29 Elections

WEBVTT
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You're going to take on the world episode 28, Elections.
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Welcome to the episode of You're going to take on the world.
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I am Dustin, and joining me is Lauren.
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Yay.
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All right.
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So today was a pretty good day, and I'd be back to doing the podcast again.
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So.
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And a personal update.
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I actually got to offer for transfer to a new position at work.
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So that'll be nice.
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Yeah.
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That'd be very nice position.
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I was hoping for with a decent bump and pay and we were banking on it.
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Yeah.
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So that's going to be awesome.
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Won't be taking effect for, you know, a little bit, but.
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Oh, man, it's going to be good.
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Yeah, or almost six year old daughter is already planning all the ways that she can spend his money on toys.
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That's typical.
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Oh, yeah.
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After I explicitly told her that that's not what this is.
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What do they know?
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Meanwhile, we've been daydreaming about electric vehicles.
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I guess we're not any better.
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Yeah.
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Just a big, that's just a big boy toy.
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So.
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And also, you know, it's a 100% remote position.
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So I could work anywhere and that'd be pretty awesome.
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And yeah.
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So.
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Okay.
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Let's go ahead and get into it.
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First up, the United States has what I would describe as a beta version of democracy.
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Now it has had a fair number of bug fixes.
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But when you consider that.
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Rolling release.
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Well, you consider that when the Constitution was ratified, there was basically every part of the world was a monarchy.
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There were a few little republics in various places like Italy at that time.
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But they basically rich people or the church had all the power and the US was.
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That's different from us now.
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How?
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And the US was trying to do better than that.
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We're trying to do better.
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And one of the things that's kind of crazy on it is like you look at how politics work now.
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Okay.
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So for one, you compare now to back when the whole constitutional system was set up.
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One of the concerns they had was the lack of information that people had.
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Every voter was a low information voter because information was hard to get.
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Yeah.
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I mean, news did not travel fast.
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And information just what we take for granted is basic knowledge was it took a lot of work to get to a repository to look at libraries or books or whatever.
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It's like we take it's we have the sum of all human knowledge in our pockets.
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And we use it to look at cat videos.
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And some times democracy shows that by the way.
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And sometimes get a lot of misinformation, which also has been a factor in ruining our democracy.
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But like that issue that's that's moot.
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That's one of the reasons though that in the early days, members of the US house were directly elected by members of their district.
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Senators were not president.
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You have to vote for president, but you didn't actually vote for president.
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You were secretly voting for a panel of electors, like a secret electors who would go to actually elect the president.
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Because some asshole had the thought that well, what if the voters get it wrong?
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And we get they elect the wrong person.
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We need to have a fail safe for that.
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I would agree.
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Actually, we lived through that.
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So we have.
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It just lived through what was supposed to have also been the fix for that.
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And it failed.
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It has never worked.
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No, no, it did not work.
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It has failed every single time because when the elect.
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Well, okay, one of the big reasons why we have a political system that at its core, the major framework, the core operating system for our government, the Constitution was written before.
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Political parties was even a concept.
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Political left and right wasn't even a concept.
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Yeah.
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The left and right came from the French Revolution.
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When the liberals sat on the left, the conservatives sat on the right.
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And by the liberals, I mean the revolutionaries who wanted a republic.
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Liberal doesn't mean the same all over the world here.
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That's.
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And the conservatives wanted a constitutional monarchy.
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And that was the left and right.
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So that's where we get those terms is from the French Revolution.
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We're talking 15, 20 years after the Constitution.
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Right.
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Parties were not a thing during the time of George Washington.
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Well, okay, they actually were at the very end of his presidency because they effectively were created by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson running against each other.
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Okay.
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And people forming up behind those two.
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It's creating.
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It is a natural thing.
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Yeah.
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Creating the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans.
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I need to bring we need to bring some of these parties back.
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Man, so the wigs.
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They okay.
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Where the wigs at?
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Effectively, the Federalists became the wigs after a like 30 year hiatus.
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And the wigs became the Republicans after a five or 10 year hiatus.
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And then they just stopped changing names.
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And then yeah.
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But you throw a race into it.
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And it's like, let's do a little flip over there.
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But the one of the reasons why the fact that our system doesn't.
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Wasn't written for parties and yet parties run it.
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Is a problem is the electors.
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You get when a state votes for the majority of a state votes for a candidate.
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That candidate's electors get sent to the electoral college.
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Those electors are picked by that states.
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The party of the candidate that won.
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So again, the party, not the candidate.
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So it's party loyalist.
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It's party.
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People on the inside of the party who get to do that.
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And they are people who are a handful of times.
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There has been what's known as a faithless selector.
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Somebody who votes counter to what they were supposed to, how they were supposed to vote.
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There have been laws against faithless of electors since the early 1800s.
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Well, I can see why that would be a bit of an issue.
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Which means the idea of the electoral college as a check on stupid voters.
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Well, that got.
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No, no, it's a way for parties to maintain control and weird ways.
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Before I can just naturally segue to the next thing.
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It is worth pointing out.
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And part of why I say the US has a beta democracy.
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There are a bunch of other countries who have set up their democracies more recently.
