The Purple Principle

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 politics than the co-hosts of the artfully named podcast, Y’all-itics: Jason Wheeler (Senior News Reporter) and Jason Whitely (News Anchor) of the ABC Dallas affiliate, WFAA. 

Both Jasons concur that polarization has been eating away at that powerful Texas identity in recent times. “People do like to maintain that they have that independent streak,” says Wheeler, pointing to both Texas Republicans and Democrats. “And I think that one of the things you have in common is that you like to think that you're perhaps more of an independent thinker than you are.” 

What factors are contributing to erosion of that common Texas identity? One party rule, without real need for bipartisanship, certainly plays a role. And gerrymandering has helped maintain Republican domination of Texas politics over the past two decades. Therefore, Republican office holders often look over their right shoulders at primary battles rather than ahead to general elections and swing voters.

The most recent Texas legislative session put forth a number of bills catering to that small subset of Republican primary loyalists, including restricted abortion and voting access, yet unrestricted open carry of firearms. Will this “red meat” legislation invoke electoral backlash? 

That’s a point of discussion in this episode, along with last year’s major power failure and the continuing movement of California companies and workers into Texas. Tune in for a “Y’all-itical Science” mini-course with the equally articulate, almost equally named hosts of Y’all-itics, Jason Wheeler and Jason Whitely, as The Purple Principle kicks off our extended state polarization series in the vast, varied, and vocal Lone Star State.

Original Texas–themed music this episode by Ryan Adair Rooney.   

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Jason Whitely: co-host of the podcast Y’all-itics, Senior News Reporter at WFAA in Dallas, Texas. Host of WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics. Jason Whitely’s Twitter

Jason Wheeler: co-host of the podcast Y’all-itics, News Anchor at WFAA, and Editor of WFAA’s Right on the Money. Jason Wheeler’s Twitter

Find the Y’all-itics podcast on WFAA.com, Apple Podcasts

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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 (including southwest Miami and the Florida Keys) fields these questions in a season-ending Purple Principle episode entitled, Heard the One About a Centrist Congressman? 

Curbelo also recounts some telling anecdotes from his time in the U.S. House, such as his application to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (traditionally bipartisan but now controlled by Democrats), which was ultimately rejected. 

“Polarization in the House” is the subtitle and subtext of this episode, which also includes intel on the polarization of music choices in the House members' gym. There’s also a more serious discussion of the populist drift of his Republican Party. “I told people that I was not gonna let Donald Trump define this party, or kick me out of it,” says Curbelo, now a political analyst for NBC and Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago.

This episode also marks Jillian Youngblood’s last co-hosting stint for the foreseeable future as she turns full attention to an innovative new round of Civic Genius engagement programs nationwide. Tune in to learn more about these efforts and get a refreshingly non-partisan perspective on the U.S. House from former Congressman Carlos Curbelo.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

The Hon. Carlos Curbelo: Twitter page, Unite America, University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute

Check out Carlos as a regular contributor to Telemundo, NBC News, MSNBC and NBC 6

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“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 a widely recognized voice, having started on “terrestrial” AM radio two decades before migrating to his current SiriusXM show and podcasts. The Purple Principle wanted to know more about Michael Smerconish, the individual, who features more indie-minded segments on his shows and podcasts as well as his platform, Smerconish.com. 

Smerconish details his 2010 decision to break with the Republican Party he grew up in, citing the reckless expansion of the War on Terror and the nasty tone of 2010 Tea Party congressional campaigns. He bemoans the loss of moderate Republicans like Senator Arlen Specter (PA) and Congressman Mike Castle (DE) in that period, expressing current concern that incivility and vitriol is creeping down from the national and state to the local level.   

“There have been a number of nasty exchanges at school board meetings pertaining to masks or vax policy,“ he observes. “And they’re probably driving reasonable people right out of the discourse.”

