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With regards to the partisanship issue...I think the big problem with the way things are done these days is that the attitude is one of 'party over everything' - that the *most* important thing is to get, and then keep your party in power, regardless of what a given legislator believes. This is especially true of the republican side, but the democrats have the same problem. Political parties are fine as a broad coalition of like-minded individuals...but the system we've got now tends towards the idea that political party is the most important thing. Get more power for The Party. Trash the other party, get more of your party elected. Always look towards the next election. We must fix this to get a functioning government again...I just don't know how to do it.
More parties might help...but splitting into a three party system is unlikely - a third party would almost certainly take more from one party than the other, and that would leave the 'intact' party with more power. On the other hand, the republican party seems to be tearing itself apart, so we'll see.
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