Heres the truth: Washington is rigged, but not in a literal sense and not in any of the nefarious ways those loud voices are contending. Instead, the blame may lie more with voters than politicians: Our legislative process is not designed to withstand the current levels of partisan polarization in the electorate.
Voters vexation with standard-issue, do-nothing D.C. politicians and party elites helps explain the Trump and Sanders phenomena of 2016, and the rigging theories seem to arise out of that frustration and suspicion. Yet much of this anger with insiders is misdirected. If only our political problems were due to rigging elections, we could arrest someone and get on with it. But our problems are much more structural.
In 2012, my colleague Nate Silver wrote: Why is compromise so hard in the House? Some commentators, especially liberals, attribute it to what they say is the irrationality of Republican members of Congress. But the answer could be this instead: Individual members of Congress are responding fairly rationally to their incentives. Thats truer than ever: When narrow primary bases dominate elections, everyone loses. And politicians as a whole get blamed.
Sure, many politicians on both the right and left fan the flames of partisan hysteria and feed off their bases fire and they tend to get disproportionate attention. But in my experience, most candidates and officeholders dont see the world as red versus blue: They genuinely run for office to solve problems, not to please special-interest groups or for self-glorification. Unfortunately, they increasingly find themselves trapped in a voter-driven vicious cycle that shows no sign of abating.
