The onward march of (asymmetric) political polarization in the contemporary Congress

For decades now, congressional parties have been the most significant political organizations on Capitol Hill. Over this period, class and cultural issues have produced increasingly sharp ideological divisions between Democrats and Republicans, engendering congressional parties that are much more cohesive and ideologically polarized than those either of the mid-decades of the mid-twentieth century or anticipated by the US Constitution’s framers. Parties now structure the contemporary congressional politics of most major legislation, treaties and nominations in ways not seen since the last decades of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Although rank-and-file members continue to demand particularistic benefits to meet constituency and re-election needs, and pursue individual policy agendas and interests, increasingly they see themselves first and foremost as party members. Armed with that pre-eminent perception, they vigorously promote and defend their party’s brand while seeking to damage the opposing party’s brand. Much more than previously, they insist on and depend upon central party leaders and coordinated party efforts to tease out from an increasingly complex and conflicted Congress partisan legislative products that distinguish their party from the opposition and will advantage their party in the next set of elections. Concomitantly, within this context, constituents reward party loyalty, ¹ as voters and party activists have strengthened their partisanship and diverged increasingly from partisans in the opposing party – all at the same time that American voters care neither for the Congress as an institution nor its parties, ² continue to want political leaders who are willing to make compromises, ³ and blame the parties for making US politics and government less civil. ⁴