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Navigating love, critique and national identity: a retired Navy commander explores the paradox of patriotism.

Memorial Day honors the men and women who sacrificed their lives in service to our country. In our next podcast episode, we discuss different ways to look at patriotism. Our guest, retired US naval officer and Washington Post newspaper columnist Theodore Johnson ponders the question, “How can we take pride in a nation with a history of injustice and inequality?”

At a high school football game, Johnson, who is African American, stood at attention when the national anthem was played. His teenage son, who was about to play in the game, took a knee in a protest against how he saw police treating African Americans. Johnson argues that both acts were expressions of patriotism and is proud of his son’s decision.

“For me, being a patriot is not about uncritical celebration and talking only about how exceptional we are and how great the country is,” Johnson tells us. “Being a true patriot requires that you both love the nation and critique it.” On this insightful episode of “Let’s Find Common Ground“, Theodore Johnson also discusses his thoughts for how America can have more productive and uplifting discussions about race.

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Theodore (Ted) R. Johnson

Ted Johnson is a senior advisor, leading New America’s flagship US@250 initiative. Johnson’s research explores the role that race plays in electoral politics and its influence on the national narrative and the American identity.

A former New America National Fellow, Johnson is a retired U.S. Navy commander following a two-decade career that included service as a White House Fellow and speechwriter to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to New America, Johnson was a senior fellow and senior director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice as well as a research manager at Deloitte.

Johnson’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, National Review, and Atlantic, among other publications. Johnson is a columnist for The Washington Post and author of When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America (Grove Atlantic, 2021). Johnson’s currently working on a book about race and American democracy’s first principles.

Johnson is a proud HBCU graduate, holding a BS in mathematics from Hampton University as well as an ALM with a concentration in international relations from Harvard University and a doctorate of law and policy from Northeastern University.
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What is the true state of American political opinion? New research challenges assumptions.

It’s often said that America is as politically divided as it has ever been. In this week’s show, we dive into the data from two different groups that study American attitudes. What they discovered challenges many assumptions about the current state of US politics, and offers us a sense of context missing from noisy ‘us versus them’ type arguments.

John Geer of Vanderbilt University discusses the latest findings from Vanderbilt’s Unity Index, which tracks Americans’ trust in institutions and democracy. Kate Carney, chief of staff at More in Common in Washington DC, talks about the group’s ‘Speaking to the Exhausted Majority’ report.  Both reports are examples of deep research into the state of American public opinion and where common ground may lie.

We discuss the extent to which US democracy is under threat, who really makes up the ‘exhausted majority’ of American voters, and what liberals and conservatives get wrong about the other side.

Tune in to hear more on this episode of Let’s Find Common Ground.

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Ep 83 – Divided We Stand? What Americans Really Think About Politics

John Geer

John G. Geer is the Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean of the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University and a professor of political science. Geer helped to launch and currently manages the Vanderbilt Project on Unity & Democracy, a trans-institutional initiative that aims to overcome political polarization through sound research and evidence-based discourse. Geer is a founder of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and now co-directs the influential Vanderbilt Poll, which launched in January 2011. Geer has published five books and more than 20 articles on presidential politics and elections, and previously served as editor of The Journal of Politics. Geer joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1995. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1986 and his bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1980. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, he was on the faculty at Arizona State University.

Kate Carney

Kate is Chief of Staff at More in Common US, a non-partisan research and civic organization that studies the forces pulling America apart, seeking to disrupt polarization and forge a stronger sense of what Americans have in common. She has over a decade of multisector experience that includes policy advising on Capitol Hill, founding a nonprofit in Haiti, and leading corporate social responsibility programs at a Fortune 100 company. She also is a proud Gold Looper, having circumnavigated 8,000 miles of U.S. eastern waterways on a 31-foot trawler around the Great Loop. She has a MPP from University of Maryland and a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she also serves on the Board of Trustees. Kate lives with her husband, Tim, in Washington, DC.

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How can we build stronger relationships? Hear the unique perspective of two religious leaders.

Our last show focused on finding common ground when talking to strangers. In this show, we explore friendship and empathy with two guests who are friends themselves, a Catholic priest and a Protestant pastor.

Father Tim Holeda leads Saint Thomas More Co-Cathedral, and Latricia Scriven is pastor of Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, both in Tallahassee, Florida.

As religious leaders, our guests offer a perspective many people don’t have these days. They grapple with moral questions in their work that we often don’t consider, and draw on the wisdom of ancient texts to help them navigate our complicated modern world.

Tune in to hear more on this latest episode of Let’s Find Common Ground. Thank you to The Village Square and The Village Square’s God Squad, a politically diverse group of faith leaders, for making this show possible.

