How much power does a U.S. senator have? Much more than we think. Maybe we are fooled by the name. In fact, the position of a U.S. senator is more important than that of a governor or a minister. Why?
There are many countries in the world that have parliaments, some are unicameral, and some are bicameral. The so-called unicameral system means there is only one parliament; the bicameral system means there is an upper house and a lower house. But usually, in each country, the lower house often holds more power, and the upper house is sometimes just a decoration. But this is not the case in the United States. For example, the United Kingdom also has a bicameral system, but we know that the British House of Commons often has more power, while the House of Lords is often just a decoration. In fact, the House of Lords used to hold more power. The Senate actually has another stage name, called the Senate. Think about it, only people with great political weight can become members of the Senate.
But why do senators in many countries have little power, and only the United States has a lot of power? There is a reason for this. There are two kinds of political systems in the world, one is called presidential system and the other is called parliamentary system. What is parliamentary system? For example, Britain, Germany, and Japan are all typical parliamentary countries. In parliamentary countries, the government and parliament are often not separated. A party that wins the support of the majority of members of parliament becomes the ruling party, and its leader can become the prime minister. He is responsible for forming a cabinet, and the ministers he selects are often members of parliament. Britain is a typical parliamentary country, so why do we say that Britain has changed four or five prime ministers in the past four or five years? This is because there is a split within the ruling Conservative Party of Britain. The members of parliament withdrew their support for the prime minister, and you, the prime minister, will not be in office for long, and you will have to re-elect within the party.
Under this political system, the House of Commons produces the Prime Minister, and you can only take power if you have a majority in the House of Commons. Naturally, the weight of the members of the House of Commons is more important. On the contrary, the members of the House of Lords in the UK have basically become a decoration, and many laws can be implemented without their consent.
On the other hand, in a parliamentary country like the UK, do its MPs have much power? Since there are so many MPs, at least hundreds of them, the power of MPs often depends on whether you are a senior MP, or whether you have become a MP of the ruling party, or whether you have become a minister of the cabinet. Therefore, the power division of MPs in the UK House of Commons is very different.
The United States is different. The United States is a typical presidential system. The characteristic of a presidential system is that the government and parliament are separate. So we know what the US election in November this year is about? It is about electing both the president and the congressmen. The president chooses this person, and after this person becomes president, he is responsible for selecting all cabinet members, such as the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, etc. And after he makes his selection, he goes to the parliament to go through a procedure, and the parliament approves it. The president has the right to nominate, and the parliament only has the right to approve. The president nominates this person, and if the parliament does not approve it, the president can replace him with another person. Therefore, the power of the president in a presidential system is extremely huge. So does the parliament in a presidential system have power? It also has great power. Its characteristic is that the government led by the president is responsible for spending money, while the parliament is responsible for how the government spends money.
For example, we often say that there is a ceiling on US debt, which means that if the US government has no money, it has to borrow national debt to spend money. However, the US Congress has negotiated a tight ring for you, which was previously 34.7 trillion US dollars. You can borrow as much debt as you want, but you cannot exceed this number. If you exceed this number, I will not approve it. If I do not approve it, the US government will face the crisis of bankruptcy and closure. So although your government can spend money, I can control your spending.
So in the American political system, which house, the House of Representatives, has more power, or the Senate? Which house, the House of Representatives, has more power, or the Senate? The United States is very unique. The weight of American senators is extremely heavy, which is determined by several reasons.
First of all, senators are elected every six years, while representatives are elected every two years. So in this year's US election, 1/3 of the 100 people in the Senate will be replaced, while all 400 people in the House of Representatives will be replaced. Two years later, the 400-plus people in the House of Representatives will have to be replaced again, while only 1/3 of the Senate will be replaced. In other words, a senator can serve for six years directly, while a representative can only serve for two years. This time determines that the senator has more weight.
What is more important is that the United States is different from other countries. For example, when we talk about the United Kingdom, its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and it is a constitutional monarchy. When it comes to the United States, its full name is the United States of America. In fact, "United States" means that the United States is a big country composed of many small countries. The 50 states in the United States are actually 50 countries. These 50 states elect their own governors and state legislatures, and even have their own unique tax systems and police systems, which are completely separate from the central government. The United States is a country with strong state power.
People often ask, who is more powerful, the President of the United States or the governor of a state? There is no comparison of size, because they are two independent entities. You can only say that the President of the United States has more administrative resources, but you absolutely cannot say that the President of the United States is the superior of the governor of a state. You can neither control his financial power nor his human rights, so what basis do you have to say that you are his superior?
Therefore, it is precisely because the United States is a country with extremely strong state power that the 100 senators in the U.S. Senate are elected by two from each of the 50 states. Think about it, no matter how big your state is, a large state like California, its total economic output alone can rank among the top five in the world, but this state only has two representatives in the Senate, two senators. These two senators actually represent the power of the state. The words of these two senators in the state carry great weight, basically the same as the governor. Your state has only two senators, and your state has only one governor. You, the governor, can only manage local affairs, while I, as a senator, not only have to coordinate the management of local affairs, but I also have to go to the central government to seek benefits for my state.
Especially since senators can serve for six years, in many states in the United States, if a senator does not voluntarily retire, he can often be re-elected. There are many senators in their 80s and 90s who have served for five or six terms. Even when they want to retire, they often designate a successor, who may be his son, his son-in-law, or his apprentice. In this way, the senatorship in many states is hereditary.
Therefore, the weight of a US senator is much higher than that of a representative. Especially since World War II, what kind of people have been elected as US presidents? Either he may have been a vice president, or he may have been a cabinet minister, or he may have been a governor, including he may have been a senator. Trump is a weirdo who has not even been a village chief, but was directly elected as the president of the United States. Obama was elected president after being a senator; Harris was elected vice president after being a senator, and now he is going to be elected president; including Trump's current deputy Vance, who was just elected as a senator two years ago. Therefore, the national system of the United States is very unique, and the position of senator is often extremely high, and it is really possible that he would not change it even if he was given a governor.
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