Living in Illinois, one becomes accustomed to the unconstitutional behavior for which Illinois State government has become famous.  Mayor Richard Daley, for instance, shut down Miggs Field and destroyed the runways while everyone was sleeping.  That was an illegal action, one for which he ought to be impeached.  And the response to this was, “Oh well.  Can’t do anything about that.  The Democrats are in charge.”  I mean, it didn’t matter that the act was illegal.  There is virtually no opposition party in Illinois, and that makes Mayor Daley an untouchable.  Therefore, Illinois citizens are forced to live by the whims of a tyrannical dictator and no one will stick his leg out to trip Daley up.  Everyone says, “Hey, he can’t do that.”  No one DOES anything to stop him.  Thus, the tyranny of the majority is given it’s first breath of life.

So when I heard about the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor of Illinois, Scott Lee Cohen… oh, you haven’t heard about that?  Cohen decided to run for Lt. Governor and was completely forthcoming about his checkered past during the primary.  There are allegations that he had illegally taken steroids, had held a knife to his girlfriend’s throat, and abused his ex-wife.  He never attempted to hide any one of those things, but the electorate was asleep at the wheel.  Cohen ran a great campaign and won his party’s nomination handily.  The moment that he had secured that nomination, the Republicans began asking that very important question… “Well, what about those abuse allegations.”

And the Democrats of Illinois collectively smacked themselves in the forehead and said, “Oh yeah.  Abuse allegations.”  Winthin days, regardless of the fact that Cohen had been democratically nominated by his party, he was asked to step aside.  The Democrat leadership is now accepting applications for individuals who would like to take Cohen’s place the ballot.  (Doesn’t that sound so very democratic?)  And the Republicans just shake their silly, whipped little heads woefully and mumble with esoteric dismay, “What can we do?  We’re the minority party.”

How about this one?  There’s also the Illinois Democratic candidate for US Senate who is in trouble.  Alexi Giannoulias won the nomination, only Giannoulias has some scandals of his own.  Big scandals.  Big, big scandals.  And they are big enough that the Democrats are starting to get nervous.  The belief is that in the next few days, he will be asked to step down.  He will be replaced in much the same way as Cohen will be, and if this whole thing has you asking what the point of having a primary is, well… join the club.  If the Democratic leadership can just replace beleaguered nominees with someone they think can win in spite of the will of the people, what will become of the election process?  But what can we do?  We’re the minority party.

But that brings me to the final straw.  Reconciliation.  As we all know, the Senate Democrats are looking to pass Socialized Health Care through an up or down vote rather than the usual 60 votes that are required by the rules of the Senate.  I was off and running.  “We’re the minority party.  What can we do?” 

What can we do?  I woke up this morning and sat up in bed saying, “Is there really nothing that can be done?” 

Then I got to thinking about rules.  When it comes to parliamentary procedure, are rules made to be broken as long as you hold the majority?  If you are a member of the majority party, can you walk to the floor of the Senate and declare that the Constitution no longer applies?  Could the Democrats, with a swish of their legislative magic wands, establish a national religion or infringe upon our right to assembly?  I mean, the Founders must have anticipated that there would be a day when one party would dominate the House, Senate and Presidency.  Was their answer, if this particular scenario happened, that there could be nothing to stop a tyrannical majority from ending Democracy and installing a new form of government?

Yeah, I don’t think they left things to chance.  Rules are rules.  The Senate must have 60 votes to turn this socialism into law.  They can pretend that the rule doesn’t exist.  They can pretend that the laws of physics don’t exist.  But the rule does exist, and the very moment that the Senate bill passes, the Supreme Court needs to smack it down. 

Oh yeah.  The Supreme Court.  Remember them?  I know, you thought that the High Court’s only job is to tell women that they can kill their babies, right?  No.  The reason that they exist is to stop Congresses and Presidents from trampling on your rights, and changing the Senate rules without due process is the precise raison d’être of the Supreme Court.  It will take some organization like the Heritage Foundation to sue the legislative branch on behalf of the American people, but we can have this little game put to an end pretty quickly.

Be careful though.  The press will begin the soft, seductive mantra… there’s nothing we can do.  The Republicans are the minority.  Close your eyes and just listen to my voice.  Feel your body floating and drifting because there’s nothing we can do.

Trust me there is.  There’s an awful lot that we can do.  There are boatloads of things that we can do.  Be patient.  The time will come.   And remember:  Speak softly.  Carry a big stick and hold your law suits until you see the whites of their eyes.