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That have what's more reasonably a version one or a version two or three or frickin New Zealand, who's effectively a democracy 4.0.
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They see the future.
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They are the future.
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If we were as good as New Zealand, we could have nice things.
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Oh my God.
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This is why we can't have nice things.
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There is no.
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There is no way we could get the New Zealand system period.
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Because it would require a major revolution.
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And the wrong people have all the guns.
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Yeah.
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So, but the New Zealand system, I do want to describe it because it's beautiful.
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And there are elements that are getting employed in parts of the US that are improving things.
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I mean, that's and there is ways to do it.
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We just have to do more patches and bug fixes as opposed to major upgrades.
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So the New Zealand system.
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You vote for the party, not the person.
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Each party has published lists.
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So you know who the person is, but you are voting for the party primarily.
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When people do that anyway, because that's how people vote.
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Yeah, I know it feels so wrong though, right?
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Yeah.
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But realistically, is our government actually run by one person?
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No.
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It hasn't been for a long time.
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So it makes more sense.
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So, but so each party has a candidate list.
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So they do tell you who the candidate is for your district, but you are actually voting for the party.
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Really, it's text if you have a beef out for one particular person.
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It's ranked choice voting.
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Every district has more than one seat, which means every district has more than one representative.
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Most have at least three representatives, which means if you support the second major party, not the one that wins your district, you still have somebody representing you and your views that you voted for.
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When second and third place can go as well.
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Yeah.
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More people are represented.
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More sane people, more moderate people.
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Actually, in that case, it doesn't have to be saying or moderate.
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So far.
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It's more it opens it up for more parties because with the ranked choice with multiple seats, if you have 15 people running, 15 parties running in this case, only and only three are moving forward votes for the loser parties get dropped.
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And those ballots get reapportion to who their next choice was next best.
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So eventually you get to everybody either has the person they want representing them or somebody they're okay with representing them, but not the person that they hate.
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And it except for very small proportion, but it makes the situation.
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And yes, you may have a person you hate, but you also have somebody you like representing you.
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And so it means everybody has somebody they feel is looking out for their local interest and their political interests and values in this, the parliament.
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And that is a beautiful thing.
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Sounds like a lot of people would need to be running for office.
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Each party has its lists.
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It's part of the problem that we have in America is that we can afford it.
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It's one thing to have the stipend of running of being a legislature or something, but it's another to run the campaign elections are cheap.
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They're so greedy elections are cheap when they only last for a month.
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That's and then that's key.
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You can't have somebody campaigning for a year or two or four.
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And they're also cheaper when you aren't buying a bunch of TV spots constantly.
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One of the cool things with how New Zealand has it set up is that parties who don't win enough seats get more seats added to their bench.
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They allow extra seats until everybody has enough.
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But if they aren't being voted in, isn't that people saying that they don't want them there?
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No, for example, if the fifth place party got 20% of the vote nationwide, but only got two people to actually qualify for the legislature.
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They're underrepresented.
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So they get extra at large members to where you actually have proportional voting or proportional representation.
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And this is called mixed proportional.
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Other thing that America is not very good at proportionality is not a thing here.
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Like to do that.
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When it all are none.
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Now the US hasn't obviously hasn't not fixed problems politically here.
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Like there was a time when in most states, only white land owning men could vote.
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White land owning Christian men specifically in some states could vote.
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Yeah.
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So yay.
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We're gotten a little better.
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It eventually can expanded to all white men, all men, all people over 21 and then all people over 18.
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Yeah.
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We had the Voting Rights Act.
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To try to make it very clear that black people get to vote like serious.
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That was that was real in the back.
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That was a serious thing.
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People get to vote.
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Yeah.
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And while the Voting Rights Act has been whittled away a fair bit by recent Supreme Court decisions, the most recent one has supported it.
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The Supreme Court ruled against Alabama for not representing or not having enough districts to represent this.
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The state's black population.
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It was a textbook packing and cracking situation where there was one district, nearly all black district and then a district that was an area that was majority black, that was split exactly in half.
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Literally they cracked that population center in half to make sure that black people got one district.
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Yeah.
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Not with Alabama having five congressional districts.
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Black people making up enough of the population that the Supreme Court determined there should be at least two majority black districts at least.
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Yeah.
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So sad that we still have to argue this.
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Yes.
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Yes, it is.
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It got sent.
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But race follows political lines.
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And there are certain powers that do not like that.
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Yep.
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Now, if all those black people were voting a certain way, they wouldn't have a problem with it.
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But unfortunately, they're deemed the bad guys.
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So they.
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They do that here in Idaho too.
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Yeah.
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Let's take the most populous district with the most liberals, crack it in half.
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Yeah.
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Takes all the power out.
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Uh, it's, it's moved now to coal road.
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Oh my God.
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Yeah.
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It doesn't matter what road it is, but back to back to Alabama.
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It was the state legislature drew a new map that made it so that there was one solidly black district and one as they determined it competitively black district.
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Okay.
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Where they got black people up to 40% of that district.
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That's not what they asked them to do though.
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No, not at all.
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So the district court judge overthrew that.
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Yeah.
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The circuit court of appeals put together a three judge panel who drew new districts and by drew new districts.
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Use the district that the software put together that would have been legal that the state had refute had decided not to use.
