From all accounts, Democrats in the House of Representatives are delirious over their defiance of decorum, their recent all-nighter on the House floor, where they pushed the envelope to the extent of shouting down House Speaker Paul Ryan, perhaps the most pummeled personage in the history of this blog.
Well, I have a hard time feeling sorry for Paulie Ryan, but right now I do, sort of. Sure, he lies a lot, but he always plays by the rules. Well, I guess he does. Anyway, I wouldn’t blame him for being pissed, and I won’t be surprised if starts engaging in a little (or a lot) of gross “they asked for it” chicanery of his own, whooped along by his own “crazies” on the right.
What we have is not a case of the blind leading the blind but rather the blind fighting the blind, a clash of two parties that are each beholden entirely to its base, for in the average House district, you winning by running to the right or to the left, and the middle be damned. Democrats can also tell themselves (correctly) that Democratic “clustering” in urban areas, combined with Republican gerrymandering, robs them of the power they should have. Republicans can tell Democrats to go fuck themselves.
House Democrats are lost in an orgy of self-righteousness, ignoring the fact that gun control measures have never had any impact on crime and also ignoring the fact that the No Fly list is in itself a civil liberties abomination and restricting the right of those on it to own a firearm simply makes it worse. But pumping up the base in an election year is not seldom the truest wisdom in politics,1 so buckle up those seat belts, fellas. It’s going to be a bumpy flight.
- It’s also “nice” that gun control is an issue on which Hillary is to the left of Bernie Sanders. ↩︎
