RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Senator Cruz is thriving in a polarized political environment. He's announced his opposition to many leaders of his own party and also, of course, to President Obama. The president had once believed that he could improve partisan divisions. More than once in recent days he's expressed regret.
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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I have, as president, obviously done soul searching about what are things I could do differently to help bridge some of those divides.
MONTAGNE: But the president is not, of course, the whole story, as NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: People who've been following Washington for a long time share the president's concern about the growing fault lines in American politics.
TRENT LOTT: It's the worst I've seen in 50 years.
HORSLEY: That's former Republican Senator Trent Lott. Along with former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle, Lott's just published a book about the problem.
LOTT: We're not mad. We're just worried. We think we've reached a crisis point where if we don't change the dynamics in Washington and around the country, we're in real jeopardy.
HORSLEY: There's plenty of finger pointing about the roots of this partisan rancor. Lott complains Obama bears some responsibility. He's not a natural glad hander, and he's made little effort to cultivate members of Congress.
LOTT: He doesn't meet regularly with Democrats, let alone Republicans.
HORSLEY: GOP lawmakers still chafe about the time Obama curtly ended a conversation with Eric Cantor, who was then a Republican House leader. As former White House spokesman Bill Burton recalls, Cantor was trying to revive an argument John McCain made during the 2008 campaign.
BILL BURTON: The president turns to Eric Cantor. And he says, elections have consequences, and, Eric, I won.
HORSLEY: But if Obama did little to build bridges, Republicans put up their own roadblocks. They voted unanimously against the health care law and nearly so against the stimulus, even though both incorporate some Republican ideas. Political analyst Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution says political parity is part of the problem. Control of the House or Senate has flipped eight times since 1990. And that makes lawmakers in the minority reluctant to cut deals since they can imagine retaking the majority within a couple of years.
SARAH BINDER: Why go for half a loaf when you can hold out for the whole loaf if you gain control of government?
HORSLEY: But the partisan division on display in Washington is not just a product of Beltway gamesmanship. Trent Lott says it also reflects a deepening divide throughout the rest of the country.
LOTT: I can barely talk to my brother-in-law 'cause he's such a left-wing liberal Democrat. We had to swear that at the Thanksgiving dinner table we wouldn't talk politics. And I think that's all over the country. Talk about the center not holding; there ain't no center anymore.
HORSLEY: That's an exaggeration, but the center is shrinking. A massive survey by the Pew Research Center finds fewer Americans in the political middle while more are taking sides on the right and the left. Pew's Michael Dimock says the people at opposite ends of the spectrum are the most politically active. And their increasingly straight-ticket viewpoints almost define separate tribes.
MICHAEL DIMOCK: The more conservative you are on foreign policy, the more likely you are to be conservative on social issues, on economic issues, on role of government. These dimensions, many of which had very little correlation with each other in the past, are getting increasingly aligned.
HORSLEY: Researchers also point to a strong overlap between politics, lifestyle and even choice of neighborhood. So it's becoming less likely that Americans cross paths on a regular basis with people who see the world differently. People who are concerned about this growing polarization suggest a variety of remedies, from lawmakers spending more time together in Washington with their families to mandatory public service for teenagers to encourage civic involvement. Critics agree unless Americans can bridge the political and cultural gulfs dividing them, it's going to be hard to build the consensus needed to tackle any other big problems. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.