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And said went with the one this maximum Republicans.
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So the court implemented that one.
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The state sued saying they can't do that.
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They need to give the state more time.
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Right.
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Because like they couldn't do this overnight like they did the previous redistricting and the supreme courts answer to that was no.
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Yeah.
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Nice.
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It wasn't there was no rationale given.
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There was no dissent.
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Nobody signed it.
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Clarence Thomas was the one who had received it.
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He doesn't put rationale on his responses to petitions to the Supreme Court.
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That's because he's not rational.
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So he just put basically he just sent them no fuck off.
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Yeah.
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So imagine how often you would want to say that.
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Supreme court judge.
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Maybe like it was like it's like okay you're in my court and I hate you and this is a waste of my time in fuck off.
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Where's the caller for that?
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So I have to send call here.
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Oh my God.
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I should make one.
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But voting rights are an important thing.
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They they have been weakening.
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Hopefully we're in a period where they're going to start strengthening and racial minorities will get better representation.
00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:39.200
This is likely to ripple out to Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Texas.
00:17:39.900 --> 00:17:41.099
The Carolinas.
00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:46.799
Then there's states like Idaho that can go under the radar because it's not racial.
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:48.599
We don't have the race part of it.
00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.799
We are just splitting it based on political meaning.
00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:52.299
Yeah.
00:17:52.299 --> 00:17:56.799
Which is a lot easier to justify and hide than it is blatantly race.
00:17:56.799 --> 00:17:59.000
And in Idaho.
00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:00.299
That's fucked up.
00:18:00.299 --> 00:18:02.799
I have heard people talking about.
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:03.700
And others.
00:18:03.700 --> 00:18:05.200
I mean, obviously that's just the one I know.
00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:05.400
But.
00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:11.099
Right, because we live in we live in Idaho's second congressional district.
00:18:11.099 --> 00:18:12.599
If we moved.
00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:14.799
Five miles.
00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:16.599
No, 10 miles north.
00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:21.400
Five miles south or four miles west.
00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.200
We would be in first congressional district.
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:30.200
If we wouldn't do east 10 miles, we would be in first congressional district.
00:18:30.500 --> 00:18:35.500
The line goes from literally 50 miles away.
00:18:35.500 --> 00:18:43.500
And it is a it follows the interstate highway to gobble up most a Boise.
00:18:43.500 --> 00:18:44.200
Yeah.
00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:53.700
Specifically the most liberal part of Boise to put it with Eastern Idaho and the Mormons who obviously have population and power.
00:18:53.700 --> 00:18:56.500
So they get just enough.
00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:58.799
Yes, enough to keep things going.
00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:08.700
And it's it's frustrating, but I have heard people who should have known better use Idaho as an example of a not Jerry Mandered state.
00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:13.500
Because obviously you can't Jerry Mander a two district state.
00:19:13.500 --> 00:19:15.700
When no, hilarious.
00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:20.000
It is literally those literally the opposite of what's happened.
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.000
And that's funny.
00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:26.200
When if you you zoom in on Idaho's map, you can add to zoom in though.
00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:28.000
You have to zoom in close.
00:19:28.099 --> 00:19:29.099
Use that magnifier.
00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:33.299
You zoom in and you can see the Republicans giving Boise the bird.
00:19:33.299 --> 00:19:34.500
Yeah.
00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:35.299
Yeah.
00:19:35.299 --> 00:19:38.299
It literally looks like they're flipping off Boise.
00:19:38.299 --> 00:19:39.599
Seriously, we've had this question.
00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:47.200
Is it better to live in a blue city in a red state or a red state in a blue or a red city in a blue city in a blue state?
00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.400
And yeah, we're we're flipping the bird back.
00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:52.700
This like, oh man, I get it now.
00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:56.299
So, but there are ways to fix this.
00:19:57.299 --> 00:19:59.799
Um, besides the revolution.
00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:00.400
Yes.
00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:00.900
Okay.
00:20:00.900 --> 00:20:03.200
It's more put the matches away.
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.400
It's more bug fixes.
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:06.599
Okay.
00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:07.500
And patches.
00:20:07.500 --> 00:20:10.299
The first one I want to talk about is roll outs, man.
00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:11.900
Is presidential elections.
00:20:11.900 --> 00:20:12.500
Okay.
00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:14.000
Yeah, that's a big one.
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.900
There have been so funny.
00:20:17.900 --> 00:20:25.799
I like to be nostalgic about when I first was able to start voting and start paying attention to politics and Bush was literally the worst thing that could ever happen to this country.
00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:27.700
And now I just look back on that laugh.
00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:29.400
So you pour or pour naive fool.
00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:40.000
The big problem is that the winner of the popular vote nationwide does not always win the electoral vote.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:40.500
Yeah.
00:20:40.500 --> 00:20:43.900
This has happened five times.
00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:49.599
We've only had 46 presidents, which you would five times is almost considered a fluke.
00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:55.299
Five times out of 70 some elections.
00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.599
It's happened twice since the year 2000.
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:02.599
Yeah, let's start becoming a more concerning pattern.
00:21:02.599 --> 00:21:04.400
Oh, it's okay.
