Skip to main content Skip to navigation
CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

After pleas for unity, rhetoric in Washington remains heated

The public is noticing a breakdown of civility in Washington since Trump took office. According to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, about 70 percent of Americans believe the tone in Washington has gotten worse since November, and only six percent say the tone has improved.

Cornell Clayton
Clayton

According to Cornell William Clayton, co-editor of “Civility and Democracy in America” and a professor of government at Washington State University, Trump cannot expect his critics to tone down their rhetoric while he frequently engages in such personal attacks against them.

“It’s just so unusual to hear a politician so focused on the kind of personal vendettas he’s focused on,” he said.

Clayton said the problem in Washington is less that politicians are engaging in uncivil rhetoric and more that they have proven incapable of compromise on major issues. The prospect of working with Democrats on health care has become a worst-case scenario for Senate Republicans, but a bipartisan agreement could reinforce the importance of working toward the common good.

Find out more

WJLA

Opinion: Incivility rooted in resistance to compromise

Cornell Clayton
Clayton

By Cornell Clayton, professor of political science and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at WSU

Two weeks ago five people including the Republican House Whip Steve Scalise were shot by a deranged gunman as they practiced for the annual congressional baseball game in the nation’s capital. Shocked by the violence, a rare moment of bipartisanship erupted as leaders of both parties called for greater civility in our politics. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi even sat down to a joint television interview to show they could be nice each other.

Similar calls to change the tone of our political discourse came after the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011, when a national center for civil discourse was even established. Such calls for greater civility are sincere and sensible. We should be more civil. They are also unlikely to succeed absent a more fundamental change in how we think about politics.

Over the past decade the Foley Institute at WSU has hosted a series of conferences and research programs focused on political polarization and incivility. Here is what we know.

Find out more

The Spokesman-Review

Shawn Vestal: Spokane Prosecutor Larry Haskell’s ‘get tough’ policies hinder successful Drug Court

Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell says he is fulfilling his promise to voters to be tough on property crimes and chronic offenders and that he views drug court as more appropriate for defendants without long criminal records. This is the opposite of what drug court supporters say it does best, which is to stop addicted, nonviolent, chronic offenders from committing more crimes.

Zachary Hamilton
Hamilton

In drug court, a defendant agrees to undergo a yearlong course of intensive treatment in a “non-adversarial” court process, involving regular appearances before a judge. It’s not jail, but neither is it “incarceration lite,” said Zachary Hamilton, an assistant professor of criminology at Washington State University.

“Drug court is really, really intensive,” he said. “It’s not a walk in the park.”

Hamilton completed a study of Spokane County’s drug court in December. It compared drug court defendants with historical averages. It found that 25 percent of the drug court group “graduated” from the program, and those graduates were 90 percent less likely than typical defendants to be charged with another drug crime and 85 percent less likely to be charged with another property crime.

Find out more

The Spokesman-Review

Inspiring the next generation of musicians

WSU continues 28-year tradition with youth camp

Thirty-four adolescent musicians, adorned in matching red T-shirts, invaded the Washington State University Pullman campus on Sunday for the university’s week-long Summer Keyboard Exploration. They came from as far away as Singapore and as close as the Palouse.

The program, now in its 28th year, allowed the 7th- through 12th-grade performers the chance to improve themselves musically as well as worldly by working with the university’s School of Music faculty, studying classical and jazz piano, improvisation and organ.

Jeffrey Savage
Jeffrey Savage

WSU music professor Dr. Jeffrey Savage said the students had the opportunity to work with a different instructor each day of the camp, individually and together in a group setting during several master classes, concentrating on solo performance literature, technique and ensemble playing.

“I think they come away from the camp really inspired,” Savage said. “To get to know them as young students and then to help them develop as college students is really a treat.”

Find out more

Moscow-Pullman Daily News (login required)

Pullman Arts Commission to seek funds to build WSU-designed bus stop

During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Pullman City Council authorized—via head-nods—the Pullman Arts Commission to move forward with fundraising for a new bus stop designed in part by members of the WSU Department of Fine Arts.

The bus stop is to be built in front of Safeway grocery store and designed by the WSU Collaborative, a team of WSU art, architecture, design and engineering students and professor Ayad Rahmani.

In April, the commission chose the “Magnificent M” as its favorite design out of four presented by WSU Collaborative.

Now called Rolling Hills, the modified design shows previously sharp points of the “M” have been softened to mimic the hilly Palouse landscape. The design has also been modified to incorporate bike parking and add an anti-graffiti clear coat for wood and metal parts of the structure.

The project was originally estimated to cost $2,500. With the modifications, that estimation jumped to $5,000.

WSU is donating its time and manufacturing resources, the commission’s interim chair, Joanna Bailey, told the council. Crowd-sourced fundraising may also be utilized.

Find out more

Moscow-Pullman Daily News (login required)