Why American Politics Is So Dysfunctional Posted by Michael Cohen

Over at the the Guardian I have a new piece up on the debt limit and what it says about the rot that lies at the heart of the American political system:

Even with poll results suggesting that Americans prize compromise and are tired of overt partisanship, the level of division and acrimony in Washington has grown exponentially since Obama took office. The recent debt limit debate is the apogee of Washington's dysfunction: and indicative of a political system that is seemingly incapable of dealing with national challenges. Indeed, whatever one may think of Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of US debt, the ratings agency view that "the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policy-making and political institutions have weakened" seems almost self-evident.

How has America been reduced to one party holding a gun to the US economy and the other trading away its political principles to stop the trigger from being pulled? The problem is that the US today has one party intent on utilising government resources as a force for social good and another that rejects any significant role for the public sector. Compounding this collision of ideologies is a populace so indifferent to the workings of their own government that they are unable to choose which model they prefer.

I don't focus too much on this issue in the piece, but America's increasingly dysfunctional political system is the surest reason to look at the United States and come to the conclusion that we are a nation in decline. Quite simply, we lack the basic ability to deal with serious national challenges that affect our economic competitiveness and our longer-term national security interests. A country that has a bottom-tier educational system, crumbling infrastructure and a strikingly non-innovative national energy policy is not a country that is prepared to "win the future."

Read the whole thing here

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Why is it so dysfunctional? There is no unity with the leaders. Republicans or democrats --- it repeats all over again but worse. If the one goes left the other goes far right. I just hope, they would look for what is good for the country.

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I agree with the above post. Have some unity. I really go with the republicans because of their more conservative way of thinking but if there are plans good for the country made by democrats support them. It's so hard if the country is divided into 2... worse more. And about President Obama, he promised a lot which he cannot fulfill. He had a lot in mind that's hard to execute.

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This has been the story of all the democratic counties, take an example of worlds largest democracy (India) they are been facing this challenge from long time. Every party just the same.
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