Thank the Tea Party for our gun sit-in

First, and most of all, was the bitterness we felt for another moment of silence to mark another mass shooting. After the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, Democrats’ frustration with silent prayer versus meaningful action simmered. During these moments, more and more Democrats would drift from the House floor to the adjacent cloakroom, indignant that the Republican plan to prevent more loss of life to gun violence was more silence. After Orlando, that frustration overflowed. I heard it in the cloakroom, in the Members-Only elevators, and at Democratic Caucus meetings.

Second, the Tea Party can thank itself. Its candidates came to Congress starting in 2010, intent on tearing down institutions. They shut down the government, seethed at compromise. Their followers disrupted congressional town halls. They frothed and spat and vilified. I remember sitting outside on a second-floor balcony just off the House floor during the debate on the Affordable Care Act. Thousands of Tea Party activists had amassed on the lawn around us. There, where congressmen John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln once strolled, one protester defiantly turned his back on the Capitol. That would have been fine had he not also slid the back of his pants to his knees and bent forward. This set the tone within the institution.The raucous caucus took over. And while I believe that not one Democrat or Republican would condone or repeat such disrespectful behavior, the damage was done.