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US POLITICAL SYSTEM NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS Top 10 Ways to Unrig the System \| Robert Reich PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNxm4RgSNA Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I like Robert Reich ... and have done so for many years ... maybe almost 30 years! The 10 initiatives that Reich proposes are very sensible and should be at the core of any meaningful government policy framework. I want to see, in addition to the core ideas what might be called an 'action plan' to engage with well wishing motivated people to do something that will help deliver practical benefits to someone ... anyone ... so that society at the local level beomces a better place! I live in Saw Creek ... a gated community in North East PA that was developed in the late 1970s and made a local property owner/developer/builder very wealthy. The community has had its challenges, but a core group of residents have been able to do a lot of right in spite of everything! Our family has been in the community for more than 30 years and I am cautiously optimistic about the community's future! Sadly 'National Politics' is not going to help. Everything I know about President elect Trump going back several decades tells me that Trump is evil to his core and he is likely to woeld power in ways that benefit Donald Trump, his organizations, and some of his family. Nobody else matters. As a Brit, I think of Trump as an intereesting but dangerous player in a Shakespeare play ... and then wake up to the reality is that this stupid man has been elected to run the country (USA)!. I am, and have been for many years, a member of the Saw Creek Men's Club. It meets at least once a month to engage is some dialog, some community engagement and sharing of thoughts. We are not allowed to discuss politics ... which for me is a terrible constraint ... especially at this time with Trump the President Elect. I don't know what to do. My guess is that maybe 90% of the Men's Club members that voted in the recent Presidential Election voted for Trump ... which at one level is appalling! But at the same time these same people are decent folk who live decent lives. Peter Burgess
Top 10 Ways to Unrig the System \| Robert Reich Robert Reich 927K subscribers November 19th 2024 ... Premiered 113 minutes ago Now's not the time to give up. If anything, it's an opportunity to fight for the real changes we need. Take a look at these 10 ideas to fix our broken system. Transcript\ 0:00 is it too late to save American democracy I don't think so for years I've been making a list of 10 ideas that would make our Democratic institutions work better for everyone some of these are easier to achieve than you might think others are more long-term but if we want to see these changes we've got to start demanding them now so please share this video let's start with the Electoral College in a democracy shouldn't the presidential candidate who gets the most votes win you'd think but the elector college has put the popular vote loser in the White House five times now there's a way we can fix this that's easier than you think watch this should someone else's vote count more than yours for 80% of Americans that's exactly what's happening their vote for president isn't nearly as valuable as the vote of someone in a so-called swing state most of us live in states that have become so predictably Democratic or republican that were taken for granted by candidates presidential elections now now turn on the dwindling number of 1:02 Swing states that could go either way which gives voters in those States huge leverage the 2020 election came down to just over 40,000 votes spread across just three swing States 2016 came down to fewer than 880,000 votes also across three states in those elections the national popular vote wasn't nearly that close in fact in the last five elections the winners of the popular vote beat their opponents by an average of 5 million votes the current state byst state electoral college system of electing presidents is creating ever closer contests in an Ever smaller number of closely divided States for elections that aren't really that close not only that but these razor thin swing state margins can invite postelection recounts Audits and lawsuits even attempted coup 2:00 a losing candidate might be able to overturn 40,000 votes with these techniques overturning 5 million would be nearly impossible the current system presents a growing threat to the peaceful transition of power it also strips us of our individual power if you're a New York Republican or an Alabama Democrat presidential candidates have little incentive to try and win your vote under the current system they don't need broad popular supports as much as a mobilized base in a handful of Swing States campaigning to a smaller and more radical base is also leading to uglier more divisive campaigns and it's becoming more and more likely that candidates are elected president without winning the most votes Nationwide it's already happened twice this Century but there is an alternative and it starts with getting our States to join the National popular vote interstate compact now don't let that mouthful put you off off it could save 3:00 our democracy this compact would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes Nationwide without a constitutional amendment how does it work the Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to its number of representatives and Senators as of now the total number of electors is 538 so anyone who gets 270 or more of those Electoral College votes becomes president Article 2 of the Constitution allows state legislatur to award their electors any way they want so all that's needed is for states with a total of at least 270 electoral votes to agree to award all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote the