Fix America: Reform the Senate

'Irrational ideas' and 'undemocratic' Senate are killing us
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 29, 2010 1:48 PM CDT
Fix America: Reform the Senate
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

EJ Dionne warns that the US won't be a superpower much longer if it doesn't reform its "incorrigibly stupid" political system. Among other things, he rails against distorted debates on taxes ("the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich"), the stimulus (it actually wasn't big enough), and the structure of the "undemocratic" Senate, which allows senators representing a small portion of the country to hold up legislation because of the ridiculous filibuster rule.

"We are letting stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power," he writes at the Washington Post. "We need a new conservatism in our country that is worthy of the name. We need liberals willing to speak out on the threat our daft politics poses to our influence in the world. We need moderates who do more than stick their fingers in the wind to calculate the halfway point between two political poles. And, yes, we need to reform a Senate that has become an embarrassment to our democratic claims." (More Senate stories.)

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