The last time that Democrats had this much power was in Bill Clinton’s first two years, and I think it is arguable that you really need to go back to the 1977-78 period to find one party with comparable majorities. Obviously, nothing like the modern internet existed back then, and so people didn’t have an opportunity to watch their government as closely as they do now. We can watch CSPAN at our leisure or YouTubes of committee hearings and speeches on the floor. We can download the legislative language of every version of a bill from both houses of Congress. And we have a 24-hour cable news culture to discuss it all. I think that is one reason that there is a higher cost to the routine sausage-making of bills. It used to be that you could offer a Cornhusker Kickback and no one would know about it (certainly not until after the bill passed, anyway).
This is one way that transparency has made it harder to pass legislation. Overall, I think transparency is a positive. It allows us to meaningfully participate in the legislative process. But it isn’t an unvarnished good. It is also weapon for Republicans who want to oppose every bill under consideration in Congress.