movement to do this is already underway 17 States and the District of Columbia have joined the compact agreeing that once enough States join all their electoral votes will go to the popular vote winner together 4:03 States currently in the compact have 209 electoral votes so we just need a few more states with at least 61 electors to join the Compact and it's done popular vote initiatives have recently been introduced in Arizona Michigan North Carolina Nevada and Virginia which have passed would bring the total to 270 and put the compact into effect now naturally this plan will face legal challenges there are a lot of powerful interests who stand to benefit by maintaining the current system but if we keep up the fight and get enough States on board America will never again elect a president who loses the national popular vote no longer would 80% of us be effectively disenfranchised from presidential campaigns and a handful of votes in swing States would no longer determine the winner if you wanted know more or get involved click the link below to read about the national popular vote interstate compact if your state is 5:07 not already a member I urge you to contact your state senators and Reps to get your state on board some of the biggest blows to our democracy have come from the Supreme Court it increased the power of big money over our politics with Citizens United and decrease the power of Voters by gutting the Voting Rights and by striking down roie Wade it's even stripped Americans of power over their own bodies fortunately there are three ways we can improve the Supreme Court take a look at this the Supreme Court is off the rails and it's only going to get worse unless we fight to reform it public trust and approval of the Court have hit historic lows due to seemingly partisan decisions and a growing number of Ethics scandals [Music] here are three key reforms Congress should enact to restore legitimacy to 6:06 our nation's highest court number one establish a code of ethics every other federal judge has to sign on to a code of ethics except for Supreme Court Justices this makes no sense judges on the highest court should be held to the highest ethical [Music] standards Congress should impose a code of ethics on Supreme Court Justices at the very least any ethical code should ban justices from receiving personal gifts from political donors and anyone with business before the court clarify when justices with conflicts of interest should remove themselves from cases prohibit justices from Trading individual stocks and establish a formal process for investigating misconduct number two enact term limits 7:00 article three of the Constitution says judges May hold their office during good behavior but it does not explicitly give Supreme Court Justices lifetime tenure on the highest court even though that's become the norm term limits would prevent unelected justices from accumulating too much power over the course of their tenure and would help diffuse what has become an increasingly divisive confirmation process Congress should limit supreme court terms to 18 years after which justices moveed to lower courts number three expand the court the Constitution does not limit the Supreme Court to nine justices in fact Congress has changed the size of the Court seven times it should do so again in order to remedy the extreme imbalance of today's Supreme Court now some may decry this as radical Court packing that's pure rubbish the real 8:05 Court packing occurred when Senate Republicans refused to even consider a democratic nominee to the Supreme Court on the fake pretext that it was too close to the 2016 election but then confirmed a republican nominee just days before the 2020 election rather than allow Republicans to continue exploiting the system expanding the Supreme Court would actually un the court this isn't radical it's essential now I'm not going to sugarcoat this making these reforms happen won't be easy we're up against big moneyed interests who will fight to keep their control of the nation's most important court but these key reforms have significant support from the American people who have lost trust in the court the Supreme Court has no real power to enforce its judgments it has no Army it has no control over spending its 9:01 power comes from only one source the trust of the people with neither the sword nor the purse trust is all it has we've now covered reforms to the executive and judicial branches of government now for the legislative how can we improve Congress here's one big way one of the biggest challenges to our democracy occurs when States draw congressional district lines with a principal goal of helping one political party and hurting the [Music] [Applause] other it's called partisan gerrymandering unlike racial gerrymandering drawing districts to 10:02 reduce the political power of racial minorities which the Supreme Court has found to violate the equal protection Clause of the 14th Amendment partisan Jerry mandering would seem to violate the First Amendment because it punishes some voters for their political views in North Carolina in 2016 for example Republicans won 10 of the state's 13 House Seats with just 53% of the popular vote in the 2018 elections because of partisan Jerry mandering Democrats will need to win the national popular vote by nearly 11 points to win a majority in the House of Representatives no party has won this margin in decades so what can be done regardless of the Supreme Court state courts could rule against partisan Jerry mandering under their state constitutions as happened this year in Pennsylvania where the state court invalidated a republican Congressional map that gave Republicans 13 out of 18 congressional seats even 11:03 though the state is about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans the state court implemented its own map for the 2018 election creating districts that are less