by jpitney | Apr 5, 2024 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives, Social Media
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: Theme-team messaging is reflected not only in floor speeches but in the type of legislation brought to the floor, often in “sense of the House” resolutions that go nowhere in the Senate. There is little evidence that House televised...
by jpitney | Mar 26, 2024 | Business, Civic Education, Civility, Deliberation, Public Opinion
From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation: A comprehensive new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation reveals an alarming truth just three years shy of America’s 250th anniversary—the nation’s civic knowledge is badly lagging. The national survey, which...
by jpitney | Feb 28, 2024 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives, Madison
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: In grappling for an appropriate analogy for this new procedural game in town, I finally settled on circle dodgeball, labeled here as “procedural dodgeball.” A large circle is drawn and, in the middle a smaller circle with five or so...
by jpitney | Feb 10, 2024 | Debate, Deliberation, Higher Education
Samuel J. Abrams at AEI: The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) 2024 free expression data which captures over fifty-five thousand voices from 254 colleges and universities powerfully illustrates these critically important gender-based differences...
by jpitney | Jan 30, 2024 | Civility, Debate, Deliberation
From The Harvard Gazette: The original framework for American democracy was hammered out amid heated disagreement and rigorous debate. Now, in this period of hardening political and social schisms, what’s hampering progress isn’t that we disagree, but how we do it or...
by jpitney | Jan 6, 2024 | Constitution, Deliberation
Nathan Gardels at Noema: “Constitutions need general acceptance so we can turn to their rules to manage our differences,” the former left-of-center Chilean President Ricardo Lagos told me in September 2022 after the first attempt to ratify a proposed new constitution...