We can't even get them out of the Senate chambers today! If there was ever a reason for having a US Senate, it escapes me. What a bunch of pompous butt-heads!
The founding fathers were afraid that some charismatic but very unethical leader would come along and sweep the people off their feet. At least enough to get elected and to get control of the house and senate. They were afraid such a leader would use his popularity to take away our freedoms and take power unto himself.
To prevent this they designed a Senate that no one could control. A Senate that was almost impossible to lead or direct. A Senate where a minority of members could block almost anything.
You see the founding fathers anticipated a man with the morals of Bill Clinton, the ambition of an FDR, and the cleverness of an LBJ would some day be elected president. He hasn't been yet.. But I have no doubts he will be.
The founders designed a Senate that would prevent such an evil leader from taking our freedoms. The end result is a Senate that is often described by Majority leaders of both parties to be as difficult to lead as "herding 100 Cats in an open field"
Many of us are very disappointed when getting what we want done seems so difficult..if not impossible. But if you look at our long history as a nation, there have been several times when a Senate Majority in an easy to control Senate would have sold our freedom down the river. Imagine our Supreme court and our freedoms if the Senate had not blocked FDR from packing the supreme court in 1938.
The house of representatives is, on the other hand, very controllable. It was designed to be. A majority can play the house like a good violin. In the house the rules committee controlled by the majority writes the rules under which measures will be considered. The majority in the house pretty much does as it pleases.
But not the senate. The provisions for the senate in the Constitution and the Senate rules allow individual senators or small groups of individuals to block almost any measure.
But I would warn anyone who decries a senate full of unbending and pompous members, to remember our founders knew we would sometimes elect less than ideal people. They designed a system of government to protect us from such people.
The part of our government designed to protect our freedoms was the Senate. Our Founders did not make the Senators the protectors in a positive sense. They made the senate our protectors in that it is darn near impossible to do anything good or bad. To get measures through the Senate they must have the overwhelming support of a large majority of the American people .
The down side is it takes lots and lots of public support over time to change the direction our government is heading.
It was very hard to move it in the wrong direction. It took the left nearly 60 years to do so. It will take us many decades to move it back.
If making things happen in the Senate was easy, our freedoms would have been gone 150 years ago.