How did we get in this Mess?

How did we get to a place where Congress has ground to a halt, even with a majority presence? Time Magazine online had an interesting article about it. It traces the problem to the polarization of the parties:

In the 1960s and '70s, as liberal Northern Democrats rallied behind civil rights, abortion rights, environmentalism and a more dovish foreign policy, conservative Southern Democrats began drifting into the GOP. And as the Republican Party shifted rightward, its Northern liberals became Democrats. Whereas many members of Congress had once been cross-pressured — forced to balance the demands of a more liberal party and a more conservative region, or vice versa — now party, region and ideology were increasingly aligned. Washington politics became less a game of Rubik's Cube and more a game of shirts vs. skins.

The first shirts-and-skins President was Ronald Reagan, the first truly conservative Republican elected in 50 years. But it was only after Reagan and his GOP successor, George H.W. Bush, left office that congressional Republicans realized they could use political polarization to stymie government — and use government failure to win elections. And with that realization, vicious-circle politics started to become an art form. (full article is available here.)

In the Clinton era and now in the Obama era, the Republicans learned that they can hold power even as a minority by disrupting forward progress and then pointing their fingers at the lack of accomplishment and calling it a Democratic failure. Amazingly, voters buy this twisted logic, which further fuels the vicious circle.

It's up to us to stop the effectiveness of this game. We can put an end to it with our votes. Vote against the party that keeps us in the quagmire - whether it is Republican OR Democrat. Slap their hands and they'll stop playing the game, and hopefully get back to business. Or reward them, and we can watch this ineffective cycle continue as our country becomes weaker and weaker. It really is up to us.