Tag: Richard Lugar

The director of SIU Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute believes the university can lead a national discussion that’s long overdue: How do we create a new generation of bold, independent political compromisers? “Statesmanship is courage, to make hard decisions, compassion, to do so in a way that’s broad-minded, effectiveness, to prioritize getting things done, and civility: treating political opponents as people you disagree with, not as the enemy.” “It’s a response to our current political environment,” Shaw said, marked by extreme polarization, excessive obedience to party caucuses, and the disappearance of moderate Democrats and Republicans. In the mid-1990s, opinion differences between Republicans and Democrats were on average, “no larger than differences between men and women, blacks and whites, or those of other groups,” with different demographics, religious beliefs or education, according to Pew researcher Alec Tyson. “Today the partisan gap dwarfs other demographic measures and it has more than doubled since 1994,” Tyson said. Several big names have already signed on to help plan the project, including Retired Sen. Richard Lugar, former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Lee Hamilton, former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Jan Eliasson, former deputy secretary general of the United Nations; and former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar. Although it damaged his political plans, Vandenberg’s leadership “helped enact foreign policies that bolstered America’s position in the world for decades,” Shaw wrote. “Current measurements show there is no Republican member of Congress who is as liberal as the most conservative Democrat,” based on voting records and positions on key issues, Jackson explained. “There used to be a huge overlap. Two decades ago, there were many crosscutting politicians — moderate to conservative Democrats in the South and Northeastern-based liberal Republicans.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, a Pew Research Center survey found Americans’ views of the political parties they oppose were more negative than at any other point in the survey’s 24-year history, with 55 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans saying the opposing party made them “afraid.” Another Pew survey, conducted in July, found about 80 percent of each Republicans and Democrats said they not only disagree with political opponents over plans and policies, but also "cannot agree on basic facts.”