At the end of last month, the Financial Times (a newspaper, despite its encouraging name, of the center-left) bid a somewhat sour farewell to the 113th Congress:

Although only in full control of the House of Representatives, Republicans had a blocking minority in the Senate. Sometimes wisely, sometimes not so, they used it to stop almost anything President Barack Obama proposed.
The result was the least productive Congress in modern US history. It sat for fewer days and passed fewer bills than any since the second world war. Worse, it closed down the federal government for more than two weeks and threatened to do so on other occasions.

Because voting against measures proposed by Obama is “unproductive.”

Because refusing to approve certain funding legislation is “unproductive” (FWIW, I was not in favor of taking the stance that the Republicans did, but that makes it something I disagreed with rather than something that was, by definition, “unproductive”: the checks and balances built into the American system of government are there for good reason).

Because passing “fewer bills” is “unproductive.”

Because just showing up is “productive.”

The FT went on to note this:

Another wasted Congress could imperil the chances of a [GOP] presidential victory in 2016. After last month’s Republican midterm win on the lowest turnout since the 1930s, the electorate knows which party now controls Capitol Hill.

I particularly enjoyed that sly reference to the “lowest turnout since the 1930s.” At 36.4 percent it was the lowest turnout for 70 years and 1942 (33.9 percent) was almost the 1930s. On the other hand, the turnout for the elections to the EU’s parliament in 2014 (an election that only happens every five years) was 42.5 percent, not that much higher, and it represented the latest low point in a slide that has continued uninterrupted since 1979,something that the eurofundamentalist FT might like to recall when it stares so critically at turnout across the Atlantic Ocean.

To be fair, the FT does make this necessary disclaimer:

Passing laws is not the ultimate test of a legislature’s success, but lawmaking can and should make a difference in key policy areas.

Well, yes, but only if the proposed laws are any good. If they are not, doing nothing is far more, well, “productive.”