I tried the all-or-nothing route as governor and failed. We’ve now had success on gun violence and policing through collaboration and shared ideas.
This month’s Supreme Court saga was not America’s finest hour. Regardless of how you feel about Brett Kavanaugh, you probably agreed that the whole affair was beneath our democratic institutions.
It’s hard to see it any other way. People are angry, torn apart by the zero-sum game they’ve seen playing out — not just over a court nomination, but in virtually every other public policy debate and election campaign. Zero-sum means “I win, you lose.” It means “win at all costs” and “there’s no space for you.” It’s where any tactic will do in order to win. And in the end, nothing works because of our division. Doesn’t democracy require something finer than that?
How ironic that the deep divisions we witnessed followed a month after America came together to celebrate the life of the late senator John McCain, a true American hero who embodied a positive, constructive and thoroughly civil approach to public service. His career showed us that good things can happen when we put aside our own priorities and partisanship to serve a greater purpose — to find “win-win” solutions, where the two sides of any debate can both emerge with the feeling that they have accomplished something positive and were respected by the process.
Zero-sum means someone will always lose
The alternative is zero-sum. Throughout my career, I have worked it both ways and I’ve learned from the experience. In Congress I was part of a bipartisan team that balanced the federal budget for the first time in decades. My side didn’t get everything it wanted — neither did the other side — but we were both willing to give a little to achieve something we all believed was important for our country.
The same was true for welfare and Pentagon reform, two other big efforts in which I had a part. Nothing came easy. Negotiations were often complex and animated. But no one had a “my way or the highway” mentality because we all kept striving toward shared goals: helping families become self-sufficient, strengthening our military by making it more efficient, or modernizing our…
