(bright music) (authoritative music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

In today's episode, we're living in a precarious time as trusted American institutions has fallen, leaving many in search of shared values, community, and ways to understand where we fit in.

We'll preview a session from the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival to gain perspective on why the nation seems to be going through an identity crisis.

Plus, twice as many mobile home tenants filed complaints with the state in 2023 compared to recent years according to a new report by the Attorney General's Office.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Today's top story.

Identity markers have gained more prominence impacting not only how we connect, but how we stay divided.

The question is, where do these changes leave us, especially when it comes to politics?

The hosts of "Post Reports," Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi sat down with "Washington Post" columnists, Shadi Hamid and Jason Willick to debate the festering division in the US at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in early May in Seattle.

Take a listen.

- Do we even have shared American values anymore?

Are those ideas universal anymore?

Is there a common concept of what it means to be an American?

Should we be coming to more of a consensus?

Because it does feel like there are some fundamental disagreements about what it means to be an American, and I think that's the undercurrent for even this immediate moment of the war that we're talking about.

So maybe, Shadi, do you wanna address that?

I'd love to hear what you have to say too, Jason.

- Yeah, so I think that in this sort of Trump or post-Trump era that we're in, we as Americans no longer agree on the fundamental questions.

So the so-called who we are questions, what it means to be American, the role of religion in public life, the nature of America's founding.

These are the deepest issues you can sort of contend with, and I think that we just don't agree on them.

I mean, if you go back to the Obama era, we were still debating policy issues, marginal tax rates, healthcare.

Remember when Obama wore that tan suit?

That was a huge controversy.

- It was a big deal.

- That was, yeah.

So back then, those were the kinds of debates we were having, we weren't yet at the foundational stuff.

It was still kind of superficial.

And I think that is a shift that's gonna stay with us probably for the rest of our lives, and maybe the Obama years and what came before, the sort of triumphalism of the 1990s where it felt that America, there was a sense of optimism, and that we as Americans were moving in the same direction.

I think that's gone.

- To listen to the entire conversation, check out the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast wherever you stream your podcasts.

(bright music) A recent survey from the Washington Attorney General's Office reveals they've received twice the number of complaints from mobile home tenants in 2023 than in other years.

A recent report finds Washington mobile home residents have doubled the number of complaints to the state over alleged unlawful rent increases, unfair policies, or maintenance problems in 2023 compared to other years.

The Attorney General's latest report outlines an unprecedented 731 complaints from tenants up nearly 30% from 2022, and twice the totals in years prior to that.

The AG's Office oversees the state's manufactured housing dispute resolution program, collecting complaints and facilitating negotiations between mobile home tenants and their landlords.

A spokesperson for the AG's Office says the program has taken on enforcement of a recent state law change that requires notice of pending park sales.

Advocates and tenants tell Cascade PBS that the program serves as one of the few options for legal assistance when landlords unexpectedly raise rents or impose new charges or policies.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit Northwest news.

Go to cascadepbs.org for more.

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