Political Gridlock In The United States

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Many American’s conceptualization of the country’s legislative process is based on their understanding of the actions of Congress, which comprises of the US House of Representative and Senate. For the past 8 years or so, the country has been experiencing a political gridlock occasioned by the Democrats and Republicans desire to demonstrate their superiority over each other. The spirit of compromise has seemingly deserted members of the two parties. This has resulted in a difficulty in passing laws. However, the current political gridlock was not manufactured at the federal. On the other hand, it was promoted at the state level. In this regard, the observation that although much of the blame for the current gridlock in the country falls on the U.S. House and Senate, the State Legislatures are actually more to blame for the current political climate is extremely valid. In order to understand the current political climate, it is necessary to review how the gridlock started. The hostilities between Democrats and Republicans in Congress started in 2010 when President Barack Obama was in power. It was during this year that Republicans won majority of seats in Congress, in state legislatures and governorships. This victory gave them immense …show more content…

The Constitution allows for the redrawing of districts according to census figures. The last national census was held in 2010. Naturally, the party with most seats at the state level controls the redrawing. Parties take advantage of this by drawing districts to maximize their advantage. In essence, they include regions where most of their supports are located and exclude those areas associated with the other party. Some parties draw districts that span two states. This results in polarizing the people, which translates to political polarization. This is what exactly happened in

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