Fixing a Broken Washington

It’s Time to Smell the Coffee:  The Tea Party is Over

Well, the “partial shutdown” and its attendant brinkmanship is over. Congress woke up and smelled the coffee. They realized that while a Tea Party is perfectly fine for little girls or boys who want to play a social etiquette game and the adults who care to join them in this fantasy play-time, it is a waste of time for adults with real work to do, like making sure the Federal government is functional and operational.

The Tea Party was able to hijack the GOP because there is apparently no more room for bipartisanship in elected politics. Reaching out across the aisle is considered treachery to the all-important party purity demanded by unyielding constituents with personal agendas and deep pockets. To do so is the kiss of death for party support in re-election bids. Both the Democrats and Republicans bear responsibility for this unfortunate dynamic.

Anyone familiar with Ronald Heifetz’s theory of Adaptive Leadership will appreciate that sometimes a system is so broken that a technical fix is not enough (think:  trying to use a band-aid to stem an arterial hemorrhage). Instead, a deeper systemic fix requiring deep structural change is necessary.  The inability of America’s political climate to move beyond narrow partisanship for the good of the country clearly calls out for an adaptive fix.

I propose five requirements for office that will require members of Congress to put the Nation’s needs ahead of their own re-elections and concomitant slavishness to ideological purity.  Perhaps these strictures will inspire leadership that is based first and foremost on the awareness that leadership is a privilege, and at its core, service.

1. Members of Congress must meet a threshold of 80% bipartisan collaboration in order to be paid and/or enjoy the privileges of their offices

2. Members of Congress must meet a threshold of 85% bipartisan collaboration in order to qualify for a re-election bid

3. Members of Congress must agree that their own pay, benefits and other perks, including medical care for them and their dependents, will be the first to be suspended in the event of a government shutdown. Military retirees and disabled veterans are exempt from this provision

4. Members of Congress must put all investments in blind trusts, and cannot draw more than 50% of the value of their government pay from the dividends of their investments in any given 365 day period, even in the case of a shutdown

5. Former members of Congress have a ten year moratorium before working as a registered lobbyist, paid or pro-bono consultant, or otherwise on the payroll of any company seeking to maintain or initiate a Federal contract or license.

I appreciate that many concerned voters elect their Congressional representatives to advocate for the needs of their local communities.  They rightfully expect that their elected representatives advocate for those needs as their highest priority.  Yet this commitment to local constituencies does not preclude bipartisanship.  If anything, it underscores even more the need for it.  Bipartisanship means that all sides of an issue are engaged in appreciating the validity in all the viewpoints brought to the conversation.  Each concern represented in the discussion is heard, evaluated, and taken into account when determining a solution that works the best for the country as a whole, while respecting the diversity of the polity.  Insisting on an “all or nothing” approach all the time is not simply unreasonable.  It is a ticket to marginalization and irrelevancy in the political process. Real relationships in life, and in political life, require collaboration and compromise. Anything else is simply a fantasy that America can no longer afford.