Republicans responsible for polarization

The following is from Robertand Zunliang Chu Warden's FB post, commenting on this article. 

"Here is an article which helps explain the trends in Congress over the past several decades.

The Pew Research Center, using data which ranks congress people on a scale from most liberal to most conservative, tracked the rankings for Democrats and Republicans from the early 1970s until now (50 years). During those 50 years, congress has become increasingly polarized, with Democrats becoming more liberal, and Republicans becoming more conservative. (I think this is largely due to self-sorting, as there used to be some overlap between the parties, but now, there is virtually none; all Democrats are more liberal than any Republican.) 

 

However, the changes in Democrats and Republicans have not been equal and opposite. In fact, Republicans have become more conservative at a rate that is approximately 4 times as quickly as Democrats have become more liberal. Thus, as Chris Cillizza states, the polarization of Congress is in fact the fault of Republicans.

 

More to the point from a liberal perspective, given that there have been approximately equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats in Congress over the past 50 years, Congress as a whole has turned somewhat more conservative, even as the public's attitudes and policy preferences have grown somewhat more liberal, leaving a disconnect between government policies and public sentiment. 

 

This article provides refutation of the "both side-ism" which has always irked me. It is not both sides that are growing more conservative. In fact, much to the contrary, Democrats have become more liberal, but not as fast as Republicans have slid into a state of deep conservatism. Nor is it both sides' fault that Congress is so polarized now. Republicans are clearly driving this trend. 

 

We need to support progressives during the upcoming primaries, and continue the trend of Democrats becoming more liberal. Just as crucially, we need to have Democratic majorities in Congress in order to get anything done -- majorities that are large enough to overcome the occasional Democrat who refuses to support important parts of the Democratic agenda. It will take the passage of a considerable package of Democratic legislation, in fact, in order to get government policy back in line with public opinions."