AMERICAN NOTES: Do-Nothing Congress

A sure danger sign in a democracy is the inability of its legislature to legislate. This has been a problem in the U.S. for years, with the nation wearily viewing the discouraging spectacle of two Houses of 500 willful politicians bartering to arrive at laws that are supposed to be best for the country. It seems to take a national emergency to goad Congress into sustained action; the last legislatures to produce anything like a spate of successful laws were the first New Deal Congress (1933) and the post-J.F.K. (1964-65) Congress.

Thus far the functioning of the 92nd Congress seems...

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