These political scientists may have just discovered why U.S. politics are a disaster

But new research by Nolan McCarty, a professor at Princeton University, and other political scientists suggests this disgust — and America’s political dysfunction — won’t be that easy to fix. Working with political scientist Boris Shor and economist John Voorheis, McCarty has released a new study that shows that the growing ideological gap between the Republican and Democratic parties — a common obstacle to getting anything done in Washington — is not just due to politicians’ incompetence or their unwillingness to work together. It’s due, at least in part, to a deeper, structural problem: the widening gap between the rich and poor.