( CNN ) -- There are plenty of ways to game the upcoming Supreme Court decision on health care reform , and they 've all been said : President Obama loses in court , he wins with his base . Or it 's a severe blow , potentially fatal . Or Republicans benefit if they win , because they were `` right '' all along . Or the GOP loses , because it has to figure out what to offer for health care instead . And so it goes . But there 's something else going on here , and it 's more meaningful than some short-term political skirmishing . This Supreme Court case is the Waterloo for political polarization , because it underscores something we should have known all along : Great changes in national public policy should never be erected on slender partisan majorities . If they are , they will always be suspect . It 's a proposition advanced by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan , who understood there 's little upside to partisan policymaking . After all , he was a member of the 1983 commission that reformed -- and saved -- Social Security for a generation . The program faced collapse ; a bipartisan group of heavy-hitters fixed it , together . No one liked all that the rescue plan contained . But the work had to be done and they did it . That kind of work is not something we see a lot of these days : health care reform , arguably the most far-reaching social legislation since Medicare , was passed strictly along party lines . Sure , the White House says -- with some justification -- that Republicans were n't interested in their plan . But would the GOP have bitten on a more scaled-back version ? Would some in the GOP have broken ranks over , say , requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so long as it would n't bankrupt them ? Sure . But that was n't to be . The Democrats had a two-house majority , so the stars were aligned . And with recalcitrant Republicans vocal in their opposition , the Democrats , too , became more strident . So reform was an all-Democratic bill , a sure way to be challenged before the high court . And no one looks good : the president , who Monday seemed to be warning the court about `` judicial activism '' in advance of any decision ; the court , which about half of the public now believes is political anyway ; and Congress , which has an approval rating so low it 's hard to even find . That 's what happens when Washington 's default setting is always along party lines . And it 's not going to get any better . As congressional districts are redrawn to benefit partisans , those elected become -- naturally -- more partisan . So there is no political benefit to compromise , and as conservative southern Democrats virtually disappear , there are no natural allies left in the Democratic party for vote-hunting GOPers . The same goes for Democrats in search of moderate Republicans , most of whom are either quitting Congress out of frustration ( see : Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine ) or are fighting for their political lives ( see : Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana ) . Imagine today 's Congress passing , by bipartisan majorities , legislation on two controversial issues : taxes and immigration reform . Impossible , right ? Well , it was done in the mid-1980 's . The tax measure lowered rates and eliminated some loopholes ( many , alas , have crept back into the code , but that 's another story . ) And the immigration bill legalized certain illegal immigrants while punishing employers for hiring illegal immigrants . ( And of course we are back at that issue again ) . So while the measures were far from permanent or perfect solutions , they were big fixes . Sure , Democrats controlled the House and Republicans maintained control of the Senate and President Ronald Reagan , a Republican , was in his second term , finding a way to cut deals with members of both parties . Oh , and by the way , the chairmen of the tax-writing committee -- a House Democrat and a Senate Republican -- actually worked together to get something through the Congress . Ditto for those writing the immigration legislation . I know . I watched them in action . Believe me , it was nothing like watching the debt-ceiling debacle of last summer . Even when there was one small glimmer of hope that the White House and GOP House Speaker John Boehner might work something out , it disappeared . And almost one year later , each side is trying to get history to blame the other fellow for the failure to strike a deal . It 's too bad , really . Because in the end , history will blame both sides -- for looking small when most of the country thinks our problems deserve solutions that are really big . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger .
Gloria Borger says the Supreme Court health care case is a symptom of what ails us . One of the most important laws in decades was passed on purely partisan vote , she says . The U.S. Senate voted to repeal Obamacare last week after failing twice before this year. Borger : America wants Congress to step up and address big problems effectively .