If I even tried to pretend that Joe Wilson’s little outburst during the President’s health care speech wasn’t the awardee of the week – and perhaps even the month – I’d be incredibly remiss in my duty to bring you the latest in dumb moments from the people we elect to make laws for us.

It’s an amazing moment in United States politics. Not because Wilson broke House protocol by speaking out of turn (though he did), nor because he, a former Army colonel, broke military protocol by interrupting his commander-in-chief (though he did), nor even because he was demonstrably wrong (though he was). Not because it earned him a censure from the House — resulting in one of the best headlines ever: “House Rebukes Wilson” — not because it earned his 2010 opponent over a million dollars, and not because it gave President Obama an opportunity to look like the mature party by accepting his apology and closing debate on the matter as far as the White House is concerned.

No, the reason why this moment is so truly awe-inspiring is because, two hundred and twenty-six years after the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War, after names like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy have come and gone from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s now, under a President who represents the 21st century more than any of his contemporaries on the U.S. political stage, who has built his reputation on being a unifying force — it is now that we seem to finally be losing all respect for the Presidency, the office and its occupier both, So much so, in fact, that this interruption, nothing more than an affront to the head of state of this supposedly-great nation, is hailed as an instance of heroism.

You’ve come a long way since the days of the Continental Congress, America — the question is if you’re going in the right direction.