November 1, 2018 {{ currentPage ? currentPage.title : "" }}

Conversation Topics

We met up at the Very office, had a great chat, and sampled some snacks and sips. A few main topics emerged, including:

Reliability of news sources

  • FiveThirtyEight podcast: mentioned as a data-driven, scientific approach to looking at political developments

  • Equal air time requirements in local news: discussion of how there can be a lack of equal representation in geographical areas that are adjacent to (or overlapping with) hotly contested races — even in spite of this rule — since candidates won’t necessarily ‘request’ coverage in all areas

  • Sinclair corporate messaging: pitfalls of politically biased parent companies putting words in the mouths of local anchors without transparency to the public

Voting & political action

  • Are ‘Millennials’ more likely to turn out / believe their vote is important after the 2016 result?

  • Anti-Trump protest and Danielle Mitchell rally occurring at the same time: what are the most effective ways to protest? Is “for” more or less effective than “against” in the current climate?

  • Voter suppression: absentee ballot access, purging voter rolls, gerrymandering

  • Electoral college: what modifications are needed, and what are the drawbacks of direct democracy?

  • Three-party system: will it ever happen, and would we like the outcome?

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