Tom Mast, founder Solve American Gridlock
Political parties have existed in America almost since its inception. They are basic to the operation of a democratic government and are by definition about the art and science of governing. Politics is fundamentally a way to sort out differences of opinion, so there will be disagreements – about policy at least. That being said, there are choices about which electoral systems are used to select and organize governments, and these can have important influences on how well the system works.
Two effective parties have existed for the most part since our country was formed. Up until roughly the latter part of the twentieth century, the two-party system worked better than it has in the past two or three decades. Why might this have been? Members of congress used to socialize more, developing relationships with each other including members of the other party. The advances in aviation and communications have made it easier for them to travel home often – spending less social time together. Regular order including the reliance on committees to lead members to work with one another well has almost disappeared as senior leaders choose issues and craft the legislation, often behind closed doors.
For the most part of the second half of the twentieth century, our country effectively had four parties. Two branches of each the Democrats and the Republicans existed because each party had a conservative leaning and a liberal leaning wing. These four groups with various viewpoints had to cooperate to enact legislation; they required and enabled the necessary different viewpoints, negotiations, and civility to govern. Congress functioned, passing considerable major legislation with real bipartisan voting.
Around the mid-1990s, this four-party situation began dissolving into a more rigid two-party state of affairs as some members left and new ones were elected. Leaders in congress amassed much more power for themselves, thereby leaving the other members with less meaningful roles. Bills began to be created by the elite and put before the membership in a hurried and non-transparent manner, further frustrating the bulk of the members. Politics in congress was becoming a zero-sum game where every win for one party was a loss for the other. Bipartisan legislation of significance was almost a thing of the past. By around 2010, the two parties had hardened their stances to the point of basically being against whatever the other party stood for. The wild swings in ideological philosophy and legislative focus each time one party displaced the other in power stimulated efforts for the incoming party to undo what the previous party had done. Doesn’t all this sound very familiar?
Our founders had anticipated many issues, protecting against their growing to serious ones with checks and balances among the three branches of government. But, they did not include in the constitution anything that specifically dealt with the present two-party standoff that has occurred within the legislative branch. Our present two-party system fosters two diametrically opposed points of view – and Gridlock!
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