A few further words this week on collaboration or clobberation if you prefer, prompted in part by a new book which I have just finished reading: “Tip and The Gipper: When Politics Worked”.

It is written by Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s “Hardball” fame who worked for the former US Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill.

The Gipper was of course US President Ronald Regan. It was the subtitle that first caught my eye, and my attention — an obviously pointed but timely reference to what is going on (or not) on the Hill in Washington these days.

Nevertheless there are some universal lessons there which may be applicable here. You be the judge. Matthews hails the two men as extraordinary leaders who were able to forge compromise notwithstanding their differences.

They each held very different and conflicting views of the role government should play but are offered up as the epitome of how ideological opposites can still get things done — and at a time in America’s history when cooperation was needed.

Granted the two of them were a different breed of politician in a different time, but there are some clues as to how collaboration can be achieved.

Each man respected the office the other held and the work they were required to undertake on behalf of the people they were elected to serve: call that clue No 1.

Clue No 2: Reagan surrounded himself with competent people whose advice he valued and on which he could rely.

O’Neill was famous for reminding us that “all politics is local”. You must respect at all times and never forget the people who elected you in the first place, including and perhaps most particularly your core supporters.

Much like the advice the late Freddie Wade gave me when I first started out: you will never lose your way if you always go back the way you came and to the people who put you where you are.

Clue No 3: Respect the other person’s right to represent, whether you agree or disagree, whether you think them right or wrong, and choose your language accordingly.

Clue No 4: Give the other person his or her due as well as the opportunity to serve and participate in the decision-making wherever possible.

Clue No 5: No matter the result when the election is over, it’s over. The present and the future is what counts as far as the voters are concerned.

Of course, theirs is a different system of government to ours with its built-in checks and balances on the exercise of power by any branch which, ironically, presents not only the opportunity to work together but, as we have also seen, the opportunity to obstruct as well.

But as with many institutions, ours included, ultimately it comes down to the people who run them. Clue No 6 maybe?

Here in Bermuda, we can modify what we do have — there is no law against it — and extend to those who may be on the other side, whether formal Opposition or not, the opportunity to serve in much more meaningful ways than in just argument and debate on and off the Hill.

I have always maintained that the committee system is one way to go.

A Tripartite Commission could be another. The SAGE Commission may turn out to have been a missed opportunity. So often what you fail to build in at the front end of a challenging problem has a way of surfacing at the back end — and rarely with positive result. We’ll soon see.

I rather liked an old Indian proverb Matthews quoted in his book to illustrate why meaningful collaboration, and not clobberation is to be preferred: “If you live in the river, you should make friends with the crocodiles.”

Okay, maybe that’s a bit over the top, a trifle too optimistic, or idealistic even, but we get the picture. I think.

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