The Cooling Saucer
Should It Be Hotter?
Click the link, I don’t think I agree exactly with Elon on this one.
First, Happy Veterans Day. Take some time to thank a vet if you have any close to you. My uncle fought in the Vietnam War and he will be doing his thing in Florida today. This past weekend, my wife’s family got together to pick olives at my brother-in-law’s house. He has 30 olive trees. But, they also get together to remember their father who fought in Korea.
The debate over who will lead the Senate is interesting. Senators, and Senate staffers do not appreciate the interjection of social media pressure on their debate. However, it’s not their debate. They were elected by us, so they should turn an ear and listen to us.
The Senate so far has decided to ignore Republican voters. Instead of speaking in plain English and being transparent, they closed their doors and tried to be secretive. Votes should not be secretive. The debate can be both private and public.
It seems a lot of the Senators didn’t understand exactly what happened in the last election. Instead of listening, they seem to want to be dictating to us from high on the mountaintop. RINO Senators who feel secure in their jobs will point to elections that were lost in states like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Of course, Mitch McConnell didn’t put any meaningful money into those races instead concentrating on the race in Maryland which he lost badly. I might agree Kari Lake was not a good candidate, but the Republicans had very good candidates in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Again, a lot of folks on X want to give us civic lessons about how it’s always worked. I think history lessons and a quick read of the Constitution are better. A read of the appropriate Federalist papers outlining the reasoning behind the Senate is also helpful.
I am referring to the debate over who should lead the Senate. We have Texas Senator John Cornyn, South Dakota Senator John Thune, and Florida Senator Rick Scott.
Right now, Thune or Cornyn look like they will lead the Republican caucus. They are the favored people of current leader Mitch McConnell. Scott is an upstart in political terms. He is a one-term Senator.
But, Scott is far more conservative than Thune and especially Cornyn who if you look at him correctly might be a Joe Manchin Democrat. Cornyn would be an especially bad pick to run the Senate and should be primaried in Texas.
One example, Cornyn is open to regulating a lot of things, like guns. For what it is worth, because Senators represent an entire state, they won’t be as conservative as a House member from an overly red district. That is, unless they are from an overly red state. In that case, they should be.
Why isn’t Thune that way? He comes from South Dakota which is as red as red can be.
Thune and Scott seem to be the best to have a competition to run the Senate. Thune is an anti-Trump guy. He sees Trump as a burr under a saddle. He will be there for four years and then we can go back to how things used to be. Scott is pro-Trump.
The function of the Senate traditionally has been the “cooling saucer”. The House is where the heat and vitriolic debate happens. When it gets to the Senate, things slow down and tempers are less evident.
This is also codified in the Constitution. The Senate has a 6-year term and the House has 2 years. The House is designed to turn over and mimic the changing tides of the American people. The Senate was designed for stability.
The unsaid feature of the Senate in today’s debate is that it was also designed to represent the interests of the several states, not the direct interests of the American people. Senators were elected by their state legislatures.
The election of Senators by their legislatures gave voice and merit to the ideas of federalism along with the healthy competition that comes from state governments, the federal government, and the people governed by each. People elected their state governments, and so have a small voice in who their Senator was.
That changed with Woodrow Wilson and the 17th Amendment. The 17th turned the Senate from a cooling saucer into a more permanent version of the House of Representatives, except with more power. The Senate approves judges for example. Judges have lifetime terms. The House doesn’t have a say. I think the 17th ought to be repealed and we should go back to legislatures sending their representatives to the Senate. That’s a different blogpost but safe to say, a person like Tammy Duckworth would not have been there in the first place.
The House derives its power from being the place where lawmaking starts, and funding the government.
Again, healthy competition between the Houses, the three branches of government, and the states. Competition is good! If you look at this map of political control of state legislatures, you can sketch out what the Senate might look like if we didn’t have the 17th Amendment. Woodrow Wilson was smart enough to know the vision and changes he wanted to make in America would be wildly unpopular once implemented. He needed a different kind of Senate to implement them. It would be something approaching a 60-40 split with Republican control.
As a result of the repeal of the 17th Amendment, the Senate isn’t the “compromising” body it was prior. The debate gets a lot more heated and the way both Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer ran the Senate, more partisan. The Senate wasn’t the cooling saucer but more like the House. McConnell was a partisan too and the major decision he made on approving Supreme Court judges was a result of the way Harry Reid ran the Senate. McConnell couldn’t have done it without that precedent.
McConnell though a great knife fighter and an expert on Senate rules extended his rule too long. The great ones often never know when it is over. Pro athletes do this all the time too. See Aaron Rodgers.
We have two leadership styles between Thune and Scott. Thune is a career politician and is more likely to compromise the core beliefs of the Republican Party to advance legislation. Thune is a lawyer and lawyers often don’t speak in plain English that is readily understood by people. Scott is not a career politician but a CEO. He was highly successful in business, so it’s likely he won’t be as compromising.
If you voted for Trump, you likely would like to see some radical changes in the way our government operates. If you are like me, you want to see the size and scope of government cut in a very large way. That means if I read an opinion that is intended to scare people about losing an entire department, like education or energy, I see it as a feature and not a bug.
Who is the best leader for this moment in time? I can see why some would argue Thune. Traditionally, he will be there longer than four years. However, Trump would like to see his movement last longer than four years which is why he picked JD Vance as a VP. Would it be better to have a Senate leader who is strongly allied with him to get things done faster, and for a longer period of time assuming JD or a candidate like JD can win in 2028?
I am sick and tired of RINO’s. FWIW I’m calling both of my NC senators today. I want to ask them why they both sought Trump’s endorsement if they are now going to act like RINO’s?
Woodrow Wilson was an evil racist. Trump needs to dismantle everything Wilson put in place. If anyone complains, just point out Wilson’s disgusting racism. Play the game.
I agree about repealing the 17th Amendment.
Also, Sen. Scott for majority leader over both Thune and Cornyn — who definitely needs to be primaried (I think it should be Chip Roy).