Does anyone remember when the nightly news would show footage of some third-world temporary government meeting breaking out into shouting matches and scuffles, leading to a dictator or some person of power taking over the operation of that nation?

We were all comforted by the thought that such a thing could not happen in the United States.  After all, we had the highly-regarded example of democratic government, leaders of the free world, and checks and balances to keep similar circumstances from plaguing our own country.

But how far away are we from seeing that type of confrontation in the US?  Members of Congress, the formerly-distinguished body, elected representatives of the people, staged a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives.  A spoiled brat pity party of “I will take my ball and go home if you won’t let me play,” and even further embarrassed the institution, already receiving record low-approval ratings from the public.

It doesn’t matter about the worthiness the cause for which they were protesting, and it doesn’t matter which party was involved.  The entire scene of elected officials sitting on the floor taking selfies and eating doughnuts was an affront to the people who voted for them to work together in the halls of congress.

Once again, it was primarily symbolic.  The protest won’t likely last long or accomplish anything, because Congress is about to adjourn for a recess, and the only thing today’s congressional members from both parties seem to be able to agree on is taking a break.

The entire farce is engineered to make available campaign sound bites for the upcoming elections, and show their constituents who aren’t paying attention to what is really going on, how hard they are fighting for them.

Twitter feeds and Facebook posts across the country will be filled with statements about how your representative stood up for you, and making comparisons to the civil rights protests of the 60s.

The comparisons are apples and oranges, and anyone making them should be ashamed.  Civil rights protesters faced beatings and jail time, protesting across the South in 90-degree heat, leaving their homes and families behind and risking their health and well-being to advance a worthy cause.

The worst difficulty facing this round of protests is waiting for your turn to take a restroom break, while sitting in air-conditioned comfort, and wondering who will furnish the next round of snacks.

This particular time the issue is voting on meaningless gun control legislation, that will not prevent anything like the Orlando shooting from happening again.  Neither the Republican bill or the bill presented by the Democrats will accomplish that.  Both parties know that, but because they need sound bites to get re-elected, they have to pass something, or obstruct the other party from passing something.

That’s the way you retain power, by getting re-elected.  And the only thing more important to political parties than power, is fund raising, which leads to staying in power anyway.

But the damage done to the already-tarnished impression of the body will linger for quite some time, to those who are watching.  Congress is supposed to work across the aisles to conduct the business of the country, and this new comedy just shows how low the partisan politics have fallen.

Congress has abdicated its power to govern to an over-reaching executive branch and a constitutional re-interpreting judicial branch, while its members sit in the floor and eat doughnuts, and bicker over partisan politics.

Many people are calling for term limits for congressional members, to which I always reply we already have them in place.  They are called elections.  There is one coming up in November.

Based on the performance of the current crop of representatives, it seems this would be a good time to exercise that power.