Smerconish is also a frequent critic of the media, such as in his 2021 Reagan Library speech, “It’s Time to Change the Channel.” “Division sells,“ he states emphatically, noting the extreme voices from both parties manipulating that business model to raise money and further congressional careers without legislative success. 

Join us today for this master class from Michael Smerconish on partisan politics in the media and partisan media in politics, the tightly-wound symbiosis driving polarization in our country. No magic solutions offered for this trend, but lots of enlightening anecdotes and insights in this episode, Voice of Reason for Independent Minds with Michael Smerconish. 

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Michael Smerconish: Twitter, Smerconish.com, CNN’s Smerconish, SiriusXM Radio’s “The Michael Smerconish Program”, and SXM podcasts “Book Club with Michael Smerconish” and “The Smerconish Podcast”. 

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“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 episode entitled “The United States of Narcissism,“ co-hosts Rob Pease and Jillian Youngblood ask Nichols why many Americans seem to be enthusiastically failing that test in recent times. 

A longtime Soviet Union—then Russia expert—Nichols points back to the US triumph at the end of the Cold War as a tipping point from civic seriousness toward national narcissism – an event he likens to winning the lottery. “And anybody who's followed the history of lottery winners can tell you,” Nichols observes, “winning the lottery never goes well.”

The bleakness of 1970s’ industrial decline initially turned Nichols into a young, Reaganite Republican, setting him on the path of Russian language and history study to understand the necessity of a strategic air command post in his hometown. However, by 2018, Nichols believed that same party was no longer taking international security threats seriously enough.

“We were the first to defect from the Republicans,” says Nichols of he and many fellow security experts, “because we were primarily concerned about national security and about putting the nuclear codes in the hands of an unstable sociopath.”

Not one to shy away from bold statements, Nichols has seen what lack of freedom means in today’s Russia and other autocratic nations. As a result, he’s issued an urgent plea in this latest book, Our Own Worst Enemy, for Americans across the political spectrum to re-embrace civic values, abstain from biased media, and resist the siren call of autocratic solutions.

Join us on The Purple Principle for an impassioned discussion with Dr. Tom Nichols, Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College and author of the new Oxford University Press book, Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Tom Nichols: Twitter, Faculty Page, The Atlantic

Buy his latest book: Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy

Additional Resources

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“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 Accountability Project and Publisher of The Bulwark. “The fact that there were a bunch of people that I respected who I had been intellectually interested in for many years — when those people saw the world the same way I did, it kept me from feeling insane."

Those people included highly respected conservative journalist Charles Sykes, founder of The Bulwark, and William Kristol, veteran of several Republican White House positions, now Chairman of the Republican Accountability Project (RAP). Longwell goes on to describe perhaps the most visible outcome of her partnership with Kristol thus far, the “Republican Voters Against Trump” campaign, which ran throughout the 2020 election. 

Not sparing in her criticisms of the left, Longwell also calls out the political hazards of progressive pronoun obsession and legislative overreach by the White House. “Especially if you think that the Republican Party is as dangerous as we do,” she cautions, “you really are rooting for the Democrats to build a broad coalition. And that's not what's happening at the moment.”

So much happening yet not happening in US politics these days, with legislation gridlocked but primary elections coming up soon. Join us for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred discussion with one of Washington’s keenest minds and sharpest wits, Sarah Longwell of the Republican Accountability Project and The Bulwark. 

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Sarah Longwell: Twitter, Defending Democracy Together, The Bulwark

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Cast your votes here! 

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 of vaccination and the equally obvious outcome of the 2020 election.  

In this episode entitled Speaking Truth in Polarized Times, we ask what TPP guests in 2021 speak most insightfully to the challenges of this era. We’ve highlighted ten great insights, asking listeners to select the best of them, to be announced early in 2022.  

We kick off our 10 nominees with Harvard University political geographer Ryan Enos on the trend of political polarization right down to the neighborhood level, where Republicans and Democrats cluster apart from each other.  

