We are a big country with a tremendous diversity of opinion. The only way to make lasting, major changes is to slowly, persistently, incrementally build support.
While people like to hail concrete achievements like the civil rights and voting rights acts of 1964 and 1965, most neglect (or forget) that these bills were 100 years in the making, dating from the end of the Civil War.
The government system we have is slow because it was purposely designed to be that way – which is why having experienced politicians, not ad men or smooth actors, is so important.
Representatives, senators and the president all have different constituencies and serve different majorities, which is why you see Democrat House members who are squeamish on hard-line Democrat legislation. They know they have to vote for what their district demands, not for what their party requires.
And that is a good thing.
Democracy has been around so long precisely because it is biased toward the status quo and not toward fast-moving reform.
George Washington once described the Senate as the "saucer that cools the tea," with the House making the tea. That’s because House members are popularly elected more frequently by smaller, more homogenous constituencies and are supposed to represent the “passion of the people.”
This is why progressives get so frustrated. But one really needs to ask oneself, is it better to rush headlong into major mistakes or to slowly arrive at good decisions?
All of this explains why Republicans, if they are smart, should stop promising to do things. Instead, they should promise once again to undo things – by, for example, returning governing to the states and to the people.
Despite the noise of the day, Democrats likely will hold the majority of both houses after next year’s mid-terms. But if Republicans use their heads, they will stick to their message and quietly rebuild their party in the way that democracy intended – softly, but carrying a big stick.