most representative of the American people and the Senate has represented factional and sectional interests.
These roles have been reversed. The Senate is now the democratic body and the House represents the factional interests that align with political parties. The House, via the Democrat Party is more subject to the influence of blacks, urban redevelopment, senior citizens, labor unions and government unions. The House, via the Republicans is more subject to free trade pressures, gun owners, tax reduction and tax reform factions.
The Senate, because it is....
The Senate, because it is made up of politicians elected, in most cases, from large arbitrary and diverse populations, based on state lines, the sheer accidents of 200 years of history, is much more representative of the American people.
How did this happen? The mechanism was the 1990’s personal computer that allowed each Congressperson to design his/her own safe district. Safe districts created an even stronger party structure in the House. The House became undemocratic which left the Senate, unchanged, as the more democratic body.
Why did the gerrymandering of 1992 and 2002 result in such an undemocratic House?
I think the explanation is that America changed its geography per David Brooks’ On Paradise Drive. Americans have divided geographically.
*The people who don’t want to work and lead traditional lives have stayed in the cities…people who are trust fund babies, academics, government bureaucrats, artists, bohemians, the lazy, people who hate their jobs and others who reject ambition. They are urban and coastal.
*The suburbs and exurbia are where people move who are ambitious and want to lead traditional upwardly mobile American lives. They are scattered on the vast landscape of America.
This big geographic separation, underway for nearly thirty years, has made gerrymandering easy. Members of Congress can now find their constituency easily, can readily identify with the voter's issues and the voter's world views. It is easy to draw a congressional line around “good” voters for each party.
Consequence: the Senate is now the democratic body, representing the whole country and the House is a factional body where the main dichotomies of America can be fought out.
Fortunately the traditional ambitious-American values are currently ascendant (and will be for another decade.)