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University of Kentucky signee Somto Cyril, a consensus 4-star recruit, has announced hes reopening his recruitment.

Cyril, 6-10, 240 pounds, of Riverview (Fla.) Overtime Elite inked with former Wildcat Coach John Calipari last November. On3.com reports he has received a release from his national letter of intent.

Hes the third of six members of Kentuckys 2024 recruiting class to reopen his recruitment.

On3.com rates him the No. 8 center and No. 41 overall prospect in the nation for the 2024 class.

Consensus 5-star signee center Jayden Quaintance requested to be released from his national letter of intent on Wednesday.

Quaintance, 6-10, 225 pounds, of Cleveland Word of God Christain Academy, committed to Kentucky over Missouri on Nov. 14 before inking with the Wildcats.

He also had scholarship offers from Ohio State, Florida, Alabama, Baylor, Kansas, Oregon, North Carolina State, Washington and others.

On3.com rates him as the No. 1 center and the No. 7 overall prospect in the nation.

Four-star forward Karter Knox, 6-6 and 211, of Riverview (Fla.) Overtime Elite, committed to the Wildcats in early March but the Tampa Bay Times reported his father said his son is reopening his recruitment on Monday.

Quaintance and Knox were McDonalds All-Americans, as was Wildcat signee and 4-star point guard Boogie Fland, 6-2, 175, of Harlem (N.Y.) Archbishop Stepinac.

Consensus 4-star point guard Travis Perry, 6-2, 170, of Eddyville (Ken.) Lyon County and 4-star forward Billy Richmond, 6-6, 200, of Memphis Camden are other members of the Kentucky recruiting class.

Link:
Wildcats lose another '24 signee in Cyril | Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Arkansas Online

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Today, age is strongly associated with partisanship and this pattern has been in place for more than a decade.

The Democratic Party holds a substantial edge among younger voters, while the Republican Party has the advantage among the oldest groups.

Neither party has a significant edge over the other among voters in their 40s and 50s:

Among voters ages 60 and older, the GOP holds a clear advantage:

In addition to the differences in the overall partisan tilt of younger and older voters, younger voters are considerably more likely than older voters to opt out of identifying directly with a party.

For instance, among voters 80 and older, 77% identify with a party (49% as Republicans, 28% as Democrats). About two-in-ten instead say they are something else or independent, with most of them leaning to one of the parties.

By comparison, only about half (52%) of voters under 25 identify directly with a party (38% Democrat, 14% Republican). About half instead say they are something else or independent, with 28% leaning Democratic and 20% leaning Republican.

The age differences in partisanship seen in the public overall are evident among both men and women.

For instance, both men and women under 30 align with Democrats by about a two-to-one margin.

Men and women voters ages 30 to 49 are fairly divided in their partisan allegiances, though the Democratic Party holds a modest edge among women in this age group.

Republicans have a substantial advantage among men 50 and older, while women this age are about equally likely to affiliate with each of the two parties.

Among White, Hispanic and Asian voters, older adults today are generally more Republican (and less Democratic) than younger adults.

But this is not the case for Black voters: 17% of Black voters under 50 identify as or lean Republican, compared with just 7% of Black voters 50 and older.

Looking at the partisanship of people born at roughly the same time (age cohorts) allows us to compare across generations over time. (For details on the age cohorts, visit Appendix C.)

Today, each younger age cohort is somewhat more Democratic-oriented than the one before it. But that has not always been the case. For instance, in the late 1990s, the balance of partisanship of voters across age groups (cohorts) varied only very modestly:

Now, and for the last several years, a starker and more linear age pattern is evident. Those born in the 1990s (now in their mid-20s to early 30s) are more Democratic than those born in the 1980s, who are in turn more Democratic than those born in the 1970s. And the oldest age cohorts are the most Republican-oriented.

Voters born in the 1940s (ages 74 to 83 in 2023) have had a Republican tilt for the last several years but were evenly split in their partisanship a decade ago. The Democratic Party last had an edge among this group in the first year of the Obama administration.

