In the House, the center position held by Republicans and
Democrats was populated by 240 lawmakers – a bipartisan majority — in 1973-74. 
And how many today? None.
  
New research shows that the doctrinaire partisan gridlock that has
brought Capitol Hill nearly to a standstill is the product of a 40-year slide
into polarization that began in the 1970s.
The big study released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday found
that the 1973-74 congressional session featured numerous moderate lawmakers and
considerable overlap in voting patterns among Democrats and Republicans. But
that cohesiveness started to fray and was ripping apart a decade later.
In the 30 years since those ominous beginnings, political
immaturity has gotten worse, year by year.
Relying upon an ideological scoring system created by two
political scientists, Pew found that today’s lawmakers largely march in
lockstep, hardly ever straying from their party when casting a vote.

Ideological comparisons now rely upon a basic measurement: How
often do Republicans vote with the most conservative Democrats in the House and
Senate, and how often do Democrats side with the most liberal Republicans?
And how much overlap exists between Republicans and Democrats in
the center?
Pew found that the increasing polarization and fringe politics
nearly obliterated the moderates in both parties. But the researchers also
found that regional, geographical changes over the decades also played a huge
role.
After scoring the votes (liberal vs. conservative) for every
senator and representative in five Congresses — one in each of the past five
decades — here is what Pew concluded:
“In 1973-74, there was in fact substantial overlap. In the House,
240 members scored in between the most conservative Democrat (John Rarick of
Louisiana) and the most liberal Republican (Charles Whalen of Ohio); 29
senators scored between New Jersey’s Clifford Case (most liberal Republican)
and James Allen of Alabama (most conservative Democrat).
“A decade later, though, that had already begun to change. By
1983-84, only 10 senators and 66 representatives … fell between their
chambers’ most liberal Republican and most conservative Democrat. By 1993-94,
the overlap between the most conservative Democrat and the most liberal
Republican had fallen to nine House members and three senators.
“By 2011-12 there was no
overlap at all in either chamber.
“What’s happened? In large part, the disappearance of moderate-to-liberal
Republicans (mainly in the Northeast) and conservative Democrats (primarily in
the South). Since the 1970s, the congressional parties have sorted themselves
both ideologically and geographically. The combined House delegation
of the six New England states, for instance, went from 15 Democrats and 10
Republicans in 1973-74 to 20 Democrats and two Republicans in 2011-12. In
the South the combined House delegation essentially
switched positions: from 91 Democrats and 42 Republicans in 1973-74 to 107
Republicans and 47 Democrats in 2011-12.

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