Students and the public will get a chance to hear former Sen. Tom Daschle speak about his book, “Crisis Point,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Hayden Clark Alumni Center.
The book, co-authored by Sen. Tom Daschle and former Sen. Trent Lott, covers the issue of broken politics in the United States and how working together despite belonging to different political parties can help solve problems in a cooperative way.
Brad McMillan, executive director of the Institute for Principled Leadership for Public Service, said bringing Sen. Daschle to campus could be beneficial to people who are frustrated with the “polarization and division in our country.”
“[Sen. Daschle and Sen. Lott] talk about the brokenness of American politics, but most importantly, they give recommendations on how it can be fixed,” McMillan said. “And so given this heightened political season, we thought it was very appropriate to bring former Sen. Daschle here to talk about his book and his thoughts on what we can do to improve.”
Sen. Daschle was one of the four founders of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C., “a non-profit organization that combines the best ideas from both parties to promote health, security, and opportunity for all Americans,” according to bipartisanpolicy.org.
Bipartisanship is also something that the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service promotes at Bradley, which is also what “Crisis Point” advocates.
“I think it’s important for students to understand that it wasn’t always this mean-spirited,” McMillan said. “It wasn’t always this divided. It wasn’t always this polarized, and we need to try to turn our country back in a direction where we work together to get things done.”
Graduate student William Bessler said bringing in Sen. Daschle to talk to students about bipartisanship can help them “view politics in a different way.”
“I think as long as students can see that bipartisanship has worked in the past, I think that they’ll have more confidence that it can work in the future,” Bessler said. “I think they’ll try to develop skills necessary to make it happen in the 21st century and kind of stop the stagnation and the gridlock that we currently see.”
McMillan said he believes students will become more engaged with politics in the future and plans to introduce “Crisis Point” in his future classes at Bradley.
“I am optimistic that it’s [the students’] generation that’s going to turn the country back in a better direction,” McMillan said.
Copies of “Crisis Point” will be available to purchase at the event, and there will also be a book signing.
