{"id":6451,"date":"2021-10-30T14:56:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T14:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6451"},"modified":"2021-10-30T14:56:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T14:56:45","slug":"why-bipartisanship-in-the-senate-is-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6451","title":{"rendered":"Why Bipartisanship In The Senate Is Dying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“There were once plenty of senators who represented states that voted for the other party for president. Between 1960 and 1990, roughly half of all sitting senators fit into this group. But over the last three decades, that number has plummeted”
…
” Likewise, in an earlier political era, many senators shared their state with a senator from the opposite party. Not only did this serve to reinforce the electoral reality that either party could win a state, but it also gave such senators an obvious bipartisan partner in the Senate, particularly on issues of concern to their home state. Today, though, only 12 senators..have a colleague who\u2019s from the other party.”  
…
“because Senate elections were more about local issues, both parties were able to compete nationally. Voters didn\u2019t care as much<\/a> whether they sent a Democrat or a Republican to Washington. What mattered was whether they sent somebody who could represent their state well. And senators could prove their worth by bringing home federal funding for roads and bridges<\/a> \u2014 just the kind of issue that used to facilitate bipartisan dealmaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today\u2019s political campaigns and voters care far less about roads and bridges. They care far more about national culture-war issues \u2014 and which party controls the majority in Congress<\/a>. As a result, Democrats can\u2019t win in much of the Southeast and the Mountain West, and Republicans are now perpetual losers in the West and the Northeast. Only the Southwest and the Midwest remain competitive, and that\u2019s only because state populations are currently balanced between liberal cities and conservative exurbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also why bipartisanship in the Senate is waning. Republican senators in solidly Republican states do not have to worry about winning over some<\/em> Democrats; the senators\u2019 general election win is all but assured. Rather, the most likely way they could lose is if they face a primary challenge to their right. And the most likely way they could draw such a challenger is if they were to publicly work with Democrats.”  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“even for senators who want to publicly prove their bipartisan bona fides, the problem is that party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell prefer votes that draw sharp contrasts<\/a> between the two parties. Divisive partisan politics help with campaign fundraising<\/a> in an era of increasingly ideological donors (both big and small). And high-stakes elections mobilize and excite voters<\/a>. Bipartisanship, in contrast, muddles the stakes and blurs the lines.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Biden worked harder<\/a> than Trump to foster a bipartisan deal. But arguably<\/a>, it was the Democrats\u2019 threat of eliminating the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation that pushed McConnell into supporting a bipartisan agreement in a way that bolstered Sinema and Manchin\u2019s faith in bipartisanship. This is hardly a sustainable formula for bipartisan dealmaking on major issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, Congress can still accomplish some lower-profile bipartisan lawmaking (like a recent major upgrade<\/a> of our drinking-water and wastewater systems) through what Matthew Yglesias and Simon Bazelon have dubbed \u201cSecret Congress<\/a>.\u201d It turns out that members of Congress can still work across party lines when issues are relatively noncontroversial and there is not much media attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, if you look beyond the partisan media\u2019s name-calling, you can find surprising amounts of bipartisan activity”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But \u201cSecret Congress\u201d works only because it\u2019s secret, and it\u2019s secret only because the issues are not high-profile enough to draw the public spotlight. But if the only bipartisanship that happens in Congress happens on uncontroversial one-off issues, this leaves the most important issues of the day to wither on the shoals of a 60-vote threshold in the Senate or, more commonly, in the gridlock of a divided government.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“partisans are the most hostile to compromise<\/a> \u2014 especially those individuals whose racial, religious and cultural identities line up most strongly with one party. But the partisan sorting that has aligned these identities so closely with one party over the last several decades is precisely the reason why voters have come down so hard on politicians who compromise. The more that national political conflict is centered on abstract moral issues and the identity of the nation, the more any compromise feels like a surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recreate the conditions that allowed bipartisanship to flourish in the Senate once upon a time seems unlikely anytime soon. Instead, the most bipartisan-oriented senators are the most endangered. Manchin is a dying breed. His eventual replacement in West Virginia will almost certainly be a Republican.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/why-bipartisanship-in-the-senate-is-dying\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There were once plenty of senators who represented states that voted for the other party for president. Between 1960 and 1990, roughly half of all sitting senators fit into this group. But over the last three decades, that number has plummeted”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

” Likewise, in an earlier political era, many senators shared their state with a senator from the opposite party. Not only did this serve to reinforce the electoral reality that either party could win a state, but it also gave such senators an obvious bipartisan partner in the Senate, particularly on issues of concern to their home state. Today, though, only 12 senators..have a colleague who\u2019s from the other party.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“because Senate elections were more about local issues, both parties were able to compete nationally. Voters didn\u2019t care as much whether they sent a Democrat or a Republican to Washington. What mattered was whether they sent somebody who could represent their state well. And senators could prove their worth by bringing home federal funding for roads and bridges \u2014 just the kind of issue that used to facilitate bipartisan dealmaking.
