Representation is broken.<break time="1.6s"/>
Representation is broken.
Here is why.
The United States was designed to represent people and places.
Over time, we kept the population.
We erased the places.
This matters more than most political arguments we have today.
Because many of our frustrations are not ideological problems.
They are structural ones.
Letâ€™s start with what changed.
First, the House of Representatives stopped growing.
In the early history of the country, as population increased, the House increased
with it. Representation stayed close. Representatives remained reachable.
In 1929, Congress capped the size of the House to 435 members with the passage of
the House Permanent Apportionment Act.
The Constitution never required this.
It was a policy choice.
The result is that each representative now speaks for hundreds of thousands of
people. That distance changes incentives. It changes behavior. It changes
accountability.
Second, the Senate stopped representing states.
Originally, Senators were chosen by state legislatures. The Senate was designed to
represent states as political bodies, not as collections of voters.
The 17th Amendment changed that.
Since then, Senators have been selected by popular election. Whatever the
intentions, the effect was structural: the Senate became a second popular
chamber.
When both chambers chase the same public incentives, something important is lost.
State consent fades. Federal power centralizes.
Third, districts replaced communities.
Legislative districts are drawn. They are redrawn. They shift with political winds.
Neighborhoods are split. Communities are rearranged.
But daily life does not work that way.
People live in places that remain stable. They share schools, roads, churches,
markets, and local concerns. Political lines float. Communities do not.
So what is proposed here is not radical. It is corrective.
Our proposals are as follows.
One. At the state level: ZIP code representation.<break
time="1.4s"/>
ZIP codes already reflect lived communities. They change naturally as
population shifts. They are difficult to gerrymander. People know what ZIP code
they live in.
Under this model, each ZIP code would elect one state delegate.
Two. At the federal level: county representation.<break
time="1.4s"/>
Counties are stable political units. They predate the modern federal state. They
already handle courts, records, and local governance.
Each county would elect one Representative to the House.
And finally number three. Restore the original Senate by repealing the 17th
Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Return Senate selection to state legislatures.
This is not about nostalgia.
It is about function.
So what breaks when scale is wrong?
Representation only works when people know who represents them and why.
When units become too large, capture becomes easier. Accountability weakens.
Participation declines.
Smaller units do not guarantee good governance.
But oversized units almost guarantee distance.
This is not a party issue.
This is a scale issue.
You do not need to agree with these proposals.
You only need to ask the questions.
Why was the House capped when the Constitution never required it?
Who is the Senate supposed to represent: the states, or the public?
Why do districts change constantly while communities remain stable?
At what point does representation become symbolic rather than personal?
These are not radical questions.
They are architectural ones.
Learn more at zip init dot org.
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