Ravi Iyer's blog

From this survey:

Erick Erickson is leaving CNN for Fox News, and his final words on RedState were much in keeping with his previous post on civility.  His experience appears to be a testimony to the power of inter-group contact.

From his farewell post:

As someone who seeks civility and compromise, I keep tabs on the more extreme websites on both the left and the right.  Redstate is generally a reliable source of conservative incivility, though mixed with thoughtful arguments about conservatism as well. Read more »

The National Institute for Civil Discourse is running this essay contest to help encourage a civil discussion about gun control among citizens.  Considering the heated nature of the recent dialogue between Piers Morgan and Alex Jones, where Jones challenged Morgan to a boxing match, there is certainly room for improvement in terms of the level of discourse.  

Below are the details on this contest:

Request for Proposals
 

Losing an election is tough and I have immense empathy for those who have a heartfelt vision for their country that was not fulfilled on election day.  Most people who care deeply about the election, Democrats and Republicans, do so out of a real desire for the country to do better and it's unfortunate that the results have to disappoint so many well-meaning people. That being said, there are some conservatives who have implied that those who vote for Obama simply want free stuff, while some liberals imply that billionaires who support Romney do so out of self-interest. Read more »

The point of politics is to make people’s lives better.  Liberals and conservatives may disagree about how to do that, but despite the heated rhetoric, there are a number of broad goals that most anyone would agree upon. Read more »

The recent killing of Americans in Libya by a mob of protestors who were responding to an intentionally offensive youtube video, created by Sam Bacile and friends, illustrates a fundamental truth. Read more »

Anyone who visits this site ought to read Pew's recent study of political polarization.

As further proof that more and more Americans are beginning to see the lack of cooperation amongst politicians as a problem, the Colin McEnroe show of WNPR in Connecticut hosted a show entitled "What Drives Political Polarization" and invited me to be a guest, along with Kevin Smith of the University of Nebraska, and science journalist Chris Mooney. Read more »

You likely have heard a lot about the Tea Party Caucus, the progressive caucus and the Republican study committee, all of which are groups in congress which promote certain ideological viewpoints. One of our readers recently pointed out that there is now a "Center Aisle Caucus", started by Steve Israel, a Democrat from Long Island, and Tim Johnson, a Republican from Illinois. From this Washington Post article: