Partisanship, circa 1933

I wrote a post the other day about the lack of partisan aggressiveness on the part of Congressional Democrats. So I decided to take a look back at the period in history to which 2009 is so often compared. During the 72nd Congress of the United States, which met from 1931-1933, the first elected since the 1929 stock market crash and the last before the election of FDR, Congress was as evenly divided along partisan lines as possible. The Senate had 48 Republicans, 47 Democrats and 1 Farmer-Laborer, placing control with the Republicans by 1 vote. In the House, the breakdown was an even 217-217 for Democrats and Republicans and 1 Farmer-Laborer, with the Democrats narrowly in control as a result of some strange deaths and special elections. Does this sound familiar, the country and the Congress being so evenly divided?

Jump forward to 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt has been elected president, marking a sweeping change from the Hoover administration and 8 years of Republicans in the White House. The 73rd Congress is widely considered to be one of the most productive in our nation's history, rapidly enacting broad-reaching New Deal legislation. With the new Democratic president in office, was the Congress still evenly divided? Far from it. Democrats held 59 seats in the Senate (sound familiar?) and a whopping 317 seats in the House of Representatives. With the exception of a few Congresses, the Democrats would have a tight grip on Congress for nearly the remainder of the 20th Century. When the New Deal was launched, the Democrats aggressively pushed for what they and Roosevelt wanted - and got it, without question. That was good for the country and good for the party. One difference between the 73rd and the 111th Congresses that must be noted was the level of support that the Republican minority gave to the New Deal programs. Senate Minority Leader Charles McNary was criticized from some Republican leaders for never scolding GOP senators who voted for New Deal legislation. That is a far cry from today's Republican party.

My point, once again, is that the Democrats are overwhelming in charge, and it's time to start showing it, to start exercising that legislative muscle. If we truly believe that our progressive ideas will be good for the country, there is no reason we should not push forward with them and enact them into law, with or without Republican support. The country doesn't give a damn about the partisan bickering of the recent past, they are looking for action. The Democrats can do themselves some good by doing what they want, because right now, that happens to also be what is right. It's a win-win.