The 435 members of the House of Representatives represent a district in the US and serve a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. The US Census is critical to ensure the districts are properly represented. Does this make you wonder why Rahm Emanuel has been appointed to run this process?
The 100 Senators serve staggered six-year terms. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Senate is elected.
The problem with Congressional Elections as they stand is that each state/district votes for it's own candidates and yet those elected affect all of the People of the US. Wouldn't it be more advantageous to representing all the people in the US by making the Congressional Elections a nationwide vote? Sure you'll argue that states and even districts need special representation depending on their individual needs, but I can only respond to say is it really working this way? Does anyone in US today actually feel represented?
Legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both Chambers of Congress. The Senate is charged with approving Presidential Appointments and ratifying treaties.
While the house holds the power to impeach the Senate is charged with trying impeachment cases. Impeachment is the process where formal charges brought against a civil officer of government for conduct committed while in office. The actual trial on those charges is separate from the act of impeachment itself. Typically, the House of Representatives will impeach the official and the Senate will conduct the trial.
Perhaps when our forefathers wrote the US Constitution there was never a reason to think that a body of government in and of itself could do such a poor job of representing the people. Clearly when they sought to punish the British Government for Taxation without Representation by dumping the Tea in the Boston Harbor, it never occurred to them that at some point in US future would be a Congress that was fraught with inability to represent all of the US rather than a few select.
Is our US Constitution flawed? Should there be a method for a Do-Over, a Mulligan?
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