Fluent Politics
Why are modern democracies under such threat? How did civil society become so uncivil, fractious and polarized? And can American governance survive zero-sum politics driven by media echo chambers?
Fluent Politics invites informed, insightful journalists, scholars, politicians and reformers to provide context, depth and nuance on questions and issues of enduring importance. Issues like immigration policy and border security, energy policy and climate change, gun violence and mental health, among other complex issues; but always with attention to the political dynamics complicating consensus and problem solving.
Democracy needs you. But you need your sanity. And so much political coverage is biased and inflammatory. That’s why Fluent Politics strives for accuracy, balance and civility in all our content, avoiding hype, noise, and spin while presenting real knowledge.
Featured
Heard the One About a Centrist Congressman?
Heard the One About a Centrist Congressman? Carlos Curbelo on Polarization in the House What’s it like to represent one of…
Amy Chua on Political Tribalism
Amy Chua on Political Tribalism Can we balance celebrating our multiculturalism with sharing a national identity? The Purple Principle celebrates Independence…
Is Texas the Future of America?
Is Texas the Future of America? Our Texas Mini-Series Finale The Purple Principle brings its seven-part series on politics and identity…
posts
Alaska’s Special Election: A Good Omen for Ranked Choice Voting?
From the Editors | RCV Lessons for Maine and Nevada from The Last Frontier |Issue 18 |…
Two party California, both parties Democratic?
From the Editors | Shades of Blue Within The Golden State | Issue 17 | July…
Our Polarizing Primaries: Georgia Holds a Peach of a Primary
From the Editors | Issue 16 | May 31, 2022 Elections should be about forming a…
podcasts
Election Lessons Unheeded?
Election Lessons Unheeded? Will Hurd on the 2022 election results, congressional factions, and how bipartisan legislation gets passed. “The American people want serious people to solve serious challenges,“ declares former Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd in this season finale on the U.S. House of Representatives. “That’s the lesson we should take away from 2022.” But…
Is the Fever Breaking?
Is the Fever Breaking? Two Centrist Senators Doug Jones & Bob Corker on 2020 election results, a divided government, and Senate dynamics. “It appears to me that the fever has broken,” observes Bob Corker, former two-term U.S. Senator from Tennessee, in this episode on the upcoming Congress. ”And it appears to me that there’s gonna…
2022 Elections: Context & Perspective
2022 Elections: Context & Perspective Our best guest insights to keep in mind during these polarizing midterm elections The 2022 election results will consume us all over the coming days, weeks, even months. There are numerous razor-thin races, recounts of recounts and court decisions ahead before a new Congress takes shape. In this episode, The…
Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting
Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting Part of our Season 3 series on state-level polarization and partisanship. After years of effort by many groups and individuals, Alaska is about to be the first state in the country to hold a ranked choice voting election for all representatives, state and federal. But can ranked choice voting moderate…
No Such Thing as The Latino Vote?
No Such Thing as The Latino Vote? Part 3 of our series on understanding Hispanic voters TPP wraps up its series on Hispanic American Swing Voters with three very different yet highly insightful guests: Kicking things off, Northwestern University historian and frequent columnist Geraldo Cadava tells us that both parties have spun overly simplistic narratives…
Will Latinization Bring Moderation?
Will Latinization Bring Moderation? Part 2 of our series on understanding Hispanic voters How large a role will Hispanic voters play in the 2022 elections and beyond in U.S. politics? (Hint: Huge.) How are the major parties appealing to this voting bloc characterized by great diversity politically, economically and via country of origin, language, age,…
End of Bay State Bipartisanship?
End of Bay State Bipartisanship? Bipartisan Massachusetts may be turning towards national polarization. Massachusetts has long been a bipartisan enigma at the state level, electing moderate GOP governors for 30 of the past 60 years while seating a Democratic legislature. But the governor’s office is expected to revert to Democrats in 2022 and beyond. In…
Deval Patrick Talks Governing
Deval Patrick Talks Governing The former Massachusetts Governor on his improbable American journey “There are all kinds of ways in which we, as a community, enable the American story,” says Deval Patrick, implying that too often these success stories, even his own, emphasize only the individual. A former two-term Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, Patrick was…
Less Partisan Elections in Alaska 2022?