Voters born in the 1950s (ages 64 to 73 in 2023) are more likely to be Republicans or Republican leaners (52%) than Democrats or Democratic leaners (44%). The GOP has held an edge with this group for the last several years, following growth in GOP affiliation over the last 15 years.

Compared with those born the decade after them, voters born in the 1960s (ages 54 to 63 in 2023) have tended to be more closely aligned with the GOP throughout their adulthood. Currently, the GOP has a 5 percentage point edge over Democrats among these voters (50% to 45%).

Voters born in the 1970s (ages 44 to 53 in 2023) have historically been more likely to align with Democrats than Republicans. Democrats have had a 3-point or greater edge among these voters in 17 out of 23 years since 2000. However, today these voters are about equally split between associating with Republicans (49%) and Democrats (48%).

Voters born in the 1980s (ages 34 to 43 in 2023) favor the Democrats in their affiliation and have done so since they first reached adulthood. But the gap between the two parties has narrowed considerably among these voters in the last few years. Currently, 52% of voters born in the 1980s associate with the Democrats and 44% with Republicans.

Voters born in the 1990s (ages 24 to 33 in 2023) are more aligned with the Democratic Party than those in older age cohorts. About six-in-ten voters born in the 1990s (62%) currently associate with the Democrats, and a similar share were Democrats or Democratic leaners when they first entered the electorate almost a decade ago. (Note: Most of those born in the 2000s are not yet eligible to vote.)

The rest is here:
Age, generation and party identification of registered voters - Pew Research Center

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President Biden is facing deepening political trouble as criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza grows more widespread and a possible invasion of Rafah looms.

Discontent with Bidens substantive support for Israel has spread across the Democratic Party, even as the president has toughened his rhetoric criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the same time, Republicans are upping their attacks on Biden as insufficiently supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas and amid rising tensions with Iran.

Democratic strife has been and continues to be the bigger political danger to the president, who has seen scores of primary voters reject him over his handling of Gaza.

One of the most striking political developments in recent weeks has been the willingness of mainstream Democratic figures to try to rein Israel in.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), usually a stalwart supporter of Israel, is among almost 60 House Democrats who have signed a letter urging Biden to rethink weapons transfers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stunned many observers almost a month ago by criticizing Netanyahu and calling for new elections in Israel.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has said that Palestinian children dying from lack of food are victims of a textbook war crime. Late last month, Van Hollen told The Washington Post the administration needs to be very careful not to get into a position of complicity with war crimes by supplying the weaponry Israel is using to bomb Gaza.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, told CNN recently that were at that point where the U.S. needs to think seriously about putting conditions on further military aid to Israel.

Biden has so far resisted the demands to impose conditions. 

The president backs a congressional proposal for $14 billion in new military aid to Israel. In addition, the administration in February asked Congress to approve the sale to Israel of F-15 fighter jets and munitions, worth about $18 billion. 

On Tuesday, the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), told CNN he needed more information before he would sign off on the F-15 sales.

Criticism of Bidens position is also seeping into liberal-leaning popular culture. Jon Stewart excoriated the administration for what he cast as double standards and timidity toward Israel during Comedy Centrals The Daily Show Monday.

More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza over the last six months, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The current phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis.

A shift in Bidens rhetoric first became notable in February when Biden called Israels response to the Oct. 7 attacks over the top. At the start of this month, Biden said he was outraged by an Israeli strike in Gaza that killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen charity. In an interview broadcast Tuesday evening on Univision, Biden said of Netanyahu, What hes doing is a mistake. I dont agree with his approach.

However, during a Wednesday press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the White House Rose Garden, Biden again sidestepped a question about whether he would place conditions on more weapons. 

Instead, he talked about the shared support from Kishida and himself for a cease-fire and a hostage deal but added that U.S. backing of Israel against any threat from Iran was iron-clad.

The rhetorical machinations are doing nothing to endear Biden to critics who believe he has embraced Netanyahu too close and for too long.

