Day 17. The insurrection has ended. One final Blog about it before turning to other important issues.
There are, I submit, lessons to be learned from what we have been through.
The first is that our nation can no longer endure a divided government. With Republicans viewing compromise as defeat, there is no way a divided government can now function. You cannot talk to someone who doesn’t want to talk. This means Republicans either have to be in full control of the government or not at all.
The second lesson is that Republicans have proven they should not be in control. So long as they follow people who don’t believe in democracy, don’t care about the nation as a whole, don’t care what damage they do to get their way, and make up stuff that contradicts known facts, they should remain a minority party in our government.
Third, Senate filibuster rules should be reformed to allow the filibuster to remain a tool with limited power. Here is where Democrats need to show genuine leadership. Keep the filibuster, but change it to reduce the number needed to override it so we don’t need 60 votes to pass everything. Democrats will, of course, have to live with that change if Republicans ever become the majority again. But that is the way it should be. The Constitution calls for a majority vote to legislate. Senate rules should not be allowed to nullify what the Constitution says.
Finally, voters need to realize that elections matter. People who believe government does many good things cannot afford to allow those who hate government to decide the winners of elections again. Polls show the majority of Americans are moderate in their views. That majority needs to start voting, if they want to keep the country they have.
There are many other lessons to be learned from this assault on our democracy, but these seem to me to be among the obvious ones.
