David Orentlicher, Two Presidents Are Better Than One: The Case for a Bipartisan Executive Branch

Abstract

1 In recent years, American politics has fallen into what amounts to an ongoing, low-grade constitutional crisis. This condition still goes by time-honored names like "gridlock," "polarization" and "brinksmanship," but as it has grown more serious, other terms have come into vogue: "radicalization," "dysfunction," "constitutional hardball," "total obstruction," "hostage-taking," a "toxic" or "scorched-earth" politics, the "death of comity," the destruction of "political norms," the "weaponizing" of parliamentary rules. Presidential actions that used to be largely routine, like the appointing of judges and agency heads, are now instead routinely politicized or blocked altogether. The filibuster, a once-rare maneuver to stop action in the U.S. Senate by requiring supermajority votes, has become standard operating procedure, with only a minimal (and partisan) recent revision to at least allow the staffing of agencies and courts. Threats to shut down the government or cut off America's borrowing authority, thus risking global financial turmoil, have become almost once-ayear instead of once-a-generation events. Party-line voting is common, indeed the norm on major legislation -of which David Orentlicher, Two Presidents Are Better Than One: The Case for a Biparti...