biased in favor of Republicans second states can delegate the power to design districts to independent or bipartisan groups some states like California have already done this but if you want your state to end gerrymandering you're going to have to get actively involved and demand it after all this is our democracy it's up to us to make it [Music] work we also need to make sure the people we send to Congress are more focused on us than using their positions to make a quick Buck here's one common sense way to do that members of Congress use privileged information to make money 12:01 on the stock market while they're supposed to be working for you make no mistake it's legalized [Music] corruption there's no good reason for elected officials to trade in individual stocks at all unless you have special Insider knowledge buying and selling individual stocks is a terrible way to get rich it's gambling plain and simple that's why many Americans with retirement accounts prefer to invest in IND index funds which are tied to the performance of the entire stock market but many members of Congress continue to invest in individual stocks and some do quite well how do they do it well consider this just before the economy crashed in 2008 several lawmakers frantically shifted their Holdings to safer Investments this frenzy came just after private meetings with treasury officials who had warned that an economic disaster was imminent I imagine most of you weren't invited to these meetings I certainly wasn't but those lawmakers were and could have 13:06 chosen to act on that information when this story came to light people were naturally outraged I think it's highly unethical I think it's highly offensive and wrong after immense public pressure Congress passed the stock act in 2012 which formally banned insider trading the ACT also required lawmakers to disclose their stock sales and those of their spouses Within within 45 days by forcing these transactions to be public The Hope was that lawmakers would stop making questionable trades and it worked well partially in January 2020 a handful of senators including Richard Burr Diane Feinstein and Kelly leer all made significant trades after receiving a classified briefing on covid-19 well before the public knew the full extent of the threat few if any lawmakers have faced serious con consquences for 14:00 violating the spirit or the letter of the law as insider trading is notoriously difficult to prove in 20121 alone news outlets identified 47 lawmakers who failed to properly disclose their trades their punishment nothing lawmakers are supposed to face a poultry $200 fine for failing to report on time but Congressional ethics officials usually wave it there's an obvious solution to all this bar members of Congress where from Trading individual stocks the proposed ban conflicted trading act does just this lawmakers would have 6 months after being elected to sell their individual Holdings transfer them to a blind trust over which they have no control or hold on to them until they leave office without trading them but Congress has yet to hold a vote on this bill even though 67% of Americans agree it's a good idea to ban members of Congress from Trading 15:00 individual stocks there's good precedent for this in October 2021 the Federal Reserve following its own stock trading Scandal announced that fed policy makers would no longer be allowed to trade individual stocks and bonds why shouldn't Congress do the same as usual follow the money a majority of lawmakers are millionaires who likely get a sizable chunk of their wealth from Investments And Trades so they won't support this Bill unless there's enough public outcry to make them and that's where you come in with distrust in government near an alltime high even the appearance of a conflict of interest hurts our democracy members of Congress are elected to represent the interests of the people not the money in their brokerage accounts Banning members of Congress from Trading individual stocks is a no-brainer let's get it done now that we tackled the three branches of government it's time to talk about the so-called fourth estate the 16:04 media there's a specific media bias that's endangering our democracy and it's not the kind of bias most people talk about here is what I mean the mainstream media has historically tried to balance left and right in its political coverage and present what it views as a reasonable Center telling both sides of a of a controversial story now that may sound good in theory but the old politic politics no longer exists and the former labels left versus right are outdated today it's democracy versus authoritarianism voting rights versus white supremacy there's no reasonable Center between these positions no justifiable compromise equating them is misleading and dangerous when they say they're too far to the left it's meet the pressing about the direction the party you hear the mainstream media say for example that certain quote Republican and Democratic lawmakers are 17:03 emerging as troublemakers within their parties unquote these reports equate Republican lawmakers who are actively promoting Trump's big lie that their 2020 election was stolen with Democratic lawmakers who are fighting to extend health care and other programs to help people but these are not equivalent Trump's big lie is a direct challenge to American democracy even if you disagree with with providing Americans better access to health care it's not going to destroy our system of government you also hear that both sides are grip by equally dangerous extremism both the radical right and the left growing trend of far right extremism the rise of left-wing mobs far right terrorists labeling them radical left and radical right suggests that the responsible position somehow is between these so-called extremes can we get real one one side is trying to protect and preserve voting rights the other