“We need more members of Congress who recognize that there’s value on both sides,” says Jill Long Thompson, a former U.S. congresswoman from Indiana who served in the 1990s. As a Democrat, she represented a heavily Republican district as a fiscal conservative.

She says that today, polarization and gerrymandering—the redrawing of district lines for partisan benefit—have made people like her few and far between in Congress.

“We are electing people who are either further to the right or further to the left,” she says.

In this episode, Thompson makes the case for a return to bipartisan cooperation and civil discussion across the political divide. She’s the editor of and a contributor to the new book “Across the Aisle: Why Bipartisanship Works for America.” It features essays from a number of current and former members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.