Forum Post: The system is broken:

"Politics is broken" ~ Senator Bill Bradley's public statement, 1995 when he announced he would not seek re-election, after serving 18 years as a Senator.

and 16 years later...

"The system is broken and dysfunctional...and everyone knows that." ~ Senator Tom Udall, USA Today 9/29/2011

"We Have Lost The Ability To Execute Even The Basic Functions Of Government" ~ Robert Gates - retired Secretary of Defense speech at the Constitution Center

"I think we have a very poor constitutional and political system for the 21st century. We have a system which was marvelous for 13 independent, loosely-tied states..." ~ Paul Kennedy, Professor of History (Yale) on CBS Sunday Morning (1/2/2011)

"People often note that America's political system is broken. Perhaps the truth is more awkward: America needs radical change, and it has an 18th century system determined to check and balance the absolute power of a monarchy. It is designed for gridlock at a moment when quick and large-scale action is our only hope." ~ Fareed Zakaria in Time Magazine "How to Restore the American Dream" (10/21/2010)

(the "awkward truth" is our Constitution is preventing a "more perfect Union!")

"Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It)" ~ book (title) by Sanford Levinson, University of Texas (Austin)

"A More Perfect Constitution" ~ book (title) by Larry Sabato, University of Virginia Center for Politics

"A non-cooperative game lacks a higher authority to impose agreements on both sides. In Washington, no politician is bound to reach a compromise to solve any long-term problem. Everyone, however, is playing a game called "election" and the only possible goal in that game is to win the next one. If you hear someone in Congress say, "Senator X is just playing politics," a perfectly legitimate response is, "She has to. Those are the rules of the Constitution." If we grumble, as voters, that we need to throw the bums out, all we're doing it subjecting a new set of bums to the same game. Anyone who promises to fix or change Washington is merely attempting to impose a cooperative game on a town that, by design, can't play one." ~ Brendan Greeley in Bloomberg Businessweek, "The Debt Ceiling: The Case for Caving" 8/3/2011

all quoted here: http://www.jeffblock2012.com/Summary.html