PositionDial and the joys of self-discovery

This article is by Polis Intern and LSE MSc student John Ray on a presentation given by PositionDial founder Mariam Cook. As a child growing up in the United States, I remember asking my mother why she wasn’t voting for Ralph Nader in the 2000 Presidential Election. Nader, remembered today as “the reason why Al Gore lost”, was a progressive politician who ran as a Green Party candidate and my mom, a leftist single-mother, was ideologically much closer to him than Gore (something even a nine year old could recognize). But my Mom responded, “because I’m a Democrat (the equivalent of Labour), I’ve always voted Democrat, and they need me more”. The latter statement proved true, but the ones that preceded it stuck with me as problematic.