Bipartisanship a forgotten phrase in Washington

IT always happens when the sitting president's party loses seats in Congress after a bruising mid-term election campaign. Politicians on both sides of the aisle propose that the White House occupant and the lawmakers on Capitol Hill leave all the political acrimony behind them and proclaim that the American people want them to work together in the spirit of bipartisanship in order to advance common national goals.

In a way, that kind of scenario did evolve in Washington from time to time, for a simple reason: Notwithstanding their party affiliation, lawmakers have recognised that in order to deliver the goods to their voters, they needed to cooperate and make deals with the other side. At the same time, without reaching compromises with the opposition on Capitol Hill, which means that gridlock will dominate the legislative process, presidents know that they cannot advance their agendas.

But much of that sense of bipartisanship has been dissipating in the last three or two decades under the pressure of growing political polarisation in Washington and around the country.