Gridlock is the norm in American politics.
Our elected officials haven’t done anything to improve our lives in decades.
- The only thing politicians do is blame the other side
- There’s no accountability at all
- They have zero shame
- There are billions of our tax dollars at stake
- And they get to live in luxury (at least the ones that have been there the longest)
- Bad times all around
In this article, I want to take a look at the gridlock in government. After some more venting, I’ll start to look at some of the causes of gridlock in government (sneak peek – I’ll mention polarization). These are deep-seated issues that have a big impact on how government doesn’t work. After all, that’s done, will look at ways to reduce the gridlock and try to make progress. That’s right, congressional gridlock causes and solutions all in one article, lucky you!
But first Back to venting.
The frustration with the government was at the heart of both Obama’s (change you can believe in) and Trump’s (drain the swamp) success.
The most diehard fan of either, and everyone in between, can agree that despite any real or imagined progress, the government is still a long way from being able to function, to address the needs of the average voter.
In Washington, Gridlock is The Way
Despite disagreement on the best way to reform government to be a reflection of the will of the people, most can agree that gridlock is one of our biggest problems.
We’re just stagnating.
I could almost deal with the fact that the government doesn’t do shit. What gets me the most is the hypocrisy of our elected officials. Grandstanding and trending on Twitter by “owning” the other side is all they care about. They do have no interest in compromise. And with a compromised media on standby, waiting to cancel anyone that dares attempt progress, who can blame them?
Politicians are only interested in scoring points. They have no interest in governing.
Makes me sick. And it would upset our founding fathers too.
Anyway, sorry but time for a little content for the tech giant that likely brought you here.
What is Gridlock?
Gridlock in government is when elected officials do not pass legislation due to partisan gridlock. This usually happens when members of Congress are more interested in scoring points against the other side than in governing. Gridlock kills progress and makes people frustrated, angry, apathetic, and despondent1 which you could argue is how the powers that be want us.
Where Does the Term Gridlock Come From?
The term comes from traffic and city planning and refers to when intersections on a city’s “grid plan” are blocked. This prevents cars from moving forward or backing up. Taken to the extreme, gridlocked traffic can cause the city’s entire infrastructure to collapse.
Everything just sitting there, stuck, not moving forward or backward. And as more traffic comes on board, it just gets worse. Sound familiar?
What Does Gridlock Mean in Politics?
Gridlock in government and politics means that nothing is moving. It’s like when you have a clogged pipe and water can’t flow through it. No bills that help us have gotten through in ages.
The current state of the DC rule-making process.
Gridlock means that nothing is getting done.
I’ll take that back
The Only Bills that Pass are Those that Make Someone Money
Obamacare, the Trump Tax Cuts, and the Bidens Infrastructure deal are the only meaningful pieces of legislation passed in the past decade. You can count that as doing something, I guess. These gargantuan, thousand-page documents not a single individual read, written piecemeal by lobbyists behind closed doors, with elected officials being forced to vote along party lines without knowing what they were voting on.
- Do you call that Democracy?
- Do you call that working on behalf of your constituents?
Keep in mind each elected official swore to defend and support the constitution.
But did they improve people’s lives? Or did they just make money for the lobbyists who wrote them?
Health care, immigration, big tech, inequality, education, the environment, and on and on. While campaigning and even day to day, both sides talk about these and dozens of other issues that are “hurting the middle class” and “hard-working American” and whatever bullshit their handlers put in front of them that day.
Platitudes galore. A barrage of indignant, self-congratulatory blowhardiness that never ends.
But what have they actually done?
Examples of gridlock in congress
Whether it’s congressional Republicans stonewalling President Obama or Biden, or Democrats spending all their time on the endless investigations that go nowhere involving Russia, tax returns, or the outrage du-jour, our elected officials are interested in scoring points (and raising money), not governing.
GOP made clear they wouldn’t let Obama do anything
Same thing happened to Trump
Then, surprise surprise, same with Biden2except when it comes to handing over big bucks to the military-industrial complex.
Truly shocking stuff.
Causes of Gridlock
Government and society are a complicated systems. The gridlock in government is a result of interrelated, often contradictory, goals and strategies, incentives, rules, information distribution systems, cultural beliefs and norms, and more.
There is no “one cause” of political gridlock. But there are a few issues that play an outsized role.
Money in Politics
Politicians use the threat of regulation to shakedown corporations. Complaining about “money in government” is popular for both Democrats and Republicans. But what a lot of people don’t appreciate is that it’s a two-way street.
Corporations don’t want to give politicians money, they have to.
Businesses have no choice but to go along and pay money to the rule-makers. And once they do, the highest bidder gets the opportunity to write the rules.
Real, honest companies don’t want to give their money to politicians, but the system requires them to.
In Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, And Line Their Own Pockets *ad, Peter Schweizer writes
“Former Microsoft chief operating officer Robert Herbold told me, ‘You’re crazy if you don’t play along. They will go after you.’ … bills and regulations are often introduced not to effect policy change, but as vehicles for shaking down people for those money and favors.”
It’s a purely transactional process.
Quid pro quo.
Something for something.
Of course, the rules were written so that no laws are broken (usually). But the underlying reality is there.
I believe that most of the members of congress are decent human beings who do want to help their constituents. But they’re in a system that won’t allow them.
The system is too entrenched.
Incentives are too strong.
The powers that be just don’t want to do anything that helps people, just the things that make money – with the understanding that the donations keep coming.
For elected officials, party leaders, and Political Action Committees (PACs) out for donations, the threat of regulation is more important than doing anything. There’s little incentive to pass laws.
Once a law is passed, it’s passed.
So politicians and the puppet masters behind the scenes keep the threat of regulation going campaign cycle after campaign cycle and the shakedown never ends.
It’s a runaway gravy train that’s killing us.
Political Division (Polarization)
Talk to politicians about why nothing is getting done and invariably they will blame the other side. “This divided government is all their fault.” It’s more important to please (and grow) diehard constituents by driving anger with easy finger-pointing than it is to place blame in the appropriate place.
According to The Economist, Roughly 40% of the politically active say that members of the other tribe are evil; 60% believe they are a threat to the country.
THOSE ARE CRAZY NUMBERS.
A lot of the blame for the extreme division lies with politicians, but of course, it’s not just them.
The Media’s Role in Gridlock
It’s easy to hate on politicians, but a huge part of the blame lies with an inept, compromised, corporate-controlled media.
The media creates distractions and doesn’t hold politicians accountable.
The 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for conflict mean the press lives and dies on amplifying gridlock by pitting one side against the other. This only further entrenches a divided government and keeps our elected officials in their partisan dugouts, making it even harder to find common ground.
The goal of “the news” today isn’t to inform us.
It’s to drive ratings and clicks by any means necessary.
Stories that affect our emotions get more attention and spread faster. And nothing affects our emotions like fear.
So they scare us.
They make us afraid of the other side.
It’s not an evil person making thoughtful decisions about what to talk about each day.
It’s what the algorithm tells them to do.
The Election Process and Gridlock
Many aspects of the election system as a whole contribute to gridlock. It’s a tangled mess with sometimes arcane laws that don’t result in what we want.
The Primary System
The primary system is a big part of polarization. To win a party’s nomination, candidates have to pander to their base. The result is that we end up with politicians who are more concerned with ideological purity3or the appearance of it than governing.
Redistricting / Gerrymandering
Call it what you will, redistricting and gerrymandering don’t help. By drawing safe districts that favor one party over another, politicians have less incentive to appeal to the middle and reach across the aisle.
The primary system and redistricting work together to form a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle that makes polarization, and by extension gridlock, worse and worse.
Career Politicians
Gridlock would be less of a problem if we had term limits. Politicians would be more interested in getting things done if they weren’t so focused on raising money for the next election cycle.
These politicians that have been in congress for decades are just not up to the challenges they face. The past couple of decades speaks for themselves.
The Two Party System
The two-party system in American politics plays a big role as well. We don’t have real choices. The two parties have such a stranglehold that it’s almost impossible for anyone else to get elected. South Park brilliantly described the choice we make each election cycle as choosing between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
Solutions to Gridlock
Some of the most powerful institutions in the country want things to stay just as they are. A divided government means the status quo continues.
Making changes is not easy. The list below is not something that can be done overnight. But we can make progress. As far as I can see, these are the only solutions to the gridlock in Washington. Let me know if you disagree or having anything to add.
Reduce the Division
To fix gridlock we need to reduce polarization and increase cooperation. “Tone down the rhetoric” as they say. Ideally, this would start at the top, but the reality is that we don’t have any leadership. At the individual level, we need to be willing to have hard conversations with people we disagree with. We need to understand that the other side is not evil.
All men profess honesty. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
-John Quincy Adams
The other side isn’t the devil. We all want the same things. Just relax, focus on finding common ground, cooperating, and making progress.
Reform the Media
We can’t keep watching Fox News or MSNBC and only listen to people who agree with us.
Turn the damn channel.
You.
Yes you specifically, stop watching anything whose main goal is pissing you off.
Just don’t watch it.
Remember when The Simpsons had to stop the evil advertisements that came to life?
It’s the same thing.
Just don’t look.
And when people around you bring it up how much the other side is crazy, discuss how they need to stop too. You won’t get much argument when you say something like “both sides are to blame” or whatever.
If you must watch the “news” and you’re active on social media, call out the talking heads when they push anger and fear at the expense of the truth.