00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:05.599
A little bit more recent.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:16.200
Since 1988, no Republican has been elected president with a majority of the popular vote.
00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:17.200
There you go.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:20.000
George W. Bush did get reelected.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:22.400
Yeah, but he did not win that first.
00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:29.799
He did not win the popular vote the first time around Trump did not win has never won the majority of the popular vote.
00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:30.500
No.
00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:33.599
You notice a little one sided party wise here.
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:36.299
Uh, we all noticed too.
00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:49.400
Now that being said, statistically electoral vote benefits over popular vote on average benefit Democrats more than Republicans.
00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:50.200
Okay.
00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:56.500
It has never mattered for a Democrat since 1888.
00:21:56.500 --> 00:21:59.400
It's never mattered for a Democrat.
00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:02.799
It hasn't been enough of a difference to matter for a Democrat.
00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:03.400
Okay.
00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:08.200
But it does slightly favor Democrats more than Republicans just statistically.
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:09.000
Okay.
00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.599
And the statistics reviewed.
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:12.299
Okay.
00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:15.799
I was just saying because there's been a political shift in the past 20 years.
00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:27.400
We've been in the middle of a political shift really for the last 50 as continuing to shift and we have more shifting and it's it's the shifting is continuing.
00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:46.099
Uh, but there is a national popular vote interstate compact that has so far been joined by enough states to account for 205 of the 270 needed electoral.
00:22:46.099 --> 00:22:47.000
votes.
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:58.000
There is pending legislation in enough states for another 63 electoral votes at which point if if those all pass.
00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:59.900
They won't all pass.
00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:12.700
No, but if they did all pass, it would only take one more state to make the electoral college to patch the electoral college out of relevance because it's not relevant.
00:23:12.700 --> 00:23:13.700
No.
00:23:13.700 --> 00:23:15.299
Yeah.
00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:22.900
It's never served the purpose it was supposed to serve the the only other purpose for which it was supposed to serve.
00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:39.299
Was making sure that slave owners didn't get extra votes for their slaves or lose votes by their slaves not being able to vote or them not being able to vote on behalf of their slaves more accurately.
00:23:39.299 --> 00:23:40.000
Okay.
00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:53.099
And it in theory and early on benefited small states that benefit was lost when the West was settled because the country got too big.
00:23:53.099 --> 00:23:59.000
Yeah, the United States isn't the biggest country in the world.
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:10.599
It's not the most populous country in the world, but it's big enough that these cracks and faults of whiteened and torn apart a huge.
00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:12.599
Tornado political landscape in half.
00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:13.000
Yeah.
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:18.200
So the electoral college results in nearly every.
00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.700
I'll go ahead and go pull the matches back out where I'm ready.
00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:31.400
Every almost every small state is ignored because almost every small state is predictable Ohio got the limelight for a long time.
00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:32.099
Florida too.
00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:41.200
They got tons of attention tons of advertising tons of campaign stops. They're both so solidly Republican nobody's going to pay any attention to them.
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:41.700
Yeah.
00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:53.400
Now it's Michigan and Wisconsin and Nevada and Nevada, which is like 90% desert now Nevada is where you actually start getting into a small state.
00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:55.500
New Hampshire is also an example.
00:24:55.500 --> 00:24:58.200
It's a swing state that gets a lot of attention.
00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:07.700
Those are small enough states that they get they actually do get attention because they are swing states and they matter presidential candidates.
00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:15.700
Once they've won the nomination will never visit Idaho or Wyoming or Hawaii.
00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:17.900
Unless there's a natural disaster.
00:25:17.900 --> 00:25:19.599
It's a it's a waste.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:28.099
They will visit during the primary season because primary delegates are much more proportional.
00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:28.799
Yeah.
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:39.799
And Democrats especially will visit during primary season because they can win a state's delegates by visiting the biggest city.
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:41.900
Just the one just the one city.
00:25:41.900 --> 00:25:45.400
So Bernie Sanders in 2016 came to Boise.
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:46.299
Yeah.
00:25:46.299 --> 00:25:49.599
So the national popular vote interstate compact.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:56.099
Criticisms for it are that with nobody checking.
00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.099
Nobody providing that check on the election.
00:25:59.099 --> 00:26:06.299
It would it makes it it would make it so that there's they would increase the chances of fraud.
00:26:06.299 --> 00:26:10.500
And the election rules are different across the states.
00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:14.799
So you know it's not really an apples to oranges anyway.
00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:20.400
That's the criticism also that small states would be ignored and that it would it's just a liberal.
00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:22.299
That's a part of the course.
00:26:22.299 --> 00:26:23.799
Liberal big city.
00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:26.799
Now urban liberal elite power grab.
00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:27.500
Okay.
00:26:27.500 --> 00:26:39.200
What it would actually end up doing is make it would make voting irregularities and actual voter fraud, which is incredibly rare.
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:48.099
Irrelevant in the year 2000 Florida decided the election over a hundred ballots.
00:26:48.099 --> 00:26:49.099
They got thrown out.
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:54.700
If it had been a national popular vote that hundred ballots wouldn't have mattered.
00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:55.299
No.
00:26:55.299 --> 00:27:01.200
Because Al Gore had half a million more votes nationwide.
00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:02.299
Yeah.
