595. Why Don't We Have Better Candidates for President? | Freakonomics Radio

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  • Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
  • American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competition. We revisit a 2018 episode to explain how the political industry works, and talk to a reformer (and former presidential candidate) who is pushing for change.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 44

  • @jerrybarrax5618
    @jerrybarrax5618 2 місяці тому +4

    This is an enlightening broadcast about a vitally important topic. I'm looking forward to hearing more about these movements.

  • @floydwhatchacallit6823
    @floydwhatchacallit6823 3 місяці тому +3

    This is a well put together argument for something so many people instinctually know.

  • @Jay-pw7pg
    @Jay-pw7pg 2 місяці тому +4

    We do. They just get blocked out by the party’s anointed ones. For better or for worse.

  • @Techelettt
    @Techelettt 3 місяці тому +3

    The two failures of democracy…a n uninformed/poorly informed voting public, and a dearth of qualified candidates. You’re my fave podcast.

  • @krone5
    @krone5 4 дні тому

    In NY we saw the sadness of congressional districting, when we had a independent districter, we had 2 perfect districts that ended up getting removed in the last cycle.

  • @brianmulholland2467
    @brianmulholland2467 6 днів тому

    This is great. I'm 100% on board with Ranked Choice and nonpartisan redistricting (though there is the question of details with that). I don't think 'all-party primaries' goes gar enough though. i think we should end primaries altogether, as well as runoffs. The all-party notion DOES fix the primary systems worst faults. But it leaves in place a few.
    1) Primaries turn the campaign from something that should take a few months to something that takes a year and a half. We don't need to be campaigning that long. And primaries are a big part of why it happens, especially our state-by-state staggered primaries which are beyond ludicrous and are just d___ measuring contests between states that want to be first.
    2) Primaries still have the problem of meaning that only the most hypermotivated voters get first crack at weeding out the candidates, and they are not particularly incentivized to pick the best ones. They're incentivized to pick the more extreme ones.
    I think better would be to do Ranked Choice, but have anyone who wants to be eligible run. There should be a relatively low bar to get your name on an electronic ballot, and if it's a paper ballot, just pick an abritrary number of candidates (let's say five), and the top 5 according to all major pollster averages get listed on the ballot. Likewise, for debates. But a full list of everyone running should be available at every polling station (and online of course) for people to review if they want to do write-ins. Lots of candidates isn't really a big problem IF you're doing ranked choice. It's only first-past-the-post that NEEDS a smaller pool.
    I'm also a believer that money isn't the problem, it's a symptom. Money flows to where power is, not the other way around.

  • @nathanngumi8467
    @nathanngumi8467 19 днів тому

    Very insightful!

  • @Billschneider42
    @Billschneider42 3 місяці тому +2

    We don’t really know who we are voting for because we don’t know which oligarchs pull the strings of candidates!

  • @user-et1ht9fx2k
    @user-et1ht9fx2k 3 місяці тому +2

    This episode is 🔥

  • @Lou_Mansfield
    @Lou_Mansfield 3 місяці тому +1

    It's fair to question Yang's optimism on voting reform, given his track record of losing races and endorsements. However, the fact that there are other organizations pushing for Porter and Gehl's ideas mean it's not largely dependent on Yang to progress. Institute for Political Innovation, Unite America, and Veterans for All Voters are doing a good job organizing and spreading the solution of Final Five Voting.

  • @MVMM-yo8rz
    @MVMM-yo8rz 14 днів тому +1

    Trump is running under the Republican ticket, but he is a conservative moderate and isn’t a part of the establishment. That is why he has the endorsements of former Democrats and also why original democrats also give him their vote.

  • @dragonofparadise
    @dragonofparadise 17 днів тому

    I am in the middle and I am so angry that I am leaving the country for a more democratic and free nation. America is like the Titanic and Roman Empire in a slow decline all due to its own internal corruption like the founding fathers were scared off. I think the problem will eventually solve itself after going through struggles and complete financial ruin but I don't want to stick around to lose everything in the transition.

  • @DITBC
    @DITBC 3 місяці тому

    An interesting read would be the defense arguments and Court conclusions in Wilding et al vs DNC Services Corporation.
    The DNC admits it has the right to rig primaries and select their candidates privately. The promise in their charter for even handedness isn’t legally binding.

  • @canadianroots7681
    @canadianroots7681 3 місяці тому

    I would love to hear realistic approaches to drawing districts in a non partisan way. Democrats in New Mexico made sure SE NM has no voice. On the other hand, we are so sparse that i recognize drawing districts fairly is tough.

    • @brianniegemann4788
      @brianniegemann4788 2 місяці тому +1

      One possibility might be electing candidates statewide through ranked-choice voting. Get rid of districts altogether. It would also give third-party candidates a better chance of getting more that 1% of the vote.

    • @ralphwoodruff
      @ralphwoodruff 2 місяці тому

      One of the big problems in this is that when any other territory gets lumped in with a densely populated city, almost inevitably the desires of the city dwellers oppose those of the suburban/rural dwellers. This means you see taxation without representation for the non-city dwellers. For example: in Colorado, they voted on whether to naturalize coyotes/establish a population there. It was voted in favor of doing so because the city dwellers outvoted the rural dwellers. Who was impacted by this? The rural dwellers. So why did the city dwellers have a say in this vote?

    • @brianniegemann4788
      @brianniegemann4788 2 місяці тому +1

      @@ralphwoodruff you have identified one of the biggest political problems there is; the urban/ rural cultural divide. Urban culture and values are very different from those of small-town and country people. But we all have to vote on issues affecting our states, and big cities have a LOT of voters.
      I don't have an easy answer, other than people from different walks of life need to do a lot more sitting down and talking to each other. Preferably face to face.

