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Texas Deadly Floods: Who Is To Blame for the Devastation?

Texas Deadly Floods: Who Is To Blame for the Devastation?

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Hands reaching for each other

Power of One: What Tyler Perry’s Hiring of Sinbad Teaches About Clemency and Second Chances

The American Flag's Meaning: Hope and Heartache

The American Flag's Meaning: Hope and Heartache

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Vital Signs of Democracy

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim
By Debilyn Molineaux,
Debilyn Molineaux

Debilyn Molineaux serves as the catalyst for the American Future project to help everyday Americans discover and believe in a future that will be "worth it" to work together for the sake of our nation.

Debilyn brings a passion to her work that is contagious to all around her. Hailing from a conservative, agricultural community, Debilyn started her career as a small business owner, working with community businesses to promote and grow their own operations through advertising and marketing. After engaging other women business leaders, Debilyn was inspired to become more active in the political process. Her own personal experiences -- as a small business owner, a local candidate for office, and an elected president of a national organization -- have given her enormous insight into the challenges facing citizens who want to get involved and organizations that want to scale their impact.

Debilyn is a serial entrepreneur, co-founding many organizations and transpartisan projects over her 20+ year career in establishing the democracy ecosystem. She has co-founded the Bridge Alliance, Living Room Conversations and the National Week of Conversation. She formerly was co-publisher of The Fulcrum and continues as advisor for Citizen Connect, Listen First Project, AllSides and other organizations, individuals within the democracy ecosystem.

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David Riordan
David Riordan
David Riordan is the director of Vital Signs of Democracy (VSD). David has a long history of producing Hollywood movies, interactive entertainment and documentaries. The VSD team looks at stories in the news and determines if the events they are reporting on are threatening democracy in America. VSD uses a unique Artificial Intelligence narrative analysis process to rate news stories in 10 key categories and then aggregates those 10 individual scores into one master threat rating published every two weeks. David and the VSD team identify politically as independents. At the moment their confidence level that either party can rally the 65% of the American public who still believe in democracy to stand up is low. That is why David and his team collect and analyze the stories we are currently telling about democracy in America in an attempt to identify thenarrative themes that will counter the anti-democratic story that is growing in influence. David joins us twice a month to explore the news stories that are impacting democracy in America.
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Sep 12, 2023

In this episode, Debilyn Molineaux and David Riordan explore the narrative themes emerging from the first MAGA Republican debate, the Democrats' intention to run in 2024 on the strength of Bidenonmics, and the tendency in times of crisis for all of us to play the victim card. These narratives are the first indications of what the MAGA Republicans and Biden Democrats are going to run on for the 2024 Presidential election. But the question remains: will our democracy be served by the result?

In this podcast, we referenced the plan that has been created should Trump be elected again. We provide the link so you can decide for yourself if this is the future you'd like to see. Project 2025 is presented by The Heritage Foundation. Their headline is "Building now for a conservative victory through policy, personnel, and training."

Listen on Spotify or Apple podcast.

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Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

The B-2 "Spirit" Stealth Bomber flys over the 136th Rose Parade Presented By Honda on Jan. 1, 2025, in Pasadena, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

After a short and successful war with Iraq, President George H.W. Bush claimed in 1991 that “the ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert.” Bush was referring to what was commonly called the “Vietnam syndrome.” The idea was that the Vietnam War had so scarred the American psyche that we forever lost confidence in American power.

The elder President Bush was partially right. The first Iraq war was certainly popular. And his successor, President Clinton, used American power — in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere — with the general approval of the media and the public.

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Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are
a close up of a typewriter with the word conspiracy on it
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are

The Comet Ping Pong Pizzagate shooting, the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and a man’s livestreamed beheading of his father last year were all fueled by conspiracy theories. But while the headlines suggest that conspiratorial thinking is on the rise, this is not the case. Research points to no increase in conspiratorial thinking. Still, to a more dangerous reality: the conspiracies taking hold and being amplified by political ideologues are increasingly correlated with violence against particular groups. Fortunately, promising new research points to actions we can take to reduce conspiratorial thinking in communities across the US.

Some journalists claim that this is “a golden age of conspiracy theories,” and the public agrees. As of 2022, 59% of Americans think that people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories today than 25 years ago, and 73% of Americans think conspiracy theories are “out of control.” Most blame this perceived increase on the role of social media and the internet.

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Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job
woman wearing academic cap and dress selective focus photography
Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash

Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job

A college education used to be considered, along with homeownership, one of the key pillars of the American Dream. Is that still the case? Recent experiences of college graduates seeking employment raise questions about whether a university diploma remains the best pathway to pursuing happiness, as it once was.

Consider the case of recent grad Lohanny Santo, whose TikTok video went viral with over 3.6 million “likes” as she broke down in tears and vented her frustration over her inability to find even a minimum wage job. That was despite her dual degrees from Pace University and her ability to speak three languages. John York, a 24-year-old with a master’s degree in math from New York University, writes that “it feels like I am screaming into the void with each application I am filling out.”

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