Conversations with leaders who bring people from all sides together in purposeful dialogue so we can develop a shared vision of the world we want to live in.
Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti conduct interviews that will work to deepen and expand our understandings.
These conversations will get us off the political battlefields and onto cooperative playing fields. There we can create the new story that our hearts know is possible.
Conversation with Former US Congressman and CSP Founder Tom Campbell
“We have a deeply-divided body politic. Half the people believe our system is broken. The other half believe it is fixed.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
When asked if we need a new third party in the United States, our cosmic comic uncommontator Swami Beyondananda answered, “No. We need a new FIRST party in this country.”
And … what if there were a “third force” that could transform our system from a dysfunctional two-party duopoly to a thriving multi-party system?
Our conversation with former U.S. Congressman and Common Sense Party founder Tom Campbell offers up an uncommonly sensible common sense approach to get government on the side of the people. And Tom Campbell is no sidelines commentator. He served five terms in the US Congress, and two years in the California State Senate. He was finance director for the state of California, and Director of the Bureau of competition for the Federal Trade Commission. He earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago, and a law degree magna cum laude from Harvard. He was a White House fellow, and a US Supreme Court law clerk, a tenured law professor at Stanford, Dean of the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, was founding Dean of the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. Currently, he is professor of law and professor of economics at Chapman.
In this rich conversation, Tom brings his experiences – and frustrations – as a legislator dedicated to working across party lines to bring constructive policies that benefit We the People, not the special interests, and not just the party elites. You’ll learn why legislators in states like California where there is one-party monopoly, CANNOT deviate from their party line, and why this leaves the majority of voters unrepresented by either party. As an insider, he offers telling examples of this uncommonly senseless system where rigid party stances prevent so many good things from happening …and the way issues were resolved in the past that can be revived in the future.
He presents the Common Sense Party as a truly “radical” alternative, radical meaning “getting to the root of.” Instead of platform planks designed to cater to special interests, all platform items will have the approval of three quarters of the party members, giving ordinary citizens not just a vote every two years, but a VOICE in setting policy priorities. Above all, the Common Sense Party is dedicated to collaborating to solve the real problems we face as opposed to staying on the partisan battlefield where regardless of which party wins, the people will lose. Imagine … instead of having the default choice of voting for the “lesser evil” every two years, the voters of California will be able to work for the GREATER GOOD together.
As Tom explains, this experiment is beginning in California, both because it is currently a one-party monopoly, and because the “open primaries” mean that in overwhelmingly blue or overwhelmingly red districts, two members of the same party might find themselves opponents in the general election. By supporting the candidate that most represents the independent, common sense approach, the Common Sense Party can be a powerful influence, even in districts where they aren’t running their own candidate.
“Instead of being just another political party that runs candidates every two years,” Tom says, “the Common Sense Party offers an ongoing dynamic process for support of positions and supportive of candidates. It's a way that invites people who would otherwise be excluded … and a new way to govern that reflects the needs of the people.”
If you’re ready to entertain a constructive alternative to the destructive status quo – a “party for the rest of us” – please tune into this informative and heartening conversation, and find out how YOU can participate.
“If a speech falls freely in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, is it still free speech?” – Swami Beyondananda
In 1974, the satirical troupe, Firesign Theatre, put out a comedy record, Everything You Know Is Wrong.
Now, 50 years later …looks like they were right.
When we think of censorship, we think of overt repression of views, like book banning, or even book-burning. But in these times, where so much of what we think we “know” comes from digital sources, the censorship is so silent and stealthy that we haven’t a clue how the information we receive has already been filtered and focused by someone unknown to us. And how we are convinced we are “thinking our own thoughts” but are in fact parroting planted narratives.
On this episode of Front and Center, Michael and I review and unpack an eye-opening interview with psychologist and journalist Dr. Robert Epstein, on what he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME). Epstein, a former editor of Psychology Today, has ...
“It’s not vicious lies they are looking to censor.
It’s those vicious truths they’re worried about.”
– Swami Beyondananda
Last week I wrote a post suggesting that free speech censorship was the gravest existential threat to democracy. I was heartened by the positive response, although I found something very curious about the few pushback emails I got. Not one of them objected to any of my points about free speech, or even addressed them. All of the negative feedback boiled down to: “Donald Trump is worse!”
That’s the problem with “lesser evil-ism.” We accentuate and amplify the evil on the other side (in this week’s podcast you can view the contrast between what mainstream media said that Trump said and what he actually said), while refusing to acknowledge the lies and contradictions on our own side.
That’s how evil prevails.
So I want to try a thought experiment.
Imagine there’s no Donald Trump.
