July 9, 2021

Bipartisanship

There has been a lot of talk about bipartisanship lately. President Joe Biden campaigned on his ability to work with Republicans. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) wrote op-eds in defense of the filibuster and bipartisan lawmaking. At the same time, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed Congress strictly along party lines, not picking up a single Republican vote. So much for bipartisanship in practice.

We wondered what the country thinks about bipartisanship. Should it be pursued at all, should the majority just go it alone if they can, or should that be avoided? We asked the ActiVote users the question and gave them five answers to pick from:

The majority party should pursue their agenda irrespective of whether they pick up any votes from the other party.
The majority party should pursue their agenda, where picking up votes from the other party is a bonus.
The majority party should aim to pass legislation with bipartisan support.
Passing legislation without bipartisan support should be the exception.
Passing legislation without bipartisan support should be avoided at all cost.

It turns out that almost half the nation (46%) believes that bipartisanship is essential and that the majority should aim for minority support. Another 15% believe that without bipartisan support, legislation should be avoided in most if not all cases. Then again, 39% believe that while bipartisanship is all fine and good, legislating the majority’s agenda is more important.

The headline result

majority should go it alone

14%

majority should go it alone, minority votes are a bonus

25%

majority should aim for minority support

46%

non-bipartisan legislation should be the exception

non-bipartisan legislation should be avoided

See the details below →

Women (52%) support bipartisanship more strongly than men (42%) but are also more in favor of getting things done (41%) vs. gridlock when bipartisanship fails (7%). Although 20% of men believe that without bipartisanship, legislation should not pass, there are more (37%) who would prefer that the majority goes it alone.

The crosstabs

Men

28%

42%

11%

Women

20%

21%

52%

majority should go it alonemajority should go it alone, minority votes are a bonusmajority should aim for minority supportnon-bipartisan legislation should be the exceptionnon-bipartisan legislation should be avoided

See the details below →

Democrats are more focused on “getting things done no matter what”, with 51% believing that legislating comes first, and that minority votes are at most a bonus. Another 38% believe that bipartisanship is important, but only 8% think that without bipartisan support legislation should be stopped.

Republicans strongly support bipartisanship (59%) and more (24%) believe that legislation should not pass without bipartisan support than those who feel that the majority should just push through (17%)

The crosstabs

Dem

21%

33%

38%

Rep

17%

59%

15%

Ind

19%

55%

See the details below →

It is clear that more people in general would like us all to work together, than one party going it alone. At this time, with the Democrats having the trifecta, they are more eager to push through legislation rather than letting it die. We wonder whether the results of our poll would have been the same in 2017-2018, when the Republicans had the trifecta?

All in all, despite the significant support for bipartisan collaboration, the practice in Washington for the past few years has been that for major bills, such as the Affordable Care Act (Obama), the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (Trump) and the American Rescue Plan Act (Biden), when bipartisan support was not available, the majority will push through instead of being held back, expecting to be rewarded more for action than for inaction.

Bipartisanship

The Details

The full crosstab table

	215 RV	majority should go it alone	majority should go it alone, minority votes are a bonus	majority should aim for minority support	non-bipartisan legislation should be the exception	non-bipartisan legislation should be avoided
National	±6.7% MoE	14%	25%	46%	8%	7%
Gender	Men	9%	28%	42%	9%	11%
Gender	Women	20%	21%	52%	7%	0%
Age	18-29	5%	26%	46%	18%	6%
	30-49	22%	19%	47%	4%	8%
	50-64	6%	35%	51%	4%	4%
	65+	23%	25%	28%	11%	13%
Ethnicity	White	15%	25%	42%	11%	7%
	Black	27%	21%	41%	11%	0%
	Latino	1%	25%	51%	10%	13%
Education	High school	11%	27%	45%	11%	6%
	Some college	15%	22%	41%	10%	12%
	Bachelor's	14%	30%	55%	0%	0%
Income	<50k	12%	25%	47%	6%	10%
	50k-100k	12%	26%	40%	13%	9%
	>100k	16%	25%	52%	5%	3%
Affiliation	Dem	21%	33%	38%	8%	0%
	Rep	0%	17%	59%	9%	15%
	Ind	9%	19%	55%	9%	9%
Region	Dark Red	26%	11%	41%	8%	14%
	Light Red	18%	45%	28%	8%	0%
	Swing	9%	30%	45%	10%	6%
	Light Blue	5%	21%	62%	9%	3%
	Dark Blue	15%	17%	51%	6%	12%