Political Gridlock

When there are two political parties running Congress, there is bound to be gridlock. Why is there more today, than in the past? Even though there is an increase of political gridlock, the way members of Congress have represented the US people has stayed the same, but some factors have changed.
What is political gridlock and why do we have it? Political gridlock, according to the book, Keeping the Republic by Christine Barbour is; “The stalemate that occurs when political rivals, especially parties, refuse to budge from their positions to achieve a compromise in the public interest” (Keeping the Republic, Barbour, 2015). When two of the branches of government are controlled by a different party, the legislative and the executive branches, they tend to not agree and then laws do not get passed. Many say the main reason we have gridlock

One change is how many people are in Congress. There were not as many people when the nation first started, but now as the nation population has grown so does the number of people who are elected into Congress. There are too many “cooks in the kitchen” and most American’s don’t feel that they are being properly represented. Other change is that now, people feel they need sixty votes, in the Senate to pass legislation (to get the cloture vote), instead of the normal majority of fifty-one, so you can close the debate and get the bill voted on. Since there is a divide in Congress most, if not all, bills do not get voted on and are in a constant debate. But the main factor is how polarized Congress has become. Yes, there has been polarization in some way or another, but today, it feels that the parties have their own agendas and do not have the nation’s best interests at heart. Until the two parties can come together to compromise and do what is best for the nation and its people, then Congress will continue to fail to represent