Campaign Action
When 60-some Democrats sat down in the well of the House floor to protest the Republican leadership’s failure to vote on gun safety measures, it was "unprecedented" by many counts. But when Senate Democrats began streaming into the House to join their colleagues in solidarity, the symbolism was unmistakable: Democrats from both the upper and lower chambers had reclaimed the House of Representatives—the "People's House"—for every American who has been waiting for action on gun safety for decades.
Republicans tried to turn back the tide. They tried to deny votes in the Senate last week until Democrats, led by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, staged a 15-Hour filibuster. And Republicans tried to stonewall again on Wednesday, when Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis demanded, "Give us a vote! Let us vote!" from the House floor on behalf of the American People.
Not next month! Not next year! But now! Today! Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary. Sometimes you have to make a way out of no way. We have been too quiet for too long. There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise. When you have to move your feet. This is the time. Now is the time to get in the way. The time to act is now. We will be silent no more.
Lewis’s call to arms kicked off what could be called "the People's sit-in" against gun violence. When Washington is so broken that Republicans won't even consider gun safety measures in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in our nation's history, when Republicans try to block votes on something as simple as background checks that are routinely supported by 90 percent of Americans, when a special interest group like the National Rifle Association is dictating a public policy that caused more than 13,400 deaths last year alone, sometimes you have to do something extraordinary. You have to disrupt the system and reclaim government for the People.
That is what Democrats did when they occupied the well of "the People' House" Wednesday. It is nothing short of momentous when lawmakers—who are insiders and rule followers by nature—get down on their hands and knees on behalf of the American People and cry, “Enough!”