"Ungovernable"

The Economist takes a hearty swing at the notion that America is "ungovernable."  If only American media had this much understanding of American government.

(See also:

• Coyote Blog | Feature Not a Bug
• Will Wilkinson | The Senate Is Not Too Slow
• EconLog | Arnold Kling | Bipartisanship or Irreconcilable Differences?

)

I get a kick out of people making the claim that America is "ungovernable" based largely on Congress not being able to pass a piece of legislation that is epic in scope, price tag and unpopularity.  Yeah, it's some kind of terrible tragedy of democracy that the political elites can't do something that most people don't want done.



"Ungovernable" is used in this context as a synonym for "people aren't shutting up and doing what I want them to do," in the same way that "compromise" really means "everyone should just agree to do what I want to do."