Derek Thompson uses the above chart to argue that Obamacare and the stimulus are “the most divisive legislation in modern history”:
How do you measure most divisive? [Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy at JP Morgan,] constructed a table … of the century’s major legislation and the percent difference in voting between the two parties. For example, in 1956, 98 percent of House Republicans and 93 percent of House Democrats voted for the Federal Aid Highway Act, which built the interstate highway system. That’s a “difference gap” of 5 percent. In the Senate, 100 percent of Republicans and 98 percent of Democrats voted for the bill — a “difference gap” of just 2 percent.
Seth Masket counters that just ” because something isn’t partisan doesn’t mean it’s not divisive”:
Obamacare gets an astounding 93.5% score — almost every Democrat supported it, and no Republicans did so. But it’s possible to be divisive without having such a partisan split.
For example, let’s look at the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to Thompson’s graph, there’s only a “disagreement gap” of 16% — the model of comity. But that tells us little about the bill and a great deal about what the mid-20th century parties looked like. Both parties contained liberals and conservatives. Little separated the two parties, but a great deal divided them internally — particularly civil rights. Look at the roll call vote. Nearly every Representative from every former Confederate state voted no, while virtually every member from a non-Confederate state voted aye. That’s really divisive! It’s just not partisan, given how the parties of the day were organized.
The Dish 