Partisan narratives and why America's government fails

Keeping with my kick of reading about making government work, I liked this from Scott Sumner on why the U.S.'s government often functions so poorly:

America has two political parties:

1.  One is so anti-government that they refuse to do serious thinking about how to make government work.

2.  The other is so pro-government that they refuse to make the tough choices necessary to make government work.