AARP Bulletin - December 2010

is designed to make sure that na-
tional power is exercised with
constraint, after deliberation and
with an implicit presumption of
consensus. So even in the best of
circumstances, members of Con-
gress need to find common ground,
work together and compromise
to address national problems.
Against that con-
stitutional backdrop,
the election results
must not be seen by
party leadership or
members—whether
majority or minority—
as an opportunity or
excuse to posture and
obstruct in order to
gain political advan-
tage for 2012. We can’t
a;ord to continue the petty politics
of the campaign season. We face
too many problems: the economy,
budget deficits, a failed education
system, crumbling infrastructure,
immigration, our dependence on
foreign oil—the list goes on and on.
For those of us who have been for-
tunate enough to serve in Congress,
its recent dysfunction is especially
troubling. We have experienced its
better days—always far from per-
fect—when the nation’s business
was conducted with greater civil-
ity and, not coincidentally, usually
with better results.

Members
of Congress
need to work
together and
compromise
to address
national
problems.

cause “we’ve been there.” But it is the
American people who hold the real
authority to demand an end to bad
behavior in Washington and to call
on every member, the leaders of both
parties, and the president to stop the
partisan game and work together.
Each of us, as a citizen of our great
nation, must do his part. Nothing
less will do. In this spirit, we invite
Opinion ;
all to sign the Citizens’ Petition for
Common Ground endorsing our
call for a civil and productive 112th
Congress at fmocforcommonground
.org/ citizenpetition.html. ;
John Porter is a former Republican
congressman from Illinois. David
Skaggs is a former Democratic con-
gressman from Colorado.