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Who Understands the Constitution Better: Conservatives or Progressives?

Here's a really powerful way to help your listeners counteract the dysfunctional political polarization preventing elected officials from producing policies that truly deal with the monumental challenges we face: reconnect them with America's Mission Statement and inspire them toward a more mature version of patriotism.

The divisions between conservatives and progressives (liberals) continue to grow deeper because the extremists in both groups have forgotten America's Mission Statement. The framers of our Constitution crafted a government whose purpose was to be a servant to its citizens and whose dual mandate was to preserve individual freedom and promote the common good. But, as David Gruder explains, even though our Founding Fathers were deeply divided over how to structure the government to best accomplish this, they transcended partisan politics to birth one of the most amazing documents in the history of government.

In this eye-opening interview, Dr. Gruder will share what America’s Mission Statement is and why it frames true patriotism better than the conservative or progressive ideologies. He will explain why our Founding Fathers' mature brand of patriotism made it possible to forge a better form of government than either conservatives or progressives could have created alone.

Known as America’s integrity expert, Dr. Gruder will update this timeless story as he shares:

• How ideologically addicted conservatives and progressives each erroneously claim that their own perspective is true patriotism.
• What America’s mission statement is and why it frames true patriotism more accurately than the conservative or progressive ideologies.
• Three key paradoxes that the framers of our Constitution had the courage and wisdom to address but today’s conservatives and progressives polarize over instead.
• The conservative side of these paradoxes, the progressive side, why we need both to create a whole and healthy country, and how political polarization distorts both the conservative and progressive perspectives into immature versions of patriotism.
• The three essential ingredients that make the “pursuit of happiness” successful.
• (Click here for more details about mature patriotism or go to www.TheNewIQ.com/MaturePatriotism)
• (Click here for a list of sample interview questions about mature patriotism)

CREDENTIALS: Psychologist David Gruder, Ph.D., is a specialist in “Sustainable Happiness:” socially responsible life fulfillment and business success. He is the author of THE NEW IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World (2008), winner of five book awards in the categories of Social Change, Current Events in Politics & Society, Health & Wellness, Metapsychology, and Self-Help. For nearly three decades, Dr. Gruder has facilitated integrity enhancement for business executives to clinicians to World Trade Organization ambassadors, earning him the nickname, “The Integrity Warrior.” A seasoned and popular radio talk show guest, he will begin co-hosting a new radio program, Integrity Talk Radio with The Integrity Warrior and Lee, premiering on July 9, 2009. For Dr. Gruder's complete bio and vita click here.

Contact Dr. Gruder today to reserve an interview time because this will be a hot one!

Sample Interview Questions

Select and modify depending on how long your interview with Dr. Gruder will be (for short interviews, consider selecting instead from the bullet points in the topic profile above):

1. Does the United States actually have a mission statement, and if so, where is it found and what does it say?

2. The framers of the U.S. Constitution were deeply divided over how to craft a government that could function in integrity with this mission statement. Their fiery arguments about this is the stuff of legend. U.S. politics today is also engaged in fiery arguments but this has led to polarization rather than unity and gridlock rather than groundbreaking solutions. What's different in politics today compared to when the U.S. Constitution was being written?

3. You have written in your IntegrityWatch Blog about three key paradoxes that democracy-centered republics struggle with, and that conservatives and progressives voice opposite sides of those paradoxes. What do you mean?

4. The first paradox is about what you call Freesponsibility, which you write about in your five-award-winning book about integrity, sustainable happiness and social responsibility, called The New IQ. What is Freesponsibility?

5. You claim that conservatives and progressives each focus on two different aspects of Freesponsibility, when true Freesponsibility requires both. What do you mean?

6. Anyone who follows politics knows that conservatives and progressives have quite different visions of societal wellbeing and how to create it. Societal Wellbeing is the second paradox you talk about. You say that conservatives and progressives focus on opposite ends of this paradox. Tell us about this.

7. The third paradox that democracy-centered republics struggle with is about international relations. What are the complementary perspectives that conservatives and progressives take about this?

8. So, you're saying that conservatives or progressives each have half of the picture, right? But they're treating their half of the picture as though it is the whole picture, aren't they? What problems has this arrogance created for both conservatives and progressives?

9. I understand that your father was an attorney whose first passion was constitutional law, and there was a lot of conversation in your family about the constitution while you were growing up. But, even though he had hoped you would become an attorney you became a psychologist. Are you saying as a psychologist that it's only possible to become a whole and healthy country when the core qualities that conservatives and progressives advocate are combined -- when both political parties embrace the paradoxes you have described?

10. You have been transpartisan ever since you lived through a similarly vicious kind of polarization that gripped our country forty years ago. Tell us about that crisis and about how you discovered you were transpartisan.

11. Is embracing these paradoxes rather than continuing in the "political polarization trap" the key to what you call "mature patriotism?"

12. You say that mature patriotism isn't the same as being nonpartisan or bipartisan. You call this being transpartisan. What do you mean by that term?

CLOSING COMMENT/QUESTION: You have a website where people can read your IntegrityWatch Blog, download the Integrity Stimulus Plan and learn more about your five-award-winning book on integrity, sustainable happiness and social responsibility, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World. What is that website? People can also follow you on Facebook and Twitter. How can they find you?