    • @brianniegemann4788
      @brianniegemann4788 2 місяці тому

      @@canadianroots7681 why have districts at all. Switch to ranked-choice voting and allow say up to 50 candidates to run. The top 3 would get at-large congressional seats. Since each one would represent the whole state, candidates would need to adopt more moderate positions in order to be popular enough to make the grade. If you're too far to the right or left, your appeal is narrower and you end up # 16.
      This method is being tried in a few states and is already getting results.

  • @andrewhoyle1521
    @andrewhoyle1521 2 місяці тому +1

    My favorite episode, ima share this with everyone. 2 party system destroying this country

  • @stephenboyington630
    @stephenboyington630 2 місяці тому +1

    I, as a voter, am neither a Blood nor a Crip. Why do I have to vote for either of them?

  • @brianniegemann4788
    @brianniegemann4788 2 місяці тому +1

    I'd just like to say that getting Big Money out of politics is a vital step, in addition to the reforms discussed here. So long as Elon Musk can donate $250 million to the RNC (or other multi-billionaires to give million$$$ to the RNC), these corrupt private clubs will be hard to stop. If the states were to start adopting tough donation laws and tough truth-in-advertising laws for campaigns, it would accelerate the rise of third parties.
    We need strict limits on donation amounts & a cap on total spending per constituent. Plus laws requiring that political advertisements disclose the names of the individuals and organizations who paid for them.
    If l were the reform czar, campaigns would be publicly funded with strict spending limits, and it would be a felony for any office holder or candidate to accept private donations.

  • @dweller6065
    @dweller6065 3 місяці тому

    God bless Alaska

  • @weinerdog137
    @weinerdog137 2 місяці тому +1

    Because you get the politics you deserve.

  • @stp479
    @stp479 3 місяці тому

    For much of the blame we need to look to our professional laptop class and our MSM rendering the precious Fourth Estate a darn ghetto.

  • @jimpad5608
    @jimpad5608 21 день тому +1

    It is mathematically impossible for more than two candidates to exist.

  • @geneadaway2671
    @geneadaway2671 25 днів тому

    I asked the same question during the George Bush/John Kerry debate.

  • @isonlynameleft
    @isonlynameleft 2 місяці тому

    I love Coke 😄

  • @quatroquatroquatroquatro
    @quatroquatroquatroquatro 2 місяці тому

    because we confuse free money with free speech. If it were free speech we'd have more choices.

  • @charleskatz2606
    @charleskatz2606 2 місяці тому

    Dr.Pepprr just started to outsell Pepsi

  • @hip360hop
    @hip360hop 2 місяці тому

    Fuck this system, might be the first election I vote third party

    • @jimpad5608
      @jimpad5608 21 день тому

      You may as well just stay home.

  • @richdobbs6595
    @richdobbs6595 3 місяці тому

    Ranked choice voting only completely disenfranchises half the population and gives a lot of people their secondary or third choice representative. Open primaries are essentially two round voting, which when fully implemented like in France leads to strategic voting where people don't so much select their representative but have a stronger veto against who they don't want to run government. I'm dubious that democracy with an unlimited franchise ends up making good laws. But if you want to implement it, why not allow people to give proxies to who they want to represent them? So my candidate gets 1207 votes out of 45,000,000 votes cast. That's how much his vote counts. And why am I stuck with a candidate who happens to live near me?

    • @brokenrecord3095
      @brokenrecord3095 3 місяці тому

      Representative democracy is 18th century technology. In a democracy, it is taken as a given that the best way to govern the nation is in accordance to the popular will. How do we determine the popular will? Now, back in the day Joe Farmer couldn't realistically couldn't cruise on out to DC every week to weigh in on the issues of the day, so it made sense to send someone out to lobby for corn subsidies. These days most of us, especially teenagers, carry the internet in our pocket. Do we want to know the popular will over an interstate highway extension in Kansas? Well we can ask the elected representives, yes, and they will perhaps in turn ask the voters, or more probably the important deciders: the donors. Or we could just ask the people themselves. Which is more likely to give us a good reading of the popular will?

    • @4terrascorned
      @4terrascorned 3 місяці тому

      Yeah. Why would I want someone that lives on my block representing my block? Someone who has to live in my community representing the interests of my community?

    • @richdobbs6595
      @richdobbs6595 3 місяці тому

      @@4terrascorned Why vote for a national government based on geographical constituencies? I have more in common folks I follow on UA-cam then with the folks around here. Why worry about representing the geographical community and not the professional or political community? It made sense back before we have computers, but not now.

    • @4terrascorned
      @4terrascorned 3 місяці тому

      @@richdobbs6595 you would really like what Mousollini did in Italy. I mean, it worked great until it didn't. There's also francos Spain and Pinochets Chili.

    • @richdobbs6595
      @richdobbs6595 3 місяці тому

      @@4terrascorned That seems like a non sequitur to me. Maybe you should fill in you reasoning a bit. I'm more closer to AnCap then I am to fascism in outlook.

  • @justafewquestions3647
    @justafewquestions3647 3 місяці тому

    Exactly nine years after the cultural thing happened and that's true with almost every there exceptions, but with almost everything it happens in politics it happens nine or ten years after the culture shifts.
    Seth Godin
    ua-cam.com/video/he1Vji1n8z0/v-deo.htmlsi=rcUlUwCT7h_dg9pw&t=168