If you read this blog, you probably go with some frequency to RealClearPolitics, I find it indispensable. Nearly daily some opinion writer writes that the Republican-controlled House isn't doing its job and the column gets linked at RCP. Here is the latest example of this silliness.
Honestly, how dumb do they believe us to be? We have two major political parties which don't even agree about what constitutes our major problems, much less upon answers thereto.
A Republican-controlled House will pass legislation embodying Republican values in pursuit of Republican goals. What chance has such legislation of subsequently passing a Democrat-controlled Senate? Of surviving a Democrat President's veto?
The chance of either approximates zip, zilch, nada. So they don't bother.
Similarly, the Republican-controlled House won't bother to consider legislation embodying Democrat values in pursuit of Democrat goals which originated in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
When the public, in their collective wisdom, elect a divided legislature, gridlock is what happens. And our public votes for gridlock with some frequency, including currently.
In a representative republic, how should we interpret this voting behavior? It reflects a public in which few clear goals are widely shared.
Plus our system is designed to enable motivated minorities to stymie majorities that are not similarly energized. Maybe it shouldn't work this way, but it sure does.
Our governmental design performed better when more Americans shared a common culture and thus had similar goals. The current emphasis on sub-group identity and multiculturalism increases the likelihood of group-specific goals not shared by other groups and enhances political gridlock.
