Another Reason To Throw The Bums Out
If you want to learn about the inside baseball aspect of politics this article in the New York Times is a great place to start. In a front page story on Congressman Tom Davis, they had this little tidbit.
By one measurement, Congress is the most polarized it has been in a century. Sean Theriault, a scholar at the University of Texas at Austin who just published a book called “Party Polarization in Congress,” analyzed voting patterns to put each two-year session on a scale. In his study, Congress in its Watergate session from 1973-74 was 29 percent polarized. By 2005-6, it was 46 percent, the highest since the most polarized Congress in history, back in 1905-6, when it reached 48 percent on Theriault’s scale.
“The electoral campaign has infiltrated the legislative process,” Theriault told me. “Congressmen used to campaign at home, win elections and then come to Washington” to grapple with the issues of the day. Now, he said, “They’re just looking to gain advantage wherever they can.”
This evolution has been fueled by migration patterns, demographic shifts and, many argue, redistricting. Most lawmakers represent safe districts, giving them little incentive to tack to the center and work together. Indeed, many incumbents worry more about “being primaried,” as they put it, drawing a primary challenge from within their own parties for being insufficiently orthodox.
It’s time for a whole new crop in Washington. Stay mad. Know their names.
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