Let's Find Common Ground - Bully Pulpit Podcast and "Let’s Find Common Ground" Podcast Merge Into One Super Podcast

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

CPF is proud to announce that our "The Bully Pulpit" podcast and the Common Ground Commtitee’s "Let’s Find Common Ground" podcast are now merged into one powerhouse program. The new “Let’s Find Common Ground” podcast brings together America’s leading politicians, strategists, journalists, and academics from across the political spectrum for in-depth discussions where we respect each other, and we respect the truth. CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Common Ground Committee Co-Founder and former CEO Erik Olsen to discuss the merger and what to expect from future podcast episodes. Featuring: Erik Olsen: Co-Founder and Former CEO, Common Ground Committee Bob Shrum: Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife

Welcome to Let's Find Common Ground from the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. I'm Bob Shrum, Director of the Center. And I'm Republican Mike Murphy, Co-Director of the Center. Our podcast brings together America's leading politicians, strategists, journalists, and academics from across the political spectrum for in-depth discussions where we respect each other and we respect the truth. We hope you enjoy these conversations.

The Common Ground Committee and the University of Southern California Center for the Political Future at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences have shared a mission over the last few years. And that mission is to advance the politics where we can actually talk to each other and where we live in a universe of knowledge, not alternative facts, and where we can see if there are ways, despite our differences, where we can move things forward. We did some, I think, wonderful programming with the Common Ground Committee on climate change, on political difference.

And in that process, we got to know each other. Enormous respect for Bruce Bond, who led the Common Ground Committee, died tragically. The committee is going out of business. I think the challenge of fundraising is just too difficult without Bruce. And there were so many other wonderful people like Eric Olson, who I'm going to talk with on this podcast. We thought it was essential to keep this marvelous, insightful, Let's Find Common Ground podcast not just going, but to advance it, to enrich it, to make sure that it fulfills the mission that the Common Ground Committee set out, a mission that we very much share. So we've decided to merge the Bully Pulpit podcast,

which basically will go out of business with the Let's Find Common Ground podcast, which will continue to reach all the thousands and thousands of people it has over the last few years as it worked toward a politics that can preserve our democracy, preserve our respect for each other, strengthen our common bonds. And now here's my conversation with Eric Olson. Thank you for the honor of entrusting us with the Let's Find Common Ground podcast. trusting us with the Let's Find Common Ground podcast. We worked with you on a number of projects, I mean, finding common ground on climate change, conversation that we co-sponsored with James Carville and Reince Priebus, where we talked about the possibility of finding some way to respect each other, respect the truth, and do it across

party lines, and often profound party differences. So I think that we have had the same essential mission from the beginning of common ground committee to the beginning of what we've done at the Center for the Political Future. Well, let me start by saying thank you, Bob, for stepping up and helping us to continue the work that we started with, Let's Find Common Ground, and also echo your words about working together with the Dornsife School. I'll say we found a lot of common ground between our two efforts and missions that we had, and it was a pleasure working with you. And I know I speak very much for Bruce Bond as well,

that it was one of the most enjoyable experiences we've had. And in particular, the discussion about, with our various panelists on climate change was a highlight of our programs. Well, listen, I admired Bruce a lot. So did we all. Yeah. And it's so sad that he's gone.

Yeah. And I admired all of you and the incredible professional expertise that you brought to the endeavors that we cooperated on. And the fact that we can now continue this just helps expand our mission and helps preserve your mission into the future. That's exactly right.

And we spent a lot of time and effort in developing the Let's Find Common Ground podcast. And Bruce and I were both very proud of it. And the unfortunate fact that we have had to withdraw because of funding issues and so forth, it was really seemed like kind of a tragedy that we weren had to withdraw because of funding issues and so forth, it was really seemed like kind of a tragedy that we weren't going to be able to continue it given the reception that we had from it. And so I'm so happy that USC is going to be able to pick up on that. Well, we hope we make you proud.

I'm sure you will. We are committed to do this in a way that carries out, fulfills, advances, and even expands your mission. You know, and let me just add this, Bob. I appreciate all of the things that you're saying, and we were very thoughtful about who to go to with the concept of taking over Let's Find Common Ground. And very early on, USC and the School for the Political Future was really number one on our

list. It was in part because of the success we had with the various programs, but it was also the attitude and the viewpoint that was being expressed by you and the staff there of the importance of being even-handed and trying to bring together disparate parties to find where they agree, where they have common ground. So I couldn't really be more pleased. There would really be no other organization and all of the ones that we looked at and worked with in the bridging community that I would have selected above you guys. Thank you. And you know, I think there is one fundamental common ground that you advanced and that we