(Imagine there’s no Donald …
It’s easy if you try …
No red-hat wearing MAGA’s
The red team runs another guy ...
“The best way to overgrow the ‘deep state’ is by cultivating a deeper state.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Here is the oxymoronic political contradiction of our times. We seem more polarized than ever, and yet the vast majority of us long to work together for mutual benefit. Perhaps the resolution of this seemingly impossible “shituation” can be found in the “real” American dream of our founders: individual freedom AND collective wellbeing.
The accentuated polarization of our times has put these two universal aspirations in conflict with one another. But what if they need to co-evolve together? Is there a way to transform these dueling dualities into dynamic-duo dance partners?
Our guest this week on Front and Center, Foster Gamble (www.freetothrive.com), has spent his adult lifetime seeking what he calls a “universal morality” that is not imposed from the top down, but realized from the individual on up. Growing up in privilege – he’s a Gamble as in Proctor & Gamble – ...
An Interview With Pioneering Black Journalist Glen Ford
“It’s time to move past identity issues and focus on the IDENTICAL issues we all face – clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean government.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Bamboozlement. Isn’t that a great word?
According to Wiki Politiki guest Glen Ford, pioneering black journalist, that was a term Malcolm X used to describe how the power structure has used race politics – most recently the #BlackLivesMatter movement -- to keep folks from poking around the real issues.
The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, who was the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”
Sadly, Mr. Ford passed away ...
An Interview With Pioneering Black Journalist Glen Ford
“It’s time to move past identity issues and focus on the IDENTICAL issues we all face – clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean government.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Bamboozlement. Isn’t that a great word?
According to Wiki Politiki guest Glen Ford, pioneering black journalist, that was a term Malcolm X used to describe how the power structure has used race politics – most recently the #BlackLivesMatter movement -- to keep folks from poking around the real issues.
The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, who was the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”
Sadly, Mr. Ford passed away this ...
“There are no sides, only angles. And when we see it from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Part 1 of 2
Here is an “irony supplement” to munch on.
America is in the midst of the most politically polarizing times since the Civil War … and yet, a 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that nearly 80 percent of Americans in each party believe it’s important for Republicans and Democrats to work together on issues.
Huh? How could that be?
Are we that schizophrenic … or, is there a deep longing to find our sane and sacred center at the heart and soul of who we are?
On August 25, 2020 Wiki Politiki interviewed family therapist and author Bill Doherty, co-founder of Braver Angels, an organization dedicated to bringing the polarized sides together to find a new angle – where instead of dehumanizing the other side, we re-humanize the other.
In December 2016, Braver Angels co-founders David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, and David Lapp brought ...
“Truth lives in our hearts. Beliefs lie in our heads.”
– Swami Beyondananda
Some years ago I wrote an article for a progressive publication about Fox News and their propensity for spreading outright lies. I called the article “Come On Baby, Fight My Liar,” and I ended it by saying that conservatives obviously like being lied to – whereas progressives prefer lying to themselves.
Needless to say, I got some pushback on the piece – and also some knowing nods of “yes, I know exactly what you mean.”
What did I mean?
Well, I had just been with a group of people where someone brought up the idea that the 911 Twin Tower attacks might have been an inside job. In response, one woman said – with a completely straight face – “Oh, no. If it had been an inside job I would have heard about it on NPR.”
I think back over the past couple of decades when I presented some inconvenient truth that was outside the comfort zone of some of the spiritually-inclined folks I knew. They would put up their hand and say, “I don’t want to ...
“When you find yourself on a vicious cycle, for goodness sake, stop pedaling and get off.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
From Steve Bhaerman:
One of the biggest challenges for me in the wake of the election results has been speaking into the field of grief, anger, profound disappointment, hopelessness and despair so many of my progressive co-hearts have been experiencing.
And …I’ve been watching this slow-motion train wreck for nearly four years, so I was not surprised.
I began this election day by taking my own advice and following my conscience. I abstained from voting for President. My choice was neither of the above. My prayer was for the American people to make the wisest choice possible – and I let it be with that.
I went about my business peacefully, spent time in nature, watched inspiring, entertaining and educational programs Tuesday night and went to bed without following the “hearse-race.”
In sharp contrast to my rage and horror when it happened in 2016, I...
Since the election, I have been thinking and praying about what was the most important contribution I could make to help MAHA and MAGA succeed.
Last week, after receiving Kelly’s support, I decided to get in the arena…I am running for the House of Representatives in the CA Congressional District #47.
I’m committed to representing you and everyone in our district as a common sense Republican. Together, we can work to get the government on the side of the people and out of the hands of the uniparty Democrats and status quo Republicans.
🙏😎
