Is this the 'worst Congress ever'?

The debt ceiling showdown has revealed Washington's deepening divisions, and aversion to compromise of any sort

Is this the 'worst Congress ever'?
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The acrimonious debate over raising the debt ceiling has shined a spotlight on partisan rancor in Washington. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, who wrote a 2006 book saying Congress was "broken," now says at Foreign Policy that hardliners in both parties have gained such "inordinate power" that compromise, even on crucial matters such as keeping the government from defaulting on its debt for the first time ever, is essentially dead. Even back in 1969, when the country was deeply divided over the Vietnam War, Capitol Hill was "considerably less dysfunctional" than it is now. Is this really the "worst Congress ever"?

Yes. And it won't get better anytime soon: It's hard to argue that the 112th Congress isn't "the worst one ever," says The Economist. It's even more depressing when you realize that this is not a temporary shift due to transient factors, such as the rise of the Tea Party, but "the culmination of a long period of realignment in American politics" that has left the parties polarized. Things are likely to get even worse in 2012, as redistricting and acrimonious primaries pick off more moderates, one by one.

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