Writing in The Federalist Papers during the debates on adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, Alexander Hamilton confidently proclaimed that “two thirds of the people of America could not long be persuaded, upon the credit of artificial distinctions and syllogistic subtleties, to submit their interests to the management and disposal of one third.”

Well, Mr. Hamilton, meet Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi: The Senate majority leader and House speaker, respectively, are attempting, in a display of political arrogance unmatched in this nation’s history, to do almost exactly what Hamilton said Americans would never tolerate. They are inventing “artificial distinctions and syllogistic subtleties” of legislative procedure in order to force passage of a proposal favored by a minority and opposed by a large majority of the people.