The Divided States of America

This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on May 2, 2017 The bit­ter par­tis­an­ship that has en­vel­oped Cap­it­ol Hill, the White House, Wash­ing­ton, and the coun­try is deeply troub­ling, and it’s get­ting worse. Today, col­legi­al­ity and co­oper­a­tion between the parties is more the ex­cep­tion than the rule. An ex­ample of the ex­cep­tion was the un­veil­ing last week of the por­trait of former House En­ergy and Com­merce Com­mit­tee Chair­man Fred Up­ton of Michigan, who stepped down from that po­s­i­tion at the end of the last Con­gress when the GOP rule on term lim­its for chair­man­ships kicked in. Up­ton was honored not only by party col­leagues like Speak­er Paul Ry­an and Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Kev­in Mc­Carthy, but also by Minor­ity Lead­er Nancy Pelosi and Minor­ity Whip Steny Hoy­er from the Demo­crat­ic side. This event was held in the John Din­gell Room of the Ray­burn House Of­fice Build­ing, named for the Demo­crat­ic li­on of the House (a mem­ber for over 59 years), John Din­gell, a fel­low Michig­ander. Up­ton chaired hun­dreds of hours in that hear­ing room, Din­gell thou­sands. Among Up­ton’s many con­tri­bu­tions to pub­lic