The author asks if the public deserves some blame for our state of dysfunctionality. | REUTERS Hate Congress? Blame yourself

Recent polls showing extreme dissatisfaction with Washington and the direction the country is headed are akin to telling a drowning man he’s not a very good swimmer. He’s well aware of the fact; but while the lifeguard (in this case, elected officials) is too busy flirting and showing off to do his job, the sharks are circling, and it looks like the only way to be saved is learn how to swim fast, because no one else is coming to the rescue.

Americans’ discontent with their political leaders is nothing new, of course, but the extent of unhappiness across the board among Democrats, Republicans and Independents is plumbing new depths, as reflected in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and a Pew Research survey.


More than 60 percent of those questioned believe the country is on the wrong track. About the same number think every member of Congress should be replaced — including their own representatives. Most Americans seem to subscribe to Shakespeare’s “plague on both your houses” sentiment, as the poll revealed no preference for either party controlling Congress. Only 12 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing – about the same number as approve of Washington political pundits. (Americans have a higher opinion of colonoscopies, root canals, and used car salesmen than they do Congress, although they hold lobbyists, telemarketers, and the Kardashians in lower esteem.)

And the mainstream political parties are taking a hit, too. Forty-six percent of voters now identify themselves as independents according to Pew – that’s as many as Democrats and Republicans combined and the highest percentage ever.

“Those are staggering numbers,” Olympia Snowe, who resigned from the Senate last year, citing Congress’s increasing inability to actually do anything, said in an interview. “If that isn’t attention-getting, what is?”

“We should be individually and collectively embarrassed by the low esteem in which we are held, but I don’t think embarrassment even occurs to many of them,” Snowe said of her former colleagues. “They just can’t get their act together on any major question.”

Polarization and dysfunction have come to define government. Just look at the depiction of Washington in movies and television, with self-serving and corrupt politicians featured in series like “Scandal” and “House of Cards.” Martin Sheen’s idealistic portrayal of President Josiah Bartlet in “The West Wing,” which aired on television from 1999-2006, would be considered a parody today.

But what are Americans really willing to do about the situation, and does the public deserve a share of the blame for the state of our dysfunctional politics?

“We citizens have a responsibility for a lot of the partisan gridlock, because we don’t vote in primaries,” former Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell told me. Voter turnout in primary elections is much lower than in general elections. Since it is typically party loyalists and activists on the left and right who show up to vote in primaries, centrist candidates who help to forge compromise are disappearing from Congress. Rendell, who considers himself a centrist Democrat, cited former Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware and retired Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who were defeated in GOP Senate primaries in 2010 and 2012, as examples of the public’s penchant for punishing figures who work across the aisle.

Rendell puts it bluntly: “The voters bear some of the responsibility. They need to turn out. Don’t just complain about Washington: Get off your duff and do something.”

Robert Ehrlich, a Republican former member of Congress and governor of Maryland from 2003-2007, said that the growth of gerrymandered districts – a trend accelerated by the redistricting process that followed the 2010 census — are a big part of the problem. “The seats are safe. Congress can have a single digit approval rating and it doesn’t matter. The center is non-existent.”

The data backs him up. Analyzing the 2012 presidential returns, analyst Nate Silver put the number of true House swing districts at a mere 35, less than a third of the number 20 years ago. Combining those that lean Republican and Democrat, the number is still only 88 out of 435 seats, according to Silver. The Cook Political Report has the number of competitive districts for 2014 at 90, but only nine true toss-up races right now. And the result of this uncompetitive landscape, in which partisan primaries push candidates to the extremes, is that most members of Congress vote with their party 90 percent of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly — the greatest partisan polarization since World War I.

Snowe, a moderate Republican in record and manner, is extremely concerned about the growing polarization and has founded OlympiasList, a PAC to raise money and support moderate candidates who favor bipartisanship and problem solving.

“There are many reasons why people are disgusted and disenchanted with government,” posited Dan Glickman of the Bipartisan Policy Center, ticking off a long but familiar list: the prevalence of special interests and money in politics, the inability of government to address big issues and the nation’s economic stagnation, as well as the disappearance of congressional centrists. “People see a lot of vitriol but not a lot of substance.”

Party loyalty is “causing a kind of paralysis” on Capitol Hill, said Glickman, a former Democratic congressman from Kansas and secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration. “No one is willing to go out of their safety zone for fear of being attacked by their base or their donors.” He proposes a series of House and Senate rule changes to prevent obstructionism, along with more sweeping reforms, such as banning members of Congress from raising campaign money while Congress is in session.

But it’s hard to imagine measures strong enough to work – and weak enough to pass. “It’s a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse,” said Heather Gerken, a Yale Law School professor who specializes in election and constitutional law. “The foremost obstacle to reform is self-interested politicians.”

Glickman and Snowe co-chair the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform (CPR), which held what it called a “national town meeting” in Philadelphia last week focused on public service. In partnership with USA Today, the CPR released a poll showing that, by a two-to-one margin, Americans believe the way to make positive change in society is not through local, state, or national government but through community service.

But there are things government can do to engage the public, advocates insist: electoral reforms such as making it easier to register and vote, moving Election Day to the weekend to increase participation, opening up primaries to all registered voters (including Independents and unaffiliated voters), and taking congressional redistricting out of the hands of politicians and putting citizen commissions in charge of the process to design more competitive districts. “The only way you’re going to change things is to make these primaries more competitive,” said Snowe.

One state that has tried reform along these lines is California, where voters, through the ballot initiative process, adopted both open primaries and citizen redistricting reforms for the 2012 election. A citizen commission made up of equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents was responsible for drawing up the competitive congressional districts. “The citizens’ commission in California showed how well citizens can do. It was a good redistricting,” said Yale’s Gerken, “far better than what would be done by political incumbents.”

These are not sexy issues however, with passionate supporters and opponents on each side. Most voters’ eyes glaze over when people start talking about election reform, and they often don’t make the connection between how their political leaders are elected and how they govern. “The majority of Americans have become conditioned not to know very much about their government,” said Glickman, “and negative, low information political campaigns reinforce that.”

For Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, the lack of leadership in Washington is a big part of the problem. “It a kindergarten up here,” he told me. Coburn, who is not planning to run for another Senate term, said, “I don’t see anything wrong with replacing all of us.”

Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, holds town meetings in every county in his state each year. He’s a fervent believer in dialogue between elected officials and voters. But they have to show up, he said: “Political change happens because voters are weighing in.”

Snowe, who recently authored a book called Fighting for Common Ground: How we Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, believes that even though Americans are “dispirited and despondent,” they can assert themselves and change the system. As she put it, “Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.”

Linda Killian is author of The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents . Follow her on Twitter @lindajkillian.

This article tagged under: Opinion

Olympia Snowe

Scandals