E.J. Dionne wants to make America empathetic again.
In a speech lasting nearly an hour, the unabashedly liberal Washington Post columnist made the case for why conservatives and progressives need to be more understanding and less dismissive of those who don’t vote like them.
More than 300 people packed into Indiana University’s Presidents Hall, the large meeting room inside Franklin Hall, to hear the speech titled “Lee Hamilton Wouldn’t Recognize the Place: What Has Become of Politics in Washington?” Dionne was invited to speak after being selected as a Hamilton Fellow. Named in honor of Lee Hamilton, an IU faculty member who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hamilton Fellows are selected annually and invited to IU’s Bloomington campus to give an address on a matter of public concern.
Dionne spent the first part of his speech explaining how America became so divided, putting much of the blame on conservatives, before taking a critical look at those who share views more similar to his own.
“The two major parties are not equally to blame for the polarization in our country,” he said.
Dionne said polling has shown 59 percent of Democrats preferred politicians who make compromises with people they disagree with rather than those who stick to their positions, but only 36 percent of Republicans felt that way.
When Democrats won the White House in 2008, conservatives didn’t look at the blunders of the George W. Bush administration, such as the 43rd president’s decisions on the Iraq War and his response to Hurricane Katrina, as part of a long list of things to learn from, he said. Rather, they said the problems that hurt the Bush legacy were that he was a big-government Republican, he was too pro-immigration and he expanded the prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
“This was the explanation which led them to implacable opposition to Barack Obama,” Dionne said.