Watch Bitt's honest take or: democracy and our times April 26, 2013 Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann Explain Why Congress is Failing Us As most of you know, I am a big fan of Bill Moyers and last week on Moyers & Company, political scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann told Bill that Congress' failure to make progress on gun control last week — despite support for background checks from 90% of the American public — is symptomatic of a legislative branch reduced to dysfunction, partisan ravings and obstruction. http://billmoyers.com/segment/norman-ornstein-and-thomas-mann-explain-why-congress-is-failing-us/ Producer: Gina Kim. Editor: Sikay Tang. Associate Producer: Reniqua Allen. BILL MOYERS: Even if the threat of terrorists went away, none of those bold projects Glenn Greenwald described as defining American greatness would happen today. Our government is paralyzed and dysfunctional, and it's getting worse than ever. Just ask Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann. as I'm about to do. For decades, these two political scientists were on the go-to list for Beltway pundits and reporters seeking wisdom on the curious ways of governance. But then, almost exactly a year ago to this day. they published an op-ed piece in The Washington Post headlined, "Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem." Mann and Ornstein argued that democracy and the economy are in a crash dive, and that congressional gridlock was largely the fault of the Republican Party and its takeover by right wing radicals. What's more, they said, the mainstream media was adding to the problem by resorting to false equivalency," pretending that both parties were equally at fault. The article was based on their book, It's Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. A paperback edition, with a new preface and afterword, will be out later this year. Thomas Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Chair and a senior fellow in G