This is an opinion column.

I feel dizzy. Lightheaded. Like I’m on unfamiliar ground and can’t get my bearings.

I’m sitting here looking at the work of the Alabama Legislature and – what’s that feeling in my face?

My God. I’m smiling.

Because even now, in the age of division and contention and purity politics and team spirit over common good, the Alabama Legislature did something to indicate that reason still lives. Even in Montgomery.

It performed politics. As politics should be done.

Don’t get me wrong. The Legislature has done some mean, stupid, hyper-partisan things this session. Republicans go down a checklist of bills that seem anti-humanity – maybe anti-American – in the name of anti-woke. Democrats are so bumbling and petty they can’t even hold their party together from the inside.

But for a brief moment the two sides found a way to … legislate.

Both houses approved a bill that makes it just a little harder for courts to suspend Alabama driver’s licenses, a bill that makes it just a little bit easier for Alabamians to get their licenses back after they have been suspended.

The bill – SB154 – now awaits the signature of Gov. Kay Ivey.

Which means, if she signs as expected, those who can’t pay a traffic fine on time, or miss a court date for a legitimate reason, have just a little bit of a better shot of getting through that mess without having their whole lives derailed.

It’s not perfect. It was the product of compromise. But it means people who screw up once, or simply don’t have the means to pay a fine on time, won’t automatically lose their license. They won’t have to choose whether to drive to work illegally in order to feed their families, risking more tickets and more debt and a deeper hole.

It is remarkable, really, because the effort to make Alabamians and their leaders understand the pitfalls of license revocation, and the stacked deck of fines and fees, has been going on for years. Somehow politicians on both sides of the aisle finally got it.

Which means they believe that Alabamians got it, too. Which is a breakthrough. Which is why the corners of my mouth are weirdly pointing upward.

Because what happened is rare these days. Conservatives interested in workforce development, in putting people back to work, found common cause with bleeding hearts who worry about people stuck in a cycle of debt.

That’s how politics works on its best days. Those days are rare.

Maybe the drumbeat of horror stories about fines and fees made a dent. Maybe it was just time. But surely, what happened last week was a result of years of hard work.

The unlikely pairing of Sens. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, and Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, deserves a nod. So does a string of legislators from both parties who carried similar bills in previous years, before understanding of the issue reached a critical mass. Jim Hill was one. So was Cam Ward, and Chris Pringle, and of course Hank Sanders, who talked about it before anybody gave a hint of a care.

A retired Birmingham cop named Jerry Wiley talked about how fines for the sake of fines crippled families. Groups like Alabama Arise chipped in. The League of Women Voters helped Alabama Appleseed conduct surveys that put the problem in perspective.

And Appleseed itself, with Leah Nelson there, who can smile and be gracious to those who think like her and those who do not, may have been the driving force behind making politicians understand the common interest. She brought facts, and numbers, and people, and a relentless pursuit of change. It is dizzying to see.

It feels strange, but it sure feels good.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for AL.com.