5 ms·

How Congress Stopped Working

26 points by smacktoward 8y ago

tspike 8y ago
The article repeatedly points to Obama's election as a turning point. While I won't argue that his election wasn't consequential, I think the timing is mostly coincidental. 2008-2009 is right around when the internet became mainstream. It's when everyone and their mothers signed up for Facebook and when people got smartphones in their hands for the first time. Civil discourse moved almost entirely online, which is a particularly bad venue for it. Microtargeted ads became a thing, and fringe ideas found large audiences. If you are looking at analytics for your electorate, which metrics "pop" more- the reactions to middle-of-the-road, nuanced discourse, or sound bite extremism?
- Tsubasachan 8y ago
  Well having an uppity Muslim black guy being elected for president was a wakeup call for a certain segment of society.
  - cududa 8y ago
    Ignoring the factually untrue Muslim part, what precisely made him an “uppity black guy”?
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      I think GP was referencing the perceptions of a politically-significant share of the population with that description, not endorsing them as accurate. I hope so, at least.
      - Tsubasachan 8y ago
        Yes. America is now so far gone that I should have used an /S my bad.
rajekas 8y ago
The United States minus Congress is essentially the Chinese system with two parties instead of one - overwhelming authority for the executive, overt and covert threats to get with the program. Not surprising, since our networked, interconnected world concentrates everything - wealth, fame, power etc. I wonder how much of the balance of power is due to asymmetries of knowledge and expertise. We live in a very complex world and the President (perhaps not this one!) has access to top-drawer talent and large, specialized institutions whose job is to crunch the data to suit his mood. How can generalists who spend most of their time fund-raising hope to compete with the executive branch?
otakucode 8y ago
How does this article contain no mention of the Hastert Rule? From my vantage point, that is what killed Congress. The Republicans were in the minority and vowed to never vote, not even a single vote, on any proposal supported by a Democrat no matter its contents. This is why Republicans will vote against measures that are identical to measures they voted for only weeks or months prior. Expect this to return in full force after they get booted next week. Their policy is total and complete obstinate refusal to vote for anything which is not solely originated by the Republican Party. This makes sense from the view of politics that the primary distinction between conservative and liberal boils down to conservatives being willing to cheat and break any rule so long as it is in service of their in-group, while liberals are willing to have their in-group lose if it means keeping the 'game' fair.

26 points by smacktoward 8y ago

The article repeatedly points to Obama's election as a turning point. While I won't argue that his election wasn't consequential, I think the timing is mostly coincidental. 2008-2009 is right around when the internet became mainstream. It's when everyone and their mothers signed up for Facebook and when people got smartphones in their hands for the first time. Civil discourse moved almost entirely online, which is a particularly bad venue for it. Microtargeted ads became a thing, and fringe ideas found large audiences. If you are looking at analytics for your electorate, which metrics "pop" more- the reactions to middle-of-the-road, nuanced discourse, or sound bite extremism?

Tsubasachan 8y ago
Well having an uppity Muslim black guy being elected for president was a wakeup call for a certain segment of society.
- cududa 8y ago
  Ignoring the factually untrue Muslim part, what precisely made him an “uppity black guy”?
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    I think GP was referencing the perceptions of a politically-significant share of the population with that description, not endorsing them as accurate. I hope so, at least.
    - Tsubasachan 8y ago
      Yes. America is now so far gone that I should have used an /S my bad.

rajekas 8y ago

The United States minus Congress is essentially the Chinese system with two parties instead of one - overwhelming authority for the executive, overt and covert threats to get with the program. Not surprising, since our networked, interconnected world concentrates everything - wealth, fame, power etc. I wonder how much of the balance of power is due to asymmetries of knowledge and expertise. We live in a very complex world and the President (perhaps not this one!) has access to top-drawer talent and large, specialized institutions whose job is to crunch the data to suit his mood. How can generalists who spend most of their time fund-raising hope to compete with the executive branch?

otakucode 8y ago

How does this article contain no mention of the Hastert Rule? From my vantage point, that is what killed Congress. The Republicans were in the minority and vowed to never vote, not even a single vote, on any proposal supported by a Democrat no matter its contents. This is why Republicans will vote against measures that are identical to measures they voted for only weeks or months prior. Expect this to return in full force after they get booted next week. Their policy is total and complete obstinate refusal to vote for anything which is not solely originated by the Republican Party. This makes sense from the view of politics that the primary distinction between conservative and liberal boils down to conservatives being willing to cheat and break any rule so long as it is in service of their in-group, while liberals are willing to have their in-group lose if it means keeping the 'game' fair.