DeKALB – NIU held its first Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series of the semester over Zoom.
The webinar lecture featured Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb), an NIU alum and Air Force veteran and Scot Schraufnagel, a political science professor who has written five books on various political topics.
The Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series Webinar was held at 5 p.m. Thursday, over Zoom. Bacon and Schraufnagel discussed an array of topics concerning the state of democracy in America, including conversations on congressional conflicts and bipartisanship. Robert Brinkmann, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences moderated the conversation.
Representative Bacon talked about the polarization and partisan differences and how it has impacted the effectiveness of Congress.
“You got to work across the aisles. I find the irony that the far right in our conference actually has made a more bipartisan Congress, because, like, you have to, but some of the things that I see that are bad when it comes to the increasing polarization, like, belong to the problem solvers,” Bacon said. “We’ve seen even the problem solvers become dysfunctional, and we’re the group that’s supposed to be working, 50% Republican, 50% Democrats, to solve problems and to try to get things moving.”
Schraufnagel talked about his new book “Conflict in Congress: A Call for Moderation” and explained legislative conflict theory and conflict in Congress as two-dimensional.
“One thing is policy differences. We call it polarization. It, in fact, can be quite healthy. It can be used to structure debate in meaningful ways. But there’s another type of conflict that I’m calling incivility,” Schraunagel said. “You get high polarization and high incivility, and we have institutional meltdowns, and we can’t pass a budget or elect a speaker. But the other (opposite) is problematic, right? This is no conflict, right? I mean, this is what we see in authoritarian settings. This is the Russian Duma or the People’s Congress in China, right? There’s no conflict. They’re just a rubber stamp for the dictator, authoritarian ruler. What my research shows is where we get our most movement in terms of landmark legislative productivity during the progressive era, the 60s, the first Nixon administration, with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, we had high polarization. Party members disagreed with each other but they did so in a healthy manner. You know, where they maintain civility and that created the right sort of amalgam, if you would, of conflict. You know, this two dimensional conflict, I think most people will recognize exists in almost any work place. You know, you might disagree with somebody about how to get things done, but you are civil towards one another right? I mean, the same thing goes in Congress, and that’s where we need to recruit the right people to serve”
Brinkmann ended the webinar with information for their next Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series webinar on Oct. 29, featuring the former presidential candidate Julian Castro. Brinkmann also lets the audience know that NIU will be hosting a number of election-related events on campus and to check the NIU events calendar for details.
