When the world heard of the passing of President Jimmy Carter, the tributes began flowing immediately into print and onto the airwaves and the Internet.

Someone said on TV that Carter’s death signaled “the end of an era,” implying that no one could succeed in building rapport among differing ideologies.

I am going to assert something different. I believe the former president’s passing at age 100 can reawaken the value of working together to enact laws and public policy.

Every former president has issued warm statements of gratitude for the struggle that Carter fought and saluted him for the humanitarian champion he became after leaving the White House in 1981. Republicans and Democrats alike all said essentially the same thing, that Carter personified the good in all Americans.

So … they recognize goodness in one of their own when they see it.

Congress today is vastly different than the body that served during the Carter years in the White House. It’s been reported that President Carter met with stern opposition to many of his more controversial proposals, such as giving the Panama Canal to the Panamanians. They reportedly also were chapped at Carter’s seeming moral superiority, given his deep born-again Christian faith.

Still, somehow the president and Congress managed to govern. We aren’t seeing much actual governance these days. Indeed, fissures are appearing within the Republican congressional caucus as the GOP struggles to determine whether to keep Mike Johnson as speaker of the House.

Good government always is possible when opposing sides realize it’s a team effort. I believe Jimmy Carter understood that tenet and, thus, was able — for example — to appoint more women to the federal bench than all the preceding presidents were able to do combined.

Does the 39th president’s death signal an end to good government? Not in the least!