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TED Talks Daily

Why US politics is broken — and how to fix it | Andrew Yang

May 7, 2024
Political reformer Andrew Yang joins the discussion, drawing on his experience from his 2020 presidential campaign. He argues that the U.S. political system is in dire need of redesign due to flawed incentives. Yang highlights the disconnect between voters and elected officials and proposes adopting ranked-choice voting to enhance democracy. He cites Alaska's successful reforms as a model, emphasizing their potential to reduce extremism and improve legislative action on critical issues.
11:10

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • US politics is broken due to perverse incentives and flawed design, hindering meaningful progress on critical issues like immigration and climate change.
  • Andrew Yang proposes cost-effective overhaul inspired by primary elections in Alaska, advocating for ranked-choice voting to minimize extreme outcomes and promote bipartisan cooperation.

Deep dives

The Broken American Political System

Andrew Yang highlights the fundamental flaws in the American political system, attributing its dysfunction to perverse incentives and a flawed design. With a high incumbency re-election rate of 94% and heavily gerrymandered districts that predict partisan outcomes, politicians are not incentivized to serve the broader public but cater to a small base of extreme party members. This leads to polarization and disconnection from the majority of voters, hindering meaningful progress on critical issues like immigration and climate change.

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