With Democrats’ sit-in, time for breaking rules has arrived

It seems that the Democrats have taken a page from the Republican playbook by tearing up the rule book. But perhaps the time for breaking rules has arrived.

{mosads}This should not be unfamiliar territory for the GOP: Their threats against the debt ceiling, unprecedented obstruction of everything Obama, and recent refusal to confirm or deny a Supreme Court nominee all broke with the standards of order and procedure.

Their presumptive presidential candidate is known — and often praised — for being “antiestablishment” and doing away not only with conventions, but with basic decency.

There is a strong difference, however, between these Republican actions and those of the Democrats in occupying the House, and that’s moral conviction.

The current protest at the Capitol is largely being led by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who bravely marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And if anyone recognized the importance of breaking rules for the greater good — for the cause of justice — it was Dr. King.

King was a rule-breaker: He went to jail time and again in order to do what he believed was right. As he stated in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Some months later, he would echo this sentiment from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he noted the importance of being willing “to go to jail together” in order to bring freedom to all.

King, of course — that great man — was brought down by a bullet. In this way, he was no different than over 10,000 Americans a year who are killed in gun homicides. According to the Brady Campaign, approximately 31 Americans are murdered with guns on an average day. Another 55 commit suicide, and another 151 are treated in emergency rooms for gunshot wounds. Tomorrow, if it’s a typical day, seven kids or teens will be killed with guns.

Gun violence also has a financial cost, to the tune of about $100 billion a year.

Of course, the Democratic protest is about more than guns: It’s about process. Since former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-Ga.) time, they’ve had to contend with irrational obstinacy, obstruction and disingenuousness. Yet all grew infinitely worse with the election of the nation’s first black president. At no point have the Democrats had good faith partners to negotiate with, and the lack of cooperation has taken its toll on the nation: Our Congress is largely dysfunctional and people are dying because of it.

This is not to say that we should take the Democrats’ rule-breaking lightly: There are rules and decorum for a reason. But perhaps it’s time to recognize that the rules have already been eviscerated, and we’re living in an age without them. The Democrats are indeed breaking the rules — but maybe it’s about time.

Now, I don’t know what Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will do — politically, there aren’t many good options for him. And while he does have the authority to cut the electricity or call in the gendarmes, any execution of power may be viewed in much the same way Birmingham’s Bull Connor’s water hoses were viewed, and he’d be playing right into the Democrats’ hands.

Ryan has called the sit-in a “publicity stunt.” Well, he’s right on that account. Of course, isn’t that, after all, what all protests are? Isn’t the entire point of free speech to foment public outrage against injustices?

A publicity stunt it may be; but is it not a righteous one?

The longer the protest lasts, the greater the reverberations it will have throughout the nation and the world. And although we must be careful not to set a precedent that will be difficult to return from, we should also remember what Henry David Thoreau said: “The hero obeys his own law.”

Rosenfeld is an educator and historian who has done work for Scribner, Macmillan and Newsweek.