Did we suddenly arrive at this moment of hyperpartisanship and rabid misinformation? Princeton historian Julian Zelizer explains that the blueprint for Congressional polarization was laid decades ago by a young firebrand named Newt Gingrich whose accusations brought down Speaker of the House Jim Wright in 1989.  

And are there any clear routes out of this gordian knot of political identities, where every issue is immediately politicized making consensus solutions all but impossible in our highly antagonized zero-sum polity and society?

New York Times Contributing Writer Thomas Edsall places the burden on the more rational of the two major parties, the Democrats, to ameliorate the sense of threat perceived by the American right. And Dr. Omar Ali finds inspiration in the resilience of independent black American leaders as far back as Frederick Douglass and as recently as Lenora Fulani.  

There’s something for every inquiring mind here in our list of Top Guest Insights from 2021. Which speaks most directly to your hopes and concerns? We hope you’ll listen through this episode, then click the link in our show notes to complete the website poll. 

SHOW NOTES

Cast your votes here! 

This episode features:

Ryan D. Enos: Website, Episode 3 

Nick Andert: Behind the Curve, Episode 8   

Julian Zelizer: Princeton University, Episode 1 

Katherine Gehl: Institute for Political Innovation, Episode 5 

Jeanine Guidry: VCU, Episode 6

Steven Hassan: Freedom of Mind, Episode 7 

Rod Lurie: IMDB, Episode 11  

Beth Silvers: Pantsuit Politics, Episode 16 

 Omar Ali: UNC Greensboro, Episode 16 

Thomas Edsall: NYT, Episode 13  

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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 individualistic citizens would ever admit? 

Tune into the third and final episode in our Holiday Survival Kit, Identity with All the Trimmings, featuring Psychology Professor Dominic Packer of Lehigh University for answers to these and other important questions around the topic of social identity. Dr. Packer is the co-author, along with Jay Van Bavel of NYU, of the new book, The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Social Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation and Promote Social Harmony.  

We kick off the interview with Packer’s retelling of the book’s opening tale: how tensions (and odors) created by Van Bavel’s hockey bag were erased by a life-saving intervention at an academic reception. We’ll also hear Dr. Packer’s thoughts on why COVID became more politically polarized in the US than any other nation. 

Finally, we’ll test Dr. Packer’s ability to implement his research in an all-too-common (if fictionalized) role play with TPP host Rob Pease playing Dominic’s anti-vax Cousin Rob. Can Dominic sway Cousin Rob toward vaccination prior to the family holiday gathering? Join us for an informative and entertaining discussion with Dr. Dominic Packer. And be prepared to discover a few things about your own identity in the process. 

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Dominic Packer: Twitter, Faculty Page, Google Scholar

Buy his book, co-authored with Jay van Bavel: 

The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony

Additional Resources

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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 organized. It’s a campaign,” explains McIntyre. “And as a campaign it deserves some pushback, which is what I do.”

In this Purple Principle Part Two of our Holiday Survival Kit, we learn from Lee McIntyre how artful pushback must be to reach skeptical counterparts with identities defined by anti-science belief.

In the episode, we first discuss Lee’s background in the philosophy of science, then his decision to leave the relative comfort of scholarly research to engage with science deniers. Here he learns firsthand the surprisingly common elements across such disparate groups as flat earthers, GMO skeptics, and anti-vaxxers. 

“They all followed the same reasoning strategy,” McIntrye tells us. “They cherry-picked facts, believed in conspiracy theories, engaged in illogical reasoning, relied on fake experts, and thought that science had to be perfect in order to be believed.”

Do you have friends, colleagues, or family members prone to anti-science beliefs?

Then join us on Episode Two of the Celebration & Polarization, Holiday Survival Kit: When Anti-Science Makes the Menu for helpful insights from Philosopher of Science, Lee McIntyre. His latest book, How to Talk to A Science Denier, comes at a time when these difficult discussions are vital to our families, our workplaces, and our democracy. 

