To carry out this agenda will require some new leadership in capital quarters, but far less than you would suppose. Start with the House of Representatives with its new Republican majority. No need to worry about John Boehner, the present Republican leader. His demonstrated commitment to ignorance about almost every public-policy question certainly qualifies him fully to be Speaker of the House. Though Joe Barton, who saliently said that President Obama was mistreating BP after the oil spill, also deserves consideration. As for Nancy Pelosi, her track record as a Speaker—shepherdess of thousands of bills through that chamber without knowing what was in them or how to pay for them—suggests Democrats should anoint her their Minority Leader. Those skills are hard to duplicate. More qualified people like Representatives Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen should continue to learn at her feet…

Cable television news also will have no difficulty adjusting to this saneless capital. Indeed, it helped to create sanelessness. You know, 24-hour coverage of a truck crash in Bolivia, where every interviewee says he doesn’t have enough information yet. You know, no substance or policy, just politics, politics, and more politics. Sane and professional newscasters such as Brian Williams and Lawrence O’Donnell will have to go, of course. But those who remain should model themselves on MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. His M.O. harmonizes unerringly with the spirit of these democratic times: Say you love almost every guest. Don’t let any guest finish a sentence. And don’t listen to the answer. It works. The people love this style. Most sentences are too long anyway.

As will already be plain to readers, tea baggers and Democratic left-wingers agitated themselves unnecessarily about Washington. Our nation’s capital was very well on its way to sanelessness.