Lost in the Middle: America's Political Orphans

With half of US election oficials quitting in the last two years it is a scary scenario this November. We still haven’t figured out guard rails for social media, much less AI and its ability to create deep fakes and penetrate the election infrastructure.

More in our podcast episode From hanging chads to deep fake videos, American democracy wobbles lostmiddle.com

Scientists will tell you that if they scan people's brains while listening to negative campaign ads, it will light up a spot that triggers disgust and revulsion.

Did they have to spend a lot of money to figure that out? You can just talk to any one of America's 71 million political orphans.

Ugly campaign ads and car wrecks. Why we can't turn away in this month's Lost in the Middle.

If Republican and Democrats were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, I would sell right now. The two legacy parties are tied at 27% in January polling. And dropping.

And the buy signal is flashing bright green on independents. Now at 44% of voters ---most members of the lost political middle.

Can a surge of candidates for statewide office be far behind? Lessons from the pro wrestling ring. 

Former Congressman Scott Klug, host of "Lost in the Middle: America's Political Orphans," joined "The Martha Zoller Show" on North Georgia radio station WDUN to talk about ticket-splitting.

Listen to the ticket-splitting episode and subscribe here.

Political Scientists tell us ticket splitting is disappearing. But it sure didn’t in the '22 elections where voters in Kansas, Nevada, Georgia, Vermont, New Hampshire and Wisconsin shopped around.

We focus on two states: Wisconsin, where ticket splitting seems to be wired into the state’s DNA, and Georgia, which switched from deep blue to deep red 20 years ago and is now fading to purple.

Fierce partisans h...

Meet an old friend of mine from my broadcasting days in Seattle who we are going to blame for the long slow decline of TV news.

And have you ever checked out a website called Newspaper Death Watch? You should before all the papers are out of business.

And in Palm Springs, California, you’ll meet a brave editor who came up with a formula to undercut partisanship in her community.

See more information relat...

I actually dragged a high-school girlfriend to a George Wallace rally. It was not exactly her dream date.

This year, a coalition of bi-partisan political leader plan to launch a bi-partisan presidential ticket in 2024. Nearly half of Americans say they are interested in the No Labels idea.

Important questions linger.  Can an independent Unity Ticket win the White House in 2024?  Did I get a second date?

R...

Former Congressman Scott Klug, host of "Lost in the Middle: America's Political Orphans," joins Steve Scully, host of "The Briefing with Steve Scully," on SiriusXM POTUS 124 to talk about the podcast and the ousting of now former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Meet Tami, a Utah special-ed teacher, Mormon Tabernacle singer and mom of five who launched a civility index web site to grade America’s politicians. And then had to take it down because of comments we will say weren’t remotely civil.

She’s not the first. A decade ago, a Georgia evangelical Republican and Jersey Jewish Democratic attack dog didn’t have any luck with a civility pledge either.

And we will introduc...

 71 million American voters define themselves as centrists. So why is nobody listening to them?

We do. Focus group guru Frank Luntz discusses what he calls commonsense voters.

And we find a ton of them in Rockford, Illinois, a blue-collar city that has voted for the winning presidential candidate in 7 of the last 8 elections.

And finally, we tell you about the Ohio bipartisan speaker election that shou...