Speaker 1: OK, let's get into audience questions for the week, the first one, this is actually
a really interesting question.
If getting out the vote is a valid strategy for winning elections, why isn't suppressing
the vote a valid strategy?
We are talking about two different things here, saying to people, you know what, none
of these candidates really have your interests in mind.
If you vote for anyone, you're reinforcing some status quo or you're enabling the two
party system or whatever, even lying to people about the positions of the candidates in order
to get them to dislike all of them and stay home.
You know that that's electioneering.
I prefer people tell the truth.
But the point is that that is a strategy to say let's run a no vote campaign or a blank
vote campaign or whatever the case may be.
That's the opposite of get out the vote, trying to suppress turnout by lying about polling
places, lying about voter ID rules, pushing voter purges, looking to limit early voting
hours or mail in voting.
That is a completely different strategy.
One is a strategy of disenfranchizing someone from voting, which is a right.
The other is just making the case that it's not in your interests to vote.
And if if people don't understand the difference between these two things we're in, we're in
real trouble now.
I would disagree with the strategy of four.
I mean, listen, we saw this.
There were lots of people saying I don't like any there were Bernie supporters who when
Hillary won or when Biden won, said, I don't like Trump, but I don't like Biden.
I don't like Trump, but I don't like Hillary.
I just I'm opting out.
I don't want to participate.
I don't want to support any of these candidates.
I disagreed with them.
But that's that's that's not voter suppression.
That's saying I am making the decision to wield my right to vote by not voting.
Or voting third party or whatever the case may be, those are people with whom we would
just talk and figure out, is that a good strategy?
What is the goal?
What are you trying to attain by doing that?
Will it actually work to attain that?
There is nothing similar when you then look at what the Republican Party has done to try
to suppress the vote, trying to have absentee ballots thrown out, limiting who can get absentee
ballots, cutting Sunday voting hours, purging people because they haven't voted in a few
elections by saying these are no longer really active voters in the sense that you should
be registered voter polling, intimidation, that is disenfranchisement, convincing people
you are making the country better by not voting, by choosing not to vote.
I would disagree with the strategy.
I think it's always better to vote in every situation I've seen.
But it is a completely different thing.
And part of the problem is that when people don't get it, they might be tricked by that
question.
They might hear, hey, you know what?
It's true.
If getting out the vote is a strategy, why isn't suppressing the vote a strategy?
Well, suppressing by just saying choose not to vote, protest with us, protest by not voting.
That's totally legitimate suppressing in the way that Republicans have been trying to do.
We now have over 250 voter suppression bills across more than 40 states.
Why?
Because they didn't suppress enough of the vote to win in 2020.
It's quite that simple.
A very different thing.
I'm I'm glad to answer the question.
There is very little comparison
between
the two.