The Purple Principle Fluent Knowledge
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Nonpartisan podcast for independent-minded Americans exploring the perils of partisanship in U.S. politics, society and daily life.
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Grand Old Party or Brand New MAGA? Contrarian Conservative Charlie Sykes
“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.
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A Primary Solution to Unite America? New Book From Election Reformer, Nick Troiano
“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
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Systems Level Failure? Veterans for All Voters Takes on Polarizing Elections
“Every time I talk to someone about running for office, the first thing they say is, Eric, you have to pick a team,” confides Navy veteran Eric Bronner, COO of the non-partisan group Veterans for All Voters.
“And something didn't sit right with me. So the pump was primed, as my parents would say, for some kind of awakening.”
That awakening occurred listening to a Freakonomics podcast episode with former Purple Principle guest Katherine Gehl, co-author of The Politics Industry. In that episode, as in our own 2021 interview, Gehl highlighted the lack of incentives our elected officials have to govern effectively.
To tackle that problem, Eric and his co-founders are forming a nationwide network of veterans to volunteer on behalf of state level election reform initiatives like opening primaries to the large percentage of registered independent or unaffiliated veterans unable to vote in primary elections and also to advance Final Four or Five voting as detailed in The Politics Industry.
“The last thing we need is more partisanship,” says Bronner who now works full time coordinating hundreds of volunteers in forty states and counting. “We can have differences of opinion, right? But the system itself is broken.”
Tune in to meet three other veterans behind this effort and find out how Bronner and Veterans For All Voters hope to mend the system in this 2024 election cycle and beyond. The Purple Principle is Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests
Eric Bronner: Bio, X (Twitter)
Co-founder and COO of Veterans for All Voters
Additional Resources
Show Me Integrity
Freakonomics: America’s Hidden Duopoly
The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy by Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter
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Breaking Bread, Sharing Salad & Final Four Voting: Alaska Representative Mary Peltola
“I know that I would not be in this position if we didn't have the Final Four system,” Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) tells us in this first Purple Principle episode of season four. “Because I would not have made it through a partisan primary.”
A native Alaskan, Representative Peltola gained re-election to the US House on the third ballot of the nation’s first Final Four election in 2022. Final Four Voting combines a unified open primary with a ranked choice general election. The intended goal is to replace the current system of polarizing party-led primaries.
Final Four Voting Across Party Lines
Peltola’s election to the US House may seem surprising from a vast, largely rural state with twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats. But the majority of Alaskan voters are registered as non-partisan or unaffiliated.
Final Four: Lessons for the Lower 48?
Prior to US House election, Peltola was a member of the bipartisan “Bush Caucus" within the Alaska House of Representatives. Now, after moving to what feels like a foreign country, she continues to work across the aisle in Washington, DC.
“I have had very few opportunities just to eat with Republicans and I am very eager to meet and collaborate with as many Republicans as I can,” she explains. “I'm a member of the Western Caucus, which right now is 106 Republicans and me.”
Peltola is hopeful US House polarization can be overcome yet clear-eyed about the current gridlock. “The entrenchment is so deep,” she tells us.
Does this vast, frontier state and it's current Rep. hold lessons for our divided nation? Tune in to learn more about Mary Peltola’s bipartisan efforts in the US House and the distinctive culture of her native Alaska.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
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Bonus Content: A Cult Expert Explains the Devotion of Trump's MAGA Base
After failure in the 2022 elections, mounting legal troubles and declining poll numbers, many now wonder whether former President Donald Trump’s cult-like hold over his devoted MAGA base will begin to erode.
To explore this further, we’ve revisited our conversation with a guest who wrote the book on this subject: Dr. Steve Hassan, author of The Cult of Trump (2019).
Dr. Hassan became a leading cult expert after being indoctrinated into the Unification Church himself at the tender age of 19. We benefited from both his personal and professional observations in our Season 2 Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults series, but realized several important insights were left out of the final cut.
That’s why we’re excited to share this extended interview excerpt as bonus content exclusive to Apple Premium subscribers. Listen in as Hassan describes his own cult experiences, the neuro-linguistic manipulation in Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and the role social media now plays in online cult recruitment.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production, original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
Election Lessons Unheeded? A Cautionary View of the New U.S. House
“The American people want serious people to solve serious challenges,“ declares former Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd in this season finale on the U.S. House of Representatives. “That’s the lesson we should take away from 2022.”
But he’s quick to add, “I don’t think that lesson is going to be implemented in this new congress.”
Hurd then dissects the GOP factionalism at work in the contested house speaker’s election and confirms that most House members are more interested in “messaging bills” than progress on tough, important issues like immigration and climate change.
The Purple Principle covered the U.S. Senate in our previous episode with former centrist Senators Doug Jones and Bob Corker. This episode we turn to the unruly chamber next door in discussion with Will B. Hurd, former CIA officer, three-term Texas Congressman and author of American Reboot.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
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SHOW NOTES
The Purple Principle has been nominated for three Signal Awards, but we need your help. Click here to cast a vote!
Our Guest
Will Hurd is a former three-term Congressman for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, serving in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2021. A former CIA officer and cybersecurity executive, he’s the author of the recently released book American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done. Find him on Twitter @WillHurd
More episode resources:
https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/new-us-house
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney
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Customer Reviews
Great content and perspectives
Great reminder that the center still exisits.
A must for all reformers!
This podcast is one of my ASAP listen-to’s meaning I look forward and listen to each new episode as soon as they get released! Great content and probably one of the best edited podcasts out there! Always disappointed when they are over!
Great
I’m learning a lot and enjoying the show