Less Partisan Elections in Alaska 2022? Will Final Four voting have a depolarizing effect on elections? In our continuing series on state level polarization, TPP visits the state with the highest percentage of non-partisan voters (58%) on the eve of a potentially less polarizing election: the great state of Alaska. On August 16, 2022, for…
The Decline of Moderates & Rise of Populism
The Decline of Moderates & Rise of Populism Applying a GOP history lesson to our current political moment This week we revisit an episode from 2020, adding some fresh questions and analysis on its lessons in GOP history from a 2022 perspective. Is Donald Trump losing his populist grip on the Republican Party after 6…
Andrew Heaton on Liberty, Justice, & Satire for All
Andrew Heaton on Liberty, Justice, & Satire for All Can indie-minded political humor break through without alienating polarized audiences? On this second episode featuring great American independents, The Purple Principle sits down with Andrew Heaton, political satirist, author, stand up comedian, podcast host, and let’s not forget small “l” libertarian with a fondness for the…
Amy Chua on Political Tribalism
Amy Chua on Political Tribalism Can we balance celebrating our multiculturalism with sharing a national identity? The Purple Principle celebrates Independence Day with its first of two episodes in a mini-series on America’s great independent voices. Amy Chua, perhaps best known by her bestselling Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, launches our exploration of figures…
Strength in Diversity, Weakness in One Party Rule?
Strength in Diversity, Weakness in One Party Rule? Can California continue to be a beacon of opportunity for all Americans? The Purple Principle completes its three-episode tour of the great state of California with three uniquely positioned viewpoints on the Golden State. Leon Panetta, one of the most experienced and respected elected officials to hail…
2022 California Primaries by Faction & Tortilla
2022 California Primaries by Faction & Tortilla Part 2 of our California series with Gustavo Arellano If California progressives were a tortilla brand, they’d be delicious but expensive and inaccessible. By contrast, establishment Democratic tortillas would be ubiquitous but just moderately tasty. And Republican tortillas would be less widely available and pretty much tasteless… Is…
One Golden State, Two Democratic Parties
One Golden State, Two Democratic Parties Part 1 of our California series explores how the California Dream has turned into a cost of living nightmare. “I always point out to people that California is still a two-party state,” says Dan Schnur, USC professor and former independent candidate for Secretary of State. “It just so happens…
Georgia On All Our Minds
Georgia On All Our Minds How is polarization affecting politics in the Peach State? It seems like all political roads lead to Georgia these days. The Peach State was so pivotal in the 2020 election of Joe Biden and soon after in the 2021 runoff election of two Democratic senators from a state in the…
Politically Persuadable But Focused on Jobs?
Politically Persuadable But Focused on Jobs? Part 1 of our series on understanding Hispanic voters Is a large and growing segment of Hispanic American voters leaning independent, as in less securely tied to either of the two major parties? That’s the operative question in this first episode on Hispanic swing voters, featuring three noted experts:…
Like Family, Like Nation: A Braver Angel
Like Family, Like Nation: A Braver Angel Author & Bridge Builder Mónica Guzmán Mediates Polarization At Home & Nationwide Our TPP guest this episode, Mónica Guzmán of Braver Angels, is a fascinating conversationalist who knows how to stop a conversation, particularly among blue-leaning Seattle friends and colleagues discussing politics. As she recounts in our interview,…
Is Texas the Future of America?
Is Texas the Future of America? Our Texas Mini-Series Finale The Purple Principle brings its seven-part series on politics and identity in the already huge, yet fast-growing Lone Star State to conclusion with a guided tour of key insights from notable “Texperts” in all six episodes. Read More The series began with the operative question:…
A New American Operating System?
A New American Operating System? Part 6 of our Texas series with Former Congressman Will Hurd. Purple Principle listeners know these not so United States need a new political operating system. But who’s going to code it? Based on a great new book, American Reboot (just out from Simon & Schuster), and our TPP conversation,…
Lone Star Launch Pad for Rear-Guard America?
Lone Star Launch Pad for Rear-Guard America? Part 5 of our Texas series with Award-winning authors Lawrence Wright and Stephen Harrigan on the past and future of Texan identity. Our special guests for this fifth episode on Lone Star State identity are two authors with Texas-sized reputations: Lawrence Wright (The Looming Tower, God Save Texas)…
Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity
Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity Part 4 of our Texas series with Dr. Henry Cisneros and Dr. Sharon Navarro on the competing identities of Hispanic Texans. The Purple Principle is visiting the Lone Star State throughout the month of March 2022 and wondering if the famously strong Texas identity is holding up under the powerful…
Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics?
Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics? Part 3 of our Texas series with James Henson of The Texas Politics Project on polling, and More in Common’s Stephen Hawkins and Paul Oshinski on the seven “threads” of Texan identity. Is democracy still democracy when one party wins all the elections? That’s a question we’ll be asking…
Strongest Identity of Them Y’all?
Strongest Identity of Them Y’all? Part 2 of our Texas series with Texas Monthly’s Dan Goodgame on the continued strength of the Texas identity Texas has long had one of the most powerful and vocal identities of any American state. But how’s that unique Texas pride faring under the homogenizing power of polarization? Are more…
Messing with that Texas Identity?
Messing with that Texas Identity? Part 1 of our Texas series with Y’all-itics Hosts Jason Whitely and Jason Wheeler on Polarization in the Lone Star State The Purple Principle kicks off its extended Season Three series on state level polarization with a mini-series on the great state of Texas. And who better to discuss Texas…
Heard the One About a Centrist Congressman?
Heard the One About a Centrist Congressman? Carlos Curbelo on Polarization in the House What’s it like to represent one of the very few remaining swing districts on the U.S. Congressional map, and be virtually the only Republican member at that time to publicly address climate change? Former Congressman Carlos Curbelo from Florida’s 26th district…
Voice of Reason for Independent Minds
Voice of Reason for Independent Minds Talking Media & Polarization With CNN’s Michael Smerconish “I have been paying attention for thirty years,” CNN and SiriusXM host & commentator Michael Smerconish tells us. “And during that time the country has been driven into a partisan ditch.” A well-known visage from his CNN show, Smerconish is also…
The United States of Narcissism?
The United States of Narcissism? Author Tom Nichols on the risk Americans present to our own democracy “If we believe democracy has failed us,” writes author and scholar Tom Nichols in his latest book, Our Own Worst Enemy, “we should first ask ourselves whether we have failed the test of democracy.” In this Purple Principle…
Wait, I’m Not the Crazy One!
Wait, I’m Not the Crazy One! Sarah Longwell, Conservative Watchdog Of Republican Sanity “I’m watching everybody slowly turn into a pro-Trump zombie that I’ve ever worked with or been around; everyone’s doing their rationalizations.” So recalls special guest this episode, Sarah Longwell, conservative strategist turned watchdog of Republican populism as Executive Director of the Republican…
Speaking Truth in Polarized Times
Top Guest Insights From 2021 Speaking Truth In Polarized Times The year 2021 would certainly be worth forgetting if its worst elements weren’t so clearly continuing on into the New Year 2022 and very likely beyond: the Omicron surge, the worst U.S. inflation in decades, and the maelstrom of misinformation swirling around the clear benefits…
Holiday Survival Kit (Part 3)
Identity With All The Trimmings Celebration & Polarization: Part 3 Can a German town be socially divided by sneakers? Or the Canadian landmass united by a beer commercial? And is US individualism more a group identity than its ardently individualistic citizens would ever admit? Read More Tune in to the third and final episode in…
Holiday Survival Kit (Part 2)
When Anti-Science Makes The Menu Celebration & Polarization: Part 2 It’s tempting to think of anti-science sentiments, such as the current pushback against COVID vaccination, as the disparate sum of misinformed individuals. But Lee McIntyre, author of the recent book How to Talk To A Science Denier has found otherwise. “All science denial is really…
Holiday Survival Kit (Part 1)
Deflating Political Football Celebration & Polarization: Part 1 Are we Americans trapped in our end zones of polarized bubbles ever more motivated to reason away conflicting information or viewpoints? Our featured guest, psychologist Tania Israel, thinks not and she should know. Dr. Israel has been holding workshops over the past two-plus decades to help participants…
Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 4
Romance, Grandeur & Smugness on The West Wing Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 4 Our Purple Principle series on Hollywood Presidents would not be complete without a stroll back in time through that show of all Potus shows, The West Wing, featuring Martin Sheen as President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. We speak with award-winning…
Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 3
Hail the Flip-Flopping Egomania of Veep Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 3 HBO’s Veep, starring Julia Louis Dreyfuss, is quite likely the most successful American political satire in television history. Yet, in seven seasons, the show never mentions the party labels “Democrat” or “Republican,” instead using terms like “the enemy camp” or, more…
Amazing Grace For Our Partisan Times
Amazing Grace For Our Partisan Times Sarah and Beth, Creators of Pantsuit Politics Is it possible to have grace-filled conversations during these ingracious times of ours? After 500 episodes heard by hundreds of thousands of listeners, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, the Kentucky-based creators of Pantsuit Politics, can decisively say that it is. In…
Liberty & Justice For Some
Liberty & Justice For Some Two Centuries Of Independent Black Leaders & Movements Here’s a seemingly inexplicable historical event: How did the anti-slavery Republican party take the White House in 1861, only six years after its formation? Thanks to the work of our special guest, Dr. Omar Ali, historian at UNC-Greensboro, we know this accomplishment…
A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization?
