Democracy Forum 1/15/21: Searching for Common Ground across the Political Divide

Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We’ll talk about the political divide in the aftermath of the 2020 general election. Do we share any common ground? What happened at “America in One Room” in 2019? And what does it mean for American in 2021. What lessons can we learn about American democracy and its future? Guests: Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution James Fishkin, Janet M Peck Chair of International Communication at Stanford University, and Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy. Steve Wessler, Maine human rights educator, trainer, and advocate specializing in conflict resolution To learn more about this topic: These 526 Voters Represent All of America. And They Spent a Weekend Together, New York Times, October, 2019 America in One Room Our Common Purpose “Pulling Our Politics Back from the Brink,” The New Yorker, November, 2020 “?You’re Wrong About: Losing Relatives to Fox News” on Apple Podcasts The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good, Michaels J Sandel, 2020 The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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