Yes, Washington is in fact more partisan now

It's not just the government that is more partisan the American people are more partisan too.

This is why term limits and rules against becoming lobbyists (which they voted down yesterday), should happen. Get people in congress to serve the people not "service" them.

The reason the govt is so partisan is because people have been divided by powerful interests.
And it is really VERY easy to manipulate people.

Nice picture of these poor performing politicians.

The terms "red state" and "blue state" were invented by the media during the 2000 election in order to create a sense of "us vs. them" divisiveness. Prior to that, each individual news network used whatever colors they felt like on their electoral college maps, and aside from a couple of REALLY obvious states (e.g. California) you didn't get that sense of "Oh, everybody from ____ always votes _____."

I think this is largely due to selfishness and a lack of patriotism. Lapel pins and sticking a flag on your porch doesn't one patriotic. Doing what's best for the country, even when you disagree with the other side's ideology, is patriotic. Refusing to do so is selfish, and cowardly. Man up, America.

thank Newt the pillsbury playboy he started the trend and made it very ugly enter Tom Delay and Washington went from a cesspool to whatever is worse than a cesspool

Term limits is the answer to many problems, including this one.

George Washington warned us about this....

Two party system is a joke.

I bet the "increasing partisanship" of the 1850s would beat that!

Looking to one person to "save the country" - whether it's Barack Obama or Ron Paul - is a recipe for disaster.

Congress has broken it's system of rules by which it operates. It needs to go back to rules that are more fair and efficient; they need to be able to better respond to the People [not corps] who they took an oath to serve.

Unilaterally,eliminate eighty per cent of lobbyist capacity, evenly, across the board. Special interests have, obviously, taken over our representation since the 1970's and it has poisoned and diseased Washington, DC. Our elected officials end up, spending way too much of their (our) time, kissing up to special interests for fund raising, in order to get re-elected. The system has been rotting at the core for thirty years.

If it's so diverse then why do both parties continue to have the same agenda? Obama utilized all of Bushs' laws he claimed he would repeal. We know the banks own both parties equally, and the more people 'wake up' the more terrified these sleazy bankers get.

If we converted the government to a REAL democracy/republic instead of the CORPORATE KLEPTOCRACY we have congress could actually do it's job. Currently the only thing our elected officials worry about is pleasing the folks that bought them, so they can get more money for the next election. Our elected representatives sell themselves like prostitutes on the street corner ...... or they don't get reelected. This is the most corrupt government in the industrialized world.

I think we could all benefit by de-emphasizing our party affiliations (I have none at all at the moment, both sides are equally embarrassing to me) , and focus on solutions to the issues we face. And for heaven's sake, stop the namecalling, that solves nothing and convinces no one, it just perpetuates this mindless animosity.
I'll concede that Bernanke's plan to avoid a Depression, with all the spending and debt generated, may have been necessary. But I sure hope he's got a plan, (other than just inflating our way out of it), to begin to pay down that debt. I think any rational person would conclude that we need a combination of a significant reduction in government spending, along with a reformation of the tax code to get back to the rates that prevailed in the nineties. That's job one as far as I'm concerned. Can we begin the process of getting to an agreement on how to achieve that, and in the aim of getting there, begin electing Congressional representatives that promise make it a point to reject the robotic voting along party lines, and begin voting their constituents' interest, along with honestly voting their conscience?

Publicly financed elections. No more Grover Nordquist, Koch Bros. or George Soros.

Seems most of them do what they do just to get re- elected.

So? Who really controls? The lobbists!! NEW person in congress or pres, THE lobby say take my ---millions of dollars and --millions of votes or your opponent will !!! SO THEY TAKE !!! The billion Obama will get HAS TO BE PAIDED BACK TO THE LOBBY. SAME FOR EACH CONGRESS PERSON. There is NO FREE LUNCH !!!!! Get rid of lobbists LOL.

the answer is no one that is rich should be in congress or elected for president.term limits will not help either.we need to take the money out of politics period.a average american that is low or middle income should be the ones running this nation because they know how to make what little they have do them.there should be no companies involved in the policy making either and no special interst groups either.nothing will never chang in america while the rich,companies and special interst groups control the thinking of the politicans that are in office now and the ones that will be elected this year.alot are wrong about this president with what he has to say about the poor.you see he is the only one that has stood up for the poor and will win again because the repeublican party thinks the poor and middle income class are beneath them.they are so wrong on that because there are more of us than them period.we control who wins and loses in the united states not the rich republican.it does not matter how much money america is in debt because if the rich and companies would pay what they should pay towards this nations debt it could be paid in full.they will not because they want to keep their money and live off the backs of the poor and middle class.there is a time coming that we will be pushed to far and what we will do who knows but history says that we may do what our founding fathers of this nation did and take this nation back from them.