Had the senate passed a budget at any time in the recent past, we wouldn't have the CR to worry about. Sure, the house may have tried this with a budget fight, but the senate would have had a stronger position.
Unfortunately there's plenty of blame to go around. Government is no longer even remotely for the sake of the governed, and the issues have become so conflated with each other that both sides are right and wrong about the same votes. This whole fiasco is just another situation for everyone to bring up in their next election and point out that they were right for their specific reasons. It's stupid, and we should be mad that we're paying for it.
But we'll only be mad until the next school shooting, government conspiracy, discrimination, or third world dictator story takes over the front page. Then we'll all want to talk about that on Facebook and Twitter, and offer our 140 characters of personal wisdom.
yep. Like I told my kids, it takes 2 to play tug of war. I think that both sides should 1. Make a list of things that they think should be funded. 2. Compare Lists. 3. Items that appear on both lists get funded immediately.
I think the biggest problem is the extreme polarization that's happening. It probably began with talk radio. Way back before we had the internet or 24 hour "news" outlets. People like Limbaugh began to give voice to one side of the issue. People tuned in because he was saying things they wanted to hear. Then we had the cable channels start popping up following the same model. Fox MSNBC... They program to draw a specific audience rather than taking a broad approach. Since they have to fill 24 hours of programming instead of the 3 or 4 that major networks have to fill, the talking points get drilled into the heads of the viewers. It becomes a mantra. This creates an echo chamber where positions become more and more extreme. Now we have social media. People would rather post a picture with a clever jab than to actually read and understand the issues at hand. Often times, these clever jabs aren't even true, but have as Colbert says, a "truthiness." Add to that the fact that due to gerrymandering the red districts are becoming more red and blue districts are becoming more blue. When the representative go home and listen to their constituents they only hear from people who agree with them; another echo chamber. Then we have the primaries. Due to the fact that these districts are more polarized, and the majority of people voting in primaries are of the "leaning" type, the representatives move to ever extreme positions to out do their opponents. echo. My hope is that the voters will eventually see that the status quo cannot hold and swing one way or another to give control of the government to one side or the other. At that point, the government will begin working properly again. Which way the voters will swing is up for debate, but I believe that with the older generation dying off every day and younger people coming into the voting process that the pendulum will swing to the Democrats. But then, I could just be oversimplifying things.
in the interest of having something other than gridlock, yes. In a perfect world, I'd like to see an end to gerrymandering so that representatives aren't in effect voted in for life.
and polarized does not equal extreme. Todays democrats are very much like moderates of the past. The Tea Party has gone far more extreme than any group I've heard of on the left. Many of them have even gone so far as to brag about shutting down the government. Like they're proud of it.