Four Lost Decades: Why American Politics Is All Messed Up

By John Cassidy, The New Yorker

22 September 13

Political update: the annual showdown over the federal budget and associated topics is about to begin. Over the weekend, President Obama warned that he wouldn't negotiate with Congressional Republicans about raising the debt ceiling, which is due to be breached sometime next month. But there's widespread speculation that the G.O.P. will play hardball and shut down the federal government.

If your eyes are already glazing over, don't feel guilty. I get paid to track this stuff, and I, too, find it a struggle to keep up. If, as Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce, how do you describe a four-peat? In 2010, Congress failed to pass a budget. In 2011, we had a debt-ceiling crisis that resulted in the sequester and Standard & Poor's downgrading treasuries. Last year, it was the fiscal-cliff crisis. And this year, we have a debt-ceiling crisis and a budget crisis- without a new spending resolution, the federal government will run out of money at the end of the month- with the added complication that some Republicans want to defund Obamacare. In short, it's business as usual on the Potomac.

Why is Washington so screwed up? Some people blame the Tea Party, others blame the lobbyists; my culprit is the economy. Countries with healthy economic systems tend to have polities that function pretty well. (The United States of the postwar era is a good example.) Countries with dysfunctional economies tend to have dysfunctional political systems, in which radical groups look for someone to blame and rival interest groups fight over the spoils. And that, sadly, is where we are now.

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