Sens. Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham are scheduled to face off next month in a full-size replica of the U.S. Senate in Boston in the launch of a series meant to help rekindle the spirit of constructive debate in Washington, The Hill reported on Wednesday.
Many lawmakers feel that the Senate's tradition of debate and collegiality has been replaced in recent years by blocking debate through the use of filibusters.
This feeling spurred former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to come up with the idea of the debate series, which is sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, is on the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute and one of the founders of BPC.
BPC President Jason Grumet said that ''we've all been lamenting the loss of the constructive collision of ideas that has long been the basis of effective democracy,'' adding that ''the genesis was a number of organizations were having these conversations kind of separately and amongst ourselves'' about how to revive the spirit of constructive debate in the Senate.
Liberal agitator Sanders and conservative stalwart Graham are two of the upper chamber's most prominent members and gifted orators who can fire up their parties' bases and incense ideological opponents.
Their June 13 debate, which will be moderated by Fox News anchor Bret Baier and streamed on Fox Nation, is scheduled for one hour, with the topics to be announced a week before the event.
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who joined the board of the Edward Kennedy Institute recently, told The Hill that ''the leadership of the organization is very much those that believe in the power of public service and the power of the United States Senate to be a place where debate is welcome.''
He added that debate and disagreement isn't an inherent flaw in today's politics and ''shouldn't be shied away from,'' emphasizing that ''you should care passionately and to have a disagreement, that's not a bug, that's a feature of a democracy. We want to have that debate, but it should be based on principle and it should be done with the expectation that you're going to try to convince an adversary on that issue of the merits of your cause.''
The second debate of the series will be hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in July at George Washington University and will be carried live by C-SPAN, while the third one will be held in the fall by the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation in Utah.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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