The Daily Beast
We can do to the Senate what the British did to the House of Lords
Photo Illustration: The Daily Beast / GettyAfter two centuries as an anti-democratic force, the Senate must adapt or may wake up one day and find that its powers have been reduced to ceremonial commitments. Do not laugh! Our neighbors across the lake, not long ago, did just that with the House of Lords. The English Parliament has existed since 1295 and, since its inception, the House of Lords has generally been the dominant chamber in England’s bicameral legislature. He represented the clergy, the nobility and the landowners and had a greater influence on the formation of the British government than the House of Commons, which represented the common people. Sounds familiar? However, all of that changed in the early 1900s, when England faced social changes not unlike America’s current political turmoil. The obstruction cannot be ‘reformed’ – it must be destroyed As industrialization grew in Europe, the voice of the common man gained political importance and demanded that the government exist to serve the people and not the British elites. They wanted the government to play a bigger and more active role in the welfare of its citizens, rather than the elites’ small unregulated and laissez-faire government agenda. In 1909, the Liberal Party that controlled the House of Commons approved the People’s Budget which proposed unprecedented taxes on the land and income of Britain’s wealthy to finance social welfare programs to combat poverty, provide health care and improve public education. Unsurprisingly, the House of Lords out of touch rejected the budget. In response, the Liberal Party proposed legislation to reduce the power of the House of Lords, and soon the People’s Budget and the future of the House of Lords became the main issues of the 1910 general elections. A young Winston Churchill was a great advocate of the People’s Budget and reveled in the battle against the House of Lords. In April 1910, a year after its introduction, the House of Lords approved the People’s Budget, but the damage to its political position had already been done. In 1910, the Liberal Party retained control of the House of Commons and began to systematically reduce the power of the House of Lords. Initially, they flooded the House of Lords with members of the Liberal Party, but that was only the beginning. With the approval of King George V, the Parliament Act of 1911 was enacted and revoked the House’s veto power over the House of Commons legislation. The law gave the House of Commons a method to bypass the House of Lords and send the legislation directly to the king or queen for approval. In 1949, a second Law of Parliament was passed that further diminished the power of the House of Lords. For more than a century, the House of Lords has been a ceremonial entity devoid of political power, but for the previous 600 years it has been the dominant voice in the government of England. Despite being powerless, the House of Lords is still known as the upper house of parliament. Today, the removal of its powers is considered a seminal moment to make England a more democratic society. In 2021, Democrats in the United States House have an ambitious and popular legislative agenda not unlike England a century ago. There are bills to protect voting rights, providing a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans, raising the minimum wage, creating a state in DC and providing relief to Americans who struggle due to COVID-19; and it is expected that, due to the obstruction and the requirement of 60 votes, many of these projects will die in the Senate, despite the Democrats having the majority. The blatant obstructionism of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party is so strange and vulgar that it can make people want to believe that the destructive and undemocratic behavior of the GOP is a historic anomaly. However, tragically, this political incivility has long been the norm for the Senate. Since the 1830s, conservative senators have used obstruction to paralyze the Senate and prevent legislation from being passed. During that time, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun used the obstruction to defend the institution of slavery against the growing abolitionist movement that was reshaping the North. Calhoun was a blatant racist who considered slavery to be a “positive thing” and whose constituency consisted of white Americans who owned land and people, rather than the enslaved black Americans who constituted more than half of the state’s population. Slavery sanctuary of the Jim Crow era. Will the Republican Party of South Carolina leave you? And for at least that time, the Senate has served as an impediment to progress and democracy, and still employs obstruction to eliminate legislation that promotes racial equality. The obstruction was often used during Jim Crow, while the Americans tried to end our apartheid state and, unsurprisingly, the Republicans embraced the obstruction to undermine the legislative agenda of America’s first black president. And this week, Senate minority leader McConnell threatened a “scorched earth congress” if Democrats tried to abolish obstruction. It turns out that the House passed the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that provides a way for citizenship for some undocumented Americans, but due to obstruction and conservative obstructionism, it is unlikely that any of the projects will leave the Senate and become law.The popular legislation that promotes racial equality and the right to vote will die again in the Senate But while the Senate’s impediment to democracy has been the American norm for two centuries, that doesn’t mean it should last forever The Senate is out of reach and often exists to defend minority positions on voting rights, immigration, gender equality and income inequality. The Senate failed to even convict President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial after he orchestrated an attack on the Capitol, despite overwhelming support from the American people. If the Senate continues to represent the will of the elites and not the people, the only way to promote our democracy may be to transform it into the House of Lords of America, reducing its political power and relegating it to ceremonial duties. It has happened before and it can happen again.Read more at The Daily Beast.Receive our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.