A mere thirteen months ago, it appeared as though the long-suffering Democratic Party was ready to have its day in the sun. After eight years of tyrannical irresponsibility in all phases of government, it seemed the law of averages was coming back around to the left side of the figurative political aisle. After nearly a decade of borderline-psychotic mismanagement, the election of Barack Obama and a nearly filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (which became so some months later) to go with the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives seemed to signal a changing of ideas and practices related to the running of our nation.

We can now see, however, that this was a pipe dream, and one of the highest order.

No one can blame Ted Kennedy for dying. But we can hold (and have here*) Martha Coakley accountable for losing a seat held by Ted and his brother before him for 58 years. Similarly, we can’t blame Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) for growing disillusioned with the political process. We can, however, be upset with him for bailing on his party in its time of distress.

I promise you, Rahm Emmanuel cursed a blue streak when he found out about this one.

The soon-to-be-former Senator Bayh was, at one point, one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, a potential Vice President and leading, relatively-young light for the next generation of Democrats. But then on February 15, he made the shocking announcement that he is resigning his post at the end of his current term (which ends this year), he will not run for re-election, he is sick of everything in Washington, and he no longer wishes to play ball. He seems completely unconcerned that he is leaving his party in the lurch with what some might call his careless handling of this situation. When taken at face value, his move seems to prove Bayh to be a Chicken Shit of the highest order, Bayh a man who, because he is unhappy, sees no problem with leaving things as they are for someone else to figure out.

The man had his reasons, though, and explained them in an interview with MSNBC. Chief among his motives for stepping down appears to be that, after two weeks of working with Republican legislators to co-sponsor a bipartisan deficit reduction bill, many of the Republicans he worked with voted against their own bill. Bayh called the American political system “dysfunctional” (fucking duh, man) and full of “brain-dead partisanship.” He denied he was quitting to seek a higher office and at times sounded like a man tired of taking a beating, a man who wants, above all else, simply to go home.

It should be noted that Bayh was not facing a difficult re-election campaign. He is a trusted voice on Capitol Hill and someone willing, as his anecdote shows, to reach across the aisle in an attempt to build consensus. He did not need to quit in the way that someone like Chris Dodd did. There was no sort of running for cover involved. He was good at his job and trusted by his constituents.  But that wasn’t enough for him

You can have the Senate, he seemed to say, I’m out.

It’s going to be tempting for the Tea Party, Fox News-watching set to cheer this development as another win for their side, further proof that the winds of change are rising and the American political system will be back to being stroked by the cold, bloodless hands of the Republican Party in no time. They should not do this. No American should be happy with this development. It is a sad time to be a fan of our political system. It is a sad time to be a political watcher. In many ways, it is a sad time to be an American.

It should be very, very, very important to someone to be a United States Senator. They should not be tempted to quit in the way a person working at TGI Friday’s might, being beaten down and becoming disillusioned to the point where they fold up their apron and hit the road, not knowing what’s next but knowing they don’t want that. A small number of people have ever even held the position of Senator, and, below President of the United States and possibly a Supreme Court Justice, it is perhaps the most important governmental position a man or woman can hold. There is a prestige to Senators that surpasses that of Governors and dominates that of Representatives. The Senate was the second-to-last step in the process for any major piece of legislation that made this country into the wonder of the world that it is, the one immediately before being signed into law by the President himself.  Being a Senator, frankly, is a big deal.

Now, Bayh’s father was a long-tenured Senator, so perhaps he doesn’t have the starry eyes the rest of us should have when we consider the job. But Bayh never one time in his interview sounded like Barry Bonds (whose father and uncle were also popular ballplayers), completely unimpressed with such a revered position, but rather like that pissed-off TGI Friday’s server who didn’t dislike the job itself but hated so much about what went with it.

“Sometimes half a loaf is better than none,” he said, referring to legislators’ inability to compromise. Later, on the issue of seemingly endless campaigning, Bayh remarked, “…back in the day they used to have the saying, ‘You campaign for 2 years and you legislate for 4.’ Now you campaign for 6!” He sounded frustrated, angry, and, in a word, done.

Woe is the day a young, popular, moderate elected official who enjoys immense power in the American political system decides to give up out of frustration. Such behavior begins a slippery slope in which fair-minded and respectful thinkers give way to true believers and popcorn-headed zealots; in which people concerned with bettering the nation and working towards compromise give way to people who think compromise is a bad joke and only the most powerful have any right to legislate.

So no, upon further review it does not appear that Evan Bayh is a Chicken Shit. He rather seems a proud man with an idea in his head about how government works that no longer matches up with the facts on the ground. There may even be a certain nobility to what Bayh has done not unlike the ancient samurai practice of Seppukku, Bayh ending his political life rather than disgrace himself and his family name by taking part in bastardized “politics.”

We, on the other hand, have no choice but to bend over and take the coming assault of what promises to be a particularly hellacious mid-term election year, one in which Bayh, for one, had no interest in participating.

We should all be so lucky.