Be careful what you wish for:
While the phrase customarily is taken as a negative, this ABC News/Yahoo! News poll finds that Republican registered voters in fact divide evenly, 42-43 percent, on whether gridlock is a bad thing because it prevents good legislation from being passed — or a good thing, because it blocks bad laws.
The split underscores many Republicans’ skepticism of active government. But it may make it difficult for GOP leaders to push their own legislative agenda. And it raises questions about the durability of the party’s appeal to independent registered voters, who favored Republicans by a record margin Nov. 2, but who see gridlock as a negative by a 2-1 margin, 57-28 percent.
It seems to me that the electorate doesn’t have some ideological preference for how to create jobs but they don’t believe it’s acceptable to do nothing. We have a Democratic president and a Democratically-controlled Senate. Therefore, it is totally unrealistic for House Republicans or the Republican base to think that they can impose their economic plan on the country. They need to compromise, recognizing that they are not in control and inaction is unacceptable.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that they will do so, however, and that means that this Congress will fail. The next two years are going to be little more than a debate over why the government is incapable of action and whether or not its inaction is a good thing. What’s most depressing is the prospect of the government getting substantially less popular than it is right now. I don’t think we’ve ever had a Congress polling this low, and that’s the starting point for what will be one of the most dysfunctional Congresses in our county’s history.
