Adam Jentleson

“That some advantages might have resulted from such a precaution [of supermajority rule], cannot be denied,” he writes. “It might have been an additional shield to some particular interests, and another obstacle generally to hasty and partial measures.” But then Madison proceeds to explain why “these considerations are outweighed by the inconveniences in the opposite scale.” If a minority was allowed to block a majority, he writes, then “in all cases where justice or the general good might require new laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule; the power would be transferred to the minority”
― Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy

“For Calhoun, minority rights were a cloak for the interests of the wealthy, the powerful, and most of all, the white supremacist.”
― Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy