Sarah Gibbard Cook
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The Language of Divided Government

11/12/2018

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Another election has come and gone. With the return to divided government—more the norm than the exception in recent decades—we hear predictable calls for bipartisanship and working across the aisle. How might that work? These three terms are often confused:

Compromise is agreement reached through concessions on both sides. The word has negative connotations, not always deserved, depending on what’s conceded. Refusal to consider even minor concessions shifts a divided government from checks and balances toward gridlock.

Meeting halfway can be foolish. The midpoint between poisoning all the nation’s schoolchildren and none is to poison half the children. Less dramatically, if my friend wants to meet for dinner and I’d rather meet for lunch, eating midway at three in the afternoon may irritate us both.

Common ground involves human needs and concerns shared across party lines. In northern Israel, Jewish and Muslim women with a shared desire for healthy families and the means to support them cater meals for underprivileged children. While compromise is iffy and midpoints often fail, collaboration across difference can work when decision-makers value common ground more than making their rivals lose. 
2 Comments
Rebecca link
11/12/2018 08:54:45 am

Hello Sarah, the terms you've written about are watchwords for the next two years. I hope for healthy compromise and search for common ground. I'm curious as to the historical precedents for this, because right now it seems so uncommon. -Rebecca

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Sarah link
11/12/2018 02:56:08 pm

I hope the same. Both parties would need strong motivation. The Bipartisan Policy Center lists some historical compromises at https://bipartisanpolicy.org/history-of-bipartisanship-2/. But bipartisan doesn't always mean good. Many in both parties supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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