Politico had an article (link below) on the failure of congress. They look at three areas of blame, right, left, middle. It is sure to offend everyone, which is how we know it is accurate.
The take of the right, a short excerpt:
The take of the left, a short excerpt:
And for the middle:
And of course, I'll blame non-competitive districts. If we assume, in a heavy district of one party, 60% of the district might be of one party. of them, about 50%, will vote in a primary. So that is 30% of the total population voting in a specific party's primary. To win, the candidate needs over half, so say 17% of the district's total support. So the district is represented by the winner of 17%, which typically will be the most extreme 17%. These are the left and right people above, the people who don't want to compromise but insist on my way or the highway.
I don't have a good answer on getting more people involved who want to work to actually solve problems and not just posture. But the left and right live in some fantasy land and the middle is just toothless.
The take of the right, a short excerpt:
What Roy, Trump and their ilk cannot see is that conquering the Republican Party is not the same as conquering America. A meaningful majority of Americans find their policies to be extreme, their methods odious, their leaders foolish and their vision for America untethered to reality. Their bully-boy tactics are unlikely to succeed with an evenly divided Senate, a Democratic president or even a conservative Supreme Court struggling to maintain its own legitimacy. And were they to try to seize power (again) through nefarious means, the country’s elite — judges, civil servants, state officials, military and business leaders — would do whatever it takes to stop them, just as they did on Jan. 6.
The take of the left, a short excerpt:
In reality, America is not the progressive paradise Democrats tell themselves — and us — that it is. While a majority of Americans favor modest increases in legal immigration and a pathway to legalization for those here illegally, they don’t favor a ban on deportations or providing food, shelter, medical care and public school education for those who cross illegally. Most Americans’ response to the wave of car-jackings, store lootings and drive-by shootings isn’t to demand the end of cash bail and an all-out assault on “structural racism.” While concerned about global warming, they’re not on board with shutting down oil and gas production, paying higher prices for gas and electricity or giving up airplane travel. Even before the recent Supreme Court decision, a majority would have banned most abortions after the first trimester. And while most people have come to embrace gay rights and gay marriage, they are deeply offended at being labeled homophobic bigots because they don’t think transgender females should compete on the girls’ swim team or share locker rooms with their teenage daughters.
And for the middle:
But perhaps the biggest reason moderates wimp out is that cooperating with the other party isn’t rewarded, at least not politically. For starters, it increases the chance of drawing a challenger in the next party primary. And no matter how closely moderates work with members of the other party, because they invariably hail from purple states and swing districts, they are almost certain to be targeted for defeat in the next election by the other party’s campaign committee. If you doubt it, just ask Peter Meijer, the freshman Republican from Michigan whose reward for having the courage to vote to impeach President Trump was to have Democrats donate $2.4 million to his victorious far-right primary opponent in the 2022 Republican primary. (The Democrats’ cynical bet paid off; they won the seat in the general election.)
In the end, the centrist dream of forming a bipartisan governing majority is no more grounded in reality than the Republican fantasy of seizing power through force of will or the Democrats’ conceit that the country is behind them. Unfortunately, as long as leaders and members cling to these delusions, a dysfunctional Congress will continue to spin its wheels, sinking deeper into the rut of mindless partisanship and irrelevancy.
The whole takes are far more interesting and worth a read. I am sure it will draw responses of "they nailed the other side, but we are pure as the wind-driven snow". I find the middle interesting, there is a discussion on bills the middle is working on for things like first-responder suicides, fentanyl abuse, etc. Items that have huge support, but the middle isn't even powerful enough to get these bills a committee hearing.And of course, I'll blame non-competitive districts. If we assume, in a heavy district of one party, 60% of the district might be of one party. of them, about 50%, will vote in a primary. So that is 30% of the total population voting in a specific party's primary. To win, the candidate needs over half, so say 17% of the district's total support. So the district is represented by the winner of 17%, which typically will be the most extreme 17%. These are the left and right people above, the people who don't want to compromise but insist on my way or the highway.
Opinion | The Painful, Depressing Reality of Why Congress Is So Dysfunctional
Lawmakers will have to give up these fantasies if they want to get the House and Senate back on track.
www.politico.com
I don't have a good answer on getting more people involved who want to work to actually solve problems and not just posture. But the left and right live in some fantasy land and the middle is just toothless.