Bringing together top Republicans and Democrats to transcend partisan divisions and explore solutions to our most pressing national and global challenges
The Bully Pulpit has merged with the Let’s Find Common Ground podcast. As the tone of public discourse becomes increasingly angry and divisive, Let’s Find Common Ground offers a healing path to reaching agreement and moving forward. At the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, we bring together top Republicans and Democrats to transcend partisan divisions and explore solutions to our most pressing national and global challenges. Join veteran strategists Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy along with other Center staff and major voices for fun conversations that advance civil dialogue and practical politics. The conversations go behind the curtain with elected officials, campaign staff, journalists, academics, pundits, and political operatives. Every exchange is guided by standards central to the Center’s mission: Respect each other and respect the truth. Opponents are adversaries, not enemies. And if you lose, don’t burn down the stadium.
CPF Co-Director Mike Murphy is joined by former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, journalists Robert A. George and Jeremy Peters, and President Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, to discuss how the impact of Republican voter support of the former president translates into influence within GOP leadership.
Featuring:
Mike Murphy - Co-Director, USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future; NBC Political Analyst
Barbara Comstock - Former U.S. Representative (R-VA) , Spring '21 Fellow, Center for the Political Future
Robert A. George - Columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Mark Meadows - Former White House Chief of Staff, President Donald Trump and U.S. Representative (R-NC); Senior Partner, The Conservative Partnership Institute
Jeremy W. Peters - National Politics Reporter, New York Times; Contributor to MSNBC; Author, "Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted"
CPF Co-Director Mike Murphy is joined by historians Sylvain Piron and Jay Rubenstein, former Congressman Denver Riggleman, and Marley Clements, co-creator of "QAnon: The Search For Q" on Vice, to examine the similarities between the Apocalyptic and Millenarian cults in the Middle ages to modern conspiracies around Y2K and QAnon.
Featuring:
Center Director Bob Shrum is joined by authors Thomas Frank and Theodore R. Johnson, Strategist Patrick Griffin, and Former Congresswoman Mimi Walters to discuss how Donald Trump built the second-largest voting bloc in U.S. election history
Featuring:
Thomas Frank - Political Analyst; Author of "The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism"
Patrick Griffin - Founding Partner and CEO, Merrimack Potomac + Charles (MP+C); Fall 2019 Visiting Fellow, Center for the Political Future
Theodore R. Johnson - Fellows Program Director at the Brennan Center for Justice; Author of "When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America”
Mimi Walters - Former U.S. Representative (R-CA) and Fall 2020 Fellow, Center for the Political Future
Robert Shrum is the Director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife. A legendary political strategist, he was once described as "the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party," by The Atlantic Monthly. He was a speechwriter for Senator George McGovern in the 1972 presidential campaign and for Senator Edward Kennedy in the 1980 presidential campaign. He served as the Senator’s Press Secretary in the early 1980s and as a political consultant and strategist in his subsequent Senate campaigns. He was also the strategist in over 25 other winning U.S. Senate campaigns, eight successful campaigns for governor, successful campaigns for mayors in major American cities, and numerous campaigns for Congress and other statewide offices. His clients included Joe Biden, John Glenn, Barbara Mikulski, David Dinkins, and Tom Bradley - and John Kerry and Al Gore in their presidential races. Overseas his clients included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the British Labour Party, the Prime Minister of Ireland, and the Presidents of Colombia and Bolivia. In 2005 he shifted his attention to the academic world. Professor Shrum teaches several classes at USC on domestic policy, applied politics, and elections. He had previously taught at New York University, was a Silliman Fellow at Yale, and Kennedy Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Edward M Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Mike Murphy is the Co-Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC. Murphy is one of the Republican Party’s most successful political media consultants, having handled strategy and advertising for more than 26 successful gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns. His record in helping Republicans win Democratic states is unmatched by any other GOP consultant. Murphy has been called a “media master” by Fortune magazine, the GOP’s “hottest media consultant” by Newsweek, and the leader of a “new breed” of campaign consultants by Congressional Quarterly. He is a widely known political pundit, appearing frequently on NBC, CNN, and NPR. Previously, he served as a regular on the Meet the Press political roundtable and wrote the “Murphy’s Law” column for TIME Magazine. Murphy served as senior strategist for both John McCain’s first campaign for President in 2000 and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s historic election as Governor of California. Murphy has worked on successful campaigns for many GOP Governors and Senators including Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Terry Branstad, Lamar Alexander, Jeff Sessions, Slade Gorton, Dirk Kempthorne, Tommy Thompson and John Engler. In the 2016 primary season, Murphy served as the chief strategist to the Right to Rise PAC, which supported Jeb Bush’s candidacy. In 2020 Murphy joined former aides to George W. Bush and John McCain to endorse Joe Biden for president. He has advised political leaders in six foreign countries, too. A partner in the Washington, DC based Revolution Agency, Murphy also advises several Fortune 500 corporations and several of America’s largest trade associations.
We're excited to welcome the newest addition to The Democracy Group: New Faces of Democracy — a series of conversations with modern-day heroes and regular citizens from all walks of life who are using their talents and skills to transform the political landscape.
The States United Democracy Center, recipients of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy's Brown Democracy Medal, recently surveyed nearly 8,000 Americans to gauge their attitudes about elections, voting and political violence.
We're excited to welcome the newest addition to The Democracy Group: Democracy Fix — a new podcast by Issue One that highlights how organizations and individuals across the country are working to fix our political system.
Grab a drink and find a cozy spot because we’re bringing you a list of books you should read this summer!
Student affairs staff and campus administrators were unprepared when election polarization and toxicity took campuses by surprise in 2016.
Waves of student protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza swept American campuses last week and along with them the debate of free speech and the freedom to peaceably assemble on campus grounds.
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Join us in extending the warmest welcome to the newest cohort of fellows from The Democracy Group Podcast Fellowship!
A common narrative about the 2024 election is that “democracy is on the ballot” and that American democracy could be in very dire shape if the election doesn’t go a particular way. At The Democracy Group, we understand those risks and take them seriously. But we also know that many other media outlets will be covering the election through this lens.
Teen podcast builds empathy, bridges generational divides
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Welcome to the Best of 2023!
"College classes are a place for students to feel uncomfortable and grapple with difficult concepts in the world. Students need the opportunity to correct one another and have hard and sometimes offensive conversations with one another."
States and counties across the nation held key elections in early November 2023 where abortion access took center stage.
The Democracy Group's podcast fellowship program is in full swing! Here’s a glimpse at what our 2023 fellows were working on during their fellowship.
We're excited to share a new podcast in the democracy space — Vital Signs of Democracy. Community Manager Megan Goldstein talked with hosts Debilyn Molineaux and David Riordan to learn more
Community manager Megan Goldstein caught up with Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen, co-founders of the Common Ground Committee
On June 29th, the supreme court ruled to make affirmative action unlawful in The Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.
Looking for a new book to read this summer? Here are 10 recommendations from our network's hosts and producers.
News, news, news. Right news, left news, fake news, and more. America's news landscape is a hot topic of conversation.
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Civic education is critical to a healthy democracy, which is why we're excited to be part of national Civic Learning Week!
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"Love thy Neighbor" until they think differently from you, vote differently than you, and have different beliefs than you. Is this what the United States has come to?
Engaging in civil discourse. Inspiring civic engagement. Exploring the future of our democracy.
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