Coalition Purple

It’s a new year but we have the same old problems here inCalifornia. We cannot get distracted by more sensational stories in places like Venezuela or even Minnesota.  Many major U.S. cities have huge deficits. (We’re talking toyou, San Diego.) Overregulation and oppressive taxation will not solve this problem. Besides, our tax base in California is quickly disappearing.  Most people have heard tha...

Attack mode has become the norm for everyday discourse, and this can create situations where even friends and family are unable to listen to each other. Since we are in the middle of the holiday zone between Thanksgiving and the New Year we want to focus on what the holidays are supposed to be about.  Thanksgiving should remind us of all the reasons we have tobe thankful, and the rest of the seaso...

Government hypocrisy has reached new heights in America. California legislators want to save democracy by ignoring voter-approved constitutional amendments that prevent politicians from redrawing congressional district lines. They don’t seem to understand that democracy does not exist if the California Constitution is meaningless. Meanwhile politicians in Florida plan to end all vaccine mandates f...

This week we talk with Dick Lucas. He’s running forCalifornia State Assembly district 51 which includes Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Westwood and West L.A. He is our kind of candidate because he focuses on issuesthat matter like housing, homelessness, and the economy. And he’s doing it without any funding from outside sources. In fact, he’s going to see what one man can do with just ing...

Hey, what’s a non-political podcast these days without a discussion about California’s Prop 50 lawsuits, gerrymandering, and broader Constitutional concerns?  Digging deep, let’s face it that the two major political parties really aren’t about solving problems… but  exploiting structural problems like healthcare, immigration, and government shutdowns for their financial gain. John outlines a healt...

If Proposition 50 passes California will no longer have anindependent redistricting council. The turf war has begun and now every state will join in. When we have achieved maximum gerrymandering the Prop 50 advocates may end up saying “be careful what you wish for.”    Prop 50 is just the tip of the iceberg. In this episode wediscuss some court cases that are currently being heard that will signif...

Any mammoth organization or government is bound to be inefficient.  That particularly applies to the groups ofpoliticians that lead us today.  While there’s no doubt that inefficiencies exist in our federal bureaucracies… perhaps the biggest form of “waste, fraud and abuse” could be found in the political leaders we’ve elected.  They can’t complete the one job they have… keep government services o...

Richard Bailey — the former Coronado, California mayor, Instagram influencer, economics professor, endurance athlete and business owner — discusses the importance of focusing on policy over partisanship in local government. Bailey emphasizes the need for independent voices to bridge the divide between Democrats and Republicans. The Coalition Purple discussion dives deep into the challenges posed b...

There are so many important political issues we should befocusing on but problems will never get solved if we continue to be reactive instead of proactive.  The ol’ slight-of-hand tricks to distract the public comesfrom the same playbook used by both the GOP and Dems. For example, even if the federalization of law enforcementin Washington D.C. is wildly successful it doesn’t address the root cause...

If you’ve been watching the news it’s probably not a surprise that this week’s episode is about gerrymandering. This political tactic is unacceptable during the best of times. Doing it in retaliation against a rival state is a sure sign that we need change here in California.  Maybe it’s time for all states in America to become swingstates! If voters were fairly represented by actual political par...

Attending a soccer match and watching the MLB All-Star Game inspired us this week. We need more positive experiences to bring people together. Especially if we are going to have conversations about complicated topics like immigration.  We think a new political party may be the easiest way to getpeople to come together to find solutions to our problems. The alternative is just more pendulum swings...

Could it be that the dawn of a new political party isfinally upon us? The Republican Party was a successful third party during the existential crisis of slavery. We’re hoping that Elon Musk’s America Party could be the solution we need during our current economic crisis. We are in favor of a bottom up approach to local politics. This approach could also work in terms of reforming the existing part...