\nBut today\u2019s political campaigns and voters care far less about roads and bridges. They care far more about national culture-war issues \u2014 and which party controls the majority in Congress. As a result, Democrats can\u2019t win in much of the Southeast and the Mountain West, and Republicans are now perpetual losers in the West and the Northeast. Only the Southwest and the Midwest remain competitive, and that\u2019s only because state populations are currently balanced between liberal cities and conservative exurbs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also why bipartisanship in the Senate is waning. Republican senators in solidly Republican states do not have to worry about winning over some Democrats; the senators\u2019 general election win is all but assured. Rather, the most likely way they could lose is if they face a primary challenge to their right. And the most likely way they could draw such a challenger is if they were to publicly work with Democrats.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“even for senators who want to publicly prove their bipartisan bona fides, the problem is that party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell prefer votes that draw sharp contrasts between the two parties. Divisive partisan politics help with campaign fundraising in an era of increasingly ideological donors (both big and small). And high-stakes elections mobilize and excite voters. Bipartisanship, in contrast, muddles the stakes and blurs the lines.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Biden worked harder than Trump to foster a bipartisan deal. But arguably, it was the Democrats\u2019 threat of eliminating the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation that pushed McConnell into supporting a bipartisan agreement in a way that bolstered Sinema and Manchin\u2019s faith in bipartisanship. This is hardly a sustainable formula for bipartisan dealmaking on major issues.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Congress can still accomplish some lower-profile bipartisan lawmaking (like a recent major upgrade of our drinking-water and wastewater systems) through what Matthew Yglesias and Simon Bazelon have dubbed \u201cSecret Congress.\u201d It turns out that members of Congress can still work across party lines when issues are relatively noncontroversial and there is not much media attention.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if you look beyond the partisan media\u2019s name-calling, you can find surprising amounts of bipartisan activity”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“But \u201cSecret Congress\u201d works only because it\u2019s secret, and it\u2019s secret only because the issues are not high-profile enough to draw the public spotlight. But if the only bipartisanship that happens in Congress happens on uncontroversial one-off issues, this leaves the most important issues of the day to wither on the shoals of a 60-vote threshold in the Senate or, more commonly, in the gridlock of a divided government.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“partisans are the most hostile to compromise \u2014 especially those individuals whose racial, religious and cultural identities line up most strongly with one party. But the partisan sorting that has aligned these identities so closely with one party over the last several decades is precisely the reason why voters have come down so hard on politicians who compromise. The more that national political conflict is centered on abstract moral issues and the identity of the nation, the more any compromise feels like a surrender.<\/p>\n

To recreate the conditions that allowed bipartisanship to flourish in the Senate once upon a time seems unlikely anytime soon. Instead, the most bipartisan-oriented senators are the most endangered. Manchin is a dying breed. His eventual replacement in West Virginia will almost certainly be a Republican.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1320,773,198,570,1263,1268,509,865],"class_list":["post-6451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-bipartisan","tag-compromise","tag-elections","tag-parties","tag-partisanship","tag-political-parties","tag-politics","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6452,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451\/revisions\/6452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}