Critics have attacked the Constitution’s allocation of two senators for each state, irrespective of the size of each state’s population. This column explains why each state has equal representation in the Senate.
The critics fall roughly into two categories: extreme and moderate. Among the more extreme ones is the author of a 2018 GQ article. He argues that we should abolish the Senate entirely and reduce Congress to a single chamber.
Fortunately, the dangers of unicameralism are too widely understood for this idea to have much traction. What James Madison wrote in 1788 remains true today: “History informs us of no long-lived republic which had not a senate.” That is, without a senior legislative body to moderate volatility and prevent hasty mistakes, a fully sovereign republic doesn’t last long….