I look forward to a video on Theodore Roosevelt. He’s an interesting figure, especially in regards to his politics. I especially like the joke that he hits every side of the political compass. He was a trust buster and pushed for nationalizing of certain industries (auth-left), he was a prominent environmentalist (lib-left), he was a militarist and imperialist (auth-right), he was an outdoorsman who did a lot of hunting (lib-right).
Also for the fact that he was never meant to be President. The Republican Party made him Vice President because he was angering their backers yet the average people loved him because of his anti corruption policies. If McKinley hadn’t been assassinated I doubt he would have been President
@@defenestratorX Same. I mean, the whole eugenics thing was a little messed up, but compared to a lot of other presidents, it's a particularly mild demon.
This has really open my understanding of politics of the US and the problems that we are facing. I try to keep a open mind in a ever increasing complex world. Thank you for making this video
The most frustrating thing about that Pat Buchanan speech is that I remember him running as a Libertarian. A Libertarian who wants to ban everything, apparently.
Honestly, it's sad how polarized we are as of late, I wish that we as a country could become something more unified not by politics but by mutual-understanding of one another.
@@clarityera190 And that's precisely my point. So many refuse to even attempt to understand one another and view each other as something not worth even speaking to on the basis of attempting to understand them.
Most Americans are kinda moderate left or right moderate but yeah Americans tend to have their own bias strong opinions I think a Manned mission to Mars or the US 250th anniversary 4 years form now will regain some American unity.
The difficulty is that this division is pretty convenient fot certain interests in your country. 'Divide et Impera' is a very old means of securing power, and who benefits from it, is key to destoying it. Who or what is fanning those flames needs to be neutered.
@@BigHenFor Indeed, I think there was a quote that went something along the lines of "Those who you cannot question are the ones who are in power." Which is the major reason that we even in other countries are so divided.
Thank you for making this super cut. I had a playlist before and now it's nice to be able to have a single video to just send to people. Love your content man, keep up the good work. Good luck on your dissertation!
Yay you're close to my story in politics, and teddy is my standard for a progressive future. I'm in a "public policy" class at my local university that is just neoliberal stupidity.
Good for you! Seriously. When I hear "socialist policy abd ideology has never and will never work" I constantly bring up the New Deal and how it was the start of such policies. Worked pretty well till future politicians gutted it for corporate cronyism. So essentially. The only reason these ideas don't work is because without proper popular participation(beyond just voting), these ideas will be overturned by peers held unaccountable. That's at the same time a criticism of political apathy of the population but, more so, a criticism of the politicians that actively screw over the population through back room deals and manipulative rhetoric.
Thanks for putting this series in one video! Throughout my life I have always been more a military or general culture history enthusiast. However, after recent political events I wanted to try to understand how we got here leading me to your channel! Thanks for providing a great series explaining our political history in the US and how we got to our current era
Well Americans values are to diametrically opposed. How can one find middle ground with those who seek to oppress and undermine the working class, homosexuals, women, people of color etc. The Democrats want to undermine the working class but at least they are more socially progressive
Thank you for this, I have watched them before individually, but will do so again now. I attribute these videos plus many more of yours to what got me out of the right wing rabbit hole I was in. So thank you Cypher. You do great work, keep it up!
I have a lot of optimism, in that even though I'm a progressive DemSoc, I have plenty of friends who are Libertarians and Conservatives. My thing is: recognize the difference between irreconcilable differences and common ground - and be open about them. Because it seems a growing consensus is forming across the divide that neoliberal economic theory has decisively failed - and there is plenty of good policy to be had to fix it that we can pretty much all agree on.
@@heyloben8306 generally even moderate conservatives are a problem, moderate conservatives being people like the democrat party in the USA, and they have problems of their own, but that’s because I’m a communist so my problem is just that they’re capitalist, we can only agree on the less then the bare minimum policies of minorities deserve to not die of hate crimes. Basically only the social politics, not the economic ones.
I think a big problem is that moderate positions are no longer tolerated by either party. A lefty having a more conservative opinion on one or two issues treated like a traitor and Vice versa.
I really appreciate the perspective this gives on modern politics. There's a currency bias that makes every new crisis feel worse than everything before.
Good luck on your dissertation! In addition to sharing the actual work with us, maybe you could do a video or two on the actual process that will lead to your PhD. conferral, after the fact.
I wanna just say how great of a video this is. This helped reinforce much of my world outlook while challenging certain parts and I think you helped shape my perspective for the better, all while teaching history. I also really enjoyed listening to you offer a suggestion moving forward with reference to Teddy's progressivism, as I think it would create a better tomorrow. Personally, I would like to a go a little further and reference FDR and his economic bill of rights. Things such as Healthcare, a home, a living wage, a right to a union, higher education are all natural rights just as much as the constitutional rights. FDR's economic reforms I think truly improved the lives of ordinary Americans, and by beginning to complete his vision we could improve the lives of the common people to an even higher magnitude. The greatest tragedy was that we abandoned the New Deal instead of building upon it with stronger radical reform going forward.
Agreed. It was the start of something greater but the powers that be and especially Neo-Liberal politicians are antagonistic to such policies not least of all in part because legalized bribery is a thing amongst the political offices. But also, the current capitalist pipelines are in direct, conflicted interest to the general populous of the US.
Found your channel at the perfect time! I love the content. The ads on this video were shocking though. They were often so horrifying that I thought you had spliced them in intentionally to show the divisiveness of our culture. Only when the each ad had run for a minute or two did I realize that they were ads and I had to skip them. Keep up the good work! Maybe tell UA-cam that you don't want them advertising for gun-stockpiling conspiracy companies or for incel self-help guides which include tutorials on how to be mean to women in order to get them to like you (yes these are not exaggerations).
your work is amazingly great! love the channel. your points at the end are very similar to what i believe would fix things. i may be mistaken but i always felt that the districting was initially intended to be a true 'local' reporesentative of a region, so not sure allwing the state to vote on that person would maintain that. i wonder if it would make sense to just go back to original maps and never touch them again. or base it on cities/counties and ban changing it. also, i remember mention that the number of seats in the house is limited and that they try to divide them equally amongst the states, but that larger populated states have less representatives per population than less populated states (same with electoral votes) so maybe just equalizing the ''citizen per represenative' would make things more fair.
The prescriptions at the end are interesting, and I agree with a lot of them. I do disagree on one in particular, though, and that's term limits. Term limits sound appealing as a solution to the problem of incumbent advantage, but I'm pretty sure they actually drive polarization. Rather than voting for the best candidate (who might, in fact, have actually been the incumbent, if he was able to run), voters are now confronted every few years with candidates they know nothing about and so they vote party rather than candidate. State legislatures where term limits exist have also been stripped of members with legislative experience, and this likely contributes to the problem of outside lobbying groups (ALEC, as an example) writing legislation rather than legislators. I do think term limits make sense for offices where the entire authority of the position is vested in one person, but for legislatures they're a disaster. For those positions there needs to be another solution to the problem.
A classic in paranoid thinking: Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", in Harper's Magazine, November 1964. Congrats! Your channel is excellent! Great work!
hey, cypher, in your diatribe at the end, it really occurred to me, Australia has most, if not all of those factors. Become a true southerner and move down here lol
When you say "whatever House seat is available", do you mean that terms would be staggered, with (in the extreme case) California having 52 separate congressional elections every two-year cycle, so that there would be one every two weeks? I also want to eliminate House districts, but my preference is to have people choose when they register which seat they're going to vote for.
Well done! I'd love to see the history of the Judicial branch, particularly the Supreme Court, with all of the controversy in the courts these days. It would be interesting to know more about the life appointments and the seeming lack of ethics, and true purpose.
Just on first past the post vs instant run off voting systems. Here in Australia we do instant run off (we call it compulsory preferential voting) and we have zero machine voting so everything is hand counted fine each election.
2:11:32 I was literally a child and not on tumblr when dashcon happened, but that corner of the internet, despite massive change in the past few years, has adopted it as a foundational thing im history. Partially because of nostalgia, partly cos of how the failure of it caused a bunch if teenagers to have to grow up a bit and be less trusting, and also cos if the complete absurdity of the whole ballpit situation. And the cool thing about tumblr and the fanfic and surrounding communities is that even people joining in the past few years can see themselves in these things that happened a decade ago. It's a healthy shared history in a way few other online communities I've been in have. Tumblr has an awful reputation but honestly, all of the users who want attention have gone to twitter, making it a much more peaceful place
What do you think of the term "Libertarian Socialist" to describe an ideology that promotes maximum personal freedom supported by robust and progressive government programs? A popular streamer, Vaush, uses this term to describe his beliefs.
In my honest opinion and ideology like that comes off as very oxy-moronic. The core tenants of libertarianism (at least today) is built off of the non-aggression principle, if someone breaks into your home you have every right to defend it including the lethal option; meanwhile socialism is a regime that usually results in police states as shocker, not everyone gets along perfectly. This more hands on approach frequently leads to macro management at its nastiest for individuals and will often lead to seizure of property.
@@GrimdarkCrusader20th you do know that the word libritation has been associated with left wing anarchists (ancoms like Nestor Makhno and revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish civil war) for years before muddy rothbard convinced people that more capitalism is “freedom”. He even admits this if I could find the quote, but here’s the wiki article. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism
Vaush has often agreed with market socialism, a policy from socialist yugoslavias economic policies. He’s also pretty against the government, as he used to be an anarchist syndicalist, which would be the complete abolishment of capitalism and the government/state, but later abandoned that as it’s not as practical in the present, but maybe in the far future. What you’re describing in your comment is simply social democracy, things like FDRs and teddy Roosevelt’s economic policies and the Scandinavian countries.
