Can Alabama Sen. Katie Britt run for president? | GARY COSBY JR.

Is it too early to ask Katie Britt to run for president? How can you not be impressed by Alabama’s junior senator, who possesses political acumen along with a positive approach.

Sen. Britt was recently a co-sponsor of a bill that would cause Congress to put the brakes on these stupid government shutdowns over budget impasses. It is one example of how Britt is working to hold the government responsible and pull the system back from the precipice of fatal political brinkmanship.

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Frankly, I am so sick and tired of Washington’s ridiculously partisan environment. I’m for withholding their pay until they start to make sense, but that would be hard to codify into law. Britt’s solution makes more practical sense. And that is precisely what I, and I think most voters, are looking for — a bit of good old-fashioned common sense.

Nowhere is there less common sense displayed than in the U.S. Congress and I can safely say that the House of Representatives looks more like a house of lunatics right now. Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his post by a rebellion from the Freedom Caucus over his willingness to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

Before his ouster, McCarthy, bowing to pressures within his party, began an impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden. It is very similar to what Democrats did with the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Their reason for impeachment was Trump threatening to withhold foreign aid from Ukraine in order to get them to investigate Biden.

While that was certainly nefarious, I sincerely doubt that what he did, at least in principle, isn’t precisely what many politicians do. They use the purse strings to move people, or governments, or agencies within governments, or states, to do what they want them to do.

The second impeachment was certainly deserved, but that’s a different matter completely. The problem for whoever will be the new speaker is the group of radical Republicans, every one of them Trump loyalists, who want a vindictive fight over every issue.

Here is the obvious problem with the impeachment. Biden and his son have been under investigation since the first or second year of the Trump administration and no one has been able to show that Joe Biden was a direct participant in Hunter Biden’s clearly messed-up business relations. The charge that Biden has used his office, or offices since he has been a senator, vice-president and now president, to gain personal wealth is probably very true.

The problem is similar to what I stated with Trump. It is the ultimate hypocrisy. Do you really think anyone in the Congress is doing anything less? I mean, what person in the Congress is not gaining wealth at a rate incongruous with his or her pay? It seems that the ultimate golden parachute in life is to be elected to serve in Congress. At least, that’s what it looks like out here in the hinterlands. So impeach away, but this has zero chance of producing a conviction just like the Democrats had zero chance of convicting Trump when he was impeached.

Back to Sen. Britt, she appears to be one of the few shining lights in the Republican Party. She is young, has fresh ideas, and clearly knows how to get things done with those on the other side of the aisle.

I can’t think of anything that commends a person to me more than an ability to work across the political divide to get things done. Before this horror that Washington has become, there was an ability, at least at times, for Republicans and Democrats to work together for the good of the country. I will not say this has been the defining characteristic of Washington politics because there has always been times of greater and lesser division, but our most productive times as a country have come when work was done by both parties that brought benefit to the nation.

What I see, and what many see in Washington is more akin to a lunatic asylum than a functioning government. That’s why I like what Britt is doing and why I hope it is Britt and people with a similar mindset who rise to the top of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

I do not mean to imply that people on either side of the political aisle should compromise their core ideals. I do mean that there are times when, as representatives of a diverse national population, people must work together rather than attempt to tear the other party down in order for good things to happen for our nation.

The budget impasse is a perfect place to begin. We voted to send you people to Washington to govern, not fight like third-graders on the playground. The United States is a great nation. It will only remain great if our government manages to avoid tearing the nation apart. Kudos to Sen. Britt and to those senators in both parties who are trying to create a path forward for the nation.

Gary Cosby Jr. is the photo editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Can Katie Britt bridge the political divide? | GARY COSBY JR.