Is our System Broken?

Throughout the past several decades "partisanship" has turned into a dirty word.  So, are our political problems today due to the players within the system or the system itself?  I argue that it’s the system.  Here are the systemic reasons for our political problems today:

1.        Poorly drawn districts:  Because of redistricting, incumbent politicians are much safer from being voted out than they used to be.  Because of this politicians focus only on primary challengers (i.e. challengers from the same party) rather than on general election challengers.  I’ve read that nearly 90% of House seats are “safe” in this sense. 

2.       Narrowcasting of media:  For perspective, in the 1980s there were basically only four cable news channels.  They were CNN (1980), Financial News Network – FNN (1981), CNN2 (1982, which is now HLN) and CNBC (1989, which took over FNN). Other than these, which were essentially straight news, the major networks were the only stations to carry news.  Today, the role of media has changed into a melding of news reporting and opinion programming.  This has greatly influenced the political discourse in America.  For instance, if a Republican were to say something suspiciously moderate it would be denounced by Rush Limbaugh the next day; then, maybe, there would be a primary challenge the day after that; and then funding may start drying up the day after that.  While this does happen on the Left, it is less likely to occur because the vast majority of political talk radio is conservative in nature. 

3.       Increasingly polarized political contributions:  Because of first two reasons, Americans have become more polarized in their views; therefore, they are less intent on political compromises.   This has led to increasingly polarized political contributions.  Now, not only are more politicians protected from being ousted from office, the mechanism for their political survival – campaign money – is being funneled from constituents who are more politically polarized.  Consequently, politicians often have a vested interest to not compromise on most political issues.  

      --------

 The takeaway: In 1976 one-fifth of Americans lived in a voting district that voted overwhelmingly for one political party.  Now, one-half of Americans do.  That's not good for democracy.