> That people will get more angry at congress for doing nothing is icing on the cake.

I want to be optimistic about this. In practice it seems that the strategy created by McConnel to block any legislation at all has been doing/tricking the voter really well. As he predicted, credit for anything good goes to the current admin while anything bad also gets blamed on the current admin. I can see a likely scenario where "people getting more angry" will only make this strategy to block everything work even better. I hope I am wrong and the "nuance" that congress exists and isn't controlled by the president will finally get into people heads. I also hope that once it gets into their heads, the conclusion won't be that a authoritarian dictator is needed.

I agree with you: frustrated by a Congress that can’t pass any legislation, the one thing it doesn’t seem like anyone is willing to try is to consider compromises. Everyone seems fully convinced that if only the 50% (or more) of the voters who disagree with them would just drop dead, we could fix everything. And as a result, voters punish lawmakers, who horse trade and negotiate. Even though that’s the only way things used to get done until everything broke 10 or 15 years ago.

Compromising in the current congress:

"Let's meet in the middle" says the unjust man.

You take a step towards him. He takes a step back.

"Let's meet in the middle" says the unjust man.

Maybe that’s how it started and maybe that’s a cause of the unwillingness, but how it’s going is that both sides see it as a failing to compromise, even when your opponent has a mandate.

It's very easy to argue against when the people that most want to violate the rules have congress in their back pocket. I personally prefer being actually able to breathe the air and not work 70 hours a week with no benefits.

> It'll hurt in the short term

There are decades of rules in the federal register. How long do you imagine it will take the legislative branch to patch them?

Go skim some of them, and see if you feel the same way afterward:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/search?conditions%...

I wonder if building codes should be abolished.

then being a renter would be quite an adventure.

The federal government doesn't set or enforce building codes for your apartment building. State and local governments are responsible for that.

> It's hard to argue with this in principal. The rules as law BS has been a band-aid over dysfunction. It needs to go.

It's very easy to argue with this in principle. Congress can't be constantly updating every law as new technology or situations emerge. It's much better for laws to set general goals and leave implementation to agencies staffed with experts.

Spoken like someone who trusts “experts” pretty completely.

If you are left-leaning, suppose the “experts” are former oil company lobbyists.

If you are right-leaning, suppose the “experts” are Marxists hired by President AOC.

That is why the “trust the unelected experts” idea fundamentally bothers people.