BRATTLEBORO — In a week of most strange political events, the Friday night vote in Congress for the “hard” infrastructure bill was an inadvertent celebration and demonstration of the possibility that our republic has some life in it yet.
Six Democratic U.S. representatives chose to vote their beliefs about what is good for their constituents by not voting with their party, and 13 Republican members left the ideological boundaries of their party to vote for the best interests of the people they represent.
And so, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed and sits awaiting President Biden's signature. This is democracy at work, and the first time in a while that I have felt hopeful about the future of these United States.
It was such a refreshing and surprising turn of events that it took me some time to fully process and understand what had occurred.
In these recent months and years of political standoffs where our representatives and senators took turns bashing one another while brandishing various versions of the “truth,” I had begun to think that I might need a plan-B escape route pending the outcome of the next presidential election.
How difficult it must have been for these representatives, both red and blue, to vote their consciences while under significant pressure from their respective leaders to hold fast.
What an example they have set for both those on their own side of the aisle and those on the other. They have demonstrated publicly that it is still possible to vote for what you think is right, and not for what the parties dictate to you as “right.”
Critical thinking is not dead. It is just rusty from lack of use.
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Now that these 19 lawmakers have led the way to a re-establishment of real political progress without hell having frozen over, one can't help but wonder what other possibilities might lie ahead: universal voting rights, reproductive access, universal health care, tuition-free public education through the university level. The mind boggles at the possibility.
Diversity and equity issues, women's rights, and other controversial issues might even be open to free and respectful debate. We might even return to a meritocratically rebalanced government of the people.
Could it be possible that Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., might admit to being an “Eastern elite” and a Rhodes Scholar and drop the “bubba” routine? Might Josh Hawley, R-Mo., admit that he graduated as both a “Western elite” and “Eastern elite” as a respective graduate of both Stanford University and Yale Law School?
Would Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., admit that he attended the March on Washington in 1963 and heard firsthand Dr. King's speech?
I think I must sit down as the room is starting to spin!
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The regular usage of the circular firing squad, both intra-party and inter-party, as the knee-jerk response of both parties to any possibility that the other side has an idea worth debating might have outlived its usefulness as a political strategy.
I have seen more intelligent debate among elementary school children than recently and regularly on C-Span. The take-my-ball-and-go-home strategy must be put to rest (although Stephen Miller has my blessing to do just that and never return).
In Plato's The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners' reality but are not accurate representations of the real world.
Could it be possible that the ideological prisoners who currently inhabit and walk the halls of our Senate and House of Representatives will find their way to a new freedom and begin to act as if they really understood government of the people, by the people, and for the people?
One can dream.