Overview
Politics is Big Business, there’s no way around it. We’re in an extremely divisive time, and we used to be able to get things done with a much more bipartisan approach. In the 60s, voting patterns were greatly blended, but they’ve only continued to move further apart since then. This hinders things like improvements to public health in favor of private gain.
You know I always want to find the space for positive change, though, so I was excited to sit down and talk about solutions for improving our current political system on this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy with Katherine Gehl. We dive into our conversation talking about a core problem with our political system—it should be that acting in the public interest gets candidates elected or reelected. But the way things are now, there is no link between getting things done for Americans and getting elected. We can see this in Congress which has a 10% approval rating but a 90% reelection rate. We don’t see results and often feel that we’re choosing the lesser of two evils.
Katherine and I talk about how we’ve gotten here and how to start changing it. Our political industrial complex is a duopoly—Democrats and Republicans both gain from limiting other competition (i.e. alternate political parties). Katherine explains that by changing the rules of engagement our political system could be more effective in representing the electorate. Katherine also talks about “Final 5 Voting” and shares some realistic steps that could begin to change our political system for the better. We actually have more power than you think when it comes to changing the process. This is an important year to take a closer look at how our voting system really works. No matter what your affiliation, I hope you’ll tune in to learn more. Learn more and order your copy of The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy at gehlporter.com.
Find Katherine online at katherinegehl.com and follow her on Facebook @KatherineMGehl and on Twitter @katherinegehl.
Apple
