As Washington faces the prospect of divided government and legislative gridlock, opportunities for bipartisan action to tackle the many difficulties we face as a nation must be seized without hesitation. The problem is, in this hyperpartisan political atmosphere, the temptation of both parties in this scenario of shared power will be for each party to play to their base by offering up red meat instead of practical proposals.

For Democrats, that means pushing “Green New Deal,” healthcare, and tax proposals that have no prospect of making it through a presumably GOP-led Senate; for Republicans, it means an agenda of pure obstruction designed to frustrate any and every initiative of a Biden administration.