Hyperbole Abounds

Is there any sanity left anywhere? We have one group, and it is large one encompassing both left and right, claiming the Congress is broken beyond repair and incapable of accomplishing anything whatever; and then we have Norman Ornstein claiming in the Washington Post on Sunday that,

There seems to be little to endear citizens to their legislature or to the president trying to influence it. It's too bad, because even with the wrench thrown in by Republican Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts, this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society 89th Congress in 1965-66, and Obama already has the most legislative success of any modern president -- and that includes Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. The deep dysfunction of our politics may have produced public disdain, but it has also delivered record accomplishment.

“Record accomplishment?” Oh, please, are we really going to claim that this Congress has accomplished greater feats the Congress that passed Civil Rights legislation? If one reads his discourse without the lens of partisan loyalty, almost all of the “record accomplishment” to which he refers is contained within the one “feat” of passing a watered down “stimulus bill” that was actually too small to fully accomplish its intended purpose.

Not willing to counter the “useless” argument with pointing out that this Congress has, indeed, passed some useful and worthy legislation, that it has both successes and failures in its efforts to date, this idiot has to discredit himself by going to the opposite extreme and claiming that which is on the face of it outlandishly untrue. Such is the nature of political discourse today.

Republicans cannot say that Obama has policies that are more liberal than they like, or merely say that they disagree with his proposals; they have to scream that he is at one and the same time a “nazi” and a “socialist,” terms which to any rational or thinking person are clearly mutually exclusive.

Democrats cannot admit that they are, in fact, incorporating some conservative ideas into the legislation that is being adopted while rejecting other ideas; they have to prate away about how stupid and obstructionist the Republicans are, and make the spurious claim that all they ever do is say “No” to everything.

And none of them can imagine why the electorate is disenchanted.