WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.160 In a dropping twist. Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana is now the fifty sixth 2 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:10.599 Speaker of the House, and he's also an an extremist who's not shy about 3 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:14.359 his views. A superhero of the religious right, he often calls the Bible 4 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.199 when strongly opposing a little bit Q run. After weeks of GEOP in fighting, 5 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:23.359 Johnson managed to unite the party with charisma and a deeply court servative stance. 6 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:26.960 He played a leading role in the GOP's efforts to overtend the twenty twenty 7 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:30.679 election, and he's not a fan of the truth or even democracy. Now, 8 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:36.520 Johnson's got a packed agenda, preventing a government shutdown, tackling international crisis, 9 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:41.359 and pushing his conservative agenda with the Bible in his hand. A political 10 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:46.640 circus with Johnson as the ring master. Surprisingly, this speaker is known as 11 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.840 a nice guy in Washington. Let's see if he can keep the House in 12 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.840 order while sticking to his cowured principles. It's a political drama worth watching, 13 00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:00.000 and we're going to look into that. This article is from NBC News by 14 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:04.560 Scott Wong, Alibally, Rebecca Kaplan, and Kyle Stewart on October twenty fifth, 15 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:07.400 twenty twenty three, Kelly, do you want to see well? In 16 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:14.040 the article, Republican Representative Darren Lehood says, excuse me. I think he 17 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:18.200 was viewed as the least objectionable person in the process, and he was in 18 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:21.760 the right place at the right time, And I think that just says it 19 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:25.760 all right there. They had already had three failed candidates. They were becoming 20 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:29.920 the laughing stocks of half the USA, and the handler half was wondering if 21 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:33.680 they were actually worth the votes that they gave to them and voted, and 22 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:37.680 worth the votes they were going to give to him again. And the fact 23 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:42.560 that Johnson hasn't made any enemies in the GOP also played into his hands. 24 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:46.439 He hasn't come out as an extremist, even though he is like, he 25 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:49.640 didn't. He's not Marjorie Taylor Green, he's not Lowen Bobert. So he 26 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:55.040 hasn't, you know, gone out and been challenging the powers that be within 27 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:59.959 the GOP. And I'm pretty sure that anyone who had a clear nomination or 28 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:02.480 that was in that position was going to get it, no matter who they 29 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.000 were, whether it was Johnson or some other guy. So no surprise that 30 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:10.039 a guy like him got it. It's a real surprise that he got it. 31 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:14.000 I had no idea who he was until it happened, and I'm usually 32 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.599 pretty sharp on American politics, so it kind of threw me for a loop. 33 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:21.360 But there he go. So, Aaron, what are your thoughts about 34 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.080 it? Yeah, he may look normal, but he is not normal. 35 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:28.319 No, he is. He is part of the MAGA crowd. He wants 36 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:30.719 the government to burn. He wants he does. He's not interested in governing. 37 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:38.759 He's interested in in fighting an ideog ideological war and in making this He's 38 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.840 a Christian nationalist. He wants to make this a Christian country, full stop. 39 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.439 And you know, part of me, through the whole process of the 40 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.960 GOP ousting the former speaker and then trying to get a new speaker, Party 41 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.639 was just laughing in glee at the total dysfunction at this on display, because 42 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.919 I don't think that's gonna just that's kind of served them well in the in 43 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.879 the upcoming election. Uh, magas as A is the most vocal part of 44 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:04.159 the GOP right now, and so all the GOP politicians they kind of have 45 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:07.759 to cater to MAGA. But you put them, you put anybody that's MAGA 46 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:12.199 against somebody who's not, and most of the time they're going to win because 47 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:15.360 most of the most of the country they do not they do not subscribe to 48 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.479 MAGA. Magas just a very very vocal minority. And so I'm looking forward 49 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:23.560 to the consequences to the GOP in this next election, in this next election 50 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:28.000 in twenty twenty four, because I think they're just going to get slammed. 51 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:30.439 And then you know, party is also really sad and weeps that the GOP 52 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:35.199 is so dysfunctional and it's so hamstrung by people that aren't interested in governing anymore. 