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On this listener mail episode, Mike and Jay discuss:
- If Jay is spreading vote fraud falsehoods to advance a right-wing agenda.
- Two international views on mandatory voting
- If term limits lead to more courageous politicians
- The sneaky (but legal) way the Michigan legislature undid a minimum wage initiative
- The difficulty of correcting gerrymandering through elections
Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.
Hi Politics Guys! I love your show and I recently become a Patreon supporter. This episode really hit home for me. I have been moving away from the Republican Party and this episode highlighted why. Everyone is a hypocrite to some degree and all politicians/ political parties are “dirty” but the Republican Party (at least down here in the Bible Belt), use to act as if morality and norms mattered. I was old enough to vote in the Clinton years and was fairly polically active. I remember our senator’s take on the Clinton situation. More recently, I remember our congressman’s take on the Clinton emails. And I also remember another congressman from our state yelling “you lie” during a state of the union address. All of these same people have have no problems with this administration. I realize that is not a topic you tackled in this episode but I think Jay’s take on the responsibility (or lack there of) of legislative bodies to act in moral ways and/or within the bounds of norms is really where the Republican Party is now. Unwritten rules, norms, morality, truth, and legacy (just ask Rudy Giuliani) are for suckers, plus the democrats do it and Clinton did it, so we aren’t wrong for doing it. I’d suggest if you are using the Clinton’s as your moral compass, you should reassess. I’d also suggest that in terms of morality, Trump and the Clintons have a lot in common. Again I realize that Jay is not talking about the Trump administration or necessarily supporting the president’s (lack of) morality and ethics, but his take on what various Republican legislative bodies are doing is — as everyone is saying now — “how you get Trump.” We keep lowering the bar and now it is no problem for anyone to clear it as long as he is on “our side.” After this episode, I changed my voter registration from Republican to independent. I am not ready to say I am a Democrat, but Jay really help me to see that I am most definitely not a Republican any more.
Hi Tara! Thanks so much for supporting the show on Patreon and for your great comment. As you know, I absolutely agree with you on this – while it may be idealistic and maybe even a little bit naive, I’m proud to make the case for the importance of morality and norms in politics. -Mike