Opinion: Common Ground Can Be Found

(Sept. 16) -- Tuesday night, Delaware, New Hampshire and New York joined Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Kentucky in the ranks of states where establishment Republican candidates have fallen to GOP outsiders in this year's primaries -- evidence, some pundits suggest, that voters are likely in store for more, not less, partisan politics inside the Beltway next year.

If true, America's current trend flies in the face of the philosophy espoused by Irish statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke more than 200 years ago: "All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter." He was not suggesting sacrificing principle, but rather the search for common ground that leads to progress without that compromise.

For much of America's history, our government -- guided by a strong anchoring in the center of the body politic -- reflected Burke's philosophy. Indeed, our own Constitution, the foundation for our government and liberties, was the product of compromise to form a more perfect union.

But somewhere in our recent past, however, our leaders lost their way. The willingness to reach common ground has been lost and with it the ability to promote policies that are in line with the values of the vast majority of Americans.

The ugliness seen in this year's congressional fights over health care, financial reform, etc., has all but destroyed civility on Capitol Hill. Polarization from the left and right is now the driver of policies.

Little evidence exists that congressional leaders or our two most recent presidents have a real commitment to finding common ground. While it is true both George W. Bush and Barack Obama campaigned on the need to seek common ground, they were unwilling to confront Congress (where a professed commitment by both parties to common ground is a facade).

After reaching out to Democrats to pass No Child Left Behind, President Bush failed to build bipartisan support for Social Security reform or effective immigration legislation. Initially, President Obama reached out to Republicans for consensus on health care reform. But when a consensus was not easily reached, he resorted to an "I won" attitude and pushed through comprehensive health care reform on a party-line vote.

In poll after poll, voters overwhelmingly express a strong desire for their elected representatives to find commonsense, practical solutions to the problems facing our nation. Instead, they watch in frustration as special interests and polarizers in both parties disparage and attempt to intimidate those who seek reasonable compromise. The dirty secret is that the resulting paralysis rewards those same special interests.

Though one of us is an outspoken liberal and the other a free-market conservative, we have been good friends for more than 20 years. In that time, we have discovered that we can find common ground on how to approach knotty public-policy issues like immigration reform, abortion, gun control, climate policy and tax policy.

The trick is to start by identifying areas of agreement instead of contention. Then commit to find ways to reduce areas of disagreement. Though seemingly elementary, this style of problem solving is effective whether deciding where to go to dinner or how to reform securities law. You just have to commit to work the problem until it gives way to a solution. It is hard work but doable.

For instance, during the Btu tax battle in the early 1990s and based on our mutual trust, Bob put together a meeting that involved Bill, then CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, and a group of community organizers and union people. That meeting led to collaboration in challenging a discriminatory energy tax plan. This kind of commingling of interests can also work on current pressing issues:

Immigration: By starting with points of accord on immigration, lawmakers should be able to agree on ways to improve border security. Working more closely with the border states and deploying more National Guard troops to improve patrol and surveillance capabilities is a good place to start.

Climate Change: Even if Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and John Boehner, R-Ohio, don't agree on the extent of climate change's risk and the impact of fossil-fuel emissions, they should be able to agree that the long-term solution to managing emissions should be driven by technology and policies that keep energy abundant and affordable.

Economic Recovery: Increasing uncertainty over economic and fiscal policy is a deterrent to investing and spending. Instead of a continued stalemate over taxes, Congress should extend the current individual tax rates, at least until the economy is on more solid footing, cut the corporate tax rate -- which is the second highest among industrialized countries -- and spend to repair and rebuild our decaying infrastructure.

Instead of Democrats and Republicans wasting energy on political "food fights" over major public-policy issues, energy should be focused on developing shared ground. The Social Security Reform Act of 1983 demonstrated that bipartisan cooperation is possible when political leaders adopt the philosophy expressed so well by President John Kennedy: "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer."

Ideological purity, either on the left or right, is not a way to return government to the middle, to restore federalism or to effectively solve the very serious long- and short-term economic issues that confront us. Let us hope that after the midterm elections, both Democrats and Republicans will use the mandate given to them by voters to pursue a common-ground agenda that by every measurement a majority of Americans demand.

Bob Beckel is a political analyst, Fox News contributor and co-author of the 2007 book "Common Ground." Bill O'Keefe is the former executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute and CEO of the George C. Marshall Institute.