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The Purple Principle
The Purple Principle episodes
- A Primary Solution to Unite America? New Book From Election Reformer, Nick Troiano
“My goal in this book isn't just to diagnose the problem,” explains Nick Troiano, Executive Director of Unite America. “But to give people a solution that is viable and can happen right there in their own states.”
That book is “The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes,” published this week by Simon & Schuster in time for another polarizing primary season. Yet Nick notes in the book, as in our interview, that a record number of 2024 state level efforts to reform primary elections may soon shift the US Congress from gridlock to governance.
“This will be the most robust year for election reform that we've seen in the modern era,” says Troiano who ran for Congress a decade ago in his mid twenties as an independent in Pennsylvania. “The people do agree that every voter should have the right to vote for any candidate in every election, and that elected officials have to win a majority of votes to get elected.”
Troiano also details the importance of Alaska’s Final Four electoral reforms, passed in 2020 and utilized in the 2022 election, as proof of concept for other state and city efforts.
“At the end of the day, we all have one vote,” says Troiano. “There's nothing so wrong with the state of our democracy that we can't fix with the tools that our democracy gives us to do so.”
Tune in to learn how as few as 6 state level initiatives could motivate Congress to tackle such long standing chronic issues as the fiscal deficit, gun violence and immigration reform.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Nick Troiano: Bio, X (Twitter)
Executive Director, Unite America
Additional Resources
Nicks Book Information
Primary Elections
Alaska Case Study by Unite America
Problem Solving Caucus
Nevada and Open Primaries
Find us online!
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Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
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26 min - Systems Level Failure? Veterans for All Voters Takes on Polarizing Elections
“Every time I talk to someone about running for office, the first thing they say is, Eric, you have to pick a team,” confides Navy veteran Eric Bronner, COO of the non-partisan group Veterans for All Voters.
“And something didn't sit right with me. So the pump was primed, as my parents would say, for some kind of awakening.”
That awakening occurred listening to a Freakonomics podcast episode with former Purple Principle guest Katherine Gehl, co-author of The Politics Industry. In that episode, as in our own 2021 interview, Gehl highlighted the lack of incentives our elected officials have to govern effectively.
To tackle that problem, Eric and his co-founders are forming a nationwide network of veterans to volunteer on behalf of state level election reform initiatives like opening primaries to the large percentage of registered independent or unaffiliated veterans unable to vote in primary elections and also to advance Final Four or Five voting as detailed in The Politics Industry.
“The last thing we need is more partisanship,” says Bronner who now works full time coordinating hundreds of volunteers in forty states and counting. “We can have differences of opinion, right? But the system itself is broken.”
Tune in to meet three other veterans behind this effort and find out how Bronner and Veterans For All Voters hope to mend the system in this 2024 election cycle and beyond. The Purple Principle is Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
Eric Bronner: Bio, X (Twitter)
Co-founder and COO of Veterans for All Voters
Additional Resources
Show Me Integrity
Freakonomics: America’s Hidden Duopoly
The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy by Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter
Find us online!
X: @purpleprincipl
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Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
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27 min - Breaking Bread, Sharing Salad & Final Four Voting: Alaska Representative Mary Peltola
“I know that I would not be in this position if we didn't have the Final Four system,” Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) tells us in this first Purple Principle episode of season four. “Because I would not have made it through a partisan primary.”
A native Alaskan, Representative Peltola gained re-election to the US House on the third ballot of the nation’s first Final Four election in 2022. Final Four Voting combines a unified open primary with a ranked choice general election. The intended goal is to replace the current system of polarizing party-led primaries.
Final Four Voting Across Party Lines
Peltola’s election to the US House may seem surprising from a vast, largely rural state with twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats. But the majority of Alaskan voters are registered as non-partisan or unaffiliated.
Final Four: Lessons for the Lower 48?
Prior to US House election, Peltola was a member of the bipartisan “Bush Caucus" within the Alaska House of Representatives. Now, after moving to what feels like a foreign country, she continues to work across the aisle in Washington, DC.