I could maybe get behind that idea, but usually the people arguing for robust social programs are also very controlling in terms of individual lifestyles. In principle, since the government is going to tax me whether I like it or not, I would rather the money work for me. So, for example, I'm not opposed to something like national healthcare in principle. But on the other hand, if there is only one state run healthcate option, it would almost certainly come with strings attached. I could see it being required that you take every prescribed treatment as a contingency for retaining coverage. All the progressives during the COVID-19 pandemic were arguing for hospitals to not treat patients that didn't have the COVID vaccines. I think there should still be informed consent for everything, and comments like that are a non-starter for me. In the U.S., almost everyone arguing for robust social programs are also trying to control my personal life or require me to do things I don't want to. So I don't vote for them when I otherwise might.
I didnt know who Birch was before this video. But all I have to say, if I was someone who did so much good in life, I would be apalled if they used my name to spread hate after death. A bad man shot him and bad people hold him up as a standard to do not so wonderful things.
@@CynicalHistorian I enjoyed this video a lot today, it was the perfect thing to help me focus on my carpentry joints lol. I’m very excited for the Teddy Roosevelt video, he’s definitely a favorite of mine.
Doesn't Trump represent the beginning of the 7th party system? Surely the GOP of today is something different than the GOP of Prez Bush (either one). Perhaps the same could be said of the Dems of today
Yeah to me it seems we are entering the 7th party system where the GOP is turning into a more European style authoritarian conservatism that is also taking significant grounds in modern Europe as well. But maybe its still too early to tell
I disagree with CH's idea about abolishing congressional districts to combat gerrymandering. MA has 9 Reps and I feel everyone would vote down ticket for their reps, rather than looking at each one. Imagine primary challenges where you have to look up the info for not 1, but 9 different people.
_The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt, and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson_ by Patrick Weil (a new (May 2023) book you may be interested in from Harvard U Press)
Thank you for these and other US history videos. As someone outside of US, and affected by US policy, this has been really helpful. It is hard for us to comprehend political parties swapping sides on socialist grounds. But it explains do much of what has led to the current context. I appreciate how you go from post WW2 to the present. In contrast in UK the 1950s continued in rationing, so the sense of new hope is later, and fed by the existing American dream of household appliances. Yet the industry prior to and adapted for the US templates was very much one of trying to withstand the outside challenges. But we had so much to rebuild post war, but assuming the pre war context, we did not flourish in the way US did. Meanwhile nations rebuilding form nothing were open to new technology and so created am industry for the next season of the economy. Though this and other posts I feel informed about how the complex current US context has emerged. The deep pre Independence separate ideology and how that lives today hidden under the shallow demeanour of debate In UK the slave trade was mostly something 'out there'. Yes there were slaves in British households, but as a rich 'look at me' culture. Most slaves were in the distant colonies,, beyond UK back yards. Vv That hasn't stopped racism about immigration, be it from former colonies or not. But it feels a different conversation than the US where there was fear that the newly released slaves, if voting would treat the slave owners as they hab slaved others. The horror expressed at Obama as potus conveyed a similar assumption - that the other side wants ti do to us what we previously did to them. The current polarised media and mindsets only add to the struggle, but through this and other of your videos I get a sense of how the conspiracy mindset has always been there in US politics.
I had to pause and ponder, a moment, when you said that CNN was often "neutral to a fault." It's an interesting word choice; that something can be "neutral" to an extreme seems paradoxical, or, at the very least, it implies that neutrality is not always the desired or "correct" stance in certain situations--as with Howard Zinn's title "You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train."
What's your definition of "center-right neoliberal"?! Here in 🇩🇪@🇪🇺 we probably have one of, if not THE most balanced political ecosystem, with six parties in parliament ranging from far left to far right and a MASSIVE majority voting for the four parties from moderate left to moderate right. From my point of view the American 'Democratic Party' spans from center left (slightly left of 'moderate') all the way to mildly conservative, and the Republicans from center conservative to fringe right. No doubt that the CENTER (or middle) of American politics is WAY TO THE RIGHT from ours, but describing the TODAY'S Democrats as "center-right neoliberal". That might have been accurate until, maybe including, the days of Bill Clinton's presidency, but at least since Newt Gingrich started his crusade and expanded his electorate to fringe right, almost EVERYTHING left of staunch conservative is packed into the Democrats. The way you're describing the Democrats actually sounds like the false flag propaganda from the right (including RuZZian and other foreign agents) aiming at discrediting the Dems. ..and that neoliberal tag should be removed as well. It might have still applied until/including the Obama presidency, but those days are gone.
My guess before watching: First past the post in single winner districts Presidential systems Electoral college Gerrymandering Strong bicameralism Senate filibuster stoping anything getting done Infotainment
greatest vid ever. I wonder if he is going to touch on the alt-right, Prager-Q Proudboys that took over the Libertarian Party. Talk about polarization. I have always laughed at, looked down on, and feared the left vs. right polarization. Such a villainous sect in my own party is such an affront, and what are we supposed to do, be reactionary-reactionaries? The thought of their dumpster-fire memes is so horrifying. The reminders of their Jordan Petersen and Tim Poole fandom makes me scream.
Agreed with everything bar the removal of party affiliation on ballot posts... Not because its not a sound odea in principle, but 8 think most are just too fucking lazy to research lol
2:49:28 Does he know? (The Batman meme) Smart thinking though to snark something that would confuse most people ignorant of politics beyond Team Red vs Team Blue
To enable that, we need to change the current laws that favor the two-party system. Getting rid of congressional districts in Europe (inclusive of the UK) is called multi-member constituencies. It offers the opportunity to use some kind of proportional representation system instead of first-past-the-post, which is present to some extent in runoff election systems. I think first-past-the-post creates a major incentive for a two-party system. Open question: if multi-member constituencies are a Good Thing, then should the least populous states (or state-equivalents??!) only receive a single representative? For the smallest states to receive 2 or 3 representatives, clearly the 435-member cap to the House of Representatives wouldn’t allow the most populous states to be represented proportionately (one person, one vote). Thankfully, removing the 435-member cap doesn’t require a Constitutional amendment! Besides, with smartphone technology, do our representatives really need a huge desk in the House chambers?
@@CynicalHistorian You don't think I wouldn't know, lol. But in all seriousness I do agree with Hamilton and the fact that he was a legendary man alone with others such as Harry Hopkins and John Hay who helped create the America for the better.
I look forward to a video on Theodore Roosevelt. He’s an interesting figure, especially in regards to his politics. I especially like the joke that he hits every side of the political compass. He was a trust buster and pushed for nationalizing of certain industries (auth-left), he was a prominent environmentalist (lib-left), he was a militarist and imperialist (auth-right), he was an outdoorsman who did a lot of hunting (lib-right).
I highly recommend the book River of Doubt about Roosevelts journey to the Amazon after his presidency.
He's one of my favorite Presidents of all time
Also for the fact that he was never meant to be President. The Republican Party made him Vice President because he was angering their backers yet the average people loved him because of his anti corruption policies. If McKinley hadn’t been assassinated I doubt he would have been President
@@defenestratorX Same. I mean, the whole eugenics thing was a little messed up, but compared to a lot of other presidents, it's a particularly mild demon.
@@khurch7564 yeah but all humans operate mostly in the grey area. One country's hero is another's war criminal
This has really open my understanding of politics of the US and the problems that we are facing. I try to keep a open mind in a ever increasing complex world. Thank you for making this video
The most frustrating thing about that Pat Buchanan speech is that I remember him running as a Libertarian. A Libertarian who wants to ban everything, apparently.
Honestly, it's sad how polarized we are as of late, I wish that we as a country could become something more unified not by politics but by mutual-understanding of one another.
Can’t do that when many can’t understand each other.
@@clarityera190 And that's precisely my point. So many refuse to even attempt to understand one another and view each other as something not worth even speaking to on the basis of attempting to understand them.
Most Americans are kinda moderate left or right moderate but yeah Americans tend to have their own bias strong opinions
I think a Manned mission to Mars or the US 250th anniversary 4 years form now will regain some American unity.
The difficulty is that this division is pretty convenient fot certain interests in your country. 'Divide et Impera' is a very old means of securing power, and who benefits from it, is key to destoying it. Who or what is fanning those flames needs to be neutered.
@@BigHenFor Indeed, I think there was a quote that went something along the lines of "Those who you cannot question are the ones who are in power." Which is the major reason that we even in other countries are so divided.
Thank you for making this super cut. I had a playlist before and now it's nice to be able to have a single video to just send to people.
Love your content man, keep up the good work. Good luck on your dissertation!
This is fantastic! Thank you, and I hope your dissertation goes well! 😊
Ive watched these videos so many times in the past year, thanks so much for putting it in one place. Some of my favorite vids of all time.
Yay you're close to my story in politics, and teddy is my standard for a progressive future.
I'm in a "public policy" class at my local university that is just neoliberal stupidity.
Good for you! Seriously.
When I hear "socialist policy abd ideology has never and will never work" I constantly bring up the New Deal and how it was the start of such policies. Worked pretty well till future politicians gutted it for corporate cronyism. So essentially. The only reason these ideas don't work is because without proper popular participation(beyond just voting), these ideas will be overturned by peers held unaccountable. That's at the same time a criticism of political apathy of the population but, more so, a criticism of the politicians that actively screw over the population through back room deals and manipulative rhetoric.
