The electoral system is polarizing

Submitted by Kelsey McLaughlin on October 29, 2012
Tags: 
Problem-Solver's Daily
Fiscal Cliff
canada
elections
Hyper-Partisanship
Gridlock
Polarization
campaigns
Barack Obama
Mitt Romney

POLARIZING SYSTEM: Although the race for the White House is a national election, both campaigns are targeting all their resources in swing states, effectively ignoring about 75 percent of the country. "And in those few ‘swing’ states the contest most often comes down to turnout  -- Republicans and Democrats concentrating their energies on the so-called ‘ground game’ involved with getting their most reliably loyal voters to the polls. Again, this has little or nothing to do with persuading voters that a candidate has better ideas or a better record of serving voters. What is being executed is a cynical strategy of exciting blind partisanship and getting those folks to the polls," writes Juan Williams: Juan Williams for The Hill: Opinion: Polarized US political system responsible for dysfunctional elections

FISCAL CLIFF HELP FROM UP NORTH: In the mid-1990s, Canada was able to transform a budget deficit into a budget surplus and the United States can learn from it. The members of the three major political parties all wanted to address the growing deficit but soon realized that they could not do it alone. Each party started to see that they had a responsibility to serve the people of Canada. Washington has yet to understand this but our elected officials can look to our neighbors to the north for guidance: Brian Lee Crowley for The Washington Post: Canada's fiscal success story

STOP FINGER-POINTING: As the election day finish line draws near, both campaigns are in full finger-pointing mode. President Obama is "filled with misleading statements and outright falsehoods," according to the Romney campaign, while the Obama campaign says "facts are not [Romney's] forte." Both campaigns should be focusing on telling the American people their message but are instead trying to discredit their opponent:Edward-Issac Dovere for POLITICO: Obama, Romney accuse each other of lying

LETTER CALLS FOR SUPPORT: Phil Leech is tired of the gridlock in Washington and encourages people who feel the same to check out No Labels. "The most powerful interest groups work to push our leaders and political parties apart. No Labels attempts to push our leaders to work together. Now isn’t that a concept?" he says: Phil Leech for the Holland Sentinel: LETTER – Stop fighting, America, and start fixing

FROM THE FIELD: We had a great call with Co-Founder Nancy Jacobson last night. You can join us for another tonight with Tom Kahn, a staff director to the House Budget Committee, at 7 p.m. by signing up here.

THE DAILY BREAK: Growing up outside of San Francisco, I am a huge Giants fan. Congratulations to the team for winning their second World Series in three years: Chris Haft for MLB.com: Return to splendor: Giants champions again

ACTION OF THE DAY: Sign our petition to tell Washington to stop fighting and start fixing.

STAT OF THE DAY: The United States has a $2.2 trillion backlog of infrastructure projects, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P). Due to the federal government's failure to come up with a long-term funding plan to help with such projects, the burden will increasingly fall to local entities in the form of higher rates and tolls:Ashley Halsey III for The Washington Post: Burden for rebuilding infrastructure may fall to states

Written & edited by Kelsey McLaughlin, Collin Berglund, Lauren Gilbert and Jack McCullough

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