They have good intentions. They try to take care of a person who is experiencing difficulty, but the caretaking becomes compulsive and defeating. Co-dependents often take on a martyr’s role and become “benefactors” to an individual in need.
–mentalhealthamerica.net
There you have it, boys and girls.
I thought for the longest time that Virginia Democrats were hamstrung genetically, somehow cursed with a “good government” gene, burdened with an insatiable, compulsive desire to “help,” to “fix things,” to “make government work.”
But I was wrong!
MHA Fact Sheet: Co-dependency is a learned behavior that can be passed down from one generation to another.
That explains it! How many years did Democrats give Virginia good government? Good roads? Good schools? What was it, a hundred and fifty, or so?
No wonder they’re exhibiting the classic co-dependency marker: An exaggerated sense of responsibility for the actions of others.
Is there a cure?
There is.
MHA Fact Sheet: Treatment includes education, experiental groups (as in the Democratic Caucus) and individual and group therapy through which co-dependents rediscover themselves and identify self-defeating behavior patterns.
Let me help you with these ‘patterns’:
1) For God’s sake, stop trying to “do the right thing.” You’re in a minority. Acknowledge it. Doing the right thing will only get you kicked in the teeth.
2) The budget is McDonnell’s little red wagon now. Let him pull it. Can the budget be balanced? Yes. In five minutes. Can it be balanced without cuts in spending, an increase in revenues, or some combination of the two? No. It cannot be. But that’s not your problem. It’s McDonnell’s. Resist the urge to help him “fix” it.
3) McDonnell wants to rob the Peters of education and law enforcement to pay the Paul of transportation. Let him do it. He won. It’s his responsibility. Do not enable him. Don’t try to “make it right.”
4) You’re back-benchers now. Learn to like it. You have no role. Enjoy the show.
Think your problem might be dementia instead of co-dependency?
Rest easy. If you’re worried about dementia you don’t have it.
Still unsure? Still feel that compulsive urge to “help?”
Arrange for a diagnostic evaluation with a licensed physician or psychologist experienced in treating co-dependency. You’re going to be okay.
Try to forget Gov. Howell. Try to forget Massive Resistance. Try to forget the 1902 Virginia constitution. Try to forget Harry F. Byrd. C’Mon Democrats in Virginia - you can forget 100+ years of racism and disaster.
Try to forget the fact that the Richmond Public Schools weren’t finally integrated until 1986. Try to forget that you wouldn’t put up a status of home town winner (Arthur Ashe) because it might have distracted from home town losers like Robert E. Lee. Oh, Lee was from Alexandria? Good point.
Help me here. What is the real history of the Democratic Party of Virginia (aka the supposed decendants of Pocohontas).
This is a comedy - right?
Groveton, if we all jotted up our shortcomings, we’d be a nation of midgets.
The Republicans have avoided a sordid 100 year history in Virginia basically by losing a lot of elections!
Barnie,
As you and I both know, Democrats just refuse to accept the proper role of the minority party: to stand on the sidelines and lob hand grenades into the halls of government.
Republicans are great at this. And it does serve a purpose in keeping the majority party somewhat honest.
Republicans, of course, are terrible at actually governing because, as they freely admit, they hate government.
Really, it’s the voters’ fault for not keeping the parties in their proper roles.
Groveton, McDonnell is trapped–trapped by campaign promises he made, and trapped by a governing majority. But he’s no fool. Before everything is said and done, I still look for him to ask for a recount!
Is Groveton seriously comparing today’s Virginia Democratic party with the Republican-in-everything-but-name Byrd machine? They were only Democrats because they couldn’t stand to join the party of Lincoln so “soon” after the War of Northern Aggression. This absurd equation is being tossed out more and more. It’s disgraceful and intellectually dishonest.
Calling a democrat a democrat is “intellectually dishonest”?
Byrd was a democrat whether modern democrats like it or not. Byrd was a racist whether modern democrats like it or not.
Make no mistake–Harry Flood Byrd was a Democrat, as were his lapdogs. I know it is popular, particularly with apologists, but I don’t buy the argument that you have to consider someone in the context of their times to understand their measure. We don’t cleanse our history by denying it. It is what it is. Byrd was racism personified. He just wore a three-piece and wingtips, rather than a sheet and hobnails. Yet, you can’t understand Virginia today without dealing with Byrd. His impact was profound, his stranglehold on Virginia politics, and thus on policy during his time, unmatched since the English landed at that swamp they named Jamestown. ‘Young Turks’ like Tom Moss (former Speaker, now Norfolk treasurer), Alan Diamonstein (ran for LG after a hundred years in the House), and Frank Hall (JFK’s man in Virginia, now on the ABC Board) bucked the fabled Byrd ‘machine’ in the early Sixties and walked us out of the Dark Ages. Still, one Byrd vestige remains–a man I respect and admire–Lacy Putney, of Bedford. The longest serving member of any state legislature in America, Putney ran as a segregationist in the 1961 Democratic Primary, defeating Charles Green, also of Bedford. He came to his senses in 1966 and renounced the Democratic Party. Been an Independent since. Sorta. BKD