side is trying to suppress votes under the guise 18:06 of election Integrity but there isn't and never was a problem of election Integrity the whole issue of election Integrity in the 2020 election was manufactured by Donald Trump and his big lie about voter fraud if you count the legal votes I easily win if you count the illegal votes they can try to steal the election from us and was bought and propagated by the Republican Party today's Republican party is behind what historians regard as the biggest attack on voting rights since Jim Crow but the media frames this as a right versus left battle that's just Politics as Usual equating the two sides is false and dangerous or compare the coverage of margerie Taylor green and Lauren bobbert on the one hand with the coverage of Alexandria aazia Cortez and Omar on the other representative Marjorie Taylor green is sparking controversy again we should be looking at the most extreme on 19:06 both sides and I would bring up congresswoman elhan Omar what you are talking about just big picture is a radical agenda compared to the way politics is done right now you think they were all equally out of the mainstream some on the extreme right some on the extreme left well that's bunk marjerie Taylor green and Lauren bobbert in addition to spreading dangerous conspiracy y theories harassing colleagues and promoting bigotry don't actually legislate or do anything for their constituents Alexandri okazi Cortez and Ilan Omar both organized to help Everyday People deliver for their constituents and have pushed legislation to provide Universal School meals expand affordable housing and combat the climate crisis equating all these lawmakers suggest that the responsible position is halfway between hateful delusional conspiracy theories on the one hand and efforts to fight white supremacy save the planet and Empower working people on the other it's 20:06 similar to what the media did following Donald Trump's Infamous condemnation of both sides I think there's blame on both sides after the deadly violence sparked by neo-nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville Virginia in 2017 in the ensuing weeks America's six top mainstream newspapers used just as much space condemning anti-nazi counter-protesters as they did actual neo-nazis but research shows White supremacists pose a significantly Graver threat than those trying to stop them white supremacists are animated by racism sexism anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry violence and hate battling white supremacy is not the same as advocating it passing laws to prevent voter suppression is not the same as passing laws to suppress votes fighting for our democracy is not the same as 21:03 seeking to destroy it the media equating both sides one left and one right suggests there's a moderate middle between hate and inclusion between democracy and Proto fascism this is misleading dangerous and morally wrong don't fall for it the most important part of our democracy is the people the public us and there's something we could be doing a lot better watch this message from my friend Heather McGee did you know that the largest block of Voters isn't Democrats or Republicans it's people who don't usually vote what would happen if everyone voted the missing voters are predominantly the people who face the largest barriers to Economic Opportunity and security and who support the most Progressive ideas for how to fix our they're people of color young people people with lower incomes who are often 22:02 working multiple jobs and don't get time off to vote so what would happen if everyone voted transformation it turns out that the people who are most likely to vote in every election have different priorities than those who don't on issue after issue a majority of more affluent regular voters opposed the progressive option while a majority of lower income non-voters supported it just look at the numbers on these powerful ideas increasing Aid to the poor government guaranteeing jobs and high living standards a high enough minimum wage to keep workers out of poverty politicians are accountable to the people who put them in office and right now a donor class that is whiter wealthier and more male than the population as a whole is voting with their money and at The Ballot Box but when we the people all vote in numbers 23:02 they will be accountable to us the barriers that many potential voters face are wellknown right-wing politicians have created a whole arsenal of tactics from photo ID requirements to reducing early voting closing polling places purging voters who are already registered from the roles and barring people with criminal records from voting all designed to keep people of color young people and people with lower income comes from casting a ballot and don't forget the tens of millions of aspiring Americans who desperately want a path to citizenship by blocking their path the rightwing is blocking their vote too but what if we pushed back and demanded a government that helps citizens to vote rather than suppresses our vote one way is to eliminate the biggest barrier to voting in the first place and automatically register every eligible citizen through automatic voter 24:00 registration instead of requiring people to seek out the proper forms offices and deadlines for voter registration states can automatically enroll their residents using information they already have on file at deos we crunch the numbers and estimated that automatic voter registration Nationwide would instantly add 27 million new registered voters to the roles more than half of the 51 million eligible people who are currently unregistered reged but don't just take my word for it the state of Oregon implemented AVR in 2016 and here's what they found 95% of people who were registered through AVR were firsttime voters in the 2016 elections and there are other practical fixes for low voter