(CNN) -- When the Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, a modest gun restriction by any reasonable measure, was defeated, President Barack Obama called it a "shameful day in Washington." But as anyone who watches Congress knows, it has more than its share of shameful days. There the deck was stacked against not only this bill, but against any bill that would restrict the proliferation of guns in any way. If those seeking sanity in our gun laws want to succeed, they'd better prepare themselves for a difficult journey. Many people thought that the Newtown massacre changed everything about the gun debate in America, and that new legislation was inevitable. The first part of that belief is still true; the second part is not. The bill was doomed for a number of reasons.
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Paul Waldman: Background check failure another shameful day for a cowardly Congress
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Senate undemocratic, he says; small rural states have outsized power
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He says Sen. Chuck Grassley spread lies to kill legislation
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Waldman: This time, Americans got to see power of NRA-stoked paranoia
But one of the salutary effects of this debate is how it has brought to wider public attention the kind of unhinged conspiracy theorizing, paranoia and outright hate most Americans wouldn't know about if they hadn't been attending @placeholder meetings or reading pro-gun Web sites in recent years.