Polarization has produced institutional consequences in the House of Representatives and in the Senate - witness the majority party's threat in 2004-2005 to use the ""nuclear option"" of abolishing the filibuster. The president's strategies for dealing with Congress have also been affected, raising the price of compromise with the opposing party and allowing a Republican president to govern largely from the ideological right. Other players in the national policy community - interest groups, think tanks, and the media - have also joined one or the other partisan ""team.""
Party Wars puts all the parts together to provide the first government-wide survey of the impact of polarization on national politics. Sinclair pinpoints weaknesses in the highly polarized system and offers several remedies.
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