Just the beginning

Had the traditional rules of parliamentary procedure been in place, the Senate actually would have passed a bill to expand gun background checks to include online sales and gun shows. The proposal, among the weakest of possible gun control proposals, was supported by a clear majority, 54-46. But because Senate leaders had to agree to a 60-vote threshold just to get the minority to allow the measure to come to the floor, it failed.

Here’s the most important element of that vote: It didn’t fail after a long debate.

It didn’t fail on its merits. It failed because opponents-most of them anyway-were more interested in talking around the bill than making sound public policy.

Here’s Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, for instance, talking about his no vote on Fox News:

“It potentially could lead to a gun registry.”

But there is nothing in the background check bill that would, potentially or otherwise, create a gun registry. There is nothing in the bill that would do anything to diminish Second Amendment rights to “keep and bear arms.”

There is nothing in the bill that is worth a no vote unless you are a fully owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association.

Mr. Blunt is. He even voted against allowing the gun-control legislation to be debated.

He’s just an aginner. So are most of the other Republicans who voted against the bill and the four Democrats who joined them. Three of the four are up for re-election next year.

They’re cowards. All of them.

Their no votes are not the biggest problem. The fact that they won’t debate the issue on its merits and invent straw men to obfuscate their true intentions is the bigger issue. This is what is wrong with the Senate, what’s wrong with Congress, what’s wrong with America. It’s bigger than guns, or immigration, or debt ceilings.

Enough is enough.

For too long, the great American middle has ceded the playing field. It’s time to take it back.

It’s time to rally behind Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Republicans like Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who cast courageous votes on the background check legislation, standing with the 91 percent of Americans who believe it’s reasonable to check gun buyers for felony convictions or a mental-health history that might disqualify them from ownership.

It’s time to rally behind grass-roots, bipartisan movements like Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and let politicians in 2014 and 2016 know that their cowardice will no longer be accepted.

What those senators did was small. It was stunted. It destroyed the hope of victims of Newtown and Aurora that our broken Congress can ever stop being dysfunctional and be of service to the nation.

Wednesday’s vote wasn’t the end. It was the beginning. It was a reset for the national debate.

It’s time for a new beginning, and Mr. Obama has to lead us there. He’ll need moms. He’ll need sons and daughters. He’ll need politicians unafraid of the next election.