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Ep 81 – Break Out of Your Bubble to Build Friendship and Empathy

Rev. Dr. Latricia Edwards Scriven

Rev. Dr. Latricia Edwards Scriven is the senior pastor of Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida. She previously served at the church as Executive Director and Pastor of the IMPACT@FAMU Wesley Foundation at Florida A&M University, and as Pastor of New Life United Methodist Church.

She strives to create spaces that are authentic, energetic, interactive, thoughtful, and engaging. Pastor Latricia is the author of the children’s books, “When Jesus Laughs“, “When Jesus Rests“, “When Jesus Weeps“, “When She Speaks“, and “Laughter Is My Superpower.”

Father Tim Holeda

Father Tim Holeda currently serves as Rector of the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee, Florida, and is the Director of Vocations and Seminarians for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. He has been an ordained priest in the Catholic Church since 2011. Father Tim attended seminary at St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, FL. He became a Catholic while an undergrad student at Florida State University. He served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve throughout college.

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The problem of gun violence is growing worse. Why is finding a common solution so elusive?

In the first eight weeks of this year, America’s epidemic of mass shootings and gun crimes showed no signs of reprieve. In fact, the crisis may be getting much worse. According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks firearm violence in the U.S., there have been at least 90 mass shootings since January 1.

In this episode of Let’s Find Common Ground, we take a close look at gun violence and the search for common ground. We learn why so many Americans love guns and say they need them for self-defense. We also hear about differences in regional attitudes to guns, and what happens to communities that witness mass shootings.

Our guests are journalist Patrik Jonsson and gun safety advocate Ryan Busse, the author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America.

Patrik Jonsson is the Atlanta-based correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. He writes about The South, gun rights, race, extremist groups, natural disasters, and hockey. Ryan Busse grew up around guns —  hunting and shooting with his father — and had a long and successful executive career in the gun industry. Despite being a strong critic of the NRA, he’s still a proud gun owner, hunter, and outdoorsman who lives in Montana.

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Ep 79 – Mass Shootings and Guns: Seeking Common Ground

Patrik Jonsson

Patrik Jonsson is the Atlanta-based correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, covering the South. He became a full-time Monitor staff writer in 2005 after covering Hurricane Katrina’s immediate aftermath for the paper and moved to Atlanta. Among many other things, he writes about race, gun rights, tornadoes, extremist groups, and hockey. Patrik lives in a small 1920s-era bungalow in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood with his wife, Alice, and two children, Jake and Lena. When he’s not in the bureau or taking care of the kids, you’ll most likely find Patrik playing hood hockey – an urban version of street hockey – or chugging along some Southern waterway in his motorized canoe. He is probably the only Monitor correspondent with a commercial fishing license.

Ryan Busse

Ryan Busse is an author and former firearms executive who spent many years in the industry and was nominated multiple times by industry colleagues for the Shooting Industry Person of The Year Award.

As Ryan’s career progressed, he became increasingly concerned by what he calls “troubling NRA extremism” that he believed was radicalizing millions of Americans. He spent nearly two decades finding ways to fight back from the inside and left the gun industry in 2020. His book Gunfight was published in October 2021.

Busse is also an environmental advocate who served in many leadership roles for conservation organizations including as an advisor to the U.S. Senate Sportsmen’s Caucus and the Biden Presidential campaign. He remains a proud outdoorsman, gun owner, father, and resident of Montana.

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How can Democrats stop losing ground in rural America? A progressive who served a conservative district weighs in.

Why do the two main political parties do so poorly with some large groups of voters? In this episode we look at how in recent decades Democrats have been losing rural America by growing margins. Next time we will focus on Republicans and their struggles with Gen-Z voters.

In 1996, Bill Clinton carried nearly half of all rural counties. But in 2020 Joe Biden won majorities in fewer than 7% of these counties.

Our guest, Chloe Maxmin, a progressive Democrat from rural Maine, was the youngest woman ever to serve in Maine’s Senate. She was elected in a conservative district in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent in a region that twice voted for Donald Trump by large majorities.

She argues that her party has ignored voters in rural America, and that their road to victory begins with respect, empathy, seeking common ground, and listening carefully to rural voters’ concerns. When on the doorstep, Maxmin argues, candidates and volunteers should “take the time to listen to why somebody believes the things they do and why they think the way they do.”

Hear more on the latest episode of Let’s Find Common Ground.

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Ep 77 – Why Democrats Fail With Rural Voters

Chloe Maxmin

Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate, at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She also received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe is the recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and the Brower Youth Award. She was also named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone. She was named the 2020 Legislator of the Year by the Maine Council on Aging. She is also the Co-Founder/Advisor at JustME for JustUS, a Maine-based organization focus on rural youth civic engagement and climate organizing. She is the Co-Founder, alongside Canyon, of Dirtroad Organizing, a new non-profit dedicated to rural organizing.

Want to hear more? Check out our podcast page to see all the discussions!