Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มี.ค. 2016
- In which John seeks to understand the strange and labyrinthine process used by the Republican and Democratic parties to select a nominee for President, focusing on the great state of Missouri, where the races were close but the delegate counts weren't. Along the way, there's a bit of discussion about political parties in U.S. politics, congressional redistricting and gerrymandering, superdelegates, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders.
A little more historical background on the emergence of primaries and caucuses in American politics: blog.constitutioncenter.org/20...
All the delegate math you can handle: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/e... and all the primary polls/forecasts you can handle: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/e...
Know your superdelegates and who (if anyone) they've pledged to support at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia: www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/D-U...
Lots of information on redistricting in Missouri after the 2010 census: ballotpedia.org/Redistricting...
More information on how the Missouri Republican party allocates its delegates for the 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland: www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/MO-R
Thanks to Rosianna for illustrations ( / rosianna ) and Stan Muller for the video title and help understanding political parties in the U.S.
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I have a headache before I watched this video but now I have a super headache
Lol
+Stephanie Garland great news. now your headache has 8800x the voting power it used to.
This is legit me
yer this knowledge does really apply to me as i am australian and we have a very different government system.We too are having an election this year too.
+Stephanie Garland Australian represent
another interesting thing about the primaries is that many states use a caucus format (like my state of Idaho). Unlike a primary, there are no ballots and therefore no absentee options. Each person must be physically present at the caucus location and stay for the duration of the debates and discussions if they want to advance their preferred candidate. The process can take 2-4 hours.
This means people, like me, who are working at the time of the caucus do not have any option to participate whatsoever (unless we want to get in trouble from superiors). It's a clever way of disenfranchising the working class, especially considering all elections take place on a Tuesday when everyone is even more likely to have work obligations than, say, a Sunday when many stores and institutions are closed.
+PHvlogger Indeed, caucuses that require in person voting are ridiculously discriminatory. -John
+PHvlogger I don't usually comment but people are told far in advance when the caucus is being held, request the day off in advance. boom problem solved
+ThEuNdYiNg1 Lots of people don't get paid time off and can't afford to lose a day's pay.
+ThEuNdYiNg1 Someone is going to have to work anyways, which means that they would not be able to vote.
+ThEuNdYiNg1 That is often not possible. In Idaho, employers are not required to grant time off to vote. That's the problem. -John
Wow. I think this video set a landspeed record for most information dispensed about how broken our political process is in only five minutes. I'm in awe.
+TheNotAdam CGP Grey expands on this more if you're interested /watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k he also has other videos expanding more
Excellent intro, John. Very non-partisan and very informative! Definitely sharing.
+Trey Joseph Thanks! -John
+vlogbrothers you should do a whole video on gerrymandering of congressional districts. I live in Michigan and we have 14 congressional districts, gerrymandered to give the Republicans the advantage. 9 seats are Rep. 5 seats are Dem. even though Michigan is, technically, a blue state going Democratic in the last 6 presidential elections.
+R. E. Heubel Check out CGP Grey
+R. E. Heubel Honestly even without gerrymandering Michigan would still have a imbalance since the population density of the Detroit area (where I assume all the dem reps come from since it comprises 5 districts) would make even a fair drawing unbalanced in that manner, it might change the numbers by 1 or 2 (at best if that tbh) but given the population distribution it wouldn't fix the issue overall.
+Trey Joseph
It's not hard to be non-partisan when you are critiquing the particulars of an undemocratic system.
"Who will actually wield the power if the party and the people disagree?"
Remember that quote everyone.
+Bud Charles I'm afraid we all know the answer to that question.
Trump
I was watching Dear Hank and John, got a notification that this video was up. WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME. THESE CHOICES ARE HARD.
SAME!!
+Veronica Haley Wait. You were watching "Dear Hank and John?" Did they start releasing it in a visual format?!
+Christopher McKee I meant listening. I was typing too fast to think about what I was typing.
+Christopher McKee Well you could stare at the screen as the podcast is playing, I guess that would count as watching the podcast.
+Shauna Blake The cat with the solution.
I laughed for way too long at "But the MAIN thing is to make sure a budget doesn't accidentally get passed."
Why do politics have to be so messed up :(
Is there any realistic hope of making things... not... messed up... one day? D:
It was deliberately engineered that way.
