Although conservatives now attack the filibuster as anti-
democratic, liberals say it may be the last mechanism requiring
the Senate to represent the wishes of the entire country, rather
than the base of the majority party.Now, how does this concept
of the true majority really work? We know that the states each
get only two Senators, and some very large states -- notably New
York and California -- have two Democratic Senators. But there
are still huge numbers of Republicans in those states who aren't
going to feel that the Democratic Senators are representing the
interests they care about in judicial appointments. If the state
lines were redrawn to make 100 units of equal population and
each of these new units elected one Senator, what would the
party split be? "A simple majority in the current Senate doesn't
represent a majority of the United States, but Democrats are
coming from states which represent a majority of the American
population," [liberal legal scholar, Michael] Gerhardt said.
"The filibuster help