Congress can feel like a jungle [1] in passing legislation. -- Chad

In the jungles of Congress, there are two main species: Democraticus hardworkus and Republicanus status quous. Unfortunately, neither of them will ever become extinct. But we are starting to see strange patterns [2] in the Republicanus status quous.

We saw 35 Senate Republicans vote with the Democrats on a $290 billion farm bill. We saw Republicans vote with Democrats to temporarily halt shipments of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

When the Republicanus status quous ruled the jungle between 1994-2006, they never feared about being perceived at not getting lots of legislation done. Heck, they thought shutting down the government was a great idea. They would go into elections not with a cry of "Look what we did" but more like "Look at what we didn't do." And their base loved it.

The Democraticus hardworkus cringes when things in Congress don't get done and hate it when the sloth of the Republicanus status quous got rewarded. "Hey, Congress never does anything anyway. So maybe it's good nothing got done," is a mantra many Americans subscribe to, even if things such as bridges in Minnesota collapse.

But now the Republicanus status quous is in a panic. Suddenly, the nothingness of their philosophy isn't working. The people demand results from Congress. And their panic is also fueled by special election defeats in such Republicanus status quous dominant areas such as Mississippi.

Even though the Democraticus hardworkus are back in charge, the Republicanus status quous has worked really hard to prevent anything getting done. And that has made those who support Democraticus hardworkus very unhappy.

But there is a magical solution: get more Democraticus hardworkus in Congress. And there's one more solution: change the philosophy of the American public to accept that good things can come from Congress. We have a new generation of Americans that has accepted that nothing much ever gets done in Congress, and doesn't correlate a lack of progress with bad things happening as a result.

The Republicanus status quous reign of power did a lot of horrible damage, but their lasting legacy is diminishing the perception of what Congress is capable of doing. If the Democraticus hardworkus can increase their margins in November, it can be the start to shifting that dynamic. There's a lot of hard work to do, but the Democraticus hardworkus has been breeded to do just that. They have to stand up for what's right; after all, it's a jungle out there.

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