53 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:38.680 They just they just want to fight this ideological culture war and instead of 54 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.960 governing and moving the country forward. And personally, I think people people that 55 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.639 don't want to govern them and are somewhat traitorous to be honest, Why are 56 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:53.199 you in the government, Why are you have an elected office if you don't, 57 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:54.719 if you're not interested in governing and I'm moving the country forward. A 58 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:59.159 lot of these people put God first. They put God first above the country, 59 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.319 and absolutely I think those people are traders because you can't be an elected 60 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:04.919 official in government and putting your God first. You have to put your country 61 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:09.439 first. It's the whole point of being an elected official is putting your country 62 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.319 first, putting the people first, and moving us forward and solving problems and 63 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:17.360 making democracy stronger and better and moving forward. Jimmy, Yeah, I totally 64 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.319 agree, and I will depart I think a little bit on this though, 65 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:26.800 from this idea that you know, maybe we were surprised that this guy got 66 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:30.160 elected. So I can see that because I didn't know who really who he 67 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:33.319 was either. I remember the name, but I you know, never really 68 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:38.319 associated him with anybody of any prominence. But that was probably what he had 69 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:43.600 working in his favor. Right, Like I Aaron alluded to, he probably 70 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:47.600 didn't really pose much of a threat to more of the hardline opponents of the 71 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:51.439 MAGA crowd who are Republicans and kind of have to stick with these people, 72 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:56.480 and so it was easy to throw their support against him. But I don't 73 00:04:56.519 --> 00:05:00.040 really find the article all that unique, because all we have is just another 74 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:04.959 MAGA puppet who has risen to a position of prominence inside the Republican Party. 75 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:11.079 The first thing that he did, which was really disheartening, was prey on 76 00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:15.279 the House floor after being elected speaker, and it just goes to show you 77 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:19.519 that the wall between the government and religion is thinning, and that's not going 78 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:25.519 to lead to anything good at all for anyone that Christianity opposes, so or 79 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:30.120 anybody that opposes Christianity or religion or religious endorsement by the government. You know, 80 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:34.839 the most frustrating thing about this is that he's really constantly described as this 81 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:41.519 man of faith, and we hear this a lot about Christians or people of 82 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:44.600 faith. I should say, I shouldn't limit it to christian you know, 83 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:50.680 being characterizes these good people just because they believe in some invisible deity that can't 84 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:55.519 be proven. And being a person of faith, especially as a member of 85 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:00.120 government and a lawmaker at that, should be alarming, not reassuring, and 86 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:04.240 putting the Bible in government will result in greater constitutional violations, the continued targeting 87 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:10.199 minority groups, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, women, although many millions of 88 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:15.040 women still continue to support this cult. And so I just don't have a 89 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:19.279 whole lot of optimism when it comes to having to govern with the MAGA Party. 90 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:24.319 I do hope that it does work against them, because it has been 91 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:29.959 incredibly chaotic. Johnson not being one of these actors in this political theater. 92 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:32.560 I think again was a strength of his, but also just goes to show 93 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:35.920 that we're still dealing with more of the same. But why do we not 94 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:41.800 consider a person of faith as someone who endorses horrific atrocities, bigotry, and 95 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:46.959 fairy tales. Why are we considering them these great people and not somebody who 96 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:51.199 kind of, you know, adheres to these weird beliefs. Because for centuries 97 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:56.920 we've stood idly by while Christianity has just kind of hijacked morality and this is 98 00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:59.839 what we end up. So it's kind of my take on that sin. 99 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:01.439 What do you think? Yeah, I agree with what you just said. 100 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:08.879 It's important to mention that at the same time, there is so much to 101 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:14.920 say here because so much happened since he was elected. But yeah, the 102 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:19.759 firing of McCarthy was lovable. The three weeks of in fighting were pathetic. 103 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:27.240 The way the Orange man is was trying to influence this election was just ridiculous. 