Originally posted by Zahlanzi
Which is a surprise for nobody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFObKcjLOU
The US is the bestest, free-est country on Earth. A political party is threatening to jail their political opponent if they win or paralyze the whole government if they lose.
Partisan gridlock is nothing new in US politics.
Through the 60s, 70s and 80s, the Democrats were such a divided party, as a coalition between northern moderates and southern Dixiecrats, that party discipline was very hard to enforce. Since the Dem coalition was a majority and so were needed to govern, crossing party lines was common and gridlock was less common.
Then, the Republicans employed the southern strategy, figuring that they could earn a permanent majority by converting the south to the GOP. That they did, but in the process lost so many northern (and western) moderates that they've only managed to draw into roughly a tie in terms of popularity. But what it did was consolidate the parties onto parts of the political spectrum. This made party discipline much easier to enforce.
Partisan obstruction of the other party got bad under Clinton, even worse under Bush and still worse under Obama. A Hillary win, given the trend and her unpopularity and the fact that most moderates have been unceremoniously booted out of the GOP, indicates that things might get still worse.
Paradoxically, election of an unpredictable wild card like Trump who would certainly use his bully pulpit to humiliate members of Congress who foiled him and whose popularity and unpopularity crosses party lines (with much of the GOP establishment hating him but who does have some appeal among blue collar democrats) might have the effect of decreasing partisan gridlock by changing the erstwhile paradigm of partisanship as it exists now.