The current division in our country stems from the heavy reliance on blind partisanship in both the House and Senate. Within the last few years, the divide between the two political parties has gotten worse due to the fear of political consequences. Republicans have been reluctant to reach across the aisle and use their morals to make decisions.
In December 2019, President Trump was impeached for the first time for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He had made a phone call to the Ukrainian President to try and get him to look into Joe Biden’s son. When House Democrats got wind of this, they moved to impeach him, which was an incredibly partisan vote; no Republicans voted to impeach him in the House. The evidence against Trump was clear but House Republicans were not able to break party lines and vote with their morals. The Democrats controlled the House at this point, so the articles of impeachment were sent to the Senate so they could vote on his conviction. Again, the vote to convict was alarmingly partisan; Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican who voted to convict. This impeachment was a show of bitter and immoral partisanship that has furthered the divide within our country.
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed at the end of October 2020, just days before the presidential election. Back in March of 2016, at the end of President Obama’s second term, he nominated Merrick Garland to fill the post of the late Antonin Scalia. Despite having only a little less than a year before the election, Obama believed he could fill the position because he was still president, but Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell blocked his nomination and he was not confirmed. At this time, McConnell argued that it was too close to an election, but in reality, it was only because it did not fit his political agenda. When the chance arose for McConnell to confirm Barrett just weeks before the actual election, he had no issue with it at all. Even though Barrett was vastly unqualified for this position, Republicans made no objections to her confirmation. The majority leader’s actions just prove that he had no issue with the time of Obama’s nomination, he just did not want to break party lines and say that it was the right thing to do.
Most recently, President Trump was impeached for a second time, and while this time more House Republicans reached across the aisle, it was still an incredibly partisan vote. Only ten House Republicans voted to impeach him and only one senator has made it clear they would vote to convict if it ever reached the senate. The rest of the Republicans in the House said that impeachment would only further the divide, but it is their stubbornness that is harming the unity. Given the events that occurred, you would think that this would be the push needed to draw Republicans across party lines and unite the country, but of course, it was not.
In the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American people needed a stimulus bill to pass, but it took much longer than it should have due to partisanship. House Democrats spent way too much time arguing with the Whitehouse over semantics, instead of passing a start of a relief bill. Even if the bill was not what they wanted, any money would have been helpful for the American people, and they could have added on.
In today’s politics, our politicians are more concerned with their standing within the party than they are with having morals and fixing the partisan divide in our country. Right now, the United States is very heavily Republicans against Democrats and no one is willing to reach out to fix it. If partisanship in the House and Senate does not turn into bipartisanship, our country will have a long way to go before any of the myriads of mistakes can be fixed.
