How Do We Fix It?

More than any time in recent decades, American politics aredeeply divided. Compromise is a dirty word.

"The way that we're running the country is that we're notrunning the country," says our guest Mark Gerzon, author of the newbook, "TheReunited States of America."

As President of Mediators Foundation, the group he founded 25years ago, Mark has brought people together in conflict zonesaround the world Concerned about increasing polarization in theU.S., Mark is working on the ideological frontier between left andright.

"We can work together to solve the problems we all face in acountry we all love," Gerzon tells us on this episode of "How Do WeFix It?" But what we have now is a permanent campaign by bothparties. "And after election day they start the next campaign."

"We can't solve any of the problems we face if we're tearingeach other down the whole time."

Mark's fixes include urging individual citizens to engage indiscussions with people we don't agree with, asking questions aboutwhat they think, rather than stating fixed opinions.

"Do you want to get drunk on being right and enjoy that feelingof being with the people you agree with and bad mouth the peopleyou don't?," asks Mark.

News media coverage, he says, is biased in favor of controversy,contests and clashes.

"There's a whole America out there that's not getting any newscoverage. And that's the America where Americans work together."Resources for compromise and open-minded dialog include:

• livingroomconversations.org
• bridgealliance.us
• everyday-democracy.org
• democracyfund.org

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From the AmericanRevolution and the Founding Fathers - through wars, economic changeand the struggle for civil rights, American history isoverwhelmingly dominated by the achievements and errors ofmen. 

Women - because they were largely excluded from public andprofessional life for most of our history - play a relatively smallrole in the established narrative of our past. 

"Role models have a hugeimpact on the way young girls and women in general think aboutthemselves," says Joan Wages, President and CEO of The NationalWomen's History Museum.

"We need more women role models out in the public sphere so weknow about them."

In this episode, Joan tells about the campaign for building aNational Women's History Museum in Washington D.C. TheMuseum's website states: "It will be centrally located near theworld's most prestigious museums and monuments in our Nation'sCapital." 

Fewer than 20% of the Members of Congress are women.  Incorporate boardrooms the numbers are even lower.  Fewer than5% of CEO's at Fortune 500 companies are women.

"Each time a young girl hears this, it sends a message to themthat they're not equal. That's what needs to change." 

This episode has examples of women forgotten by history andlooks at other fixes as well as obstacles as the campaign attemptsto correct an imbalance in how women are portrayed.

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For its opponents, Obamacare is a disaster - a classic exampleof over-reach by an Administration that wants to expand the sizeand scope of the Federal government.

Supporters say The Affordable Care Act is a triumph, benefitingcountless millions of Americans, while reducing the threat ofpersonal bankruptcies in medical emergencies crippling healthcarecosts.

"We have decreased the rate ofthe uninsured by about a third," says our guest Megan McArdle, acolumnist at Bloomberg View. But Obamacare poses apotentially fatal threat.

"What people are doing is they're gaming the system." Some withhealth emergencies, who have inadequate medical insurance are"signing up for a fewmonths, using a ton of services and then dropping itagain."

Several large insurance companies say they are losing money onthe government-run exchanges. UnitedHealth, the nation's largesthealth insurance firm, warned it would have to pull out if marketconditions didn't improve. Exchange enrollments are lower than thegovernment had forecast. 

Is Obamacare the victim of "anadverse death spiral"?  Are costs rising faster thanexpected?  Do Americans have unrealistic expectations thatwould doom any attempt to provide better coverage?

We debate the arguments from different points of view andsuggest a fix that could involve consumers more directly in costdecisions, while putting a ceiling on heath care costs for eachhousehold.

Megan McArdle is the author of "The Upside of Down: Why FailingWell Is The Key To Success."

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Debbie Galant talks about what it's like to livewith breast cancer.  What she learned along the way amount tosolutions for what can be a desperate, lonelyexperience.

From the shock of herfirst diagnosis to sometimes wrenching, sometimes funnyconversations with her doctors and family, Debbie gives us valuablelessons about how to survive and recover, physically andemotionally.

"You are pitched intothis world of fear... this incredible world of fear," she tells us."You're making a lot of decisions in that period, but you're reallyin a primal place."

Her journey includes howto "de-code" her oncologist, and learn from a nurse-navigator todealing with her own emotional roller-coaster ride.  She alsotalks about a vital ingredient: humor.

"Going into a doctor'sappointment with a sense of humor, as opposed to a sense of dread,really helped."

Debbie, her husbandWarren Levinson, and son Noah tell their story in the podcast,"Chemo Files" - is a deeply personal account of her months ofdealing with cancer. She is Associate Director of New MediaInitiatives and runs NJ News Commons at Montclair State University,New Jersey.

