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November 14, 2006
The Fighting 110th congress!
Baseball, if played by different rules, would be football. Or any other sport of your choice. If played by the right set of rules, it would be chess. Any game is defined by its rules. I am a former Parliamentarian. I’ve sat on rules committees; I am, when you get down to it, a rules geek...
Rolling Stone magazine did an excellent story demonstrating why the Democrats in the 109th congress were so ineffective. The Republicans rewrote the rules to be not merely anti-Democratic, but also democratic. Minority voices must be heard, otherwise prove the Founder’s greatest fear: that a majority can tyrannize as well as a king...
And so today I called Representative Pelosi’s San Francisco office. I congratulated her on her victory, and asked the nice staffer if they had any plans on rewriting the congressional rules to be more inclusive of minority views. He told me that they were focused on closing out the 109th, and I get that. I reminded him that the new rules would put in place simultaneous with the inauguration of the 110th. He said that they’d keep in touch...
When the new congress takes office, I would implore the Democratic congress to remember their own time as a minority party. Simple fairness tells us that they should not impose any rule they would not be willing to live with were they to return to the minority.
Of course, fairness isn’t the only thing at stake: the Democrats will inevitably lose power at some point in the future. If they can enshrine democratic principles in victory, those principles stand a good chance at being principles down the line. Call your Member of Congress. Remind them that the Democratic Party stands for Democracy...
Posted by Andrew at November 14, 2006 11:51 AM