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       Regarding the Dec. 1 front-page article “The hidden biases at play in the U.S. Senate”:

       There are many questions about whether the United States is as true a democracy as it is meant to be.

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       When, time after time, the majority of Americans tell the government they want more gun control for their protection, or assurance of the rights for women to decide their own health care, it should provide those things in the law. Minorities can do all they want to dissuade the majority, but majority say should rule. The Senate and the House have failed to deliver on the majority will of the people with regard to these issues, and many others, because of the improper influence of the minority.

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       An even more glaring failure in our democracy is the fact that so many elections for president have been decided not by majority opinion (the popular vote) but by a contrived and unnecessary electoral college that in no way represents the will of the people. Again, it is up to the minority party to convince the majority of voters that its candidate is best for the country. It should not deliberately suppress the rights of some to vote or skew voting districts to gain power over the majority, and in the end win in the electoral college.

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       The electoral college is an anachronism that should be abandoned for a truer democracy to exist. The United States fancies itself a model democracy. It needs to get its act together and demonstrate that the will of the people is not only heard but also provided by its government.

       Jared Wermiel, Silver Spring

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       The Dec. 1 front-page article on the Senate pointed out that the U.S. population is not represented equitably in our Senate. That fits our Founders’ intent, which was to form a nation out of the 13 independent states. Those states are represented in the Senate, just as countries are represented in the United Nations, without regard to population in either case.

       In those days, “U.S.” was a plural noun. Back then, one said that the United States are located on the Eastern Seaboard. That changed with the Civil War; thereafter, one said that the United States is located on the Eastern Seaboard. The change reflects the idea that our states are not independent entities that can secede at will, as did the Confederate states.

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       The Founders had a different conception of our country than we do. Today, we think of the people, rather than the states, as its foundation. That’s why it is so dangerous to insist that we rely on the Founders’ attitudes to solve today’s problems.

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       Stephen Lane, Bethesda

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       The Post will undoubtedly be accused of applying critical race theory to its analysis of the composition of the Senate. The Constitution was formed to protect slavery, and vestiges of the deals struck long ago haunt us today. The structure of the Senate was also incorporated in allocation of votes in the electoral college, giving voters in small states more weight in the election of presidents.

       Minority rule in the confirmation of conservative justices to the Supreme Court was also manifested in the denial of a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland. And, as the article sadly made plain, the bias in favor of White people manifested in the Constitution when adopted continues.

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       The wrong in all this is obvious. The remedy is not. The biases in our structure of governance are also present in the process prescribed for amendment of the Constitution. And so, the inequities so aptly described in the referenced piece will grow and fester. Until what?

       Pat Fleming, Washington

       The Dec. 1 article on hidden biases in the Senate said, in describing the expansion of voting in America, that today “the franchise [is] open to adult citizens, regardless of race or landowning status.” Not true; if you own land in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the territories, you are automatically disenfranchised and have no representation in the U.S. Senate by virtue of your residency or “landowner status.” That fact should never be overlooked.

       Michael D. Brown, Washington

       The writer, a Democrat, is a shadow senator for D.C.

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