{"id":10532,"date":"2018-12-08T12:48:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T20:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10532"},"modified":"2018-12-08T12:48:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T20:48:45","slug":"john-dingell-to-fix-congress-abolish-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/08\/john-dingell-to-fix-congress-abolish-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"John Dingell: to fix Congress, abolish the Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"l-segment\">\n<div class=\"c-entry-hero c-entry-hero--default\">\n<div class=\"c-entry-hero__header-wrap\">\n<h4 class=\"c-page-title\">The longest-serving member in the history of Congress has a big idea.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-byline\">By\u00a0<span class=\"c-byline__item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/authors\/dylan\">Dylan Matthews<\/a><a class=\"c-byline__twitter-handle\" href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/dylanmatt\">@dylanmatt<\/a><a title=\"\" href=\"mailto:dylan@vox.com\">dylan@vox.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"c-byline__item\">\u00a0<time class=\"c-byline__item\" datetime=\"2018-12-04T20:15:04+00:00\" data-ui=\"timestamp\">Dec 4, 2018 (vox.com)<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-social-buttons c-social-buttons--popover main-social\" data-cid=\"site\/social_buttons_list\/popover-1544299126_309_26577\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;entry_id&quot;:17889580,&quot;services&quot;:[&quot;twitter&quot;,&quot;facebook&quot;,&quot;reddit&quot;,&quot;pocket&quot;,&quot;flipboard&quot;,&quot;email&quot;],&quot;base_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2018\/12\/4\/18125539\/john-dingell-abolish-senate&quot;}\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"l-sidebar-fixed l-segment l-article-body-segment\">\n<div class=\"l-col__main\">\n<figure class=\"e-image e-image--hero\"><span class=\"e-image__inner\"><span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg\"><picture class=\"c-picture\" data-cid=\"site\/picture_element-1544299126_5618_26578\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;image_id&quot;:62624450,&quot;ratio&quot;:&quot;*&quot;}\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/giovV4DqSmqBqXvdQV_fa8me3Nk=\/0x0:4354x2891\/320x213\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/RcWkQNkbORW93ePbMQp0u0p7sY0=\/0x0:4354x2891\/620x413\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/7MtNW08NU2sEGHzFXZ7vGxWg384=\/0x0:4354x2891\/920x613\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/RyRNLXZQaJ2p6WcFn8O5wvvwVWU=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1220x813\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1220w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/OGMhg-bgzqNvAWG5VbBv3Co0eqU=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1520x1013\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/pws5ZrQVlCqb5uP4k4Tlhi2q1fU=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1820x1213\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1820w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/rpZnL-zinuo48YheK_flKZBWvNw=\/0x0:4354x2891\/2120x1413\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 2120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/ySZpYitegf7XiLaXmrkaCytiqgw=\/0x0:4354x2891\/2420x1613\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 2420w\" type=\"image\/webp\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/9Ulw4b-47Q04lptlq-YSR_PHZfM=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1200x800\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/l55xcSU7EHe64t0jJ60TNZqUn94=\/0x0:4354x2891\/320x213\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/w7p9smC850nmb593TaxuaZljtYI=\/0x0:4354x2891\/620x413\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/7KRHkSq4D07Y7CLK4Exq963M9Ro=\/0x0:4354x2891\/920x613\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/KpdK3dJpiArvNv6gQanRvzk8jq8=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1220x813\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1220w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/E1AVvbFLvTwShaj4dUqOCLf3S_o=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1520x1013\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/45PtftRbVQmrLrTlATtp5A-SdCo=\/0x0:4354x2891\/1820x1213\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 1820w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/ajOTJhiXu_gI1k1rHUm8sgr1bzk=\/0x0:4354x2891\/2120x1413\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 2120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/sKdP3lZHQGgojbBSFR3qu3yGB2E=\/0x0:4354x2891\/2420x1613\/filters:focal(2097x600:2793x1296)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/62624450\/482278878.jpg.0.jpg 2420w\" alt=\"\" data-upload-width=\"4354\" \/><\/picture><\/span><\/span><figcaption>All power to the House.