+Nihar Baijal take your fucking ignorance and get the fuck out of here u jerk.
+Rachel & Jun i mean honestly probs not just bc the US was built around it being "messed up".... things were never fair. and at this point it seems like we'd have to completely rebuilt for it to ever be equal which... doesnt seem very likely to happen
+Chyna Bryan *rebuild not rebuilt
Weird to run into you here 🤔 The US's politics being messed up is partly due to our obsession over presidential elections, as the Constitution leaves the details for the election up to each individual state, only requiring that the voting happens via electoral college.
If we citizens were to pay attention more to Congress and hold them more accountable instead of treating the presidential election like some sort of national festival, we'd probably be a bit better off. The House is supposed to be the safeguard for the people in case of governmental misbehaving.
Wow. The American political system is so unnecessarily complicated.
+Jonathan Hughes yup
+Crocheting Canuck
It didn't start out that way. Representative democracy in America is dead, and bipartisanism has killed it.
I found this so helpful! Any chance you and Hank would ever start a politics channel?
One of the major reasons my friends who are 18-26 don't vote or even follow politics is because they don't understand them. I've also been troubled by a certain Republican nominee's success, and I wonder if he would experience as much success if the voting base understood the issues at hand more clearly.
You guys always do a great job of breaking difficult topics down and informing in a neutral and entertaining way. Our political discourse in this country desperately needs something like that and I'm pretty sure we won't get it from our mainstream news sources.
+Kayley Melissa crash course politics?
+Azivegu that's not hosted by them, and is more government than political opinion
*****
then I would strongly recommend Last Week Tonight. But its usually best not to get too much into political opinions. I know I and many others are smart separate anothers opinions from their character, but that isnt a trait shared by all.
Azivegu I think I watched all of the main ones. :P
Watching this as a non-USA citizen all I think is WHAT THE HELL AMERICA?! This is so complicated for no reason!
+Mary Cocolina I'm with you on this, Mary. I think the reason it is complicated, is to ensure the decision satisfies no-one, but some other no-ones cannot take the blame. Or something.
+John Benton That is true and I completely understand what you're saying! When the people do not understand, the governors manipulate them more easily, and do what they want blame-free. After all, we ourselves elect them! This is so insane!
It all seems a bit over-the-top to me. Still, as I. like you, do not have to live with this harebrained scheme, I can only gaze in wonder at the mastermind who thought it up.
I totally agree with you! Here in Germany parties determine their cancellor candidate on meetings they hold. So the party members can go there and then they debate and argue and stuff and then at some time they'll say: "Hey, look at this girl/ or guy she or he is our candidate. And if you don't like that person you just don't vote for this party. Besides in Germany, you are more voting for a party than a single person.
+Fungamerplays Well, I am from Greece, we have an almost similar way to elect party leaders, but, we only vote on one Sunday, the whole country, and each vote has the same meaning. In other words, if someone wins 500.000 votes and the other 450.000, the first one wins and if you don't like them, well, like you said you just do not vote then in nationals. I find both of that ways efficient, but our American friends want to make their life too complicated !
(PS: just to be clear, the voters in Greece-when electing a party leader- must be members of the party)
...but the main thing is they don't accidentally pass a budget
"your video about the situation in brazil made me think about the situation here in america"
Oh you americans, everything makes you think of america
+Drakan R Why wouldn't it? It's our home... where we live. Of course we attribute things we experience to what we know.
Your point?
+Drakan R So true. -John
Brazil is America too.
Maybe because we live here? Idk that just seems like a big reason
Hey, I live in Missouri. I voted for both Jay Nixon and Claire McCaskill, then voted for Sanders in the primary. So, I guess that kinda means I voted 16000 times for Hillary and once for Bernie. Sounds fair.
So is America a republic or oligarchy?
+Sir_Clovis It can be both, a republic is any system that isn't monarchy.
+Mickey G I think it is a system of government which uses representation of the people to govern. However, this meaning can be made to match a lot of systems of government that aren't very democratic.
***** US is officially defined as "constitutional republic," at no point in the history where US ever called itself a "democratic republic." Plutocracy is not a system, but an eventual consequence of supposedly fair system.
