Both Sides DON'T Do It.

[kpete]

Political scientists Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein are longtime scholars of American politics in general and the U.S. Congress in particular. They were among the first mainstream analysts, and arguably the most influential, to make the case that the "broken" condition of Washington is actually a manifestation of a single broken political party. After House Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation, I began an e-mail conversation with Mann, of the Brookings Institution and the University of California at Berkeley, and Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, about the dangerous state of Congress.

.................

This is a Republican Party problem, which has serious implications for Congress as an institution and for American governance more broadly. Republicans are paying the price for having encouraged government-hating candidates to seek office with the expectation that they could undo Obama's 2009-2010 achievements. Their constitutional ignorance and political naiveté was breathtaking. But Republican establishment leaders, who had few policy differences with the new radicals, soon became victims of the forces they helped unleash. Their party reminds us of the nullification forces in the antebellum South. The champions of "The New Nullification," as we refer to it in our book, have left damage and chaos in their wake. More is likely to follow.

.................


MORE:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-14/thomas-mann-and-norman-ornstein-on-republicans-gone-wild

[blm]

1. We need to make a comprehensive list of GOP lawmakers admitting this.

Didn't Bob Dole admit 5 or 6 years ago that it was GOP congress at fault for not performing their duties to the country?

And even more recently:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/bob-dole-today-gop-dismiss-reagan-nixon-article-1.1355137

[kentuck]

2. The Tea Party chickens coming home to roost?

The cra-cra have taken over the insane asylum.

[pampango]

3. "the "broken" condition of Washington is actually a manifestation of a single broken political party

The Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier -- ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

Norm's response underscores the reality of asymmetric polarization, which the mainstream media and most good government groups have avoided discussing -- at great costs to the country.There is pressure within the Democratic Party to emulate the Republicans in one respect -- to articulate a more aggressive and uncompromising policy agenda. Bernie Sanders has responded to that sentiment in the Democratic base and done better than anyone expected. But while Democrats in Congress have diverse views on some policies, they remain a governing party and accept compromise as an inevitable part of the democratic process. As we wrote, Republicans have become more an insurgency than a major political party capable of governing. Their actions in Congress in recent weeks and on the presidential campaign trail underscore this reality.

Which will happen first -- Democrats will emulate Republicans and go off the deep end? Or mainstream media will adjust to the new reality and acknowledge that Republicans are not merely ideologically different from Democrats but engaged in a unique form of politics that undermines the system itself?

A devastating, top-to-bottom defeat in 2016 might force the party's conservative pragmatists, and the few moderates, to move more aggressively to take back control of their party. That would require a divorce from the Freedom Caucus Republicans, and a long period of readjustment to become competitive beyond red states.

[Nitram]

4. I've long been saying this to anyone who will listen.

Every time someone, in a wrong-headed attempt to be "fair," says something about how Congress sucks, or "the system is broken", I interject that it is the GOP and their cowardly surrender of control of party to the minority Teacaucus that has paralyzed our government.

[Octafish]

5. The President and Democratic leadership should be spreading the word.

Then more people will shout it from the rooftops.

[YoungDemCA]

6. K&R. The GOP = Greedy Orwellian Pricks

nt

[bettyellen]

7. A lot of people here blame Dems more than Republicans too. Foolish.