Democracy Forum 10/20/17

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine  
Engineer: Amy Browne

Political Parties: Do They Still Matter?

We talk about the state of the two party system, how recent trends have weakened the parties even as partisanship has grown, whether our political parties threaten our democracy or hold the main hope for its salvation.

Guests:
Professor Mark Brewer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine https://umaine.edu/polisci/faculty-and-staff/mark-brewer/
Jonathan Rauch, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor to The Atlantic. https://www.brookings.edu/experts/jonathan-rauch/

To learn more about this topic:
More professionalism, less populism, from the Brookings Institution
How American Politics Went Insane, from The Atlantic
How Trump is helping to save our democracy, from the Washington Post

The all-volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes:
Starr Gilmartin
Maggie Harling
Linda Hoskins
Ann Luther
Maryann Ogonowski
Pam Person
Leah Taylor
Linda Washburn

FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org