The Hill campaign reporter Reid Wilson said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “What America’s Thinking” that the Republican and Democratic parties are more cohesive today, which has led to less variety within the parties.
“Thirty-years ago there were four parties,” Wilson told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha.
“There were the moderate New York Republicans, and the more conservative western and midwestern Republicans,” he continued. “There were the conservative southern Democrats and the liberal western, midwestern, northeastern Democrats.”
“Now we’ve got two homogenous political parties,” he said. “The Republican from outside of Seattle is as conservative as a Republican from Alabama, and the Democrat from inside Seattle is as liberal as a Democrat from Alabama.”
“So the two parties are more cohesive now than they ever have been before,” he added.
The current stalemate in Washington over President Trump’s demand for money to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has brought renewed attention to partisanship in U.S. politics.
The White House and congressional Democrats have been unable to hammer out a deal to reopen large swaths of the federal government that shut down on Dec. 22.
Trump has requested $5 billion to construct a border wall, while Democrats have offered to keep border security funding at its current level, $1.3 billion, with no money for a wall.
— Julia Manchester
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