HOUSE RESOLUTION: Make...Goverment more efficient Amendment (Failed)

[Pragmatic Conservative]

I second the motion for a final vote on this ammendment.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

We have a little over one hour before the vote begins.


Therefore I plan to make a thorough post describing just why the bicameral system was selected as the companion system for the three region consolidation, the merits of such a system over the alternatives, and my personal thoughts on the system.

To begin with, there has been much talk of the switch to bicameralism as an "unncessary change" or "change for change sake". I can assure this is false. The reason why bicameralism was adopted, is because the consolidation from 5 to 3 regions, "necessitated it".

At-Large was always an interesting dynamic and one that I hated at first but grew to appreciate as time went on. It was of benefit to have a class that represented the people.  However, one thing was clear and that was that its full potential was not being realized at just 5 At-Large Senate seats, and in fact there is a general rule that can be applied and that is, assuming you can get enough candidates to run", At-Large works better with 1) odd numbers of seats and 2) with larger numbers of seats. Odd numbers allow for their to always be a decisive result without ties and larger numbers decrease the number of votes needed to win making it feasible for a more diverse and therefore more representative class, and more competitive during the elections.

That is why there was a big push along with consolidation for the increase in the number of At-Large seats from 5 to 11. The original Duke plan called for 11 seats and Adam and others pushed for 11 seats in the Con-con but were outvoted on the final number, leaving us with 9.

Prior to the Duke plans origination as part of the October 2013 General Election campaign, there were many plans floating around.

One of them has been brought back up in discussions is the minimalist plan. 3 Regions, 3 Regional Senators and 3 At-Large Senators. The problem with this plan is that STV collapses as a competitive election method with so few a number of seats.

The major plan though, looked exactly like the present text. 3 Regions, 6 Regional Senators and 6 At-Large, preserving the old unicameral system. This was the proposal of the incumbent President Nix. The problem was that it didn't fix the problems with the At-Large Senate class because the increase was too slight and second of all the presence of even number ensured that the likely result would be the same every election, and even split.

Bicameralism, addressed all these problems. Because you could fix the problems with At-Large competitiveness and preserve an odd number of seats at a sufficient number (9 or 11), while also not setting up a situation where the Regional Senators were outvoted.

The fundamental principle behind the old Senate, was the equal split between the Classes of representative, and Bicameralism preserved that equal split while also improving the At-Large situation dramatically in the manner that I described above.

It was thus the case that bicameralism presented itself as, rather than being unnecessary change, the best and thus necessary means of organizing the legislature post consolidation.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

On the matter of merits, much has been made of the failure of the bicameral system to achieve much in the past few months, leading to much hand wringing and even what appears to be frantic panic on the part of certain Senators over the matter.

The thing to remember is that a failure of administration can and has been fixed and these processes are now working. Also, the slowing down of federal action is not a bad thing, unless of course you are a centralist who doesn't much care if the regions get sucked dry. One of the biggest problems pre-reset was that the regions had been squeezed to such an extent that it sapped them of life, interest and vitality. One of the promises of the Con-Con was that it would devolve certain issues for the regions to handle and their are portions of the constitution where are more strict in ensuring that. It is also the case that secession is legal under this constitution if you can achieve the high threshold.

However, it wouldn't take much for that progress to be lost and the concentration and centralization of authority in Nyman to commence once again, putting us one the road to either a region seceding or the possibly dissolution of the regions as entities. The allure of the bicameral system to regionalists, beyond just the equal seat at the table for the Regions in the form of the Senate, was also the greater ability to hold back centralist urges and preserve as much power and resources at the regional level as possible. This is once again a reason why the system was necessitated by consolidation.

The other big benefit is that there are more eyes on bills that can hopefully catch mistakes early on and fix them before it is too late.

As for my own thoughts, I think there is a happy medium where it is possible for the Congress to be productive, and at the same time slow down and thwart those items that could weaken the authority and involvement of the regions as well as their powers. I think to the extent that it also enables more effective representation of both groups, it therefore serves as a greater tool for restraining either executive tyranny or the tyranny of the central government, should those situations arise.

I would go further with this post but I am extremely exhausted.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I should not effort post when so tired.

Anyway, I think it is time. This is neat trick, Debate stopped for over 24 hours, a motion was made and nobody objected to that motion within 24 hours.

So my effort postings aren't considered debate at this point that would delay the vote.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A final vote is now open on the Make the Atlasia Federal Goverment more efficient Amendment, Representatives, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

NAY

[Mike Thick]

NAY

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Aye

[Enduro]

Nay

[Representative simossad]

Nay

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This has enough votes to fail, Representatives have 24 hours to change their votes.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Nay, ftr

[OneJ]

Nay

[Heisenberg]

NAY

[Potus]

Nay

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Vote on Final Passage of the Make the Atlasia Federal Goverment more efficient Amendment

Aye (1): 1184AZ
Nay (: Enduro, Heisenberg, NC Yankee, OneJ_, Peebs, Potus, Simossad and TedBessell.

The Resolution has been rejected.