Professor Navin will examine political and social discord and the need for compromise in America from Colonial days to the present. He will argue that the viability of the Constitution hinged on negotiation, and the Federalist Papers were an exercise in political reason and logic. The Bill of Rights, Navin argues, was a compromise measure of lasting importance. Prof. Navin will frame the peaceful transfer of power as an essential political tradition in this country, and portray the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol as a worrisome exception. Navin maintains that despite armed conflicts, contested elections, public protests, political corruption, Constitutional violations, executive overreach, Congressional stalemate, assassinations, outside interference and other challenges, our democratic institutions survived, the balance of power was maintained, and free and fair elections continued. We now face another moment of crisis, but certainly not the first.
