Substantive issues are matters of policy. Procedural issues are how you decide the substantive issues. Let’s use football as an analogy. The rules of the game are the procedural issues; the scores are the substantive issues. As long as the teams agree on the procedure (i.e., the rules), they can play game after game. The scores really don’t matter that much. Who won the fifth Super Bowl? Most of us don’t know. The final score obviously wasn’t that important. As long as we have agreed upon rules, we can play (or watch) game after game after game.
Now, suppose two teams take the field and one plays by Canadian football rules and one by U.S. football rules. The game would break down before the end of the first quarter. The refs, the coaches, and the players wouldn’t be able to play the game.
That, dear readers, is what is happening in Tennessee. The legislature, by throwing out three Democratic legislators, has changed the procedure. The process can’t continue. One side can win, but it has changed the rules, and when you change the rules you change the game. The game had been democratic government. When you throw out the legislators you don’t agree with, you are no longer playing democracy. You have moved into a new game. It is called tyranny.
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