With simple gesture, St. Paul mayor offers path to civic unity

St. Paul’s new mayor, Melvin Carter, has provided a bit of a simple roadmap for untangling the gridlock of political America.

The lifelong DFLer went to a GOP caucus meeting last night, the Pioneer Press says. It’s a simple — and brilliant — gesture, so why haven’t such expressions of civic unity happened before?

“I’m your mayor, too,” Carter said to a few dozen Republican activists. “When it snows, the snowplows know no party.”

In today’s America, we’re conditioned to start the day looking for a fight. Try to argue with Carter’s logic.

“In 20 years of doing this, that’s a first,” Mitch Berg, chair of the Senate District 65 GOP, said.

Related paths: The democratic virtues of moderation, civility and compromise (MPR News Presents)