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What some may describe as gridlock, I would suggest is an opportunity for bi-partisanship and the restoration of true Congressional oversight.
It was Nixon and a dem Congress that enacted most of our current environmental laws. Reagan and a dem Congress agreed on the most comprehensive and balanced tax reform in years, as well as a medium-term fix of Social Security. And it was Clinton and a repub Congress that brought about welfare reform, trade policies, fiscal restraint and a slower growth in spending then anytime in recent history.
The other, equally if not more important benefit of divided government is the role of Congress in providing oversight of the Executive, as envisioned by the founding fathers.....with the caveat that it is not abused for partisan purposes (not that there may not be partisan benefits as a result). This oversight has rarely occured at the level necessary when both branches are controlled by one party.
Some fear this oversight will be a witchunt by a dem Congress. But is it really a witchunt to have investigatory hearings on issues of concern to many citizens - the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance, the use of executive orders and signing statements to ignore provisions of law, the use of intelligence data, the reclassification of thousands of documents as secret and subsequent restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act....
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"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire
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