This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The U.S. Constitution. Social Security and Medicare. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Tax Reform Act of 1986. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (a.k.a. welfare reform).
If these governing and legislative accomplishments were a "Jeopardy" answer, the correct question would be: "What are things that endure?"
Compare each of these to Obamacare, the Bush tax cuts, and all manner of executive actions and regulations. That "Jeopardy" question might be: "What are things that don't last?"
President-elect Donald Trump will be wise to follow the example of the first group, not the second. From our Constitution, to major reforms, to government programs that have stood the test of time and political sea changes, the key to endurance has been an underlying process that makes something built to last. In each of these cases, parties with different political viewpoints agreed to a goal, first, and then negotiated the details until a final product was formed. Also in each case, the final product attracted considerable bipartisan support when it was time to vote.
A goals-driven process that includes this kind of robust debate, negotiation and bipartisan backing is the government equivalent of building a house with bricks instead of straw.
Those straw-house policies those reforms that evaporate, expire or are overturned by whoever is elected next are ones that have been pushed forward without a thoughtful bipartisan process. Sometimes they have become the law of the land by sheer partisan force, without a single vote from the opposition party. Goal setting, consensus building, debate and negotiation are all skipped at considerable risk. The accomplishments become, sometimes tragically, temporary.
Trump was elected to respond to long-term problems that deserve long-term solutions, so big, durable, sustainable change are what is required. I know from history, and from my own government service, that type of change simply must be born of a goals-driven, bipartisan process.
For the next president and Congress, that process begins Monday at a meeting in Washington, D.C., named after the year of our country's original nonpartisan negotiation: the drafting of our Constitution. In 1787, not all issues were agreed on not by a long shot. But the Founders agreed on enough important things to create and support an enduring document that changed human history.
1787: Building the Peace After the War is being convened by the national, bipartisan group No Labels to launch the type of productive conversation needed to address the key policy challenges of our time.
Leaders attending this meeting including members of Congress from both parties as well as mayors, governors and business leaders from across the country are forming a problem-solving center of American politics capable of conceiving and enacting important reforms that will last, guided by timeless American values like accountability, opportunity, security and ingenuity.
Those gathered at 1787 will be discussing widely agreed-upon No Labels policy goals like balancing the federal budget, creating jobs, securing Social Security and Medicare and achieving energy security. All enjoy the stated support of the growing bipartisan No Labels Problem Solver Caucus in Congress.
Will Trump work with the problem solvers to make bipartisan goals and legislation a reality? For the sake of our nation, I hope he will. Another four years of one-sided policies would be the ultimate Final Jeopardy for our country.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is the national co-chairman of No Labels, a movement dedicated to shared goals and bipartisan problem-solving governing. He is a brother of Tribune publisher Paul Huntsman.