Carefully Searching for (and Polling for) Government by "We the People" -- A Chat with Steven Kull

News flash: Government is broken in Washington. Problems aren't being solved. New solutions aren't being put forward. "Compromise" (as has been so commonly observed) has become a dirty word. Or at least, such is the opinion of many of us. Indeed, poll after poll has found that a large majority of Americans believe government isn't working, and that it's -- on the contrary -- dominated by special interested and partisan gridlock. But...come to think of it...could your average American citizen do any better? Our guest on this edition of ST certainly thinks so: the highly experienced policy analyst and political psychologist Steven Kull is also the founder and president of the Washington-based Voice of the People. This organization has recently announced a "Citizen Cabinet" initiative, which is a poll-driven process that aims to (in the words of the Lawton Constitution newspaper, based in the southwestern part of our state) "bring everyday citizens back into the legislative process by providing a direct pipeline between constituents and the legislators who represent them.... The idea is to produce a base of residents who reflect the demographics of their districts and states, then pose questions to them on topics of current interest and let those residents work through a process to reach consensus, with the results to be provided to members of Congress as they are making decisions." As Kull tells us today, Oklahoma's decidedly "red" Fourth Congressional District was selected to be a part of this initiative, which you can learn more about at vop.org.