A divided Congress searches for common ground

The current Congress arrived with a mandate to act, and a majority too thin to act easily. Every vote is negotiated, every coalition temporary, and every compromise scrutinised by a base that increasingly rewards purity over progress.

Behind the procedural standoffs lies a harder question: what does a legislature owe a public that did not vote for gridlock? Lawmakers elected to deliver are finding that the system they inherited rewards obstruction as much as accomplishment.

Some observers argue the answer is procedural reform. Others insist the problem is cultural, a political culture that treats the other party as an opponent to be defeated rather than a partner to be persuaded.

Whatever the diagnosis, the stakes are familiar to democracies everywhere. When legislatures cannot legislate, citizens lose faith in the institutions that claim to represent them. Restoring that faith may be the most important work of all.