104 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:31.600 And yet nothing comes close to the horror of seeing this guy become the 105 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:35.800 Speaker of the House. Because one could argue that we shouldn't be surprised or 106 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:42.560 horrified. It's perfectly in line with what's been happening since twenty sixteen and maybe 107 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:47.240 even before, with the country slowly descending into chresto fascist territory. And yet 108 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:53.199 the more we learn about Johnson, the more infuriating it gets. He claimed 109 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.399 that if you want to know his position on a topic, just open the 110 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:00.800 Bible and you will have your answer. He claimed that homosexuality is an abomination 111 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:05.839 that could destroy society. He claimed that abortion should be banned so that all 112 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:11.319 those unborn children could become part of the well, become productive members of the 113 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:16.560 slaves, not slave trade society, that's what he wants to call it. 114 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.759 And then his first two acts as a speaker were first to condition aid to 115 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:28.800 Israel to reduction of IRAS funding and then condition Ukraine aid to funding the Orange 116 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:33.159 Meness's wall that tells you everything you need to know about the guy. First 117 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:37.320 of all, reducing the IRS funding means reducing the income it gets. So 118 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:43.720 if you claim you want to be fiscally responsible and want to make sure that 119 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:48.360 the money you send to Israel is paid for, then the reason you should 120 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:54.399 give it would be something that brings money and that costs money. And that 121 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:58.679 wall again in twenty twenty three, seriously, what the hell I mean, 122 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.720 it's it's unbelievable Eron to say, Oh yeah, sure, I sure do. 123 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:07.399 I always have something to say. He honestly, he has a job. 124 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:11.879 I don't envy him for We have a looming government shutdown and the GOP 125 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.600 that is in meetings right now and have been for several days, and they 126 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:22.200 can't come to any agreements. The word is now that Johnson will probably have 127 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:26.559 to propose another stopgap measure like they did last month, so that Congress can 128 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:31.600 keep the government open for a few more weeks while they try to work something 129 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:35.360 out. But I mean, they passed the last stop stopgap measure on September 130 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:39.440 thirtieth, and I understand they had three weeks of chaos since then, but 131 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:43.200 they haven't been able to come to any agreements since then. I don't know 132 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:48.159 what's going to happen in another thirty days, so I don't know that another 133 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:52.679 stopgap measure is going to solve anything rather than just kick the can down the 134 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.120 road. They've already said that they fear being forced to back a rival funding 135 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:01.679 measure from the Democratic led Senate, which is why they want to pass another 136 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:05.279 stop gap so they don't have to accept the Democratic proposal. I don't see 137 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:09.200 how Johnson is going to get out of this. Honestly, it only takes 138 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:13.240 according to the new rules, it only takes one member from the speaker's party 139 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.559 to call for a no confidence vote and remove him. We just saw it 140 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:20.720 happen. It could happen again if he has to sit down and work with 141 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:24.120 democap crats to keep the government open. And it might be something he doesn't 142 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:28.879 like doing, but it might be something it's necessary for him to do. 143 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:33.000 And you're going to get those people that like the Freedom Caucus who are not 144 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:35.799 going to go along with it. So, like I said, I don't 145 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.600 eNB you the job he's got ahead of him. I was wondering what everybody 146 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:43.360 thought was his most problem attribute, And do you really think he has control 147 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.080 of House members at this point? Aaron, what do you think? I 148 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:50.000 think the most problematic attribute is that he tried to overturn the results of the 149 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:54.200 last election, an election widely considered to be the most secure and accurate in 150 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:58.080 the United States history. He fought to have those results overturned. He fought 151 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:03.399 to have the voice the voters overturned. That's not someone who's interested in democracy. 152 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.600 That's not someone who's interested in the rule of law. That's not someone 153 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:11.360 who is taking their oath to defend the constitution. Seriously, that's someone who, 154 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:15.200 in my mind, is a trader and they have no business being in 155 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:18.399 government and should be kicked out. Forth with Jimmy, Yeah, yeah, 156 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:22.360 I agree. The term that I put in my notes is accessory to treason 157 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:28.159 that took place on January sixth. Yeah, that could very well be the 158 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:33.600 worst attribute about him. However, I think what's really not going to serve 159 00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:39.279 him well is his well lack of reputation. Right, He's just not outspoken 160 00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:43.919 enough. I think if he is going to serve his idol, Donald Trump, 161 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.159 that he needs to start getting angry and start being a little bit more 162 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:52.559 fierce and kind