Recently, IDEA Director Dr. Micheal Neblo discussed the implications of IDEA’s current Connecting to Congress Initiative on the state of political discourse in the United States with  Ohio State Insights, which covers the top University wide developments. Connecting to Congress is IDEA’s flagship Initiative, looking at how constituent opinion can better be relayed to representatives through Deliberative Town Halls. The Town Halls allow Representatives to hear unfiltered opinions from their constituents, and offer constituents insight into why representatives vote the way they do. In the article, Dr. Neblo discusses the recent undertakings of the project, virtual Town Halls discussing COVID-19. These recent Town Halls have shown that there is hope yet for civil discourse in the United States, if people are given the right tools to discuss respectfully.