“I have had very few opportunities just to eat with Republicans and I am very eager to meet and collaborate with as many Republicans as I can,” she explains. “I'm a member of the Western Caucus, which right now is 106 Republicans and me.”
Peltola is hopeful US House polarization can be overcome yet clear-eyed about the current gridlock. “The entrenchment is so deep,” she tells us.
Does this vast, frontier state and it's current Rep. hold lessons for our divided nation? Tune in to learn more about Mary Peltola’s bipartisan efforts in the US House and the distinctive culture of her native Alaska.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
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26 min - Election Lessons Unheeded? A Cautionary View of the New U.S. House
“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 he’s quick to add, “I don’t think that lesson is going to be implemented in this new congress.”
Hurd then dissects the GOP factionalism at work in the contested house speaker’s election and confirms that most House members are more interested in “messaging bills” than progress on tough, important issues like immigration and climate change.
The Purple Principle covered the U.S. Senate in our previous episode with former centrist Senators Doug Jones and Bob Corker. This episode we turn to the unruly chamber next door in discussion with Will B. Hurd, former CIA officer, three-term Texas Congressman and author of American Reboot.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Let us know!: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
SHOW NOTES
The Purple Principle has been nominated for three Signal Awards, but we need your help. Click here to cast a vote!
Our Guest
- Will Hurd is a former three-term Congressman for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, serving in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2021. A former CIA officer and cybersecurity executive, he’s the author of the recently released book American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done. Find him on Twitter @WillHurd
More episode resources:
https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/new-us-house
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney
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TPP website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
30 min - Is the Fever Breaking? Two Centrist Senators on the 2022 Elections
“It appears to me that the fever has broken,” observes Bob Corker, former two-term GOP Senator from Tennessee. ”And there's gonna be a real serious debate on the Republican side of the aisle as to where the party is gonna go in 2024.”
Fading GOP loyalty to former President Trump is the elephant in the room as we discuss the 2022 election, successes of the current Congress, and prospects for governance going forward.
“Right now you got a lot of folks feeling their oats over in the House” says Doug Jones, the Democratic winner of an Alabama special election in 2017. “And they have promised a lot of oversight, a lot of investigations… Who the hell knows? On the Senate side, though, it will be steady as she goes.”
Join the conversation with two centrist U.S. Senate alumni--Doug Jones, a storied civil rights litigator, and Bob Corker, who raised alarms during the Trump administration as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Let us know!:
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SHOW NOTES
The Signal Awards has recognized The Purple Principle as a finalist in three award categories, but we need your votes to win. Click here and search "purple principle" to find our nominated episodes and vote!
Our Guests
The Hon. Bob Corker is a former Republican Senator from Tennessee, serving for two terms in Congress. A commercial real estate developer, he began his political career as commissioner for the Tennessee Finance and Administration Department before being elected Mayor of Chattanooga in 2001. While a member of the U.S. Senate, Corker served as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. You can follow him on Twitter @SenBobCorkerThe Hon. Doug Jones is a former Democratic Senator from Alabama, serving in Congress for three years after a high-profile special election in 2017. He was the first Democrat to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate in over two decades. Jones was appointed U.S. Attorney for Alabama’s Northern District in 1997, and is known for his prosecution of two Ku Klux Klan members for their role in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. You can follow him on Twitter @DougJonesMore episode resources:
https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/centrist-senators
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40 min - Repodcast: Deflating Political Football with Tania Israel
Happy Thanksgiving from The Purple Principle team! This week we’re revisiting an episode from November 2021.
In the aftermath of another fractious election season, and heading into the holiday season, it feels appropriate to bring psychologist Tania Israel back into the feed. She explains the active listening methods we need to have genuine conversations across the political divide and across the dinner table, when opposing viewpoints are in the house.
Are we Americans trapped in our end zones of polarized bubbles ever more motivated to reason away conflicting viewpoints?
