In addition, powerful intellectual assaults on some of the legacies of policy liberalism have combined to create a difficult political environment for activist liberalism, which has also been racked by internal divisions. Organized labor declined, and the business community has become a dominant political actor.
The competitive strengths of the parties have shifted. The Weakening of Liberalism as a Force in Political Life Although there is now a lively debate about the future shape of the postindustrial Democratic Party, at least since 1980 the national party's liberal wing has been a frail political force. By the mid-1980s, that figure was in the low 30 percent range it was more than 50 percent by 1994 and since 2000, Democratic voting for the environment regularly exceeds Republican scores by more than 60 percent.1 What was once a low-conflict issue in Congress has become one of the nation's most partisan issues. According to the League of Conservation Voters, in the mid-1970s Democrats in Congress voted proenvironment 15 percent more often than Republicans. The bipartisanship soon began to change, however.
For example, the vote on final passage of the ESA of 1973 was unanimous in the Senate and had only four dissenters in the House of Representatives. There was remarkable bipartisanship on the environment in the golden era.
Six main factors lead environmental policy making to become gridlocked in Congress: increased partisanship, a weakening of liberalism, trends in public opinion, increased interest group mobilization, more pervasive media, and the changing nature of environmental problems.
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