Bill Kristol served as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle in the George H.W. Bush administration
Nationally known conservative commentator Bill Kristol is one of the speakers in “Conversations on Democracy,” a series of virtual and in-person discussions scheduled through October at UTC.
Presented by the Tennessee Democracy Forum and the UTC Department of Political Science and Public Service, each discussion is free, open to the public and runs from 7-8 p.m.
Each is an hour-long discussion of economic and political democracy focused on ongoing national and statewide issues. There also will be a question-and-answer session for the audience.
Mr. Kristol will participate in an online discussion on Monday, June 13. To register for the discussion, visit https://secure.everyaction.com/AbXTg-qWX0mT9HpVKbSUXg2.
A regular commentator on networks including CNN and Fox, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle in the George H.W. Bush administration. He was founder of The Weekly Standard magazine, was a columnist for Time and The New York Times and is editor-at-large for The Bulwark website.
“As a public university, one of our obligations is to engage with our community in discussions of important ideas,” said Michelle Deardorff, head of the Department of Political Science and Public Service at UTC.
“This mission seems especially important as we see the increased polarization of our nation and the challenges that our democracy is facing. For our students, the last five to seven years is the only democracy they have ever known.
“We have to model what it looks like to talk with people you fundamentally disagree with and hear other points of view—even those you think are wrong. I think this speaker series provides us the opportunity to see what it means to have discourse with the hope of finding some common ground.”
In-person discussions will be held in Benwood Auditorium in the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science building. They also will be live-streamed on the Tennessee Democracy Forum’s Facebook page.
Future speakers in the series include Lisa Mensah, former undersecretary for rural development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Robert Shrum, speechwriter for presidential candidates George McGovern (1972) and Edward Kennedy (1980); and Salin Geevarghese, who served several roles during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Click here to learn more about the “Conversations on Democracy” series.