The Electoral College, Trump, and the State of American Politics

In this thought-provoking discussion, we delve into the often misunderstood aspects of the Electoral College, addressing common misconceptions and clarifying its function in the US election system. We explore the reasoning behind its creation by the Founding Fathers, their intent to prevent the overpowering of smaller states by larger ones, and the role of states in choosing a president.

We also take a sharp and critical look at the relationship between supporters of former President Donald Trump and his propensity for stretching the truth. Surprisingly, it seems many supporters not only shrug off his lies but admire his impunity. Discussion shifts to Trump's self-comparison to legendary Presidents Washington and Lincoln, suggesting a delusional perspective.

In the context of ongoing debates about states' rights and constitutional rights, we take a deep dive into the situation at the Texas border. Historical context is provided by recalling Texas' secession during the Civil War, raising questions about the viability of its claimed right to secede based on its entry treaty.

The episode also underlines the challenge of political partisanship, highlighting the automatic assumptions people make about political affiliations based on criticism of party figures. We touch on the topic of abortion rights, Congress' limitations in overturning a Supreme Court decision, and the unlikely possibility of a Congress-led national approval of abortion rights.

In a provocative turn, we criticize the pervasive notion that presidents control economies, underlining the actual power wielded by public spending habits. Finally, a call to action is made for finding common ground when dealing with controversial topics, such as climate change and energy independence, instead of courting divisive politics for campaign donations.

Throughout, the episode stresses direct dialogue and open discussion on contentious views while expressing confounding frustration on the infallibility accorded to Trump by his supporters, ironically christening him "The God" of American politics.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Okay, it's time for some truth about the Electoral College.
A lot of people think that the popular vote should prevail because that just
makes sense, doesn't it?
Well, it only makes sense if you don't understand why the founders set things up the way they did.
You see, the reality is, and you're not going to like this, you don't choose presidents.

(00:25):
I know, sounds weird. The states choose presidents. We're the United States of America.
Each state has the ability to set up their own elections to decide how that
state's electoral college votes will go.
Why did they do it this way? Because

(00:45):
the small states were afraid of being overpowered by the larger states.
That's the whole reason it's there.
You know, I've come to an understanding about Trump lies.
I used to think that his supporters didn't understand that he was lying.

(01:06):
And then I did a video pointing out all of the lies and how he admits to his lies.
And the overwhelming response was, so we don't care as long as he's fighting the other guy.
And we care about the lies of the other guy.
So I'm really surprised to say this, but I've come to realize that not only

(01:27):
do Trump supporters not care about the lies, they actually like it.
They actually like that he gets away with the lies. They think it's one of the
strengths that Trump has.
He can lie right to your face and nobody cares.
You know, I've talked about this before, but if you have to tell people who

(01:51):
you are, how great you are, something's wrong with that.
I know in politics we have to do that, but I want you to think about this.
If you have told the American people that you were a better president than Washington and Lincoln.
Then there's only a couple of things that could be going on here.

(02:13):
A, you do not understand history at all.
And I wouldn't doubt that that is the case. Does Trump really understand what
Washington and Lincoln did?
Some of his recent comments about the Civil War tell me basically he doesn't
know what really happened during this time either.

(02:35):
But for you to position yourself after four years in office as better than Washington
and Lincoln, this is delusion.
Somebody please, some Trump supporter out there, tell me, do you really think
think he's better than Washington or Lincoln. Let's have that discussion.

(03:03):
Okay, I want to play a quick game of who am I. So I'm going to tell you the things and you guess.
So I am somebody who has said I would like to be a dictator.
I am somebody who has praised other dictators of the world.

(03:25):
I am somebody who has used language of other dictators, some of the most evil
dictators of the planet.
I am somebody who has lamented that I do not have the power of dictators.
Who am I?

(03:47):
So with this recent controversy going on between states and the federal government
between the Texas border, this is an issue about states' rights versus constitutional rights.
And it's a battle that probably needs to happen so that that can get clarified by the Supreme Court.

(04:09):
What's funny to me is I lived in Texas for quite a while, and one thing Texans usually say,
and I have a lot of people from Texas who still follow me, they say,
we'll just succeed from the Union because we're the only state that entered
the United States by treaty,
and part of that treaty said we could leave whenever we want to.

(04:31):
Here's something you might be forgetting. You did secede from the Union.
You left with the South, you became part of another country or another government.
When you did this, that treaty ceased to have any power.
So then when you were forced to join the Union again, or not join the Union,

(04:58):
join the United States again, guess what?
That treaty was null and void.
So this is the madness. This is the frustration. I will do a video criticizing Donald J. Trump.
The first response is, well, Biden this and your party this and you're supporting a Democrat who this.

(05:22):
This jump to conclusion is a microcosm of where we are at today,
because it's impossible for people to believe that there may be a member of
our own party that we don't support.
It's impossible to believe that a conservative might not like Trump.

(05:44):
So when you make a statement about Trump, bam, instantly you're a left-leaning
liberal liberal Democrat,
which means there's no space on the Republican side of the aisle for any type of criticism.
You accept it all or you're a liberal on the left.

(06:06):
You know, there's been a lot of questions about whether or not Congress should
solidify the right to abortion within in within their laws.
Maybe they could make a national approval of abortion rights.
And guess what? I'm sorry. It may be wishful thinking if you are pro-choice,

(06:29):
but for the same reasons that Roe v.
Wade was shut down, this type of legislation would be shut down or should be shut down. Why?
Because the federal government doesn't have the authority to do that.
And you you can't just overcome a Supreme Court decision with some vote, with some act.

