Senator Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia and former Senator Roy Blunt (R) of Missouri addressed the UGA community at the inaugural Johnny Isakson Symposium on Political Civility on Friday, Nov. 10.
The event was moderated by Dean Matthew Auer of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), presented alongside special remarks by UGA President Jere Morehead and former chief of staff and political strategist for Senator Isakson, Heath Garrett.
Every seat in the UGA Chapel was filled on the morning of the symposium, with some guests even opting to stand in the back of the aisles.
According to SPIA’s website, the Isakson Symposium “honors and perpetuates Senator Isakson’s legacy of statesmanship and political civility. Special guests consider how civil debate, mutual respect, and common-interest problem solving advance the public good.”
Isakson was a University of Georgia alumnus who also served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1976 and served seven terms, including four as a minority leader. Following a failed gubernatorial campaign in 1990, he was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1992 and served one term. He was elected to the United States Senate in 2004 by a wide margin and remained there until his resignation on Dec. 31, 2019. His Senate seat was succeeded by Kelly Loeffler, a fellow Republican appointed by Governor Brian Kemp. Isakson died two years later on Dec. 19, 2021, following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The symposium served as a time for state leaders to remember Isakson’s ability to bridge political divides, a toolset that Auer said SPIA attempts to instill in all of its students.
“Hence the focus on political civility, meeting in the middle, crossing the aisle, building bridges,” Auer said. “That’s what we train our students to do. We’re extremely lucky, because we have a home-grown exemplar in the form of Johnny Isakson.”
Manchin and Blunt’s discussion revolved around the value of crossing the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation.
“It takes a bipartisan approach to get most things done,” said Manchin at one point during the event.
Blunt echoed that, saying, “You don’t have to agree with them on everything, you have to agree with them on one thing.”
Blunt was announced as a speaker only a few short weeks before the event, replacing Senator Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky. McConnell was originally slated to attend, but a scheduling conflict did not allow him to make the trip after all.
Blunt was especially close with Isakson.
“He was really a good friend of mine,” Blunt said. “When I was majority whip in the house, I had a smaller group of about five other deputies who helped plan how we get things done. Johnny was in that group, so we were together multiple times a week, every week, for a decade.”
Manchin’s attendance was high profile, as he announced that he will not be running for re-election on the day before the symposium. A polarizing figure at times, political analysts speculate that Manchin may announce a presidential bid in the coming weeks.
“I’ve become a firm believer in term limits,” Manchin said. “I think we should be thinking about, how do we fix the system? We’re letting it get further apart and we’re breaking it more.”
When asked about his next steps, Manchin did not give a direct response. He alluded to a step away from politics due to concern about rising inflation and geopolitical unrest.
“My main thing is, I’m concerned about my country,” Manchin said. “We have got to get our financial house in order because the finances and debt of the nation will take (the next) generation down. We’d be the first generation to put (the next) generation in peril, because every generation before us has given us better opportunities. I don’t want to be part of that.”
