The Purple Principle

“I always point out to people that California is still a two-party state,” says Dan Schnur, former independent candidate for Secretary of State. “It just so happens they're both Democratic parties.”

So starts a series of TPP episodes on our largest and bluest of states this primary season. Schnur’s outline of factions within Democratic Party are all the more vital, as are the economic insights of Joel Kotkin, the noted author and professor at Chapman University. 

“In the past, middle class and working class people trying to improve their lives came to California,” says Kotkin, who feels Texas now offers some of that upward mobility. “I don't think they come anymore for that.”

Has the California dream given way to a cost of living nightmare? NPR veteran Barbara Bogaev co-hosts with Rob Pease for an in-depth discussion on the challenges faced by this complex, diverse, nation-sized state, as primary voters head to the polls on June 7th. 

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.

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SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Dan Schnur, former GOP strategist and Independent candidate for CA Secretary of State. Professor at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, and USC’s Annenberg School of Communications. Dan Schnur’s faculty page, Twitter.

Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures and Roger Hobbs Professor in Urban Studies at Chapman University. Author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. Joel Kotkin’s website, Twitter.

More episode resources on our website:

https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/states-california-part1

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All political roads lead to Georgia these days. The Peach State was so pivotal in the 2020 election of Joe Biden and the 2021 runoff election of two Democratic senators.

Georgia’s again on our minds in 2022 as Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger battle primary challenges from the GOP’s “Stop the Steal” wing. TPP is fortunate to have three informed guides for this visit:

Dr. Adrienne Jones of Morehouse College speaks to the weakening of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which has allowed for more restrictive voting laws.

Ken Lawler, the Chair of Fair Districts GA, details the role of gerrymandering in this purple state, where party control could again hinge on a district or two.

And Dr. Charles Bullock (U of Georgia) suggests we calculate former President Trump’s endorsement batting average after the results of these primaries are in. 

Tune in for important insights on the great state of Georgia, where the political action was in 2020 and is now again in 2022.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Dr. Adrienne Jones, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Pre-Law Director at Morehouse College. Dr. Jones’ faculty page, Twitter.

Ken Lawler, Board Chair of Fair Districts GA. Ken Lawler’s Twitter. Check out Fair District GA’s partnership with the Princeton Gerrymandering Project for their 2021 Georgia Redistricting Report Card.

Dr. Charles S. Bullock III, Richard B. Russell Chair in Political Science at the University of Georgia, editor of The New Politics of the Old South. Dr. Bullock’s faculty page.

More episode resources on our website:

https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/georgia-1 

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Is a large and growing segment of Hispanic American voters now leaning independent? That’s the operative question in this first episode on Hispanic swing voters, featuring three noted experts: former Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo, UT San Antonio political scientist Dr. Sharon Navarro, and former four-term San Antonio Mayor and Clinton Cabinet member, Dr. Henry Cisneros.

Carlos Curbelo suggests the recent shift of some Latinos to the GOP may be due to discomfort with far left rhetoric.

Dr. Sharon Navarro observes many Hispanic voters may be registered to a political party yet remain “persuadable.”

Tune in for a better understanding of the less purely partisan viewpoints characterizing Hispanic American swing voters.  

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

The Hon. Carlos Curbelo: Twitter, Unite America, University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute. Check out Carlos as a regular contributor to Telemundo, NBC News, MSNBC and NBC 6

Dr. Sharon Navarro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and editor of Latinas in American Politics: Changing and Embracing Political Tradition. Dr. Navarro’s faculty page, Twitter, website

Dr. Henry Cisneros, former four-term Mayor of San Antonio, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and former President of Univision. Currently a board member of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Dr. Cisneros on Twitter.

More episode resources on our website:

https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/hispanic-series-1

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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 discussing politics. Guzmán merely mentions that her Mexican immigrant parents avidly supported Donald Trump and the room goes silent.

