Charles Wheelan, author of the book, The Centrist Manifesto, recently published an article on U.S. News in which he describes the current hyper-partisan political environment in Washington as "Tom and Jerry" politics.
Wheelan argues that lawmakers in Congress act exactly like policymakers in parliamentary systems, where the minority party spends most of its time trying to thwart the agenda of the majority party because the minority party doesn't really have much authority in these systems. The majority party chooses the prime minister and essentially makes all the rules.
However, as he points out, we do not have a parliamentary system. The minority party, like the majority party, has a responsibility to govern:
Charles Wheelan