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HARI SREENIVASAN: From the
White House to Capitol Hill.

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For seven months, congressional
Republicans have taken a
sharply partisan route on health

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care.

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They have made several attempts
to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act, which

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have failed.

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But why did Republicans go
partisan in the first place?

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It's part of a cultural
shift in Congress years in
the making for both parties.

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Our Lisa Desjardins explains.

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LISA DESJARDINS: Congress these
days has an obvious theme.

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SEN.

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BERNIE SANDERS (I),
Vermont: I should think
that every Republican
should be embarrassed.

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MAN: Our Democratic friends
are trying to make it more
difficult for President Trump

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to do his job.

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SEN.

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CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), Minority
Leader: We urge our Republican
colleagues to change their

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tune.

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LISA DESJARDINS: More blame
than legislation on the floor.

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Veteran GOP Senator Susan
Collins of Maine has
long been considered one
of its most bipartisan

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members, but she admits
it's becoming harder.

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SEN.

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SUSAN COLLINS (R), Maine: We are
in a time of hyper-partisanship
that is unlike any other

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that I have seen in
my time in the Senate.

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LISA DESJARDINS: Some
examples this year?

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Republicans going it alone on
health care, with a partisan
House vote and a Republican-only

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closed-door process in
the Senate, Democrats
forcing symbolic late-night
sessions and boycotting

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committee hearings,
slowing the legislative
process to a near stop.

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And this month, Republican
Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell blamed
Democrats for his decision

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to postpone the
Senate's August recess.

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SEN.

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MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY),
Majority Leader: Due
to this unprecedented
level of obstruction

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that we have been experiencing,
we will be in session the
first two weeks of August.

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LISA DESJARDINS: All just five
weeks after this: a gunman
opening fire on a Republican

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baseball practice, leaving House
Majority Whip Steve Scalise
initially in critical condition,

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and still recovering.

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The attack brought a chorus
of calls for bipartisanship.

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REP.

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NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), House
Minority Leader: We are not
one caucus or the other in this

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House today.

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REP.

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PAUL RYAN (R-WI), Speaker
of the House: We are united.

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LISA DESJARDINS: Later that day,
the managers of the Republican
and Democratic teams urged

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an end to the sharp divide.

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REP.

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JOE BARTON (R), Texas: We
have an R or a D by our name,
but our title -- our title is

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United States representative.

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LISA DESJARDINS: We caught up
with Representatives Joe Barton
and Mike Doyle again, and asked

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if things have changed.

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REP.

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MIKE DOYLE (D), Pennsylvania:
There's no cure for this.

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And it's not just
our responsibility.

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Bipartisanship either gets
fanned or, you know, encouraged
by outside forces, too.

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LISA DESJARDINS: But both
say too many members get
attention now with sharp words.

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REP.

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JOE BARTON: At the end of
every two years, do you want
to go home and say, man, I gave

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a heck of a press conference,
or do you want to put something
else on your wall, that you

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have got a bill signed into law?

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LISA DESJARDINS: Barton admits
he was once a young bomb
thrower, and accepts some blame

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for his party.

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REP.

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JOE BARTON: When I got elected,
I joined the Gingrich group.

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So I was a part of the
problem at the time.

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LISA DESJARDINS: In the
1994 Republican Revolution,
then-new Speaker Gingrich
made partisan battles

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a central strategy.

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Years later, in 2013, Democrats
upped the partisan ante,
changing Senate rules to push

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through some nominees
with no Republican votes.

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Of course, partisanship, even
partisanship, is as old as
Congress itself, from duels,

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to a near fatal beating inside
the Senate chamber, to this
staircase outside the House

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chamber, where you can still
see what is said to be blood
stains from where a newspaper

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reporter shot a former
member of Congress in 1890.

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But divide can have a
purpose, says Amy Walter of
The Cook Political Report.

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AMY WALTER, The Cook
Political Report: I don't
think partisanship in
and of itself is a bad

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thing.

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The challenge is when that
alone is what prevents
people from working
together to do other things.

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LISA DESJARDINS: Part of the
trouble, fewer moderates.

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Data from The Cook Political
Report shows that, 20 years
ago, more than a third of all

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House districts were
moderate, voting similarly
to the nation as a whole.

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But, since then, House districts
have become more partisan,
red or blue, and the number

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of moderate or swing
seats has fallen by half.

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AMY WALTER: And they have all
been replaced by ideologues
either on the left or the right.

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LISA DESJARDINS: One reason,
special interest groups on the
left and the right are spending

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record amounts of money
in ads, and increasingly
scoring lawmakers' votes
on sometimes narrow

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issues.

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Again, Susan Collins:

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SEN.

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SUSAN COLLINS: Unfortunately,
there's a lot of pressure
from outside special interest

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groups to toe the party line.

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They want 100 percent fidelity,
100 percent of the time, to
100 percent of their views.

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And, if you deviate, you are
going to feel the consequences.

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LISA DESJARDINS: All
this underscores how a
major issue like health
care remains unresolved,

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and it sets up a great struggle.

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To get anything done,
Republicans in power may soon
have to work with Democrats.

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For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Lisa Desjardins.