One thing this reflects is the growing uniformity within parties. Democrats have had the Senate for the entirety of Obama's term, so objectionable bills have hi

One thing this reflects is the growing uniformity within parties. Democrats have had the Senate for the entirety of Obama's term, so objectionable bills have hit a previous roadblock. Looking at GWB's vetoes, all but one occurred with a Democratic Senate. Similarly, all of Clinton's vetoes occurred after the Republicans took the Senate in 1995. Edit: To clarify a bit - The Northeastern secular Republican (Lincoln Chafee, Arlen Specter) and the Southern culturally conservative, pro-social program Democrat (Zell Miller) are both largely casualties of a system where increased awareness in the modern news cycle makes it much easier to paint an individual for the all the actions of their party, leading to a more ideologically pure Senate where all bills that pass reflect the controlling party's ideology.