This is what dysfunction in Washington looks like:

[Triana]

Dysfunction in Washington has reached new lows – but now there’s a fascinating way to visualize just how bad it’s become.

In a new study of polarization in the Senate, Harvard computer science student Renzo Lucioni has created a model to graph the voting relationships of senators across party lines. What began as a senior class project has since made its way from the online depths of Reddit to publication in the latest issue of The Economist.

Using data from every vote of every senator from each session of Congress since 1989, Lucioni used red and blue dots to represent Republican and Democratic senators, respectively. The connecting lines denote the instances when one senator has voted with another, and the model graphs those with most votes across party lines closest to the middle. The more overlap you see in the graph, the greater the bipartisanship in that particular session of Congress.

If you fast-forward through the years, you’ll see the dots gradually retreat behind their respective party lines: it evolves from a tightly knit sphere to two distinctive clusters. The increasing trend toward polarization becomes most apparent over the last decade, from 2003, through President Obama’s administration, to the present. The 113th Congress appears as one might expect: split down the middle.

The Economist described the visuals with a more colorful analogy: “Though America’s political polarization has become a fact of life, it has never been seen so graphically: as a diseased brain, with few neural pathways between the two hemispheres.”

THE REST:

http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/visualization-washington-dysfunction

[riderinthestorm]

1. Stark. Profound. Disturbing. K&R nt

[Brigid]

2. Looks like cellular mitosis.

Kinda cool, actually.

[AlinPA]

3. It is hopeless, and getting worse. Soon those will be single red and blue dots.

[bluestate10]

4. What is your suggestion? I have no intention of surrendering to teabaggers to gain

some measure of peace with them. I don't give a shit about what they think.

[AlinPA]

5. I don't either. There is no working/reasoning/dealing with them, therefore the red dot.

[JHB]

6. Interesting, but misleading

The plots only show the increase in party-line voting.

By its nature it can't indicate why that has happened -- what drives the division -- and thus gives a false impression of equal responsibility.

If one side moves to an ideological extreme while maintaining party voting-block discipline, and the other party merely fails to follow along at the same pace, it will produce the sort of divergence plotted there.

[Triana]

7. The article doesn't claim to explain "why" it happened.

It only seems to illustrate what the dysfunction looks like in visual terms.

[JHB]

9. Yes, it's a simple relationship plot. However, look at the reporting on it

It's about "dysfunction in Washington" when the main driver of the polarization is the dysfunction of the Republicans.

[Triana]

10. True.

I see your point. Tx for explaining it better.

[rgbecker]

8. Judging from the density of the colors, less votes are being taken....

And as we know from 2013, less is getting done.

[Triana]

11. That's got to be part of it too. We have a record-setting DO-NOTHING Congress..

...and the Senate has been hamstrung by dumbass rules that Harry Reid finally decided to abandon.

[roamer65]

12. I used to think we had best Congress money could buy.

We don't even have that anymore.

[KoKo]

13. Fascinating! Thanks for this post!