No, New York Times, a Yes on #Syria will not make us do the Democrats’ bidding.

Let me just nip this errant nonsense right in the bud:

Some Obama loyalists make the case that the Syria resolution, if approved, could lead to other successes. Working across party lines might prove contagious, precipitating a search for more common ground.

…because it caters to a peculiar delusion of the Democratic party: to wit, that the reason why there has been (blessedly) gridlock in Congress since 2011 is because of partisanship.

No.

The reason why there has been gridlock in Congress since 2011 is because in 2010 the Republican party was able to elect enough federal legislators to make our collective opinions relevant, particularly the one that goes The Democrats are flipping wrong on the economy. It boils down to this: the other side had two years of full control of the government, and they spent it passing Obamacare and the Lily Ledbetter Act*. Oh, and going outhouse crazy with new levels of deficit spending; levels that they’ve been trying to make the new normal ever since.  Democratic reflexes, in other words, are lacking when it comes to a sour economy; which is merely me finding a polite way to suggest that the typical Democrat with access to the treasury is like the average rat with the pleasure center of its brain wired to the red, candy-like button under its paw**.

So, it’s not that Republicans despise the Democrats (although I frankly do despise most Democratic politicians). We can work with people whom we despise, as even a cursory examination of the career of Chuck Schumer would suggest. The problem is that our party collectively think that most Democratic Members of Congress are room-temperature IQ doofuses (doofusi?) that need to wear special umbrellas on their heads, lest they look up at the rain in wonder, mouth agape, and then promptly drown.

For the record, and all that.

Moe Lane

*Which practically nobody still can remember what that one does without looking it up; and when they do, they typically wonder what all the fuss was about.

**This was originally a reference to monkeys, except that I can’t find an actual reliable reference to that sort of thing happening.  Rats, yes: monkeys, no.  I mean, I assume that somebody’s chipped a monkey at least once; but this is the Internet.  I’d rather not get caught up in any random pedantry going around.  That I didn’t start.  Or would find politically useful. Or something.