00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:08.400
I still remember the rumors of ballots being found floating like washing up on the beach.
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:12.200
It's like they clearly been dumped to not get counted.
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:12.900
It's like, oh my god.
00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:14.200
The whole thing was a mess.
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:18.599
And it's at its most extreme of the probably also Russian.
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:28.900
It's most extreme with the you know mob political bosses in Chicago and New Jersey.
00:27:28.900 --> 00:27:30.500
30 years ago.
00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:31.799
New joys.
00:27:31.799 --> 00:27:41.400
It even then the amount of fraud they were able to pull off was in the ballpark of hundreds of votes.
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:44.200
Yeah, they could influence local elections.
00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:49.799
Definitely, but not presidential popular vote has never been that close.
00:27:49.799 --> 00:27:55.500
And by broadening the pool, it makes irregularities less important.
00:27:55.500 --> 00:28:00.099
And national parlials never actually been relevant either.
00:28:00.099 --> 00:28:05.000
So and national popular vote also makes it.
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:14.000
It makes it so that a hundred fraudulent votes are a hundred out of a hundred and fifty million.
00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:20.799
As opposed to flipping 40 out of five hundred and thirty five.
00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:22.099
Yeah.
00:28:22.099 --> 00:28:30.400
It's it makes fraud less of an issue as far as the differences in voting requirements.
00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:36.900
If any of those are actually significant enough to matter, that needs to be fixed.
00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:39.200
What do you mean if the vote?
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:43.900
So different states have different requirements on what?
00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:47.099
What it takes to be able to vote or to register to vote.
00:28:47.099 --> 00:28:47.799
Okay.
00:28:47.799 --> 00:28:56.799
So for example, in Oregon, by getting a driver's license, you are registering to vote automatically.
00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:57.299
Yeah.
00:28:57.299 --> 00:28:59.000
Because they lost you opt out voters.
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:00.799
And then they mail you about it.
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:01.299
Yeah.
00:29:01.299 --> 00:29:02.900
And then you fill out that ballot and send it in.
00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:12.299
Uh, in Idaho, you have to register to vote and show ID or sign an affidavit proving that.
00:29:12.700 --> 00:29:16.299
A testing under penalty of perjury that you are who you say you are.
00:29:16.299 --> 00:29:22.299
And some states you cannot vote on the day that you register.
00:29:22.299 --> 00:29:23.099
Yeah.
00:29:23.099 --> 00:29:31.099
So if you're in a state where you must register to vote seven days before you actually cast your ballot.
00:29:31.099 --> 00:29:37.200
And then show ID to prove that you are the person who is on that voter roll.
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.900
And there's other states that are just mailing out ballots.
00:29:41.900 --> 00:29:51.500
That could appear to be very different elections that are an apples and oranges comparison to which I say.
00:29:51.500 --> 00:29:53.099
That's bullshit.
00:29:53.099 --> 00:30:03.099
Those differences aren't significant because what's it aren't significant for this because what matters is how many citizens cast their vote.
00:30:03.099 --> 00:30:07.700
And who did those citizens who cast their vote cast their vote for?
00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:12.599
And the rules to be a citizen is the same for the entire United States.
00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:13.900
Think it would be that simple.
00:30:13.900 --> 00:30:25.500
Also, if a state's rules are so radically different that you don't think that's a real election, sue them with what lawyer on what?
00:30:25.500 --> 00:30:31.000
Or take it to Congress and have Congress set standards for how the elections are going to work.
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:32.299
That would be fine.
00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:34.900
Uh, good luck getting good.
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:47.400
Good luck getting Congress to do anything right now, but, but the national popular vote interstate compact it, it would solve things.
00:30:47.400 --> 00:31:00.799
And for it to take effect, there needs to be enough states who have joined to account for 270 or more electoral votes or a majority at which point it goes into effect.
00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:08.299
And whoever wins the national popular vote gets those 270 electoral votes.
00:31:08.299 --> 00:31:12.500
Why do I feel like this is a setup for something awful in the future though?
00:31:12.500 --> 00:31:14.099
I don't know, man.
00:31:14.099 --> 00:31:19.900
I'm just now this is coming from somebody who is obviously a little like PTSD over previous elections.
00:31:19.900 --> 00:31:20.400
Yeah.
00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:21.599
Actually, no, not PTSD.
00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:24.900
That's a very real thing not to make a light of that.
00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:28.000
But, um, Trump was so out there.
00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:29.900
It was not going to happen.
00:31:29.900 --> 00:31:30.599
You didn't win.
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.200
He didn't, he was under the national interstate compact.
00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:34.099
He wouldn't have won.
00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:38.099
What I'm saying though is what if we get the crazy who does?
00:31:38.099 --> 00:31:39.799
It's no different than now.
00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:40.900
It happened.
00:31:40.900 --> 00:31:42.599
It already happened to the electoral college.
00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:44.700
The electoral college made it happen.
00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:45.200
Huh?
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:46.799
The national interstates.
00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:49.200
I'm not saying the current system's better.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:51.900
I'm just saying that setting it up where it's okay.
00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:54.200
Just pure national people are dumb.
00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:55.099
We are cattle.