It's an oligarchy disguised as a constitutional republic.
+Sir_Clovis For oligarchies, please refer to Russia.
*Starts watching video. Pauses video. Googles the word 'delegates'. Continues watching video. Googles 'congressional districts'. Gives up. Goes back to watching Dr Who with tea and crumpets.*
+Rachael McInnes It explains it in the video!
I...I need another C.G.P.Grey's video on this topic. asap
Asking for a Grey video ASAP! Thank you for making me chuckle 😀
pintpullinggeek haha, yeah, the irony)
Money in politics, Gerrymandering, Super-delegates. America: The Land where Democracy is sold to rich people.
+volkanhto I don't disagree, but this has always been the case in the U.S. (I mean, for much of American history, if you weren't rich enough to own land, you literally weren't allowed to vote.) So I think we need to look at the current state of American politics as a place on a much longer timeline, and a timeline that frankly has seen political participation become more inclusive and less beholden to moneyed interests. That isn't to excuse the extent to which wealth is able to conserve itself and its power in the U.S., but I think we need to see this an an OLD problem rather than believing that we're living in some dystopian future. -John
+vlogbrothers Aside from the power to reform these things being in the hands of those who benefit from the broken system, is there any other obstacle to reform this?
+volkanhto No, that's not really true, at all.
+vlogbrothers which is what I got out of this episode. So thanks for that bit of perspective
Don't forget about that good ol' corporate lobbying
"Make sure we don't accidentally pass a budget"
LOL.
#johngreenforpresident
#hankforvicepresident
+BooksMusicAndSarcasm #GreenParty
+Matthew Ciaramitaro is that a reference?
Kevini saname It's a pun. The green party is a real party in the United States(and around the world) and it is also John Green's last name.
+Matthew Ciaramitaro yeah... Just asking if you were indeed referencing the green party. Jill stein and all that
Where are all my Bernie commenters?
+Anston [Music]
They're here (myself included), they're just too busy headbutting their desks in despair/rage/frustration (or some combination thereof).
Sanders is overwhelmingly popular with the youth, but said youth simply aren't voting at all.
Seriously. Everyone. Get off your asses and VOTE.
+Anston [Music] ...
#Bernie2016 ! :D
Here!
Right here. It must KILL John and Hank not to say it, but you know they Feel the Bern.
There we go! I wish you all the luck from Finland, one of his strongest arguments. :D
Wow, 4 of the last 5 videos are over four minutes. This has to be some kind of record. Hooray for educational videos!
Why is it that every time I watch a vlogbrothers video I feel even more proud to be Canadian??
our system is pretty fucked too. we don't vote for a prim minister local representatives of the party that nominate a party leader.
Man, I have never been able to figure this process out...but I thank you for your help all the same. I'm loving the vlogbrothers videos.
Basically the reaction to this video for me and many other Americans is "yeah... *sigh*... yeah. :/"
+OnceUponAPiano *sigh* -.-' Thats politics for ya...
Whenever I see people talk about American politics I'm so grateful I was born in Scandinavia.
Me too...
Or just north of the bored.
Hopefully the US will be a bit more like Scandinavia soon! #feelthebern
+Erika Lindberg Whenever I see people talk about American politics I'm so grateful I wasn't born in America, but then I remember that I was born in Russia and I wish I was born in Scandinavia instead ))
(Like I live fairly close to Finland, and every other day me and my friends turn on the news we are like "so when are we crossing the border on bikes?" I bet Finland won't be thrilled about this though )) )
Think Twice...
Wow! I'm definitely going to share this video with all the people who keep asking me to explain what's happening right now with the primaries and caucuses. I think it'll give them a better understanding of what I've explained so far. Thank you so much for making this video!!
Every time John talks about elections in the US I get a headache .... and they call it democracy. There is more democracy in a beagle than in the elections in the US.
Superdelegates may be okay in an MMP system where multiple parties are represented, but in the FPP-like system the US has, it really undermines the powers of voters.
I'm from Missouri and still live here, and I have to say I jumped a little when you said that was the state you'd be talking about. :D Excellent analysis.
John has successfully turned a Vlogbrothers comment section into a standard TH-cam comment section. To quote him, I'm not sure this represents progress.
