I'll out minority you ... oh wait this is congressional politics, not grad admissions

... too far? there's no limit to sarcasm ... anyhoo

This week's installment:
"Focusing on the US Congress, what is the role of a minority party in a democracy? In particular, you might consider trying your hand at an explaining the seemingly unending calls for bipartisanship from certain corners of the chattering class OR consider why 214 of the Republicans even bother to show up to work every week since they can't really stop the legislative juggernaut that is the Democratic coalition."

I think that the role of a minority party in a democracy, very simply, is to prevent tyranny from a majority party. Afterall, just because a party is in a majority does not mean that it represents the entirety of the country. Furthermore a minority party can be expected to generally be a voice of comparable "reason" to provide opposition to the majority party. one reason, if any is that the majorities in congress have always been narrow meaning that for a majority to rule uncontrolled would mean to alienate half of the country. furthermore, should we look at the structure of congress, we have to realize that congress is not a majoritarian body, but in effect a super majoritarian body of sorts, because of the senate. the senate needs a supermajority of votes in favor to pass a bill, while the house only needs simple majority. because a bill has to pass both the house and the senate the bill needs to reach a supermajority to pass. a minority party can still block a bill by preventing the supermajority vote in the senate. that's where the calls for bipartisanship come from, that;s why the republicans bother showing up to work.

Finally! a simpler set of questions! a shorter blog! holy crap!