The Third Founding

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With our political system mired in problems, there’s plenty of talk about ‘fixing politics.’ But our guest Mark Sappenfield, Editor of the Christian Science Monitor, says that idea is too simplistic. What needs to change, he says “is upstream from politics. It’s how we relate to each other as human beings in our society. And until that changes, politics isn’t going to change.” In a deeply thoughtful conversation, Mark shares his personal take on where the U.S. is and where it needs to go. Americans’ expectations have changed a lot in recent years with mass internet access and the instant gratification brought about by digital life. We want something? We expect to get it within hours. But Mark argues this culture of convenience and focus on the self has seeped into the rest of our lives, altering our expectations for what politicians can do for us and absolving us of personal responsibility. From his current home in Germany Mark discusses the upside of a less convenient daily life, the difference between compromise and curiosity, and how a societal re-set he calls 'a third founding’ may be needed to get America back on track.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin, we have a sad announcement for this first show of 2024.
0:05.0	Bruce Bond, co-founder and CEO of Common Ground Committee, died last week.
0:11.0	Bruce co-founded Common Ground Committee with... week. value and importance of common ground and always listened carefully to other perspectives.
0:27.6	His love for others made him open to new ideas and his strong principles guided his thinking.
0:33.0	He was a great champion of this show and also a generous colleague.
0:37.0	He often thanked us for our work on the podcast.
0:40.0	Yeah, Bruce was instrumental in putting this episode together.
0:44.4	He was intrigued by what our guest Mark Sapenfield had to say about American society needing a reset
0:52.0	to get back on track. Bruce spoke with Mark about his ideas before
0:56.2	we did. This episode is in memory of Bruce Bond. Here's our show.
1:10.0	With our political system mired in problems, there's plenty of talk about fixing politics. But our guest says that idea is too simplistic.
1:15.0	If you just point to politics and say, can we fix politics?
1:18.0	My answer is no, because it's not politics, it's upstream from politics. It's how we relate to each other as human beings in our
1:26.3	society and until that changes politics isn't going to change. change. This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Ashley Meltite.
1:50.0	And I'm Richard Davies. We're going to speak with Mark Sapenfield, editor of the Christian Science Monitor.
1:57.0	This isn't his first time on the podcast. We spoke before about election coverage.
2:02.0	Today, he shares his personal take on where the US is and where it needs to go,
2:09.5	something he calls the third founding.
2:18.2	Mark says American society needs a reset, something that will allow us all to be on the same page again instead of fractured into ever smaller groups, all with different interests.
2:24.1	He's been living abroad for the past several months in Germany,
2:28.0	where Mark says there's a lot less focus
2:30.7	on individual wants and needs, and more on society. focus on
	...

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