What if there were 10 issues that the overwhelming majority of Americans already agree on, but Congress refuses to act on? That is exactly what Seven Ten (seventen.org) was built to address. In this episode of Purple Political Breakdown, host Radell Lewis sits down with Joe Patterson, the director of Seven Ten, a nonpartisan, nonprofit pro-democracy organization designed to unclog Congress by focusing exclusively on issues with 70% or more supermajority support.
Joe breaks down the full list of 10 consensus issues, including congressional term limits (polling at 87% to 90% support for decades), Medicare drug price negotiation, universal background checks, a path for dreamers, opposition to Citizens United, required voter ID with easy access, no complete abortion ban, no age increases for Social Security or Medicare, and no public library book bans. He explains Seven Ten's scoring methodology, their model legislation strategy, their candidate pledge system, and their live financial ledger that shows every single transaction the organization makes in real time.
Radell and Joe dig into tough questions: How do you measure whether a politician truly supports an issue versus just saying the right things to win votes? How do you account for loud, well-funded minority interest groups like the NRA pushing against supermajority consensus? What happens when a representative's district disagrees with the national majority? And why does Seven Ten deliberately stay out of broader economic and policy debates to focus strictly on what Americans already agree on?
The answer is simple but powerful: fix the machine first, then the machine can fix the problems. Out of 540 representatives scored by Seven Ten, only one cleared the bar. That is a staggering failure of representation, and this episode lays out the blueprint for how everyday Americans can change that heading into the 2026 midterms.
Learn more about Seven Ten at https://seventen.org
Listen now on Apple Podcasts: [Apple Podcasts URL]
Congressional term limits | Medicare drug prices | universal background checks | congressional accountability | clean bills | voter ID | Citizens United | 2026 midterm elections | political reform | nonpartisan democracy | Seven Ten scorecard | career politicians | bipartisan consensus issues | pro-democracy movement
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