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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.