Red versus blue: American electoral geography and congressional bipartisanship, 1898-2002

Today's parties appear to be at an impasse. Despite recent nationally traumatic events, including the attacks of September 11th and the war on terrorism, Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided. Many now refer to these divisions as red state versus blue state politics. Is geography really the source of the contemporary partisan deadlock? If so, what possibility is there for overcoming these divisions on pressing political problems such as the economy and the war in Iraq? In this article, we look at geography and partisanship from an historic perspective. Using multivariate analysis of roll call voting in the House of Representatives from 1889 to 2002, we demonstrate that bipartisanship is most likely when the two political parties are geographically diverse or nationally competitive. This has not been the case in recent years, making bipartisanship harder to come by. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications for future bipartisan unity.