More and more often of late, we have to remind ourselves that this is America.
Despite the fact that 92 percent of us – Democrats, Republicans, men, women, gun owners, gun haters – want suspected terrorists not to able to legally buy guns, Congress thumbs its nose at us. Despite the fact that a majority of us want background checks for all gun buyers – even those who buy online or at gun shows – our Congress turns it back on us.
We think this is common sense. We think this is not gun control; it’s gun smart.
But we all watched this week as our Congress treated our wishes as its own personal political game. The Senate earlier this week took four partisan votes after a 15-hour filibuster and still log-jammed. Republicans defeated Democratic measures and Democrats defeated Republican proposals. The only winners were the gun makers and their trade group, the National Rifle Association.
Then on Wednesday and Thursday, when the House minority members tried to force a vote – just a vote – on common-sense gun safety measures with a 25-hour historic and peaceful sit-in, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., instead talked about “decorum.”
Ryan figuratively patted Democrats on the head for voicing “disagreements,” and said “the chair would hope the business of the House would be conducted in a fashion that represents and reflects positively on the dignity and the decorum of this institution to which we all belong.”
A majority of Americans and the Democratic members of the House wanted to debate and vote on gun safety, but the speaker’s response was to talk about “decorum.”
Really? Is that what Republican voters sent these guys to Washington to do?
But Ryan was right about one thing: The “business of the House” all too often and certainly on Wednesday was “conducted in a fashion” to which we’ve grown accustomed – dysfunction.
We say, “Do your job,” and the GOP majority tap dances sideways and says “decorum.”
This is really a very simple question that takes away no one’s guns, no one’s due process, and no one’s Second Amendment rights
Congress – especially this Republican-majority Congress has made an art form of wasting motion. What Congress must do is find a way to govern.
The Democrats on Wednesday night put it to song: “We Shall Overcome. We shall pass a bill some day.”
As long the GOP holds majorities in Congress, we shouldn’t count on it.