Skip to main content

Call for a Division of the House

One of our oddest beliefs is that the minority should go along with the majority.  It lies at the heart of democracy.  It is probably a commitment to long-term pragmatism.  Without that agreement, a rule of law would be impossible.  The minority could refuse to pay taxes, or get driver's or marriage licences, on the grounds that they did not agree. 

We elect representatives to government offices, and they debate and vote and agree that they will all go along with the majority, at least until they can form a different majority. 

Republicans have apparently decided that they will not go along with a majority.  Either they demand more than a majority, or they have decided to cripple the efforts to get anything done.  It seems to be their plan to stall the whole governing process until they have a majority, in which case they will then demand the minority will have to go along with them. 

And the Democrats apparently agree with them.  Barack Obama seems to think we should not, or cannot, do anything until a substantial number of Republicans agree.  "OK!" the Republicans say, "We vote no!"  Then Barack says, "C'mon, Olympia, work with us!" and she does a Snowe job on him and says, "No!"

Democracy requires give and take; the belief that in the long run, an honest debate and a show of hands is how a democracy works.

Republicans have every right to stall and to try to delay a vote.  They do not have a right to be dishonest about it.  The Democrats have every right to call for a show of hands.  In fact, if they don't, they will be giving up on a long-agreed-upon system. 

"Madam Chair, I call for a division of the House!"  And the Senate, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friends-- My step-father of 35 years died this morning. His name was Conrad Royksund. He was 86 years old. He was born into poverty on a farm near Puyallup, WA. He was the first member of his family to attend college and earned a PhD from the University of Chicago. He paid his way through all of that by fishing in Alaska. He spent his professional career as a college professor. I met him when I was just 3 years old and don't actually have any memories of my life befor e he was in it. He was intimidatingly smart, funny as hell, and worked his ass off. He taught me to meet people with kindness and decency until I was certain they could not be trusted. He taught me to meet ideas with carving knives until I was certain they could. I will remember him as one of the bravest, most curious, and funniest people I have ever met. He left this world with a satisfied mind. We are so grateful. Dan Hubbard
1 comment
Read more

The Sea is Rising

Let us just step back:  two hundred and fifty years ago, or so, the ships of England and Spain had drifted onto a whole new continent, as they saw it, from far north to a savagely cold south; pole to pole, as if there were such things. Millions of people already lived here, some of them still hunters and gatherers; some of them very wealthy, indeed!  Gold and silver stolen from the southern Americas funded Spanish and English dreams. There was land, lots of land, under starry skies above, rich land, and oil and coal and iron ore.  The whole western world learned how to build industries not on simple muscle power, but on steam and oil.  We farmed, too, of course.  All we needed was cheap labor--slave labor from Africa, mostly, so the ships came with slave labor.  Chinese labor built railroad beds where there had been rock cliffs. Europeans, long used to killing each other for good, religious reasons, brought their religious savagery with them. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

That's all we want: fairness! Not more guns and more war! Fairness!

The five police officers who were killed in Dallas are certainly not the officers who killed innocent citizens. There is more than enough tragedy to go around. "What is happening to our country?", Mari asked this morning. I had no answer.  We do have an answer.  We do not want to say it. There are lots of answers, all of them pertinent. We are a racist society, like most human societies. We are a society in the midst of enormous changes-- social, political, economic--and we do not know what to do about it. We are divided unsustainably into absurdly rich, and an enormous number of crumbling middle class families, and poor. We have guns everywhere; military guns, guns just for killing people, cheap guns, heroes carrying guns into churches and supermarkets, idiots who think guns ought to be allowed in bars and schools and ball games and beauty parlors and political rallies. Our political process is almost useless. There are good people in Congress, but there...
Post a Comment
Read more