The Purple Principle Fluent Knowledge

“The Presidential race might get thrown into the House of Representatives,” says Dr. Sam Wang of the Princeton Gerrymandering Initiative in this episode. “And in the House of Representatives, every state gets one vote.” 

Both a neuroscientist and recognized authority on gerrymandering, Wang is highlighting the connection between partisan gerrymanders in states throughout the country and following on effects at the national level in the US House but potentially also the White House. 

“And certainly when I’ve done cases involving congressional delegations, a piece of it is the one Sam mentioned,” echoes Paul Smith, Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. “Who’s going to control the delegation for this particularly unusual house resolution of presidential elections?”

In this two-guest episode, we’ll discuss the strategies behind partisan gerrymanders and the leading defenses against them. These include lawsuits argued by Paul Smith and other litigators and the establishment of independent redistricting commissions at the state level.

“A well-crafted citizens commission that's non-partisan is always going to do a more fair and balanced job than a partisan legislature,” says Smith, citing the cases of California and Michigan. 

“Right now, we’re stuck playing small ball, getting small things locally like, say, rank choice voting or redistricting reform,” explains Sam Wang, whose gerrymandering report cards are often cited in legal cases. “The long game is to start implementing some of the bigger reforms and repairs.”

Tune in for two informed views on how the tide is turning against partisan gerrymandering in critical states like Wisconsin and how plugging the gerrymander leak in one state prevents even more significant problems at the national level. 

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

SHOW NOTES
Our Guests:
Sam Wang, Founder & Director, Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
Paul Smith, Senior Vice President Campaign Legal Center. 

 Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Youtube: @thepurpleprinciple 
Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja 

Resources: 

https://campaignlegal.org/

https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/11/09/house-democrats-got-more-votes-than-house-republicans-yet-boehner-says-hes-got-a-mandate/

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Election-Statistics/

https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congressional_elections_results,_2012

https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2012/results/house.html

npost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-federal-courts-dont-have-a-role-in-deciding-partisan-gerrymandering-claims/2019/06/27/2fe82340-93ab-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/initiative-and-referendum-states

https://www.michigan.gov/micrc/about/meet-the-commissioners

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-constitution/section-11.1

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/us/redistricting-map-utah-salt-lake-city.html

https://apnews.com/article/utah-redistricting-3cb3fb05e7253f3ec3d26749138bea9e

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/01/wisconsin-supreme-court-rejects-democrats-congressional-redistricting-challenge-00144529

The 700-plus attendees at the 2024 Principles First Summit in Washington DC come from various locations and backgrounds yet attended this event for similar political reasons: all are concerned about authoritarian trends within today’s GOP. 

Blaire Egan, for example, had been questioning her GOP political orientation since interning on Capitol Hill for a Republican legislator. Jeff Mayhew points to congressional gridlock, especially within the US House, as a major obstacle to functional, representative government. Mike Cantwell has long been a politically engaged military veteran working on election reform, among other issues, from an independent perspective. 

These are a few of the many attendees Producer Alex Couraud interviewed at this year’s Summit, held the same weekend as the Trump-dominated CPAC.  Tune in to this season four episode to move beyond simplistic labels of red vs. blue, Republican vs. Democrat, and learn about various efforts looking to shore up American democracy at this difficult time. 

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production—original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. 
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests:
Jeff Mayhugh, Blair Egan, Liam Kerr, and Mike Cantwell 

Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Youtube: @thepurpleprinciple 
Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja 

“I’m still in it to hold a mirror up to my GOP colleagues,” former RNC Chair Michael Steele tells us in this episode. “To show them how unLincolnlike they have become.”

Michael Steele has borne painful witness to that transformation over the past two-plus decades as the first African American Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, then RNC Chair in 2009-2011, as well as US Senate Candidate. 

Steele may have been one of the first prominent Republicans to push back on the populist redirection of the party back in 2009 when he tussled with popular right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh over who led the Republican party. 

“It did say a lot about a base that had become very animated and defensively protective,” Steele recalls of the pushback from that episode, including a drop in RNC fundraising.
 
Steele reexamines that moment in recent GOP history and reflects on a GOP today that, in his view, has turned its back on conservative principles of personal liberty and freedom, and also long-held Republican positions on US foreign policy. 

“Reagan is probably looking at their dance with Putin, Orban and others, going: who are these people?”

Join us for an informed, concerned discussion with Michael Steele, now an MSNBC host and commentator, on why Americans need to stay civically engaged despite the political theatrics of this 2024 election year and our current political era. 

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Micheal Steele, MSNCB Political Analyst, Former RNC Chairman, and Former Lt. Gov, (Maryland). Twitter.
 
Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Youtube: @thepurpleprinciple 
Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja 

“I'm the only candidate that was Head of the DEA, that was in charge of border security in the Bush administration, governor for eight years,” says our featured guest, Asa Hutchinson. 

Yet despite possessing perhaps the most impressive resume among GOP presidential candidates, Hutchinson failed to receive substantial media attention or garner significant support from  Iowa caucus goers.

There's just so much happening in his world that you have to say is newsworthy,” says Hutchinson of Trumpian media attention.  It's hard to get any other message out.”

Hutchinson also speaks to the possibility of a significant third-party candidacy for president in 2024, such as from the bipartisan group, No Labels. 

“Right now you’ve got two major parties that are giving Americans what they don't want– “They don't want another Biden Trump rematch,” says  Hutchinson. “So  I think there is a potential for a third-party candidacy this year”.

Full episode are available on our website (purpeprinciple.com), on YouTube with video highlights, and on all major streaming apps. 

The Purple Principle is Fluent Knowledge Production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Asa Hutchinson,  2024 POTUS Candidate, Gov. Arkansas (2015-2023), US House Rep. (R-AK) 2001-2003. Hutchinson’s Twitter.

Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Youtube: @thepurpleprinciple 

“I had been a conservative critic of mainstream media bias for many years,” says author and MSNBC columnist, Charlie Sykes, a “contrarian conservative” and our featured guest. “It  suddenly occurred to me that we had succeeded in not just critiquing the liberal bias, but in destroying  the credibility of  fact-based media altogether.”

Sykes is the author of the notable 2017 book, How the Right Lost Its Mind. Within our interview, as in the book, he is unsparing of himself and other traditional conservatives for paving the way for MAGA populism. Yet he emphasizes there is still some degree of factionalism within the GOP. 

A  sizable number of these more traditionally conservative Republicans were in attendance at the 2024 Principles First Summit in Washington DC, where we spoke with Sykes. Held the same weekend as the feverishly pro-Trump CPAC event a few miles away, this year’s Summit included appearances by  Adam Kinzinger, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Cassady Hutchinson.
 
There are more than 700 people,” Sykes observes.” And you look at the panels, the people who are speaking, they represent some of the most prominent conservatives, influential conservatives of just the past few decades.”

Join us for this conversation with contrarian conservative, Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind and MSNBC columnist.  

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Charlie Sykes, MSNBC Columnist. Author of How The Right Lost Its Mind. Sykes’s book, and Twitter.

Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Youtube: @ThePurplePriniple
Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja 

“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!
X: @purpleprincipl
Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast
Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja