Blame the Constitution

As Scott Lemieux says there is a real obstacle to "getting things done" legislatively in the United States, and it's not partisanship, it's the institutions of American government which are specifically designed to operate in a small-c conservative manner. Many people think this is a good thing. My view is that it's a bad thing. But either way, it's a fundamental aspect of our politics -- we operate in a system with many more veto points than exist in many other countries. If you worry that not enough "gets done" that's where you need to point the blame.