Election Day is about a month behind us; new terms of office are about a month away.

This small window — even crammed full of holidays — is a valuable asset, if those in public service choose to capitalize on it. It’s a rare chance to pause, reflect and make some personal decisions about how far they will go, where they will draw the line, what’s non-negotiable, what kind of public servant they will really be.

While every voter has their own wish list for action from City Halls to Capitol Hill (and we heartily encourage them to share those lists with the people they elected), ours is simple:

Find the middle.

We ask that our public servants to consider, when proposing new initiatives, start near the middle ground rather than staking out a position at an extreme. When going to the negotiating table, be prepared to step toward the moderate. Whenever the opportunity to influence party platforms or factional paradigms arises, be a voice for the majority of the electorate — those in the middle.

Why? Many reasons, among them:

Because it makes for as good as or better public policy than governing from the extremes. It is more civil than the take-no-prisoners, the-losers-be-damned style of modern politics. It sets a good example for kids. It better reflects life everywhere else in society, outside of politics. It saves time, for criminey’s sake.

There is a place for the stalwart in governance: issues of literal life and death, true moral quandaries and the like. But those instances are far rarer than some politicians and pundits would have you believe.

The time is overdue for our leaders (and ourselves) to see growing political tribalism as the serious threat it has become. We fear political extremism in our nation’s enemies, after all. Why not in ourselves?

The time is now for each elected official, especially those newly elected to their roles, to think about their personal limits on issues they’re likely to face. How far will they go to stay in their party’s or their faction’s good graces at the expense of reasonableness?

They can use these four short weeks before taking oaths of office sketch out some space near the middle — before the maelstrom’s well-established currents and prevailing winds sweep them along into the disappointing status quo.

— St. Cloud Times