Since my last post had the unfortunate side-effect of giving my colleague Sue Prent a sad, here’s a little something to bring cheer to the heart of any St. Albans Democrat.

Ah, here comes our old frenemy Dustin “Dustbin” Degree, former Jim Douglas fartcatcher and one-term Republican State Representative, to enlighten us all on the status of Vermont politics by way of a commentary posted on VTDigger. Hint: Everything is terrible, and it’s all the Democrats’ fault.

This week, the Legislature sits and as it has since 2009, the Democratic supermajority will once again control every single aspect of the legislative process.

Hey, Dustbin: ya don’t like it, WIN SOME ELECTIONS.

…the supermajority will impose its will on Vermonters with little desire for compromise or acknowledgment of those who, often vehemently, disagree.

Yes, the legislative supermajority elected by a supermajority of voters will conduct its business without compromising with a party that’s fallen into a black hole of political irrelevance due to its own disorganization and rabid conservatism.

Damn voters, anyway. Ingrates! They reject the wisdom of Our Greatest Living Citizen:

For eight years, the Douglas administration warned of the consequences of rising taxes, increased spending and burdensome developmental permitting.

And after eight years, the voters were fed up with the Douglas administration’s constant hectoring and lack of new ideas or coherent policy.  

Doomster Dustbin goes on to cite carefully selected employment numbers purporting to show how our state is going straight to hell in a Democratic handbasket. He then concludes that “the Democrats’ experiment in single party rule has failed,” which makes it sound like the Dems seized power in a coup rather than prevailing in a series of free and fair elections. In part because of their appeal to voters, and in part because of the Republicans’ lack of appeal.

I realize you’re too young to remember it, Dustbin, but about the time you were pooping your Pampers (b. 1985 per Wikipedia), Vermont was a solidly Republican state. Maybe instead of castigating the Democrats for daring to beat your party, you should look in the mirror and ask, “How did we manage to blow it so badly? And what can we do to reconnect with the voters?”

In the absence of such an honest reappraisal of, by, I can understand why you so energetically present this disaster-porn of a prediction — why you seem so eager for economic catastrophe. Your only hope for regaining power is for Vermont to go so far off the rails that your self-marginalized party will start to look like a reasonable option.

Finally, a couple more howlers from Dustbin’s conclusion:

We must demand that the allegiance of our senators and representatives lies with the people, and not the praise or preference of party leadership.

Uh, er, are you talking about “the people” who knowingly and enthusiastically elected all those damn Democrats? I guess in your fantasy world, those elections somehow didn’t count (ACORN?), and our elected representatives are somehow out of touch with the very people who’ve repeatedly endorsed their policies through multiple election cycles.

And we must restore the sacred concepts of cooperation and compromise to our legislative process.

In other words, the Democrats should voluntarily relinquish their freely-won political mandate; instead, they should water down their policies to mollify the 30-35% conservative dead-enders.

Just like the Republicans have done in places where they have the majority, eh, Dustbin? Florida, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio? Would you hold up Paul LePage or Rick Perry or Jan Brewer as models of “cooperation and compromise”?

I guess you’d reject the words of George W. Bush after his extremely narrow (and disputed) 2004 victory, when he said “I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.”

Well, Mr. Bush had earned a mere fraction of the political capital accumulated by the Vermont Democratic Party. Can you blame the Dems if they want to spend a little of it?

Well, a reasonable person couldn’t. But Dustin Degree can.