SHOW NOTES

Support us on Patreon!

Our Guests

Lee McIntyre: Website, Twitter

How to Talk to a Science Denier: Purchase

Additional Resources

Fact Checks

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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 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, the first in a three-part series on holiday survival amidst polarization, co-hosts Rob Pease & Jillian Youngblood speak with Tania about these workshops, her flowchart that (almost) solved political polarization, and her new 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 (e.g 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 Tania, who gamely plays along as we advance this metaphor down the political football field.  

Family gatherings were never friction-free. Then polarization came along. Tune 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.

SHOW NOTES

Please Support us on Patreon!

Our Guests

Tania Israel: Website, Twitter, Book, Faculty page.

Additional Resources

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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 West Wing writer, Paul Redford, a former Shakespearean actor turned screenscribe, who recalls: “West Wing came along and...filled a need that nobody knew was there… a need to believe again.” 

Canadian writer and cultural critic, Luke Savage, thinks the show gave American Democrats a little too much of what they wanted to believe. One of his prominent critiques is entitled, “How Liberals Fell in Love with The West Wing,” describing it as “a series of glittering illusions to be abandoned.”

In our TPP interview, Savage points to the smugness of the show, as well as naivete regarding possibilities for bipartisanship, as two of the more obvious weaknesses. 

Redford concurs that The West Wing was created at a less partisan political time. In fact, following that show, he went on to write for two TV series deploying fictional independent Presidents to reach a wider audience -- Madam Secretary starring Téa Leoni and Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland. And regarding Designated Survivor, Redford agrees with the show creator David Guggenheim (TPP Season 2, Episode 12) that this was an effort to make an anti-West Wing, with not a lofty Bartlet but an everyman figure as President. 

Our third guest, the Greece-based media scholar Dr. Betty Kaklamanidou, sees not so much distinction as similarity among The West Wing, Madam Secretary, Designated Survivor and Commander in Chief (starring Geena Davis as independent President Mackenzie Allen), whose creator, Rod Lurie, was featured in TPP Season 2, Episode 11, the kick-off to this series.  

“It doesn't matter whether they are Independents, Republicans or Democrats,” observes Dr. Kaklamanidou, co-editor of Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television. “They are idealists. They want to do the right thing, irrespective of political games.”

Is the lofty idealism of West Wing a relic of the past or part of a cycle coming back into play? Dr. Kaklamanidou feels political idealism will always find new forms and variations. But looking back over two decades of polarizing tumult, Paul Redford is not sure a West Wing reboot could sustain a large audience today. Still, he argues that it’s not for political leanings but dramatic tension that West Wing has resonated so widely for so long. And he credits the show’s creator and principal writer, Aaron Sorkin, for this enduring appeal.  

“Honestly, I think it ultimately came from Aaron and his vision for the show, because his constant demand from the other writers was, I need an argument,“ Redford recalls of Sorkin. “[G]ive me a good argument, I can write a scene.“

Tune in for a good argument among three uniquely informed guests on the iconic TV series The West Wing, and other TV Potuses, in: Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation (Part 4): Romance, Grandeur & Smugness on The West Wing.

Please Support us on Patreon!

Our Guests

Paul Redford: LinkedIn, IMDb

Luke Savage: Twitter, website

Betty Kaklamanidou: Twitter, book, LinkedIn

Additional Resources

Season 2 Episode 11: Hollywood Presidents Part 1

Season 2 Episode 12: Hollywood Presidents Part 2

Season 2 Episode 12: Hollywood Presidents Part 3

How Liberals Fell in Love With The West Wing-Current Affairs

Canada's cliffhanger election is heating up. Some fear US-style political polarization will follow-CNN

Henry Brooks Adams 1838–1918 American historian

Borgen (TV Series): 2010-2013

Succession-Emmys

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-IMDb

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