1. Introduction and Lessons Learned Background and Context t is now commonplace that American national politics has become polarized and dysfunctional of late. The in- Iability of Congress to accommodate partisan differences has led to its failure to enact a federal budget in the past four years,1 a partial federal government shutdown for the first time in 17 years, and the absence of progress on im- migration reform, infrastructure repair, climate change, and other important national challenges. The partisan gridlock has led the American public of late to give Congress some of its lowest approval ratings in history. One recent poll found 85 percent of Americans hold an unfavorable view Richard Barringer Kenneth Palmer of Congress, while only 9 percent approve.2 Another indi- place between the political parties in this system – as well cated that fully 54 percent of Americans favor removing all as among the three separate branches of government – for the members of Congress. national policy to be set and for national institutions to do The face of the gridlock is the lack of civility, comity, their work. and cooperation between two political parties with divergent How ideological battles and party polarization came to worldviews, as they vie for political power and policy domi- replace the accustomed “consensus” arrangements of com- nance in a changing world, within a constitutional system promise and coalition-building is a topic that draws much designed for coalition-building and principled compromise. scholarly attention today.3 While the cited causes for dys- In a parliamentary system like Great Britain’s, where function are many and complex, a single fact illustrates its the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers all hold seats as centrality in today’s Congress. In surveys of voting behav- lawmakers in the Parliament, a single election may deter- ior among members of the Senate, the most liberal member mine the policy direction of the government. In the United of the Republican caucus was still recorded in roll calls as States, where the president, the House of the Representa- more conservative than the most conservative-voting mem- tives, and the Senate serve different terms of office, three ber of the Democratic caucus.4 In brief, a long-existing area election cycles may be required to set direction. Occasions of ideological overlap between the two parties at the center where each party controls but a part of the government are of the political spectrum has disappeared. frequent, as a result. Our series, Politics Then and Now, in Maine and the Na- This framework was established in the U.S. Constitu- tion, was presented by the Muskie School of Public Service tion, itself. It was much praised by the writers of the Feder- and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University alist papers, particularly James Madison, as a way to curb of Southern Maine. It was held at a dark time – mid-Sep- arbitrary authority and to discourage dominance of the tember through early November 2013 – when the federal government by any one group or faction. Power was pur- government was partially shutdown for the first time in 17 posely distributed among three branches – the legislative, years, for lack of a federal budget that was then extended executive, and judicial – to slow the governing process and to January 2014. The Congress threatened to default on the accretion of power, and to allow for careful delibera- the nation’s debt and, at the deadline, extended the limit to tion. Of necessity, compromise and bargaining must take February 2014. The initial, technically-flawed implementa- tion of the new Affordable Care Act, “ObamaCare,” only ________________________________________________________ renewed Congressional debate about the legitimacy of the law and deepened the partisan divide. 1 On January 17, 2014, the Congress passed and the President signed into law a budget to continue operation of the federal government through the end of On November 7, 2013, the same day as our Closing Panel federal fiscal year 2014, September 30, 2014. presentation, the 2013 Cohen Lecture was delivered at the 2 Public Policy Polling, Raleigh NC, January 8, 2014. University of Maine, featuring Sec. William S. Cohen and 3 See, for example, Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann, It’s Even Worse Sen. Alan K. Simpson, on “The State of Our Nation: Hard- Than It looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the ball vs. Civility.” Because of its cogent and timely content, New Politics of Extremism, 2012; Daniel M. Shea and Morris P. Fiorina it is included here with permission as a Special Supplement (eds.), Can We Talk: The Rise of Rude, Nasty, Stubborn Politics, 2013; Susan Herbst, Rude Democracy: Civility and Incivility in American Politics, 2010; to the series, under the title, “Enough Is Enough!” and Sean M. Theriault, The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare The central idea behind the series is that we’ve come a in Congress, 2013. long way since President John F. Kennedy characterized 4 John H. Aldrich, “Partisan Polarization and Satisfaction with Democracy,” in public service as “a noble calling,” to today, when the na- Shea and Fiorina, op.cit., New York, Pearson Education, 2013, pp. 125-26. POLITICS THEN AND NOW: IN MAINE AND THE NATION 35 tion’s political system is routinely described as “dysfunc- • What does Maine have to offer the nation in this re- tional” and public servants, as selfish bureaucrats. Systems gard, based on our experience here? theory5 has developed and been refined since World War We asked all to include personal anecdotes and vignettes II to help us better understand and improve the behavior from their own experience, to throw light on these ques- of complex systems – natural, human, and social. A well- tions; and to reflect on the lessons their experience offers established principle of the theory is that, in any healthy Maine and the nation today. Questions and answers fol- system, competition and cooperation co-exist side by side lowed each lecture and the panelists’ presentations. As co- – and sometimes cheek-by-jowel – to advance the system’s hosts for the series, we started with a couple of questions purposes and ends. Whether it is a forest ecosystem, the hu- of our own, and members of the audience joined thereaf- man body, a bureaucracy, an economy, or a constitutional ter. The speakers’ responses elicited many heartfelt stories system, the system’s elements compete for resources to from personal experience. meet their own needs, even as they act to contribute to the To set the tone for the series, the first lecture opened survival and persistence of the system, itself. with the viewing of a brief excerpt from the splendid Public Somewhere along the way from the 1970s, the U.S. po- Broadcasting System’s American Experience biography of litical system lost sight of this important principle, threat- President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963–68), entitled, LBJ.6 ening its health and survival. Our series brought seven Fifty years ago, in the time of presidents John F. Kennedy distinguished speakers to campus, to address the issue of and LBJ, Americans had come to expect and rely on what political polarization and dysfunction in our politics. A was called a “consensus politics” in our national govern- concluding panel of younger political leaders examined ment, one built on principle, compromise, and deal-making lessons learned from the seven presentations, and offered across party lines by lawmakers and chief executives, alike, comment on their prospects, going forward. The speakers who believed in this system and its abiding benefits to the were prominent public officeholders, either present or past, people of the nation.7 The growth of ideological, uncom- whose careers had in most cases spanned both Maine and promising, take-no-prisoner politics over the past genera- national politics. We asked each of them to address three tion takes many in our generation by surprise. It has a num- timely and important questions: ber of root causes, and the difference is perhaps nowhere • How was politics “played” in earlier times in Maine better illustrated than in this brief video excerpt. and the nation? And how has that changed today? It portrays LBJ in all the glory of his domestic legisla- • How did this come about? What are the implications tive triumphs through the skillful application of bargaining, for the state and the nation of our continuing along negotiation, persuasion, and cajolery that were his stock in this path? And what will it take to change course? trade; and the utter frustration and despair that attended his inability to reach agreement with Ho Chi Minh and end the _______________________________________________________ war in Vietnam. “If only I just had him in a room, if only I 5 The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, defines “systems theory” as the could sit and talk to him,” LBJ laments, “I’m sure we could interdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of defining cut a deal!” It is a tale of irreconcilable differences, a zero- principles that may be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels, in all fields of research. The word “systems” is used to refer specifically to sum game driven by conflicting worldviews. self-regulating systems that self-correct through feedback mechanisms. The excerpt brings to mind the story of a medieval car- Self-regulating systems are found in nature, including the physiological systems of our body, in local and global ecosystems, in climate, and in human dinal, attending the King of England during the course of a learning processes. As a trans-disciplinary domain, systems theory brings long, protracted war with the King of France. “If only you together principles and concepts from ontology, philosophy of science, could sit with the King of France,” the cardinal urges, “I’m physics, computer science, biology, and engineering, as well as geography, sociology, psychology, and economics, among others.