Our featured guest, psychologist Tania Israel, thinks not and should know. Dr. Israel has been holding workshops over the past two decades to help participants bridge political and social divisions. In this Purple Principle episode, co-hosts Robert Pease & Jillian Youngblood speak with Tania about these workshops, her flowchart that (almost) solved political polarization, and her book, Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide.
With Dr. Israel’s facilitation, we apply the bubble bursting toolkit to a serious in-house case of affective (aka negative) polarization -- Jillian’s deep dislike of the New England Patriots, especially ex-Patriot and presumptive GOAT (greatest of all time), quarterback Tom Brady, stemming from her identity as a New York Jets Fan.
“I’m so glad you brought up something that’s so central to our democracy,” quips Israel, who gamely plays along as we advance this metaphor down the political football field.
Family gatherings were never friction-free. Then polarization came along. Listen in for helpful advice from an all-star in respectful and compassionate dialogue, just in time for Thanksgiving.
Author and scholar Dr. Tania Israel is the first guest in our three-part Holiday Survival Kit. More here: https://fluentknowledge.com/holiday-kit
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
Tania Israel: Website, Twitter, Book, Faculty page.
Additional Resources
- How to Win a Political Argument | Dr. Tania Israel | TEDxSanLuisObispo
- Moderates are less likely to post about their political views on social media | Pew Research
- Bipartisan Public Consensus Offers Direction for US Foreign Policy in Second Bush Term | Dr. Steven Kull
- The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others
- Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs | AJPS
- Tom Brady suspension case timeline
- NFL History - Super Bowl Winners | ESPN
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29 min - As 2022 Election Results Roll In: Concern, Context, & Perspective
The 2022 election will consume us over the coming days, weeks, and months. There will likely be recounts, runoffs and court challenges before a new Congress takes shape.
This Purple Principle episode highlights concerns surrounding this election, with many GOP candidates questioning election integrity, while providing context and perspective from a variety of guests.
For Sarah Longwell of the Republican Accountability Project, the question is whether Democrats nominated “broadly appealing candidates” attractive enough to swing voters.
Dr. Adrienne Jones of Morehouse College finds a silver lining in the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Hershel Walker–the first such contest between two African Americans in Georgia history.
And Dr. Charles Bullock, the respected University of Georgia scholar, proposes recalculation of former President Trump's endorsement “batting average” while suggesting GOP leadership could distance itself from Trump as a result of these losses.
Tune in for important insights on and around the 2022 election.
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Let us know!: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Featured Guests from past episodes:
Sarah Longwell - Executive Director, Republican Accountability ProjectThomas Edsall - New York Times ColumnistWill Hurd - Former CIA Agent and U.S. Congressman for TX-23Chuck Rocha - Democratic Political Strategist, The Latino Vote co-hostMike Madrid - GOP Political Strategist, The Latino Vote co-hostDan Goodgame - Editor-in-Chief of Texas MonthlyJoel Kotkin - Chapman University Professor, AuthorDeval Patrick - Former Massachusetts GovernorCharles Bullock - Chair in Political Science at the University of GeorgiaAdrienne Jones - Assistant Professor of Political Science at Morehouse College- Bill Walker - former Governor of Alaska, 2022 gubernatorial candidate
Chris Bail - Director of the Duke University Polarization LabMore episode resources on our website:
https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/election-2022
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20 min - Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting: These Not So United States (AK Part 2 & NV)
Alaska will soon be the first state in the country to hold a ranked choice voting election for all representatives, state and federal. But can RCV moderate our severely polarized politics?
If the August special election and current congressional campaign are any guide, the answer is a hearty, “Maybe.”
That’s according to Matt Buxton, editor of the Alaskan political blog The Midnight Sun and co-host of the Hello Alaska! podcast. TPP Reporter Dylan Nicholls interviewed Buxton just after the special election and again now in the run up to Election Day.
Dylan’s second guest, Doug Goodman, is the founder of Nevadans for Election Reform. Doug’s watching Alaska closely as his state goes to the polls on an election reform measure he originated years ago.
Will RCV come to pass in Nevada, as in Alaska? Are we on a path toward more moderate campaigns, at least in our most purple states?
