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A lot of its dysfunction goes back to Newt Gingrich
Source Articles
Congress Used to Work. What Happened?
The New Yorker (United States) | Jul 25, 2026
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Jul 25, 2026
Campaign finance rules that force members to spend hours fundraising from partisan donors have made legislators more ideologically rigid than voters.
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Jul 25, 2026
Members of Congress today lack the personal relationships and informal trust-building that allowed dealmaking in earlier decades.
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Jul 25, 2026
Congressional staff have been cut so drastically that members cannot develop expertise and rely instead on party leadership talking points.
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Jul 25, 2026
Restoring Congress requires structural reforms to how seats are drawn, campaigns are funded, and media incentives shape what members hear from constituents.
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Jul 25, 2026
Congress functioned better when both parties accepted that the other side could govern legitimately and deserved basic respect.
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Jul 25, 2026
Ending the filibuster would let the majority govern clearly rather than forcing constant supermajority negotiations that paralyze the chamber.
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Jul 25, 2026
The filibuster exists precisely to prevent a narrow majority from imposing its will and remains essential protection for minority rights.
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Jul 25, 2026
Congress's dysfunction long predates Gingrich and blaming him obscures deeper structural problems like gerrymandering and primary polarization.
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Jul 25, 2026
Gingrich's Contract with America explicitly weaponized Congress as a partisan battle ground instead of a legislative body meant to solve problems.
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Jul 25, 2026
Both parties share blame for Congress's breakdown and treating it as a Gingrich scandal lets Democrats off the hook for their own role in escalating hostility.
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