The Purple Principle

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HBO's Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, is 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 "my extremist colleague from across the aisle."

In "Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation (Part Three)," The Purple Principle speaks with Veep showrunner and head writer David Mandel, about this convention and the many challenges to creating a popular political satire at a time when real-world norms are shattered week after week. 

Mandel is a blue ribbon comedy A-lister, having written for SNL, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the occasional Simpsons episode prior to the Veep showrunner role.

He led the show for its final three seasons, winning an Emmy for Best Comedy Series in two of those three years. As a result, it was no easy decision to end Veep with Season 7.

Veep protagonist, Selina Meyer, was "a horrible person...who was also a politician," Mandel explains, looking back over this remarkable run. "That doesn't mean that the writers… were endorsing the offensive things she was saying." 

Fortunately, a large, still loyal audience appreciates the satirical brilliance of Veep—sharp, topical writing and pitch-perfect performances from a true ensemble cast. Tune into "Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation (Part Three)" for more on the show's enduring appeal across the political divide from Hollywood comedy writer extraordinaire, David Mandel.

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our Guest

David Mandel, writer and producer for HBO's Emmy-winning political satire Veep.

Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHMandel

Additional Resources

Funny Because It's True, Harvard Magazine

Robert Caro '53 Awards Prize for Literary Excellence in the Writing of History at Horace Mann School

David Mandel '88: a career in comedy, The Record

Armando Iannucci, Rotten Tomatoes

WATCH: Trump asks what to do about migrants crossing border. Rallygoer suggests 'shoot them', PBS

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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, Kentucky-based creators of Pantsuit Politics, can decisively say that it is. In Episode 16, “Amazing Grace for Our Partisan Times,” they share some of the secrets to their podcasting and publishing success.

But that doesn’t mean the two long-time friends agree on all things political. In fact, disagreement is common currency on the show. But it’s the respectful nature of their disagreement, with each other as with guests and listeners, that makes for great discussion. The two-point to a series of shows on the Kavanaugh hearings as a case in point. 

There’s barely an issue that Pantsuit Politics has not tackled in nearly five years on the digital air: COVID, gun violence, police reform, global warming, etc. The list is impressive, if daunting. Yet Beth and Sarah conduct all show research themselves, podcasting twice weekly to listeners throughout the US and internationally.  

Tune into the Purple Principle episode, “Amazing Grace for Our Partisan Times,” to meet Beth and Sarah and learn how we all might communicate more artfully in these polarized times.  

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our guests

@bluegrassred 

@nkybeth

Listen to the Pantsuit Politics podcast on their website.

Purchase their book, I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening).

Additional Resources:

Kentucky’s closed primaries

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The Purple Principle in Print

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, a historian at UNC-Greensboro, we know this accomplishment is largely due to the earlier work of the abolitionist Liberty Party beginning in the 1840s and continued by the Free Soil Party, which worked against the extension of slavery. 

Author of In the Balance of Power: Independent and Third Party Black Politics in the United States, Dr. Ali emphasizes the importance of looking twenty years prior to fully understand these events. By this method, he describes the Civil Rights movement as an independent mobilization that rose outside the two-party structure in the 1950s and 60s.  

In this Purple Principle episode, “Liberty & Justice for Some,” we find that the history of independent and third-party black political mobilization is rich, significant, and long-running, with notable modern accomplishments as well. These include Mayor Harold Washington's defeat of Chicago Democratic machine candidates in the 1980s and Lenora Fulani’s 1988 independent campaign for President.

In an age where two parties seem to have a solid lock on our politics, it’s important to highlight periods when independents and third parties have had a significant impact. And at a time when issues of race and identity polarize our politics and society, it’s vital to understand the fluid nature of issues over time. 

Tune into Season Two, Episode 15, “Liberty and Justice for Some,” for an in-depth discussion with Dr. Ali as well as archival audio of some important voices in this throughline, including Frederick Douglass (courtesy of James Earl Jones), W.E.B DuBois, Jesse Jackson, Lenora Fulani, and others. 

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Show Notes

Our Guest

Dr. Omar Ali, Professor of Comparative African Diaspora History, African American & African Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

@AliNCInd

In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States, Ohio University Press, 2008.

Additional Resources

Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” July 5, 1852.

Frederick Douglass. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 

W.E.B. Du Bois. Library of Congress.

W.E.B. Du Bois. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition, 1984 and 1988. Digital Public Library of America.

Lenora Fulani

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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?

In “A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization,” The Purple Principle takes on these questions with four special guests well versed in civics, kicking off with the producer-hosts of the popular NHPR radio show, podcast, and educational series Civics 101, Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice. Civics 101 has produced 250 episodes to date on topics ranging from the electoral college to Supreme Court decisions and Executive Orders. In recent years, it has also expanded its educational outreach to middle and high school classrooms around the country.

