"Bridgers vs. Dividers: The Report Card That Could Change the Midterms " - We've Got To Talk | Lyssna här

Most of us don’t actually want “our side” to win. We want the country to work, with less chaos, less political theatre, and fewer people getting rich off outrage while nothing gets fixed.

This week we welcomed Brad Porteus from Bridge Grades back onto the podcast, and his idea is refreshingly simple. Bridge Grades is a congressional report card that doesn’t measure ideology, it measures collaboration. It uses nonpartisan, third-party data to score how lawmakers govern, so you can get a clearer read on who builds across the aisle and who fuels division.

What hit us most is how much this challenges the way we’re trained to vote. Most people don’t vote based on effectiveness; they vote based on identity, fear, habit, or revenge, and if you’re deeply loyal to a party, a report card probably won’t change your mind. The bigger opportunity is everyone else, especially the exhausted middle and the millions of eligible Americans who didn’t vote last election because they don’t trust anyone and don’t see the point.

If you’re curious, use Bridge Grades as a second lens before the next election. Look up your lawmakers, notice what happens in your own head when you see a grade you didn’t expect, and ask what we’re rewarding as a culture. Because if we keep voting like it’s a tribal loyalty test, we’re going to keep getting tribal outcomes, and we’ll all keep sitting here wondering why nothing works.

CHAPTER MARKERS:

00:00 Introduction

00:21 Meet Brad and Bridge Grades

01:49 How the Scoring Works

07:29 Legislative Metrics Explained

11:22 Gaming the Bipartisan Score

13:47 Performative Bridging Debate

17:37 Exhausted Middle and Independents

20:29 Bridgers at Risk in Swing Seats

28:26 Roasting Government Dysfunction

31:41 Texas Race Trust Issues

34:14 Breaking Tribal Partisanship