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Business & Democracy Initiative Partners with Punchbowl News to Convene Conversation on Future of Democracy

November 29, 2022

Business & Democracy Initiative Partners with Punchbowl News to Convene Conversation on Future of Democracy

 

Event carried on C-SPAN featured Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Punchbowl News’ Anna Palmer, and Public Private Strategies’ Rhett Buttle

 

WASHINGTON.–This week, the Business & Democracy Initiative partnered with Punchbowl News to convene a conversation about the future of democracy, voting rights reforms and more, featuring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Punchbowl News Co-Founder & CEO Anna Palmer, Public Private Strategies Founder Rhett Buttle, and Anoop Prakash, a founding member of Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy.

 

The event was carried on C-SPAN.

 

Watch the full event:


Following the event, Rhett Buttle, Founder and Principal of Public Private Strategies and one of the founding members of the Business & Democracy Initiative, made the following statement:

 

“During the conversation, Senator Blunt reminded us of the ‘commonplace and miraculous’ gift that is the peaceful transition of power and public trust in our free and fair elections. That democratic stability is the bedrock on which America has been able to grow and lead, and it is the foundation of our economy and shared prosperity. 

 

“That’s why business leaders from across America are coming together to join Senator Blunt and a bipartisan group of Senators to support passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act before the end of this Congress, because a strong democracy means a strong economy.”

 

Below are highlights from the conversation:

 

WATCH: @Punchbowl News: Rhett Buttle, founder of Public Private Strategies, argued that business leaders increasingly see issues of democracy as closely connected to their bottom lines [Twitter

 

WATCH: @PunchbowlNews: Anoop Prakash, founding member of Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, said that business leaders see election denial rhetoric as a threat to the economy. [Twitter]

 

@PunchbowlNews: Blunt says the midterm results, and the defeats for election deniers, shows “that voters have more confidence in the system than some of the people that were running to to take over the system frankly and be responsible for the system next time” [Twitter]

 

@PunchbowlNews: Blunt on Electoral Count Reform Act: “Well, I do think it needs to get done before the end of the year… the long process did produce a pretty dramatic bipartisan consensus on the things that need to be done to make that 1888 law work better.” [Twitter]

 

@PunchbowlNews: Buttle on Electoral Count Reform Act: “I would make the case that this is not only an important issue for our democracy but also quite frankly, an economic issue.” [Twitter]

 

@PunchbowlNews: Prakash: “When you start to see risks of democracy and the undermining of institutions and the undermining of the economy in a local region, businesses start to wake up and say this is not good for my business.” [Twitter]

 

@PunchbowlNews: Prakash: “It's a very natural place for business leaders to participate and I think these midterms really woke up business leaders around the country to see the risk [to democracy].” [Twitter


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