Compromise in Congress Declining Due to Polarization

Today's Congress marks a period when attempts to compromise with the other party are rare. Such perceived disloyalty can even cost a representative or senator their seat. That said, members of Congress on both sides still cross party lines, in events ranging from confirmation hearings to budget bills to discharge petitions.

Two of the most notable examples of frequently cooperative members of Congress are Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). Their stories also serve as a convenient illustration of the inverse correlation between a member's willingness to compromise and their approval ratings among their voter base.

Thomas Massie has generally sided with House Democrats on a variety of issues, including the Epstein files, Iran war powers pertaining to President Donald Trump, and certain DHS appropriations. According to a June 2025 poll by Kaplan Strategies, only 23% of his Republican base view him favorably, while 62% view him unfavorably. The odds for reelection are steep for Massie, especially given Trump's consistent public criticisms of his actions. Massie is a representative capable of and often willing to compromise, but that willingness has, for lack of a better word, compromised his own chances of reelection.

John Fetterman recently voted to confirm Senator Mullin's nomination in an 8-7 tiebreaker vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He was also the only Democrat to vote against a war-powers resolution that would have limited the president's ability to strike Iran. Other examples of his breaks from the party include voting for a Republican funding plan to end a government shutdown and publicly accusing the Democratic Party of being governed by "Trump Derangement Syndrome." His positions have earned him a 108-point plummet in approval among Pennsylvania Democrats, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, alongside significant gains in Pennsylvania Republican approval.

Massie and Fetterman are both members of Congress facing a largely dissatisfied primary voter base because of decisions perceived as either too liberal or too conservative for their respective parties. These two cases fit into a broader trend: the shrinking overlap between the most liberal Republicans and the most conservative Democrats in Congress. According to Drew DeSilver at the Pew Research Center, that overlap has virtually vanished as of 2022.

Does this shift reflect a change in voter preferences? Do voters actually dislike cross-party cooperation? A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found the majority of Americans preferring leaders who are capable of compromise. And yet, Massie and Fetterman face severe backlash from their base for doing exactly that.

The same poll found that Americans' beliefs have shifted increasingly toward ideological extremes on both ends, with distributions of Democratic and Republican views moving further from the center. Only slightly over 50 years ago, more than a hundred Republicans were more liberal than the most conservative Democrat, and over fifty Democrats were more conservative than the most liberal Republican. Today, Fetterman and Massie stand as two of the best living examples of that fading dynamic, and both are likely to face fierce challenges in their reelection campaigns.

As research from Syracuse University, the Pew Research Center, and Brown University continues to point toward a growing political divide, we can expect the widely accepted practice of party crossings to become increasingly rare. As the living examples of a norm turned relic face stiff odds in their reelection campaigns, voters are likely to face more gridlock and partisan standoffs in Congress.