#1379 Tell Stories, Not Myths: Democracy in America (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2024
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Original Air Date: 11/10/2020
Today we take a look at the long and shifting history of the myth of democracy in America. We've never had it since the beginning but the reasons have shifted, ebbed and flowed over time. Now, in the midst of an attempted slow-motion coup, we look back at this most central American myth.
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SHOW NOTES
Two of the last three presidents — George W. Bush and Donald Trump — came to office after losing the popular vote. "The Framers who met at the Constitutional Convention really had no idea what they were doing when they established how to pick a president"
Ch. 2: The Second Revolution - Scene On Radio - Air Date 2-19-20
After the Civil War, a surprising coalition tried to remake the United States into a real multiracial democracy for the first time. Reconstruction, as the effort was called, brought dramatic change to America. For a while.
Ch. 3: Democracy: Past, Present... and Future? - The Laura Flanders Show - Air Date 6-26-19
Don't remember the past? Does that mean you're condemned to repeat it? What does our country's past tell us about our present— and how can it help us imagine a better future? This week, two leading thinkers on the tricky challenges of democracy.
Ch. 4: More Democracy - Scene on Radio - Air Date 6-10-20
What will it take to make the United States a more fully functioning democracy, and how can we, as citizens, bring about that change?
By host and producer John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika.
TAKE ACTION
Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of the Life Podcast |
| 0:07.2 | where we remember the past and choose to repeat it. Today's episode was |
| 0:11.0 | originally published on November 10th, 2020, and I'm playing it today to give broader context to the history of American democracy, now that the 2024 election, with the two major party candidates firmly selected gets into full swing. |
| 0:25.4 | Sources today include Democracy Now, seen on radio, the Laura Flanders show, |
| 0:31.1 | a TEDx Talk, on the media, some more news, and the majority report. |
| 0:37.0 | We turn out to look at the case for abolishing the Electoral College. Two of the last three |
| 0:47.6 | Presidencies Donald Trump's included have gone to the candidate who lost the popular vote in 2000. |
| 0:54.4 | The Supreme Court halted the Florida recount handing the election to George W Bush. |
| 0:58.8 | It was later determined Vice President Al Gore actually won the election by half a million votes. |
| 1:03.4 | In 2016, Hillary Clinton received almost 3 million more votes than Trump, but Trump still won. |
| 1:09.5 | The Electoral College enshrined in the U.S. Constitution by the wealthy white founders, many of whom |
| 1:15.7 | were slaveholders, has allowed these victories where the loser wins. |
| 1:21.4 | But a mass movement is building to elect the president through a national popular vote. |
| 1:25.9 | For more on this effort, we're joined by journalist Jesse Wechman, member of the New York Times |
| 1:29.6 | editorial board, author of Let the People Pick the President, the case for abolishing the Electoral |
| 1:35.1 | College. |
| 1:36.1 | So Jesse Wigman, welcome back to Democracy Now. |
| 1:39.1 | Please explain, explain the roots of the Electoral College and what this movement is all about. |
| 1:45.0 | Sure, well the framers who met at the Constitutional Convention really had no idea what they were |
| 1:49.8 | doing when they established how to pick a president. |
| 1:52.3 | They said themselves that it was the hardest issue they had to decide. |
| 1:55.2 | They fought about it the entire summer of 1787. |
... |
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