We don't talk enough about the role the Holy Roman Empire played as a model for Federalism in the drafting of the US Constitution. So much of what we HATE about US government was cribbed from an archaic, failed set of institutions that would crumble to dust 17 years later.

I mean, it's MOSTLY the electoral college, but also subordinate sovereignties, the complex system for lawsuits between states, the idea that representation serves a set of states, not populations. A lot of this stuff isn't bad, but we never honestly talk about where it came from.

Mostly because we like to believe our government came from 1) Enlightenment philosophy, 2) the Greeks and Romans of old, and 3) England, lone bastion of representative government and checks and balances next to a continent of despots.

But a LOT of what our government is was structurally borrowed from a sprawling, fractious land with ineffective and contrary institutions, and a shitton of the problems in our government are rooted in that.

Not the Senate, though, the Senate is an homage to the distinction between the two types of members of the Commons before the reforms of the 19th century: Burghers and Knights of the Shire. Basically, villages got 1-4 members, but every county also got 2, like Senators!

This thread is MOSTLY for @cschleichsrun and @NBrancolini (and @ryanlcooper who GETS IT) https://theweek.com/articles/939193/america-holy-roman-empire-21st-century