“Separation of powers.” “Checks and balances.”

American middle school civics lessons have laid it out for years: Good governance has a set of rules. The founding fathers worried about the rise of factions, Linda Feldmann writes today. They could not have foreseen lockstep partisanship and its eroding effect on their playbook. What are the prospects for shoring up old protocols in Washington today? 

Ken Makin’s commentary has a throwback quality, too. He looks at a peaceful form of civil disobedience that helped marginalized people get heard 6 1/2 decades ago, even as it sometimes generated a harsh or even violent response. How might it be applied in this new era?