Things have changed. Once, our elected representatives spent most of their time divided between four activities: drafting legislation and caucusing with colleagues on their side of the aisle; negotiating legislative changes with counterparts on the other side of the aisle, both in and out of committee; campaigning for re-election, and fund-raising. Fund-raising which once took only 5% of their time now consumes over 35% (some estimates suggest the figure is nearer 50%)1. Every spare moment must be devoted to arm-twisting, rubber chicken lunches and celebrity parties at which the wealthy can be relieved to their money. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't see an invitation to one of these glitzy events anywhere in my future since I don't have the price of entry.
Since campaigning can't be avoided, the effect has been to dramatically reduce the two remaining activities, negotiating and legislating. As a result, compromise has become very difficult to achieve since the two sides spend almost no time exploring possible win-win solutions, and the drafting of legislation is outsourced to lobbyists. Importantly, it also means that the flow of information from the electorate (through campaigning activities) and the other party (through negotiating activities) into the legislative process has declined, while that from lobby groups and donors has increased.
It should come as no surprise that this system generates policies that favor those with a lot of money to spend on lobbying and funding congressional (and state) election campaigns. Increasingly, we have, as some wag once remarked, the best government money can buy.
1 Figures are approximate and based on anecdotal and/or apocryphal data.
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