00:31:55.099 --> 00:32:00.500
We will vote for whoever's pretty or shiny or claims to be good at business.
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:09.599
It's I see the hesitation in allowing just a pure popular vote because no offense, but we're dumb.
00:32:09.599 --> 00:32:10.599
Yeah.
00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:14.299
Then we need to make it so that the electoral college actually means something.
00:32:14.299 --> 00:32:16.799
Maybe that would be a better route, but I don't know.
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:18.799
I, of course, I'm not a political scientist.
00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:19.799
I don't know how to fix that.
00:32:19.799 --> 00:32:26.299
To make that work, you would need to have electors electors be professional electors who are specialists in their field.
00:32:26.299 --> 00:32:27.500
Yes.
00:32:27.500 --> 00:32:28.299
And who?
00:32:28.299 --> 00:32:29.799
That can happen.
00:32:30.099 --> 00:32:35.700
And who are the oligarchy who decides who's president and ignores the political will of the people?
00:32:35.700 --> 00:32:36.700
Yeah.
00:32:36.700 --> 00:32:36.900
Yeah.
00:32:36.900 --> 00:32:45.599
Well, that goes to so if you ever had the case where with the national popular vote or without the national popular vote.
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:58.200
If the popular vote went for a candidate and the electoral college vote, theoretically, should go to that candidate and the electoral college went the other way.
00:32:58.200 --> 00:33:04.599
People would be up in arms for good reason and most likely Congress literally what happened and we didn't do anything.
00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:05.900
No, okay.
00:33:05.900 --> 00:33:08.500
Trump won the electoral college.
00:33:08.500 --> 00:33:08.900
Right.
00:33:08.900 --> 00:33:10.900
That's why I'm saying you just said that.
00:33:10.900 --> 00:33:11.700
He won the elect.
00:33:11.700 --> 00:33:17.599
He if he won enough loses the popular vote or wins the popular vote loses the popular vote.
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:24.500
The electoral college says, if you guys were going to go ahead and vote for this other guy anyway, then they shouldn't be up in arms over it.
00:33:24.500 --> 00:33:26.099
Instead of the guys even.
00:33:26.099 --> 00:33:26.900
No.
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:31.099
And no, that's not what I'm saying in the current system.
00:33:31.099 --> 00:33:34.299
So what I was describing would be using using.
00:33:34.299 --> 00:33:37.099
I can't use Trump as the example.
00:33:37.099 --> 00:33:40.700
It would have been 2020 would be the example I'm describing not 2016.
00:33:40.700 --> 00:33:41.200
Okay.
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:42.900
Biden wins the popular vote.
00:33:42.900 --> 00:33:46.900
He wins enough states to get enough electors to win.
00:33:46.900 --> 00:33:51.900
And if the electoral college had just said no, we want more Trump.
00:33:52.500 --> 00:33:59.900
That would be that would be the risk of putting in a group of specialists specialists.
00:33:59.900 --> 00:34:00.400
Yeah.
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:01.700
They're corruptible.
00:34:01.700 --> 00:34:06.799
Not that, you know, the mass citizen jury isn't also corruptible because we are.
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:08.800
That's what campaigns are for.
00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:10.199
That's what the Russians did.
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:11.300
The bribeen is for.
00:34:11.300 --> 00:34:17.300
But yeah, yeah, it certainly looks better on paper after the fact.
00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:30.099
It would be an improvement to a system that is inherently for an example of why the fact that we have a president is danger.
00:34:30.099 --> 00:34:33.300
Our political system is inherently dangerous.
00:34:33.300 --> 00:34:35.300
It has been tried.
00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:42.699
It has been copied in every country south of us.
00:34:42.699 --> 00:34:45.400
Not necessarily all the Caribbean islands.
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:47.699
Many countries south of every country.
00:34:47.699 --> 00:34:59.599
No, every country on the north and south American mainland except for Canada has followed an American style strong presidential government with legislature.
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:02.099
Every single one got a military coup.
00:35:02.099 --> 00:35:05.400
Many of them have had multiple military coups.
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:12.699
So where a fluke we are the only system like ours to have not had it.
00:35:12.699 --> 00:35:14.800
Go completely wrong.
00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:16.400
Not turn into a dictatorship.
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:19.400
Yeah, no country.
00:35:19.400 --> 00:35:27.500
No country established since like 1830 has gone with the crazy American system.
00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:39.599
And even when the US sets up new political systems for countries, Japan, Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, we don't go with an American style system.
00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:45.199
We go with a parliamentary democracy and a weak president or other figurehead.
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:49.199
And you have a prime minister's head of government.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.699
Yeah, but somebody who can be fired easily.
00:35:52.699 --> 00:35:53.199
Okay.
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:54.199
Yeah.
00:35:54.199 --> 00:35:55.400
All right.
00:35:55.400 --> 00:36:03.099
So that moves on to the jungle primary, which is our best hope at fixing Congress.
00:36:03.099 --> 00:36:09.699
Yeah, because presidential presidents are finding the Andy.
00:36:09.699 --> 00:36:15.500
But it's the people who actually make the laws and pass the laws and pass the budget that really run the country.
00:36:15.500 --> 00:36:18.500
And they are not right now.
00:36:18.500 --> 00:36:20.500
We have had for a long time.
