Partisanship is a self-reinforcing issue which also increases the risk of corruption.
Partisanship is the defining feature of contemporary American politics and that has a wide variety of negative effects. The most well-known and discussed is the declining opinion of the other side, and declining trust in politicians broadly. That dynamic is very important as it explains why Congress has been so dysfunctional for the last decade. Politicians are aware of the fact that many voters dislike their political rivals so intensely so as to vote for almost any of their own candidate, and helping the opposition in any way can get one punished by the hardcore party supporters. Those hardcore supporters are also disproportionately likely to vote in primary elections where candidates for elections are selected.
This hardening into two distinct and mutually despising camps is not only socially and politically toxic. It also encourages the sort of brinkmanship that has had the country close to default and which has caused several government shutdowns. It also makes it harder to hold dishonest politicians accountable, as was clearly demonstrated in the two impeachment trials of former president Trump. As bad as Trump’s conduct was plenty of Republican thought that the prospect of working with the Democrats was worse.
Similarly, two Democratic politicians have recently found themselves in legal trouble over alleged corruption. Bob Menendez from New Jersey and Henry Cuellar from Texas have both been caught up in bribery schemes recently, and it remains to be seen how their party will decide to handle them. But it seems likely to me that the political environment of extreme partisanship is ripe for corruption.
In safe seats like in New Jersey where the only real threat is a primary challenge politicians can become comfortable to the point where abusing their power becomes easy. When there is no opposition, and when the media is also bisected along partisan lines the incentives to hold people in power to account is drastically reduced to the detriment to all of society.
It is easy to think that the Republicans have been cowardly not to stand up to the conflicts of interests and nepotism so common during Trump’s time at the head of the party, but the example of Menendez and Cuellar show that extreme partisanship promotes those sorts of behaviours in people from all ideologies.
Ironically, episodes like those of Menendez and Cuellar confirm all the worst suspicions of Republicans which fuels the very partisanship which created those negative stereotypes in the first place.
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I've always been interested in politics, economics, and the interplay between. The blog is a place for me to explore different ideas and concepts relating to economics or politics, be that national or international. The goal for the blog is to make you think; to provide new perspectives.
Written by Karl Johansson
Cover photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels, edited by Karl Johansson