If you are bothered by criticism of the Democratic party, move along… This post is not for you.

[Glassunion]

I am going to produce facts in this post. So, if you are bothered by facts and self-criticism, move along… This post is not for you.
I have an opinion that may differ from yours. So, if you are bothered by self-criticism, facts and opinions, move along… This post is not for you.
This post may be quite lengthy. So, if you are bothered by self-criticism, facts, opinions, and a lot of reading… You know what to do.


Why do we, as Democrats have trouble getting things to work out the way that we want them to? We show up on Election Day, we vote, we get our reps elected. Why the hell does it seem that nothing is getting done? I asked myself this very question, and decided to look into it. So I went to the Library of Congress (website) and started to look up some stuff on our employees. I wish I had not.

Here is that opinion that I mentioned earlier. After that bit of research, I had to come to a conclusion, I did not like what I saw, but here is what I concluded. Democrats are less effective than their Republican counterparts. Yep, that’s right, if you look at nothing but their overall job performance, Republicans are better at their job than Democrats. As a manager, if I posted a new job within my company and I chose the best performer for the job. Performance numbers show that it would be a Republican in that new position.

I will share some of the info that I came up with. Everything that I have is readily available to everyone on the LOC website, from bills to voting records to absences.

The first thing that I looked at was the effectiveness of the top performers of congress and the senate. Of the top ten performers, 5 happened to be Democrat and the other 5 Republican. Another coincidence is that they have all been incumbents since before the sample period that I used. My gauge was simple. How many bills (not resolutions) sponsored (not co-sponsored) by a given rep that have been enacted. If you look at the top 10 (Since the 1989(House)/1991(Senate) elections) performers and the number of Bills that they enacted: The top 5 Republicans have enacted 217 Bills. The Democrats only had 158. So if you look at our top performers, we are only 73% as effective as our opponents. Oh, here is the top ten performers, and the number of successful Bills they have enacted, in case you are wondering:

1. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, UT) 64
2. Rep. Donald Young (R, AK) 59
3. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, MA) 35
4. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, VT) 33
5. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) 33
6. Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) 32
7. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R, WI) 31
8. Rep. Christopher Smith (R, NJ) 31
9. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, NY) 29
10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D, NY) 28


Looks like our greatest performer just passed away. This makes me sad. With his passing, the top 10 will shift, placing a Republican in the #10 spot. The new top 10 will consist of 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

Now let’s look at what makes me mad. As a manager, I do look at several things when evaluating employees. After performance, I look at quality of work. Are my employees spending their time wisely? You may have a good performer, but their performance might not be quality work. It’s like having an employee who always shows up, busts their ass, but gets nothing accomplished. So, I looked at the top ten wheel spinners. In this case the top (or bottom) ten contained 8 Democrats and only 2 Republicans. What I looked at was their failed bills (excluding resolutions) that they sponsored that never made it out of committee. The Democrats had 3,694 failed bills. The Republicans had 986. As a boss, and looking at groups of my employees, I would have to say that the Republicans only suck 26% as much as the Democrats do.

Of the sample group all but one (Rep. Carolyn Maloney ) were incumbents in the 89/91 election period. Rep Maloney was not elected until 1993. However, Maloney has contributed to over 11% of the failed Bills. Another note is that in the list is Arlen Specter. We ended up on the shitty end of the Turncoat stick with that one. He personally added an additional 10% to that number of failed bills. Yay us!

The next group of numbers does not really make me mad, but they do concern me as well. Coattails, the act riding on the ideas of others. Or Co-Sponsorship. Now I do understand the necessity for co-sponsorship of bills, however there are those who seem to have a want to be attached to everything that comes down the pike. So I looked at the top ten of those who co-sponsor the most. This list consisted of 9 Democrats and 0 Republicans. There was one Independent. So, I expanded my sample group from a top 10, to a top 20. One problem was that I now had a sample group of 1 Independent and 19 Democrats. Ok let’s expand the group to a top 30… Nope… Umm… Top 40? No, try again… TOP 50!? Ok, now we are getting somewhere. We have a sample group of 48 Democrats, 1 Republican and 1 Independent. I’m not even going to bother with the numbers and percentages. Apparently a lot of our time is spent co-sponsoring other people’s Bills. Perhaps if we did not spend so much time on other’s work, and started focusing on what our districts are asking, we might get some more work done. Personally I would like to see the representatives of our party act a little more like leaders, and not so much as followers.

