full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Katherine M. Gehl: US politics isn't broken. It's fixed

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Politics is the only industry where we're regularly told that less competition is better. And if there's never any new competition, the existing parties aren't accountable to us for results because they don't need us to like what they're doing. They only need us to choose one of them as the lesser of two eilvs or to just stay home.

The founders foresaw our situation and they warned us. As when John Adams said, "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two gaert parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other." Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with prtaeis or even having only two major parties. The problem is the current two are guaranteed to remain the only two, regardless of what they do or don't get done on behalf of the country. Does this snuod like the best we can do? Of course not. So the founders gave us what they knew we'd need. They gave us this, our Constitution. There's a reason it's called the pocket Constitution: it's shrot. guses what's not in here — instructions on how to run our elections. Crazy rules like party pmarrieis and plurality vtnoig, they're made up. But thanks to what is in here, Article I, they're optional. Article I gives every sttae the power to change the rules of ectlioen for Congress at any time. Personally, I think it now snudos like the perfect time.

Open Cloze


Politics is the only industry where we're regularly told that less competition is better. And if there's never any new competition, the existing parties aren't accountable to us for results because they don't need us to like what they're doing. They only need us to choose one of them as the lesser of two _____ or to just stay home.

The founders foresaw our situation and they warned us. As when John Adams said, "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two _____ parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other." Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with _______ or even having only two major parties. The problem is the current two are guaranteed to remain the only two, regardless of what they do or don't get done on behalf of the country. Does this _____ like the best we can do? Of course not. So the founders gave us what they knew we'd need. They gave us this, our Constitution. There's a reason it's called the pocket Constitution: it's _____. _____ what's not in here — instructions on how to run our elections. Crazy rules like party _________ and plurality ______, they're made up. But thanks to what is in here, Article I, they're optional. Article I gives every _____ the power to change the rules of ________ for Congress at any time. Personally, I think it now ______ like the perfect time.

Solution


  1. sounds
  2. voting
  3. sound
  4. short
  5. election
  6. primaries
  7. evils
  8. guess
  9. parties
  10. state
  11. great

Original Text


Politics is the only industry where we're regularly told that less competition is better. And if there's never any new competition, the existing parties aren't accountable to us for results because they don't need us to like what they're doing. They only need us to choose one of them as the lesser of two evils or to just stay home.

The founders foresaw our situation and they warned us. As when John Adams said, "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other." Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with parties or even having only two major parties. The problem is the current two are guaranteed to remain the only two, regardless of what they do or don't get done on behalf of the country. Does this sound like the best we can do? Of course not. So the founders gave us what they knew we'd need. They gave us this, our Constitution. There's a reason it's called the pocket Constitution: it's short. Guess what's not in here — instructions on how to run our elections. Crazy rules like party primaries and plurality voting, they're made up. But thanks to what is in here, Article I, they're optional. Article I gives every state the power to change the rules of election for Congress at any time. Personally, I think it now sounds like the perfect time.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
politics industry 6
healthy competition 5
party primaries 5
industry theory 3
general election 3
happier customers 2
public interest 2
bad rule 2
rule number 2
election ballot 2
plurality voting 2
instant runoffs 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
politics industry theory 3
bad rule number 2
general election ballot 2

Important Words


  1. accountable
  2. adams
  3. arranged
  4. article
  5. behalf
  6. called
  7. change
  8. choose
  9. competition
  10. concerting
  11. congress
  12. constitution
  13. country
  14. crazy
  15. current
  16. division
  17. dread
  18. election
  19. elections
  20. evils
  21. existing
  22. foresaw
  23. founders
  24. gave
  25. great
  26. guaranteed
  27. guess
  28. home
  29. industry
  30. inherently
  31. instructions
  32. john
  33. knew
  34. leader
  35. lesser
  36. major
  37. measures
  38. opposition
  39. optional
  40. parties
  41. party
  42. perfect
  43. personally
  44. plurality
  45. pocket
  46. politics
  47. power
  48. primaries
  49. problem
  50. reason
  51. regularly
  52. remain
  53. republic
  54. results
  55. rules
  56. run
  57. short
  58. situation
  59. sound
  60. sounds
  61. state
  62. stay
  63. time
  64. told
  65. voting
  66. warned
  67. wrong