Read The New Yorker's George Packer on why America is its own worst enemy
Under the current two-party political system, America is essentially ungovernable. This is the product of a number of recent events and several long-term trends. The long-term trends, described by George Packer (above), include the poor performance of the US labour market over the past two decades, the increase in inequality and demographic shifts from the large white majority towards a “majority-minority country.” All this has contributed to the radicalisation of right-wing Republicans, who feel that they are fighting a rearguard battle to defend their “version of America.”
More recent shifts are equally important to understanding America’s political dysfunctionality. The first is “computerised gerrymandering.” Gerrymandering is the political practice in the US of having sitting state legislatures draw new electoral districts for state public office and the House of Representatives every 10 years after each US Census is taken. This is an old tradition, which has always given US politicians some opportunity to “select their own voters” by drawing safe electoral districts for both Democrats and Republicans.
What has changed is that since the 2000 census this process is now done with the help of computerised GPS maps, which essentially shows each district down to the individual household’s political preference. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of electoral districts for the House of Representatives have become essentially “100 per cent safe districts” for each party.
This means that the “political contest” for the House of Representatives shifts from the actual election in November every two years to the party primaries much earlier in the election year. As Democrat districts will reliably vote Democrat and Republican districts Republican, what matters to the candidate is that he wins the party primary. As a result, the voters candidates need to attract are “party primary voters,” rather than the median voter in his district, and such primary voters are generally much more politically polarised than the population as a whole. Sadly, it is entirely rational for especially Republican House members to appeal to a radical fringe of the US population: it is this group that determines GOP primaries.
This destructive process is, particularly in the GOP, much aggravated by the 2010 “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision, which permits unlimited anonymous political contributions. Since then, a very small group of extremely wealthy, extremely conservative Republicans have built alternative “political organisations” that stand ready at all times to finance an ultra-conservative primary challenger to any moderate House GOP member. Every Republican in the House knows that if he votes for tax increases, Obamacare, raising the debt ceiling and so on, then they will likely have to face such a primary challenger. Moderates feel they must take obstructive political positions to “save their own political lives.”
It is the combination of unlimited outside money from rich arch-conservatives and gerrymandered electoral districts that have rendered the House of Representatives an impossible “branch of government.” Of course, the Senate is not much better—with its 60 per cent majority requirement—but it can nonetheless generally be trusted to avoid the destructive silliness of government shutdowns.
Without reform of the “electoral redistricting process” to create genuinely competitive electoral districts and a dramatic curb on anonymous political contributions via non-profit organisations, the United States will not again become governable in the sense that it each year passes a government budget that reflects the redistributive priorities of a majority of elected representatives, takes care of long-term economic challenges and generally provides for the welfare of the population.
Under the current two-party political system, America is essentially ungovernable. This is the product of a number of recent events and several long-term trends. The long-term trends, described by George Packer (above), include the poor performance of the US labour market over the past two decades, the increase in inequality and demographic shifts from the large white majority towards a “majority-minority country.” All this has contributed to the radicalisation of right-wing Republicans, who feel that they are fighting a rearguard battle to defend their “version of America.”
More recent shifts are equally important to understanding America’s political dysfunctionality. The first is “computerised gerrymandering.” Gerrymandering is the political practice in the US of having sitting state legislatures draw new electoral districts for state public office and the House of Representatives every 10 years after each US Census is taken. This is an old tradition, which has always given US politicians some opportunity to “select their own voters” by drawing safe electoral districts for both Democrats and Republicans.
What has changed is that since the 2000 census this process is now done with the help of computerised GPS maps, which essentially shows each district down to the individual household’s political preference. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of electoral districts for the House of Representatives have become essentially “100 per cent safe districts” for each party.
This means that the “political contest” for the House of Representatives shifts from the actual election in November every two years to the party primaries much earlier in the election year. As Democrat districts will reliably vote Democrat and Republican districts Republican, what matters to the candidate is that he wins the party primary. As a result, the voters candidates need to attract are “party primary voters,” rather than the median voter in his district, and such primary voters are generally much more politically polarised than the population as a whole. Sadly, it is entirely rational for especially Republican House members to appeal to a radical fringe of the US population: it is this group that determines GOP primaries.
This destructive process is, particularly in the GOP, much aggravated by the 2010 “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision, which permits unlimited anonymous political contributions. Since then, a very small group of extremely wealthy, extremely conservative Republicans have built alternative “political organisations” that stand ready at all times to finance an ultra-conservative primary challenger to any moderate House GOP member. Every Republican in the House knows that if he votes for tax increases, Obamacare, raising the debt ceiling and so on, then they will likely have to face such a primary challenger. Moderates feel they must take obstructive political positions to “save their own political lives.”
It is the combination of unlimited outside money from rich arch-conservatives and gerrymandered electoral districts that have rendered the House of Representatives an impossible “branch of government.” Of course, the Senate is not much better—with its 60 per cent majority requirement—but it can nonetheless generally be trusted to avoid the destructive silliness of government shutdowns.
Without reform of the “electoral redistricting process” to create genuinely competitive electoral districts and a dramatic curb on anonymous political contributions via non-profit organisations, the United States will not again become governable in the sense that it each year passes a government budget that reflects the redistributive priorities of a majority of elected representatives, takes care of long-term economic challenges and generally provides for the welfare of the population.
