Don't Expect Calls to Action from Nancy or Chuck:  They should step up, but don't expect it

Their Silence Suggests Democrats Need New Leadership in Congress

It is well past 12 noon in Washington on January 7 and we haven't heard anything from Pelosi or Schumer about impeachment.  I don't expect it.  After four years of wringing their hands at the "dreadful" actions of the President, including treason, illegal financial actions, racist actions implemented as policy, atrocities on the US-Mexico border, etc., but taking no actions, this is unlikely to change, even in the face of the violent insult to the American creed we witnessed yesterday.  The public is far ahead of our political leaders today.

Nancy had to be dragged into an impeachment process against her will last year, and only after everyone who had access to a television broadcast had heard the damning evidence multiple times and the general public was insisting on national leadership in the face of treason.  And, of course, Nancy understood that McConnell would treat impeachment as an insult to his intelligence. There was no cost, no risk, in going through the motions.  It even gave congresspersons a chance for free television face time, and then we could go back to pretending our political system remained normal, and hoping voters would bail them out even as enemies of democracy, abroad and at home, were plotting to make a shambles out of our elections.Everything she did was tactically correct but morally without compass.

Chuck and Nancy have been safely re-elected to their leadership positions under a Biden administration, and they can't wait to get back to the minute but passionless details of complicated legislation, responding to the special interest needs of their legislative followers and negotiating with the other side behind closed doors.  The tragedy of American politics, the ICU condition of American democracy, yesterday in full naked view, it would seem, are mere distractions for them to the art of legislative negotiation.

Sometimes this kind of leadership is desirable.  It works well when you have both parties pretty much in agreement about the major contours of the public agenda, and you need knowledgeable specialists to hammer out the messy sausage of legislation everyone will be reasonably happy with.  That was long ago, from about the mid-1980s until the 20-teens, when neo-liberalism was an umbrella, however skewed toward the rich, everyone who needed campaign contributions could live with in bipartisan happiness.

But when the agreement is gone, and brute force, legal or illegal, becomes the currency of the land, it is time for a switch to a different kind of leadership--one with a passion for making things right, one that instinctively fights back to protect the common good against foes who have the needed passion to destroy what it has taken centuries to build.  Twenty four hours later, I don't see that person emerging in the Democratic Party.  The Republican Party is probably too shell-shocked, heading for cover, to do much more than slough off  their wounds with soundbites written by professional spinners.  Do not trust the leadership of either party in Congress with your democracy.  They have already failed to protect it.

Expect the political system to shift attention to a celebration of the triumph of democracy in the coming swearing in; to shift attention to investigations of security system reform at the Capitol, to analyze the profiles of ringleaders of the mob, to reveal legislative priorities for the new administration.  We need a new generation of leaders to fix a broken system.  Right now we have more of the same.