The Supreme Court decision Reynolds v. Sims (1964) caused a national uproar especially among rural constituencies who feared being dominated by urban ones. Thanks to Sen. Dirksen's indefatigable efforts to convince the legislature of state after state, a Constitutional Convention was held under Article V of the constitution to propose amendments to the constitution. What if Dirksen had died just a year earlier, in 1969, and so the Convention was not held? Would the far-reaching changes that Convention produced still be made as ordinary statutes, or be overturned by the Supreme Court, or even not happen at all? What would the United States look like today, politically, legally and socially?