US Congress | Partisanship & Gridlock

[Trey of Diamonds]

A Congress with no room for Olympia Snowe and other centrists?

Selected quotes

Sniping and partisan acrimony inside Congress are evidently as bad as they seem from the outside, and Sen. Olympia Snowe would be first to second that.

But in the end, she cited partisanship, gridlock, and an inability to get things accomplished as not worth another six years of her career.

“An atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions,” Snowe said in a statement on Tuesday.

Lawmakers willing to reach across the aisle are a vanishing species within the Republican Party – and are on the endangered list on the Democratic side of the aisle, as well.

“Too many competent legislators have retired from Congress for the same reason as Senator Snowe. They’re sick and tired of being trapped in a rotten system,” said Mark McKinnon, a cofounder of No Labels, a public-interest group promoting bipartisan solutions, in a statement.

In 2010 and 2011, Congress could find no political center – that is, not one Republican voted more liberally than any Democrat, and not one Democrat voted more conservatively than any Republican, according to a survey released this month by the National Journal, which has ranked voting records of Senate and House members for 30 years.

 

[Revoltingest]

Tis not all bad.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Tis not all bad.

Really? All I see is Doom and Gloom. Which aspects are "not all bad" to you?

 

[Revoltingest]

Were Pubs & Dems to act in concert more, they'd probably tax & spend even more.
They also might enact even more liberty robbing security measures.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Were Pubs & Dems to act in concert more, they'd probably tax & spend even more.
They also might enact even more liberty robbing security measures.

Maybe. But we need some moderates who are willing to work together to get good things done to. A congress filled with nothing but foaming at the mouth fanatics out for blood is not something to celebrate. (Might make a good movie though. :sarcastic)

 

[Revoltingest]

Maybe. But we need some moderates who are willing to work together to get good things done to. A congress filled with nothing but foaming at the mouth fanatics out for blood is not something to celebrate. (Might make a good movie though. :sarcastic)

I prefer that they have their differences, stick to their guns, compromise less, & do it all with civility.
No wonder I hate politics.