by Robert Stadnik

Created on: June 09, 2009   Last Updated: June 16, 2009

For decades, Washington has been snarled in a gridlock of a political power struggle between Democrats and Republicans. Every presidential and major senate elections, we hear the same promises of change that will come to Washington, but it never materializes. The gridlock maintains its grip on Washington as a result of our two party system and the same politicians being elected over and over again.

The Democratic and Republican parties are no longer political entities working to represent the people they are supposed to represent. They are now two ideological factions, whose sole purpose is to gain the majority power in Washington, in order to dole out perks to lobbyists and other power brokers who assisted them in the endeavor. While the majority party enjoys their position, the minority party spends the time criticizing the majority party's actions at every turn and jumps on every opportunity to flame any potential scandal that crops up.

During the George W. Bush years when the Republicans had the majority of the Senate, the Democratic party spent the entire time criticizing the Republicans on every action they took and dug through the closets to uncover any skeletons that could harm the Republican party. Today, with the Democrats in full control of the White House and Congress, the Republicans are spending their time criticizing the Democrats on all the actions they have taken thus far. It should be noted that the Republicans are spelling gloom and doom for the Democrats 'out-of-control' spending and inflating the deficit, even though it was the Republicans who drove the deficits to record levels while they were in power.

The second issue that has gridlocked Washington for decades is that the same politicians are re-elected time and again. Voters complain that their senators or congressional representatives don't take their interests to heart, but they routinely vote for the same individual over and over again. It is difficult to blame corruption and inaction in Washington solely on politicians when voters have the power to remove them from office, but don't. Some of these politicians have been in office for so long, no wonder they've lost touch with the common man:

Joe Biden was the Delaware senator from January 1973 to January 2009 (he only resigned to take the position of Vice President).

Harry Reid has been the Nevada Senator since 1987.

Robert Byrd has been the West Virginia Senator since 1959. He's also 91 years old.

Joe Lieberman has been the

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