We kick off Episode 8 of Season 3, “Like Family, Like Nation,” with Guzmán’s retelling of that conversation stopper also featured in her new book, I Never Thought of It That Way. Part personal memoir, part communication guide, the book is informed by her work at Braver Angels, one of the nation’s most successful facilitators of cross-partisan dialogue. 

“The opinion…. is just above the surface,” observes Guzmán. “Underneath is everything that backs it up, all their experiences.” As a result, she cautions that, “you’re not going to change someone’s mind in the course of conversation unless they were already at the cusp of changing it on their own.” 

Important points from a uniquely qualified voice. Tune in for an entertaining and informative episode on the challenges and rewards of communication across the great American divides. 

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Mónica Guzmán: Director of Digital & Storytelling at Braver Angels, Host of Civic Cocktail, and Author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.

Mónica Guzmán’s website, Twitter 

Visit our website for a list of additional resources related to today's episode:

fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/monica-guzman

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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 our notable “Texperts” in all six episodes. 

Is our nation’s red vs blue infighting eroding what was once a more distinctive, cohesive Texas identity? Jason Whitely, senior news reporter at WFAA Dallas and co-host of the podcast Y’all-itics, feels that is the case. Dan Goodgame, Editor in Chief of Texas Monthly, disagrees.

No discussion of Texas identity is complete without consideration of the large Hispanic community. Former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros highlights the appeal of the powerful Texas GOP with regard to young Hispanic business owners. And Dr. Sharon Navarro of UT San Antonio observes that the GOP has created more pathways for Latina candidates in South Texas than the Democratic Party.

Our finale concludes with observations from two best-selling and prize-winning authors who happen to be friends and neighbors in Austin. Novelist and historian Stephen Harrigan feels the GOP circulated slogan, “Don’t California My Texas,” is part of a “rear guard action defending the Texas identity.” While New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright expects that “California will become more conservative and Texas will become more liberal.”

Is Texas the future of America? Tune in to consider that provocative question and the insights of a dozen informed “Texperts” from throughout the nation-sized Lone Star State.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Jason Whitely: Episode 1 of our Texas series, Y’all-itics

Jason Wheeler: Episode 1, Y’all-itics

Linda Curtis: League of Independent Voters of Texas

Dan Goodgame: Episode 2, Texas Monthly

James Henson: Episode 3, Texas Politics Project 

Paul Oshinski: Episode 3, Threads of Texas

Dr. Henry Cisneros: Episode 4, Bipartisan Policy Center

Dr. Sharon Navarro: Episode 4, UTSA

Lawrence Wright: Episode 5, Website

Stephen Harrigan: Episode 5, Website

Will Hurd: Episode 6, American Reboot

Listen to our full Texas series: http://fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

Visit our website for a list of additional resources for today's episode:

fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/states-texas-part7

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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, it’s clear former three-term, centrist Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd should be a part of that “U.S. 2.0” development team. 

Hurd was far from the most logical candidate to win not one but three terms representing the vast, 800-mile long 23rd district, covering southwest Texas. First off, he had been out of the public eye and in the CIA for a decade prior to his first attempt. Second, he was a moderate, Black Republican running in a largely Hispanic and Democratic district. Yet he had more than sufficient appeal with Democrats and independents to win that TX-23rd Congressional seat on a second attempt in 2014 and in two subsequent re-elections.

Of his arrival to the U.S. House of Representatives, Hurd recounts his early experiences with artfully two-faced Congressional colleagues. He describes being attacked in a committee hearing by a Texas Democrat who then chummily provides advice to Hurd immediately after the hearing. And he recalls a major television show appearance where four Congress members (two Republicans, two Democrats) swap family niceties until the camera lights come on, then promptly descend into “Wrestlemania.”

In this episode, our sixth in this Texas mini-series, we also discuss Hurd’s “brain gain” objectives on immigration reform. Hurd argues that expanding and refining the legal immigration process based on labor shortages would take pressure off illegal immigration.

