Founder of The C-Plan (2013), a bipartisan movement promoting civility, cooperation, and compromise in American politics. Quantitative researcher and owner of DataStar, Inc., a survey management firm in Waltham, MA.
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Transpartisanship is an emerging concept on the political scene. Those who expound the philosophy do not equate it with bipartisanship, which is based on negotiating between the right and left. Nor is it non-partisanship, which aims to put party politics completely aside to solve problems. Instead, the transpartisan movement aims
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John Tierney, who narrowly held his Massachusetts congressional seat in 2012, is facing another difficult challenge in the 2014 election season. Tierney, a Democrat, has represented the 6th Congressional District in northeastern Massachusetts since 1997. In his last re-election, he won by less than 5,000 votes in a bitter
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Polarization in American politics is high among both parties and voters. This fact is hard to deny and is supported by polls and analyses of legislative behavior. What is surprising is that some have argued that there are benefits to this phenomenon.What are these benefits, and are they as
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Many people have called for increased transparency in government, especially with intelligence agencies like the NSA, but perhaps what they really mean is better accountability. The two terms are often used in tandem, but the contrast is vital to understanding the checks and balances we cherish in our democracy. To
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Can one ordinary citizen change the world? It is difficult to estimate the number of people who use Twitter to try to change our dysfunctional political environment. According to Twitter, the number of active monthly users is 241 million, sending a combined total of 500 million tweets per day. If
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What does that term even mean today? Polls vary widely on the percentage of voters who can be defined by a centrist position. A recent poll by Esquire and NBC places this number at 51 percent. A Gallup poll finds that only 34 percent of Americans self-identified as moderates in
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"To help liberals understand (and be civil to) conservatives." "To help conservatives understand (and be civil to) liberals." "To help everyone understand libertarians, who are often ignored because they don't fit on the left-right spectrum." On the website of CivilPolitics.org, readings
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To Kill a Mockingbird The National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) is an organization committed to promoting a greater understanding of the views of others. Chaired by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the NICD’s board members include representatives from major news media, former secretaries of
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"All politics is local." - former House Speaker Tip O’Neill The Village Square is about as local and as grassroots as an organization can get, taking a very bottom-up approach to problem-solving. They serve as brokers of conversation with the goal of setting a friendly tone in
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"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer." John F. Kennedy spoke these words in 1958 regarding the political challenges faced in America. Kennedy called for following a path of compromise -- to move the nation forward by seeking common ground
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Though support for the tea party has been waning since 2010, it is hard to deny that it is still a mainstream movement in America in terms of awareness and media focus. Since its emergence, many other groups have formed in response: the Beer Party, the Cocoa Party, and the
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Spoiler alert: That's one of the concluding remarks in former Senator Olympia Snowe's recent book, Fighting for Common Ground. Tired of government stalemate, congressional inaction, and the declining state of public discourse and civility in America? Snowe outlines a blueprint for change -- a way out