Is the Internet destroying the U.S. two party system?
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
The constant state of "phony war" means that politicians can get legitimacy by participating in symbolic fights over unimportant issues and thus don't get called account for dealing with the problems in front of them.
At point it is breaking down. Right-Wing hysteria is revealing itself to be a scam like Scientology.
Society can't hold politicians accountable for specific issues, it's always a package. The (hypothetical) guy did a good job on banking regulation, but made sh&t all over intellectual property, and he only can be "fired" as a whole, by not being elected later.
And now try to rally up enough force because of the IP bill! You won't get much leverage, because you attack him, which includes banking issue, so you'll get an opposition that doesn't care about IP, but likes his work about banks.
Why not reward him for the former action and punish for the latter?