of echo echo what you know, his his idol is really 163 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.759 all about. You know, he's not going to fit in well. Granted, 164 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:00.840 I think he's going to make a Maga puppet for sure, but I 165 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:03.919 do think that you're going to start to see a little bit of an attitude 166 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.480 change from him if he is going to fit in city. Yeah. I'm 167 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:11.519 thinking about what you just said, and it's hard to say because as much 168 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:16.440 as I agree with the sentiment that he's pro Trumper. I think he is 169 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:24.080 just out of self interest. I think his his will to turn the US 170 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:28.519 into a theocracy, he's stronger than his allegiance to Trump. And so I 171 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:33.559 don't know. The future will will tell us if I'm right or wrong, 172 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:37.679 but I think he will be kicked out because he's not pro Trump enough, 173 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:43.039 and the moment he has to choose between Christopascism and trump Ism, he will 174 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.759 choose the former. Well, allow me, allow me to circle back. 175 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:50.600 Then, Sorry, Kelly, if you will no go for it, go 176 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:54.279 for it. I would like to ask Cindy, though, if he's if 177 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.679 you think that he's in it for self interest, do you think that he 178 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:03.519 would be willing to for go his goal to make the government of theocracy if 179 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:09.840 Trump can promise him more power. Because while I see where you're coming from, 180 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:13.600 I see people get a little taste of power and then they become very, 181 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.360 very obsessed in obtaining in maintaining it. And so I almost wonder if 182 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.600 we'll see a change from this man so that he doesn't face the fate that 183 00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:26.360 you allude to, and that I think he might allude to too, which 184 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:31.080 is why I said, this guy's going to change because his poorest attribute right 185 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:35.679 now is at least speaking from you know, playing Devil's advocate here and speaking 186 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:37.600 from the side of the Maga, the Maga cult, I would say that 187 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:41.080 his worst attribute is that he's not Maga enough. So I don't know what 188 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.759 you think about that, but I thought, if he's acting in self interest, 189 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:48.080 this guy's probably pretty likely to want to maintain power. I don't know. 190 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:52.039 Yeah, Like I said, I think he's his will to turn the 191 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:58.080 US into a theocracy. He's stronger than his will, his will to power, 192 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.879 to be honest, that's how I see him. I listened to his 193 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:09.120 acceptance speech. I listened to many things he said, and he's I would 194 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.879 describe him as a pure ideologue, and his ideology is the Bible, and 195 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:20.600 so he will do everything he can to impose that to everyone. So yeah, 196 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:22.960 I don't know. I think that time will tell. Yeah, Aaron, 197 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:24.879 you have anything else you'd like to add? Well, what I really 198 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:30.000 him not too happy about in Congress is that everybody seems to be and in 199 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:33.519 our country and our culture, everything seems to be party first over constitution first, 200 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:37.639 over country first. And you know, it's I think it's okay to 201 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:41.919 be party when you're out stomping and looking for votes and trying to tell people 202 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:45.000 who you are, and and parties are a really good way of understanding what 203 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:46.799 you know, just kind of at a quick glance, what somebody believes and 204 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:50.519 what they want to accomplish. But once you get, once you enter those 205 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.440 halls of Congress, we need to stop putting party first. We need to 206 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:54.840 put country first, and we need to work together, and we need to 207 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:58.080 compromise, and we need to collaborate, and we didn't make things better, 208 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:03.440 and just the way our democracy is structure right now is just not conducive to 209 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:07.240 that. The two party system that we have, it's just it's not conducive 210 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.480 to cooperation and compromise. And so what I really want to want to see 211 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:15.559 is some fundamental changes to our country and to our democracy. And I read 212 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:18.440 some really great opinion pieces in the New York Times back in twenty eighteen that 213 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:22.960 advocated for a few changes, and one of them was multi representational districts, 214 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.799 so that when you divvy up who represents who in the country right now, 215 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:31.919 it's one district, one representative. Well, think about what would be if 216 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:35.799 instead of one district one representative. There were like five representatives per one district, 217 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:39.879 right, And when you do the analysis, you see that you actually 218 