Gridlock Break

Admiral William McRaven is a retired United States Navy SEAL and four-star admiral who last served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command. Following that, he was the chancellor of The University of Texas System from 2015 to 2018. Today, he will discuss leadership in a time of great crisis and American national security concerns for the future.

Admiral McRaven believes that leadership in a time of crisis is no different than in calmer times: You need to set a goal, and you need to motivate those below you to accomplish that goal. But Admiral McRaven is adamant that leadership is also about responsibility and accountability. A good leader should take responsibility for all decisions made by those below them. Unfortunately, that kind of leadership is often in short supply in our politics today.

Go to NoLabels.org to learn more about how we are bringing together a bipartisan group of public and private leaders working to solve America’s toughest problems.

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Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, or ATR, a taxpayer advocacy group he founded in 1985 at President Reagan’s request. ATR organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which asks all candidates to commit themselves to oppose all net tax increases. Norquist also chairs the DC-based Wednesday Meeting, a weekly gathering of more than 150 elected officials, political activists, and conservative movement leaders. Today, he shares his views on the most effective forms of bipartisanship.

Grover Norquist argues that true bipartisanship is not best represented when moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats work together, since they are not that far apart ideologically, but rather when liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans work to find a solution. Some examples are criminal justice reform and civil forfeiture where liberals and conservatives can find common cause even if it is for different reasons.

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David Holt became mayor of Oklahoma City in 2018, voted in with 78% of the vote. Before taking office, he served in the Oklahoma State Senate for eight years. And Bryan Barnett has served as mayor of Rochester Hills, Michigan since 2006. He also serves as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Today, they will discuss the challenges of serving as mayors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Holt explains that Oklahoma City began to experience COVID-19 rather late in comparison to other cities and states, and that allowed for a faster and stricter response early on that explains their lower case numbers. Mayor Barnett laments the reality that whether you wear a mask or not seems to be an advertisement for your political allegiances. Both he and Mayor Holt claim that politics at the local level does not have the same partisanship and they wish that attiude was more often embraced in DC.

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Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America, a think ​and action ​tank dedicated to renewing the promise of America, and a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009–2011, she served as director of policy planning for the United States Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Glen Weyl is a political economist and social technologist whose work focuses on harnessing computers and markets to create a radically equal and cooperative society. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Radical x Change Foundation, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and a lecturer at Princeton University. Today, Slaughter and Weyl will discuss the recently released Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience, published by Harvard’s Edmond. J Safra Center for Ethics.

You just heard Anne-Marie Slaughter and Glen Weyl describe the Safra Center’s promotion of a TTSI approach - Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation. They believe that the only way to successfully contain COVID-19 is to ramp up testing, increase contact tracing and isolate those who have been exposed or infected. Although this will need to be done in a way that respects civil liberties, this is our best shot to save lives until a vaccine is available.

Go to NoLabels.org to learn more about how we are bringing together a bipartisan group of public and private leaders working to stop the virus, save lives and get Americans back to work.

John Anzalone is one of the nation’s top pollsters and messaging strategists. He was most recently the chief pollster for President-elect Joe Biden, marking his fourth presidential campaign. In this conversation, he discusses the latest thinking from the White House on a COVID-19 relief bill, and some recent results of opinion polling.

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