Those readers who have followed my meanderings in these columns over the last couple of years might have noticed that I have been less than kind to the current tenant in the White House. But, to be fair, you also must give the devil his due when he consciously, or unconsciously, does something constructive for the commonweal.

I refer, of course, to his recent flirtation with a bipartisan approach to resolving issues that have caused congressional gridlock over the last several years.

The fact he has, for now anyway, found it necessary to enlist Democrat support to move an agenda forward also lays bare a current shortcoming within his own Republican Party. (And please don’t whine that he isn’t really a Republican. When the GOP embraced him, however reluctantly, as the best option to gain political power, it claimed him as one of their own, and it’s a bit late to argue otherwise.)

The national Republican establishment has been adept at achieving electoral success. Enabled by Republican-dominated state legislatures who have taken the art of gerrymandering to new heights, or depths, depending on your point of view, the GOP has pretty much sewn up domination of the House of Representatives for the foreseeable future, absent a voters’ revolt of gargantuan proportions.

And, hey, it’s just not a numbers game in which the deck is stacked against the Democrats. Gerrymandering is not an issue in Senate races, and the rampaging elephants are holding their own there as well. With only eight seats at risk in the 2018 mid-terms, versus 23 Democrat officeholders and two Independents who caucus with the Democrats, the Republican majority seems relatively secure, again, absent a voters’ revolt of at least significant proportions.

My Democrat friends might have to contemplate the possibility that the GOP “message” (horrors!!) resonates with the American voting public better than does their own, although, much to their irritation, the fact the promises that make up the message seem to be conveniently forgotten and tucked away until the next election cycle seems to have little adverse effect on the voting public.

No, the national Republican establishment has demonstrated that getting elected is not a problem.

The problem is, once elected, the Republican majority has yet to demonstrate that it can govern.

Divisions between Tea Party survivors who came in with the 2010 GOP sweep, the fiscal deadenders in the Freedom Caucus who seem willing to blow everything up if they don’t get their way, and the newly ascendant wing of loyalists devoted to the current president have made it seem almost impossible for the party to speak with one voice, or garner enough votes, to change the current state of gridlock.

Nor does the fixation of House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on getting legislation through with only Republican votes appear to be helpful, not to mention, working.

On a partisan level, it is understandable that a party leadership doesn’t want to allow the opposition a share of the credit for getting things done. But if you can’t get things done on your own, which has been the case to date on major issues, refusal to seek consensus with the other side only sets you up to take the blame for getting nothing done at all.

If you are the current tenant in the White House, a gentleman with no discernable ideological loyalties and even fewer political loyalties, a gentleman who is primarily interested in the “Art of the Deal” and his own personal list of “wins” and if your own political minions can’t deliver, you look across the aisle and ask yourself “why not?”

And then you invite Uncle Chuck (Schumer) and Aunt Nancy (Pelosi) over for dinner.

The desire to score a few points in the polls, or claim some short-term political victory, may not be the noblest of reasons to explore a more bipartisan way of doing business, but, hey, if it breaks the deadlock, on balance it’s a good thing, for which His Twittership should be given due credit.

If I were Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nancy, I would be very cautious. The gentleman in question is the walking definition of “mercurial.” This apparent romance could become a one-night stand without warning.

But until it does, if a little bipartisanship helps move things off dead center for the benefit of the American people, well, as noted by the Grateful Dead, “a friend of the devil is a friend of mine.”