Are civility and bipartisanship possible in Congress? Yes, but it’ll take some work
In the spirit of the new year, when pondered where we came up short in the past 12 months and vow to be better, act kinder, speak more softly and be less judgmental of others — even though this feeling of a New Me usually lasts as long as a gym membership — I have some thoughts on the breakdown of civility in Congress and the need for more bipartisanship in a potentially toxic society.
We need to be in a big group-therapy session to figure out how to solve problems without attacking each other.
I was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989 in a special election to replace Claude Pepper, who had passed away. Claude was a model politician who helped everyone. He didn’t care what your politics were. If you were his constituent, he was there to help with your Social Security, your Medicare, immigration issues — you name it. Those were big shoes to fill, and I was lucky to have him as a role model.
Since I was elected in a special election, I arrived in Washington in the middle of session. I didn’t get to do the Kennedy School freshmen orientation or anything like that — I was just thrown into the fire.
But people helped me and wanted me to succeed.
Bill Lehman, a Democrat from Miami, took me aside and taught me about how the mail operation and franking privileges worked. He didn’t care that I was a Republican, he just wanted to help a Florida colleague.
Dante Fascell, another Florida Democrat, chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He knew that a seat on Foreign Affairs was important to me, and he made sure it happened. There literally was no room for me on the committee because all of the seats had been allotted.
But he told me not to worry. He would see to it that the ratio was changed, and add another Democrat to the committee if he had to, just to get me seat.
And he did. He even set me up with a little card table and a folding chair because there wasn’t space for me on the dais.
Can you imagine a committee chair doing that today? Wouldn’t happen.
But back then, I was just another Republican and my presence wasn’t going to change anything for the Democrats because they were in the majority and had been for a long time.
What’s different now is that control of the House can change in one election — everyone worries about their votes, how they’re going to be scored, what their colleagues are doing and saying, what it means for the next election. Bipartisanship gets lost in all of that.
I was never one of those name callers that thought the other side didn’t have a single good idea. Of course, they do — we all do — and we all need to start listening to each other more and pointing fingers less.
I was proud that I repeatedly was ranked among the most bipartisan Republican members of Congress by the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, along with Democratic member Henry Cuéllar of Texas.
Interesting that both us of us are Hispanic, although I don’t know what conclusions to draw from that.
My advice for new members is: Don’t be afraid. Don’t assume that people will automatically turn against you because of a position you take or a vote you cast. I’ve always found that people are a lot more accepting than you think. When you explain yourself, you will find great acceptance.
Also don’t be afraid to work across the aisle and build coalitions. We are not encouraged to do that anymore, but we should. That’s how things get done.
There are commonsense ways to encourage greater bipartisanship in the process.
In the immortal words of the great philosopher Christopher Robin in a note to his best pal, Winnie the Pooh: “You are stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and braver than you believe.”
Let us believe in the best part of ourselves, the better angels of our nature, and rise above toxic partisanship, coming together as one.