Honestly T.R had great policies that moved the nation forward and now influenced how I view progressivism.
Thanks for putting this series in one video! Throughout my life I have always been more a military or general culture history enthusiast. However, after recent political events I wanted to try to understand how we got here leading me to your channel! Thanks for providing a great series explaining our political history in the US and how we got to our current era
A divided population cannot organize and affect meaningful change.
Well Americans values are to diametrically opposed. How can one find middle ground with those who seek to oppress and undermine the working class, homosexuals, women, people of color etc. The Democrats want to undermine the working class but at least they are more socially progressive
Excellent information and scholarly presentation. Will look forward to the series on Teddy Roosevelt.
Thank you for this, I have watched them before individually, but will do so again now. I attribute these videos plus many more of yours to what got me out of the right wing rabbit hole I was in. So thank you Cypher. You do great work, keep it up!
Good luck on that dissertation 🤘🤘🤘 you're one of my favorite history UA-camrs!!
I have a lot of optimism, in that even though I'm a progressive DemSoc, I have plenty of friends who are Libertarians and Conservatives. My thing is: recognize the difference between irreconcilable differences and common ground - and be open about them. Because it seems a growing consensus is forming across the divide that neoliberal economic theory has decisively failed - and there is plenty of good policy to be had to fix it that we can pretty much all agree on.
I like how you said you didn't hate conservatives but *reactionaries* that distinction is crucial.
@@heyloben8306 Yeah but don't confuse conservatism as a political term with American conservatism which does have very strong reactionary tilt.
@@heyloben8306 generally even moderate conservatives are a problem, moderate conservatives being people like the democrat party in the USA, and they have problems of their own, but that’s because I’m a communist so my problem is just that they’re capitalist, we can only agree on the less then the bare minimum policies of minorities deserve to not die of hate crimes. Basically only the social politics, not the economic ones.
Thank you. I promote your content all the time. I’m a millennial working towards my phd so identify with you
best of luck on the studies
@@goldiv thanks man!
@@Azure_tv you will fail
@@anentiresleeveoforeos2087 I’m actually ranked in the top 10 in my program. Stay mad
@@Azure_tv You will succeed!
PERFECT TIMING.
Thank you.
Good luck
🇬🇧
I think a big problem is that moderate positions are no longer tolerated by either party. A lefty having a more conservative opinion on one or two issues treated like a traitor and Vice versa.
I really appreciate the perspective this gives on modern politics. There's a currency bias that makes every new crisis feel worse than everything before.
Thanks for sharing this in one place.
Good luck on your dissertation! In addition to sharing the actual work with us, maybe you could do a video or two on the actual process that will lead to your PhD. conferral, after the fact.
Well done. Worth the time it took to watch.
Thank you for this, Historian!
The series was very educational and entertaining thank you
This is the best look at things I have seen. This sort of information needs to become mainstream. That would go a long way to fixing the problem.
I bought merch. Thank you for doing what you do.
Informative and engaging
I wanna just say how great of a video this is. This helped reinforce much of my world outlook while challenging certain parts and I think you helped shape my perspective for the better, all while teaching history. I also really enjoyed listening to you offer a suggestion moving forward with reference to Teddy's progressivism, as I think it would create a better tomorrow. Personally, I would like to a go a little further and reference FDR and his economic bill of rights. Things such as Healthcare, a home, a living wage, a right to a union, higher education are all natural rights just as much as the constitutional rights. FDR's economic reforms I think truly improved the lives of ordinary Americans, and by beginning to complete his vision we could improve the lives of the common people to an even higher magnitude. The greatest tragedy was that we abandoned the New Deal instead of building upon it with stronger radical reform going forward.
Agreed. It was the start of something greater but the powers that be and especially Neo-Liberal politicians are antagonistic to such policies not least of all in part because legalized bribery is a thing amongst the political offices. But also, the current capitalist pipelines are in direct, conflicted interest to the general populous of the US.
I mean I base some of my opinions on some of T.R policies because of the great value they have.
Great video!
The beginning of the end!
Found your channel at the perfect time! I love the content. The ads on this video were shocking though. They were often so horrifying that I thought you had spliced them in intentionally to show the divisiveness of our culture. Only when the each ad had run for a minute or two did I realize that they were ads and I had to skip them. Keep up the good work! Maybe tell UA-cam that you don't want them advertising for gun-stockpiling conspiracy companies or for incel self-help guides which include tutorials on how to be mean to women in order to get them to like you (yes these are not exaggerations).
your work is amazingly great! love the channel. your points at the end are very similar to what i believe would fix things.
i may be mistaken but i always felt that the districting was initially intended to be a true 'local' reporesentative of a region, so not sure allwing the state to vote on that person would maintain that. i wonder if it would make sense to just go back to original maps and never touch them again. or base it on cities/counties and ban changing it.
also, i remember mention that the number of seats in the house is limited and that they try to divide them equally amongst the states, but that larger populated states have less representatives per population than less populated states (same with electoral votes) so maybe just equalizing the ''citizen per represenative' would make things more fair.
brilliant, thanks for all of your work
Nice, this is going to be a perfect listen for working out
Good luck with your dissertation, we look forward to calling you Dr. The Cynical Historian
Cy your acting is oscar worthy lol! Out of curiosity what is your dissertation on?