Thank you so much for making this video, John! This is my first election cycle and I have been finding myself very quickly becoming confused about how elections in the United States really work. I've tried doing research and stuff, but I just get so lost so fast. If you choose to make another video regarding the American political system, I know that I would be quite grateful!
This is one of the reasons why I could never live in the US. The fact that Bernie Sanders might win the primaries and still not be the Democratic nominee is baffling to me, as an European. Not to mention the 2-party system which is unheard of in Europe.
+Ricardo Lopes In Italy it's worse, it's a constant state of long years passing by before anything happens.
Yeah, but you still have smaller parties who can make real change, at least in a local level. But yeah, to my limited knowledge of Italian politics, Italy is probably the least democratic country of the EU.
+Ricardo Lopes Although recent developments in Poland were pretty worrisome. I mean, I guess they're technically 'democratic', since the government making these changes was democratically elected. But things like limiting freedom of press and the supreme court are not what we generally associate with a democratic state.
JSQuareD Yes, that's a big problem in post-comunist democracies. The transition to democracy was fairly recent and in a sense is still going on because people are still getting use to democracy. Hopefully that will improve with time as young people start to push for change and make their voices heard.
who else imagines John as president, because that would be awesome!
Watching this at *2 speed is like watching a hummingbird on Redbull talk about politics. All jokes aside, this was great video with lots of useful information. I learned a lot. Thank you!
+vlogbrothers Thank you so much for talking about Missouri! It was a really heated primary in my city (St. Louis) and I found that most adults didn't truly understand the primary process. I can just tell them to watch this now.
I think it worthwhile, when you tackle an important and dense educational topic like this one, to give the topic the extra time it requires, as you have here, but also to give the video presentation it requires by slowing your speech and the jump cuts to something a little closer to crash course style. There's not much pithy about party politics, congressional districts, and delegate allocation.
"Who will wield the power when the party and the people disagree."
Does this feel like it could have been a line from Hamilton? Anyone?
Edit: I know it isn't actually but to me it just has the same kind of feel. I'm also seeing Hamilton parallels everywhere these days and that was probably the point.
Man lets hope Sanders wins.
Love. This. Wonderful explanation and commentary, John!
Good observations, John. Thanks!
Once again, I believe punishment is waved cuz holy crap we need this information. Education waiver, signed, carry on John.
+melimsah Thanks :) -John
+Chris Were I understood the video
REMOVE SUPERDELEGATES! THE MOST UNDEMOCRATIC THING IN THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY
+Joshua M If the Republicans had them, Donald Trump wouldn't stand a chance of being nominated.
When the word Democracy was first used in Ancient Greece, it was generally a pejorative associated with mob rule and chaos.
The truth resists simplicity.
yeah the Constitution actually tries to make the presidential election as indirect as possible. Senatorial elections as well...actually the only directly elected leaders in the original document were the representatives.
Bad German i dont care that trump would lose if the republicans had superdelegates. its a BAD system that is undemocratic. dont try to fucking say otherwise
+Fulano de Tal That's super relevant. Before 1913 most Senators were elected by their own state's legislature - when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were having their famous antebellum debate over slavery and who should be the next Illinois Senator they weren't debating in front of the general public, the people they needed to win over were the local legislators.
These days most people have no idea that they even HAVE a state senate or state house of representatives.
+Joshua M Buddy do we really need to bring swearing into this?
John Green said the word Missouri
WE ON THE MAP
I can tell he feels the Bern. The way he said "when the party and the people disagree" at the end was a giveaway. #FEELTHEBERN
+Alexander Tso when the party and the people disagree the party always win. the game is rig.
I live in Missouri. I knew the legislature here sucked, but I had no idea how badly it sucked.
With each new Vlogbrothers video, I feel more and more like they need to consider hosting some sort of news-breakdown-focused channel.
Really, though; look at the topic spread on the last few weeks. John is in the middle of a series of videos on the current refugee crisis, both this video and the immediately previous one are explanations of current political landscapes, and other recent focuses such as the Bill & Melinda Gates letter and the World Economic Forum in Davos reinforce this trend.
I love having this stuff on the main channel, and it's important that these discussions reach a wide audience, but at 4/5 of the most recent videos, it's getting to the point where the current events and explanations thereof could very easily spin off into their own channel.
That would actually be pretty cool.
As a Brit, I'm both fascinated and terrified by the American political system, but don't know enough to entirely understand it or the extent of corruption. This video was incredibly enlightening and useful - I really hope you make more videos like this i.e. American politics for beginners, they're so important given the current political situation.
Thanks for a great video John!
Hi John I like your videos, however I want to notice that the super delegates always turn to the candidate with the majority of delegates, like in 2008 when Hillary's super delegates went to Barack Obama. This is important because the media uses super delegates to show a wider difference between her and Bernie Sanders. Super delegates turn, for either side. The important here is the delegates and currently there Mrs Clinton is 200 delegates ahead of Bernie and not as much as the media wants you think. They never let you know that they're using super delegates when showing who's got more delegates. Nice video, keep up with good show!
"...Fails to pass a budget," "...accidentally pass a budget." made me laugh out loud on the quiet floor of the library. Kudos.
Thank you so much for your succinct explanations of political and social constructs that should have been taught to me in school.
"the main thing is to make sure that we don't accidentally pass a budget."
Had to pause the video, step outside, breathe some fresh air, and laugh repeatedly until I was able to come back inside and finish the video
Hey John! What would be the very first thing you'd do if you were president?
+I'mJette Are you kidding!? Haven't you heard about that horrendous penny situation?!
Was thinking of buying strep throat, so glad I watched your review first!
YOU CHOSE MY STATE. And let me tell you, I was watching the primaries all night and I really wish I had had this video before then! I love your educational videos, the help me get at least a basic understanding so that I know where to go to look for more information, or at least just be not completely ignorant. THANK YOU
This is so informative! Thanks John :)
The US really does have a completely shit electoral system.
I'd trust a cat.
It was deliberately made that way.
The cat was made for trust.
Yay for gerrymandering and antiquated party delegatory elections.
People say that every vote matters? Well, there are votes that matter WAAAAAAAAY more, and if that doesn't in a small way justify people thinking that their vote doesn't count, the only thing that would make it more worthless is if it wasn't counted at all.
+TheGreatRakatan There is a small part of me that wants to encourage this kind of thinking; it makes my vote worth more. Mostly I feel like everyone should just be able to do their civic duty and do it.
I have no idea what you were just talking about John but I still love ya!
Finally a good description! Thanks.
so basically delegates suck and super delegates super suck
kinda sounds like it
The United States needs to update our voting system. We are not the same country we were 250 years ago.
+Madeline Nielsen Yes. The first thing would be to require an ID to vote. Like you need to have in order to travel by plane, train, or driving an automobile.
+Gene Jordan (GeekTinker) I fully agree with you. It's amazing how many dead people suddenly rise from the grave every voting cycling.
+Gene Jordan (GeekTinker) There is already voter registration, This would only hinder people from voting. Young and old people now have to go through an entire other process just to vote.
+mike hunt and there are people getting caught abusing the system during every voter cycle. Since we can be assured that only a fraction of the abusers are being caught, then the best way to help eliminate that is to require an ID when voting. Not a special, separate ID, but the current one for state of residence. It really isn't as difficult to attain as those in opposition would make it out to be. Being prepared to vote is part of a citizen's responsibility to vote. Without an ID, people can't function in society or any collect benefits the state provides. The process of voting should be no different.
Gene Jordan www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/07/09/7-papers-4-government-inquiries-2-news-investigations-and-1-court-ruling-proving-voter-fraud-is-mostly-a-myth/
It's extremely insignificant, again this would dampen democracy
Thanks for making a really good video!
Thank you for explaining my state to me! Helped so much!
After the conventions, will vlogbrothers be endorsing a candidate like you guys did for Obama in 08?
Also- man I wish I had this video to explain the whole election process to me sooner. It's so weird and complicated agh.
Why not just call it what it is John. Gerrymandering.
+Corrupted Archangel Gerrymandering is forming districts that proportion the vote within a state to the advantage of another political party or person to the disadvantage of other political party or person to the extend that it dilutes the representation of people in a particular location.
The 2 party system does use some gerrymandering techniques. But it's even worse if you can imagine something being worse than gerrymandering.
The two party rule system is essentially a method for elites to stack their own politicians in both parties, so they ensure they get representation no matter the eventuality.
Gerrymandering and the 2 party system makes it easy to stack candidates, and get the necessarily minimum plurality in those districts to win.
As someone who has had strep 4 different times, I commend you for doing so much talking. Talking with strep feels like having nails dragged down your throat, but you were a freaking champ. I hope you had some cough drops or something waiting nearby.
Also, this video was awesome. It's really hard to find a somewhat straightforward explanation of, well, anything involving elections really, and this was really clear.
Thank you so much. This really helped me. It was the only site that did. Thank you. It was perfectly and good mind nutritionally dense. Perfect. Subscribing!
This is off-topic, but a request for your next video. What is your view on standardized testing? How do you think should tests be implemented in schools? Like, what should be the criteria/qualifications for moving up to the next higher level? Hope you'll see this, really dying to know your insights on this topic!
Primaries seem to rip parties apart right before they have to come together for the actual election. Meaning people might have to now vote for the person they wanted to lose because who they wanted didn't get the nomination. It's strange to me
Adore that you used Missouri as your example. As a resident of the 2nd district, and a dubious expert of our state's political process, I found it very enlightening.
I live in Missouri and this honestly helped me so much. I thought I knew how it worked, but this cleared up so much for me.
I'm glad you didn't try to explain why Puerto Rico and Guam get to participate in the primaries but not in the general election. At least those of us in the District of Columbia, the nonvoting District of Columbia, do have 3 Electoral College votes so our participation in the primaries makes sense.
Senator - "Oops, I fell asleep during that last part did we accidentally pass a budget? Damn."
No no no no, its the Representatives from the House of Representatives that stop budgets from getting passed. Senators are diffrent. They stop *laws* from getting passed.
Well, my comment was meant to be sarcastic and I'm rather tired today, But thank you for the correction so no one gets confused.
Love how John Green's voice goes down suddenly whenever he says "budget".
This was so interesting! I live in Missouri and I hadn't really heard about that yet (because I'm 13 haven't gotten around to checking) so thanks for informing me!
This just saddens me. But I am happy to be informed at least
It's true that primaries aren't strictly democratic but the mistake people keep making is thinking they need to be. A party is basically a privately run club with its own rules and hierarchies. It's not constitutional in any way so they're free to make up whatever crazy rules they want to. It's only relatively recently that they even let the public voice their opinions on the matter at all, they have every right to just decide amongst themselves who to put forward as the nominee if they feel like it.
If you consider the rules unfair then you should start your own party instead, or become an active member and seek to influence party policy. If you think the rules are unfair then the simple solution is not to run with them. If you're running for a party, you've already agreed to the rules and you don't have a case to complain.
+Krombopulos Michael If political parties fully acted like private clubs, then I wouldn't have a problem with it, but parties are really semi-public institutions. (They are partly funded by public money; they are regulated by state laws that instruct them to behave in certain ways; etc.) It's the in-betweenness of the American political party that makes it so incredibly weird. But I agree the best way to shape the system is by participating in it, which means getting involved in local politics. -John
+vlogbrothers I think most of the commentors here would agree with this statement John. In fact, in person I talk to a lot of people that support Sanders, and can't stand Trump--but the polls seem to show the opposite. The youth need to do more than just say they'll vote, they need to actually vote. I'm under the impression myself that there's a lack of voters because elections are normally held during work and/or school hours and that many people simply don't have the time to actually get to the polls. I also understand that people are also apt to not go and then complain later on about results.
I also would love to see people get as invested in local/city elections as they do in national ones. Last year the city elections were totally overshadowed here by this year's presidential elections--and I couldn't believe it myself. I'd think more people would be interested in city elections, where votes matter more and the actions of those elected are far more visible. I'd be interested to hear your take on these.
+David Riley Jr. Sanders probably has more support than Trump does among U.S. voters; Sanders' problem is that he also has less support than Clinton, at least in the states that have voted so far. -John
+Krombopulos Michael This assumes that breaking away from the party line is a politically viable option. But running without a party affiliation from one of the big parties has been a non-starter for basically our entire history with a few notable exceptions, none of which are recent. The parties act as the gate keepers of essentially all federal politics.
Getting involved in internal party politics is an option, but only provided that you don't stray too far from the party line or you may get expelled from the party (one of those rules that they can make up).
