Written by G. Ross Stephens   

Senator John McCain’s outburst threatening to stop the possible appointment of United Nations ambassador Susan Rice as Secretary of State is just one indication of broken government when one Senator can stop any Presidential appointment. Senate rules like this and the filibuster (requiring a three-fifths majority to pass ordinary legislation) need to be eliminated.
It’s argued these rules protect small states, but they are already protected with two Senators from each state. Do the math. Twenty-six states with less than 18 percent of the U.S. population have a voting majority, dominate leadership positions, and give small states a larger share of grants and programs than is justified by their size and wealth. Nine states with a majority of the population have 18 percent of Senate vote. It’s not democratic or even representative government.
Actually, Senate rules can be changed by a simple majority, 51 Senators. It’s called the ‘nuclear option’. These antiquated protections for small states need to be eliminated or modified to five working days. All the majority needs do is act.
All of this is compounded by the extreme level of gerrymandering of the House of Representatives in many states after the 2010 census. It further distorts the representation of both parties and seems to have locked in radical right-wing ‘Tea Party’ Republicans until the next decennial census. Neither house of Congress represents the people of the United States. ‘A pox on both your houses.’ We need far more restrictive federal standards for drawing the boundaries of congressional districts.
In many ways, our government is both vertically and horizontally divided – legal authority is cut up into so many little pieces it cannot deal with the issues of the 21st Century – separation-of-powers and checks-and-balances at both the national and state levels; nearly 90,000 local governments; and an estimated 260,000 departments and agencies. Additionally, the electorate is similarly situated, mostly in miniscule polities of little consequence. Negative authority, the ability to prevent change, trumps positive authority in the general interest of the electorate. Stasis. Gridlock.
Government in the United States is incapable of dealing with economic behemoths and their elites, the vertically integrated supra-jurisdictional and multinational corporations. “The business of the United States is business.” – ‘engine’ Charlie Wilson, circa 1953.
There is a Chinese proverb that says,
The Law will hang the man
Who steals the goose from off the common.
But this same Law will let the rascal loose,
Who steals the common from the goose.