During a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Gov. Sean Parnell sat down for a meeting with Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Gov. Parnell said he arranged the meeting to talk about various issues affecting the state that fell under the purview of the Department of the Interior, chief among them a long-contested proposal to build a road connecting the village of King Cove to an airstrip in Cold Bay that would allow residents to make the trip by land instead of by sea.
Last year, Ms. Jewell and her department had rejected appeals from villagers, the state, and Alaska's representatives in Washington, D.C. According to Gov. Parnell, he and Ms. Jewell couldn't reach common ground -- "We're miles apart," he said this week, and the meeting didn't dissuade him from joining a suit against the department seeking that the road be built. But the governor said both he and Ms. Jewell were able to keep the discussion civil, focused on the issue at hand instead of making their dispute personal. "I want a relationship such that we can disagree on this and we'll go fight like cats and dogs in the court proceeding over this issue that's very important to us, but we have a myriad of other issues that we need to be discussing as well," Gov. Parnell said. "You have to be able to communicate across these divides."
That's a mature way of approaching the issue, and one that could benefit both the state and the nation if applied more widely.
Bipartisanship and compromise are in short supply these days, from the local level to Washington, D.C. That's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but hand in hand with that deepening of partisan gulfs has come a much more corrosive trait: politicians on both ends of the political spectrum are increasingly talking past one another instead of making a good-faith effort at listening to what the other side has to say. President Lyndon Johnson said in 1963, "let's disagree without being disagreeable." The Crossfire-style trading of partisan jabs without any real effort to understand the opposition's perspective may make for good soundbites on 24-hour news networks, but it does a disservice to the public by not exploring issues in a meaningful way.
And to be sure, there are two sides to almost every issue. Even in the King Cove suit, where the state's position is supported by the clear need for safe transport in times of medical emergency or disaster, the Interior Department's viewpoint is not wholly without merit. While the department's official opposition is due to the presence of Pacific black brant and emperor goose populations in the narrow isthmus through which the road would pass, also at issue is a potential precedent for roads in national wildlife refuges. That's a big deal for the Interior Department, as at the very least it could bring a host of other suits from states looking for similar exceptions. While Gov. Parnell made it clear he strenuously opposes the department's decision, he acknowledges their point of view. "They feel it's the camel's nose under the tent," he said.
Alaska's U.S. Senators have been better than most at separating partisan rhetoric from consideration of issues facing Alaska. Sen. Mark Begich and Sen. Lisa Murkowski are among the most independent members of their parties, bucking ranks more than all but a few of their colleagues on their respective sides of the aisle. Voting in opposition to others who share a party identifier certainly isn't proof in and of itself that a politician is representing the state well, but it speaks well to their consideration of an issue beyond the stance their parties would have them take. It shows that, unlike many of their colleagues in our nation's capitol, they haven't stopped listening to what the other side has to say.
For our political discourse to improve, it would help if others at all levels of government were willing to take a similar tack.