article_snippet: (CNN)Americans like to complain about the endless political gridlock in our capital.
article_snippet: Many of we abandoned the field by not voting in last year's midterm elections.
article_snippet: Those of us who did vote elected more fire breathers than bridge builders to Congress.
article_snippet: What's more, when we're invited to tell we representatives what we want, we can be as demagogic as our representatives are.
article_snippet: Remember the Town Hall meetings in the summer of 2009, which erupted in shouting matches between citizens and legislators over health care?  
article_snippet: Who can forget the Massachusetts woman holding a picture of President Obama defaced to look like Hitler, who demanded to know why former Rep. Barney Frank supported the "Nazi policy" of extending health care to all?
article_snippet: former Rep. Barney Frank frank response:
article_snippet: Rather than blame our leaders for the dysfunction, we need to change the game.  
article_snippet: As a North Carolina state senator once said, "We are in the business of rigging elections.
article_snippet: Grandstanding and obstructionism don't play as well in these forums as Grandstanding and obstructionism do on the Senate floor, partisan media outlets or the local tavern.
article_snippet: As the health care Town Hall Meetings showed, simply throwing open the doors is not sufficient.
highlights_snippet: Americans like to complain about the political gridlock in Congress where nothing much gets done .
  