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That's a result of the death of the party boss system, the last vestiges of which we lost in the late 70s. It was extremely corrupt, but largely centrist politics.

The appeal to extremes and gerrymandering came afterwards. The obstructionist politics are not about willpower -- the issue is systemic.

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I don't know if it's centrism that enabled infrastructure, so much as the two major parties seeing each other as legitimate rivals that could be negotiated with. Without a common enemy since the Soviet Union disintegrated, the parties have lost their sense of mutual legitimacy. There's nothing visibly* urgent enough to push us into e.g. building a continent-spanning system of highways.

*Climate change doesn't count because one side doesn't see it as a threat.

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