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This week on Thinking Is Cool đłď¸
How do we fix a democracy hamstrung by partisan politics...?
Welcome back to Thinking Is Cool, the podcast and newsletter here to make your next conversation better than your last. Iâm your host Kinsey Grant. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.
Stop what youâre doing right now and turn on one of these three songs: âParty in the USAâ by Miley Cyrus, âMiss Americana & The Heartbreak Princeâ by Taylor Swift, or âThe Times They Are a-Changin" by Bob Dylan. Today, weâre talking about the future of partisan politics in the United States. The mood has to be right.
Good morning and welcome to a brand new week. If youâre feeling like itâs time to make a change in your life, now is the time to do it. Maybe that change is journaling more. Maybe working on eating more seasonal vegetables.
For me, itâs going off the grid. Putting my phone in the drawer and not looking at it for 24 hours. Real On The Road stuff, but for the modern age.
Hereâs why: Todayâs episode is about the future of political parties and hyperpartisanship in the United Statesâand the ways itâs tearing our democracy apart. I just know someone is going to misinterpret this honest account of todayâs political theater as an attack on their party, and I donât want to deal with that right now because Iâm in a really good mood and no one can rain on this parade.
So keep that in mind as you listenâwe can all disagree on political issues without being at each otherâs throats! And sending journalists into hiding! And being really, really venomous from behind a computer screen! Thatâs the takeaway this week. Thatâs what matters. Extremity is bad unless it's the extremity of positive vibes. Yeah? Yeah.
As always, you have options (thatâll be a theme in this one for sure).
Option 1: Read this newsletter for background and then go listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get podcasts. Recommended for fans of C-SPAN and NPR.
Option 2: Go listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get podcasts and then come back to this newsletter for more context. Recommended for fans of The Daily and John Oliver.
Here we go.
This Week on Thinking Is Cool đłď¸
Hereâs a photo of me taken on Tuesday, November 6, 2012âblurry and heavily filtered, fresh from dance practice, wearing tights and moccasins. I had turned 18 just three days prior to this photo being snapped as I walked into my polling station to cast my ballot for the very first time.
I know youâre never supposed to admit publicly how you vote, but rules are meant to be broken. I voted for Mitt Romney because thatâs who I surmised my parents were voting for.
A lot of things have changed since that photo was taken: I no longer wear tights, moccasins, or shorts that short. And more importantly, I make my own voting decisions.
But thereâs one element that has remained even a decade laterâI recognize the power in participating in the greatest American tradition: free and fair elections. Even when itâs hard, I never miss one.
And believe me, itâs been hard. Hard to stomach the conniving, dimwitted options weâre given on ballots. Hard to defend American democracy when itâs become such a polluted, perverted, deeply unequal version of its former self. Hard to find optimism for the future in casting a vote.
But not impossible. The more we talk about polarization and its side effects and causes, the closer we can get to righting its wrongs.
Thatâs what this weekâs episode of Thinking Is Cool is about at the very core. Itâs about recognizing the horrors of our shared reality, but also finding ways to move forward toward something better. Itâs about the means by which weâve become so shockingly extreme in our political views on both sides of the aisle...but also what we might be able to pull off to again find commonality in legislating.
Thereâs no denying that weâre at a tipping point. Characters and caricatures have come to rule our democracy with a zero-tolerance policy toward cooperation. Itâs resulted in a sharpening of edges on both the left and right and, even worse, an alienation of entire generations of voters and potential voters.
Common sense legislation doesnât get passed.
Winning elections becomes less about representing the people and more about engineering a popularity contest.
Voting is a maybe, not a hell yes.
Democrats are the party of equality and diversity and progressiveness. Republicans are the party of homegrown values, Americana, and idealistic independence. There is no Venn diagram intersecting the two.
According to Pew, only 21% of Americans think relations between Republicans and Democrats will get better in 2021.
Talking about politics and political discourse is a surefire way to end a conversation.
And weâre all worse for it.
How did we get here? Didnât we learn anything from the mistakes and misgivings of our predecessors? What do we do to make it better? Thatâs what Iâm taking on this week. Because thisâhyperpartisanship and the gridlock and vitriol it breedsâis a problem that urgently needs solving, and talking about it is how we start.
I hope youâll listen to this episode of Thinking Is Cool and take the time to consider viewpoints beyond your ownâI did, and it was illuminating to hear the experiences of people who view the world in a very different way than I do.
Itâs inspired me to attempt to diversify my media diet, in fact. Because a huuuuge part of this whole dissolution of commonality and cooperation thing has to do with the ways we create echo chambers for ourselves.
So over the next week, Iâm curating a list of really honest, really insightful followsâleft, right, and center. If youâre interested in suggesting a person or publication, hit respond. Iâll share the anti-hyper-partisan list later this week on Twitter. No Tucker Carlson allowed.
Do you know how much a grain bowl with avocado and watermelon radish costs in Santa Monica, California? I do now that Iâm back from Thinking Is Coolâs first official work trip to LA...
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Now, to the details of this weekâs episode â
Who: This weekâs guests span the political and professional spectrums, and I loved how passionate each person was in explaining to me the nuance and context of todayâs partisan hellhole.
Saagar Enjeti, co-host of Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar and The Realignment Podcast
Jake Sherman, respected political reporter, founder of Punchbowl News, and author of âThe Hill To Die Onâ
Kate Glavan, TikTok star and promising young political activist
I would also like to give a shoutout to my parents, Bill and Janet Grant, for raising me to be the kind of person who disagrees with almost all of her parents' political beliefs and still knows theyâre incredible, intelligent, compassionate people. This episode wouldnât be possible without the family dinners you insisted on every single night for the first 18 years of my life.
What: An honest and earnest attempt to understand how we got to todayâs fractured, extreme partisanship in the worldâs most well-known democracy, plus a potential solution to the problems weâve created for ourselves
Where: Anywhere you get your podcasts, like Apple, Spotify, or...anywhere else
Why: Because thinking is cool! And this episode will make you think. Anything that includes both James Madison and Marjorie Taylor Green is bound to, right?
And as my final gift to you today, I offer this piece from Politico that was published quite literally as I was writing this episode about political parties: How Republicans Became the âBarstoolâ Party by Derek Robertson. Episode 2 of Thinking Is Cool đ¤ Episode 7 of Thinking Is Cool.
See you Friday for another edition of the Thinking Is Cool blog. Have the best week ever.
âKinsey
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