Talk about political ambition.

At a time of such bitter partisanship 鈥� lawsuits and recounts for the 2020 presidential election;听control of the U.S. Senate hinging on two run-off elections in Georgia; and a closely divided U.S. House of Representatives 鈥� can you imagine trying to negotiate legislative compromises and bipartisan public policy results?

But as the ideological breach has grown, so, too, has an unlikely bipartisan force in Washington called No Labels. Over the years, the organization has built a base of federal legislators focused on compromise and getting things done across the partisan aisle.

A Big Hill to Climb

According to the group鈥檚 website, is 鈥渁 groundbreaking movement led by Americans who embrace the new politics of problem solving and are collaborating to find commonsense, nonpartisan solutions to our toughest challenges.鈥�听

The organization was envisioned in 2009 by former Clinton-era veteran Nancy Jacobson, former U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-VA), then-Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, and Clinton White House advisor and Wall Street Journal columnist Bill Galston, among others, as a way to bridge the divide between the two parties. It was formally founded in 2010 by Democrats and Republicans concerned that increasingly hardened disagreement was incompatible with effective solutions during the global financial crisis. Key early leaders included Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (R-UT), and Representatives Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Tom Reed (R-NY).

And in 2020 and beyond, their work is more needed than ever.

Unlike previously, when the Senate was divided 50鈥�50, and a 鈥溾�� arrangement was established for committee chairmanships and votes, the partisan split in Congress today is not a close bunching between the center-right and center-left. Instead, the Republican Freedom Caucus and the Democratic Congressional Progressive Caucus are now the dominant forces in the U.S. House, and they are more polarized than ever. These caucuses are the two significant groupings of sincere but hardened ideologues 鈥� rooted in divergent views of American history听鈥� that influence the economic and social agendas of the two parties.

Each party is polarized within its ranks, too. Although Democrats lost seats in the upcoming 117^th听Congress (2021鈥�2022), reducing their House majority, their left-wing continued to gain power with the defeat of moderate, seasoned legislators by , more progressive additions to the so-called 鈥淪quad.鈥�

In this political environment, therefore, it will take some extraordinary finesse for a 鈥渓ame duck鈥� Congress to pass even the mandatory legislation that keeps our nation paying its bills.

At a minimum, Congress must pass 12 appropriations bills and the National Defense Authorization Act.

No Labels is undaunted by the odds and is stepping into this breach.

A Problem Solving Approach

Seeking to 鈥渂ridge the growing chasm鈥� between (and within) the two political parties and 鈥渃reate incentives for leaders to put country above party,鈥� has worked to create a counterweight to dysfunction and stalemate.

For starters, in 2017 No Labels supported the creation of the Problem Solvers Caucus in the House of Representatives. Split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, the 48 members of this caucus pledge not to campaign against each other and to listen to each other through weekly calls and meetings. These shared norms build respect through sincere communication and produce the trust necessary for the give-and-take of creating legislation.

Notably, Problem Solvers Caucus legislators are not required to give up their party loyalties or passionate ideological commitments. What they believe, however, is that moving to 鈥測es鈥� may achieve more of their individual and party policy goals 鈥� even in compromise 鈥� than remaining in permanent 鈥渘o.鈥�

Founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson told the Journal that 鈥淣o Labels inspired the creation of the Problems Solvers Caucus in the House and is now urgently at work on building a companion forum in the United States Senate. We call it the听鈥�bicameral.鈥櫶鼳s long as we have leaders willing to embrace both sides, focus on the future, and move on from the past, there is huge potential for a national 鈥榬eset鈥� at this moment in time, much needed by the country.鈥�

To support the Problem Solvers Caucus members, No Labels created a national movement of business leaders and activists who are tired of the extreme partisanship coming out of national politics. No Labels initiatives include frequent conference calls with thought leaders and journalists, a citizen鈥檚 toolkit, and a Youth Congress to inspire more support for its nonpartisan goals.

Ryan Clancy, No Labels鈥� chief strategist on Capitol Hill, notes that the biggest obstacle faced by those who come to Washington, D.C. is to pursue reasonable public policies that help their constituents rather than play party politics. This is confounded by the consolidation of power in the hands of party leaders, who often seem more interested in passing 鈥渕essage鈥� bills their members can campaign on instead of developing bipartisan legislation that can be signed into law.

And so, acting as a bloc and rejecting extreme partisanship, the Problem Solvers have in recent years played a key role in budget negotiations, debt ceiling compromises, infrastructure spending ideas, immigration reform, Southern border humanitarian funding, health care drug pricing, and, this year, the (still delayed and disputed) additional COVID-19 stimulus relief package.

