What has caused the biggest split between the two political parties during George W. Bush's presidency?

Question

Iraq? Immigration? Health care? Was the split present before Bush was elected president? Or do you even see a split? My vote is the war in Iraq. What do you think? (No party bashing please! I don't want to see answers like, "Because the democrats whine too much and they don't have a plan," or "Because the republicans are liars and crooks." They won't even be in the running for a good answer.)

Casey and SPLATT jump out to early leads. It's neck and neck so far. Thank you both for not party bashing...sadly I can't say the same to some others.

Answer 1

I think the split happened well before Bush was elected. I trace the start of it all the way back to 1994, when Republicans took control of both houses of Congress. Incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, having never been in the majority in his Congressional career, suddenly had power, and was able to start pushing the conservative agenda and openly challenge President Clinton. As soon as you had a division of power in the federal government, the fighting began.

We saw more evidence of this split in the 2000 election and its aftermath. The broadcast networks didn't help, prematurely calling Florida for Gore in the evening, then for Bush in the wee hours of the morning, then finally saying that it was too close to call. A state law-mandated recount showed that Bush was the winner, and had Gore simply conceded at that point, it may very well have helped pull us closer together, at least for a while. Instead, the Gore team chose to take the low road, with the aid of the Florida Supreme Court. This touched off a particularly nasty fight over the presidency, in which both sides accused the other of trying to steal the election. Had the election not been so close, I doubt that things would have been so nasty as we swore in our next President.

Then, of course, came the wars in the aftermath of 9/11. There were few complaints from Democrats about going into Afghanistan - a few, but merely a whimper when compared to the fuss over Iraq - as the ruling Taliban there had been harboring bin Laden. However, when the Bush administration turned its attention to Iraq without showing a concrete link between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, the anti-war element of the Democratic party growled. The administration didn't help its own cause by giving several different reasons for invading Iraq, and Bush's announcement in his State of the Union address that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea comprised an "Axis of Evil" further rankled the peace-loving left.

I could go on and on, but in a nutshell, I think it comes down to those three elements: The 1994 election, the 2000 election, and the war in Iraq.

Answer 2

The reason for our parties being so divide is because the Republicans hold four majorities. The Congress,Senate, White House, and Supreme Court. The President has done nothing to bring us together as Americans instead he has pulled us further apart by not taking the advice of Democratic leadership causing frustration between parties lines. When one party does not have a voice and the other is to louder one feel superior and the other has to vend for its self. If we had a balance in our government we would get along much better because both sides would have a voice. Hopefully in November everyone will have a voice so that a true democracy can take place once again.

Answer 3

The war in Iraq has caused the biggest split. Before that, the house and senate were pretty much equal in terms of bi-partisan politics. Now, they are going their own ways. It's becoming a war from within, if you ask me.

The only problem I see is that congress approved for this war. That included both republicans and democrats. They all had the same information that Bush did.

And when it comes to the Weapons of Mass Destruction (the whole reason for the war), we had bad intelligence. Russia and several other nations had the same intelligence that we did. But in the end, everone blames Bush and the republican party.

As the old saying goes, a house divded cannot stand. I think congress needs to think about that saying and learn to work together in order to provide our nation and the world a safer place to live, freedom, democracy, and individual rights.

Answer 4

It has been the Democrats' and leftists' blind hatred of Bush that has caused the biggest split between the parties. Bush has been holding out his hand to the Democrats for 5½ years now, and they've done nothing but spit on it.

The bile and vitriol and smears and outright lies spewed by the Dems against both Bush and the GOP has been incessant. And it has been waged by the leftist news media as well.

It is not the war in Iraq, because, if we look at the facts, the Dems supported Clinton's bombings of Iraq, his policy of regime change in Iraq, and were as convinced as Bush subsequently was, of the WMD in Iraq. It's just that Clinton never had the moral courage (i.e. leadership) to embark on a necessary course of action if it carried any political risk.

Answer 5

I see a split. I believe it started with President Clinton and the impeachment process. The Republicans said it was because he lied when the people of the united states saw it more as a personal matter between a husband and wife. I mean seriously who wants to hear about a dress and a cigar? It actually gave some people an uneasy feeling that what people do in private is going to get you into a grand jury.
Which fall in line with what democrats believe about republicans.

Answer 6

The reason is that Al Gore lost in Florida under unusual circumstances. The vitriol goes back that far. You can even go further back to the treatment Bill Clinton received from the right during his terms in office.

Then there was the treatment Reagan and Bush (41) got from the left in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Before that is was Carter’s bungling the Iranian hostage situation.

Let’s not forget Nixon and Ford and Watergate.

Or Johnson’s Viet Nam Policies. You get the idea?

In fact, even George Washington wasn’t exempt criticisms.

Answer 7

D) Republicans. alongside with a Republican administration, they placed into play each and every thing we see occurring on the on the spot. THe Dem's took over in '06, yet even attempting to steer a deliver as tremendous as this one, they were continually fightin Bush so not something were given achieved in time. With McCain, all we are going to see is yet another 4 years of stagnation reason there is not any way Dem electorate are giving the Republicans the Congress back. Reform or replace?

Answer 8

I think the riff was caused by the closeness of the election in 2000. Gore allegedly won the popular vote in 2000, but lost the Electoral Vote. This planted the seeds of dissention for the years to follow. Notice how, to this day, the country's Left STILL can't let it go. Argue with one of them long enough, and eventually they'll drag out the old "selected, not elected" refrain.

It so discombobulated them, many even expressed a desire to alter the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College, to avoid a repeat of what happened six years ago.

Answer 9

I think you are right, it is the war in Iraq. We were lied to and so was the congress to go there in the first place. Most of the other things that you mentioned have just added to the divisiviness. The repuglican agenda has been to aid the rich and take away from the poor, this has been going on forever.

Answer 10

al gore caused it when he invented GLOBal goreWarming Hey its no less ridickerous then claiming he invented the net ;o) a tool ( al gore, not the net) furthermore al i must presume, believes C02 is harmful to our environment. yet theres no proof to this conclusion. what has been sd, by less than 200 scfi guys & gals who have been shown (by nearly 20,000 scientists) to have blatantly falsified, misconstrued & misreported their findings supporting GLOBal goreWarming. C02 is beneficial more so 170-1 as it could be harmful. However, if we are to believe al gore, believes its harmful why would he KNOWINGLY create billions of tons of C02 making his little inconvenient truth? did he bicycle to the various places where he argued against C02? or did he fly, creating even more C02? and all the venues that played his movie, how much C02 was created in the energy consumption the theaters created while playing it? now add to it the number of people who burned fossil fuels to go watch it? add all this up and al gore has killed the PLANET! Bad evil sociopolitical scifi guy! BAD, go to your room for 100yrs dude! it may be safe to come out and play by then! all the C02 you created telling us how bad it is may have dissapated by then ;o)