Bipartisanship should not be a dirty word

What one thing—just one thing—can you agree on with someone on the opposite side of the political divide? The late General Colin Powell once told me, “Understand this and you can do a lot. And when you get one victory together, you might just find there’s something else you agree on.”

Our nation seems completely divided. Many of the wounds that have been ripped open over the past few election cycles are real and painful. But too much attention is paid to the further tearing of these wounds, rather than to their healing. One way we can heal them is by simply rolling up our sleeves and working on something we can agree on.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught his deputies, several of whom taught me when I was a young organizer, that if you are comfortable with your coalition, your coalition is too small.

We need unlikely allies and uncomfortably grand coalitions. Coalitions of what might seem like strange bedfellows get the job done. When I was the national president of the NAACP, we brought together prison unions, conservative governors, and Democratic lawmakers to dramatically reduce the number of penitentiaries and allow ex-prisoners to regain their right to vote.

Bipartisanship in itself can be a powerful tool and vehicle for progress. Here are some examples from recent or ongoing environmental legislative battles at the federal, state, and local levels.

“One of the most important environmental bills in a generation”

We know that Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are close friends of fossil fuels and other extractive industries. Thus, one can assume that Republican support for conservation efforts will be difficult, if not impossible, to find. But one of the big wins for the green movement at the federal level during the first Trump administration was the passage of the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act.

The bill provided continued funding for important conservation and public recreation projects across the country and addressed multibillion-dollar costs to maintain national parks and other public lands. Then-Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Bruhn called it “one of the most important conservation bills in a generation.” It passed the heavily constitutionally divided US Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, 73-25.

We now hope to repeat this success by passing the bipartisan EXPLORE Act either this session or the next Congress. This bill is a sweeping package of popular strategies, including the Outdoors for All Act and expansion Every child in the fresh air program to make national parks and public lands accessible to more of America’s youth.

One of my favorite current examples of a powerful multi-party, collaborative coalition at the state level is the fight to stop dangerous carbon capture pipeline in Iowa. A bill backed by that coalition to slow approval of land forfeiture for the project passed the Republican-majority Iowa House of Representatives in March by a landslide 86-7 votes. This bill was unfortunately defeated in the state Senate by only a handful of influential senators before it could receive a vote. But coalition organizers are still fighting, and they believe the bill — or one like it — has the support to pass as soon as they can get it to the Senate floor.

Just this month, I heard a story locally that shows that even when things seem bleak, there is still plenty of room for progress. The Sierra Club volunteer leader, who received a lifetime achievement award for her work, spoke to a crowd that was no doubt devastated by the results of the recent election. She told them that just the day before, she had attended a board of supervisors meeting in her community, where she and other community members had convinced the body, which was made up entirely of Republicans with the exception of one Democrat, to ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers. It was a reminder of how often simple grassroots organizing goes beyond politics.

These are just a small sampling of the countless examples across the country of Americans who don’t let partisanship get in the way as they work to improve the lives of their families and communities. There is something in common if we try to look for it. And we have to watch if we care to get things done.

We don’t have to agree on much to thrive together in our families and communities, and as a country. Those of us fighting to get things done should remember that coalitions that include diverse viewpoints are the coalitions that ultimately win. General Powell’s words still ring true.

Ben Jeloz is the executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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