American violence in the territorial Southwest
Thank you for doing this. More people need to watch this and learn from it.
Here to watch and good vibes for your dissertation. You got this dude.
Also obligatory worship for his royal highness King Richard
Dude, you are arguably my favorite content maker on UA-cam. Thank you for you work
I agree although there are many other fantastic creators like the one, he mentioned in this video Innuendo Studios and Renegade Cut.
Jeebus there is so much to take in here. Definitely a video that , even after completing, im gonna have to revisit periodically...
Good luck with your dissertation. It’s a real grind, but just keep at it.
I said the same thing as well
@@theshenpartei I suspect we both are speaking from experience 😀
@@anthonyvictor3034 I just telling him good luck
This was superb!
The prescriptions at the end are interesting, and I agree with a lot of them. I do disagree on one in particular, though, and that's term limits. Term limits sound appealing as a solution to the problem of incumbent advantage, but I'm pretty sure they actually drive polarization. Rather than voting for the best candidate (who might, in fact, have actually been the incumbent, if he was able to run), voters are now confronted every few years with candidates they know nothing about and so they vote party rather than candidate. State legislatures where term limits exist have also been stripped of members with legislative experience, and this likely contributes to the problem of outside lobbying groups (ALEC, as an example) writing legislation rather than legislators.
I do think term limits make sense for offices where the entire authority of the position is vested in one person, but for legislatures they're a disaster. For those positions there needs to be another solution to the problem.
This is so good
Epic! Love it!
A classic in paranoid thinking: Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", in Harper's Magazine, November 1964.
Congrats! Your channel is excellent! Great work!
hey, cypher, in your diatribe at the end, it really occurred to me, Australia has most, if not all of those factors.
Become a true southerner and move down here lol
Hey bud can you tell me the song of that awesome piano intro?
When you say "whatever House seat is available", do you mean that terms would be staggered, with (in the extreme case) California having 52 separate congressional elections every two-year cycle, so that there would be one every two weeks?
I also want to eliminate House districts, but my preference is to have people choose when they register which seat they're going to vote for.
Well done! I'd love to see the history of the Judicial branch, particularly the Supreme Court, with all of the controversy in the courts these days. It would be interesting to know more about the life appointments and the seeming lack of ethics, and true purpose.
The fact that you dislike Mr. Wilson as much as my grandma makes me fwu
Thanks for your work and amazing content. 505 pride!
Just on first past the post vs instant run off voting systems. Here in Australia we do instant run off (we call it compulsory preferential voting) and we have zero machine voting so everything is hand counted fine each election.
So if all goes well, we will have Doctor Cypher relatively soon?
Spring 🤞
@@CynicalHistorian Here's hoping.
This is a big thing. Barring this being a primary source of income, your UA-cam can take a back seat.
2:11:32 I was literally a child and not on tumblr when dashcon happened, but that corner of the internet, despite massive change in the past few years, has adopted it as a foundational thing im history. Partially because of nostalgia, partly cos of how the failure of it caused a bunch if teenagers to have to grow up a bit and be less trusting, and also cos if the complete absurdity of the whole ballpit situation. And the cool thing about tumblr and the fanfic and surrounding communities is that even people joining in the past few years can see themselves in these things that happened a decade ago. It's a healthy shared history in a way few other online communities I've been in have. Tumblr has an awful reputation but honestly, all of the users who want attention have gone to twitter, making it a much more peaceful place
Thank you so much.
Thanks for the supercut, found it a bit annoying to follow the narrative of different videos. Or maybe I'm just an idiot.
A three hour video? My dude, _are you okay?_
Hope the dissertation is smooth sailing.
What do you think of the term "Libertarian Socialist" to describe an ideology that promotes maximum personal freedom supported by robust and progressive government programs? A popular streamer, Vaush, uses this term to describe his beliefs.
In my honest opinion and ideology like that comes off as very oxy-moronic. The core tenants of libertarianism (at least today) is built off of the non-aggression principle, if someone breaks into your home you have every right to defend it including the lethal option; meanwhile socialism is a regime that usually results in police states as shocker, not everyone gets along perfectly. This more hands on approach frequently leads to macro management at its nastiest for individuals and will often lead to seizure of property.