A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization? New Vitality In Education & Legislation Is civics education in the U.S. having a moment, as in a long overdue upgrade, for a topic essential to our democracy? And will that moment translate into more substantial education on the rights and obligations of our citizens and voters-to-be at the…
Woking up to Backlash
Woking up to Backlash New York Times Columnist Thomas Edsall on Reason & Responsibility in Polarized Politics “The rise of the conservative movement on the right and the decline of liberalism on the left have been a preoccupation of mine for 40 years or more,” Thomas Edsall confides in our latest Season Two episode, “Woking…
Passing the Mic
Passing the Mic New Co-Host Jillian Youngblood Gets A Bit Of Purple Orientation This bonus episode features the passing of the ceremonial mic from Emily Crocetti to our new co-host, Jillian Youngblood, Executive Director of Civic Genius. After a full year and 35 episodes, Emily is moving onto a newspaper position in a breathtakingly beautiful…
Hollywood Presidents For A Partisan Nation, Part 2
Hail the Independent & Designated Survivor Hollywood Presidents For A Partisan Nation, Part 2 Imagine creating a television series premised on a U.S. Capitol building attack, then watching a less lethal yet all too real version of that event unfold years later. Writer/Creator David Guggenheim relates how that felt in the second part of our…
Hollywood Presidents For A Partisan Nation, Part 1
Hail The Independent Commander In Chief Hollywood Presidents For A Partisan Nation, Part 1 In a time of extreme polarization, how does Hollywood portray a POTUS with broad audience appeal? That question is at the heart of our multi-part series on Hollywood Presidents, starting with special guest Rod Lurie, the first to create an independent…
Nicest Troll in Town
Nicest Troll in Town On- and Offline identity, Extremism, and Polarization Social media is not fundamentally a source of information or a competition of ideas, but a competition of identities. With that and other provocative findings, Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of Breaking the Social Media Prism (Princeton…
Embrace Complexity To Overcome Polarization
Embrace Complexity To Overcome Polarization Discussing a Way Out with Dr. Peter Coleman of The Difficult Conversations Lab Police reform, gun violence, global warming… When did you last have a civil, informative, productive conversation with someone of differing opinions on any of these hugely important but instantly polarizing topics? In the current U.S. political climate,…
Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults
Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults Social Extremes In Our Hyperpartisan Age Our digital universe is full of information, and misinformation, swirling about constantly, sampled in bits and bytes, most of it rarely gaining more than passing attention. How then does misinformation swirl up into a popular conspiracy theory? How do some conspiracy theories, such as…
What combats Vax Skepticism?
What combats Vax Skepticism? An Interview with Dr. Jeanine Guidry, Director of VCU’s Health & Media Lab Battling the COVID pandemic has been a war on many fronts – disease management, the race to develop safe, effective vaccines, and now the equally trickly public relations battle against vaccine misinformation and committed skeptics of all kinds….
The Politics Industry at Work
The Politics Industry at Work And How Would You Like Your Gridlock? Our national legislative agenda hinges on any one Senator’s vote or abstention or last minute demand… A few months into term and the majority of U.S. House Members already anticipate their next primary battle… Meanwhile, bridges crumble, the border crisis deepens, and gun…
The Senate Filibuster
The Senate Filibuster Weapon Of Obstruction Or Shield Against Polarization? The U.S. system of government is commonly known as one of checks and balances. But a careful review of legislative efforts over the past century might need to revise that description to checks and balances and filibusters. Read More In this episode of The Purple…
What’s Behind Those Red and Blue Maps?
