It can be surreal.

A president fires a national security advisor and blames the “fake news” media for the firing. Excuse me? The president is the one who did the firing, not the media. Mr. President, are you really saying that if the media hadn’t reported the fact (real fact, not an alternate fact) that the gentleman in question had misled your loyal vice president, and possibly you as well, you could have swept the whole thing under the rug and kept the guy on despite having an “eroding level of trust” in him? Really? Try taking responsibility for an unpleasant, but nevertheless necessary, executive action.

You, and your allies in the Congress, have nothing good to say about the previous administration, whose actions allegedly lie at the root of most of our current problems. Yet when you have to defend your decisions, for example, deporting undocumented individuals, or putting together a list of countries suitable for a travel ban, the need is felt to justify the action on some precedent supposedly set by said prior administration. Mr. President, take ownership of your own initiatives, and let history ascribe ownership to what has gone before.

The president and his Republican fellow travelers in Congress, whine about Democrat obstructionism. This is very difficult for Democrats to swallow, given the fact Republicans tried, and were largely successful, in obstructing virtually everything the prior president presented during his eight-year tenure – including a middle-of-the-road Supreme Court nominee to whom Republicans would not even give a hearing, much less an up or down vote. Now these hypocrites are demanding that the Democrats do exactly what they refused to do? The appropriate Yiddish term is, I believe, “chutzpah.”

And besides, Mr. President, if you had your new Secretary of Education tally up Republican and Democrat membership in the House and Senate, you would find that Republicans control both chambers. While the Democrats can huff and puff and delay, in the end, congressional Republicans can push through pretty much whatever they want.

To be on the safe side, have someone double-check the secretary’s math.

Of course, the problem with listing grievances is that both sides have them, and compiling lists of grievances contributes nothing to getting the people’s business done.

It is time for someone in the room to act like an adult. With respect, it remains to be seen if the president can play that role, and a Republican caucus fixated on fighting the ideological wars looks even less promising.

This leaves it to the battered remnants of the Democrat caucus.

It’s not as implausible as it sounds. While their Republican colleagues obsess about putting together the plan they said they had completed several months ago to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Democrats might introduce legislation on other issues that could attract bipartisan support.

It may be a long shot, but here are a couple of modest suggestions.

Under current tax regulations, a company that decides to move offshore can deduct from its tax liability the costs associated with making that move. In effect, not only does the country lose the jobs, America’s taxpayers end up subsidizing the costs incurred in the move.

Think we might find some common ground in repealing this insanity?

Recently, a dam in California threatened to fail, resulting in the forced evacuation of over 200,000 downstream residents.

We have known for years that America’s infrastructure is overdue for major reinvestment. The president has said he is in favor of a sweeping infrastructure bill. Democrats would find the middle class jobs created an attractive inducement. The problem has always been how to pay for it.

Rather than wait for all of the factions in the Republican majority to come to agreement on the funding at some time in the indeterminate future, why not take the initiative and introduce a bill with a funding mechanism? Let the bean counters and the ideology wonks argue over the funding details – but let them do it in full view, and under the gun of a president and public demanding that action be taken.

Congress has been in gridlock so long its esteemed members have forgotten how to legislate. The Democratic caucus would do their country a service by taking the lead on legislation that can draw in some GOP support.

If the legislation attracts such support, they just might break the current logjam. Hooray! If it fails to attract bipartisan support just because the legislation didn’t come out of the Republican caucus, the possibility exists there are those in the majority who put party over country.

And if the country really wants to drain the swamp, those folks might be a good place to start in the 2018 mid-term elections.

Tick tock.