3rd Chapter 7 Post

     Many critics believe that Congress has become broken and has been taken over by partisanship and extremists. The increase in partisanship has ultimately led to greater inefficiency and lower approval ratings in Congress. Though the current divide is between Democrats and Republicans, there is also a divide that exists between those states (and even cities) with very large populations and the rest of the country. This results in a disproportionate amount of power that exists when a handful of states hold more power over the rest. Though this divide is not discussed often, it is one that certainly exists in our Congress.
     
     When our country was founded, there were only small differences between the states, in terms of their overall population. In 1790, when the first census of Americans was taken, the top five most populous states were, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina. During the Constitutional Convention, the partisan divide that existed was between the federalists and the anti-federalists. The Federalists wanted greater power at the federal level, while the anti-Federalists championed a system of government where more power was shared with the states. The results of the compromise between these two opposing views resulted in the 10th amendment to the US constitution,the final amendment listed in the original Bill of Rights. While this system worked well when the differences in population were small, at the time of the drafting of the U.S. Constitution over time, migrations of the U.S. population have significantly changed where power resides in Congress. Currently, the five most populous states are California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois. Not surprisingly, these states hold big, metropolitan cities in them.
     
     This disparity in population has led to a great disparity in the way that Congress distributes money to the states, and to which states have the biggest impact during presidential elections. Today, the representatives of the five most populous states control the legislative agenda, and because these five states vote primarily for the Democratic party. This has led to the creation of what some people believe to be an unfair advantage in the distribution of taxes and votes in the Electoral College.

     Many argue that this system is unfair and unjust. Citizens of small states want their states to have an equal say in the legislative process and want their voices to be heard in Washington. Perhaps a solution may be to have equal representation in the House, however, to get this passed would take a lot of time and energy and would probably not please those living in the “bigger” states.
     
     Living in Florida, which is included as one of the most populous states, it is difficult for me to really visualize what the other states are feeling about this. However, I can imagine that smaller states feel that they are at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to various topics. In theory, our government should be a government that serves all people of the United States, not just the people who live in the most populous states.