00:36:20.500 --> 00:36:36.500
We've had periods of time in the US where bipartisan votes were the norm, where a split Congress could still pass laws, where a Congress from the opposing party of the president could still pass laws that could get signed into law.
00:36:36.500 --> 00:36:41.199
Like it has been a thing through much of US history.
00:36:41.199 --> 00:36:45.900
We are in a point in history where it is that it's most corrupted.
00:36:45.900 --> 00:36:56.300
And it is because of the winner takes all primary and then the winner takes all general election.
00:36:56.300 --> 00:37:06.199
Where in enough states, where whoever wins one party's primary is guaranteed to win the state's general election.
00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:24.699
If that means the party, the people who take part in the closed primary, because it's mostly closed primaries, is those are the people who choose the person who will be representing them.
00:37:24.699 --> 00:37:25.699
Yeah.
00:37:25.699 --> 00:37:35.699
And Idaho, the Republicans who take part in the primary are the only ones who get to pick who will be Idaho's congressional representatives.
00:37:35.699 --> 00:37:36.199
Yeah.
00:37:36.199 --> 00:37:38.199
Nobody else has a say.
00:37:38.199 --> 00:37:43.199
It's already decided before it gets under the general election ballot.
00:37:43.199 --> 00:37:45.199
Is around here that's how people vote.
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:47.199
But wouldn't make a difference anyway.
00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:53.199
The open primary or jungle primary system can fix this.
00:37:53.199 --> 00:37:57.199
Now open primary has two meanings.
00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:05.199
There is the normal plain meaning, which is voters don't have to be a member of a party to participate in its primary election.
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:10.199
This is the case for at least one party in 20 states.
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:14.199
It used to be the case in Idaho until quite recently.
00:38:14.199 --> 00:38:15.199
Yeah.
00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:17.199
It ended years ago.
00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:24.199
Yeah, just a few years ago until then independence could pick whichever ballot they wanted to vote in or vote on and they'd get that ballot.
00:38:24.199 --> 00:38:25.199
Yeah.
00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:32.199
Idaho has an open primaries initiative that is actually calling for a jungle primary, which is something different.
00:38:32.199 --> 00:38:35.199
They chose the wrong word because it's less scary.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:36.199
Okay.
00:38:36.199 --> 00:38:47.199
And with the jungle primaries, these are already the case in Washington, California, Nebraska, Alaska, and Louisiana.
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:48.199
Okay.
00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:49.199
Oh, Louisiana.
00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:50.199
Louisiana.
00:38:50.199 --> 00:38:52.199
Okay.
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:53.199
They're sort of.
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:55.199
They don't actually have primaries.
00:38:55.199 --> 00:38:57.199
They do presidential primaries.
00:38:57.199 --> 00:39:04.199
Well, the state doesn't the parties do because the state only does one election on odd number years.
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:07.199
It's in October and even number years.
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:11.199
It's in November on the federal election day.
00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:19.199
If somebody wins a majority of the vote in the only election they have in Louisiana, that person wins.
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:23.199
If nobody wins a majority, they do a runoff.
00:39:23.199 --> 00:39:31.199
And the top two run against each other for the next two weeks and then they have a runoff election and then somebody wins.
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:41.199
It might be, it might be more than two weeks, but it's not as bad as some, it's not the best, but it's not as bad as some systems.
00:39:41.199 --> 00:39:42.199
Okay.
00:39:42.199 --> 00:39:43.199
Yeah.
00:39:43.199 --> 00:39:48.199
Washington, California, and Nebraska have top two primaries.
00:39:48.199 --> 00:39:50.199
Everybody runs on the same ballot.
00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:56.199
The top two from the primary election move on to the general election.
00:39:56.199 --> 00:39:59.199
Effectively, it's an automatic runoff.
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:00.199
Okay.
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:11.199
But even if one person wins 54% of the vote in the primary, the person who comes in second still gets another chance to run against that person more directly.
00:40:11.199 --> 00:40:12.199
Okay.
00:40:12.199 --> 00:40:23.199
This does result in cases where you have two Republicans running against each other in the general election or two Democrats running against each other in the general election.
00:40:23.199 --> 00:40:28.199
Two great examples for each of those would be from California.
00:40:28.199 --> 00:40:33.199
California's last Senate election was two Democrats running against each other.
00:40:33.199 --> 00:40:41.199
There was a story we talked about on the podcast many, many years ago about two Republicans in a district in California.
00:40:41.199 --> 00:40:57.199
Running against each other in the general election for a house seat, both visiting the local atheist group there to try to win votes, getting desperate because when it's two people from the same party, because two people, the same party doesn't mean much.
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:00.199
It can mean massive differences in policy.
00:41:00.199 --> 00:41:13.199
Also, when it comes to getting elected, if you assume it's a relatively even split between those two in their own party, any niche helps whoever can win over more of the other party wins.
00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:17.199
It has a result of making things more moderate.
00:41:17.199 --> 00:41:20.199
Yeah, which is what we need right now.
00:41:20.199 --> 00:41:40.199
Now, then there is the Alaskan system, which Idaho has a ballot initiative that is currently collecting signatures to adopt exactly the Alaskan system, which is top four with ranked choice voting in the general election.