@@GrimdarkCrusader20th you do know that the word libritation has been associated with left wing anarchists (ancoms like Nestor Makhno and revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish civil war) for years before muddy rothbard convinced people that more capitalism is “freedom”. He even admits this if I could find the quote, but here’s the wiki article. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism
Vaush has often agreed with market socialism, a policy from socialist yugoslavias economic policies. He’s also pretty against the government, as he used to be an anarchist syndicalist, which would be the complete abolishment of capitalism and the government/state, but later abandoned that as it’s not as practical in the present, but maybe in the far future. What you’re describing in your comment is simply social democracy, things like FDRs and teddy Roosevelt’s economic policies and the Scandinavian countries.
"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated by force if necessary" - Karl Marx
I could maybe get behind that idea, but usually the people arguing for robust social programs are also very controlling in terms of individual lifestyles.
In principle, since the government is going to tax me whether I like it or not, I would rather the money work for me. So, for example, I'm not opposed to something like national healthcare in principle.
But on the other hand, if there is only one state run healthcate option, it would almost certainly come with strings attached. I could see it being required that you take every prescribed treatment as a contingency for retaining coverage. All the progressives during the COVID-19 pandemic were arguing for hospitals to not treat patients that didn't have the COVID vaccines. I think there should still be informed consent for everything, and comments like that are a non-starter for me.
In the U.S., almost everyone arguing for robust social programs are also trying to control my personal life or require me to do things I don't want to. So I don't vote for them when I otherwise might.
I didnt know who Birch was before this video. But all I have to say, if I was someone who did so much good in life, I would be apalled if they used my name to spread hate after death. A bad man shot him and bad people hold him up as a standard to do not so wonderful things.
Yessss. I finally found this video!
You should start a podcast, this video reminded me of Dan Carlin's hard-core history
You should do a video on what happened to all of the communes.
dude why is this age restricted. I'm so confused
Good question
@@CynicalHistorian I enjoyed this video a lot today, it was the perfect thing to help me focus on my carpentry joints lol. I’m very excited for the Teddy Roosevelt video, he’s definitely a favorite of mine.
I'm a Month late but great video and I knew about the manosphere for a while now.
Thank you 🎉
2:27:55 didnt Bush win the popular vote in 2004
I think he said “newly elected republican”
He did, he lost it in 2000
Doesn't Trump represent the beginning of the 7th party system? Surely the GOP of today is something different than the GOP of Prez Bush (either one). Perhaps the same could be said of the Dems of today
Yeah to me it seems we are entering the 7th party system where the GOP is turning into a more European style authoritarian conservatism that is also taking significant grounds in modern Europe as well. But maybe its still too early to tell
I disagree with CH's idea about abolishing congressional districts to combat gerrymandering. MA has 9 Reps and I feel everyone would vote down ticket for their reps, rather than looking at each one.
Imagine primary challenges where you have to look up the info for not 1, but 9 different people.
Heaven forbid you get off your ass and do research.
Why is this video age restricted?
Dunno, and I'm pissed off
@@CynicalHistorian I get that your content generally is a bit racy for UA-cam, but seriousl... ;)
Good luck with that dissertation
_The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt, and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson_ by Patrick Weil
(a new (May 2023) book you may be interested in from Harvard U Press)
Yes. I mean, not Yes, but YES! This guy likes Rush. Then I'm like, obviously this guy likes Rush.
Thank you for these and other US history videos. As someone outside of US, and affected by US policy, this has been really helpful.
It is hard for us to comprehend political parties swapping sides on socialist grounds. But it explains do much of what has led to the current context.
I appreciate how you go from post WW2 to the present. In contrast in UK the 1950s continued in rationing, so the sense of new hope is later, and fed by the existing American dream of household appliances. Yet the industry prior to and adapted for the US templates was very much one of trying to withstand the outside challenges. But we had so much to rebuild post war, but assuming the pre war context, we did not flourish in the way US did. Meanwhile nations rebuilding form nothing were open to new technology and so created am industry for the next season of the economy.
Though this and other posts I feel informed about how the complex current US context has emerged. The deep pre Independence separate ideology and how that lives today hidden under the shallow demeanour of debate
In UK the slave trade was mostly something 'out there'. Yes there were slaves in British households, but as a rich 'look at me' culture. Most slaves were in the distant colonies,, beyond UK back yards. Vv
That hasn't stopped racism about immigration, be it from former colonies or not. But it feels a different conversation than the US where there was fear that the newly released slaves, if voting would treat the slave owners as they hab slaved others. The horror expressed at Obama as potus conveyed a similar assumption - that the other side wants ti do to us what we previously did to them.
The current polarised media and mindsets only add to the struggle, but through this and other of your videos I get a sense of how the conspiracy mindset has always been there in US politics.