Shame the Media.
Call them out as #CounterProductive
Shame can be a powerful force (provided people have it of course).
Without some kind of media reform, progress is going to be quite difficult.
Voting – Vote the bums out
It would be great if we could just clean the house. Too many politicians have been there for decades. They are out of touch and gridlock is their only interest. They don’t know any different. As the saying goes
A fish don’t know he’s wet.
-Unknown
Get the incumbent out
Next election cycle, just votes against the incumbent. Let everyone you know understand how powerful this is. There might be some collateral damage to decent congresspeople, but it’s a price worth paying.
Especially at the primary level, this can make a big difference. Look at how powerbroker Eric Cantor got upset in the primary in Virginia. It can happen.
It doesn’t matter who’s there now.
Like this whole article is about – they don’t do anything anyway!
At least not now.
But with new blood in and the old out, maybe in a few years, things will be better. And with enough people disrupting old voting trends, it would shake up safe districts and all their modeling and whatnot. It would force candidates to appeal to moderates.
Vote out politicians who have been there the longest
The other strategy is to identify the politicians who have been in congress the longest and start there.
Start an organization to get them all voted out. I’ll do it if you can help me raise the funds. I even have the website ready – weredonewaiting.com.
Get money out of politics
This is a huge one. If politicians weren’t so beholden to special interests, they might actually… you know… do stuff. This would require some sort of campaign finance reform that gets big money out of politics. Overturning the Citizen’s United decision seems reasonable to me but I haven’t been able to form an informed opinion on it.
Hold your representative accountable
It means holding your representative accountable. Contact your representatives and ask them what they have done. Don’t let them tell you all about what the other side has done wrong. Particularly if the elections are ways off, it’ll probably be crickets. But you need to ask them who they took the money from. And if those donors have an agenda. What is the agenda?
Start a blog or social media account about your state and be relentless in asking about accountability, progress, and campaign contribution money.
Or you can always donate to causes (like this site) dedicated to getting money out of politics.
Organizations Working to Get Money Out of Washington
There are a handful of organizations working to get money out of politics. I haven’t had the time to research them all, but the AI I’m using to help write this content came up with these five. I hope to be able to do a digger dive soon.
- The Sunlight Foundation – is a nonpartisan nonprofit that uses technology to make government more transparent. They work to uncover the influence of money in politics and advocate for reform. I do like these guys and have used their tools.
- The Center for Responsive Politics is a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and public policy.
- The American Anti-Corruption Act is a grassroots campaign to get money out of politics.
- The Represent.Us is a nonpartisan coalition of activists, business leaders, and everyday citizens who are working to pass anti-corruption laws in cities and states across the country.
- Money Out Voters In is a national campaign to get big money out of politics and give everyday Americans a greater voice in our democracy.
These are just a few of the organizations working to get money out of politics. If you’re interested in getting involved, check out their websites and see how you can help. Let me know if you have any others you’d like to highlight.
Leverage Business to Push for Progress
We can also demand that business stop giving politicians and Political Action Groups money. And push them to help the government pass helpful regulations.
Again, it’s not like honest businesses want to give their money away. That’s money that can go to the bottom line, to R&D, to investing in growth, and God forbid paying their employees better. But they have to.
Weak companies like the lobbying culture. Companies that rely on laws to make a profit. Companies wouldn’t survive if the government didn’t protect them.
Those aren’t companies we want around.
Get rid of them by starving them of your money.
#DemandMoreforYourDollar
Impact Consumerism
Impact Consumerism is a budding movement of individuals, businesses, and non-profits (ok fine it’s just me) coming together to create social change through the power of the free market. The business has the potential to be a force for good, and consumers have the power to drive this change. Impact Consumerism is working to build a more sustainable and equitable future, one where businesses thrive by doing good.
Reform the Election Process
That means the primary process, the two-party system, gerrymandering, all of it. We need to make it easier for new voices to be heard and get elected.
The way we elect our officials is a big part of the gridlock problem. The two-party system has such a stranglehold that it’s almost impossible for anyone else to get elected. We need to look at things like ranked choice voting, the electoral college, helping third parties, redistricting, and on and on.
Demand Accountability
Moving forward really comes down to putting enough pressure on the current system that it has to change. And that starts with holding our elected officials accountable.
It’s up to us to make sure they feel our wrath when they don’t do what we want them to. That means letting them know when they screw up, and more importantly, voting them out of office when they do.
Force them to Compromise
Contact your representative and ask them what members of the opposite party they’ve talked to. On what issues is there room to compromise? Share your experience with your friends, colleagues, and families. Talk about it on social media.
So there you go.
Pretty straightforward right?
If we all work together, we can gridlock-proof our country and get it back on track.
But we have to start now.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll join me.
