Intelligence Squared: Is The Two-Party System Making America Ungovernable?

Has our two-party system failed us?

The Republican and Democratic parties are entrenched in calcified partisanship, where politics is played as a zero-sum game. The rise of the Tea Party, liberal backlash, and the exodus of moderate voices from Congress all point toward the public’s growing discontent. Is this a call to change our two-party system of governance? Moderated by John Donvan, Is The Two-Party System Making America Ungovernable, airs Sunday, March 13 at 10 p.m. on AM 1370/FM-HD 91.5-2.

Speaking for the motion is David Brooks and Arianna Huffington. David Brooks became an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times in September, 2003. He has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and he is currently a commentator on PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He is the author of Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense, both published by by Simon & Schuster. Arianna Huffington is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen books. She is also co-host of Left, Right & Center, public radio’s popular political roundtable program. In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Speaking against the motion is Zev Chafets and P.J. O'Rourke. Zev Chafets is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine and a former columnist for the New York Daily News. He was the founding editor of the Jerusalem Report and is the author of twelve books, including Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One. Chafets spent 30 years living in Israel with their multi-party system, during which he was an active participant in the Egyptian-Israeli peace process and a delegate to the first Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations. P.J. O'Rourke is America’s premier political satirist, the H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, and the bestselling author of 13 books, including Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards, Parliament of Whores, and Give War a Chance. Both Time and the Wall Street Journal have labeled O’Rourke “the funniest writer in America.” He has written for such diverse publications as Car & Driver, the Weekly Standard, the Atlantic Monthly, and Rolling Stone, where he was foreign affairs desk chief for 15 years. In the 70s he was editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon.

Based on the highly successful debate program based in London, Intelligence Squared, Intelligence Squared U.S. has presented 39 debates on a wide range of provocative and timely topics. From global warming and the financial crisis, to Afghanistan/Pakistan and the death of mainstream media, Intelligence Squared brings together the world’s leading authorities on the day’s most important issues.

Intelligence Squared debates can be heard on AM 1370/FM-HD 91.5-2 and on more than 220 NPRstations across the nation.