Remember that word? Or how about this one? Bipartisanship. A lot of people today would love to know what that could look like.

Recently, a group of left-leaning people and a group of right-leaning people decided to figure it out. Together.

Wild, I know.

I’ve been thinking about it…a lot. I think there are two questions to consider.

1) What do we agree on?
and 2) How can we address our differences?

Here are my thoughts.

Question #1. What do we agree on?

Integrity, character, and virtue matter.

Every person has dignity, quality, and worth.

Truth, honesty, rationality, and facts are non-negotiable.

The Constitution and the rule of law are paramount.

Our government is a limited one with enumerated powers.

We have the will to cooperate.

We can get creative. Rather than getting hung up on the Democratic way or the Republican way, we can think hard about third options. For example, people’s views on abortion are either yes (to abortions) or no to abortions. But what if we eliminated the need for abortions in the first place? What if we backed a new birth control campaign that was so successful that unwanted pregnancies virtually disappeared? Look at previous campaigns. Littering. (Thank you, Lady Byrd.) Car emissions. Breast cancer. Not perfect, but there has been so much progress.

But I digress, sort of. Anyway, moving on, we agree on wanting checks and balances.

We have zero tolerance for source-less media and deliberate disinformation.

We share the belief that Christian Nationalism and Project 2025 are antithetical to our nation’s values.

And oh yeah. Ukraine. We agree on Ukraine.

Question 2. How can we address our differences?

If the question had been “what do we disagree on,” the list would have been long. But curiously, the more I typed out the list, the more I said to myself, “Wait a minute. These all go back to one’s philosophy of life and core beliefs.”

And that’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. One’s worldview doesn’t shift easily. In other words, we would need to accept that on some issues, we will disagree. But we aren’t about issues anyway. Our focus is principles.

Some people have an ego-centric philosophy. Exhibit A–The Art of the Deal. Others are ethno-centric. (Me plus people like me.) Still others are omni-centric, making choices based on the common good. It seems you can tie almost every hot-button issue to one’s philosophy and core beliefs about people. Think about it.

I think a lesson for us is to examine the “core” behind the issues for which we fight. And for the purposes of bipartisanship, we can fight for our values and equally hold our desire to cooperate. I’ve already seen it working. I believe principles-based, bipartisan cooperation can save our country.

(And just speaking for myself, I think principles like the Golden Rule and the whole Sermon on the Mount can lead the way.)