Senate Voting Quotes
The bills and legislative processes in Congress had become so large and convoluted that literally members of Congress either voted on bills that were so lage that they rarely read the entire bill or on procedures so arcane that the members could not determine ehate they were voting for. As a result most just followed the lead of their party's Congrssional Leadership.
The motion was accepted and became part of our Constitution. This protection for the smaller States was proposed by the delegate from one of the largest States.
In most legislatures, the leader of the majority party can usually prevent any proposed legislation from coming to a vote. Many will use that individual power to block any legislation that they do not support. Others like Skelos believes that democracy requires that the entire legislature have the opportunity to vote on an issue and that a single individual or even a majority of the majority should not be able to block a vote as this would disenfranchise the legislators. In this case, the bill was to legalize Gay Marriage—a very controversial proposal. When the vote was taken, 4 Republicans and all but one Democrat voted in favor. The other Republicans and the one Democrat voted against. The bill passed and New York became the first large state to legalize Gay Marriage. Skelos, who opposed the bill, was castigated by conservatives of his own party for not using his power to prevent the vote from ever happening, and putting principle above party.
American Congressional politics had reached the point where whenever a member of Congress voted on a controversial issue, there would be enough lobbyists, corporation, money and single issue voters to run a candidate against the member of Congress in the primaries. So even if a politician voted with the majority of his/her constituency in a controversial issue, an irate minority with money could possible defeat the member in the primary election. Even if the member won the primary, he/she would still have to raise more money to contest it and then the member might be so wounded by a bitter negative primary that he/she would be vulnerable in the general election.
