Being a Democracy

As much as the founders and the constitution were impressive for their time we need to realize that their world view was dated.

For example, while we have noble words about how our Government is one of the people, the people who got to participate were generally free, white and male.

Everyone else was excluded.

In fact in our early years there were also restrictions concerning property ownership,

The words in the constitution have been interpreted differently over the years.  For example we have reinterpreted the second amendment expanding its meaning well beyond the Militia requirement.  

In other areas we have expanded the constitutional rights to include states and the laws they pass.

One area where we have strayed significantly from its intent is in the form of Government.  A strict reading of the Constitution clearly gives the Congress the power to govern and the President the power to manage.  There has been a shift since the pre-civil war days increasing the powers of the presidency and therefore decreasing the powers of the Congress.

This creates a bit of a problem in the sense that the President is not elected based on popular vote.  The electoral college and the Senate were designed to prevent the rabble from taking over the Government.  

If you consider two states, California and Wyoming, you see the disparity.  In California a senator represents about 40 million people while in Wyoming its about 500 thousand or 1/80th.  

The electoral college is not as bad but still unrepresentative.

Now one might argue that this protects small states from big ones, but it allows the smaller ones to exercise power based on geography, not demographics.

If we want to be a democracy we need to address this situation. Of course the situation itself prevents us from addressing it as the low population states can block any reform.