But can the rights and responsibilities of citizens really engage kids in the age of Tik Tok or House Party? In her TPP interview, Superintendent Dr. Laura Hammack attests that civics can engage kids, particularly when a well-conceived curriculum with some competition is attached – at least this was the case with her former school district and the We the People competition created by the Center for Civic Education. 

Also in this episode, Lt. Colonel Michael Moffett, a former Marine, teacher of Civics, and now state legislator, underscores the importance of assessments of civics education. Lt.Col. Moffet sponsored New Hampshire House Bill 320, which mandates the citizenship test for high school graduates in the state. 

Civics may not have had this much attention since the “I’m Just A Bill” song aired on Schoolhouse Rock in the mid-1970s or Lisa earned extra points for her civics speech after the judge met her father in a 1990s Simpsons episode. Tune into The Purple Principle’s “A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization?” to learn more. 

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney



Show Notes

Our Guests

@Capodice

@HMcCarthyNHPR

@Civics101pod

@BeechGroveSupt

@MofMichael

Civics 101: A Podcast

Nick Capodice & Hannah McCarthy, A User’s Guide to Democracy: How America Works

Additional Resources

Center for Civic Education

iCivics

Tufts' CIRCLE

Annenberg Classroom – Resources For Excellent Civics Education

Civics Renewal Network

Center for Political Thought and Leadership at ASU

Democratic Knowledge Project

Institute for Citizens & Scholars at Princeton University

Generation Citizen

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“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 up to Backlash.” Edsall describes for us the high amperage polarities between the two parties – how the far left can be the right’s greatest ally, and vice-versa. 

He further notes that while the excesses of each party are not morally equivalent, they can often be politically equivalent. And he firmly states that the Republican Party under Trump’s influence has become delusional with regard to the previous election, among other issues, leaving the Democratic Party the more rational of the two. 

Rationality, however, brings responsibility. And, according to Edsall, if “big D” Democrats wish to preserve “small d” democracy, they must accept the lion’s share of responsibility in ratcheting down the political temperature in our polarized climate. 

Tune in to learn more from Thomas Edsall, one of the most objective, thoughtful, and distinguished American journalists writing today. And meet new Purple Principle co-host Jillian Youngblood, Executive Director of the non-profit, non-partisan, Civic Genius. Jillian brings two decades of frontline political experience to the show along with wit, wisdom, and passion for a more perfect union.

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our Guest

Tom Edsall: Columbia Journalism School

Thomas B. Edsall - The New York Times

Thomas B. Edsall. Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power, 2006.

@Edsall

Additional Resources

Lilliana Mason

Lilliana Mason, Julie Wronski, & John V. Kane (2021). “Activating Animus: The Uniquely Social Roots of Trump Support.” American Political Science Review.

Shanto Iyengar

Jonathan Haidt

Julie A. Wronski 

Ashley Jardina 

D-Nominate after 10 Years: A Comparative Update to Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll-Call Voting

Emily Cochrane (8/10/21). “Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill.” The New York Times

Texas House Election Results 2020 

Florida Election Results 2020

Rashawn Ray (11/24/20). “How Black Americans saved Biden and American democracy.” The Brookings Institute.

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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 area of California which is, unfortunately, clouded in fire smoke at this moment.  

While a co-host a few months ago, Emily interviewed Jillian in the early Season Two episode, “When Martians Land, Pigs Fly, and Americans Reach Consensus,” noting her respect for the work done at Civic Genius. Jillian is a former Capitol Hill staffer who also worked in the Bloomberg administration. She currently directs the nonpartisan efforts at Civic Genius, an organization that works toward reducing political polarization and rebuilding American civic culture: a perfect fit with many themes and topics explored on The Purple Principle. 

Tune in to hear a bittersweet sign-off by Emily Crocetti, who will revisit the show periodically. But please get to know our new Purple Principle co-host, Jillian Youngblood. She brings a decade of frontline political experience to the show along with wit, wisdom, and the passion for a more perfect union.  

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 Purple Principle series on Hollywood Presidents. “When the insurrection happened at the Capitol,” recalls Guggenheim, “so many people were emailing…‘Oh my God, this is like straight out of the show.’”

That show was Designated Survivor, which aired on ABC in 2016 and starred Kiefer Sutherland as the low-level independent cabinet member Tom Kirkman, elevated to the Oval Office when a Capitol bombing decimates other high-ranking members of the government. Kiefer Sutherland, a grandson of a famous Canadian politician, was entirely on board with the notion of a more independent, more pragmatic American POTUS, according to Guggenheim. 

As with previous series guest Rod Lurie (creator of Commander in Chief), Guggenheim confides that creating an independent POTUS was a commercial decision to reach the largest audience possible. Having made that decision, his team portrayed the unique dilemmas faced by a more centrist President lacking major party backing. Tune in to learn more about those dilemmas and the challenges of attracting viewers in our partisan age on “Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation (Part Two): Hail the Independent & Designated Survivor.” 

