The Optimistic American - Audio Edition

Jul 12, 2023

Paul Johnson is joined by fourth-generation Arizonan, former Speaker of the House in Arizona, and past Senate member Rusty Bowers.

They talk about what led Bowers to run for office, his definition of “conservative,” what happened with the 2020 elections in relation to fake electors, and what can be done to change the current division in U.S. politics.

• Fourth-generation Arizonan Rusty Bowers shares his origin story, what led him to run for office in the first place, and what his first year was like.
• Despite being an artist, Rusty Bowers isn’t just Republican, he’s a rather conservative Republican that can’t be easily put in what he refers to as “the box.”
• For Bowers, a conservative is someone who believes in institutions or principles that are worth conserving and not just for a personal agenda but for a country, a society.
• Paul and Rusty Bowers go over what Bowers considers conservative values, as well as the role of pluralism and finding common ground.
• Paul believes that the current far-right and far-left that are forming are outside the norms of the liberal Democratic Party and of the conservative Republican Party. 
• These new leaders of the Alt Right and Woke Left don’t buy into constitutional truths. They see people as part of a racial group in a struggle for power and not as individuals.
• The point of a leader, according to Bowers, is to try to find commonalities and individual characteristics of people as a resource to move something forward.
• Rusty Bowers opens up about when he started to notice a change with the U.S. political system, the role of I.V.A.N., and what happened with the 2020 elections.
• Rusty Bowers shares what he thinks can be done at both an individual and collective level to try to resolve the ongoing divisions.

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

Rusty Bowers

John F. Kennedy Library

Stan Barnes

Mark Killian

Jackie Robinson

Barry Goldwater

Carl Hayden