Former Iowa congressmen: ‘Starkest’ election may harden partisan divide

CEDAR RAPIDS - Two former Eastern Iowa congressmen are concerned with the hardening of partisan lines in the wake of what one called the 'starkest” presidential election in more than 150 years.

Republican Donald Trump's defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton represents the 'greatest polarization in American society,” in part because of the use of techniques that were 'designed to magnify a candidate and minimize an opponent in ways that have never been used before,” said Jim Leach, an Iowa City Republican who represented much of Eastern Iowa for 30 years in the U.S. House.

The result is that, depending on Trump, the polarization could become deeper, former three-term U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle of Cedar Falls said Friday during a taping of Iowa Public Television's Iowa Press.

'I think that is a dangerous trend, but I think it's one we're going to have to live through for a while,” Nagle said. That's because of the 'harshness of the choices” and party's 'rigidity of ideological thought that demands immediate adherence.”

Iowa Press can be seen at 7:30 p.m. today and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV, as well as on IPTV.org.

Leach, who as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities spoke in all 50 states on the need for civility, said the nation faces a 'challenge as a body politic and how we want to hold civil discourse.”

He's also concerned that the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations and unions to make unlimited campaign expenditures, is moving the country toward a 'corporate democracy.”

Leach, who now teaches at the University of Iowa and was recently named interim director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, did not support Trump despite believing a businessman's perspective is needed. Instead, Leach said, he wrote in former University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman.

Both Leach and Nagle called for new political leaders who are willing to bridge partisan divides.

'You cannot continue to demagogue all of your opponents,” Nagle said. 'It starts with trying to find political leaders that will look for the bridge between the ideological differences to find an acceptable solution to both sides. And then the public has to have the maturity to recognize that accomplishment and give it praise and reward those who accomplish it.”

That will require people from all walks of life getting involved 'to get the political system turned around to reflect the society that we are.”