Queens has been on the sidelines for over two weeks watching the theater of the absurd play out in Washington as GOP hardliners in the House of Representatives held the nation hostage.
This was more than a spectacle for the seniors in the borough turned away from Social Security offices, the Hurricane Sandy victims in the Rockaways waiting for FEMA storm aid and the federal employees in Queens who went to work unpaid.
The government shutdown exposed the raw politics that have demonized Washington in recent years and left many Americans wondering if democracy is up to the task of representing all the people — even some of the time.
The Democrats and Republicans — particularly the GOP’s right flank in the House — squared off over Obamacare, a law popular enough that 51 percent of the public re-elected the president last year.
The silence from Congress was deafening — no talks, no efforts to compromise — as immigration legislation critical for Queens sat on the back burner and the president was forced to cancel an important meeting with our South Asian trading partners.
Then something happened that set the stage for the government to reopen as a catastrophic default loomed. Three Republican female senators started a bipartisan group to negotiate the outlines of a tentative deal the Senate was poised to adopt, The New York Times reported. There are only 20 women in the Senate, but the message was clear from both sides of the aisle: Guys, get your act together.
The irony was hard to miss. Senate women were trying to break a deadlock with another minority group in the House: Tea Party Republicans.
These women restored our faith that democracy might prevail again. People come to Queens from all over the world in search of the democratic ideals that have made us a prime destination. The art of compromise is tested daily in the borough, where immigrants from different backgrounds work on community boards, form civic groups and run for political office.
Queens is a laboratory for diverse interest groups to find a common denominator. The same should be true of Congress, where the official language is English but special interests collide and divide lawmakers.
It’s time for the GOP to respect the bipartisan effort mounted by a brave minority of women willing to put their political careers on the line to make democracy work.
