The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C., where conservative Republicans gather to discuss issues facing the country, and how they should be handled. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a popular Republican, addressed the crowd during the most recent conference.

What DeMint had to say was extremely troubling. His address included the following quote: “Compromise works well in this world when you have shared goals. When you have a shared goal, you can sit down together. We don’t have shared goals with the Democrats.”

While rhetorically espousing Republican ideals and simultaneously denying goals of the Democrats, DeMint overlooks the primary purpose of Congress: cooperation. And DeMint has gone so far as to eliminate the possibility of any sort of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats.

Why is this so bothersome? Without cooperation, this country is dead in the water. Healthy politics requires input from all sides and bipartisan efforts in both the House and the Senate in order to craft legislation that is in the best interest of everyone involved.

Politics cannot simply be about getting what one party wants and ignoring the rest. It must be about compromise. DeMint seems to imply that compromise is impossible when the same goal is not in the sights of all parties involved.

Compromise isn’t just about attaining goals on which everyone agrees. Our country is faced with major problems, from the economy to the budget deficit to the debt ceiling. When problems arise, politicians’ goals no longer matter. They must address the situation and work together to find the best solution.

Even for issues that are known in advance, having separate goals does not preclude compromise. For instance, the House must pass a budget for the federal government. However, in order to pass one, the members must reconcile their goals. Although Republicans may have the goal of lowering taxes and Democrats may have the goal of cutting military spending, that does not mean that they cannot work together to find a middle ground.

If they do not, a budget will not be passed and a government shutdown may occur. Budgeting is only one issue, but compromises must be reached on every bill that intends to pass through Congress or the bill will fail, plain and simple.

If DeMint and Republicans feel as though they have nothing in common with Democrats, we will see a repeat of the past 10 years, where we’ve seen almost nothing but extreme partisanship, brinksmanship and filibustering to “win” instead of working together to solve our problems. That’s something we simply cannot afford.