Speech & Debate Initiative

Richmond Forum Considers “The Two-Party Problem”

February 22, 2026
By: Colleen Bohlman

The Two-Party Problem featuring Joe Manchin, Andrew Yang, and Justin Amash. was both thought provoking and timely given the state of our nation today. Regardless of political identity or level of political engagement, I think most Americans can agree that our government isn’t working the way it was designed to.
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“I want a better society for my kids. I’m passionate about healthcare. I’m a physician, my wife is in public health and the way healthcare is going right now is very frightening and I just want a candidate who is willing to go against what is happening on the national level. The vaccination piece is definitely scary, I think it’s really important to stay up to date with those things, the pandemic changed so much about how people trust the healthcare system, and while there are a lot of ways the healthcare system needs to improve, leadership from the top down needs to be solid and it’s just not solid right now”.

“I’m mostly concerned about the SNAP funding. Because in my profession, I know some people through Virginia Cooperative Extension who were doing nutrition education for SNAP beneficiaries, all of those programs were cut as kind of a ripple effect from the (Big, Beautiful) bill, but they lost those programs, which is important to me – nutrition information. I’m concerned about out healthcare, I’m concerned about what’s happening with immigration right now and for me personally, I’m soon going on Medicare, and I’m concerned with what’s happening with that. Things are so divisive, you can’t even really talk about issues in a calm way”.

“I am passionate about gun safety regulation. I am passionate about enforcement of the anti-trust laws. Those are two big ones for me. And also intelligent AI regulation and data center/environmental regulations. I have concern about the kind of Wild West style lack of regulation of artificial intelligence. I think we need to take a systematic thoughtful approach so that we targeted AI rather than just an uncontrolled profit for a few big companies”.

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