3 wrong...good thing I majored in Political Science. Glad that degree helped me learn a lot about the government.
3 wrong...good thing I majored in Political Science. Glad that degree helped me learn a lot about the government.
Ha! I got all of them right.
I cheated though. I used the SMF search engine to find the answers.
I think Senators and Reps from big populous states can get and hold committee chair positions just as easy as those from small pop states. I think the compromise to form the two branches of the legislative branch worked well as it allowed small states not to get run over by the big states, although if you look at the electoral college nowadays, the big states usually decide who gets the presidency; win Cali and a person is 20% of the way to the magic 270 electoral votes.
What the founders didn't envision was a super large, entrenched central government. Otherwise they would have put term limits in from the get go. Just like it took FDR's road towards 16 years as Prez (only served a little over 12, remember that inauguration day used to be in early March not early January, he died in mid-May approximately 2 1/2 months into his fourth term) to wise up that no one should be in that position that long. Although the Republicans started that amendment process after WWII in a partisan fashion. No, there should have been terms limits from the beginning and maybe it would have made a difference. Then again, those to seek and crave power find their ways. Its been happening since the beginning of humanity...
Last edited by DakotaRog; 01-16-2015 at 10:24 PM.
Not trying to disagree with you DakotaRog, because we basically agree (I think) change is in order. AS a example the modern Senate leadership structure started in 1919. From then until now only 26 men have been in the role as Majority or Minority leader. In almost 100 years only 26 men have been controlling the Senate! Only for a period of that time (1953 to 1977) was a so called "Big State" Senator in either position. In that period of time, the states of California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois had Senators in leadership. It is also in this group, that the only president was to come from the senate in this period of time. A assassination of a president unfortunately had to occur for that to take place! All of the other senate leadership has come from the following "Small States": Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Indiana, Oregon, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, South Dakota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia. So 15 "small states" have had a lot to say on how the senate is ran. In the words of Senator Byrd of West Virginia, referring to Senate leadership positions and the power that comes with it, known as First Recognition said: "This is the most potent weapon in the majority leaders arsenal". A handful of men have held power over most of our lives for a long time, with a slap on the back, a nod and a wink!
Last edited by bigburtchino; 01-17-2015 at 12:00 AM.
pjost - Sorry didn't realize I was "hijacking your thread". I'm off my soapbox and back to scrapping, once again I apologize.
No problem Burt. I think this thread has run its course.
Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is.
if any polly-tican has been in office 2 terms they need to be replaced
So maybe the small state senators were just more charismatic and got the rest of their caucus to vote for them?? Daschle from SD was either at the end of his 2nd term or the beginning of his third. Why the Democrats voted him in as majority leader, I can't tell you. There were obviously more senior Democrats in the Senate (Teddy K. springs to mind, Fienstein or maybe even Boxer had as much seniority as Daschle so what happened??). So maybe some of these small state senators are compromises among various big state factions?? You'd have to ask some political scientist like Larry Sabto (sp?) out of U of VA the reasons. I'm not that much of a political junkie...
Part of California is moving towards being the 51st new small state, it will be called the state of "Jefferson".
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