Can the Center Hold?
Where people are getting their information and the lack of civics education in this country is a crisis in our democracy
Setup
Partisanship has been a hallmark of American democracy since the Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians first squared off. But many political thought leaders have begun to worry that this period — with partisans gravitating toward distant poles and the energy of each party coming from their extreme wings — is different. Especially in Congress, where compromise has become a dirty word, the ability to govern on a basic level is in question. Yet a wide majority of Americans hold views that put them somewhere in a broad political center. How did we get here? What would it take to make our politics reflect us more accurately? Underwritten by the Walton Family Foundation.
- 2019 Festival
- USA
Explore More
USA
As the nation reels from the attack on the Capitol, we look for ideas that will move us forward.
Peggy Clark asks Dan Glickman to reflect on this past year and to share what he expects from our country under President-elect Joe Biden’s leadership.
“We are not in a rush to pull people back into the workplace,” says Rob Falzon
NPR's Tamara Keith and Dan Glickman discuss what a Biden agenda might look like.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s family has called the city home for over 100 years.
Poet Claudia Rankine discusses the urgency of reimagining what it means to be American with Eric Liu.
Not by shying away from arguments but by embracing them. Arguments are our legacy and our shared history.
Two pro athletes talk about the perils of speaking up for justice in 2020, and what it would take to see progress and create measurable societal change.
The highest court often seems distanced from our day-to-day lives, but the rulings that come out of the Supreme Court are woven into the fabric of the nation. Though it aims t...