participation why not enable people to create or update their registrations the same day they vote rather than making us meet an arbitrary cutof why not let everybody vote at home and send our ballot in the mail and why do we have to vote on a Tuesday just think about the kinds of 25:06 changes we could make if everyone voted we could enact policies to create better paying jobs and better working conditions we could rebuild opportunity through debt-free college we could end mass incarceration and clear the path to citizenship we could protect our families with Universal Health Care reproductive Justice and a real safety and we could finally check the corporate power that has polluted our democracy these aren't Pie in the Sky goals these are the ideas that most Americans support but these ideas are underrepresented as long as we are underrepresented with all these ideas to strengthen our democracy there's one major thing working against us big money here's how it took control of our politics and how we take it back what's the difference between you and a giant corporation like Amazon according to the Supreme Court nothing corporations are 26:07 apparently people with the same Free Speech rights under the Constitution that you and I have but wait if corporations break the law they can't be imprisoned you can be corporations can't be executed if you commit a felony in a state like Texas you could be corporations that cause accidents or go bankrupt enjoy limited liability so their investors are off the hook if you cause an accident or go bankrupt you're on the hook and since corporations are just collections of legal agreements they can live forever you can't worse yet while they can't actually vote in elections like real people they can spend virtually unlimited money influencing politics so how did corporations get turned into people and 27:01 who opened the door to their influence over our elections thank the Supreme Court it began in the wake of the Watergate scandal when Congress amended the federal election campaign act in hopes of preventing future corruption the Amendments limited campaign contributions for individuals as well as spending by candidates and outside groups a group of senators led by James L Buckley of New York sued claiming the law violated candidates First Amendment rights in its 1976 Buckley versus valo ruling the Supreme Court agreed with Buckley that the limits on spending were quote direct and substantial restraints on the quantity of political speech and therefore unconstitutional thus the notion that money is speech was Bor and the door to corporate political dominance was on unlocked next came the 1978 case First National Bank of Boston versus bot a 28:05 group of Banks and corporations challenged a Massachusetts law limiting corporations ability to run political ads they found a sympathetic ear with Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell who before he became a Justice authored the infamous memo to the US Chamber of Commerce calling for more corporate money in American politics by the way we we have a whole video about the Powell memo in his majority opinion Justice Powell wrote that the ads the corporations wanted to run were quote the type of speech indispensable to decision-making in a democracy and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation rather than an individual with that ruling the Court established that corporations are people with the same First Amendment rights as you and me allowing them to get their foot in the door to take over elections these cases laid the groundwork for Citizens United in 2010 29:04 the Court's conservative justices decided that any restrictions on independent political spending by corporations were unconstitutional the door for corporate influence in politics was finally kicked wide open not only were corporations people who could spend money on politics but they had the right to drown our democracy with as much money as they wanted the irony is that while the Supreme Court has been busy granting corporations more power to influence elections they've been stripping actual people of their power to influence elections in 2013 the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County versus holder the conservative justices ruling stripped the pre-clearance requirement that states with a history of voter suppression must receive clearance from the federal government before enacting any new voting laws the court essentially ruled that the racial voter 30:05 suppression that the Voting Rights Act was intended to guard against no longer existed in the years since the very same states that were previously subjected to pre-clearance have passed a wave of voter suppression laws unsurprisingly these laws disproportionately affect voters of color the result corporations legal fictions held together by collections of contracts have more power in our democracy than many real people but these aren't fundamental American principles they're relatively new ideas concocted by conservatives on the Supreme Court and their deep pocketed allies the door to corporate influence can and must be shut again first we need a president and Congress committed to getting big money out of politics that means overturning citizens united 31:01 publicly funding elections and putting the guard rails back on corporate political spending while we're slashing the power of Corporations we need to increase the power of the people Congress needs to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which restores the 1965 Voting Rights Act to its full power so states can no longer pass voter suppression laws finally we need a supreme court that will affirm that money is not speech and corporations are not people we can get big money out of politics restore voting rights and make sure our democracy answers to you not corporations once and for all we've talked about some big Ideas so far it's time to get