By CHARLES CHIEPPO and JAMIE GASS The current election between
Sen. Scott Brown and challenger Elizabeth Warren is probably the
most closely watched U.S. Senate race in the country and it has
inspired passion and participation among voters across
Massachusetts. But far too many of the commonwealth's students
don't understand what the U.S. Senate is or why this race is so
important. The Founding Fathers designed the Senate to be a
deliberative body that serves as a balancing force between the
executive powers of the presidency and the more popular passions
of the U.S. House of Representatives. In our federal government,
the role of the Senate is to fully represent the often neglected
rights and interests of the states. The Roman republic provided
the template for the Senate. In fact the word "Senate" is
derived from the Latin "senatus," which means "council of
elders." That is what our Framers had in mind. Each state -
regardless of population - has two senators who serve six-year
terms. It wasn't until passag