‘Centrist’ Senate departures create opening for better bipartisanship

Is bipartisanship doomed? 

The hand wringing around this question picks up every few years, and has for as long as I can remember. The latest round of concern stems from the departures of a handful of prominent Senate dealmakers. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) all bowed out of reelection contests in 2024, preferring to leave the Senate for greener pastures.

It is true that Romney, an anti-Donald Trump Republican moderate; Sinema, a conservative former Democrat; and Manchin, a conservative and iconoclastic Democrat, were at the center of a handful of bipartisan deals during their time in office. But worries about a “centrist extinction” or the impossibility of future bipartisan legislation are overwrought. 

Start with the fact that bipartisanship is no guarantee of good policy. The Iraq War and America’s mass incarceration system were both products of bipartisan consensus. Both are widely, and rightly, regarded as massive failures: wastes of public money with a horrific toll on human life.

A more recent example: Whatever you think of the Inflation Reduction Act, certainly no one was sitting at their kitchen table alarmed at the possibility of the legislation closing tax loopholes favored by uber wealthy private equity speculators. Making wealthy Americans pay their fair share actually has broad bipartisan support. Yet preserving just such a tax loophole was the price of Sinema’s vote in favor of the IRA.

In short, not all bipartisan policies are inherently good. In fact, a bipartisan consensus often emerges in Washington that is out of step with the country as a whole. 

I call this “top-down bipartisanship.” It emerges from a bipartisan consensus in elite circles and takes shape in conference rooms on Capitol Hill. Whether embodied in specific legislation or simple shared assumptions, top-down bipartisanship usually ends with a handful of leaders forcing a compromise on the American people. Whether Americans support the idea is generally beside the point. 

The alternative is “bottom-up bipartisanship.” It starts with common ground and unlikely allies. Everyday Americans — especially those directly impacted by big problems — start talking to each other. People team up around concrete solutions across partisan or cultural divides. Soon, there is a shared vision that can be handed over to lawmakers.

It is the difference between elite compromise being pushed on the American people, and the American people pushing common ground (and often common sense) on policymakers. Paradoxically, the unpopular policies that result from top-down bipartisanship create discontent and partisan recriminations, soon making political polarization even worse.

Take mass incarceration, for example. The current system is the result of top-down bipartisanship, but a bottom-up bipartisan movement is trying to change things. Across the country, people with direct experience with our broken criminal justice system have found common ground with unlikely allies: law enforcement, prison guards, political opponents and more. 

The result? At least 15 states passed bipartisan Dignity for Incarcerated Women legislation in just three years. While we obsess over Capitol Hill bickering, a common ground movement is creating change.

Is this model limited to state legislatures, separated from the burning spotlight of national news? Not at all. Today, there are more than 30,000 individuals home from behind bars thanks to the bipartisan First Step Act, which emerged out of a similar common ground process. It was endorsed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Trump, no stranger to scorched-earth partisanship.

So do the departures of these senators mean the end of bipartisanship? Not at all. It may actually mark a needed break from top-down dealmaking and a chance for a different, bottom-up bipartisanship to emerge. 

Nisha Anand is the CEO of Dream.Org, a nonprofit organization that brings people together across racial, social and partisan lines to solve our toughest problems.