When Did “Working Together” Become a Scandal?

Congress used to cross the aisle like adults. Now a handshake makes national news. I pulled the receipts.

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In the 1970s, about 37% of House votes and 41% of Senate votes were party-line. That means most votes weren’t team-sport standoffs. Members routinely defected; roughly one in four votes on party-line issues saw members break ranks and vote with the other side.

That was normal. That was governing.

Now? House Democrats cross party lines about 1.7% of the time. Senate Democrats? About 3.3%. That’s not “rare.” That’s a rounding error with a press badge.

So when John Fetterman shakes the president’s hand at the State of the Union and half the internet loses its mind; that’s not about Fetterman. That’s about us. We’ve built a political culture where basic courtesy registers as treason and a single crossover vote triggers a full identity crisis.

Here’s what nobody’s asking: When did we decide that agreeing with the other side, on anything, ever, means you switched teams?

Because the data tell a different story. Bipartisanship didn’t die. It just got demoted from “how Congress works” to “breaking news.”

The CARES Act passed the Senate 96–0. The infrastructure bill passed 69–30. NAFTA passed the House because Republicans supplied more yes votes than Democrats. These weren’t kumbaya moments. They were cross-party coalitions: messy, strategic, and effective.

That’s what governing looks like when the adults show up.

But those moments are getting rarer. And the reason isn’t complicated: the incentives are broken. Primary voters punish compromise. Donors reward outrage. Media amplifies conflict. And the scorecard has become: Why risk a backlash for a deal that may not pass anyway?

As a mom, I have a simpler KPI for Congress: Be boring and effective.

Pass the must-pass bills without hostage tactics. Let committees do real work. Treat cross-party cooperation like what it should be — not betrayal, not sainthood. Just adults doing the job we hired them to do.

If you want the decade-by-decade data tables, every Fetterman roll-call receipt, the constitutional history of why Congress stopped working together, and the numbers that prove Republicans actually cross the aisle more than Democrats right now — that’s all in the paid case study.

These deep dives take hours. Roll-call records, Brookings data sets, fifty years of party unity scores, and enough congressional math to make your eyes cross. A paid subscription costs less than the coffee you’re holding. One cup a month keeps the receipts coming — and keeps me caffeinated enough to keep pulling them. ☕

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The numbers don’t lie and they don’t care about your jersey. ☕

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Peace in the chaos, mama. Grounded in Christ and way too much coffee. — Rebekah