To continue on yesterday's theme, I generally believe that the country would benefit from a closer adherence to the Constitution. Thus, instead of slowly, apathetically drifting away from the rules set forth in the Constitution, perhaps we should try to think about the spirit of the document as well. Contrary to Bill Maher, I think one of the biggest problems in government today is the lack of representation. Instead of abolishing or completely restructuring the Senate, let's try to find ways of giving people a (slightly) more direct voice in their government. I agree with the founders that the vox populi ought to be represented by . . . Representatives. For some idea of how to increase representation without compromising the republican nature of our government, let's consider the issue from the founders perspective.
The framers fought contentiously over the issue of how many people should be in each Representative's perspective district. While it was generally agreed that each state should have at least one Representative, a debate raged as to how big or small to make the final number. In order to clarify the discussion below the fold, since ratios are fractions and, in this discussion, the numerator will always be one, the following holds: a given ratio 1:A is smaller than 1:B if and only if A is greater than B. That is to say, the larger a ratio is in the following discussion, the resulting democracy would be more representative or more direct. [More below the fold]
