1,196 days since the last major piece of legislation passed through Congress--that is the Tea Party's "legacy"

Now that the latest federal government “crisis” is over, it is about time we take stock of the “accomplishments” of Congress since the Republicans took back control of the House in 2010. Ummmm….well, we have to go pretty far back for anything of any import…let’s see…oh yes, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed on, umm, July 21, 2010. Well, actually, the Democrats still had a majority in the House back then. If my math is correct, that means it has been 1,196 days since a major piece of legislation has passed through Congress and onto the desk of the president. 

Now that is an “accomplishment.” 

This is what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid means when he says the Tea Party that has hijacked government are a bunch of pointless anarchists for whom the labor of governance is just too exhausting an exercise. Well, actually, the House has voted about 50 times or so to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which I suppose takes some minute amount of effort, if only proving that stupid is as stupid does. One recent Gallup poll showed that more Americans would approve of the country going Communist that those who approve of the job Congress is doing. 

In their book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein note that the failure of compromise—by Republicans in particular—in Congress endangers democracy in this country. So implacably adversarial has the Right become, and with a governing system that allows even a minority in Congress—not just in the Senate, but a relatively insignificant number of extremists issuing childish threats in the House—can grind any forward progress to indefinite immobility. 

Mann and Ornstein argue that the solution to the problem—besides a media that actually informs the public rather than engaging in bird-brained partisan politics (like Fox News and hate talk radio)—is not by simply replacing one “bum” with another, but by voters rewarding those senators and Congresspersons who work to solve problems in the national interest, and punish those who obstruct progress. In 2014, that should be an easy decision to make.