Then, last week through the Internet, I got to see how S1407 had fared. I expected it had failed in committee, never to reappear again.
To my amazement, S1407 had cleared the committee. What's more, it had passed in the full Senate the next day. The vote caught my breath: 16 for, 15 against, four absent.
One vote. I scrolled to the voting record, looking to see who had cast the surprise vote.
There, voting with the liberals (such as there are), was my own conservative Senator Bunderson. I had to look twice, but his name was still in the "aye" column.
Then I double checked the final count: 16-15.
That's all the proof I needed Democracy really works, and so does the American government. Thank you, Thomas Jefferson, for setting up a system that would survive and flourish.
And thanks to Hal Bunderson, who's making it work today.
Valerie J. MacMillan's column appears on alternate Thursdays.