This puts you in a bit of a Catch 22. You can't start your own party and be successful so you have to join a party, but if what you are running on is too different from either of the two parties you can't really join a serious political party.
+vlogbrothers Are primaries open to any one on the electoral roll or do you have to be a member? Is am amused even your primaries alone took much longer than our entire election here in the UK.
Very informative, congratulations.
Love these educational vids!
It's super absurd that in USA you guys don't have direct election...
+Stefanie Jordan
We'd have to pass a constitutional amendment in order to make that happen. Which hasn't happened since 1992, and that was on a super non-controversial subject.
+cOmAtOrAn 1971 the 26th amendment was the last voting constitutional amendment passed; made it uniform for all states' voting age to be 18 or older. Prior, each state had their own voting age requirement some as high as 21 years or older.
Constitutional amendments are on purpose, not easy to pass to avoid big changes that can be very bad; like France's Terror in which they suspended much of their constitution and went on the chop everyone's head off spree.
Just getting an amendment to overturn Citizens United supreme court decision that corporations, non-profits, and all other private organizations are not a person or a citizen, and thus do not have the same rights as an individual person to the 1st amendment, and may be subject to limitations on funds spent toward political campaigns or political policies. Most citizens both right or left side agree such a thing should be passed. And that's going very slow, using the 2/3 state legislatures method for a constitutional convention; that method has never been used to actually pass any amendments; the only method that has enacted/retracted amendments in the past was federal legislature 2/3 majority.
Trying to pass direct election votes hasn't even started in either method. I would like to tack onto well defined drawing district proportioning methods to eliminate gerrymandering too.
+Stefanie Jordan and it sounds/ looks shady af
Good to see more TH-camr's I like explain to the world how completely idiotic our primary process is. Friend of mine in Norway was trying to understand how it was that Bernie Sanders was running such a close campaign to Hillary but getting completely stomped on in delegates, because the superdelegates had already all declared support for Hillary.
I also recommend the videos done by CGP Grey on the American political process and elections in general (which are split up easily for you to pick which ones you're interest in).
Excellent Video John! I consider myself a very informed voter and I didn't know half of that about state and party rules, well done.
I'm voting John Green for President.
You get to vote for a guy who voted for another guy so that in November you can vote for a guy who will vote for that other guy.
A huge thanks from this Canadian girl who's trying to follow the news and understand what is going on :) You made it way easier to follow !
As a non-American, I find it very helpful when you explain things about the American government, because it is very confusing. Thank you!
I'm a Canadian and I will proudly say American politics makes no sense. But thanks for trying John!
Same.... CANADA
+R.J. Arsenault agreed, sometimes i think our first past the post system is silly and the senate is borked , but then i look at how the US does it, and i dont feel as bad
I'm American and I will proudly say that I have no idea what two thirds of this video means. Yay public school systems......
Hahaha, for a long time, I didn't know politics much. But.... The government works for you, learn how it works and make the change you want!
+R.J. Arsenault BAAASSSICALLY me right now LOOOL Why is it so complicated?!?!
For anyone who is wondering... It's educational therefore it's allowed to be more than 4 minutes
Can I ask why there's a limit on the first place?
+Julia Kaplun random rule from 2007 is random.
Yeah pretty much random rule is random. It may have to do with the average length of Ze Frank's videos? Or maybe view optimization as of early TH-cam? I don't know we shall ask! JOHN OR HANK WHY THE FOUR MINUTES???!!!... That shall do. Now we wait for a response.
Voters in Arizona, Erik PyeBrooklyn, NYMar 22, 2016 - IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO ARIZONA VOTERS!!!
STAY IN DAMN LINE OR GO BACK!!!
Melissa,
We're hearing a large number of complaints and reading numerous reports about problems at polling places around Arizona.
First off, if you are in line waiting cast your vote PLEASE STAY IN LINE TO VOTE.
Even if there are issues at your polling place, you can submit a provisional ballot -- and that ballot WILL BE COUNTED.
We can't thank you enough for voting. And as Executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party, I am deeply committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections.
So if you had a problem voting today, I want to hear about it. Please fill out a short form notify us of what you experienced.