And so, acting as a bloc and rejecting extreme partisanship, the Problem Solvers have in recent years played a key role in passing legislation.

Problem Solvers Caucus members pledge to vote together once they achieve a broad bipartisan consensus. The caucus has become a permanent working group, though much larger than its ad hoc predecessors, such as the Gang of Eight that former Senator John McCain (R-AZ) led. The White House and congressional leaders are well aware of the Problem Solvers Caucus bloc of votes, which often helps to 鈥渃enter鈥� partisan negotiations.

Clancy believes that 鈥渨hen members of Congress stick together as [a] cohesive voting bloc, they can have immense influence. 218 votes are required to pass a bill in the House and if leadership needs your votes to get a majority, and a bloc of members is willing to use their votes as leverage, they will get a lead seat at the table in shaping a bill.

鈥淯nfortunately, members of the Problem Solvers Caucus have faced negative feedback for sitting outside the larger ideological camps in both parties. Some have lost committee assignments for refusing to toe the party line.听Others have faced primary election challenges from the right or the left explicitly due to their willingness to be bipartisan.听In recent years, pragmatism has been punished and extremism has been rewarded.听This is the incentive structure that No Labels is working to change.鈥�

But the No Labels movement continues to grow.听Problem Solvers Caucus leaders now include independent-minded legislators, like Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who are building reputations as legislators who want to get the people鈥檚 work done. And the movement continues to address pressing issues: the recent Supreme Court nomination battle and the threats by some Democrats to 鈥減ack the court鈥� inspired No Labels to the idea of lengthy term-limits for Supreme Court justices.

A Movement Toward Compromise

Despite the work of the Problem Solvers Caucus, the confrontational nature of electoral politics has led many Americans to worry that citizens, too, are irredeemably polarized.

But Jacobson disagrees.听She points to a recent Wall Street听Journal , which reveals that most citizens are not as extreme as firebrand right-wing or left-wing politicians and many internet political personalities present. Firmly believing the tide is turning听away from the ideological camps and toward the problem-solving camp, Jacobson asks,听鈥淚sn鈥檛 the zeitgeist of the moment that people want problems solved?鈥�

Perhaps so. But it鈥檚 always fair to refresh our reading of James Madison and the Federalist Papers. The American founders knowingly created judicial review, presidential vetoes that can only be overturned by congressional super-majorities, and the cooling saucer of the Senate against the heat of legislation from the more activist House.

Brookings scholar and No Labels co-founder Galston agrees that the听constitutional framers 鈥渇eared concentrations of power in any one institution (let alone a single individual) as the road to tyranny.听They designed a system of divided powers to safeguard liberty, not to promote efficiency.听They saw lengthy deliberation as the key to balanced, sustainable legislation. Our Constitution was designed for stability, not speed.鈥�

But Galston cautions that 鈥渢he Founders did not anticipate, and would not have liked, our current situation, in which a system of checks and balances has degenerated into multiple veto points and gridlock.听They did not design our [C]onstitution to function with a deeply polarized and mutually mistrustful party system.听And they did not believe that institutions built to address the people鈥檚 problem could endure indefinitely if they lost the power to govern.

鈥淲ith the political parties closely as well as deeply divided, neither can force the other to give way. The failure to work together means a continuation of the fighting and gridlock that have undermined the people鈥檚 trust in government.听For this reason, it is essential that the parties relearn the art of cooperation and compromise, which is what No Labels was created to promote a decade ago.鈥�

Clancy is optimistic that there is a rising momentum among the American people against the brutality of winner-take-all political warfare. He argues that听鈥渇or years, the American public has been demanding bipartisan problem solving from Washington, but our leaders have refused to give the people what they want. But now, Washington鈥檚 new political math demands it. The implication of this new legislative math is clear:听In 2021, Washington will either solve problems on a bipartisan basis or they won鈥檛 solve them at all.鈥�

If the next President wants to be successful, he might choose to rely on the model of cooperation offered by听No Labels, who are supporting the听Problem Solvers in their focus on a COVID-19 relief package, immigration reform, infrastructure and health care as their top policy agenda items for the new Congress.

Every bit as determined to achieve results through compromise, consensus, and collaboration as their partisan colleagues are committed to their respective principles and purity, No Labels appears poised to grow and play a key role at the center of American politics.

Larry Greenfield is a Fellow of The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship & Political Philosophy.