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A Step-by-Step Guide to Fixing Congress
I testified before Congress on partisan civility. Here was my advice.
Last week, I spoke before lawmakers at a hearing held by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. As a veteran political scientist, my congressional testimony focused on polarization: why Congress is more divided than ever, and how politicians might bridge this partisan gap.
In my academic career, I tend to think of members of Congress like lab mice: subjects to be observed and studied. But at the hearing, I was their subject to be questioned. And boy, did they have questions — namely, how did Congress become so polarized? And how could it ever hope to reverse course?
Answering the first question is easy, sort of: Blame the partisan divide on rising economic inequality, Democrats’ and Republicans’ ideological shifts on issues of racial justice and changes in campaign finance laws. Beyond the usual explanations, there’s also the simple fact that many members of Congress have little social contact with any of their colleagues, let alone their ideological counterparts. People have lamented for years about how members of Congress don’t have the time or wherewithal to get to know one another, a fact that certainly contributes to much of the gridlock we see in Washington.
