The liberal punditariat was buzzing yesterday about a poll that revealed that only one third of Democrats think that this Congress has achieved more than other recent ones.
... these numbers shed fascinating new light on the enthusiasm gap problem. Just wow.
Putting aside whether one approved of the policy breakthroughs, this poll result makes it seem as if much of the public simply doesn't realize that the policy breakthroughs were unusual.
I'm sure these are smart guys, but they just don't get how Congress (and the Administration) look to ordinary people.This is just nuts. This is, objectively, a very productive Congress. Now, right-wingers think it's been productive at dystopian, freedom-destroying confiscations of wealth that remind them of an Ayn Rand novel. But clearly Congress is doing a lot.
Most of us think it is Congress' job to accomplish something every session. So they either did or they didn't. If they did, they did what they were expected to do and shouldn't expect any special congratulations. Passing necessary legislation is their job. We are expected to do our jobs if we are lucky enough to have them; they should do theirs. If they don't do their work, why do we pay them?
Meanwhile, the economy isn't fixed, so it seems likely they didn't do their jobs. That seems simple from where most of us sit.
For Democrats, the sense that Congress didn't do its job is even greater. This Congress' job was to undo as much as possible of eight years of pure destruction and disgrace inflicted on the country by Bush and his gang of wealthy looters and torture lovers. Instead we got chummy relations with Wall Street crooks, an incomprehensible health law that won't take effect for years, a pointless war that drags on killing for nothing, and a timid Justice Department that is still in the business of covering up for the crimes of the last guys and the spooks. Plus no action at all to permit unions to organize, to fix the immigration system, or to keep the planet from frying.
And we're supposed to think the Congress has been productive? These guys are living in another world.
Here in the real world, we have to go out and elect more Democrats, despite all this. Why? Because the other guys are sick and bat shit crazy, given to watching someone's house burn down rather than intervene for failure to pay a $75 fee. It's a tough sell, but at this time there are no alternatives.
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