Here is where I truly became pissed off. As a manager, there is one thing that I do not tolerate. Poor attendance… If you don’t show up, you should be fired, because you are paid to be there. Now I do understand that there are reasonable absences, for illness, emergencies, committee and sub-committee duties. However there is a huge discrepancy in absences between the Republicans and Democrats. This time my sample group was the entire House and Senate. Overall the Republicans have been absent for 3% of their votes. The Democrats have been absent for 4%. Now you may be saying to yourself “That’s not really that much. It is just one percent.”. Let me put it this way… 1% is roughly the equivalent to 20,000 missed votes for the Democrats. 1% for the Republicans is equivalent to roughly 14,000 votes. The numbers are different, due to tenure, and volume of seats occupied.

I am a Democrat because I believe in more of our values, than those of the Republicans. After looking at the performance of our party, I am truly disappointed to be one. We seem to piss and moan about why things don’t go our way. We seem to have a lot of excuses. “The Republicans have been the majority for so long, we did not have enough seats to get anything done.” To that I would have to just say “Horseshit…” We did not do anything with the seats we had back then nor the seats that we have now.

Our employees are in a position of majority right now. However, I don’t think that they will get anything accomplished. Judging from their past and current performance, they will not be there, they will not be successful in introducing new legislation. If they decide to show up, they will focus their energy on dead-end Bills and riding around on the coattails of others. All the while the Republicans that are there, will continue to put their noses to the grindstones and plow on. This makes me sick. I will be sharing this information with my Representatives. If we don’t change the attitude of our employees, they will continue to be poor performers. If we can’t change their attitude and performance, we should replace them.

If you want it done, ask a Republican to do it.

[MineralMan]

1. Nice intro. Movin' along now...

Your advice saved me a few minutes. Very efficient.

[Glassunion]

13. Unlike government in general

I do like to operate efficiently... Glad I could help.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. It certainly seems that way. ONE Republican senator is more powerful than a Democratic President.

Any Republican Senator is free to "flirt" with the Democrats and get BILLIONS of pork and special favors for his state AND THEN NOT VOTE FOR WHAT THEY WANT.

...and a Republican President serving with a Democratically controlled Congress (Bush) can get them to do EVERY FUCKING THING HE WANTS.

So I think you might have a point...

[Vermontgrown]

16. Because he used threats and coercion.

The repukes are thugs.

[Heidi]

3. If you want what WE want done, you DON'T ask a Republican.

You let me know the last time a prominent Republican came out in a big, public way for universal health care (with public option), full human rights for our GLBT brothers and sisters (including marriage rights and an end to DADT and DOMA), a safety net for the working poor, full reproductive rights for women, support of SCIENCE, and/or an end to our attempt to colonize the Middle East.

I'm not sayin' we Dems are gettin' it done, either, but I've got more leverage as a citizen with Dems than I do with Republicans who share about 0 percent of my "issues."

[Glassunion]

5. I totally get what you are saying.

My last statement was sarcasm. Sorry. The point of my post was to imply that our representatives could be doing a much better job than they are. I would like to see them perform better.

[countingbluecars]

4. Most good things that have happened

in our country are because of Democrats. Just the number of bills means little to me.

[Glassunion]

6. Could you elaborate on that?

Why would that number not be important to you?

Also, as far as attendance goes, I think that a non vote, carries more weight than a yea or nay. It tells me you don't care and bothers me.

[FredStembottom]

7. Well, yes....

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Since Carter.... what good, traditionally Democratic stuff has been enacted?

Just thinking out loud. Not directed at you, bluecars.:hi:

[countingbluecars]

8. I get what you are saying.

I was thinking civil rights for African Americans and women. Since Carter???

[FredStembottom]

11. That ancient stuff is why I remain a Dem!

But GlasU's figures help illuminate the systemic failure since those days.

This just gets back to the message I have been irritating DU'ers with since I first posted back in 2004:

The Republicans aren't our real enemy. They are buffoons that can be blown away with the slightest breeze of truth.

Why have our elected Dems withheld that truth for 30 years?

Our real enemy is corrupted Democrats in D.C.

[FredStembottom]

9. Good work, Glasunion.

Valuable.

It's past time for all Dems out here in the hinterlands to start acting like the employers we really are.

I suspect some kind of behind the scenes corruption powers the traditional ineffectiveness of our elected Dems.

Simply because the "herding cats" thing is just not adequate to explain 30 straight years of failure.