What’s Behind Those Red and Blue Maps? The Social Geography of U.S. Polarization In this episode of The Purple Principle, we wonder, what’s behind those red and blue maps of American political and social geography and our deepening urban-rural divide? To find out, we consult not one but two political scientists named Ryan who have…
When Martians Land, Pigs Fly, and Americans Reach Consensus
When Martians Land, Pigs Fly, and Americans Reach Consensus Civic Genius & Citizen Panel Forums We’ve all seen and heard the sad decline of civil discussions at congressional town hall forums over the past decade or two. The anger, the shouting, the gotcha questions. Not to mention generous amounts of obfuscation from congressional representatives as…
Portrait of the Arsonist As Young Congressman
Portrait of the Arsonist As Young Congressman Historian Julian Zelizer (Burning Down the House) on the inflammatory influence of Newt Gingrich Does history create vulnerabilities that any number of populist politicians could seize upon? Or do exceptional populists create those opportunities only he or she can exploit? There’s no simple answer to that question. But…
We’re Polarized: Now What?
We’re Polarized: Now What? The Hard Work Of Depolarization To some degree all Americans realize we’ve become more polarized in recent times. Those at one extreme obsess about the other, while those of us between the extremes wonder if that incessant tug of war will fray our social fabric to the breaking point. Read More…
Polarization as Plague
Polarization as Plague Season One Finale (Part One) A first presidential impeachment… the COVID pandemic with great dissension over shutdowns, social distancing and mask-wearing…Then our hotly contested 2020 election followed by major efforts at election reversal, culminating with insurrection and a second impeachment trial… It’s been quite a year, much too full of subject matter…
2020 Polling in Hindsight
2020 Polling in Hindsight Someone Please Answer the Phone Anyone casually following the 2020 election this year may have noticed a particular pattern in polling trends and election results. That pattern, in key presidential states as well as Senate races, went something like this: Democrat ahead… Democrats still ahead… Democrat a bit ahead, days away…
Polarization at the Tipping Point
Polarization at the Tipping Point The Long Term and Wide Angled Views A Major Pandemic… Election 2020 that lasted weeks… And Election Denial 2020 is still going months later… Then Insurrection… Impeachment… And possibly more to come. There’s been a lot of polarized events, responses and counter-responses over the past few months. So it seems…
Independents, Alaska Style: A repodcast
Independents, Alaska Style: A repodcast Ballot Measure Two Takes on Polarization The Year 2020 has not exactly been brimming with good news. Certainly in terms of public health and the economy, you could say it was the worst of times and the worst of times. But we did find a bright audio spot in Purple…
Civil Society and Campus Politics
Civil Society and Campus Politics Two Collegians Take on Polarization Colleges have come to be known as havens for divisive politics, cancel culture, and trollism, all miserably co-existing with academic stress, social pressure and stale pizza. In Episode 18, “Civil Society and Campus Politics.” The Purple Principle profiles two college students pushing back against the…
Party Dynamics and the 2020 Election
Party Dynamics and The 2020 Election Inaccurate polling… Surprising split-ticket results… Denial of election results by large numbers of Republican voters and representatives in Congress… There have been plenty of head scratching if not jaw-dropping developments related to the 2020 election. In Episode 17, “Party Dynamics in Context,” we turn to noted author and columnist,…
Democracy & Elections Under Stress
Democracy & Elections Under Stress A Discussion With Trevor Potter Of The Campaign Legal Center The 2020 election has revealed the partisan state of American politics and society like no other event in recent history. How did we get to this point? Our special guest today, Trevor Potter, Founder and President of the Campaign Legal…
Centennial of Yeats’ The Second Coming
Centennial of Yeats’ The Second Coming Part 2: Things Fall Apart Today (Much Like A Century Ago) Exactly one hundred years ago this month, at a time of deep political polarization and the Spanish Flu pandemic, William Butler Yeats published “The Second Coming”, a poem premised on the cycles of history that resonates today with…
The Second Coming Turns 100
The Second Coming Turns 100 A Discussion of W.B. Yeats’ Classic Poem of Polarization with Pulitzer winner Paul Muldoon How does a century-old poem written in Ireland as European civil wars erupted in the aftermath of World War I still resonate as if written for our own partisan era? That is the central question The…
Declaration of Independents, Alaska Style