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:46.840 get a more representative group of representatives in Congress where is today you get gerrymannered 219 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:50.000 districts where you can kind of put all the Democrats in one district and then 220 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:52.360 have a bunch of Republicans and so the Republicans have more control than they should 221 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:56.600 and vice versa. Democrats can do the same thing. When you have a 222 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:03.080 district with multi mut multiple presentatives, that goes away, right, And it 223 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:07.120 encourages not only to that, but it also encourages these representatives when they're out 224 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.320 stumping and looking for votes, to actually cooperate with each other because they know, 225 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:12.039 oh, I may not be the first choice, but I might be 226 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:15.000 a second choice, or a third choice or a fourth choice. And so 227 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.799 it encourages people to get together. And as part of that, we also 228 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:22.399 I think need to start adopting ranked choice voting. One of the problems with 229 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:26.240 our single vote, single candidate approach is you can throw away your vote. 230 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:29.639 Right. We have a lot of you know, there's the Libertarian Party, 231 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.039 there's the Green Party, there's a whole bunch of other parties, but they 232 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:36.159 never get votes. Why because a vote for that party is a vote for 233 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:38.200 your opponent party. Right. If I'm a Democrat, but I really want 234 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:41.360 to vote for the Green Party, If I vote for the Green Party, 235 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:42.799 I'm actually giving a vote to the Republican Party, and so I have to 236 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:48.519 vote Democrat to counteract the Republican Party and vice versa. Right, that doesn't 237 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.039 It goes both ways. But if you have a ranked choice vote, you 238 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:52.600 can actually put in your vote. I prefer this Green Party candidate, but 239 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:56.360 if they're not going to win, give my vote to this next person. 240 00:16:56.559 --> 00:16:57.960 Or then then if they don't win, give my vote to this next person. 241 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:02.879 So your vote all counts and you always get to get the candidate that 242 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:07.279 you want, and so people are more likely. That would increase the number 243 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.599 of parties that are being represented in Congress and in our government. Yeah, 244 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.079 I agree. We have two states that are doing that now, Maine in 245 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:18.720 Alaska. Yeah, and all the GUP in Alaska's claiming it's losing the elections 246 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.279 for him. I don't know that that's true, but that's what they're claiming. 247 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:25.000 Yeah, And a couple more things I would also change is increase the 248 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:26.559 size of the House of Representatives. We're too small. We haven't increased the 249 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:30.799 size of the House of Representatives since we actually need to keep it at that 250 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.359 at that size, yea, So it needs to be it needs to get 251 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:37.799 bigger and decrease the size of our districts so there are more more people so 252 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:41.319 the one one group can't take control. And then also we need publicly funded 253 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:44.680 elections. We have to take the private money out of elections. Seattle did 254 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.839 this for their I believe city council votes, where everybody basically gets a little 255 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:51.160 coupon I can't remember about this, for like five or ten or fifty dollars, 256 00:17:51.240 --> 00:17:53.079 and they can give that money to which whichever candidates they want. And 257 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.319 I think we didn't do that. I think there needs to be public funded 258 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:00.319 elections and everybody gets a certain amount of money they can then donate to whatever 259 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:02.880 candidates they want, and that's the only money that's available. No, that's 260 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:04.680 a good idea. That's a really good idea. Something I just read today. 261 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:10.440 Last week, we had talked about a spyware program called Covenant Eyes, 262 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:14.640 so that you could spy on somebody to make to see what websites they were 263 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:17.720 going to, and they would go to a partner who was making sure you 264 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:22.680 were being not sinful with your surfing. And it turns out that Johnson and 265 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.119 his son do this with each other, so they're spying on each other to 266 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:29.440 make sure they're not going to any bad websites. And Johnson didn't come out 267 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:32.880 and say his son didn't go to any bad websites, but he didn't say 268 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:36.880 what he had done, so I thought that was interesting, although I'm not 269 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:41.279 sure that he did, but I think this has been a really good conversation. 270 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:45.039 Again, if you'd like to get the nonprofits and podcast form, which 271 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:48.759 is a great way to get us, you can do it at tiny dot 272 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:52.519 cc slash am podcast. There's a bunch of the other shows over there.