A message to elected officials: Compromise and govern

Today’s column is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Carl Pinkele, who first taught me the difference between playing politics - and making policy.

Ron DeSantis finally responded to the recent abuse from Mar-A-Lago this week. “It’s all noise,” he said, succinctly. “Take a look at the scoreboard.” He was referring to the nationwide rejection of the Trump brand of politics and pointing to his own success. But his comments, in a slightly different context, could be the epitaph for the 2022 election.

After all the strum and drang of the past year or so, after all the billions spent on campaigns (17 billion US dollars across the country), after all the “analysis” and punditry and mudslinging and insane gibberish and yard signs and mailers and ads and candidates yanked around like marionettes, we are ready to relive another static legislative sequel to the past six years. A political Groundhog Day - divided government., partisan division and infighting.

For political junkies, there will be plenty to keep you busy. There’s a furious squabble ahead for control of the GOP in both the U.S. House and Senate leadership. A battle between Rick Scott, who headed the Republican Senatorial Campaign committee and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will split the factions of the GOP in the Senate, while the Freedom Caucus in the House breaks hard right, away from a foundering Speaker McCarthy (if, indeed, he is able to prevail in January’s Speaker’s race at all).

Fractionalization among Republicans, split by pro-and anti-MAGA forces, will render the GOP unable to articulate a clear, unified vision of its own and the only thing uniting them will be a complete unwillingness to cooperate with their colleagues across the aisle.

“Gridlock” doesn’t begin to describe what the next two years are likely to bring.

I had a former longtime Congressman speak to my class the other night, and he said something that rang true: “Elections are important,” he said, “But in the end, it’s what you can get done that really matters.”

Getting it done. Governing. None of which is very probable after this election - razor thin rule by the GOP in the House and by the Democrats in the Senate, with an exhausted chief executive as doddering caretaker over the chaotic zoo that is certain to erupt the minute the session opens.  Making sense of it all will keep the media busy, of course, but clarity will be at a premium. Actual governing will be elusive and “Getting it done” a fantasy.

When I first got interested in politics, someone pointed out the hard fact that there are really two facets to politics that matter: the game of politics and the reality of politics - that quality of making things work when the game was over.  But the game – elections and campaigning – never seems to be over. We live in a weird limbo between elections and elections never seem to go away long enough for any real work to be done. In the last presidential election, the Democrats’ platform was anti-Trumpism, and Mr. Trump and the GOP did not even bother to write one. The art of compromise is as scarce on the ground as snow in Miami.

Our Constitutional system is designed to withstand a lot and when it malfunctions this way it does not explode. It grinds to a halt. Government shutdowns loom, budgets fail, debt rises, appropriations for major projects languish unexamined, the line between the game and the reality of legislating evaporates, and the governing process degenerates into meaningless posturing.

My friend the other night closed on his principal note by saying citizens are, in the final analysis, consumers. And this brand of politics needs to be vetoed like any other failed product.

A strong and unambiguous message should be sent by advocates of both sides: compromise, find common ground, find a way to make it work. Govern. Otherwise, as the Governor says, “it’s all noise.”

R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics at Florida Southern College and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science. He is also a columnist for The Ledger and political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: A message to elected officials: Compromise and govern