Declaration of Independents, Alaska Style Ballot Question Two Takes on Political Partisanship The great state of Alaska is different in many ways – its vast size (two and a half times the size of Texas), low population (730,000) and great distance from “the lower 48” (states), with a thousand miles of Canadian territory in-between. Politics…
A Non-partisan Candidate for Congress
Non-Partisan David vs. D.C. Goliath Discussion With David Krucoff Washington, D.C. is a living museum of political stalemates – the recent COVID relief talks, the decades long deadlock on immigration reform, but also the centuries long impasse over voting representation in Congress for D.C. citizens. Read More Independent candidate David Krucoff is running for the…
Science, Comedy & Partisanship
Science, Comedy & Partisanship Shane Mauss Stands up and Speaks Out What makes a stand-up comedian wake up one day and decide comedy needs more science? Or science needs more comedy? A road comic for 13 years, Shane Mauss made one or both of these enlightened decisions five plus years ago in launching his science…
2020 Election Polling
2020 Election Polling The Science & Psychology Of Polls In A Partisan Age During this 2020 election season, not a day goes by without another new Presidential poll result blaring from the cable networks and rebounding across the Web. But how accurate are these polls? What has been learned from the 2016 polling fiasco where many…
The Brain on Partisan Politics
The Brain on Partisan Politics Why Not So Great Minds Polarize Alike with NYU Scientist, Dr. Jay Van Bavel Let’s say, for the sake of Episode 9 (The Brain on Partisan Politics), that identical twins are separated at birth and raised in very different families, politically speaking: one deep blue, the other deep red. They’re…
Comedy & Partisanship
Comedy & Partisanship The Transcendent Laugh With Special Guest, Myq Kaplan Ok, Comedians, make America laugh with surprising, original jokes that offend absolutely no one and work equally well in our very blue, very red and very antagonized parts of the country… to the Purple Principle team, that seemed a near-impossible challenge in today’s partisan environment. …
Congress and Partisanship
The Outlook From Dead Center Congress and Partisanship With Former US Congressman, Jason Altmire Did you hear the one about bipartisanship? Two opposing congressmen walk into a town hall…and civil discussion breaks out. Hard to believe in the current climate, but former three-term Congressman Jason Altmire recounts the origin and unfortunate demise of these bipartisan…
Social Media & Partisanship
Social Media & Partisanship Polarizing Algorithms And A Blind Date With Dividends How do social media algorithms feed us news, entertainment, advertisements, even suggesting friends and lovers? By grossly simplifying human nature, according to featured guest Dr. Robert Elliott Smith, Research Fellow in Computer Science at University College London and author of Rage Inside the…
Broadcast Media and Partisanship
Broadcast Media and Partisanship Side of Spin with Your Nightly News, with Dr. Dominik Stecula What the heck happened to broadcast news in recent decades? That is the burning question we ask of Dr. Dominik Stecula, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University and expert on broadcast media trends in the US over…
Heard from the Herd
Heard from the herd Psychology and Partisanship, featuring Dr. Abigail Marsh, author of The Fear Factor; Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Georgetown University Are we all getting a little too musk ox these days? In this interview-based episode, Dr. Abigail Marsh explains the centrality of fear in human behavior, motivating any social species (whether musk…
America’s Independent Voters and Voices
America’s Independent Voters and Voices The Forty Million Missing By most measures, the US has over 40 million independent or unaffiliated voters representing a third or more of the electorate. Yet despite large and growing numbers, independents are often missing from the national conversation. Independents have no cable channel or national newspaper. You rarely encounter…
Partisanship from All Angles
Partisanship from All Angles Priming With Purple How did these United States get so thoroughly partisan? How do we get less partisan? Can independent-minded Americans help bridge the divide? These questions lie behind this first and every episode of The Purple Principle, a podcast about the perils of partisanship in US politics, society and daily…
Front Lines of Partisanship
Front Lines of Partisanship With Dr. Charles Wheelan from Unite America In Episode 2, our guests include a former Republican speechwriter, a former centrist Democratic congressional candidate, a former Economist Magazine correspondent, a current Professor of Public Policy (Dartmouth College) and the founder of the non-partisan group, Unite America…. Lots of guests for one podcast?…