You can skim this part because you already knew that. But, the data is truly extraordinary.
Political bodies are more partisan than the voters they represent. The widening ideological gap within the US House of Representatives over the past 40 years is stunning. With it, cross-party political collaboration has been lost.
Our “u-shaped” legislative bodies are composed of two opposing camps of polarized politicians with widening views, each less willing to listen to the other side than the next.
The number of independents in America is massive, and growing. The June 2024 Gallup poll on political affiliation revealed that 51% of Americans consider themselves independent while just 25% and 23% call themselves straight up Republicans and Democrats respectively. Note the steady growth of the percentage of independent voters indicated by the gray dotted trendline over the past 20 years.
The actual number of independent voters is much bigger than what is reported, as most independent thinkers end up joining a party where they subsequently get counted. Such voters lack political representation.
To no one’s surprise, under-represented citizens are politically disengaged — they vote less frequently and make fewer campaign contributions than their peers. Worse still, such political detachment cedes even more political power to those active on the right and the left, further adding to our polarization.
Meanwhile, the public is fed up. Six in 10 American voters are dissatisfied with how well our democracy is working. Demand is growing for an alternative to the status quo. 85% of Americans want major changes or complete reforms to our political system.Alas, we feel stuck. 58% are “not confident the system can change.”Politics makes Americans feel exhausted and angry.
While everyone generally agrees with the diagnosis, there are few ideas on how we might fix it.
Voters are ready for a fresh idea.
Bridge Grades are an objective, transparent, and data-oriented method of sorting politicians that measures observable leadership behaviors including bi-partisan voting records, pragmatism, collaboration, and efforts that unites (not divides). Bridge Grade offers a letter grade (A, B, C, F) to identify “bridgers” from “dividers” based on observable behaviors including bill authoring, voting records, public statements, public appearances, funding sources, and ultimately their effectiveness in seeking pragmatic legislative solutions through demonstrating collaboration, consensus-orientation, and coalition-building.
American politics is essentially a sports rivalry where voters choose candidates based solely on the color of their team.
The tribal split in our representatives is the result of us voters rewarding candidates solely for the color of their flair instead of the content of their character. Because of partisan voting, we end up electing red team and blue team zealots as “referees” who can’t even agree on the rules of the game.
Instead, we must treat elections as a way to choose higher quality referees — representatives who shape and enforce the rules and ensure fair play. In other words, governance.
What if, instead of voting for candidates based on their party affiliation and ideological beliefs, we chose representatives based on their abilities to collaborate and solve problems for our common interests? America is an extremely eclectic population comprised of so many intersecting groups. Governing this motley crew requires collaboration, nuanced understanding, and ultimately an ability to make mutually acceptable trade-offs. We need to elect people who want to make such trade-offs and can build consensus through coalitions.
Think about this. As a politician, being partisan means voting with one’s party, regardless of common sense. Being a “bridger” means voting for common sense, regardless of one’s party.
Behaviors like partisan (or bipartisan) voting records, using uniting (or divisive) language, collaborating on legislation, and seeking common-ground are observable and measurable. This observable data on behaviors is fundamental to Bridge Pledge. Publicly available data can be used to grade candidates on their bridging behaviors. Bridge Pledge uses a open-source, data-oriented, and objective methodology to provide each politician with a trustworthy and transparent Bridge Grade.
Think of the Bridge Grades like the “Sanitary Inspection Grade” used by municipal health departments to measure and showcase restaurant hygiene standards on behalf of prospective diners. Like sanitation grades, Bridge Grades are blunt (A, B, C, F) and simple to understand.
If you eat at a restaurant with a C sanitation grade and get sick, well that’s on you. Same goes for voting. Similarly, when we vote in politicians with terrible Bridge Grades (C or F), and they don’t get anything done, well that’s on us.
Bridge Grades blends objective data sources (publicly available) and uses a transparent calculation (anyone can see how it works) to produce the letter grade for each candidate.
Bridge Grades utilizes an existing, neutral, and observable non-partisan scorecard as the foundation of the Bridge Grade — augmented with multiple additional publicly available data sources over time.
Browse the full list of Congressional Bridge Grades from 2024.
Using the numerical calculations above, utilizing statistical (objective) grade boundaries to remove grading subjectivity, we can identify bridgers from dividers.
Grade A. Always vote for an A. If there are multiple Grade A candidates, choose your favorite.
Grade B. If there’s not an A in the running, choose your favorite B.
Grade C. Never vote for a C over an A or a B. And, never re-elect a C. They’ve had their shot.
Grade F. Hard no.