The Death Of Bipartisanship - Politico

[WillyT]

Death of bipartisanship has killed the Washington deal
By JOHN F. HARRIS and JONATHAN ALLEN | Politico
1/30/12 4:52 AM EST Updated: 1/30/12 10:15 AM EST

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Keith T. Poole, a University of Georgia political scientist who studies congressional voting patterns, said that although there were grand bargains during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, the trend has been moving away from major legislative agreements since Ronald Reagan used a bloc of moderate Democrats and Republicans to strike landmark deals in the early 1980s. George W. Bush and Barack Obama have had a relative handful of centrists to help move their agendas in bipartisan fashion.

“Steadily the moderates have all disappeared,” Poole said. “The moderate Southern Democrats were replaced by Republicans and then, one by one, the moderate Republicans were replaced either by Democrats or conservative Republicans.”

Poole and research partner Howard Rosenthal of New York University have written that Republicans have become more conservative faster than Democrats have become more liberal. “The Republican Party has been steadily moving to the right since the 1970s,” Poole said. “The Republicans have moved about three times the speed to the right as the Democrats have moved to the left.”

This conclusion about the inexorable pace of polarization will disappoint many centrist voters, on whom elections hinge — a fact that is producing its own round of partisan blame-casting.

Emanuel said Democrats are naïve if they are waiting for “the inner Bob Dole to come out” among today’s Republicans, ready to make a deal. Instead, “any person who reaches out and tries to work with the president is going to get [challenged in] a primary.”

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Much More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72132.html

[gopiscrap]

1. Politico doesn't help as far as the national dialougue is concerned

but most of the blame I lay on right wing radio.

[WillyT]

2. And... The Article Sort Of Proves Your Point

[mmonk]

3. Democrats moving left?

Why were they more left when I was younger then?