Daily Resource Highlight - 1/31/2022
Posted by on January 31, 2022 at 4:17 PM
Below are the highlights and featured resources of this past week’s Daily* Resource.
January 25, 2022 - Podcasts Worthy of Your Time While [Insert Routine]
Back in October, I mentioned how I love listening to podcasts on long drives. Of course, this isn’t the only time and place to listen to podcasts. You might, for example, listen to podcasts while cooking, cleaning, working out, gardening, or while doing one of a million other mundane tasks.
Regardless of when or where, though, there’s a good chance that you do listen to podcasts. That’s why we’ve inserted a new section below specifically for “Podcasts.” Bridge Alliance members are routinely producing high quality, informative podcasts, and we want to make sure you know about them!
For instance…
- Our own Shakira Mills sat down with Shoshana Weissmann of R Street, and several others, to talk about what it’s like to be right-of-center in the movement
- ReConsider discussed two broad categories of revolutions, and which type usually works out and which doesn’t
- Common Ground Committee and Convergence teamed up to critique Congress’ “byzantine” budget process, which they are can be made simpler, more efficient, and more transparent
- Civil Squared reached back to 2021 for “gem ideas” to apply in 2022. Among the topics discussed was how to talk to bigots and snowflakes!
- Independent Voter Network talked to Professor Glennon about the “deep state,” and what that heavily loaded concept actually looks like in practice
And of course the Democracy Group, which is a project of the McCourtney Institute at Penn State, continues to host podcasts from throughout the healthy self-governance movement.
Be sure to check them out!
January 27, 2022 - Election Reform We Can All Get Behind?
A group of prominent think tanks, including Bridge Alliance members R Street Institute, Issue One, and Unite America, claim to have done the seemingly impossible! They have developed a set of election reforms that can achieve bipartisan support.
The new report, entitled “Prioritizing Achievable Federal Election Reform,” sets forth a wide array of recommendations at the federal and state levels on voter registration, voting, vote counting, and cybersecurity / physical security. It also surveys state election laws and shows widespread adoption of many of the measures, including complete or near complete adoption by politically diverse states such as Colorado, Georgia, Arizona, and Hawaii.
Given that list of states, I know that many of you will be skeptical of this report, and we encourage that skepticism! As I’ve said many, many times, we are not here to tell you what you should / should not support, but rather to empower you to make those decisions yourself as an American. That’s why we’ve also encouraged you to learn about alternative voting systems like Approval Voting (presented as a solution to crowded primaries) and Ranked Choice Voting (reviewing NYC’s implementation), as well as the various other reforms being adopted nationwide (The Fulcrum).
At the same time, we want to recognize the significance of what these organizations have created. By working together, they have potentially accomplished two significant goals: (1) identified a broad set of reforms that could strengthen our democracy and have cross-partisan support and (2) agreed on a method of enforcement that could attract support from both progressives and conservatives (i.e. heavily incentivizing, but not forcing, states to adopt the measures).
And on an entirely separate note, we would like to welcome SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins to the Bridge Alliance! Be sure to check out their work and sign up for their upcoming event tomorrow at 4 PM ET “Making Your Voice Count: Activism, Voting, and the Democratic Ideal.”
Featured
- AllSides (blog) Jan 19th: The One Thing We All Have In Common
- AllSides (blog) Jan 25th: Fact-checking may be important, but it won’t help Americans learn to disagree better
- American Promise, RepresentUS (MLK) Jan 17th: Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as a New Generation of Reformers Takes Action
- BillTrack50 (blog) Jan 14th: The Know Before You Owe Legislation
- Braver Angels (video) Jan 18th: Americans Experience Braver Angels
- Braver Angels (report) Jan 18th: Braver Angels 2020-2021 Report: Depolarizing During the Pandemic
- BridgeUSA (blog) Jan 17th: What We Can Learn About Leadership and Addressing Dissent Today from MLK Jr.
- Civic Genius (video) Jan 19th: Engagement Bait: Misinformation Gets Sneakier
- Civic Health Project (newsletter) Jan 17th: Depolarize
- Civics Unplugged (form) due Feb 1st: CU Spring 2022 Fellowship Application Form
- Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, Civic Genius (announcement) Jan 21st: Everyday Americans, Faith-Based Leaders & National Decision-Makers Team Up on Digital Disinformation Policy
- FairVote (report) Jan 22nd: Ranked Choice Voting in 2021: A Year-End Review
- Issue One, R Street Institute, Unite America (report) Jan 20th: Prioritizing Achievable Federal Election Reform
- Listen First Project, Up To Us (video) Jan 20th: #ListenFirst Up to Us
- Living Room Conversations (video) Jan 14th: Justine Lee | Bringing America Together One Conversation At A Time
- Open Primaries (video) Jan 12th: Everything You Want to Know About Andrew Yang & the Forward Party
- Project on Government Oversight (article) Jan 20th: The Pentagon’s Revolving Door Keeps Spinning: 2021 in Review
- Take Back Our Republic (blog) Jan 19th: Americans Are Tired Of Gerrymandering
- TechCongress (form) due Jan 30th: 2022 Congressional Innovation Scholars Program
- The Flip Side (newsletter) Jan 18th: Texas Synagogue Attack
- Unite America (newsletter) Jan 20th: The Future of Federal Election Reform: Surprise! It’s Bipartisan.
- Young Americans Coalition for Unity (blog) Jan 14th: The Tremendous Personal Cost of Politics