You knew party divisiveness was at an all-time high. Well, now you have proof that it’s at its highest level in the last twenty-one years, anyway.
Brighten Godfrey calculates the most Yeasayingest and Naysayingest senators of the past two decades and discovers something interesting. No sitting senators are in the Top 10 for saying ‘yea,’ but several Republicans are setting records for saying ‘no.’ Jim DeMint ranks 2nd, Tom Coburn 3rd, George LeMieux 4th, David Vitter 9th, and Mike Barrasso 10th.
The data shows a striking difference. Politics were more centrist in the late 80s. Divisiveness didn’t move much for about 18 years, but then divisiveness dramatically spiked since the beginning of the Obama administration, setting a record in 2009 and another record so far in 2010. The difference here is really quite dramatic: 29% divisiveness in 1989, vs. 70% today.
Thank you, Mitch McConnell.
The dude who wrote that post is my hero. Combined with the data here:
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/03/02/republican-obstruction-at-work-record-number-of-filibusters/
And you’ve got the hard data to refute the conventional wisdom that the party of no strategy is somehow normal or what would be expected from our grid lock inducing political institutions. While our political institutions generally do suck, there has to be something else going on to explain the data in the charts above. What that is exactly is something that will never be recognized by elites: the GOP is a far-right party now, the Dems are center-left.
I’m very surprised that Senator “No” (Jesse Helms) didn’t make the list and that so many current GOP Senators did (No I’m not surprised about the current GOPers). Just shows how far over the edge McConnell has taken his bunch.
When you think the only part of the country that truly exists is the one your party serves, than this is the natural outcome.