Meet in the middle for nation’s sake

For whatever reason — fear of a blue wave, disgust with politics, a desire to spend time with family — the makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives is changing drastically even before the 2018 general election. Incumbent GOP representatives, in particular, are retiring in droves, with some 38 leaving for various reasons. These openings mean that citizens have a unique opportunity to reshape Congress and not necessarily in a partisan way.

While it’s true that Democrats have an advantage because the party out of power generally picks up seats at midterm, it’s a long time between now and November. There may be a blue wave. Or not. What there will be is a large freshmen class in the House of Representatives.

So many open seats are uncommon — including two in New Mexico, with both U.S. Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, and Steve Pearce, a Republican, choosing to run for governor. Voters need to be engaged because the possibility of such wholesale change in Congress is rare. Incumbents are used to sailing to re-election, not deciding to retire.

With voters engaged, this election could be an opportunity to change our dysfunctional politics.

Obviously, Democrats are going to seek to ride anger against Trump, as well as their better policy approaches on health care, immigration and the war on drugs, to seek victories. The Democrats need 24 seats in the House to turn over to take back a majority, something that is difficult but possible. Even in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are facing tough fights because of where the races are, some prognosticators hold hope for a return to majority governing. After all, if Democrat Sen. Doug Jones won in deep-red Alabama, why shouldn’t a Democrat win in purple Nevada or Arizona? So goes the logic, anyway.

Let’s think beyond who has the majority, however. For the people of this country, majority rule — whether by Democrats or Republicans — is not working. Rather than a true majority, we too often have a tyranny of the minority that blocks sensible (and popular) policy.

In the House of Representatives, a far-right caucus of Republicans has the clout to stop legislation that it finds insufficiently conservative. That’s because the House is governed by a custom that is bad for the nation. Under the “Hastert rule” (named after former GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert) legislation will not be considered for a floor vote unless the speaker believes his members will pass the bill.

This custom means an issue with broad popular support won’t be heard if it can pass only with both Democratic and Republican support, just because not enough GOP members are backing it. That essentially gives control of government to the few, not the many. The center is eliminated as a place from which to govern. This has to change. A return to Democratic control of the House (and/or the Senate) would serve as a check to the excesses of the Trump administration. The election, though, should not be solely about political parties. There has to be a focus on best governing practices. That means electing both Democrats and Republicans who will pledge to work across the aisle, as well as electing a speaker of the House who will hold votes even if legislation needs support from the other party to pass.

The next speaker of the House — whether Republican or Democrat — should be made to promise that he or she will bring forth legislation designed to garner support across the aisle.

In the Senate, leaders can bring back the more collegial tradition where legislators cooperated to make policy. In the New Mexico Legislature, both Republicans and Democrats are working together on crime bills, the budget, educational reforms — that’s better for the state than constant sniping. This is how to govern. Leave politics for the campaign.

We do not need extremist rule in this country. We need politicians who will compromise, work together and on occasion, vote with the other guy. With so many incumbent politicians leaving D.C. — a sort of self-draining of the swamp — voters can bring sanity back to governing. Yes, they can. Yes, we can.