On January 30, 2019, Civic Genius (formerly Common Ground Solutions) founder Howard Konar took part in a program at the Brookings Institution: “The dissatisfied public: What can Congress do?” Program participants included former Virginia Senator and Governor George Allen, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, and Brookings scholars Sarah Binder and Molly Reynolds. It was moderated by William Galston of Brookings.

The program highlighted the release of a new research report from Voice of the People (VOP), a Civic Genius partner headed by Dr. Steven Kull. Drawing on surveys of more than 16,000 registered voters, the report found that voters are seeking candidates who they believe will be more responsive to the people — and that they would be very supportive of candidates willing to consult a “Citizen Cabinet” of voters in their districts. One key survey finding is that large majorities of Republicans and Democrats said they would cross party lines to vote for a candidate who commits to maintaining a Citizen Cabinet while in office.

Steve Kull presented additional VOP research demonstrating that on topic after topic, voters are not nearly as polarized as their representatives. In fact, on many politically charged issues, majorities of both Democratic voters and Republican voters often agreed on the same solutions.

The two-hour program was covered live on C-SPAN and can be watched here.