Creating A Representative Democracy

 In the unlikely event that the USA survives Trump and Republican fascism, this is an important step in creating an actual representative democracy.

In 1929, the Republican House of Representatives (the same people who kickstarted the Great Depression and WWII) passed the “Reapportionment Act of 1929,” which limited the size of the U.S. House of Representatives to 435 members.  Originally, the House was intended to be the only nod to actual democracy, with the Senate and Presidency acting as a buffer between the ruling elite and the unruly “mob” of Americans.  Like all of the well-intentioned concepts in the American Experiment, it didn’t take long for that idea to be perverted into a faux-democracy and a non-representational republic. 

Today, just the name, “House of Representatives,” is a slap in the face of every person in a blue or large state.  Wyoming, with 590,169 residents (at the most recent 2025 estimate) has one Representative and two Senators, or one Representative for every 590,169 residents and one Senator for every 295,085 residents.  California has an estimated 39.4 million residents and 52 Representatives and two Senators, or one Representative for every 757,692 residents and one Senator for every 19,700,000 residents.  The House is almost infinitely more democratic and representational than the Senate, but that 1929 act robbed California of 14 Representatives (relative to Wyoming), if the House were actually “representational.”  By the same standard, New York was robbed of 7 Representatives, Texas was shorted by 15 Representatives, Florida 11, Washington 3, and so on.  One slightly more rational method of determining the number of House members would be to divide the current population of the US (342 million) by the population of the smallest state (Wyoming, currently) which would mean the House would have about 580 members. 

Of course, overall population is a mediocre measure for representation. Eligible voters, about 174 million in 2025, is a better baseline.  Again, barely-a-decent-sized-county Wyoming could set that standard with 274,759 voters which would give us a 633 member House of Representatives.  Even better would be eligible voters who actually voted, again 219,305 in Wyoming and 154 million total; resulting in a 702 member House of Representatives.  Screw the total population or census count.  The only people who should be counted are the ones who bothered (or were allowed) to participate, to vote.  That would buy us several very democratic things, including incentive for states to encourage voting instead of finding disgusting ways to discourage and prevent voting.  Texas, for example, has 18.6 million registered voters, but only 61% of those registered actually voted in 2024: 11.3 million Texas voters found their way to the polls for a variety of reasons, including racist and anti-democratic Texas policies.  By the metrics I’m describing in this paragraph, Texas would be encouraged to have their large, under-represented Hispanic and Black populations to vote instead of doing everything possible to keep them from the polls.  Same for Wisconsin, Florida, and all of the southeastern states. 

That would be a good start if we wanted to put some reality behind the constant babble about “our democracy.”  The Senate is a holdover from the long history of senates in the world, none of which are in any way democratic.  Putting representation in the drivers’ seat of at least one branch of the federal government would be a good, and achievable, start.