“It’s not the Senate in particular that does that. “Our Framers saw it as the system as a whole-separation of powers and checks and balances-that prevents tyranny of the majority,” Wirls explained. For example, the Senate is often described as having a special role in protecting the interests of political minorities, but the book argues that the Constitutional Convention showed no such intent. The book unpacks many common defenses of these aspects of the Senate, which Wirls argues essentially amount to a “mythology” with no strong constitutional foundation. “Regardless of which party that benefits, it’s not a democratic process.” “We find ourselves in a situation where the filibuster is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, and equal representation among states, more than any time in American history, is giving an advantage to one party over the other,” Wirls said.
Wirls argues that the filibuster has become a problem for the entire government, because a minority of senators determined to prevent passage of legislation can ultimately block the policy agendas of both the majority in the House of Representatives and the president. Secondly, Wirls says the minority of elected officials within the Senate can block what the majority wants to do through the filibuster: a type of prolonged debate used to stall or prevent voting on a topic. Wirls sees this as a form of relative disenfranchisement for voters in more populous states, which also tend to be more diverse. First, a minority of the voting population in the United States can dictate what happens in the Senate, he says, because each state, regardless of population, is allotted two senators. In particular, the book focuses on two key aspects of the Senate that Wirls believes violate the democratic tenet of “one person, one vote” by promoting minority rule.
“The weight of history should really push us to think about why some of these institutions should be changed,” Wirls said. Wirls also includes insights from interviews with Senate staff across the past decade. The book includes a study of records from the U.S Constitutional Convention and proceedings from all major Senate debates about the filibuster, dating back to before 1917. In The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock, Wirls supports these views with extensive historical research and modern-day observation and analysis. In his new book, Professor of Politics Daniel Wirls calls for reform of the United States Senate by arguing that features like the filibuster and equal representation among states undermine effective democratic governance and have contributed to the maintenance of white supremacy.
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