Mar 17, 2022 - Politics & Policy
Polarization in Congress hits half-century peak
Reproduced from Pew Research Center; Chart: Axios Visuals. Pew Research notes: "Data excludes nonvoting delegates, as well as lawmakers who officially served but (due to illness, resignation or other factors) didn't have a scorable voting record for a given Congress."
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are further apart ideologically than at any point during the past five decades — and Republicans are more to blame than Democrats, according to analysis by Pew Research Center.
Why it matters: The growing polarization makes it even more difficult for Congress to find bipartisan compromise for important legislation.
Both parties have had to deal with internal fracturing, but the GOP has moved further right than Democrats have moved left, the Pew analysis shows.
Republicans have ended up with some untouchable partisans.
By the numbers: Pew Research highlighted three major congressional trends in recent decades.
On average, Democrats are more liberal and Republicans are much more conservative than in the early 1970s.
Moderates have disappeared, and there's far less ideological overlap between Republicans and Democrats. There are now only about two dozen moderate Democrats and Republicans left, compared to 160 in 1971-72.
Congress is now far more demographically diverse.
Go deeper: The geographic makeup of each party has shifted, as well.
The share of House Republicans from the South has grown from less than 15% 50 years ago to 42% today — and these Southern Republicans have become even more conservative than the rest of the party.