<\/figcaption><span class=\"e-image__meta\">\u00a0<cite>Astrid Riecken\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n<div class=\"c-entry-content\">\n<p id=\"lRz37x\">John Dingell knows a thing or two about how Congress works. First elected to the US House of Representatives at age 29 in a 1955 special election, Dingell left office in January 2015, nearly 60 years later. The last president he served with, Barack Obama, was born six years after Dingell entered office. His tenure was the longest in the history of the House or Senate, outlasting stalwarts like Strom Thurmond and Ted Kennedy by more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p id=\"lUZbPe\">So his call to abolish the Senate, announced in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2018\/12\/john-dingell-how-restore-faith-government\/577222\/\">Atlantic excerpt<\/a>\u00a0from his\u00a0, is pretty notable.<\/p>\n<p id=\"g3sZoc\">He pairs the proposal with a set of more familiar, often vague good-government suggestions, like \u201cthe elimination of money in campaigns,\u201d automatic voter registration, and \u201cprotection of an independent press.\u201d Abolishing the Senate is far more specific and dramatic than the rest of his list. His argument is familiar, rooted in the institution\u2019s failure to equally represent Americans regardless of where they live:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"8aGxRl\">The Great Compromise, as it was called when it was adopted by the Constitution\u2019s Framers, required that all states, big and small, have two senators. The idea that Rhode Island needed two U.S. senators to protect itself from being bullied by Massachusetts emerged under a system that governed only 4 million Americans.<\/p>\n<p id=\"1ZDCpv\">Today, in a nation of more than 325 million and 37 additional states, not only is that structure antiquated, it\u2019s downright dangerous. California has almost 40 million people, while the 20 smallest states have a\u00a0<em>combined\u00a0<\/em>population totaling less than that. Yet because of an 18th-century political deal, those 20 states have 40 senators, while California has just two. These sparsely populated, usually conservative states can block legislation supported by a majority of the American people. That\u2019s just plain crazy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"cTmy8V\">Dingell is right: The Senate\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2013\/04\/18\/you-cant-understand-whats-happened-to-the-senate-without-these-two-graphs\/?utm_term=.a880dbc7f51a\">malapportionment<\/a>\u00a0is absurd and bad. And given how America\u2019s political geography has developed in the past two centuries, it\u2019s now a body in which white rural interests are privileged over those of black and Latino city dwellers, given how much whiter the median state is than the median American voter:<\/p>\n<div id=\"3RYbWI\">\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\" data-twitter-event-id=\"0\">\n<div id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"EmbeddedTweet EmbeddedTweet--cta EmbeddedTweet--mediaForward media-forward js-clickToOpenTarget js-tweetIdInfo tweet-InformationCircle-widgetParent\" lang=\"en\" data-click-to-open-target=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\" data-iframe-title=\"Twitter Tweet\" data-scribe=\"page:tweet\" data-tweet-id=\"957812251800621056\" data-twitter-event-id=\"1\">\n<article class=\"MediaCard\n           MediaCard--mediaForward\n\n           customisable-border\" dir=\"ltr\" data-scribe=\"component:card\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"MediaCard-media\" data-scribe=\"element:photo\"><a class=\"MediaCard-borderOverlay\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"View image on Twitter\" role=\"presentation\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\/photo\/1\"><span class=\"u-hiddenVisually\">View image on Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"MediaCard-widthConstraint js-cspForcedStyle\" data-style=\"max-width: 812px\">\n<div class=\"MediaCard-mediaContainer js-cspForcedStyle\" data-style=\"padding-bottom: 23.8916%\"><a class=\"MediaCard-mediaAsset NaturalImage\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"NaturalImage-image\" title=\"View image on Twitter\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DUrUN5AXcAAh4pN?format=jpg&amp;name=small\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\" width=\"812\" height=\"194\" data-image=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DUrUN5AXcAAh4pN\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"EmbeddedTweet-tweetContainer\">\n<div class=\"EmbeddedTweet-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"Tweet h-entry js-tweetIdInfo subject expanded\" cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\" data-tweet-id=\"957812251800621056\" data-scribe=\"section:subject\">\n<div class=\"Tweet-header\"><a class=\"TweetAuthor-avatar  Identity-avatar u-linkBlend\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\" data-scribe=\"element:user_link\" aria-label=\"(((David Shor))) (screen name: davidshor)\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1028308045997240326\/IpOyCzSp_normal.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-scribe=\"element:avatar\" data-src-2x=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1028308045997240326\/IpOyCzSp_bigger.jpg\" data-src-1x=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1028308045997240326\/IpOyCzSp_normal.