We live in a troubling political climate, where voters and polarized politicians can only seem to agree on one thing: our political system is broken, and everyone is fed up with it.

So if everyone knows it’s broken and is tired of it, what’s the problem? How can we fix it?

Voters, and the leaders they elect, are caught in a vicious Catch-22, where they pride themselves on being uncompromising, even though our whole political system is built, by the design of the Constitution and our Forefathers, on the concept of compromise. The Constitutional Convention in 1787 brought together delegates from the 13 original states, who had to work together to write our Constitution. Could you imagine trying to do that today? Swaths of the electorate are becoming more ideologically homogenous, and they demand their representatives to take stances that are ideologically pure. This idea is reinforced by talking heads and pundits, whose sole purpose is to increase viewers to their shows, or clicks on their blogs, not to promote governance. When our representatives do take these ideologically pure stances, and can accomplish nothing, they are blasted for wasting time and being a do-nothing-legislature. The elected officials take these stances because they need the backing of their constituents, but at the same time they handcuff themselves from governing.

Underneath this co-dependent relationship is the villinization of the word “compromise.” I was in a conversation recently with someone, and I asked why they admired one of our state’s leaders. They told me that they liked him because he was unwilling to compromise on anything; it was his way or no way, and he didn’t change his position for anything. My response was, “Isn’t that the problem?”

Compromise is the only way bills get passed. The middle is where things get done.

It’s a like a child that cries at the dinner table and wants ice cream for dinner. The parents bargain, eat your Brussels sprouts first, and you can have ice cream after. Even though the child hates the mushy Brussels sprouts that smell truly horrible, they deduce that the sprouts are a necessary price if they want the ice cream. A compromise has been reached. The child gets his dessert, and the parents get the satisfaction of feeding their child a healthy vegetable. Neither gets everything they want, but they both get a little of what they want.

We make compromises like this every day in our lives, and, politics is no different. In this 2016 session, let’s break the Catch-22 that we’ve gotten ourselves caught in, and encourage our leaders to come together on important issues that must be addressed.

Ask them to meet you in the middle.