by jpitney | Jul 14, 2025 | Bipartisanship, Civility
At With Honor, Rye Barcott reflects on the legacy of David Gergen: Leadership at its best is service to others. If this were a ranked-order list, this might be the first bullet for David’s advice on leadership, though it is also fitting as the last....
by jpitney | Jul 7, 2025 | Civility, Polarization, Reagan
Fred Ryan at The Dispatch: When I first joined the White House, I was young and driven, eager to help the president capitalize on his political mandate. So were many of my colleagues. But Reagan taught us a crucial lesson that’s in short supply today: In a healthy...
by jpitney | Jul 3, 2025 | Civic Education, civic virtue, Civility, Higher Education
Robert P. George and Cornel West at WP: A university culture of civic friendship is one in which faculty and students recognize, and act consistently with the recognition, that reasonable people of goodwill can respectfully disagree about controversial — indeed, even...
by jpitney | Jul 1, 2025 | Civility, Higher Education
Sarah Stitzlein at Inside Higher Ed: The recently released State of the Nation project concluded that “A gnawing sense of angst seems to have descended upon us. We seem polarized and distrustful, worried and pessimistic.” Faculty and students reflect those trends. As...
by jpitney | Jun 22, 2025 | Bipartisanship, Civility, Courage
Colette Philllips at Commonwealth Beacon: Recently, I attended the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s annual dinner, where former Vice President Mike Pence received the Profile in Courage Award. Pence was recognized for his actions on January 6, 2021, when he...
by jpitney | Jun 17, 2025 | Civility, Polarization, Violence
Julie Bosman at NYT: The assassination of an elected official is rare and shocking anywhere on American ground. Nowhere is it more jarring than in Minnesota, a state known for a singular political culture with high value placed on bipartisanship and a tradition of...
