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Freakonomics Radio: America’s Hidden Duopoly
#1
Interesting look at the two party system. I’m listening now on Oregon Public Radio.

‘ I know how much you all love the American political system, which delivers nothing but excellence, efficiency, and compassion to all of us. Still, we thought it might be useful to look under the hood, to see if our two-party system is really as awesome as we all think it is. This episode first ran in 2018, but it’s probably even more relevant today. It’s called “America’s Hidden Duopoly.” ‘

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/america...broadcast/


Audio and transcript at linked site.

‘ The business strategist Michael Porter and the C.E.O.-turned-political reformist Katherine Gehl argue, in a Harvard Business School report, that our political system has been turned into an industry with no real competition. The industry’s primary beneficiaries are itself and its many ancillary participants, including the media.’

‘ The lack of vigorous competition, they argue, has allowed the Democrats and Republicans to carve out diametrically opposed political bases, fairly narrow and extremely partisan.’

‘ And the parties, Gehl and Porter argue, use those partisan bases to support the desires of the political industry’s true customers, and its wealthiest: special interests. Industries like health care, real estate, and financial services; also, labor unions and lobbyists. In this duopolistic business model, polarization is a feature, not a bug.’
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#2
Agree 100%. They prevent other parties from coming to the fore. They are both beholden to big money and use their own largely fake stances of fighting for regular people to divide us all as they and their cronies enrich themselves. It's unconscionable.
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#3
I listened to that show carefully. It reached a LOT of the right conclusions, IMHO.

That said, it engaged in a lot of false equivalency about how the problems arose, rather than correctly assigning responsibility to the Republicans. Other than that, quite good.
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#4
There's nothing "hidden" about it.
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