Reader comment of the day

The genius of a constitutional republic is that people shouldn't have to pay particularly close attention to politics, because it's outcome does not have the capacity to wreck our daily lives. That it now does is an indictment of how far removed we are from the original restraints the constitution put on government.

There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “You know the ref/umpire is doing a good job if you don’t even notice he’s on the field/court”. We imagine the Framers were basketball or football around in the latter half of the 18th century, would've have this in mind when formulating one of the greatest documents in mankind’s history.

We would not expect referees to just start making calls that violate the spirit and intent of the rules on the book just as we would not expect referees to ignore blatant instances of holding or unnecessary roughness. Why would we expect anything less from the government, be it the actions of the legislative, executive or judicial branches?

When you see these townhalls and you see people in their sixties, seventies and eighties there shouting down their Congressman when you know full well under normal circumstances they would be treating their grandchildren to ice cream, you know they’ve been startled from their normal grand-parenting duties because that god-awful ref out there is just handing the game to the other team!!!