GOP & Dems love to distract you! Coalition Purple is all about addressing problems that needto be solved.  But we get it… it’s easyto get distracted. This past week Sen. Alex Padilla crashed a press conferenceand Sen. Rand Paul was excluded from the White House Congressionalpicnic.  As this episode is being recorded Trump is planning topreside over a military parade on his birthday and that wi...

There is an understandable parallel between U.S. politicsand the media. For a long time a limited number of news outlets helped tocontrol and shape our political narrative. Despite participation from third party candidates the Democrats and Republicans have dominated most races. Independents who have been elected to political office are few and far between. Now that corporate media is starting to...

With all the talk about reigning in oligarchs and theircorporations, it’s important to point out that appropriate regulation requires responsible governance. Voters need to demand responsibility from their electedleaders but unfortunately most Americans seem to be getting distracted. The people of the United States of America are not uniting and focusing on the same goals. It’s time to return to c...

It’s easy to blame our politicians for the current state ofU.S. politics, but at some point we need to hold ourselves accountable. It’s gotten to the point where we can no longer shame politicians into doing the right thing and that says a lot about the national psyche. Politicians in Congress are currently abusing the power ofimpeachment and using lawfare to push their political agendas. When the...

It’s time to change our political mindset. We need to vote for something rather than against someone.  In order to do that we need to stop overcomplicating things. For example, there is no need to discuss whether grade school teachers should address controversial topics if the majority of kids in that district cannot read or write at grade level. We are losing focus on the endgame. It’s time to wi...

In our everyday conversations we’ve heard more and morepeople state that Democrats and Republicans are actively trying to divide Americans. This gives us hope that more people will leave party politics behind and become true Independents. The founders of our country put a lot of thought intocreating checks and balances on government power. The biggest checks on the executive and legislative branch...

We’ve analyzed the feedback from our viewers and it’s official: Coalition Purple is on the right track. Since about half the commenters think we are Trump loyalists and the other half think we are shills for the Democrats we figure we must be doing something right.  At least we can all agree on one thing: we are both old.  We welcome differing opinions and even dissent because we think that more p...

A couple of recent polls support Coalition Purple’s theorythat Americans do not like their current political system. Both polls show satisfaction with the Democrats at record lows of under 30 percent.  Not surprisingly (in our view) satisfaction with theRepublicans is not much higher than 30 percent. So that means well over half of Americans (about 62%) don’t like either political party.  We can’t...

Since we’re only a few months into the new administration we are taking a wait and see approach before assessing Trump’s policies. The economy always has ups and downs so we may not know the full picture until at least a year into his term. What we do know is that both Republicans and Democratsshould be able to agree on something. As far as the DOGE cuts are concerned, you could argue theyneed to...

“On Again, Off Again” is the name of the game these days. Whether it’s tariffs, peace talks, or Supreme Court rulings, the only thing we can expect is that everything will change by tomorrow.  Trump’s tariff strategies would perplex the most seasoned chess master. Will the tariffs of today be suspended and maybe even reinstated by next week? There’s no way to know.   Trump’s Department of Governme...

It’s no surprise that this week’s main topic of conversationis the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.  Although we think it’s a good idea to audit the nation’sfinances, we also think the process should be thoughtful and measured. The reckless pace of the audits may result in a perceivedlack of transparency which is the opposite of what is intended. Mass layoffs may result in high unempl...

We hope Episode 47 can be an antidote to the chaos that is currently happening in Washington, D.C. In this episode we discuss some of the pros and cons of our judicial system. We agree there are benefits to a system that is designed to be outside the political realm, but acknowledge the downside of having no internal mechanisms for reigning in incompetent or corrupt judges. No issue is too small....

What happens when you get a recovering Democrat, a TexasRepublican, and a Libertarian-leaning Independent together?  An amazing episode of Coalition Purple. This week we are joined by Ken Good, an appellate attorneyand bail reform advocate. He has years of experience in the area of bail reform, and he shares his ideas about why the current model in Texas has been successful. Our conversation about...