Dysfunctional, the much used adjective to describe our political class, generally taken to mean deviating from norms of behavior, is a poorly chosen adjective. The president and the Congress have shown no sign of deviating at all from some norm—this is their norm. Economists have taken to using the phrase “the new normal” to describe the condition of our economy—slow growth, zero interest rates, high unemployment. The phrase might better be applied to our politicians. Or, since dysfunctional doesn’t accurately describe what is going on in Washington, “ludicrous” or “ridiculous” might do.
We have witnessed another episode in the perils of Pauline because the speaker of the House couldn’t get his fellow Republicans to support him in an attempt to fashion a compromise with the president, who has in any event announced that he doesn’t do comprises. The leader of the minority in the Senate, a practiced hand at making a deal, at one point plaintively announced that he couldn’t find a dancing partner, the majority leader having disappeared the scene, perhaps because his ability to get his followers to follow is no greater than that of the speaker.
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