Democratic?

North Carolina's Democratic governor Beverly Perdue has a suggestion for dealing with the debt crisis:

"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover...I really hope that someone can agree with me on that."

Let's give her the benefit of the doubt and accept her staff's insistence that this was a joke.

Furthermore, let's acknowledge that this is a nonpartisan issue; whether it was a mortifyingly ill-advised joke or honest contempt for democracy and the rule of law, either kind of failing can be found as easily among Republicans as among Democrats.

With those assumptions, I'd like to offer a piece of advice to all American politicians: Joking about suspending elections is not wise. It's already starting to feel a bit too much like 1775 for comfort.