For all intents and purposes, his position hasnt actually moved. Rhetoric isnt enough. He has not cut off weapons aid for Israel, said Natalia Latif, the communications director of the National Uncommitted Movement, a group that has pressed for Democratic primary voters to register protest votes against Bidens policy on Gaza.

The movements effort has proved powerful, with the uncommitted line garnering around 13 percent of the vote in Michigan and almost 19 percent in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, voices of criticism on the right are rising. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote on social media Wednesday that Israel was facing the threat of imminent attack from Iran and its proxies. 

Biden must stop the harsh criticism of the only pro-American democracy in the region, Rubio insisted.

Also on Wednesday, former President Trump told reporters in Georgia that Jewish people who vote for Biden or the Democrats should have their head examined.

However, even Trump has acknowledged a downside to Israels conduct.

The former president told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week that Israel was absolutely losing the PR war and needs to get it over with fast.

American public opinion has gradually shifted against Israel as the death toll in Gaza has risen and the humanitarian crisis has grown near-catastrophic.

A Gallup poll late last month indicated that 55 percent of Americans now disapprove of Israels military actions in Gaza while only 36 percent approve.

Meanwhile. Bidens poll ratings on the topic, pinched by opposition from both left and right, are grim. An Economist/YouGov poll released Wednesday found only 23 percent of Americans approving of his handling of the conflict while 58 percent disapprove.

The electoral consequences may be severe, especially if a lasting cease-fire does not come to an end soon.

There are important electoral coalitions on both sides of this issue within the Democratic Party and Biden needs to turn them both out to win, said Todd Belt, the director of the political management program at the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University. Appeasing one tends to alienate the other but trying to stay in the middle leaves everyone unhappy.

If theres a way out of that conundrum, Biden hasnt found it yet.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Link:
The Memo: Democratic dissent over Israel grows, deepening Bidens dilemma - The Hill

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WASHINGTON Heading into the heat of his reelection race against Dallas Congressman Colin Allred, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is testing the waters with a rebrand.

Cruz, who has made a name for himself as an uncompromising conservative stalwart, is casting himself as a bipartisan lawmaker with a penchant for reaching across the aisle.

I actually have very good relationships with many of my colleagues across the aisle, Cruz told The Texas Tribune, citing his work with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar. I've worked with all three of them and all three are friends.

The interview was part of Cruzs recent media blitz highlighting his work with Democrats, off the heels of his Democrats for Cruz announcement which aims to attract left-leaning voters this November. He debuted that messaging during a Laredo meeting with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, where he stressed the value of bipartisanship legislating and enumerated several bills hes written with Democratic senators. Meanwhile, Cruz is blasting Allred as not as bipartisan as he claims, citing the Democrats voting record with his partys leadership.

It is easy and probably more fun to cover the battles that I have waged against the Obama administration or the Biden administration, or [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, Cruz said. Those may make for easy headlines, but often overlooked are now 99 different pieces of legislation that I've authored and passed into law in my time in the Senate.

The rhetorical shift comes as polls show another tight race for Cruz. A February poll by the University of Texas at Tyler showed the two candidates equally polling at 41%. Another poll conducted in March by Marist College found Cruz ahead by six percentage points.

His critics say hes trying to rewrite history, noting that Cruz has built a persona that demonizes Democrats. In his podcast, countless radio and television appearances, and his books, Cruz routinely blasts the other party as actively working to destroy the country.

Cruz consistently votes against some of the biggest bipartisan bills in Congress and is routinely ranked as one of the most conservative members in the Senate. He was ranked 91 out of 98 senators in 2021 in the Lugar Centers bipartisan index by Georgetown University (Two senators werent included in the ranking because they hadnt served for at least six months). Texas senior Sen. John Cornyn was ranked 8th.

I dont think Ted Cruz is fooling anybody, Allred said. He spent 12 years being the most divisive and proudly so partisan warrior in the United States. And I think its kind of laughable actually that at this point, when hes in a close race, that he wants to now stress, 'Oh, actually I have been working in a bipartisan way.'