We will be compiling your stories as the basis of a complaint to the Secretary of State's office. Our Elections officials need to be held accountable for the mess they allowed to happen today. So please tell us about any issues you experienced while voting today >>
Thank you for continuing to wait in line. EVERY vote should be counted, and I'm going to fight to make sure Arizona improves its voting process.
Thank you,
Sheila Healy
Executive Director
Arizona Democratic Party
Remember if you are planning on voting in New York you have to be registered by friday March 25Th. If you plan on voting in Pennsylvania register by the 28Th of March.www.change.org/p/i-support-bernie-sanders-but-i-will-not-support-hillary-clinton-in-a-general-election/u/15936191?tk=FCvhcsXgsJgyMD6FGZ3GlUYp-Yd-MvEhd3ihUeLL8ug&
John, it'd be awesome if you or Hank could explain what happened in the Arizona primary. Many were unable to vote due to long lines and I think that's just the tip of the iceberg of issues we have in my state. Great video as always!
I have an idea. Set a SINGLE DAY for the primaries. The whole country votes that very day. Calculate the vote percentages of each of the candidates, whoever gets the most votes country-wide on each party is that party's nominee. Then set another date, two-four months later for the general elections. Same thing. The whole country voting the same day. Much less complicated, and BILLIONS of dollars saved in campaigning.
+Diego Do you think it is a good thing for national candidates to enmesh themselves into the local politics of different states to understand constituents at the state level?
Sporkredfox I don't think I understand your question. What I'm saying is the primaries in the US should be like any other countries. One day everyone goes to vote. whoever gets the most votes is the nominee. then same thing for the general elections. Simple. Democratic.
So, first I am going to say that I don't think our election system, primary or otherwise, is a good system. But over this election the spread out primaries are something I have been thinking about a lot.
Your first criticism, the length of our primaries, has merit and if you get into details (NH and Iowa always being first) there is plenty to criticize. But forcing politicians to embark on a national campaign and work state by state to win voters actually has some merits.
It is a good thing that politicians be forced to learn about the issues of flint, michigan along with the rest of the state before the state votes. And it will be good for politicians to learn about superfund sites in New Jersey and California.
Last year, I was also of the opinion that primaries should all happen on the same day but now I have changed my mind. Spreading them out a little (though it should be less than this) magnifies national attention onto particular issues of particular states and gives candidates and an electorate a chance to focus on a state.
And yes, I am aware of problems such as later states voting after the election has been decided, trade-offs are a part of any system.
Sporkredfox I get your point, but why should it be like that? I'll tell you how it works in my country:
Candidates campaign all across the country, up and down left and right, trying to convince everyone from EVERY province to vote for them (subsequently since every 4 years all governors are voted to office, it coincides with the presidential elections so every party has a candidate in every province, that potential governor really digs deep in the problems of that particular province and campaigns around it, enriching the presidential campaign). I mean just because everyone votes the same day on primaries doesn't mean that the campaign can't take time to go around the country and convince everyone to vote for them. It just happens BEFORE election day. and then, no "delegates" or "super delegates" B.S, just EVERYONE'S vote is worth the same, no matter the province. Same thing on the general elections. I know some shady things happened before, like for instance Bush v Al Gore in Florida and stuff like that. You guys should count every vote the same way and then draw a percentage from EVERY vote as if every vote from every state was worth the same.
this is cray, as a foreigner looking in, i can feel the frustration!
Nice summary of an overly complex selection process. Its going to be interesting to see the outcome!
You are awesome Sir!
I actually kind of understood this!
This whole voting process seems remarkably undemocratic for "The Greatest Democracy in the World."
+Victor Dalloz
Democracy means that the citizens decide who governs them. When that is not met. it is not democratic.
Victor Dalloz
In Finland parties choose their candidates and citizens can nominate a candidate by creating a nomination association of 20 000 people in favor of the candidate who are allowed to vote. Then the citizens vote for the next president. If no one gets over half of the vote, the next vote will be conducted in two weeks. There people choose the president from the first vote's two most popular candidates.
"There are 435 congressional districts in the United States. Each of these districts elects a congressperson every two years who goes to Washington and fails to pass a budget. Presumably, they also do other things, but the main thing is to make sure we don't accidentally pass a budget."
That is seriously all you need to know about American politics.
Yes! Another informational!