Almost nine years ago, Doug Bereuter left Congress after a record 26-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.Â
No Nebraskan had ever been entrusted to represent one of the state's congressional districts that long.Â
Bereuter chose not to seek re-election to a 14th term and resigned his seat in late summer 2004 to accept the presidency of the Asia Foundation, a leading non-governmental development organization headquartered in San Francisco.Â
But he never severed his roots, which are deeply planted in eastern Nebraska soil.Â
Bereuter is back now, living near Cedar Bluffs and engaged in a number of activities that matter to him, like the Arbor Day Foundation and the Nebraska Community Foundation.Â
He's still in demand nationally for his expertise on foreign affairs, global issues and international security. He helps lead a global agricultural development initiative in his role as a continuing participant in working groups for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and he's a member of the international security advisory board for the U.S. State Department in the Obama administration.
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"I'm still trying to save the world," he says with a laugh.
Bereuter, a conservative Republican whose House record leaned toward moderate or center-right, is concerned about the partisan polarization of Congress and the dominating influence of money in politics.
Especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case, which sent big money pouring virtually unimpeded, and often anonymously, into the nation's political system.
Bereuter has some suggestions for individual citizens to consider if they want to reclaim their government and their political system.
First, let's set the stage.
"Congress is much more partisan" than it was when he was first elected to the House, Bereuter says.
"It is increasingly dysfunctional. Its reputation with the public is at its lowest level. That saddens me because there are so many problems that need to be addressed. And citizens need to be able to have confidence in their political system."
Court rulings, especially the Citizens United decision, have sent money flooding through the political system, dominating the debate and influencing elections, Bereuter says.
"It's had a corrosive impact. People feel they can't trust their government. They believe they have no real impact on electing and influencing their (officeholders)."
It will take "strong citizen commitment" to combat the partisan hold on a dysfunctional Congress, reclaim citizen power and demand accountability, Bereuter says.
He points to three decades of what he calls sophisticated political gerrymandering that has resulted in House districts created to be virtually uncompetitive and safe for incumbents and their political parties.
California may have some ideas to consider, Bereuter suggests.
A citizen initiative there has produced an open primary for congressional, state and legislative offices. Democrats can vote for Republicans, and Republicans can vote for Democrats on a single combined ballot, and the two candidates with the largest number of primary votes will meet in the general election.
Those primaries, in effect, were separated from political parties in California.
That's the way it works for candidates for the nonpartisan Legislature in Nebraska today.
Californians also adopted a citizen initiative that created the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, taking the power to establish the boundaries for legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature and turning it over to a 14-member citizens commission.
Redistricting is where partisan gerrymandering has occurred, even in Nebraska's Legislature, although the practice is considerably more restrained in Lincoln than it has been in Sacramento.
Congress, Bereuter suggests, should also take action to heal itself.
"They need to go back to something approaching a five-day work week," he says.Â
Every fifth week could be a week off to make sure members have sufficient time back in their states.
With today's abbreviated work weeks in Washington, members of Congress have little time to interact and get to know each other, Bereuter says.
"We used to have family events. There is less social interaction now. That was a civilizing force. And that was good for the legislative product."
The Senate, Bereuter says, ought to once again "require filibusters to be real filibusters actually carried out on the floor," rather than allow them to take the form of "just the threat of a filibuster," which is repeatedly allowed to block legislation from even being considered unless it can command 60 votes.
"I think the center is emptying out of Congress," Bereuter says, as moderates increasingly are shut out and the partisan divide widens.
Big money plays a role.
"Two wealthy brothers in Wichita (the Koch brothers) overwhelm the media market," Bereuter says.
And the media itself has changed with the growth of highly partisan talk shows.
Bereuter declines to assess changes in his own party since he left the Congress.
"I'm an observer," he says, and no longer engaged in partisan politics.
His experience at the Asia Foundation, and since he left at the end of 2010, has led Bereuter to believe "our reputation as a country is improving internationally."
The Obama administration has been wise to place more focus on Asia, he says.Â
But the United States needs to deal with China's continuing "industrial espionage against U.S interests," Bereuter says, because that has an impact on national security and undermines the U.S. industrial base.
Bereuter, who left the House as a senior member of the International Relations Committee and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, says the United States needs to be careful and cautious in dealing with its challenges in Syria and Iran.
"We need to find a real solution to deter the Iranian quest for nuclear weapons," he says.
"I am not critical of the Obama foreign policy," he says. "We need to be careful."
However, Bereuter says, he finds recent reports of Internal Revenue Service targeting of some political groups and the Department of Justice's secret tracking of phone conversations by some Associated Press reporters to be "very disturbing."
He says his work on the global agricultural initiative provides dramatic evidence that Nebraska should continue to benefit from its strong farm economy.
The world faces the challenge of feeding 2 billion additional people by 2050, he says. More than 850 million people already suffer from chronic hunger today.
"Everything Nebraska can produce in agriculture will be needed.
"As long as we take care of the essentials -- protecting our water resources and our soil --Â the prospects for the state are very good," Bereuter says. "We need to focus on ag research more than we need subsidies."Â