“Jefferson, wake up! They’ve gone crazy!” blared the headline from the French newspaper Le Monde. American politicians throughout history have squabbled, fought, and even caned each other to resolve political differences. But with the whole world watching, we now are witnessing something different about the current government shutdown. By holding the federal budget hostage in exchange for defunding President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, a small minority of highly-disciplined, ideologically-unified Tea Party legislators has ushered in the age of post-consensus politics.
This disaffected Tea Party contingent has successfully halted government through its single-minded determination not to play by the rules – majority rules. Thomas Jefferson wrote fervently and prolifically on the fundamental importance of democratic majority rule in governing the nation: “If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority,” he wrote, “it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform.” And, “if they approve the proposed Constitution (at issue) in all its parts I shall concur in it cheerfully, in hopes that they will amend it whenever they shall find it works wrong.”
