Clinton and Bush Chair Civility Institute

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George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton will serve as honorary chairmen of the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona, a new organization sparked by the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz). The new center at the University of Arizona that will focus on civility in political debate, said Brint Milward, who is the director of the university's School of Government and Public Policy and will head up the institute.

Former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor and former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) will serve as honorary co-chairmen. Board members will include former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright; Kenneth M. Duberstein, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan; Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren; Trey Grayson, director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics; and former representative Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.).

The institute's goal is to develop programs, stage conferences, design curricula and encourage research intended to promote more civility in the political arena, said its director, Brint Milward. For instance, he said it could back research on such areas as "cognitive science and how the brain responds to continual sort of outrage and how do you keep this going. Sort of, how do you keep a great democracy going when everyone is always ready to man the barricades?"

 

 

 

 

 

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