[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 155 (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6217-S6218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BIPARTISANSHIP

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, for more than four decades, I have had the 
distinct privilege of serving in the U.S. Senate, what some have called 
the world's greatest deliberative body. Speaking on the Senate floor, 
debating legislation in committee, corralling the support of my 
colleagues on compromise legislation--these are the moments I will 
miss. These are the memories I will cherish forever.
  To address this body is to experience a singular feeling, a sense 
that you are a part of something bigger than yourself, a minor 
character in the grand narrative that is America.
  No matter how often I come to speak at this lectern, I experience 
that feeling, again and again, but today, if I am being honest, I also 
feel sadness. Indeed, my heart is heavy. It aches for the times when we 
actually lived up to our reputation as the world's greatest 
deliberative body. It longs for the days in which Democrats and 
Republicans would meet on middle ground rather than retreat to their 
partisan trenches.
  Now, some may say I am waxing nostalgic, yearning--as old men often 
do--for some golden age that never existed. They would be wrong.
  The Senate I have described is not some fairytale but the reality we 
once knew. Having served as a Senator for nearly 42 years, I can tell 
you this: Things weren't always as they are now.
  I was here when this body was at its best. I was here when regular 
order was the norm, when legislation was debated in committee, and when 
members worked constructively with one another for the good of the 
country. I was here when we could say, without any hint of irony, that 
we were Members of the world's greatest deliberative body.
  Times have certainly changed.
  Over the last several years, I have witnessed the subversion of 
Senate rules, the abandonment of regular order, and the full-scale 
deterioration of the judicial confirmation process. Polarization has 
ossified. Gridlock is the new norm. Like the humidity here, 
partisanship permeates everything we do.
  On both the left and the right, the bar of decency has been set so 
low that jumping over it is no longer the objective. Limbo is the new 
name of the game. How low can you go? The answer, it seems, is always 
lower.
  All the evidence points to an unsettling truth: The Senate, as an 
institution, is in crisis. The committee process lies in shambles. 
Regular order is a relic of the past. Compromise--once the guiding 
credo of this great institution--is now synonymous with surrender.
  Since I first came to the Senate in 1978, the culture of this place 
has shifted fundamentally and not for the better. Here, there used to 
be a level of congeniality and kinship among colleagues that was hard 
to find anywhere else. In those days, I counted Democrats among my very 
best friends. One moment, we would be locking horns on the Senate 
floor; the next, we would be breaking bread together over family 
dinner.
  My unlikely friendship with the late Senator Kennedy embodied the 
spirit of goodwill and collegiality that used to thrive here. Teddy and 
I were a case study in contradictions. He was a dyed-in-the-wool 
Democrat; I was a resolute Republican. But by choosing friendship over 
party loyalty, we were able to pass some of the most significant 
bipartisan achievements of modern times, from the Americans with 
Disabilities Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the Ryan 
White bill and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
  Nine years after Teddy's passing, it is worth asking: Could a 
relationship like this even exist in today's Senate? Could two people 
with polar opposite beliefs and from vastly different walks of life 
come together as often as Teddy and I did for the good of the country? 
Or are we too busy vilifying each other to even consider friendship 
with the other side?
  Many factors contribute to the current dysfunction, but if I were to 
identify the root of our crisis, it would be this: the loss of comity 
and genuine good feeling among Senate colleagues.
  Comity is the cartilage of the Senate, the soft connective tissue 
that cushions impact between opposing joints, but in recent years, that 
cartilage has been ground to a nub. All movement has become bone on 
bone. Our ideas grate against each other with increasing frequency and 
with nothing to absorb the friction. We hobble to get any bipartisan 
legislation to the Senate floor, much less to the President's desk. The 
pain is excruciating, and it is felt by the entire Nation.
  We must remember that our dysfunction is not confined to the Capitol. 
It ripples far beyond these walls, to every State, to every town, and 
to every street corner in America.
  The Senate sets the tone of American civic life. We don't mirror the 
political culture as much as we make it. It is incumbent on us, then, 
to move the culture in a positive direction, keeping in mind that 
everything we do here has a trickle-down effect. If we are divided, 
then the Nation is divided. If we abandon civility, then our 
constituents will follow.
  To mend the Nation, we must first mend the Senate. We must restore 
the culture of comity, compromise, and mutual respect that used to 
exist here. Both in our personal and public conduct, we must be the 
very change we want to see in the country. We must not be enemies but 
friends.
  ``Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, 
as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.''
  These are not my words but the words of President Abraham Lincoln. 
They come from a heartfelt plea he made to the American people long ago 
on the eve of the Civil War. Lincoln's admonition is just as timely 
today as

[[Page S6218]]

it was then. If ever there were a time in our history to heed the 
better angels of our nature, it is now.
  How can we answer Lincoln's call to our better angels? Over the last 
several months, I have devoted significant time and resources to 
answering this question. In a series of essays and floor speeches, I 
have sought to put flesh on the bones of Lincoln's appeal. These 
writings provide a blueprint for fixing our broken politics. They 
include: an essay on civility--the indispensable political norm--and 
how to restore it to the public discourse; a speech entitled ``A Tale 
of Two Cities,'' which draws from the tragedies of Charlottesville and 
Houston in the summer of 2017 to issue a call for unity and strength; a 
well-reasoned critique of identity politics, specifically, the threat 
it poses to the American experiment and how we can heal age-old 
divisions by embracing the politics of ideas, not identity; a discourse 
on the invaluable worth of the individual and how affirming this worth 
can help us curb the suicide epidemic among LGBTQ youth and create a 
stronger, more civil society; a proposal to establish Geneva 
Conventions for the culture wars, a new set of norms that can ease 
partisan tensions and help us contain the worst excesses of political 
warfare; and finally, an op-ed on pluralism and how embracing this 
forgotten virtue can help us overcome tribal tolerance and effect 
meaningful change.
  These writings appeal to the humanity, grace, and inherent goodness 
in each of us. The purpose of this project is to remind readers of the 
singularity of the American experiment and how we can preserve this 
great Nation only by heeding the higher virtues within us.
  As a parting gift, I plan to share a copy of this compilation with 
each of my Senate colleagues, as well as our friends in the House and 
leaders in the executive branch. I sincerely ask that each of you take 
the time to study these writings. Please, ponder their words and ask 
yourself how we can apply these ideas to restore our Nation's civic 
health.
  When we heed our better angels--when we hearken to the voices of 
civility and reason native to our very nature--we can transcend our 
tribal instincts and preserve our democracy for future generations. 
That we may do so is my humble prayer.

                          ____________________