NOT long ago, Congress could be dismissed as a minor irritant. But… [i]n 2011 … [b]y threatening to renege on debt the nation had promised to pay, it caused the US credit rating to drop and injured American credibility more broadly. In 2012, it …[failed] to find a long-term deficit fix. The budget deal passed Tuesday … barely qualified as a stop-gap measure…. The dysfunctionality of Congress results primarily from one simple fact: too many lawmakers … no longer worry about general elections, and therefore the national good. They are only concerned that well-funded primary opponents will challenge them for not being ideologically pure enough. …

The obvious place to start is with the congressional districts. A few states … have taken politics out of redistricting by handing the task to a bipartisan commission instead of the legislature…. If others opted for this approach, more representatives would come from politically diverse districts…. Money is another obvious issue. Recent Supreme Court rulings … have allowed unlimited … money to pour into congressional races…. But Congress could at least force greater disclosure of where the money is coming from.

…The final thing that has to happen is unique to the Republican Party…. [I]f the party wants the big prize, it will have to reposition itself as a party that knows how to govern, can get things done and isn’t above reaching deals with Democrats. …[Moreover,] the public…. will have to force change by making it clear that the behaviour of 2011 and 2012 is simply not acceptable. — (Jan 3)