more specific there's a bill that explicitly takes on voter suppression partisan Jerry mandering and the corrupting influence of dark money here's what you need to know about it we do a lot of things right in the USFA we lead the world in movies barbecue space 32:06 exploration theme parks one place we're falling off the way we do elections American democracy is designed to give everyone an equal voice in our government but we've been getting derailed by dark money Jerry mandering and voter suppression but there's a way we can get back on track the freedom to vote Act if you're wondering what it does the answer is a lot first it would bring transparency to Limitless amounts of secret money spent by special interest groups in support of political causes referred to as dark money right now it's impossible to track where all the dark money comes from it could be billionaires super villains1 100 billion or even worse it could be coming from foreign governments interfering in our elections we need to shine a light on where this money is coming from the freedom to vote act would require any entity spending more than $10,000 on an 33:06 election to disclose all donors and require online political ads to clearly identify who is behind them it would also help reduce the influence of big money in our elections by establishing a voluntary small donor matching system for house candidates second the freedom to vote act prohibits partisan Jerry mandering now whether you live in a blue state or red one you don't want your vote diluted by an unfair map getting rid of partisan Jerry mandering would have the added benefit of eliminating so-called safe seats and make our elections more competitive one study found that in 2024 87% of us House Seats were considered safe for one party or the other because of partisan Jerry mandering 24 seats were completely uncontested this can result in Representatives who are less responsive to constituents and 34:02 more ideologically extreme that's not democracy third the freedom to vote act would bring our voter registration process out of the Stone Age the United States ranks embarrassingly low in voter registration and turnout more than a quarter of eligible American voters aren't even registered to vote this is partly because voter registration requirements vary widely from State to state with some places making it harder than others the freedom to vote act would automatically register all eligible voters some US states already do this like Oregon West Virginia and Maine the legislation also sets minimum federal standards for mailin voting and early in-person voting making it easier for all eligible Americans to cast their ballots with these changes an estimated 3.8 million more Americans would have voted in the 24 election that's more than the populations of Rhode Island Montana and Delaware put together and there's more please sir I want some more 35:06 increased election security a paper trail for every vote defined standards for election audits protections for poll workers if we pass the freedom to vote act alongside the John R Lewis voting rights advancement act to fully restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 we can help ensure every body has an equal say in our democracy and we can add voting to the list of things Americans do better than anyone else like chocolate chip cookies didn't I mention chocolate chip cookies now that we've addressed the most fundamental challenges to our democracy there are two more ideas I want to share that might feel a little outside the box the last time I checked members of Congress were less popular than cockroaches root canals or headlice so you might be skeptical when I say we need more of them but watch this we need to make the 36:01 House of Representatives bigger now I know what some might be thinking make the government bigger well technically yes but that's missing the point we need to expand the house to make the government work better and be more responsive to our needs but simply the House of Representatives does not have enough members to adequately represent all 334 million of us now the house hasn't always had 435 members and it was never intended to stay the same size forever for the first 140 years of America's existence a growing House of Representatives would actually the norm it wasn't until 1929 that Congress arbitrarily decided to cap the size of the house at 435 members back then each House member represented roughly 200,000 people but since then the population of the United States has more than tripled bring the average number of constituents up to 37:02 roughly 760,000 compared to other democracies we one of the worst in terms of how many constituents a single legislator is supposed to represent only in India does the average representative have more constituents and as America continues to grow it's only going to get worse think your representative doesn't listen to you now well you just wait not surprisingly research shows that representatives from more populous house districts tend to be less accessible to their constituents and less popular thankfully the solution is simple allow the house to grow increasing the number of Representatives should be a no-brainer for at least four reasons first logically more Representatives would mean fewer people in each congressional district improving the quality of representation second a larger house would be more diverse despite recent progress today's house is still overwhelmingly male white and 38:07 middle-aged more Representatives means more opportunities for young people people of color and women to run for office and win third this reduces the power of big money running an election in a smaller District would be less expensive increasing the likelihood that people elect representatives that respond to their interests rather than big corporations and the wealthy fourth this would help reduce the Electoral colleges