POLITICAL theater and antics is nothing new. With the spread of social media, it is never far from your fingertips. Tonight, Democratic members of the US House of Representatives are participating in an old fashioned sit-in. They claim that the sit-in is in an effort to pressure the Speaker of the House (Republican Paul Ryan) into holding a vote on gun control legislation.

This action isn’t necessarily unprecedented in the House, but it is extremely rare. But a good question that is lost here, is this necessary? Have the Dems taken action using parliamentary procedure? There are parliamentary ways for the minority to get a vote on a subject. But this? This is a way for them to grab the headlines. The Dems have been doing just that for more than 12 hours (at the time of this writing). The sit-in is led by venerable civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis. The action on the floor of the House is tapping in to the sentiment following the deadliest mass shooting in modern US History at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The massacre rekindled the debate over gun control measures in this country. All of this theatrics, appears to be for naught. As with most of the “work” Congress needs to do, this is likely going nowhere. This even as a CNN/ORC poll shows that nearly 90% of the public supports some tightening of regulations and measures on gun control.

It is a difficult battle to fight. One side paints this as a quintessential American right, and the other paints this as an outrageous interpretation of a centuries old document. To be honest, what are we all fighting about? Yes, the assertion that no matter what law you pass, what regulation you make, it is only the law abiding citizens that will be affected. Criminals will always find ways to circumvent those laws. That’s what makes them criminals. But does that mean we should do nothing? Leave it as the status quo?

 Clearly the status quo isn’t working. We continue to send thoughts and prayers out to our fellow Americans and people around the world time and time again. But what is the answer? I won’t pretend that I have that answer. But what I will say, is that the start of that answer is civil discourse and compromise. We won’t ever be perfect. We won’t ever be right 100% of the time. That would be boring, and what would be the point? What I will say about the state of our Congress is that it is far from common sense and civil. If Congress worked and did things like they were supposed to, this sit-in would never happen. A group of members wouldn’t feel the need to stage a massive theatrical production to rival the new Broadway hit. That is what needs to change first, but sadly the American voter won’t let that happen.

The sit-in is not just an example of the failure of our governing bodies, but it is an example of the failure of the American voter. The fact that participation in American elections is consistently low is another factor. But voters in this country find words like compromise and bipartisanship to be dirty curse words these days. If a Republican member decided to try and work with a Democrat to get some common sense legislation done, they’d have a well funded primary challenger within weeks. That is the unfortunate thing and what we see on the Hill is a direct result of this. What party officials, some politicians, political activists and voters don’t seem to always understand is that there is a difference between campaigning and governing. So the gun control debate is a symptom of the larger problem. We seem to be losing the common sense voices in this process. There doesn’t seem to be a desire to find common ground. There seems to only be the desire to win and win bigger than the last time. Until we fix that, the status quo will continue to affect us all.

More tomorrow on Everyday BRAND.

-A