00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:42.199
Yeah, I like ranked choice.
00:41:42.199 --> 00:41:43.199
Okay.
00:41:43.199 --> 00:41:47.199
So 12 people run in the primary for move on.
00:41:47.199 --> 00:41:55.199
Reasonably, for some offices in Idaho, it would be three Republicans in a Democrat moving on to the general election.
00:41:55.199 --> 00:41:56.199
Okay.
00:41:56.199 --> 00:41:57.199
Yeah.
00:41:57.199 --> 00:42:13.199
So the ranked choice voting and you pick your first choice, second choice, third choice in Idaho, that would end up meaning the Democrat, the Democrat would probably be one of the first ones out.
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:22.199
But the people who voted first for the Democrat, whoever they hated least out of the Republican candidates would be the one who would win.
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:24.199
The enemy of my enemy.
00:42:24.199 --> 00:42:25.199
Yes.
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:27.199
So the Democrat would lose.
00:42:27.199 --> 00:42:28.199
And the Democrat would lose.
00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:30.199
But you would end up with something a little bit more sane.
00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:31.199
Yep.
00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:33.199
It's so funny thinking back to growing up.
00:42:33.199 --> 00:42:37.199
I think that was sane compared to what we have now.
00:42:37.199 --> 00:42:48.199
We actually grew up in the era, we grew up in the end of the statesmen era, where there were people who we honestly could call good statesmen bipartisan negotiators.
00:42:48.199 --> 00:42:50.199
They could work across the table.
00:42:50.199 --> 00:42:52.199
They were great.
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:54.199
And that's all gone now.
00:42:54.199 --> 00:43:02.199
When we were kids, Idaho had a Democratic governor and Oregon had a Republican legislature.
00:43:02.199 --> 00:43:04.199
And they were respected.
00:43:04.199 --> 00:43:06.199
And they got things done.
00:43:06.199 --> 00:43:07.199
They got things done.
00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:09.199
And now it's just rabid versus rabid.
00:43:09.199 --> 00:43:11.199
And well, no, it's not.
00:43:11.199 --> 00:43:13.199
It's not even rabid versus rabid.
00:43:13.199 --> 00:43:18.199
That would be, that would be signifying that there's this far right crazy versus a far left crazy.
00:43:18.199 --> 00:43:20.199
But that's not what's happening either.
00:43:20.199 --> 00:43:21.199
There's a far right crazy.
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:24.199
And they're holding the rest of their party hostage.
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:28.199
And those guys, the moderate Republicans don't have a say anymore.
00:43:28.199 --> 00:43:29.199
That sucks.
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:30.199
Ranked choice.
00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:31.199
That's a Democrat.
00:43:31.199 --> 00:43:32.199
We need them.
00:43:32.199 --> 00:43:34.199
And ranked choice would help that.
00:43:34.199 --> 00:43:47.199
And these either a top two or even better ranked choice also has the benefit of increasing the chances of getting third party candidates without them being spoilers.
00:43:47.199 --> 00:44:04.199
Because at present in the winner takes all system, the top or a third party candidate is running against the main two and drawing votes away from one of the two viable candidates.
00:44:04.199 --> 00:44:05.199
Yeah.
00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:10.199
In a top two system, there are only two in the general election.
00:44:10.199 --> 00:44:12.199
So there are no spoilers.
00:44:12.199 --> 00:44:13.199
There's no green party candidate.
00:44:13.199 --> 00:44:14.199
Right.
00:44:14.199 --> 00:44:15.199
So what about top four?
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:28.199
In a top four, you could have for a hypothetical, to Republicans, a Democrat and a socialist make it to the general election in a top four system.
00:44:28.199 --> 00:44:35.199
The people who vote for the socialist are probably going to vote to have the Democrat as their second choice.
00:44:35.199 --> 00:44:40.199
The people voting for the socialist probably won't, that candidate probably won't win.
00:44:40.199 --> 00:44:46.199
But they get to vote for the person they want, while also signifying who they're okay with.
00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:47.199
Yeah.
00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:49.199
They get to be proud that they voted for that.
00:44:49.199 --> 00:44:59.199
They stuck it to the man by voting for this other party that better aligns with their views while not letting their enemy win.
00:44:59.199 --> 00:45:00.199
Yeah.
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:04.199
So all around, it would be an improvement.
00:45:04.199 --> 00:45:06.199
We need this.
00:45:06.199 --> 00:45:09.199
We need politics to get more sane.
00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:12.199
We need more sane people to run too.
00:45:12.199 --> 00:45:13.199
Yeah.
00:45:13.199 --> 00:45:30.199
That's a big ask, because sane people don't have the money, time, energy, and the insanity it takes to run campaigns and cow-tow to parties and a slight cheat and steal to get into positions of power.
00:45:30.199 --> 00:45:35.199
Well, on that note, that's it for this week.
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:38.199
Lauren, thank you for joining me.
00:45:38.199 --> 00:45:40.199
Thank you.
00:45:40.199 --> 00:45:43.199
And until next time.
00:45:43.199 --> 00:45:47.199
Remember, not all those who wander are lost.
00:45:47.199 --> 00:46:01.199
[Music]