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.

Our guest

David Guggenheim 

@DBGuggenheim

Designated Survivor

Additional Resources

Simone Del Rosario (9/4/12). “Kal Penn: From White Castle to the White House.” The Washington Post.

Tommy Douglas, “History of Canadian Medicare.” Canadian Museum of History. 

Richard Klein

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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 President in a major TV series, Commander in Chief (starring Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen in 2005). 

“I definitely made her an independent, then tried to keep the topics we were dealing with something that both sides could relate to,” says Lurie. 

Lurie himself has a plotline worth tracing. A West Point-educated military veteran, his 1999 film Deterrence featured the first Jewish American President negotiating a nuclear conflict with Iraq.

 “I always figured that you shouldn't go to school to study film,” Lurie confides. “ You should go and study what you want to make movies about. I was always fascinated by leadership and character. And there's no better school for leadership than West Point.”

Lurie also weighs in on the many high-level military appointees who didn’t last long in the Trump White House, the sadly performative nature of our current Congress, and the even greater difficulties of creating a mainstream show or movie today with political content. 

Entertaining and insightful, profane yet profound, Lurie provides a memorable half-hour on the cultural dimensions of hyperpartisanship and polarization. How does Hollywood choose its Presidents? Let’s hear from one who’s created a few: Rod Lurie, a product of West Point and a Hollywood original. 

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our Guest

Rod Lurie

Twitter: @RodLurie

Instagram: @RodLurie

Commander in Chief (TV Series 2005–2006)

Deterrence (1999)

The Contender (2000)

The Outpost (2020)

Additional Resources

Jeffrey Resner (4/6/08). “Guns and Moses.” Politico

Hollywood’s Fictional Presidents & the Challenges of a Polarized Audience. The Purple Principle in Print

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"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 U. Press) challenges what we know about social media – its uses and abuses. Dr. Bail and his colleagues delineate the strong incentives to create online alter-egos, especially more extreme ones, that command so much more attention.   

Social and political identity is dangerously challenging to shift. And Dr. Bail’s experiments underscore this point. His team exposed hundreds of Democrats and Republicans to media feeds from the other point of view – but with completely unexpected results. Virtually no one became more moderate from this exposure and many participants, especially Republicans, doubled down on their identity. 

Bail’s broader point is how social media amplifies extremism and mutes moderation. His team has built tools to help users understand trolling, gauge online identity, and create more civil discourse through anonymity, guided discussion, and other techniques to reverse that trend.  

To learn more about Polarization Lab tools, experiments, and why you really spend all those hours on social media, tune into “Nicest Troll in Town: On and Offline identity, Extremism, and Polarization,” with Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of the challenging new book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing (Princeton University Press, 2021).

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our Guest

Chris Bail

The Polarization Lab 

Chris Bail. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Princeton University Press, 2021.

Additional Resources

Adam Hughes (10/23/19). “A small group of prolific users account for a majority of political tweets sent by U.S. adults.” Pew Research Foundation. 

Emma Francois (2/9/21). “Always swipe left on a moderate.” Amanda Ripley. 

Alex Horton (4/11/18). “Channeling ‘The Social Network,’ lawmaker grills Zuckerberg on his notorious beginnings.” The Washington Post.

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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 vital but polarizing topics?

In the current U.S. climate, such conversations range from difficult to impossible to regrettable. The eminent social psychologist, Peter Coleman (Director of The Difficult Conversations Lab at Columbia University) is deeply familiar with such conversations and with longstanding group conflicts among nations. Yet he remains optimistic enough to suggest a blueprint for reversing the toxic polarization currently afflicting the U.S. 

In Episode 9, “Embrace Complexity to Overcome Polarization,” we speak with Dr. Coleman about the methods and examples at the heart of his book, The Way Out, recently published by Columbia University Press. In his view, embracing complexity is a first essential step on the way toward real dialogue and away from weaponized debates.  

Dr. Coleman also describes examples suggesting seemingly intractable conflicts can improve over time. Costa Rica emerged from a bloody civil war with a broad consensus for change, resulting in the disbanding of the armed forces and mandatory peace instruction in the schools. Sitting in a deep red upstate New York territory, the town of Watertown rates as one of the least polarized in the country by several measures, including intermarriage between “reds” and “blues”.  

To learn more about the art of real dialogue and the science of reconciliation, tune into Episode 9, “Embrace Complexity to Overcome Polarization: Discussing a Way out with Dr Peter Coleman, of Columbia University.” 

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

Our guest

Peter T. Coleman, Columbia University

@PeterTColeman

Additional Resources

The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization (Columbia University Press)

Gottman Love Lab

Bridging Divides Initiative 

Costa Rica: Choosing a Path to Build and Sustain Peace.

Support for universal background checks on gun buyers is near 90%

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