New York Times Features Book Complaining About American Government Because Democrats Lack Power
Democrats are increasingly desperate about their loss of political power, leading one left-wing writer to cast shade on the entire American system of government and call for some rather drastic reforms.
Osita Nwanevu, a contributing editor at The New Republic and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, recently wrote a book called “The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.”
The book asserts that Democrats should be willing to radically restructure the government in order to improve their odds of pushing through their agendas.
In a Thursday interview with The New York Times, Nwanevu asserted that the Senate, which the founders established to ensure states were represented in the federal government, and not just the most powerful ones, exemplifies why Democrats are struggling to win.
“So I think there are three characteristics of any democratic system. The first is political equality. People are equal in standing when they come to make a collective choice,” he contended to opinion columnist Ross Douthat.
“So when it comes to the Senate, for instance, we have one of the most malapportioned upper houses in the world,” he added.
Nwanevu specifically noted that small states like Wyoming get the same representation in the Senate as large states like California, which he sees as a problem for Democrats as they try to secure federal power.
“The Senate shapes the judiciary, it shapes the executive branch, and obviously, it’s a veto point for the passage of even ordinary legislation,” he observed. “But I think, it’s fair to say that a system is not really democratic, as much as it might purport to be one.”
The headline which The New York Times chose for the interview appeared to be more provocative than what Nwanevu actually supports, but the writer certainly has some suggestions.
Do you trust our nation's founding vision?
Yes: 99% (78 Votes)
No: 1% (1 Votes)
Not only is The New York Times pushing for a military coup against President Trump, they’re pushing to abolish the Senate, end the electoral college, and they want to pack the Supreme Court.
These people are deranged authoritarians. pic.twitter.com/JEwxS3N3By
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 15, 2025
Nwanevu, for instance, floated “adding new states to the Senate.”
“I think that there is an ideological imbalance now for all kinds of reasons in who gets represented the most and most reliably in that body,” he remarked. “But that’s not a permanent fix to the Senate at all. It’s actually taking advantage of the equal state distribution.”
In particular, Nwanevu approves of making Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., into states, which would likely add four more Democratic lawmakers to the Senate.
When asked by Douthat if there should even be a Senate, Nwanevu implied that scrapping the upper chamber could be an option.
“Well, that’s another question. I think it’s worth exploring,” he answered. “It’s a kind of radical idea, but it’s an argument that you have to make on the basis of getting people to understand, not only that the system is not democratic, but what is the value of democracy, actually, to begin with?”
Nwanevu also called for other substantial changes to the government, including with how the President is chosen.
“We could start with the thing that I think most Americans think about when they think about the undemocratic nature of our system, a reform that most Americans have supported for a long time, which is dealing with the Electoral College,” he told Douthat.
“There’s a proposal on the table now, actually something that’s being acted upon in states across the country, to move to a national popular vote by interstate compact, without needing a constitutional amendment.”
The reason why these drastic changes are being offered right now is rather obvious.
Democrats were dealt a monumental loss in the election last year, and they have been licking their wounds ever since.
But rather than asking why the nation cannot stand their party, at least some Democrats are daydreaming about brazen power grabs.
The power is all they want. That has always been the case, no matter how much they pretend to care about the democratic will of the people.
But they will remain isolated from power as long as they fail to win back the people.
In many ways, that is thanks to the very system of government that they would so quickly dismantle if they could.

Managing Editor
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