by jpitney | Jan 31, 2022 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives
Jerry Hartz and colleagues at The Hill: On the committee front, we note that, contrary to popular belief, the House is holding a historically low number of hearings compared to the previous 40 years. That has led to five times fewer witnesses being called in today’s...
by jpitney | Jan 5, 2022 | Congress, Deliberation, Senate
James Wallner at R Street Institute reflects on Harry Reid: Reid’s skill as a leader allowed him to essentially eliminate genuine deliberation on the Senate floor while ensuring that the Senate still legislated, a balancing act that his successors have struggled to...
by jpitney | Nov 30, 2021 | Deliberation
Clinician Richard A. Friedman at The Washington Post: Here’s an exercise that might boost your empathy: Listen carefully to someone you want to communicate with better, and choose something they said or did that you don’t like or agree with. Now imagine at least two...
by jpitney | Nov 27, 2021 | civic virtue, Deliberation, Higher Education, Polarization
From Professor Robert George of Princeton: In recent days, our divisions have been stoked by high profile criminal cases. Viewed from the silos, the meanings of these cases seem obvious, and anyone who sees them differently must be an “ignoramus,” a “bigot,” an...
by jpitney | Nov 23, 2021 | Deliberation, Public Opinion
Ted Van Green at Pew: The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is “stressful and frustrating” has increased in recent years. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults (59%) say they find these conversations stressful, up from 50%...
by jpitney | Oct 2, 2021 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: By attempting to short-circuit and compress committee and floor workloads, Congress is losing both its deliberative capacity and its ability to provide a proper check on the executive branch. The longer-term danger is that such truncated...
