To the editor:

I share the oft-expressed frustration so well documented in our polling that our government has become dysfunctional. We cannot even pass an annual federal budget. The middle class employed are experiencing a decades-long decline in their standard of living.   Confidence in our institutions declines. Gridlock rules!

I look for the leader who will rise to the occasion. There is no lack of those who make promises to end the gridlock. Great! Then I remember that we have a two-party system that determines everything from what legislation will be considered to where a member of the legislature will sit. Just exactly how will a few new members be able to make the grand changes they propose? Buck the system and your office will be a closet, your proposals will never see the light of day, and you will be relegated to a committee responsible for toilet paper.

Like it or not, the parties matter and seniority within those parties determines the ability to accomplish anything. I don’t like it and I suspect many of you do not. Fixing it is not simple or we would have already done so.  Perhaps we could start with recognition that compromise by the parties is the only way to end the gridlock!