Hurd also recounts his bipartisan, cross-country road trip with then-Congress member Beto O’Rourke (D). The 35-hour, live-streamed ride resulted in millions of social media views, lots of TV coverage, and some warm bipartisan glow—until the next election cycle. 

“It was silly to me that we go from a moment where the entire country's like, wow, this is really cool—civility in politics. And then…everybody went to their corners,” Hurd recalls with, on balance, more optimism than disappointment. “But I saw at that moment the American people want their elected officials to disagree without being disagreeable. And it was a reminder that way more unites us as a country than divides us.”

For more on Will Hurd’s ideas for “getting big things done,” tune into “A New American Operating System? These Not So United States.”

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Will Hurd, former Congressman for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District (2015-2021), former CIA officer, and author of the newly released American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Things Done.

Will Hurd’s website, Twitter 

Listen to our full Texas series: https://fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

Visit our website for a list of additional resources related to today's episode:

https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/states-texas-part6

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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) and Stephen Harrigan (The Gates of the Alamo, Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas).  

Wright, a New Yorker staff writer, wastes no time in spinning around our hypothesis that polarized national politics might erode that rather famous, not shyly-held Texas state identity. “Texas is taking over the country,” states Wright emphatically. “Whatever happens in Texas is the future of America.” 

Longtime Texas Monthly writer Stephen Harrigan does see some weakening of the loud, proud Texan identity in recent times. But he also observes the state's current GOP political monopoly pushing back against these changes, natural or not. 

Wright and Harrigan have more in common than a shelf of prize-winning American books bearing their names on dust jackets. Born in the same Oklahoma Hospital in the same year, they both moved to Texas as adults, wrote for Texas Monthly, currently live in the same Austin neighborhood and recently published books on their adoptive state: Wright’s reportorial memoir, God Save Texas, and Harrigan’s Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas.  

This episode features an extended discussion between these longtime friends and some-time collaborators on the magnetic appeal of Texas. They assess the legacy of political icons on the Texas of today and tomorrow, such as independent Texas President Sam Houston; independent presidential candidate Ross Perot; one-term populist Democratic Governor Ann Richards; and Lady Bird Johnson.

They also bemoan the loss of rational, moderate, Texan-accented voices in recent time, such as former Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, and three-term moderate Republican Congressman Will Hurd, author of the just published book American Reboot. And they contemplate the potential for a “passionate centrist” like the Texas-born actor Mathew McConaughey to bridge the political divide in Texas, perhaps with spillover effects.

Tune up your understanding of this strongest and proudest of state identities, and gauge the influence of ever more populous and prosperous Texas on American politics and identity writ large. 

Original music created and composed by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Lawrence Wright, staff writer at The New Yorker, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, The End of October, The Plague Year, and God Save Texas. Lawrence Wright’s website, Twitter 

Stephen Harrigan, contributor to Texas Monthly, author of The Gates of the Alamo and Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. Stephen Harrigan’s website, Twitter

Listen to our full Texas series: https://fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

Visit on our website for a list of additional resources related to today's episode:

https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/states-texas-part5

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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 forces of red vs. blue throughout our nation. In Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity, we focus the discussion on Hispanic Texans and, particularly, the large Tejano community (Texans of Mexican descent) in South Texas.  

Two respected commentators weigh in on this and related issues. Former four-term San Antonio mayor, Henry Cisneros, provides an insightful critique of his own Democratic Party’s failings in Texas of late, as well the growing appeal of the GOP to specific groups of Hispanics, such as small business owners. 

“If all of the invitations to you as a member of a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are to be with like-minded business people, and they're all Republicans,” observes Cisneros. “Then at some point you say to yourself, ‘well, maybe that's where I should be if I want to advance.’”

Dr. Sharon Navarro, political scientist at UT San Antonio and author of Latina Legislator, feels that the Tejano identity still runs stronger and deeper than political party affiliation in South Texas. But she also notes that the GOP has been successfully conflating the identities of Texan and Republican while wielding power to full advantage in the region.

