Reimagining Democracy with Max Stearns

Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Storytelling, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you ever wonder what Democracy could look like in America? Many voters are familiar with this scene: You walk into a voting booth, review the options, and feel as though you’re voting between “the lesser of two evils.” You might worry that voting third-party is wasting a vote, but you don’t feel represented by the main candidates. Sound familiar? If you’re like the majority of Americans, you probably find yourself frustrated with the two-party system and a historically unproductive Congress. What if it didn’t have to be that way? Sharon is joined by law professor and author Max Stearns, to hear about another option: a Parliamentary Democracy. What would this look like, and how might Americans benefit by reimagining Democracy?

Special thanks to our guest, Max Stearns, for joining us today.

Host/ Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey friends welcome.
0:05.0	So glad you're joining me today.
0:06.8	My guest today is Law Professor Max Stearns
0:10.1	who has such an interesting proposition for how to fix our democracy.
0:16.5	You are going to want to listen to his ideas, think about them. Let's have a conversation
0:21.2	about what he is proposing and I'm excited to dive in
0:26.8	I'm Sharon McMahon and here's where it gets interesting. I am delighted to be joined today by Max Stearns and my goodness what an interesting topic for a book
0:41.2	Parliamentary America.
0:43.2	First of all, welcome.
0:44.2	Thanks for being here.
0:45.2	Thank you so much for having me.
0:47.0	OK, first of all, you are proposing some pretty big departures from the way the American governmental system is set up right now.
0:59.0	One of the things that I hear from people all the time is how frustrated they are with our political
1:05.4	system that Congress is completely dysfunctional. In fact we have one of the least
1:10.4	functional Congresses in terms of like actually getting stuff done in
1:14.4	United States history right now. This Congress is historically unproductive. They
1:21.0	spend all their time having press conferences and a gram standing from
1:26.9	committee chairs and almost no time actually working for the American
1:32.2	people and people are tired of it.
1:34.0	People are like, why are you taking my tax money and doing nothing with it?
1:39.0	And when I go to vote for president or I go to vote for senator, whatever it is, I feel like I am constantly
1:48.7	having to choose between the lesser of two evils, that I rarely get to vote for somebody with whom I deeply
	...

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