hope to advance. And that is, while we may disagree on issues, we find ways to respect each other, to engage in civil dialogue, and to respect the truth. Exactly. Exactly. That's important. We might have our arguments, but they should be fact-based. They should be rooted in reality. I couldn't agree more. You know, I often say that in 1960, when Kennedy and Nixon were debating each other, Kennedy was for a program called Medicare, which is now a fundamental part of American life. Nixon was against it. But he didn't say

that older people in America weren't being impoverished by the cost of health care. He didn't deny the reality. He said he was for an alternative program. That's the kind of politics that we have to get back to if we're going to make this country fulfill its potential. I totally agree. One of the things that we have been very focused on, on pointing out is that the attitude among the political class right now is very much a winner-take-all attitude. There's very, very little room for compromise, except in small portions of the Congress. The leadership has, for so long now, had this attitude of not giving quarter to the opposition

and viewing it that way, that there's a good guy's side and a bad guy's side, and you're either on the good guy's side or you're on the bad guy's side, and we're not going to give anything to the bad guys. And that's so against the premise of our government founding. The idea that we have debates and the idea that we hash things out and so forth is very much a part of the system. But finding ways to compromise and finding ways to find common ground is very endemic to the system. You know, under an insistence on winner take all, no one wins. Exactly.

And democracy loses. Exactly. We have to get away from a politics where one side says to the other, I'm right and you're evil. Yeah, exactly. How about just saying, I'm going to listen to you, You may not persuade me, but we're going to have a rational discussion. That's what we want to do on this podcast. That's what you guys have done a brilliant job of over these last several years. And while I'm very sorry that

the Common Ground Committee is basically closing down and that we're not going to be able to cooperate on programs, although we're going to pull you into them. I'm also very happy that we can make this mission not just an achievement in the past, but a commitment to the future. Very well spoken. And, you know, I'll just say your remarks are reminiscent of one of our early podcasts with Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat from Virginia, and Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican from Pennsylvania. What they noted was that when they came to the table, they're both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, and when they came to the table, they recognized that they were representing different constituencies that had different views from each other. And when they worked together to say, how can we address the concerns of each of our constituencies, they ended up with ideas and

different plans and so forth that neither of them would come up with on their own. And as a result, they both agreed that they ended up with better policy because of the process of going through and looking for ways to find common ground. That's how this used to work all the time. I remember in the 1990s, after the Clinton health care plan failed, Senator Ted Kennedy went to Senator Orrin Hatch, conservative from Utah, and said, why don't we at least guarantee health care for poor children in America? And Hatch said, well, you know, Ted, I'd like to do something like this with you, but I

don't want it to just be a giant federal program. And Senator Kennedy replied, fine, let's do this in a way that fulfills your ambition and mine. So we'll ensure all the kids, but we'll do it through a federal state partnership. And as a result, eight million children who otherwise would not have gotten healthcare got it. I don't think we're gonna get back to that instantly

or in the near future. I think this is the work of years and maybe a decade, but we cannot give up on it because it's the lifeblood of democracy. Agreed. Agreed. And I agree in all of that. I don't think it's the work of a few days, a few years, a few administrations. I think it fundamentally requires a mindset change to recognize that you need to work together and not work against one another. What we used to say at the Common Ground Committee is, we want to show what good looks like.

We want to show where that conversation takes place that finds the common ground and finds agreement between people who are fundamentally differing in their in their viewpoints. We did a lot of that in the work that we did with you all in on climate change. Gina McCarthy and Brett Stevens, I thought that was one of my favorite favorite conversations because they discovered how much they actually had in common and how much they actually appreciated each other's viewpoint on things. And this is one of the things that we find is that people go in with very negative expectations and in most cases between the the angry rhetoric and name

calling and so forth they fulfill each other's negative expectations. But when you go in with the idea of let's find a way to find agreement, that's when the good work happens and that's when people's view of the other side starts to change. We had that with several people in the audience at the events that we did at USC where they suddenly realized, hey, those guys on the other side, they're not so bad after all. That's important work that the bridging community and USC can continue to do going forward. And here's my pledge to you, we will do that work.

Thank you. And we will do it at a standard, I hope, that meets the very high standards that you've all set. Thank you. And as I said at the outset of this, we are honored to be entrusted with the Let's Find Common Ground podcast. Thank you so much, Bob. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on Let's Find Common Ground. If you enjoyed what you heard, subscribe

and rate the show five stars on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. Follow us on social media at USCPOLFuture. And if you'd like to support the work of the Center, please make a tax-deductible contribution so that we can keep bringing important voices together across differences in respectful conversations that seek common ground.