NANCY PELOSI: SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE BY DEFAULT

We elect representatives to represent our points of views. Once in congress, they represent their constituents by voting their conviction, which they should have expressed during their election campaigns. Sometimes they win sometimes they lose. It is a nice neat package—it is democracy.  However, several things have gone wrong with the system. The point I missed in civics class is that I expect the voting to be a collective effort of all representatives when it may not be. The internal working of the House of Representatives has thwarted the ideal.

The debate between President Obama and Speaker Boehner, the Republicans leader House of Representatives over the fiscal cliff, has brought attention to this fault. Speaker Boehner certainly knows he is not the only one who has the power to call for a vote, which is something I did not know. Given that he knows this, there is another reason—a hidden reason—he will not call for a vote while lacking a majority of the republican votes. He knows he could have a majority of all representatives who would support the legislation if he worked with Obama to make a few minor changes; the media refers to this as adding sweeteners. The fact that the Tea party has become entrenched as a vocal minority of his majority party is why Boehner is afraid to bring the needed legislation to a vote. He thinks he would lose his speakership and he may be right.

To ignore the minority Democratic Party in such a circuitous way is an artifact of government instilled in Republican Party thinking by the radicalized Tea Party. To give a very small but radical group power over the entire government of the United States of America because one man may think he would lose power is wrong. It does not make him a hero. It is the affliction of dictators.

The founding fathers created this unique form of governance—democracy—at the time of its creation there was no other government that resembled it in the world. They did it to give the power to the people and not to a Monarch, a small group of people, and certainly not to the speaker of the House of Representatives. A mechanism was fashioned over the years to prevent what is happening. The minority leader in the House, which is Representative Nancy Pelosi (D), can use a “discharge petition”. This is essentially a way of bringing a bill out of committees against the wished of the committee majority; the majority party tightly controls the structure of committees. Such a petition would allow the entire house to vote on the legislation. She tried and failed to do this one some time ago on this issue. In the face of the failed leadership on Speaker Boehner’s, the time is ripe for her to work with the president to mold a new bill and to try again. In other words, she is in a position to do Boehner’s job. If he looses the title of “Speaker of the House”, so be it; he already “vacated” the job by not doing it. The only thing that should keep her from doing it is the fear of having Eric Cantor elected Speaker of the House, which could be a nightmare for America.