Let's try to clarify why Congress is actually gridlocked. The bottom line is, alas, a bottom line. It is not complicated. And it has nothing to do with any design for a digital age.
Research on complex systems shows that even slight changes in the basic rules of actors in a system can have huge emergent effects on the qualities of the system. This will apply to our politics as well.
This "I'm going to take my toys and go home" attitude is injurious to our needs as a country -- we need to fill these vacancies so trial can be held, opinions written, and decisions made both on the bench and before it.
There seems to be an anthem for every political season. Reagan, much to the chagrin of Bruce Springsteen, had "Born in the USA" in '84. Clinton had ...
Many Americans wonder why their political leaders cannot get along and appear to be unable to solve the tough problems facing the country. The reason...
The most widely predicted course for Washington over the next two years is gridlock. As I see it, this is true only for liberal policies -- not for conservative ones.
Is it politically realistic for the two parties in Congress to agree to such a deal? Most probably not. But by that standard, the only politically realistic outcome is an eventual budget and economic meltdown.
Is it possible for members of the electorate -- along with the candidates they sent to Congress -- to hate gridlocked government, while at the same time holding on to the notion that only their position is right?
Grab your partner do si do. The results are in. Bush turned the country to the left and Obama has now turned the country to the right. Feels like poli...
Depending on whom you ask, tonight's election will or will not affect the stock market. And depending on whom you ask, it will or will not help busine...
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) delivered a powerful endorsement of the New START treaty while mocking those who try to pump up their manhood with nuclear weapons.
This election is too important to sit out. If you voted for Barack Obama in 2008, high on the promise of hope and change, do not stay on the sidelines now. Real change takes time.
Now, just in time for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the GOP leaders are insisting that, vast evidence to the contrary, we all need to support the inequitable policies that favor rich white men.
This past Monday's visit by President Obama to Los Angeles only served to highlight the need for our elected officials to finally take some action to address the problem of traffic in Los Angeles.
Left, Right, Independent, Tea Party-ers, who cares for the sake of the country get it together. Apart-isanship is dragging America and the urgency o...
There's a missing link in our quest for a good and equitable society. In addition to volunteering, we must educate ourselves and impact our government to achieve lasting change on prominent issues.
The government system we have created in recent decades seems to have made it impossible for a president to achieve great things; everything must be done in small steps with fighting along the way.
Everybody's beating their breasts about Washington gridlock. Let's defend gridlock for a moment. The opposite of gridlock was a halcyon time when Lyn...
Two of the most important decisions any of us ever make is where we decide to live and what job we choose to accept. Rush hour traffic, however, proves how wrong we all can be.
While issue after mega-issue begs in vain for wise and farsighted solutions from our fearless leaders -- politically-engaged citizens shake their heads in disgust and disbelief.
Call me naïve. Okay. An idealist. I'd rather be an idealist than an ideologue. But I'm constitutionally and temperamentally averse to succumbing to inaction and despair.
If the U.S. wants new energy to be the centerpiece of a new economy in which -- in the president's words, the U.S. "consumes less and produces more," then it will have to have an industrial strategy. Getting there won't be easy. Just as the insurance companies impede sensible reforms in health care, and big oil and coal block vital changes in energy, and Wall Street guts vital reform of finance, global corporations and banks will spend a lot of money to defend the unsustainable trade policies of the old economy.
My hope that the Obama administration eschews the typical form of crafted bipartisanship characterized by short-term compromises that gloss over ideological differences.
Arnold's executive order laying off 10,000 state employees -- and slashing another 200,000 paychecks --is insulting because the budget crisis we're in is largely his fault.
Democrats have every right to feel angry, but I'd like to suggest that when they get red in the face and loose their venom on the world, they are no longer Democrats, but something else entirely.
