Why Political Gridlock Happened

Gridlock is defined as “a situation in which no progress can be made” by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (www.Meriam-Webster.com). Political gridlock can occur in a unified government (a government where one party controls both Congress and the Presidency). Some may wonder how this could happen, which is why the theory of “Pivotal Politics” was conceived. In the 111th Congress, a gridlock concerning the passage of a climate change bill to “transform the nation’s energy approach to energy and climate change” (Ryan Lizza) occured. The theory of pivotal politics can be applied to the situation to explain why gridlock happened. The problem was, the filibuster pivot, Senator Lindsey Graham, was not able to be convinced to continue with the bill.
The Republicans would have preferred the ideal point over the status quo. Instead, the Republicans, partly due to the massive Conservative movement occurring at the time, moved their ideal points far to the right and refused to budge. The great distance between the policy space could not be overcome unless they were able to at least try to compromise, which proved impossible.
They found common ground with one group in particular – the oil companies. The proposed negotiation was to offer the alternative to “pay a fee based on the total number of gallons of gasoline they sold” and became known as the “gas tax.” Soon after the deal was added to the bill, the White House leaked information concerning the deal. Graham was singled out in the leak, and was very upset about the issue. Kerry and Lieberman attempted to calm Graham down, but he would not let this one
An example being the “eight billion dollars for the Highway Trust Fund” (Lizza) to help compensate for the gas tax that was already in the bill. The extra money for the highways though would promote increased greenhouse-gas emissions further diluting the bill. The coalition just needed Graham until the press conference where they would unveil the bill. They would do anything to keep him around, even if that meant moving the ideal point of the bill more towards the status quo.
As the coalition began to lose ground, deals on what the law would include became more common – nearing the status quo of not promoting change in the society to prevent climate change. It got to the point where the filibuster pivotal point was so close to the status quo that the bill didn’t really matter. In fact, when the K.G.L. discussed the final provisions of the bill with the Edison Electric Institute, they gave in on almost everything they asked for: “a billion dollars more in free allowances, … cap-and-trade regime pushed back from 2012 to 2015” (Lizza). From that point on, the bill was