This episode of DXP focuses pretty much exclusively on politics (which, we realize, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But look at the bright side: When civilization as we know it ends in a year or two, none of you will have to worry about podcasts anymore. Or tea. Or cups. Or anything.). We take a voicemail about third party voting and another about the electoral college (about which we have modified our stance somewhat, because math). We then tackle the seeming false equivalency regarding left- and right-wing fearmongering. Our attention then turns to whether Trump is truly “draining the swamp” as he claimed to do, after which we take a chilling stroll through our president-elect’s possible cabinet appointments. We then ponder why evangelical Christians basically put Trump in office despite his being almost as unlike Christ as Satan. Christian is Feeding Friendsied by ignorance concerning what constitutes a scientific theory, while Jason is biebered by having to touch everyone’s food with his filthy hands.
The Hamilton and SNL rants are Trump’s way of manipulating the public to discuss something other than the Trump U setttlement. It is frightening how good he is at it. I mean, Jason didn’t even know about the settlement, but knew all about Hamilton.
He’s smarter than you think. These aren’t just random flare ups, they are calculated.
I think you’re right. I’m came to a similar realization earlier today. Trump is like: “Hey watch this, I’m going to get everyone talking about a musical that is meaningless, while real news is happening”. He is a master at media manipulation and marketing.
Lane
Christian, it’s not that I intentionally misunderstood the argument. Sometimes several people are commenting at the same time, AND I’m having to read and comment very quickly because I’m trying to not get in trouble from the wife while we’re out and about. So I simply didn’t follow the point of your hell question at all.
Kenneth Winsmann
He also called in the mainstream media today for an “off the record” lashing….. And then leaked his shit talking to the press. The guy is gonna make one hell of an interesting four years.
And as a side note im starting to think he might actually accomplish some good things…. Everyone should give the guy a chance. I think he will govern different than he tweets
Rachel
I’m willing to hear people’s reasons for voting third party if and only if they support the third party cause when it’s not a general election year. Were they working to support third party candidates in midterm elections and in local elections? Were they pounding the pavement and knocking on doors in the interim? Because there’s not much anyone can do in a general election year to advance the third party cause, and you need viable candidates in the pipeline in order to have an impact at the national level. If you’re serious about the third party cause that’s great, but be serious about it all the time. Think the thought whole, as Kierkegaard would say.
Christian, I think Justin Trudeau should be your new BFF when Jason abandons you. Not only is he smart and chill but I bet he also has awesome stories from his day job to share on the podcast.
Alex Schwartz
I have to disagree with your argument that the electoral college forces candidates to campaign all across the country. Clinton knew she would win California, New York, Illinois, and most of the other solid Democratic states so she didn’t need to campaign there. Trump knew he would win Wyoming, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and most of the other solid Republican states so he didn’t need to campaign there. At the same time Clinton didn’t campaign in solid red states because she knew she’d lose and those votes wouldn’t count, and vice versa for Trump. For example, Trump had only one campaign stop in Nebraska, Montana, and ND each and 0 campaign stops in SD, Idaho, Kansas, and Wyoming. He knew he was going to win those states so it didn’t matter whether he stopped there or not. Trump went to Washington 3 times, Oregon once, and California only a handful of times because he knew he was going to lose those states so he didn’t want to waste his time or money for votes that wouldn’t en up mattering. The candidates mainly focused on swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, etc. because these are the states that would make the difference. In a popular vote system all those losing votes that end up not counting towards anything in the electoral college would matter. Even though Clinton only got 20-40% in most solidly Republican states, those votes helped add up to her popular vote win. Imagine how many more votes she might have gotten in those states if she had actively campaigned there. She won over 60% of the vote in California and nearly 60% in NY. If Trump had more actively campaigned in those states he might have cut her lead by some and the popular vote could have been closer. To me it seems that when every vote contributes directly and equally to you winning the presidency it would encourage people to cast a wider campaign net than when a candidate knows that they can win solid states easily without campaigning there and that votes for the losing candidate in a solid red or blue state will end up not counting for anything.
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