GRAPH: Republicans Responsible For Hyper-Polarization Of Congress (since 1980, really since 1879)
Announcing her intention to retire yesterday,
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) decried the atmosphere of polarization that she finds frustrating. While Snowe didnt assign responsibility for the current climate of hyper-partisanship in Congress, a study by distinguished political science professor Keith Poole does. It should come as no surprise that
the analysis finds Republicans are to blame for the gridlock.
Poole assessed all of the Republican and Democratic votes in the House and Senate from 1879 to 2011, and plotted both parties on a liberal to conservative axis. Pooles study shows that
beginning right around 1980, House Republicans began to vote in strict partisan lines considerably more than Democrats.
Note on the graph:
The closer to 1.0, the more partisan that members votes were that year. The 10th percentile line represents a moderate member of Congress, while the 90th percentile line represents a member of Congress who, for example, is 90% more conservative than the his/her co-partisans.
The graph shows that the Democrats have barely edged towards the left over the last 30 years, while both moderate and partisan House Republicans have veered way off to the extreme right. For instance, the partisan Republican (the 90% Republican) in 2011 is hovering near the absolute threshold of the radical right. In comparison, the partisan Democrat (the 90% Democrat) is far from his/her ideological extreme, having only made a negligible move to the left in the last 30 years. Even more critical is that a moderate Republican in 2011 (the 10% Republican) is not really moderate anymore, having moved so far to the right that he/she is nearly as factional as the Democrats partisan member.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/29/434262/graph-republicans-responsible-for-hyper-polarization-of-congress/