Until 2017, 16 successive presidents had the opposition party represented in their top-level leadership group

Kamala Harris’s commitment to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if she is elected is nothing new.

Virtually all presidents have had people of the opposing party serving in second-tier positions. But when the big decisions are made, it is the people in the first tier, the 24 cabinet-level positions, that are most likely to be in the room when the discussions are occurring.

Inviting the opposition party into the upper-level management of the Presidency began with President Thomas Jefferson, who took office in 1803. It continued sporadically until the early 1900s.

Now, only two of the 16 presidents who have served since 1933 have not appointed at least one member of the opposite political party to a cabinet-level position.

Trump was the first president since the 1920s who is not known to have even tried to find an opposition-party member to serve in his cabinet.

Several Republicans were identified as being possible Cabinet appointees as Biden was making choices for the 24 cabinet positions.  Biden was warm to the idea and appeared to think it would be a positive indicator for a candidate who had run on a record of having worked closely with the opposition party in the Senate over the years.

But in the end, Democrats objected, and so did Republicans. The latter pressured some of those in their party who were being considered, threatening that their futures within the Republican Party would be nonexistent if they crossed the line to a Biden cabinet position. The Democrats, meanwhile, contended that if Biden was serious about leading the country in a different direction, he needed his party supporting him in virtually every top-level position.

So in the end, the politics of America changed dramatically with the election of Trump and the accompanying transformation of the Republican Party. The new more divisive environment seems to have precluded the inclusion of members of the opposition party in the President’s leadership circle.

Too bad. It was a practice that brought a wider range of ideas to the discussion and decision-making process. It also brought at least the appearance of respect for the opposition party.

President Eisenhower had Democrats serving as Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Treasury. President Reagan had Democrats serving as Secretary of Education and Ambassador to the U.N.

President Johnson had Republicans serving as Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of Defense. So did President Franklin Roosevelt, although the Secretary of Defense in those years was called the Secretary of War.

President George W. Bush had a Democratic Secretary of Transportation.

The country has been the loser in this transition.

Prior to Trump and Biden, the last president without any opposition party members in cabinet-level positions was Herbert Hoover. Looking back on his administration, which brought us the Depression, some different kind of thinking in the inner circle might not have changed anything.

But it certainly would not have hurt. And maybe, just maybe, it might have provided a valuable different perspective in deciding how to respond to the realities the country was facing.  

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