Shocking news…
A new report shows Congress in 2010 was the most divided it has been in nearly 30 years.
National Journal’s annual congressional vote ranking survey shows the House and Senate hit “a new peak of polarization.”
Yeah, you read that right: the year that saw the rise of the tea party and the end of the epic health care debate turned out to be one of the most partisan in history. Who woulda thunk it?
National Journal’s Ron Brownstein on the 2010 vote ranking survey:
The results capture the continued remaking of Congress into an institution defined by much greater partisan discipline and philosophical conformity. Occasionally, legislators can still build idiosyncratic coalitions across party lines, as occurred during some of the votes on the free-wheeling House debate over spending earlier this month. Likewise, a bipartisan group of senators is attempting to build a cross-party alliance to advance the recommendations of President Obama’s debt-reduction commission. But increasingly, on the biggest issues, the parties line up in virtual lockstep against each other.
Here’s what former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott had to say about the results:
“If you are the whip in either party you are liking this, [because] it makes your job easier,” he told the magazine. “In terms of getting things done for the country, that’s not the case.”
Read the full breakdown of the results, including a long article and mercifully brief video overview, here.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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