Our Government is broken, what to do?

[Igel]

6. Government by the people.

The problem is that neither side wants to acknowledge. this.

It's government by "we the people"--carefully leaving out a lot of those who are apparently "non-people."

Or it's government "by the winners"--carefully leaving out that minorities also have rights, and the maginalized a minority the louder they protest. As one DUer put it, "No minority has every gotten anything by asking nicely." At least I think I'm quoting correctly. This leads to ambush politics. That's what we've had for a while. Now, it's one thing to have that on the surface while behind the scenes, once the spotlight's off the politicians, they can work together. It's another thing for this kind of politics to not only be how things work from top to bottom, but to be lauded as cooperation and liberal democracy. It's not. It's an attempt at majoritarianism.

Every massive new project that obligated the country to a reworking of how things are done that was accomplished under non-emergency conditions along straight left/right votes has lead to problems. Both sides only see that they're right and that it's the other side causing the problems--either by forcing something unpleasant on a country that's not willing to accept it unanimously (when that side's in the minority) or by creating problems for what is obviously an excellent program (when that side's in the majority).

The side that wants the initial change, upsetting the status quo, can never see that change, that rewriting of the social contract, as a problem.