The 112th Congress and the accelerating polarization gap

In the classic film Network, anchorman Howard Beale famously instructs his audience “to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Americans, it would seem, took Beale’s advice to heart in November as voters, upset over a number of issues ranging from health care to unemployment, delivered Democrats their worst drubbing since 1938. And although the December tax deal stirred a late sense of cheer for some this holiday season, a collective sense of nausea has been steadily growing as the ubiquitous Congressional mantra of “No compromise” threatens to taint another two years of legislative workmanship—manifesting itself first in the rhetoric of the election’s big winners and second from glum, lame duck Democrats. As one popular political commentator bluntly assessed the coming 112th Congressional session, “Compromise is off the table. They didn’t want to compromise with us, and we have no business compromising with them. They lost. Losers compromise. We don’t. We’ve got nothing to compromise.”