Episode Summary:

In this episode, we ask a question that might sound radical… until you sit with it for a minute: Do we actually need political parties?

Along the way, we talk about how those party dynamics impact our elections, our discourse, and the people who feel left behind by a system that only offers two choices.

So: What would politics look like if we stripped away the party labels and focused on what we actually believe? And is it possible to reclaim the idea of representation — not for a team, but for a country?

References & Resources:

• Federalist Paper No. 10 – James Madison on factions
• Brookings Institution – What Political Parties Do
• Pew Research Center – The shifting coalitions within each party
• Ballot Access News – Ongoing coverage of third-party and independent ballot access struggles
• OpenSecrets – Data on campaign finance and party fundraising
• FairVote – Resources on Ranked Choice Voting and alternatives to two-party dominance
• Ezra Klein, Why We’re Polarized – Insight into how our modern party system feeds division

Call to Action:

Think about the last time you voted. Did you vote for someone because you believed in them — or because they were “your party’s” candidate?

What if more of us stopped voting like team captains and started voting like citizens?

And if you’ve ever thought, “I could never run for office — I’m not a Democrat or a Republican…’

What if that wasn’t a disqualifier — but a superpower?

Contact:

Do you have a story to tell, or a comment to make? Email me at [email protected]

Use this link to send us a text, or email us at the address in show notes.

Email

[email protected]

Credits

Graphics and editing by Rory Lawson

Music by Universfield from Pixabay