Americans are feeling the effects of political division in Congress, and some Boston organizations are looking to lessen the divide with a series of debates between senators on opposite sides of the aisle.
The Senate Project, organized by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, will kick off a series of debates with Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat from Vermont, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.
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Andrew Card, chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, and Bruce Percelay, chair of the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, told Sue O'Connell on Greater Boston that the project aims to highlight common ground between senators.
Percelay said the division between Republican and Democrat members of Congress is new and "disturbing."
"I think it is something that needs to be corrected. Clearly, it is the motivation for what we are doing and we think it is a clear and present danger as we saw on January 6th," Percelay said.
Card said having civil and productive debates can set an example for the world on what democracy should be.
"The strength of our democracy comes by having people actively engage, but we are a representative democracy, and it's our representatives that have the responsibility to listen to us and then exercise judgment," Card said.
Watch: Could Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham help bridge an increasing political divide?
