Stagnation in Congress due to Political Party Polarization
Heres a word that everyone on the news is saying: Polarization. Every station on television is talking about how our two dominant parties are straying farther and farther away from each other; and becoming more hostile and opposed to one another. I here to tell you that this is correct. It’s not ‘something thats always been happening’, its truthful and measurable. A Pew Research Center study shows that the percentage of Republicans who view Democrats negatively has jumped from 17 to 43 percent in the last twenty years. And for the Democrats: 16 to 38 percent. The hostility and tension building between the gangs of Congress is building to a dangerous level.
This statistic coincides with another valuable measurement of Congress’s effectiveness. Our last two Congresses have passed between 284 and 297 bills each. Just a handful of years back the 80th was passing 906 bills, the 93 with 772, and the 101st with 665. Any student in this class can tell you we aren’t passing less bills because we’ve got less problems now, its due to the bullheadedness of our representatives and our country as a whole. In a day and age where violence can break out so easily over one’s political allegiance, it makes sense that our representatives take on a similar, stubborn approach to delegation. Its time we begin to see our political ‘enemies’ as our political allies. There’s no need to be killing and fighting when we’re working towards the same goal, just by different methods.