The Minnesota legislature recently completed another regular session, and again they were not able to finish on schedule.
They finally were able to complete their work in special session, but just barely. The special session finally ended just prior to the state going into a partial shutdown.
One excuse for this inability of our legislature to complete its work in a timely fashion is that we have divided government in Minnesota. Divided government meaning that our House of Representatives and the Governor’s Office are controlled by DFL and the State Senate by the Republicans.
It seems to me that that our divided government in Minnesota is often considered a bad thing, yet I believe it should be considered a good thing. With divided government we should be getting multiple inputs rather than just one party’s thinking.
If you follow history, you realize that typically dictatorships have one-party rule. North Korea is a perfect example. There is one party, and all decisions are made by Kim Jong-un. Differing opinions are easily dealt with by prison or death. It works well for leadership of the ruling party, but not so well for the citizens of North Korea.
That does not mean that if one party is in control of a state government it is a dictatorship, but it does mean that ideas from the minority party can be easily ignored. This makes decision making easier, but usually not better. My experience has been that considering differing viewpoints usually gives the best results.
At least with divided government, views from all parties must be heard. Unfortunately they do not have to be taken to account. The big concern with divided government, especially in today’s environment, is that the opposing sides refuse to work together, and nothing happens.
We must remember that making no decision is a decision, and if the two sides of our divided government are unable to work together then we have made no decision and we will continue moving down the same path. Sometimes that works out, but usually, in our fast-changing world, not moving forward means falling behind.
We see that today at both the federal and state level. Nationally we see our infrastructure degrading and crumbling. We see our national debt growing and threatening our economy. We have not been able to fix our immigration policies, gun control, issues with voting and many concerns that need to be dealt with.
It is no better at the state level. It is assumed that each session of the legislature will not finish on schedule. Special sessions are the norm rather than the exception, and we just hope that we will not end up with a government shutdown. At best we end up with band aid solutions worked out by the leadership rather than our whole legislature.
In the meantime, we see many of the same issues as the nation, plus some special ones of our own: crumbling infrastructure (remember the 35W bridge over the Mississippi), gun control, drug abuse, education and policing.
It is not my goal to suggest solutions — that is the task of our elected leaders. We need to understand if they are not going to work together to solve the problems facing the state and nation then we can forget about remaining great.
In May of this year a national Republican leader said “100% of my focus is standing up to this administration.” I am sure if control of the White House was in Republican hands, we would hear a similar quote from the Democrats, but what we need is the opposing sides to say they are willing to work together to resolve the nation’s and the state’s issues.
I know that sounds like an impossible task, but it is not. What is required is to place the goal of serving the people ahead of the selfish desire to win and crush your opponent.
In recent years Americans have been following politics like it was a sporting event. Our politicians want to win the game and control what happens in the nation or state. We the voters and citizens want our team to win. We have become more interested the game then what is the impact for people.
It is time to realize that government impacts healthcare, public safety, homelessness, the nation’s debt, war and peace, and so on. We need to elect leaders that will fight for their beliefs, but more importantly in the end are willing to work with the other side to find solutions that will serve us all. Just knocking heads does not serve anyone.
I am not offering solutions to particular issues other than we need political leaders willing to work across the aisle to serve the people and nation.
Jim Weygand is a former Carver mayor.