(06:49):
The Supreme Court cannot be overturned by an agreement from the president,
the House, and the Senate. It can't be.
You have to amend the Constitution in order to do that.
That takes two-thirds of Congress, Congress, two thirds of the of the Senate
and two thirds of the states to ratify.

(07:11):
So if you think you can do it, if people are telling you they can do it,
if they're running on the eye that the idea that they will do it,
You're being lied to.
So if you remember, I did a video here recently that has done very well about
people who are criticizing Nikki Haley for not using her name, her real name.

(07:35):
And somebody jumped into my comments and said, she's the one who talked about
the racism and how her brown skin and how everything has,
how she's been affected by it. And of course, that's how they sound.
At least that's how they sound in my comments. She's the one.

(07:56):
And I'm like, so you think that because a minority shared their experience in America,
their legitimate life facing racism, you think that opens them up for a former
presidential candidate to suggest they may not be a citizen?

(08:18):
Or for other people to suggest that because she's hiding her name,
that that's because of some form of reverse racism? Come on, people.
Bull. We have to get over this idea that presidents control economies.

(08:40):
We got to get rid of it. It's ridiculous.
You know who controls economies? We do. Commerce. Do you know what happens in a recession?
We stop spending money. Do you know what gets us out of a recession?
We start spending money. Why did President Trump have an amazing economy?
He had it before he did a thing.

(09:02):
Before a single act was passed, before anything happened, he was bragging about his economy. Why?
Because he inherited a great economy from Obama.
Was that something that Obama did that was amazing?
No, we started spending money again as a people and the economy was booming.
Then Trump's economy fell apart.

(09:24):
Why? The pandemic. pandemic then as
we came out of the pandemic inflation was high
because supply and demand but eventually
we started working again and we started spending again and here we are and Biden's
taking credit for a lot of the things in the economy it's we got to stop being

(09:44):
sold this bill of goods that it has to do with presidents and start choosing
presidents based upon real qualifications.
Look, the one thing that's not happening in Congress that should,
I want you to think about this.
If your member of Congress was interested in getting things done,

(10:06):
moving the needle, then what they should be doing is getting together with the other side.
You get together in this big room, you put a whiteboard up, you say there's
no bad ideas, even though there are bad ideas, and you say, okay,
what are the commonalities?
What can we all agree on?
Okay, now on this side, what do you have to have? And on this side, believe it or not,

(10:32):
This is how they came up with the Constitution. That's how they did it. Not everybody agreed.
They all got in a room, they found common ground, and then they debated out the other stuff.
People who are interested in getting things done seek common ground.
People who are interested in dividing you, separating you with fear,

(10:56):
hatred, and anger, They're interested in retaining power and getting your donations.
They are not interested in solving your problems.
OK, this is a sports, a sports pet peeve.
I watched one of the games. It was one of the pro football games.

(11:17):
And and in the end, the guy who, you know, they were interviewing one of the
stars and and he said the following. God was with us today.
I I just want to ask him, I just if I had the mic, I just.
Just want to ask him, so are you suggesting God wasn't with the other team today?

(11:43):
Are you like God chose favorites?
I remember the old the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, which I was in many times.
Remember they had the roof open and they used to say the open roof was so that
God could look down on his team. team.
How do you, how do you, was God only with your team today? I just, I just have to know.

(12:15):
Listen, I think it's time we stop debating climate change. Is it man-made? Is it natural?
It's probably some of both, if you ask me. But again, if we were seeking common
ground, around, isn't there a couple of things that we could agree on?
I'm just going to spitball here, just a couple.

(12:37):
Can we all agree on clean air?
In Salt Lake City, my daughter cannot go out on certain days because of her
asthma. She can't go outside.
It will hurt her health. So clean air, can we all agree on that? How about clean water?
Can we all agree on that? Okay, maybe we're two two for two.
How about energy independence?

(12:59):
Can we agree on that?
I would think energy independence. I think we can all agree on that.
So what's the fourth one?
Renewable energy. Now, renewable energy can be a lot of different things,
and I certainly don't think we're going to get there in 10 years.
But if all sides were getting together to build on common ground,

(13:21):
I'm pretty sure we could come up with some renewable energy solutions. solutions.
So why aren't we focusing on common ground?
Oh yeah, I'll tell you why. There's no campaign donations for common ground.
There's no political power for common ground.

(13:42):
So today, once again, I was called a traitor. Why was I called a traitor?
Because I had criticism of Donald Trump.
So anybody who disagrees with you is a traitor.
I'm guessing you don't know enough about history to understand where that type of language comes from.

(14:05):
And not even that far back. I mean, isn't that the play of fascists?
Isn't that what the Taliban believes? Isn't that what Al-Qaeda believes?
That there's only one viewpoint? There's only one way of living?
And that anybody outside of that is not righteous? They're a traitor? They hate our country?

(14:29):
Isn't that the same attitude? If it's not, tell me why.
Well, I finally come to a conclusion that many have, and that is that Donald J. Trump is a god.
He's literally a god. He's all-powerful. He's completely untouchable.

(14:53):
He has no sins.
He has every solution in the book for our government.
All we have to do is put him in there. He knows everything about everything
from magnets to wind power to every I mean, he knows everything more than anybody.

(15:14):
He's better than Washington or Lincoln.
He's a God. And no criticism works against him.
You can't be critical of God.
If you are critical of God, you are blasphemous So maybe we ought to just start calling it what it is,

(15:41):
Donald J. Trump The God The great God of this earth, of this country.