Paul Johnson welcomes Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Global Future Scholar, and former Senior Policy Director in the U.S. House of Representatives Dr. Sybil Francis.
They discuss the Center for the Future of Arizona initiative, some of the key findings from big surveys, and talk about the so-called shared public values, and what data is actually showing in regard to divisions in America today.
- Dr. Sybil Francis shares the origin story of the Center for the Future of Arizona and discusses what it focuses on, as well as the methodology it utilizes.
- The two big surveys Dr. Francis and her team have done with Gallup were done in 2009 and 2020 – and they helped better understand who Arizonans are.
- One of the key indicators from polling around the country is that Americans are not as polarized and divided, they agree on much more than they disagree.
- Dr. Francis touches upon the so-called shared public values and some interesting traits about Arizonans that have transpired from the Gallup surveys.
- There’s a specific approach to the Arizona voter's agenda and its goals, and Dr. Francis tells all about it.
- In the polling, Arizonians including the majority in both parties have vast agreement on major topics such as education, immigration, and the environment.
- The Arizona Polling confirms what other polls from around the U.S. show that Americans are not as divided as one could think, yet American politicians are more divided than ever even on this topics where broad consensus exist amongst the public. Dr. Francis says we need to ask why?.
- Paul Johnson and Dr. Francis shares their thoughts about why and it relates to partisan primaries and the incentive for news networks to play to the fringes, and to demonize the other side to terrify the viewers to watch again tomorrow.
- In the 14 years, Dr. Francis has had the data, she hasn’t seen any better or more promising solution to finding a bridge between what the majority of voters want and politicians than the open primary ranked-choice voting system.
- Dr. Francis explains that their work is about helping the public understand who we are and thus change our mental construct of what is possible based on data.
- Furthermore, she plans on taking advantage of the crucial role Arizona will have in the 2024 elections to educate national media about who Arizonans are.
- Dr. Francis believes that ‘changing systems are the greatest leverage to really impactful change.’
Mentioned in This Episode:
optamerican.com
Addictive Ideologies: Finding Meaning and Agency When Politics Fail You by Dr Emily Bashah and Hon Paul Johnson
The Optimistic American on YouTube
Dr. Sybil Francis
Center for the Future of Arizona
Gallup
American Association for the Advancement of Science
AZ HighGround
Arizona Progress Meters
Education Forward Arizona
WESTMARC
State of Black Arizona
Arizona Community Foundation
