Kennedy School Professors Discuss Causes of Congressional Gridlock

For the first time in recent history, the most conservative Democrat in Congress is more liberal than the most liberal Republican, said Harvard Kennedy School professor Thomas E. Patterson Wednesday evening.

During a panel discussion titled “Too Many Checks, No Balance: Partisan Brinkmanship or a Shrinking Presidency?,” Patterson and David King, a lecturer at the Kennedy School, discussed the roots of the current political gridlock and its impact on American society.

Both King and Peterson said they thought the cause of such an ideological divide stems not from the members of Congress themselves or gerrymandering, but from the political impact of the average citizen. The average American’s exposure to the media and the various ways in which citizens are involved in politics at the local and national levels have accentuated recent increases in party polarization, said King.

“We are so overwhelmed by the available media that we listen only to what we want to hear and not things that make us uncomfortable. So we are not hearing the other argument,” King told the crowd gathered in Malkin Penthouse Wednesday.

Patterson added that data shows that the United States is relocating partisanship around geography, using Massachusetts as an example.

“States are increasingly becoming one-party states instead of two-party states,” Patterson said, pointing to the Mass. state senate, where four of forty seats are occupied by Republicans. “[Even if] you gave the map to the Republicans, they would have a really hard time redrawing the districts to double the amount of seats [in Mass.] they hold.”

Event attendee Edgar E. Mora Altamirano, a Kennedy School fellow and mayor of Curridabat, Costa Rica, said he thinks it is increasingly important to learn about the other side’s perspective on an issue and not simply accept the analyses that conform to one’s own ideologies.

“It’s important to remember that you have to be engaged without the prejudice that brings you to the same [sources for news] all the time. And that is tough, especially for young people, because social media is promising you a trip around the world, but what social media is doing...is giving you a trip around your corner,” he said after the event.

The consequences of political gridlock cannot be overlooked, Archon Fung, the discussion’s moderator and HKS professor, said after the panel.

“The reason [awareness of party gridlock] is so important to the greater community is because [gridlock] is preventing the American government, especially at the federal level, from getting business done, and has already had quite destructive effects both in terms of domestic policy, but then also in foreign policy implications,” Fung said.

Wednesday’s event is the sixth in the Challenges to Democracy series, sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.