U.S. lawmakers jump ship in growing numbers amid polarization, dysfunction

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. lawmakers are leaving Congress at an accelerated clip, causing observers to ask why.

Rep. Mike Gallagher has lately announced his resignation from the House, just a week after Rep. Ken Buck announced his departure, telling CNN it was the "worst year of the nine years and three months that I've been in Congress."

Earlier this year, Congressman Greg Pence cited frustration with infighting in the Republican Party as his reason to quit.

"I am disappointed in us not getting anything done in 2023," Pence said. "The contention in our party is definitely a contributing factor."

In this 118th Congress, 48 House lawmakers have either vacated their seats or announced plans to do so. That amounts to 11 percent of the chamber.

While the departures have not yet set a record, they are part of an uptick in recent years.

"It's not just the number of departures that has increased. The type of member who is leaving Congress has changed too. Specifically, more and more people are leaving the House after just a few terms in office," noted an ABC News article on March 26.

In the Congress of 2007-08, only four representatives with less than a decade of service retired or resigned, just 11 percent of the total departures from that congress.

But several years later, the Congress of 2015-16 saw that figure surge to 57 percent, "and it has stayed around 40-50 percent ever since," the article said.

WHY LEAVING?

"Members are frustrated with lack of policy action so are leaving Congress. They are tired of the extreme polarization and feel they are accomplishing little," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

Indeed, many complain that the GOP-led House is infused with infighting, petty insults, tit-for-tat jabs and the inability to get anything done.

Many moderate politicians complain that the House has been overtaken by a right wing that is more concerned with expressing outrage over society's ills than in enacting meaningful legislation.

Others say progressives in Congress are only interested in pushing a radical agenda that is at odds with the worldview of the vast majority of Americans.

The dynamic is a sign of the times, reflecting -- or perhaps contributing to -- division among Americans of differing political stripes.

"It's impossible (for lawmakers) to do anything bipartisan without incurring heavy costs," Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College in the state of New Hampshire, told Xinhua.

Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua that polarization has made both chambers of Congress unpleasant places to work.

Any man or woman who runs for Congress originally to "get things done" will be discouraged in the current Congress, where it has long been apparent that newly elected have little interest in actually governing, but using Congress as a "social platform" to perform, Greg Cusack, a former member of the U.S. state of Iowa House of Representatives, told Xinhua.

Just as such performance can garner "likes" in social media, in Congress it can mean greater publicity, and the likelihood of being reelected and even "noticed" as a person "ready to move higher up," said Cusack.

Lawmakers who leave Congress often go to work in the private sector as consultants, cashing in on their experience in government.

When asked if members are leaving for better opportunities in the private sector, Ramsay said: "Certainly that's one element. But if those with less than 10 years' service stayed longer and built their reputations, the benefits afterward would be greater than what they'll receive by leaving now."

"This suggests strong feelings on their part that by staying in Congress, they're not getting anywhere," Ramsay said.

IMPACTS OF EXODUS

The perception that lawmakers are leaving Congress due to an inept GOP-led House could be an advantage for Democrats in November's elections.

"It gives (President Joe) Biden and the Democrats the opportunity to run against Congress' inability to act," Ramsay said.

"I would be shocked if Democrats across the country don't spend the campaign offering a critique of congressional dysfunction and presenting themselves as the alternative," Galdieri said.

Some experts believe the trend is leaving Congress bereft of skilled leaders, from foreign policy to budget debates to economic expertise.

"All the exits rob Congress of needed expertise and shorten the experience of Congress," West said.

What's worse, those departing seem not to be among "the crazies" who embrace performance art, which means that the next Congress will likely be even more composed of like nutjobs, Cusack said.

"Only by implementing several reforms on how candidates are advanced at the state level can we hope to return to saner politics," said the former state legislator.