Senate reform: How would a working model of that look?

There's a new coalition called Fix the Senate Now. It's made up of "mostly progressive" organizations. I got a petition from the Sierra Club today asking me to join in and sign on to demanding senators to reform. Sounds good on paper. But nowadays, one needs to dig deeper, ask questions. Who's in the coalition? Will the organizations and people behind Senate reform carry this message in transparency? Is Senate reform just another shell game? Because the cynic in me thinks it would behoove the incoming Congress to know the minority senate won't be able to filibuster, so I don't quite trust getting rid of the ability of just one brave Senator (like Sanders) to get out on the floor and stand up for us. Because sometimes only one will have the courage to speak for the many.

Here are a few links to what I read:

Senator Merkley's ideas on Senate Procedure Reform

Senator Tom Udall on the Constitutional Option
Senator Udall says in here (pdf) that Congress uses the Constitutional Option to set procedure in every new congress.

Huffington Post's article on Filibuster Reform (with links to other articles)
In this article, they put forth the 9 principles for altering senate procedures. It's going to take me awhile to decipher what many of them mean. Some I wholeheartedly agree with, some are double edged swords, too simplistic in a corrupt political model.



What I know for sure is that a new congress is coming in January. Many in that new congress will be heady with new majority status, just as the democrats were not so long ago. Headiness is a lousy thing. It leads to irrationality and self righteousness. Until I can believe we have a two party system again and not just one corporate party doing  some sick reality T.V. version of infighting for America's entertainment and division, I remain skeptical.

I keep thinking of the youth: many are apathetic. Many don't vote, won't vote. Some John Mayer lines from the song Waiting for the World to Change keeps rolling around in my brain: "It's not that we don't care, it's just we know that the fight ain't fair, so we're waiting for the world to change."

Thing is, we can't wait for someone else to change the world for us. The Daddy Warbucks model of America as bully superpower is not gonna save us, and we all see the results of letting Warbucks sweet talk us into abdicating our freedoms while we shield our minds and numb them to how the rest of the world has suffered at our policies.  Since we're the change we need, apathy just won't do. We gotta try in whatever ways we can but whatever way we do it, be it performance art, poetry, tree planting, public marches, blogging and sharing on social networks, volunteering or whatever and however each one of us feels we can be effective, apathy will kill off our souls and make us into walking dead if we don't pick the side of life.

Joseph Campbell said "follow your bliss" and he followed his. Thinking about this stuff is not my bliss, but it seems to be a necessity because I'd rather be awake no matter how it hurts. Now is the time for watching inspirational movies, reading inspirational books, talking with inspirational people while breathing in all the pain and suffering of the world so we don't have to shut down our hearts in order to bear it. Then a natural type of activism will follow, heart centered and unshakably strong.