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"TweetAuthor js-inViewportScribingTarget\" data-scribe=\"component:author\">\n<div class=\"TweetAuthor-nameScreenNameContainer\"><span class=\"TweetAuthor-decoratedName\"><span class=\"TweetAuthor-name Identity-name customisable-highlight\" title=\"(((David Shor)))\" data-scribe=\"element:name\">(((David Shor)))<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TweetAuthor-screenName Identity-screenName\" dir=\"ltr\" title=\"@davidshor\" data-scribe=\"element:screen_name\">@davidshor<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Tweet-body e-entry-content\" data-scribe=\"component:tweet\">\n<p class=\"Tweet-text e-entry-title\" dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The senate considerably dilutes the voting power of African-Americans and Latinos and Asians to a degree that should be unacceptable in polite company<\/p>\n<div class=\"TweetInfo\">\n<div class=\"TweetInfo-like\"><a class=\"TweetInfo-heart\" title=\"Like\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/like?tweet_id=957812251800621056\" data-scribe=\"component:actions\"><span class=\"TweetInfo-heartStat\" data-scribe=\"element:heart_count\">308<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"TweetInfo-timeGeo\"><time class=\"dt-updated\" title=\"Time posted: January 29, 2018 03:06:50 (UTC)\" datetime=\"2018-01-29T03:06:50+0000\"><a class=\"u-linkBlend u-url customisable-highlight long-permalink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\" data-datetime=\"2018-01-29T03:06:50+0000\" data-scribe=\"element:full_timestamp\">7:06 PM &#8211; Jan 28, 2018<\/a><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"CallToAction-text\" data-scribe=\"element:conversation_text\"><a class=\"CallToAction-icon CallToAction CallToAction--mediaForward\" title=\"View the conversation on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidshor\/status\/957812251800621056\" data-scribe=\"section:cta component:news\">128 people are talking about this<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"vO6q0q\">The Senate also introduces an unnecessary veto point blocking the passage of ordinary legislation. That\u2019s bad for basically any party that gains the presidency, as presidents now typically enjoy only two years of control of both the House and Senate, in which they must attempt to pass their entire legislative agenda. Then the president\u2019s party typically loses one or both houses of Congress during the midterms, and the result is gridlock until the next president takes office.<\/p>\n<p id=\"P1X8rf\">Even during the two years where a \u201ctrifecta\u201d of one party controls the House, Senate, and presidency, the Senate filibuster makes passing that party\u2019s agenda extraordinarily difficult. Big changes are increasingly confined to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2016\/11\/23\/13709518\/budget-reconciliation-explained\">reconciliation bills<\/a>\u00a0just to avoid this hurdle.<\/p>\n<p id=\"XfoLJc\">That\u2019s bad if you\u2019re Donald Trump in 2017\u20132018, or Barack Obama in 2009\u20132010. But it\u2019s also just bad for democratic accountability. People elect presidents with the understanding that they will actually accomplish what they\u2019ve promised. A surfeit of veto points, many supplied by the Senate, makes that impossible.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"HEHLQr\">How abolishing the Senate would work<\/h3>\n<p id=\"n7Sbfy\">Dingell has stayed more active than your typical retired member of Congress, maintaining a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnDingell\">popular Twitter account<\/a>\u00a0full of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/2017\/09\/16\/john-dingell-twitter-trump\/#Bkb.YHNLnmqr\">anti-Trump zingers<\/a>. That means his call for Senate abolition is likely to get more attention than if, say,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ralph_Hall\">former Rep. Ralph Hall<\/a>\u00a0called for the same.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8QPZPh\">Dingell is aware of how challenging abolishing the Senate would be. Article V of the US Constitution, which specifies how the Constitution can be amended, states that \u201cno state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.\u201d You could, in theory,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/genprogress.org\/youre-fired\/\">amend the Constitution to remove that clause<\/a>\u00a0in the same amendment you use to abolish the Senate (or in a preceding amendment), but you\u2019d still need 67 senators and 38 state legislatures to approve such an amendment, which is difficult to imagine given the disproportionate power that the Senate gives to small states.<\/p>\n<p id=\"jBo47D\">Dingell\u2019s proposed solution is an all-out, decades-long persuasion campaign:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"F0uIwa\">How do we fix this? Practically speaking, it will be very difficult, given the specific constitutional protection granted these small states to veto any threat to their outsize influence.<\/p>\n<p id=\"kaKKKv\">There is a solution, however, that could gain immediate popular support: Abolish the Senate. At a minimum, combine the two chambers into one, and the problem will be solved. It will take a national movement, starting at the grassroots level, and will require massive organizing, strategic voting, and strong leadership over the course of a generation. But it has a nice ring to it, doesn\u2019t it? \u201cAbolish the Senate.