bias towards small states in presidential elections as more heavily populated states gain more representatives in Congress they also gain more electoral votes now some might say that a larger House of Representatives would be unwieldy and unmanageable well Japan Germany France and the UK countries with smaller populations than us all have larger legislators and they manage just fine 39:04 others might say that it would be too difficult or expensive to accommodate more representatives in the capital are there even enough chairs seriously look we've done it before the current capital has been expanded to accommodate more members several times and it can be done again a building should not be an obstacle to a more representative democracy increasing the size of the house is an achievable goal we don't even need a constitutional amendment Congress only needs to pass a law to expand the number of Representatives which it's done numerous times and as it happens there is a bill in fact two each would add more than 130 seats to the house and lower the number of constituents a typical representative serves from 760,000 to a little over 570,000 plus there's a mechanism for adding new members down the line these bills are our best chance to restore the tradition 40:02 of a house that grows in representation as America grows it's time for us to think big and make the people's house live up to its name this final idea addresses one of the complaints about voting I hear most frequently people often feel like neither of the two main choices perfectly represents what they want but they also worry with good reason that voting with their their heart for a third choice would be throwing away their vote what if I told you there's a simple reform that would let you vote with both your head and heart while also making our politics less ugly and what if I told you our video about it also features adorable pets watch this are you sick of the onslaught of negative political ads that air on your TV every election season the fear-mongering the Hal truths believe it or not there's a simple reform we can enact to make elections more bearable for voters it's called ranked Choice 41:03 voting or RCV and it could change our politics for the better here's a quick refresher on how it works using some pets owned by my colleagues here at inequality media when you head to the ballot box under rank Choice voting instead of voting for just one candidate you have the option to rank candidates in order of preference first second third and so on so if you're stuck between two preferred candidates for a position you can spread your preferences out in hopes that one of them wins I really like Daisy but I think Beatrix might be a better choice so I'll rank Beatrix first and Daisy second when ballots are counted if none of the candidates gets an outright majority the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to their supporters second choice candidates this process continues until candidate receives over 50% of the vote and is declared the 42:02 winner congratulations Beatrix pretty cool huh it's also good for a whole host of other reasons implementing RCV could have the added benefit of making our elections well nicer take the recent election in Alaska for example it's so funny that even in this race people actually hold our friendship against us comp compare that to what we see in places without RCV farle John fedman is too farle he's dangerously liberal on crime in a rank Choice voting system candidates are less likely to engage in this kind of mudslinging because they're not just trying to be a voter's first choice they also want to be the second choice of Voters who are backing their opponents this can motivate anyone running for office to be more inclusive and appeal to a broader range of Voters helping to connect people who don't always agree on every issue RCV also allows us to exercise our right to vote without 43:04 feeling like we're compromising our beliefs or simply voting for the quote lesser of two evils we could vote for the candidates we like the most rather than voting against the candidates we like the least RCV could also open the door to voters casting their ballots for more third party candidates even if your favorite candidate from your preferred party is not favored to win that person could still be your first choice without you feeling like you're giving up your vote entirely if your candidate doesn't make it to the final round your second or third choice could still end up winning in the final tally rank Choice voting can even change the kinds of people who run for office for the better potential candidates wouldn't have to avoid running for fear of splitting the vote or spoiling a close election allowing for a potentially more diverse pool of candidates to run again look at Alaska where voters used 44:00 RCV to elect Mary pela to Congress making her the first Alaskan native and first woman to represent the state in the US House lastly rank Choice voting saves everyone you me elections officials time and money there would no longer be runoffs which can be costly and often have lower turnout which means election results that are less likely to reflect the will of the public there's a reason why RCV is starting to sweep the nation it's currently being used by 13 million voters across the country rank Choice voting makes elections less painful less expensive and can help make our government more inclusive and responsive to what people actually want maybe you can organize to make rank Choice voting a reality where you live implementing these 10 ideas won't be easy or fast and no single elected leader can do it on her own like all big changes it's going to take broad Grassroots popular support the work starts with spreading the word so please share this video compilation let's make our democracy Better Together

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