Cruz has a lot of work cut out for him undoing his reputation as an enemy of the left. The senator launched himself to national fame by being one of the most antagonistic conservatives in Congress. In his first year in office, he led a 21-hour filibuster against former President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act, then orchestrated a two-week federal shutdown to strip funding from the law. He was one of the senators who led a challenge to the 2020 election results ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection, and Cruz says he will continue to back former President Donald Trump fully if he is elected president again.

Cruz doesnt deny that hes a cultural warrior and has often worn the personal dislike he invokes among Democrats with pride. He remains one of the most popular elected officials among conservative leaning voters in Texas. Cruz regularly calls President Joe Biden corrupt and supports House efforts to impeach him. Cruz endorses candidates who are hardline conservatives and do not care to compromise with Democrats. And he does not shy from attacking his Democratic colleagues.

"When I first arrived in the Senate 12 years ago, there was such a thing as moderate Democrats. They existed. You could work them," Cruz said at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Texas Policy Summit last month. "There aren't any left. The Democrats, they hate Trump so much their brains have melted, and what's happened is they have gone crazy off the edge to the left."

But Cruz asserts that for all the ire, he still gets things done. He ranked the 16th most effective Republican senator during the 2021-2022 session of Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.

Campaigns are always about two things: the record of each candidate and the vision of the candidate for the state, Cruz said. And in terms of my record, I've spent 12 years fighting for the people of Texas and delivering major victories for the state of Texas over and over again.

To prove the point, Cruz launched a group of Democrats for Cruz last month to highlight his work on Texas-specific issues that may not grab the national headlines. The group includes Democrats across the state, including local elected officials, law enforcement, business owners and industry advocates, who back Cruz in his reelection campaign. Cruzs campaign says the group continues to grow.

I know a different Ted Cruz. The Ted Cruz that never, never gets mentioned in our national media. The Ted Cruz that collaborated with me in trying to reform H1B high tech visas, said Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council, during a Laredo event with Cruz. Now we dont always get along, and we dont always agree, pobrecito, but Im working with you.

Palomarez, a lifelong Democrat who is part of Cruz coalition, formerly led the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce until 2018, when he stepped down over allegations of financial misconduct and sexual harassment. Palomarez later told The New York Times that his ouster was retaliation over his willingness to work with the Trump administration.

Other members of the group include former Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz, a conservative Democrat.

No members of Congress were highlighted in the video launching Democrats for Cruz. And no Democratic senators cited by Cruz as friends or collaborators agreed to speak for this story.

Democratic senators have similarly cited their ability to work with Cruz in their own campaigns. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, released an ad in 2022 joking that he and Cruz worked surprisingly well together after the two collaborated to extend Interstate 14 from the Permian Basin to Georgias Atlantic Coast.

The corridor was passed unanimously in the Senate before being added to the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Cruz voted against the IIJA, which was one of Bidens cornerstone legislative priorities.

We do a lot more together than people know, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said in a Fox News interview. Cooperation isnt sexy. So when we do stuff together, its not likely to get the attention as when we have disagreements.

Kaine and Cruz are working together on legislation to track xylazine, commonly known as tranq, as it is smuggled into the country. The senators serve together on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kaine is also up for reelection this year.

During the Laredo event, Cruz again highlighted working with Gillibrand on legislation to do away with a policy at service academies requiring pregnant cadets to either withdraw or give up their child. The bill was signed into law.

Cruz also worked with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, to streamline the permitting process for bridges used to cross the Texas-Mexico border to encourage international trade. In his first term in Congress, he passed a law that would deny admission to U.N. representatives who had engaged in espionage.

He did a great job and we were able to pass it together, Cuellar said of Cruzs work on the international bridge legislation. Im willing to work with anybody thats willing to do bipartisan work.

When asked if he felt Cruz was a bipartisan lawmaker, Cuellar emphasized: Im saying just in this case, it was bipartisan.

