In the article “Obama bipartisanship push has mixed success” by Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press, it is revealed that there is a 61 percentage point gap between Democrats and the GOP opinions of Barack Obama’s job performance after 100 days, a much wider divide between both parties than what was found between the previous two presidents. Independents largely back Obama, accounting for his high approval ratings.
Sidoti claims “The new Democratic president is presiding over a country that has become more divided through the years - the Republican Party more conservative, the Democratic Party more liberal. Interest groups as well as a proliferation of new media outlets aligned with the right and left have exacerbated the divisions. So has Congress, where redistricting has created strongly Republican and solidly Democratic districts and where leadership promotes party discipline.”
Each side blames the other for the extreme environment. “I really had high hopes that he (Obama) would really reach out and work with us,” said Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican. But, he said, “There has been very little follow through on that commitment,” according to Sidoti. Meanwhile, the Associated Press claims that Democrats accuse Republicans of becoming the party of “no.”
Perhaps no area is considered “more extreme” than the South, an excellent test site for a partisan gap. Using congressional voting scores for the American Conservative Union’s recently released data for 2008, I find some surprising numbers. Of the 104 Southern Republicans in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, 50.96 percent are extreme partisan (having scores ranging between 90 and 100). Of their 75 Democratic Party counterparts, 54.7 percent are “hard core partisans (having ACU scores of between 0 and 10). That’s a little lower than expected for both sides, in this “extreme region” in an “extreme environment.”
Unfortunately, finding moderates in the region may be more challenging than locating that proverbial needle in a haystack. Of the 179 Southern congressional officials, only 19 qualify as moderates in 2008 (with moderate Republicans outnumbering moderate Democrats by a 2:1 margin). What’s worse, of that number, one retired, four were defeated for reelection last year, and two are retiring next year.
President Obama still has his chances. He has appointed two Republicans to his Cabinet, and attempted to nominate a third one. He plans a bipartisan approach on the subject of “fiscal responsibility” in federal budgeting and health care reform, according to Sidoti. But until the congressional party leadership from both sides becomes more willing to bridge the ideological gap, expect such attempts to be hollow efforts at bipartisanship.
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