Another question was asked just after the 2008 and 2016 elections: "If you had to choose, would you rather see Barack Obama (as president) and the Democrats in Congress mostly implement Democratic policies and pay little attention to the positions taken by the Republican leaders in Congress, or would you rather see Obama and the Democrats in Congress include Republican policies in any legislation that they pass?" and the corresponding question with Donald Trump as president and the Republicans and Democrats switching places. The percent choosing "pay little attention":
2008 2016
President's party 25% 40%
Opposition party 2% 3%
Independent 7% 11%
Republican support in 2016 for the "pay little attention" opinion was considerably higher than Democratic support in 2008, even thought Trump had barely scraped by while Obama had won a solid victory. Nevertheless, a majority of Republicans favored the "include Democratic policies" option. This illustrates two points:
1. Bipartisanship is popular with the public, even in a time of high polarization.
2. The Democrats seem to be more identified with bipartisanship. I don't think that this has always been the case--it seems to shift depending on the candidate and the circumstances--but it's been that way in recent years. As the figures above show, it is a strong appeal. However, its limitation is that an opposition party can frustrate it, even if they don't have a majority--if they remain united in opposition, people won't think that they're being included. A cynic might suspect that Republican willingness to play along with Trump's claims of voter fraud is partly because they think it will damage Joe Biden's efforts to establish an image of bipartisanship and bringing people together.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
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