But Cruz has also voted against nearly every major bill pushed by Biden, including bipartisan bills that garnered the support of other Texas Republicans. He opposed the CHIPS and Science Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act both major bills that Cornyn worked on. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which he voted against, ended up investing billions into Texas roads and bridges.

Cruz said he supported and worked on parts of the CHIPS and Science Act and the IIJA, but voted against the bills because he had misgivings about the final forms of the massive packages. The CHIPS and Science Act would include billions in federal payments to semiconductor manufacturers, which Cruz said amounted to corporate welfare. Cruz said on the Senate floor at the time that the IIJA had far too high a price tag.

When bipartisan Senate negotiators unveiled a border plan that would put harder caps on the number of migrants admitted into the country, Cruz panned the deal as not going far enough and advocated instead for a hardline House-passed Republican border package. The deal died among Senate Republicans after Trump blasted it publicly.

This is what members of Congress do, said Dan Diller, policy director of the Lugar Center. Diller was formerly a legislative director for the late Republican Sen. Richard Lugar. They go through a primary promising all the most extreme things that appeal to their party's base. Then they get into a general election, and they pull out a few samples of bipartisanship and talk about them.

As he rehabs his own reputation, Cruz is also taking aim at Allred who has run on a ticket of moderation and bipartisanship since he first flipped his House seat in 2018. Beating Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions that year in what was then a competitive district, Allred focused heavily on his endorsements from both organized labor and Dallas business community. He was endorsed by both the AFL-CIO union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Allred has since been ranked the most bipartisan member of the Texas congressional delegation by the Common Ground Committee, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating divisiveness in politics. All but one of the 43 bills hes cosponsored that got passed into law was with Republican buy-in and all but one were when Democrats had the majority. Of the bills he has introduced, about a third of them have buy-in from Republicans. He worked with Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Midlothian, to bring federal funds for veterans health care to North Texas a bill that was eventually signed into law.

The Lugar Center ranked Allred 119th out of 435 members in its bipartisanship index. The Lugar Centers metrics do not include messaging bills such as those renaming a post office and bases its rankings on bills members have sponsored and cosponsored with members of the opposite party.

Bipartisanship remains a central element to his campaign message as he takes on Cruz, whom he casts as more occupied with being a conservative celebrity than a serious legislator.

I do want to find a way to actually get things done. And in my experience, the best way to do that, and to make sure that's effective and can last is to be bipartisan, Allred said in a recent interview. That's what we're looking for, somebody who will actually try and bridge some of these divides and actually deliver instead of just pulling off political stunts that don't help anybody.

Allred beat the more progressive state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio in the Democratic primary. His openness to work with Republicans and at times buck his own party to do so led to criticisms from Gutierrez of handholding with Republicans.

Gutierrez took particular issue with Allreds support for a nonbinding Republican resolution condemning the Biden administrations handling of the southern border. Allred defended his vote as expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo of migration policy.

Still, Allred is a loyal Democratic voter on major legislation, voting 100% in line with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the four years Democrats were in the majority. Cruz claims voting so closely with Democratic leadership is antithetical to being a truly bipartisan lawmaker.

He's fond of describing himself as bipartisan, by which he means that he votes for bills that most or all the Democrats are voting for and some Republicans are voting for, Cruz said. It's a little bit like someone who arrives at the parade and waves in the parade and then claims credit for the parade.

But the criticism goes both ways. Cruz has voted 92% in line with Trumps positions, including 100% aligning himself with the former presidents agenda after Trump left office, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

There have been instances where Cruzs conservative fighter ethos has staved off would-be partners. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York Democrat, spurned Cruzs invitation to collaborate on securities trading legislation after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where theres common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media at the time.

Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation, New York Times and US Chamber of Commerce have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Ted Cruz angles for a bipartisan rebrand - The Texas Tribune

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Given the polarization of the American electorate, one might wonder if bipartisan civil discourse is still possible.

