The Ideological Middle In Congress Is Dead. Really Dead.

And the real problem is on The Right.

***

"In the last three decades, the number of members in the middle in the House dropped from 344 (79 percent of the House) in 1982 to four (.9 percent of the House) in 2013. As the slide suggests, redistricting -- the decennial redrawing of the nation's congressional lines -- plays a major role in that decline. The last two nationwide redraws have largely been incumbent-protection efforts, making Republican districts more Republican and Democratic districts more Democratic. Self-sorting -- the growing tendency of people to live around like-minded people -- is also a major factor in the disappearance of the ideological middle in the House. More intriguing -- and harder to explain -- is how the middle has dropped out of the Senate, which is not subject to redistricting....There are four -- FOUR -- members of the ideological middle out of the 535 members of the House and Senate combined. That comes out to approximately .7 percent of the entire Congress. In 1982, by way of comparison, more than 75 percent of members of Congress were part of the ideological middle." Chris Cillizza in The Washington Post.

For a perfect example of Congress' polarization in action, look to the budget battle. "House Republicans rallied behind a slashing budget blueprint on Thursday, passing a non-binding but politically charged measure that promises a balanced federal ledger in 10 years with sweeping budget cuts and termination of health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The 219-205 vote on the budget outline takes a mostly symbolic swipe at the government's chronic deficits. Follow-up legislation to actually implement the cuts isn't in the offing. Twelve Republicans opposed the measure, and not a single Democrat supported it....While staking out a hard line for the future, follow-up legislation is likely to be limited this year to a round of annual spending bills that will adhere to a bipartisan budget pact enacted in December." Andrew Taylor in the Associated Press.

Budget vote shows the parties' divergence. "The move underscored the different universes the two parties occupy as election season heats up. Democrats see the budget, which passed on Thursday in a 219-to-205 vote, as a political millstone, with brutal cuts to popular government programs, sweeping and controversial changes to Medicare, and tax cuts for the rich. Republicans consider it a modest step....But Republicans will try to use the vote to prove their tough-minded fiscal credentials. And Democrats will seek to tar their opponents by spotlighting the budget's deep cuts to education, food stamps and transportation programs, its proposed transformation of Medicare, and the tax rate cuts for the rich. The budget bill tally demonstrated the Democrats' certainty that the Ryan budget will badly hurt its supporters -- no Democrats voted for it. But the vote spoke just as loudly about Republicans' lack of fear." Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times.

Millennials don't see budget along the same partisan lines. "Put a handful of smart millennials in a room and ask them to deconstruct the U.S. budget, and what you might get is 90 pages of level-headed analysis that doesn't fit neatly inside a partisan box. They wouldn't dictate ideological solutions, because this generation of young Americans is less partisan and more open-minded than any other. They would, however, chastise their parents' generation for accepting stasis and status quo, saying something like, 'Our future hinges just as greatly on the budgetary decisions our leaders refuse to make.'" Ron Fournier inNational Journal.