Texas is not only as large as a good-sized European nation but more diverse as well, being 40% Hispanic statewide and 80% in the South Texas region. For a deeper dive into Texas diversity, tune into Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity: These Not So United States (TX, Part 4), with original music by long-time Texas resident Ryan Adair Rooney.

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Dr. Henry Cisneros, former four-term Mayor of San Antonio, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and former President of Univision. Currently a board member of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Dr. Cisneros on Twitter.

Dr. Sharon Navarro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and editor of Latinas in American Politics: Changing and Embracing Political Tradition. Dr. Navarro’s Faculty page, Twitter, website

Additional Resources

Listen to our full Texas series: https://fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

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Is democracy still democracy when one party wins all the elections? That’s a question we’ll be asking around the country on our state-level identity and polarization series, since 37 state “trifectas,” or one-party governments, are now in office. It’s also a major point of discussion with Dr. James Henson, Director of The Texas Politics Project, in our third episode on the biggest and proudest of the Republican trifectas: Texas.    

“The Democrats have gone from being the disadvantaged party to a structurally hobbled party," observes Henson, who’s been analyzing and polling on Texas politics for over 15 years at UT Austin. "You get in a position where you're just so structurally disadvantaged that it almost changes the fundamental nature of political competition.”

Which might cause one to believe that political identity in Texas is as uniformly red as this legislation. But according to a major recent research project by the group More In Common, there is far more diversity of viewpoint in Texas, even among those with strong Texas identities than would be expected from its politics.

TPP speaks with Global Research Director Stephen Hawkins about the origin of More in Common’s first state-level identity project and with the report’s co-author, Paul Oshinski, on the finding of seven distinct social “Threads of Texas,” from far left “Lone Star Progressives” to far right “Heritage Defenders,” with five interesting gradations somewhere in between. 

Think Texas is a ruby red state? Well, yes, if you look only at election results and legislative output. But not if you look beyond, to the rapidly growing, changing and diversifying society beneath one-party rule.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

James Henson, Director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin

Stephen Hawkins, Global Director of Research at More in Common

Paul Oshinski, Research Fellow at More in Common and co-author of the Threads of Texas report

More in Common and Hidden Tribes US on Twitter

Additional Resources

Listen to our full Texas series: fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

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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? In this TPP episode, Strongest Identity of Them Y’all, Texas Monthly Editor-in-Chief Dan Goodgame argues that the social and cultural identities of Texans writ large remain intact despite zero-sum maneuverings of Texas politicians writ small. 

“I'm gonna read a short series of numbers and let you guess what they represent: 29, 22, 16, 4, 2, and 1,” says Goodgame, a Rhodes Scholar and former Pulitzer Prize finalist. “29 million is the population of Texas right now…4 million is the number who vote in primaries in Texas, 2 million is the number who vote in the Republican primary in Texas, 1 million is all it takes to win. So that's 3.3% of the population deciding who the statewide office holders are in Texas.”

Indeed Republicans do rule top to bottom in the Lone Star State, as they have for over two decades. “People who don't like Republican policies are very quick to place all the blame there,” explains Goodgame. “But Democrats here similarly play to their base rather than to centrists. You would think after 27 years of losing, you'd try something different.”

Meanwhile, the nation’s second largest state in size and population continues to be an outsized force economically and demographically. “Texas is experiencing a net in-migration of about 3,800 a week, which is pretty striking when you think about it,” observes Goodgame, citing newly minted Texans from California, New Jersey, India, Mexico and Nigeria as examples. “They are not turning the state blue, as we reported in our December cover story. So they’re as diverse politically as they are culturally.”

Tune in to learn more about social and cultural diversity amidst political conformity in the Lone Star State with Dan Goodgame, Editor-in-Chief of Texas Monthly – Part 2 of our Texas mini-series within The Purple Principle’s season-long exploration of polarization and state identity. 

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Dan Goodgame, Editor-in-Chief of Texas Monthly since 2019. Co-author of Marching in Place: The Status Quo Presidency of George Bush

Texas Monthly on Twitter 

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