Disgusted members of Congress continue to resign over hyper-partisanship



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:

“When Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., announced (last) week 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.’

“Alexander is not the only one who feels that way,” the 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.’”

Professionalism and engaging the other side of the aisle 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 NJ cites other examples and quotes Bill Galston of 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.

The NJ goes on to point out that the poster child for dismay 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.