We are in the midst of a major political party realignment. When that happens, both parties are split and elections basically create a broken legislature. When

We are in the midst of a major political party realignment. When that happens, both parties are split and elections basically create a broken legislature. When that happens, people start daydreaming: "what if my political group didn't have do deal with other people having influence on the way government should be." Even trifecta states are dealing with this, as is obvious from the turmoil and wild animosity that exists in one-party California. The constitution gets changed willy-nilly to create effectively unchangeable advantages for certain groups at the expense of others. The US is moving from a situation in which they had enough money (well, deficit spending) to solve most of our problems without upsetting too many constituencies. Those days are over and we're now trying to do something, anything, to avoid having to make tough decisions that might mean losing an election. Our electorate wanting something, anything, to prevent them from losing whatever preferential political goals they have are entertaining the same naive ideas. Win once, and let the next generation deal with the fallout. Basic human selfishness par excellence.