Tag / senate
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Sorting, Polarization, And Gridlock: Policy Finds A Way
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Legislative gridlock hasn’t stopped policy from being made, it’s now just being made outside of the normal channels in ways strain our constitutional and political system.[/su_pullquote]American government is broken. Supermajoritarian institutions in the United States, most notably the Senate, have created legislative gridlock and frustrated majorities. The Senate effectively requires 60 votes to pass…
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Amending The Amendment Process
Under Article V of the Constitution, two thirds of both the House and the Senate must approve of any potential Constitutional Amendment. If both houses approve, the amendment is sent to each of the fifty states and becomes law only if three quarters of the states vote to ratify it. The system creates daunting barriers…
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One Person, One Vote(?)
Developing the Constitution of the United States was not easy. A testament to political engineering, the Constitution had to strike a balance of federal representation between its largest and smallest states. The compromise between these states meant that an upper chamber, the Senate, would consist of two senators per state while the lower chamber, the…
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Kavanaugh And The Science Of Memory
The fallout of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh has been a fitting—though horrifying—cap to 2018. When the news broke, it was as if each actor immediately retreated to their respective corner of the ring: a denial from the accused, doubt and condemnation from Republicans, and an empty call for an FBI investigation…
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The Case for Foreign Policy Regulations
Anyone specializing in any field of policy will tell you that theirs is the most important. In the case of foreign policy, that argument might hold some weight. Since the end of the Second World War, an activist foreign policy on the part of the United States has coincided with the elimination of great-power conflict,…
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The Democrats’ Problems For 2018
The 2018 Midterms present the best opportunity for the Democratic Party to take back the House since they lost it in 2010. Trump is a historically unpopular President, history is on the Democrats’ side as the opposing party in a midterm election, and Democratic grassroots activism has skyrocketed. In theory, taking the 24 seats they…
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Healthcare Partisanship: Where Do We Draw the Line?
In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the landmark legislation known as EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) which mandated that hospitals who accepted payments from the federal government (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) had to provide emergency medical treatment until their condition is stabilized. This widely popular mandate is often cited as a guarantee that every patient…
