In the end, I believe the core issue with the problems in the American political scene has very little to do with parties / party lines / bi-partisanship / [insert party-related term here] etc., but rather with the mindset of the incumbent politicians in Washington, regardless of political affiliation, and a blatant disregard for the nation's laws. Parties are the inevitable result of human nature. The 'birds of a feather' mentality will always lead people to organize and identify themselves as members of a certain school, belief, or demographic. This is not a bad thing. Parties provide clearly defined choices and help smooth the electoral process with their internal infrastructures.
The issue lies with the shared aristocratic and egotistical nature of those who now sit in Washington, claiming to act on the people's behalf. They seem to have some strange sense of entitlement to their positions. They are so self-centered and focused on their own agendas and pet-projects, they fail to listen to the people they represent and blatantly disregard the laws that bind their actions as set forth in the Constitution.
To these people, the Constitution is a tedious, antiquated, and inconvenient document they would rather sweep under the rug and forget about. They do this because they know that any honest man can read the Constitution and see how far the Federal Government has strayed from it. It lays out a very strict list of powers that Feds can wield and leaves no room to expand on them without a full amendment. In fact, any powers not granted to the federal-level are automatically state-level powers and cannot be infringed upon by federal government.
This fact alone calls into question legislation that has been passed through Congress in the last few decades, including setting national smoking and drinking ages, and the current administration's recent attempts at enforcing nation-wide medical insurance standard. Such legislation is unconstitutional and should never even become the subject of debate. Each individual State has the power to legislate its own requirements, and by Constitutional law, such actions are legal. Other controversial issues such as gay rights, legalization of marijuana, and abortion also fall under state - not federal- jurisdiction.
In short, the Federal govenment has been slowly eating up state's rights without the consent of the sates via the proper amendment process, pulling the important decisions out of the peoples' grasp and into their power-hungry claws. This trend will not change until we put men and women in Washington who understand and embrace both the powers and limits of the Constitution, and whose true motives are to listen to and serve the people who sent them. Only then will there be the United States of America, and not the Federated Provinces of Washington D.C..
