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Its a really tough environment for lawmaking, first, the parties are surely more ideologically polarized from each other than they were decades ago. Second, theres more sheer partisanship in town than before -- tit for tat, your team is for it, so my team is against it. Third, close electoral competition narrows the window for dealmaking -- each election offers each party a chance to hold or gain control. ... [ And, ] because the president is so unpopular nationally and with independents, theres limited pressure on Democrats to resolve problems.