I think you have to acknowledge that only one of the two current parties at war with facts and history
I had to pause and ponder, a moment, when you said that CNN was often "neutral to a fault." It's an interesting word choice; that something can be "neutral" to an extreme seems paradoxical, or, at the very least, it implies that neutrality is not always the desired or "correct" stance in certain situations--as with Howard Zinn's title "You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train."
Neutrality is not correct in every circumstance. As my grandfather taught me: “Everything in moderation…including moderation…”
Only in America can the fight between center-right neoliberals and far right neoliberals be called "a fight between left and right."
Oh God that's so stupid, the democrats are left wing... by every metric.
What's your definition of "center-right neoliberal"?!
Here in 🇩🇪@🇪🇺 we probably have one of, if not THE most balanced political ecosystem, with six parties in parliament ranging from far left to far right and a MASSIVE majority voting for the four parties from moderate left to moderate right.
From my point of view the American 'Democratic Party' spans from center left (slightly left of 'moderate') all the way to mildly conservative, and the Republicans from center conservative to fringe right.
No doubt that the CENTER (or middle) of American politics is WAY TO THE RIGHT from ours, but describing the TODAY'S Democrats as "center-right neoliberal".
That might have been accurate until, maybe including, the days of Bill Clinton's presidency, but at least since Newt Gingrich started his crusade and expanded his electorate to fringe right, almost EVERYTHING left of staunch conservative is packed into the Democrats.
The way you're describing the Democrats actually sounds like the false flag propaganda from the right (including RuZZian and other foreign agents) aiming at discrediting the Dems.
..and that neoliberal tag should be removed as well. It might have still applied until/including the Obama presidency, but those days are gone.
This isn’t true
I was more pro Republican until 2016, that's when I gave up on political parties altogether.
How much better off would we be if FDR had kept Wallace as VP.
Excellent presentation CH. Cheers
So basically the short answer to why america is polarized is: "its complicated"
you absolute chad
But why does Comrade wear a rugby helmet?
It's a Soviet tank helmet
@@CynicalHistorian my mistake. Thank you.
My guess before watching:
First past the post in single winner districts
Presidential systems
Electoral college
Gerrymandering
Strong bicameralism
Senate filibuster stoping anything getting done
Infotainment
And you were all wrong
greatest vid ever. I wonder if he is going to touch on the alt-right, Prager-Q Proudboys that took over the Libertarian Party. Talk about polarization. I have always laughed at, looked down on, and feared the left vs. right polarization. Such a villainous sect in my own party is such an affront, and what are we supposed to do, be reactionary-reactionaries? The thought of their dumpster-fire memes is so horrifying. The reminders of their Jordan Petersen and Tim Poole fandom makes me scream.
How about that Nixon?!? huh??
Agreed with everything bar the removal of party affiliation on ballot posts... Not because its not a sound odea in principle, but 8 think most are just too fucking lazy to research lol
When hasn't the US been politically polarized excluding times of war?
Long live King Richard
1:47:12
Seems like the birchers are mainstream now due to the rise of the internet
2:49:28 Does he know? (The Batman meme)
Smart thinking though to snark something that would confuse most people ignorant of politics beyond Team Red vs Team Blue
The character is called Cynical Strawman but all his lines are just quoting real internet m0rons.
Because the internet users he mentions use those strawmen
“…athwart…”
People should vote 3rd party more
third parties really have nothing to offer that's why people don't vote for them that much.
To enable that, we need to change the current laws that favor the two-party system.
Getting rid of congressional districts in Europe (inclusive of the UK) is called multi-member constituencies. It offers the opportunity to use some kind of proportional representation system instead of first-past-the-post, which is present to some extent in runoff election systems. I think first-past-the-post creates a major incentive for a two-party system.
Open question: if multi-member constituencies are a Good Thing, then should the least populous states (or state-equivalents??!) only receive a single representative? For the smallest states to receive 2 or 3 representatives, clearly the 435-member cap to the House of Representatives wouldn’t allow the most populous states to be represented proportionately (one person, one vote). Thankfully, removing the 435-member cap doesn’t require a Constitutional amendment!
Besides, with smartphone technology, do our representatives really need a huge desk in the House chambers?
Meanwhile I'm just a simple Hamiltonian, leave me out of your parties
Hamilton literally created the party system
@@CynicalHistorian You don't think I wouldn't know, lol. But in all seriousness I do agree with Hamilton and the fact that he was a legendary man alone with others such as Harry Hopkins and John Hay who helped create the America for the better.
Hey cypher make a video about Amsterdam.
Great video Mexico is just an exaggerated version of US politics since we where controlled by them for so long 😂
I think theres a party switch going on right now, well not really switch just evolve, with this new conservatism for the working class
Get that dissertation!! H3ck yeah!
"The myth of things like the Southern switch"
Has she looked at an election map besides Trumps, Obamas and Bidens?