Former North Dakota U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, and former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer, a Republican, have been in the political trenches for years. And they say not only is that kind of old-style, decent conversation possible, its necessary.

The two recently hosted a free talk at Concordia College in Moorhead to encourage people to break out of a cycle of cultural divisions, public outrage and mistrust. They talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer as part of our Talking Sense project, which helps Minnesotans have better political conversations.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and style. Click on the audio player for the full interview.

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Schafer: Theres so much political rancor today. When this opportunity came up, it made a lot of sense since Sen. Heitkamp, then Attorney General Heitcamp, and I worked together in the Capitol for the people of North Dakota and focused on getting something done for the people.

Heitkamp: Well, let me tell you what Im seeing, because I spend a lot of time with students. Im currently the director of the Institute of Politics in Chicago. And what I hear from students is they dont want to be involved in politics.

They think its a mean business, they think you have to hate the person on the other side. And my concern is theyve not experienced the kind of relationship that Gov. Schafer and I had when we were both in state government. And Im not saying it was always Kumbaya, but we figured out how to get along and actually have fun on many occasions.

Im hoping we can model that and tell people: You dont have to buy into the rancor, you can conduct yourself differently. And that means that you can run for office, you can engage in public service.

Heitkamp: I think youre always going to have the 20 to 30 percent that are the loudest, and they get the most airtime. Then the people in the middle say, just get your job done. I think that were just listening to people who see the opposition as the enemy, and not as an opponent that needs to be listened to.

Schafer: I think that the difficult thing is to separate that public policy discussion from the political discussions. If you focus on the public policy, its good. If you want to develop something thats best for the people, you have to understand the humaneness of all this.

Its just not someone that youre fighting with over politics theres a real person there. We need to get out of our cubicles, get off of social media. Community is built with a handshake and a hug, and a slap on the back.

We have to bring people together face to face, which then allows you to understand youre both human beings, youre both caring, you both arrive at your conclusions in a good way. And they might be different. But that doesnt mean theyre wrong.

Heitkamp: The advice that I give people when they say, so and so is mad at me, or, this person is my political opponent, and they go, what should I do? I say, go to some event that theyre at and stand next to them. Because its really hard to be that mad at somebody who is right there.

The other advice I would give to young people is: It doesnt have to be that way. Dont get caught up in other peoples ideas of how you should conduct your business. Live your values, and then even if it doesnt work out, if you dont get reelected, you hold your head up high and you figure out another way to be of service.

Schafer: There are many, many people out there who are models of good public servants. The problem is we dont see them. The media focuses on the bad folks and the rancor and the angst.

Heitkamp: There are people like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was behind every major piece of legislation that passed, whether it was CHIPS, whether it was the Inflation Reduction Act. She frustrated a lot of more progressive Democrats, but yet she was in the arena, working to get things done. I dont know that the infrastructure bill would have happened without her.

On the other side, theres a guy named Sen. Todd Young. To Eds point, youve not heard of him. And probably the best example I can give people is Sen. Patty Murray, from Washington. And Sen. Susan Collins literally led the appropriations committee and got almost unanimous support for the 12 funding bills, but that didnt get focused on.

All of the rancor gets focused on. There are people who are doing the work. There are unsung heroes, and I have to say, I would throw Sen. Amy Klobuchar into that mix.

Heitkamp: You love the people in your life, the people who are in your family. Dont let a political belief, for voting for one side or the other, dont let them separate you. And talk less, listen more. Thats always a good piece of advice. My dad used to say, God gave you one mouth and two ears and that you should use them proportionally.

Schafer: We take this stuff much too seriously. You got to have this belief that we have a great system, that its going to work out, that were resilient, that we can have hope out there, that things move forward.

You know, that this is a discussion to have, theres differences of opinion. But you know, its not the most important thing in the history of the world. Focus on your family and your care and your love for each other and have civil good conversations.

For a recording of the event, go to http://www.lorentzsencenter.com.

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A Republican and a Democrat make the case for civility in politics - MPR News

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