Pew Research Center: A Deeply Divided Congress and American People

U.S. Capitol Building

In an article for the Pew Research Center, Drew Desilver claims that not only are Democratic and Republican members of Congress growing apart, but so are partisans in the American public.

He cites data that indicates that conservatives now make up a greater portion of the GOP than they did over a decade ago.  A similar ideological sharpening is happening in the Democratic Party as well in that a increasing portion of Democrats self-identify themselves as liberals.  On an array of issues, ideological splits among the public have become larger.

In Congress, ideological differences are increasingly widened, especially when contemporary party policy differences are compared to respective party policy stances in the late 1940s.

Pew Research Center: Congress and the People are Deeply Divided

"Not only are Republicans and Democrats elected from very different districts with distinct voter bases, but Congress reflects an America that has been growing further and further apart ideologically for decades."

---Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center