Listen in to find out.
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Let us know!: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
Matt Buxton is editor of the Alaskan political blog The Midnight Sun and co-host of the politics podcast Hello Alaska! His writing has also been featured on the Anchorage Daily News, and he publishes The Midnight Sun Memo newsletter regularly on Substack. Find him on Twitter @mattbuxton.Doug Goodman is the founder and Executive Director of Nevadans for Election Reform, and has been working to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Nevada for almost a decade. He’s collaborating with the Yes on 3 campaign to build support for Nevada Question 3, which would bring ranked choice to the silver state if adopted.More episode resources on our website:
https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/alaska-nevada
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney
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28 min - No Such Thing as The Latino Vote? Hispanic American Swing Voters (Finale)
TPP wraps up its series on Hispanic American Swing Voters with three very different yet highly insightful guests. Northwestern University historian Geraldo Cadava tells us that both parties have spun overly-simplistic narratives of the Hispanic voter – a mythical concept in his view.
Carlos Mencia has always been an iconoclast aiming satire in all directions. He reflects on his immigrant childhood, as one of 18 children, and living with relatives in a rough East L.A. neighborhood. And he expounds his indie-minded philosophy that to be completely conservative or liberal is to ignore the critical importance of change or tradition in American society.
Cristela Alonzo knows a thing or two about that conflict between tradition and change. She grew up in an immigrant Tejano Catholic family just over the U.S. border in an abandoned diner, and became the first Latina to create and star in a network TV comedy, Cristela.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Please answer our 1-question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
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SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
Geraldo Cadava is a historian of the United States and Latin America, and is a Professor of History at Northwestern University. He’s the author of The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of An American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump. Find him on Twitter @gerry_cadava.Cristela Alonzo is a comedian, writer, and actress. She was the first Latina to create and star in a network TV comedy, Cristela, and her latest comedy special, Middle Classy, is now streaming on Netflix. Find her on Twitter @cristela9.Carlos Mencia is a comedian, writer, and actor. He hosted The Journey podcast, and his cable show Mind of Mencia ran four seasons on Comedy Central. Find him on Twitter @carlosmencia.More episode resources on our website:
https://fluentknowledge.com/hispanic-series
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33 min - Will Latinization Bring Moderation? Hispanic American Swing Voters (Part 2)
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
How large a role will Hispanic voters play in 2022 elections? (Hint: It’s big.)
How are the major parties appealing to this diverse voting bloc? (Not so effectively.)
Can Latino candidates turn down the heat on our political rhetoric? (No sign of that yet.)
In the 2nd episode of our Hispanic American Swing Voters series, these questions frame our discussion with veteran Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, and Mike Madrid from the anti-Trump GOP side. They’ve teamed up to co-host the insightful podcast, The Latino Vote.
“What's nice about this podcast is we're both at an age where we don't care about the parties anymore,” confesses Madrid.
“Donald Trump brought us together to fight a common enemy,” adds Rocha.
Despite extreme positioning, the GOP has been picking up Latino candidates and voters. We discuss that trend and look at how these races could put forth less extreme rhetoric – if more Latino campaign experts were involved.
Understand the Latinization of our body politic with Chuck Rocha and Mike Madrid of The Latino Vote podcast.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
- Chuck Rocha is a Democratic political strategist and the founder of Solidarity Strategies. He’s the author of Tío Bernie, a memoir of the Sanders 2020 campaign, and co-hosts The Latino Vote podcast. You can find him on Twitter @ChuckRocha.
- Mike Madrid is a GOP political strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. He currently serves as Principal of the Grassroots Lab, is the Editor and Publisher of California City News, and co-hosts The Latino Vote podcast. You can find him on Twitter @madrid_mike.
More resources on our website: https://fluentknowledge.com/hispanic-series
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31 min
About The Purple Principle
From the publisher's feed
Nonpartisan podcast for independent-minded Americans exploring the perils of partisanship in U.S. politics, society and daily life.
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