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| GOP Congressman Rodney Alexander, right, is the latest to resign in disgust due to Congress’ hyper-partisan, dysfunctional ways. |
The National Journal is just the latest to weigh in with
disturbing news about pragmatic senators and congressman who are quitting
Congress — or those who previously stepped down and are glad they did.
The overwhelming reason for this exodus? Gridlock and
hyper-partisanship.
The NJ reports this:
that he would retire from his seat (after just seven months into his new term) after 10 years in the House, he
cited his frustrations with the current gridlock in Congress.
“’Rather than producing tangible solutions to better
this nation, partisan posturing has created a legislative standstill,’ he said
in a statement. ‘Unfortunately, I do not foresee this environment to change
anytime soon.’
NJ continues. “Thanks to intense partisanship, the inability to move or
contribute to legislation that becomes law, demands to raise money, and the
earmark ban, a number of now-retired lawmakers say life in Congress isn’t what
it used to be.
“’I thank God every night in my nightly prayers for
giving me the insight to decide in 2006 not to seek reelection,’ said former
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., who left after 24 years in Congress. ‘Civility
is a thing of the past. It used to be … the other party was referred to as ‘the
other side.’ Now they’re the archenemy and you shoot to kill on sight, and it
is bizarre.’”
with sufficient diplomacy and problem-solving has become a thing of the
past. In the current toxic environment
on Capitol Hill, former Congressman Brad Miller, D-N.C., who decided not to
seek another term last year after partisan redistricting put him in the same territory
as fellow Democratic Rep. David Price, said the situation in the House had
gotten “profoundly worse” in the 10 years he was there, according to the
NJ.
“There were a handful of Republicans that I got
along with, but it got increasingly hard for them to work with Democrats,”
Miller said.
the Brookings Institution, a co-founder of the bipartisan organization No
Labels, which has organized 82 congressional Democrats and Republicans into a
group dubbed the “Problem Solvers” coalition. A number of the lawmakers in
the coalition “have been pressed and queried back home, ‘Why are you breaking
bread with the enemy?'”Galston said, according to the NJ.
“Although partisanship is an enduring part of
American politics, the type of hyper-partisanship we see now—I can’t find a
precedent for it in the past 100 years,” Galston added.
at the current state of affairs in Washington is former Sen. Olympia Snowe, a
moderate Republican from Maine.
When announcing her retirement last year, Snowe
said that “what motivates me is producing results,” but “I find
it frustrating … that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the
highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing
institutions.”
Snowe now seeks to influence political discourse from
outside the Beltway through the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform.
