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Video: We live in a political storyland

Debilyn Molineaux and David Riordan grapple with the current state of politics on CSPAN

Video: We live in a political storyland
Vital Signs of Democracy featured on Washington Journal/CSPAN
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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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Aug 24, 2023

Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

David Riordan is the director of Vital Signs of Democracy (VSD).

How does the mainstream news coverage shape the way Americans think and feel about their lives? And the government? This is the focus of The Fulcrum’s podcast, “Vital Signs of Democracy,” which takes a new approach to considering mainstream news to reveal the overarching story narratives themselves.

Co-hosts Debilyn Molineaux and David Riordan were guests on CSPAN’s weekend talk show, Washington Journal with host Tia Mitchell on Saturday, August 19th, 2023. We invite you to listen and hear from everyday Americans as they grapple with their own frustration, resignation, sadness over loss of relationships and offer their own solutions to move the American experiment in self-governance forward.

David and Debilyn field listener questions and offer new perspectives on how we watch or consume the news. Topics covered include a call-out of conflict profiteers who are more interested in making money than being journalists. Also called out are the operatives within the politics industry to manipulate citizens to be consumers of politics – known as electioneering that changes rules to guarantee their own power. Citizens feel disempowered and hopeless.

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