Ross Douthat's columns are charaterized by all manner of annoying things -- his peurile nostalgia for a time that never really existed, his lack of worldliness, his discomfort with all things sexual, his utter lack of understanding of economic realities for most Americans -- a host of tendencies to dislike. But perhaps the most irritating of all is his completely partisan nature, an absolute inability to see the Republican Party for what it is accompanied by a need to portray the Democratic Party as an equivalently hyper-partisan organization. In his most recent column, Douthat lays out a counter-factual scenario of what might have happened if John McCain had prevailed in the 2008 election and concludes that Democrats would have been so embittered by such an event that they too would have done everything to block any recovery agenda put forward by McCain.
One can't help but be struck by Douthat's short memory. Democrats actually experienced the kind of bitter electoral defeat scenario he imagines way back in the ancient days of 2000-01, when George Bush was awarded the presidency despite having lost the popular vote by over 500,000 and on the strength of the U.S. Supreme Court halting the Florida recount in one of the most dubious constitutional decisions in the nation's history. Bush assumed office with scant legitimacy in the eyes of most Democrats and, speaking personally, I can assure Douthat, that his elevation to office via a 5-4 Supreme Court vote was an extraordinarily bitter experience.
And yet, when it came to enacting Bush's domestic agenda, one did not see anything like the endless and uniform obstruction that has characterized the Republican congressional caucus since day one of the Obama Administration. The No Child Left Behind Act was passed with huge bipartisan support and the leading liberal spokesman in Congress, Ted Kennedy, co-sponsored the legislation. Medicare Part D passed the Senate despite not having 60 votes and received the support of ten Senate Democrats. In the House, Part D passed on the strength of nine Democrats breaking ranks with their leadership, allowing the bill to pass despite the defection of 19 Republican members. Finally, the first Bush tax cut was passed in the Senate by a 58-33 vote with twelve Democrats supporting it and it passed the House by a vote of 240 to 154 with 28 Democrats voting in favor -- a mere six months after Bush illegitimately grabbed the presidency.
So in fact, we have seen how Democrats reacted to just the type of factual scenario that Douthat sketches out and it is clear, for better or worse, that the Party's congressional members felt the need to allow the President to govern. Would that the same could be said about Douthat's fellow Party members.
