While a lot of people are applauding Democratic members of Congress for staging a sit-in to try and force of a vote on gun control, you will have to excuse me for being not quite as impressed.

It’s a pretty safe piece of political theater on the the part of an elected official in the Democratic Party to take a ‘brave stance’ on gun control because they’re not the ones who get the gun lobby money. They’re not risking anything. They get attention, their constituents believe they’re ‘doing something’ even though they’re not doing much of anything, it helps with their personal brand, and they get to focus on a time-tested wedge issue that Democrats have put to great advantage over the years.

It would be a lot braver if they’d for once take a strong stance when more is on the line, like when the Affordable Care Act was not yet passed and it did not include a public option.

Where were the Democrats then? Counting that Health Insurance and Pharma lobby money, most likely.

The gun control sit-in is an empty piece of political theater. There are existentially vital issues that the Democrats ignore each and every day which wreak havoc on our world far surpassing that caused domestically by guns. Where’s the sit-in against the TPP, for example, or to reinstate Glass-Stegall and reign in Wall Street’s crimes?

I am tired of our fake government where staged political theater built around wedge issues stands in for real governance and effective leadership. There are things being done in my name overseas that make me sick. This is an afterthought among our elected officials, and that should terrify us.