Congressional Dysfunction Begins To Spook Old Pros

Congressional Dysfunction Begins To Spook Old Pros
Brian Beutler | October 10, 2011, 5:05AM


Congress has always been Washington's whipping boy, particularly near election time. The antics get sillier, the pace shifts from glacial to gridlock, and the frustrated public gets daily reminders that lawmakers are often too mired in politics to function in the national interest.

That's not news.

What is news is that this time it's starting to scare the pros.

The GOP's hyper-partisan turn after Barack Obama's victory in 2008 meant 112th Congress was destined to test the limits of dysfunctional governance. But it also happened to coincide with a moment in history when the country needed the government to do better than the bare minimum. Instead, it's done less. And that's shaken people who've spent their careers steering the ship of state.

"I do believe that we are now in uncharted waters when it comes to the dysfunction in our political system--and it is no longer a joking matter," former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told an audience two weeks ago at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where he received the Liberty Medal for national service. "It appears that as a result of several long-building, polarizing trends in American politics and culture, we have lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country. Thus, I am more concerned than I have ever been about the state of American governance."

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/congressional-dysfunction-begins-to-spook-old-pros.php?ref=fpb

One might impart the hidden message of, "This is getting scary, and maybe we need to declare martial law."

:hide:

:shrug:

The American people have been "spooked" for quite some time now.

And it is why Obama's less than authoritative presence gives one pause. I feel badly for him but I feel scared for us.

Good thing actual Democrats disagree with you.

The Legislative Branch is the broken part of government; that is where the obstructionism is coming from, and you blame Obama for it.

Got the right-wing talking point out there, though.

Good For You.

There are others IMO, but this is a main one.

How can the greatest country in the world have a political system that is in paralysis, unable to get anything done? Anyone who says America is the greatest country in the world is full of shit. Republicans say this all the time and Obama also says it. Absolute rubbish.

As it is still the only country where an immigrant of brown skin can come to this country without a cent in her pocket and end up with a Child that graduates from Harvard.

My parents were immigrants. I graduated from UCLA and my sister graduated from Princeton. Unfortunately, that is not the norm.

The real story is a paralyzed government, rampant unemployment, endless wars, a tax system that favors the wealthy and 50 million uninsured people with no access to heath care.

the mal, mis, and non types thereof. :patriot:

It's the trifecta of -feasances.

:hi:

Bake

thing on filibusters, etc. That and things like one congress person able to hold up action on a bill or nomination, etc. Systematically in the last administration changed the rules by which the congress governs itself just as they are trying to change voter registration laws right now. If someone is polarizing the congress I think we have only one party to blame. They other one may have let them do it but as I remember the booosh years Democrats did not have majorities to stop anything. And they did not change them this year when they talked about it.

The Executive branch can't change anything about how congress governs itself. That is up to congress. During the last administration no rules were changed by congress. The filibuster is as old as the country and there have been no other significant rule changes for decades.

to the last Obama years. As to the filibuster being old - of course it is but the 60 vote rule is not. I remember listening to a filibuster regarding civil rights in the early 60s and it was really something but they could have stopped it with just 50 votes. The idea that the majority does not rule is ridiculous.

The filibuster rule in the 50s and 60s was 67 votes. It was changed to 60 in the mid-70s. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Filibuster_Cloture.htm

And for the most part did. The country is now 300 million instead of 30 million and the government is broken beyond repair.

On "The Daily Show" a year or two before he died. He said, "We used to be able to get things done in this country. What the hell happened?" No doubt he has has been rolling in his grave over the shenanigans that have gone on lately. :(