\u201d I\u2019m having blue caps printed up with that slogan right now. They will be made in America.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"QtfnIS\">Even that, most likely, wouldn\u2019t be enough. There\u2019s some precedent for the Senate and states buckling and supporting a change to the Senate\u2019s design in the face of overwhelming public pressure \u2014 state legislatures\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2269077\">voluntarily gave up<\/a>\u00a0their right to appoint US senators in 1912 and 1913 by ratifying the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Ratification_by_the_states\">17th Amendment<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 but that was a far cry from abolishing the body entirely. The senators voting for the 17th Amendment at least held out some hope that they could be directly elected to the seats to which they had been appointed by their state legislature; senators voting to abolish their own body would have no such hope.<\/p>\n<p id=\"rh9FMw\">Article V also states that if two-thirds of the states call for a constitutional convention, Congress must convene one. That convention can then propose amendments, which three-quarters of the states can ratify if they desire. That would allow a Senate abolition amendment to (mostly) bypass the Senate. But some legal experts argue that there is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/states-likely-could-not-control-constitutional-convention-on-balanced-budget-amendment-or\">no way to control ahead of time<\/a>\u00a0what amendments<em>\u00a0<\/em>such a convention could propose. So even if 34 states were somehow persuaded to pass a resolution calling for a convention to propose an amendment abolishing the Senate, the convention could wind up proposing, say, a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/federal-budget\/constitutional-balanced-budget-amendment-poses-serious-risks\">balanced budget amendment<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/mitch-mcconnell-flag-burning_us_583ded20e4b04fcaa4d55557\">flag-burning amendment<\/a>\u00a0instead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"4hpXKM\">Much likelier than formal abolition of the Senate would be a gradual loss of prestige for the institution, weakening it and rendering it less eager to exercise its powers when the House and president disagree with it. This sounds vague, but it\u2019s the reason why upper houses are de facto<em>\u00a0<\/em>less powerful than lower houses in many other developed countries.<\/p>\n<p id=\"75gHYg\">In Canada, for instance, the House of Commons and the Senate are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/law\/help\/national-parliaments\/canada.php\">formally very similar in their powers<\/a>; both must pass a bill for it to become law. But in practice, the House of Commons is by far the dominant branch. Between 1948 and 1988, the Senate\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lop.parl.ca\/About\/Parliament\/senatoreugeneforsey\/book\/chapter_6-e.html\">did not reject a single bill<\/a>\u00a0passed by the Commons; while\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/senate-insists-on-amendments-transport-bill-1.4656010\">rejections<\/a>\u00a0have become more common in the past three decades, they\u2019re still quite rare by American standards.<\/p>\n<p id=\"KeScnw\">You could imagine a similar norm developing in the US, where the Senate is expected, as a matter of custom, to approve all legislation passed by the US House. Such a custom would only be developed if many or most political leaders, preferably of both parties, affirmed that the Senate is democratically illegitimate and cannot be treated as a coequal house of Congress. John Dingell\u2019s argument can be understood as a kind of lobbying to create that custom, to push the Democratic Party\u2019s leaders toward devaluing the Senate and treating the House as the locus of policymaking.<\/p>\n<p id=\"t0efCd\">Convincing one party won\u2019t be enough. So long as Republicans view the Senate as legitimate, it\u2019s hard to imagine Democrats unilaterally disarming and, say, having a Democrat-controlled Senate approve legislation from a Republican-controlled House as a matter of course. But if dissatisfaction with the Senate spreads broadly enough and seeps into both parties, you could see an evolution of norms in the direction of a more Canadian model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The longest-serving member in the history of Congress has a big idea. By\u00a0Dylan Matthews@dylanmattdylan@vox.com\u00a0\u00a0Dec 4, 2018 (vox.com) All power to the House.\u00a0Astrid Riecken\/Getty Images John Dingell knows a thing or two about how Congress works. First elected to the US House of Representatives at age 29 in a 1955 special&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/08\/john-dingell-to-fix-congress-abolish-the-senate\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10533,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532\/revisions\/10533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}