But how am I to know for sure sitting out here in the Minnesota snow?
:shrug:

[progpatriot76]

22. Voters MUST demand better in our candidates

For far too long we as voters have simply accepted the status
quo with regard to our candidates.  Essentially, we have voted
with great ignorance.  One snapshot of this is the continued
corruption here is Detroit.  The Democrats tell the voters
what they want to hear and simply use that rhetoric as a
stepping stool to the office where they simply kick back,
relax and focus on how to rape the voters and taxpayers. This
is a scar against the Democratic party that is deep and
lasting.  

This must stop and it takes the voters to crawl out of their
box of ignorance and contempt for the right; and educate
themselves about what needs to be fixed in this great country
of ours and question the leadership when they do  not perform.
 Stop voting based on past hatred and STOP MAKING EXCUSES! the
past has no meaning; it is gone.  Lets look forward with true
hope, intelligence and prosperity that is the foundation of
our country and our party. Peace.

[FredStembottom]

10. P.S. GlasU....

This type of criticism won't get you to the Greatest Page!

But I salute you. :patriot:

[Glassunion]

12. I'm a realist.

I did notice a lot of the drive-by un-recs. So what? I'm not here to win hearts or make friends. I want to see our party succeed. I want to share what I see.

We are all entitled to our opinions, and we can speak them out or not. That's the beauty of the 1A.

[defendandprotect]

14. If you're trying to knock out the Democratic Party, non-performance is a good way to do it!!

And, the pressure within the party to move it to the right is doing just that!!

[Vermontgrown]

15. What a bunch of bullshit.

Passing laws and writing bills, doing their jobs, fucking lying, that's what republicans do. That is so much bullshit. The quality of what the democrats produce is the thing here. That the repukes have an enate ability to pass laws is more to the fact that they have "twice as many lobbyists" working for those assholes. I will never be convince that they do more. The people that work for them are the "do mores" in the repuke end of the massive bullshit that is our government. So if you're so full of the repuke side of the aisle walk over. Spread your lies on that side of government. So mr glassunion, Your honorary degree from bullshit u is waiting on the right side of he senate go get your highest honor bestowed on and for republicans.

[Glassunion]

17. Wow...

I'm going to ask that you read the post again. Not only did you completely miss the point, it would seem to me from your insults that you are just flame baiting. So if you would like to have an honest conversation, please check your tone and don't think that being insulting is a way to get your point across.

[scentopine]

18. Excellent post - I have made this point before...

The political center has been moving hard right for some time - to the point where democratic cheerleaders on this board are frighteningly similar to early reagan neo-cons complete with trickle down stimulus packages and bailouts, war mongering and free market voodoo.

Another argument I have made is that the republicans are doing all of the heavy lifting - they set the tone and political direction of the country by control of the media and placing their shock troops out front.

The democrats are happy to let the republicans (and fortune 500 corporations) do this - it saves them from having to invest in a message or spend dollars building up the "liberal" brand. You might notice how Obama lumps liberals in with his choice of words - "those on the left" in a false equivalence with "those on the right".

Listen, mother fucking centrist chair fillers - "those on the left" busted ass to get you elected. But I digress...

The democrats/centrists simply abandon any principals and draft along in the slip stream created by the republicans. If democrats just follow the real-time sentiment manufactured by the republicans and stay one click to the left of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck - they figure they are golden *and* they can claim they are bi-partisan since the republicans are laying down the legislative framework.

The republicans have been so entirely effective that even when they lose, they win - its all about the republicans 24/7. They have been so effective that liberals are reviled in both mainstream political parties.

The difference between democrat and republicans is much like the difference between ABC and NBC and CBS. Its just an amalgamation of wealth and power to protect the wealthy and powerful commercial sponsors.

[DLATOO]

19. little difference

First post but, from my little world, there seems to be little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress - only the degree/speed to which they want the Federal Government take over of everything. Who to support? I don't know - just know that I support are troops who are currently serving in harms way in horrible conditions. I volunteer with The Hugs Project and make cooling ties and cookies and other things and help package them up to send to the mid-East to help and let them know we do care. I have friends in the group who are against the war - those who are for the war - but we all agree for and against, that these are our brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and husbands and wives so we have to do all we can to help.

[Glassunion]

20. Welcome to the DU!

Thanks for your reply...

There are quite a few of us here that share the same view about bringing our troops home.

Gimama has quite few links in her journal to websites that help our families and friends overseas.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/gimama

Again,
Welcome!

[Glassunion]

21. This seems topical in light of the recent extension of the tax breaks.

I read this... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9729818&mesg_id=9729818 and it reminded me of this old OP.

I'm still pissed at our employees.