If the pieces fall together just so, and the debt ceiling is added to a bill that keeps the government running and assists those in distress from the storm, Republicans will find themselves in a tremendous bind. “The combination would present a triple threat,” reports Politico, “daring GOP lawmakers to go on record in opposition to aid for disaster-hit communities, staving off a debt default that could throw financial markets into chaos and preventing a government shutdown.” Some will no doubt shrink at the idea of playing political hardball with money meant to help storm victims, but it is precisely that brand of ruthless certitude that has allowed Republicans to run (or stall) the country as a minority party for the third Democratic presidential administration in a row. There’s no doubt that disaster relief will pass one way or another, and in the meantime, doing this puts the Republicans on record for voting to basically burn the country down to the stumps. That seems to be what a lot of elected GOP officials want, but it isn’t likely to play well come ballot-casting time.
By virtually any metric, the United States Senate is one of the most undemocratic legislative bodies in the advanced capitalist world. Given the geographic distribution of America’s population, the majority living in nine states wields a mere eighteen votes to the minority’s eighty-two: a balance of forces so disproportionate, most citizens of other countries would probably find it incomprehensible. In no other country could a jurisdiction the size of California (home to nearly 40 million people) possess the same legislative clout as Wyoming (home to less than 600,000). The Senate, in fact, is not so much undemocratic as it is antidemocratic — its design acting as a check on majority rule by default.
