Ep. 9: Election reform: systemic changes to improve how we choose our leaders with Todd Connor and Eric Bronner

Vet Our Democracy Podcast

We’ve all heard about how divided America is today. At least that’s what we’re being told. You only need to watch five minutes of cable news and you’ll hear about how one political party is trashing another - calling them the enemy or a grave threat to democracy. Voter enthusiasm for leading candidates is low, and many people we speak with are asking if these two very old male candidates are the best options our country of more than three hundred and thirty million can produce. The last Congress was one of the least productive in terms of legislation passed in decades if not US history history because of partisan infighting and a lack of willingness to compromise. Many times, we feel like both of the major political parties are standing on the opposite ends of the field hurling insults across the 50 yard line at each other. What we don’t see them doing is the hard work of governing. What’s clear is that Washington isn’t going to change itself and it reminds me of what Dr. W. Edwards Demming said: A bad system will beat a good person every time. This episode is all about making the way we elect our officials better and how, by improving the system, we can improve our nation’s politics. Joining us are two guests that have a few ideas on how to do this - Navy veterans Todd Connor and Eric Bronner. Todd is the founder of the veteran business incubator Bunker Labs, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and author of Third Shift Entrepreneur. Eric is the Co-Founder of Show Me Integrity Education Fund, Missouri. He hold s a JD from Washington University in St. Louis, and is a nationally recognized election reform leader. They both have co-founded a group called Veterans for All Americans (formerly called Veterans for Political Innovation) whose mission is To build and mobilize a community of military veterans to advocate for election innovations that unlock competition, make our politics less toxic and our government more effective.

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