Declining Public Trust, Pay-to-play Politics… and What Rotarians Can Do

Elizabeth Doty on Declining Public Trust, Pay-to-play Politics… and What Rotarians Can Do to Contribute to Positive Peace & Healthy Civic Engagement

Elizabeth Doty is a member of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach, and President of Leadership Momentum, a San Francisco-based management consulting firm that helps leaders act on their values as they guide business strategy. She will talk with us about the crisis of public trust brewing in the U.S. over the past several decades, and how “pay-to-play” politics on both sides of the aisle is a major contributing factor. She will outline how this creates a vicious cycle that undermines civility, increases conflict, damages our ability to pursue the common good and blocks action on the six Focus Areas Rotarians care about. Just as prior generations have been called to support our country’s ideals in a variety of ways, people of action from across the political spectrum are once again being called to step forward. To illustrate, Elizabeth will highlight three non-partisan opportunities to help restore constructive civic engagement and build positive peace, including a civic literacy program, a process for rebuilding civility, and a constitutional amendment to address pay-to-play politics.