The Optimistic American - Audio Edition

Jul 26, 2023

In this episode of The Optimistic American, Paul Johnson is joined by Eric Bronner and Chris Sylvester from Veterans for Political Innovation.

The three talk about the issues with the American political system, why political reform matters to veterans, the issues with the bi-partisan political scene, and what a real patriot is actually all about.

• Eric kicks off the conversation by sharing what Veterans for Political Innovation is all about.
• The initiative was launched about two years ago with the goal of mobilizing America’s most trusted messengers to help repair some of the least trusted institutions – our partisan political system, through state-based campaigns for better elections, better politics, and more choices.
• Chris and Eric open up about their service for the country and the role they played in the United States military.
• According to Eric, political reform matters to veterans for the fact that independents are tired of the two-party doom loop the U.S. are stuck in.
• Reformers like Eric and Chris believe that reforms are the best path to changing the system itself, and to making American politics – and the country – better.
• Eric and Chris believe the existing partisan system is a threat to American national security.
• Chris talks about his run into politics as a Republican and the lesson he learned about trying to unseat an incumbent of the same party.
• Eric touches upon what he considers two key aspects that could improve the political system: a fully-open unified primary where every voter could vote for any candidate, and real competition for November’s elections.
• Chris believes that the political system is riddled with apathy and ignorance.
• For Eric, if someone is more loyal to a political party or a political leader than to the Constitution, they are not a patriot.
• Eric brings the concept of Final Five Voting into the conversation.
• Chris and Eric go through their definitions of leadership.
• One of the major challenges for existing politicians is that out of 500,000 elected officials, 70% are determined in the primary and never face opposition in the general election. This gives an inordinate amount of leverage to the 10% of special interests who actually show up in the primary.
• Both learned in the Military the importance of putting Country before Party. They swore their oath to the Constitution. Today’s politicians because of the broken partisan system put their party above their oath to the Constitution.

Mentioned in This Episode:

optamerican.com

Addictive Ideologies: Finding Meaning and Agency When Politics Fail You by Dr Emily Bashah and Hon Paul Johnson

The Optimistic American on YouTube - @optamerican

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Veterans for Political Innovation

Michael Porter 

Harvard Business School

George Washington

Martin Luther

Jean-Jacques Rosseau

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

SaveDemocracyAZ.com