Civil Discourse

It seems like a long time ago since Barack Obama called for civility in discourse after the shooting of Gabby Giffords in 2011.  Since then, there has been a marked deterioration in public discourse in the media, among politicians and the polity at large.  At American universities, public debate has been shut down entirely. Conservative, libertarian and classical liberal voices have been stifled, smothered, shamed and disrupted.  “Safe spaces,” “trigger warnings,” and “white privilege,” havw gotten traction at many universities.  In the most troubling cases, mobs have taken over such places as Middlebury, Berkeley, and most egregiously at Evergreen State.  The deterioration of discourse, its coarseness and crudeness  hit absolute rock bottom with the antics of Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and Kathy Griffin.

I am proud to have graduated from a place that has been able to stave off these terrible trends.  The University of Chicago is a place where people engage in in public and private debate continuously, where ideas are challenged, premises are attacked, and data are recast, and few, if any, get offended .  It views this process as integral to the development of the excellent minds that the school churns out.  The University of Chicago was the only university to send letters to incoming freshmen, letting them know that the school doesn’t do “safe spaces” or “trigger  warnings.”  It is a place for free and open inquiry.  In contrast, Morton Shapiro, president of Northwestern labelled those that oppose safe spaces as “idiots,” and “morons.”

I attended two engaging debates/conversations this weekend at The University of Chicago that probably could not have happened at another university.   The first was between former Obama chief of staff David Axelrod and conservative senator Tom Cotton.  The second was between self- described knee jerk liberal and Nobel Prize winner Roger Myerson and “habitual skeptic on government spending” Casey Mulligan.  In both cases, it would be hard to pair up opponents farther apart on policy matters.

I will list below a handful of the bullet points/takeaways from the debates.  But the real takeaway is THAT THESE CIVILIZED DEBATES ACTUALLY HAPPENED ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS, without disruption, interruption, harsh words or invective.   The exchanges were spirited, but civil.  Barbs were traded with good humor.  And most astonishingly, the audiences were generally polite, and well mannered.  The questions asked were challenging, yet not preachy or nasty.   Tom Cotton was subjected to derisive laughter a couple of times but at no time was any of the speakers heckled or disrupted.   It is what public debate should be. I was especially impressed with the Axelrod/Cotton exchange.  Here are two men that experienced political life at opposite ends of the spectrum and I thought both made excellent points, actually listened to each other, and both were very witty. 

Here are a few of the punchlines.

Cotton:  I went to Harvard Law [instead of Chicago] because I didn’t want to work that hard.
Axelrod: Stop pandering, Tom [laughter]

Cotton:  The Republican Party stand for free soil, free men, natural rights as described in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.  Give people the greatest freedom of action that you can.  Just what Lincoln envisioned.

Axelrod:  But Lincoln also stood for strong federal government: railroad infrastructure, land grant colleges, and the national science foundation.  Government needed to play a role in peoples’ lives. 

Axelrod:  You supported withdrawal from the Paris Accord.

Cotton: The climate is changing and human activity is a factor.  But where I differed was the remedy.  I support an “all of the above” strategy: natural gas, new coal plants, fracking.  It doesn’t take government mandates to do this.  It’s better to invest in basic scientific research.  Democrats view Paris Accord as alternatively 1.  Voluntary or 2.  Our last chance at salvation.  Activism didn’t solve our energy problems getting off whale oil. Rockefeller did.

Axelrod: Russia?
Cotton.  Russia is an adversary.  The Cold War didn’t end.  It was just halftime. Obama reset happened six months after Putin invaded Georgia.  Obama refused to arm the Ukrainians.  We should stop compartmentalizing our relationships with Iran and Russia and take a much tougher line.

Axelrod:  Obama imposed withering sanctions on Russia.
Cotton:  They were not withering.

Axelrod:  How has Trump handled things so far?
Cotton:  He could have been more disciplined and focused on his agenda.
Axelrod:  Well that was a diplomatic, disciplined and focused answer.

Cotton:  If you listened, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were speaking to the same anxieties and said many of the same things. 

Axelrod:  What about immigration?
Cotton:  Politicians need to address it or fringe parties will.

Mulligan:  [shows chart]  This displays how much of the recovery hasn’t happened.  Economic recovery was not an Obama priority.   Climate change and health care reform were.

Myerson:  Withdrawal from the Paris Accord was a major event.  Obama regulated carbon when he should have taxed it.

Myerson:  [on income inequality] the bottom 10% and median wages stagnated while the top 10% increased dramatically.  It is not a terrible crisis if the top 10% is growing.

Mulligan:  Trump doesn’t know much but his instincts are to go 180 degrees from Obama. 

Myerson:  Employment statistics will improve if taxes are cut.  It will be good for the stock market and improve labor conditions.   Inflation will surface shortly.

Mulligan:  Inflation is very hard to predict.

Meyerson:  I worry about the reliability of the U.S. and the marketability of U.S. debt.

Meyerson:  Companies should not be given tax concessions in small towns that they can walk away from.  States and local governments should be given a share of equity.

Mulligan:  Policy distorts decisions and is biased against small towns.  A $15/hour minimum wage doesn’t make sense in rural Illinois.  Rural hospitals can’t comply with regulations.

Mulligan:  Studies show that recipients value Medicaid at $.33 on the $1.  We should just give them the money.

Myerson:  I advocate a carbon fuel tax of 2-5% of GDP to make up for lowering corporate rates.  Lowering corporate rates and closing loopholes is sensible.

Myerson:  The success of the country depends on immigration.  U.S. growth is supplied by immigrants.  I predict that immigration policy will not be as extreme as Trump rhetoric.

Mulligan:  We have laws that we don’t enforce.  No Man’s Land is the worst place to be.  A mafia type approach is not good.

Myerson:  ISIS strategy is to provoke a military response that destroys the overall structure of a society that creates opportunity.  Bush and Obama said they wouldn’t nation build, but they did.  I like McMaster.  He brought in someone that understands how important building a stable society is.

Mulligan:  The best thing you could do is take a Zippo lighter and Obamacare and unite them.

Myerson:  There is no theory, no model that shows that competition works in health insurance markets because of the adverse selection problem.

Mulligan:  [addressing how the Republicans will do in the near future] I did my PhD thesis on regression to the mean.

Myerson:  Never support someone that has not held power under the Constitution or one of the separate states.