If you would like moreinformation about understanding breast cancer and learning moreabout communities that can help, these websites may behelpful: www.breastcancer.org, www.cancer.gov/types/breast, www.webmd.com/breastcancer/.  A.B.C.D(after breast cancer diagnosis) ( 800-977-4121): Free one-to-one mentoring for every step of your journey.Speak with a breast cancer survivor. Get accurate, reliableinformation & supportArticles on breast cancer

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The illusion of safety can lead to reckless behavior.

These fascinating insights are part of "Foolproof - Why SafetyCan Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe", the recentlypublished book by Greg Ip, chief economics commentator at The WallStreet Journal.

"Life is about risk," Greg tells us in this episode of "How DoWe Fix It?" When we believe the world is safe, it affects ourbehavior. "Many positive things happen from taking risks and weshould not let the pendulum swing all the way to the other side -trying to eliminate all risks from our lives."

Our collective aim to make life safer comes into conflict withthe equally strong desire to make things bigger and morecomplicated. It is in our nature to safeguard our world - and yetsometimes, more often than we realize, protections end up being thethings that threaten our safety and well-being.

Accidents will always happen, says Greg. Among the solutions hecalls for are safe spaces: allowing banks to fail without takingdown the entire financial system and creating flood plains that allrivers and coastal waters to rise without creating havoc in nearbycommunities.

Greg argues for a balance between independence, risk and safety.Regulate too much and we reduce the opportunities for innovationand create a sense of potential complacency. "Black swan" eventsare inevitable. Our systems of governance and rule-making shouldrecognize that we cannot plan for every eventuality.

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Before The U.S. and other nations can be successful againstIslamic State (ISIS) and other global jihadists, we must understandthe difference between Islam and Islamism. That's the argument fromour guest on this week's episode, Maajid Nawaz.

"It happens to be that today we are dealing with an insurgencythat's rising and growing within my own Muslim community," he says.It doesn't help to deny it."

A Sunni Muslim and a former Islamist fundamentalist, who isfounding chairman of the London-based counter-terrorism foundation,Quilliam, Maajid makes a powerful argument for freedom, toleranceand respect.

He says that President Obama and many other liberal-mindedpoliticians and journalists have been reluctant to call Islamistideology by its proper name. "Here's where people become paralyzedby political correctness," he argues. "We are unable to say'Islamist extremism' as distinct from Islam the religion."

"I call this the Voldemort affect," citing the villain in theHarry Potter books and movies. Maajid compares the refusal to speakout against Islamists to those in the novels who were so petrifiedby Lord Voldemort's evil that they simply called him "he who mustnot be named."

"We're not talking about Islam the faith we're talking aboutpoliticalization of the faith."

Maajid Nawaz is author of the book “Radical: My Journey Out ofIslamist Extremism.”

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We'd like to think that science should exist outside of politics and researchers follow the truth wherever it goes.

But the ideal of rational non-ideological science is under attack at many colleges and universities, says our guest, Alice Dreger. An historian who studies human sexuality and the ethics of medical research, Alice is the author of the provocative new book, "Galileo's Middle Finger."

"I'm really looking at how activists go after scientists who have ideas that the activists don't like - usually about human identity," she tells us.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, this show includes explicit content, including a description of a sex act. But the main focus is about the threat to academic freedom.

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The armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the dry prairies of Southeast Oregon by members a small militia group is the most recent chapter in the very long-running dispute over land in The West.

Our guest is environmental historian Nancy Langston, author of “Where Land and Water Meet. A Western Landscape Transformed.”

In some western states the Federal Government owns more than half the land. This set the stage for impassioned arguments between ranchers, conservationists, corporate interests, local communities and native American tribes. All have a role to play.

As for the seizure of government property, "there is very, very little local support for the militia's tactics for this kind of violent anarchy," Nancy Langton told us on this episode.

"They have nothing to do with this region and I don"t think there are many local ranchers or anybody else in the community who approve of their methods."

But there is considerable support for changing the way federal lands are managed and giving local interests a greater role. Some believe that land should be turned over to state and local control. Langston says collaboration and respect for different interests are the only ways to solve the disputes. We examine the arguments in this "Fix It" episode and suggest solutions.

The Malheur example is more important than the case of the Hammonds, the two Harney County ranchers who were sent back to prison. The argument is part of a national debate over increasing federal government power, especially during the past 40 years, since new environmental regulations were established by the Nixon Administration.

The occupiers claimed that government discriminated against local ranchers, who use federal land for cattle grazing. Is there merit to their argument, or do ranchers get over-generous subsidies from taxpayers to raise livestock on the public's land?

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