1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: The sixteen nineteen project was bunk, the eighteen seventy two 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: project fascinating. It's one more thing. 3 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 2: I'm strong and getty, one more thing. I can't imagine 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 2: what you're talking about. I will explain. 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: So I came across this sub stack fellow by the 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: name of Derek Thompson, who's a really an interesting guy 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: and thinker, and recent column of his was the twenty 8 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: five most interesting ideas I've found in twenty twenty five 9 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: so far, and it really varies widely, and it's all 10 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: really interesting. It includes some stuff we've talked about on 11 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: the show, like that marriage is rapidly becoming a high quality, 12 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: luxury good. Only the affluent are continuing to get married, 13 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: just statistically speaking. 14 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 2: And he talks about. 15 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: Alleged religious revivals, talks about the fact that half of 16 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: Americans don't get their news from the news. They get 17 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: their news from social media, yeah, which means they follow 18 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: influencers or let the news feed wash over them or both. 19 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 2: That revival thing is interesting. I've seen a lot of 20 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 2: info on that that they're just tons. That had thing 21 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 2: on CBS News the other day about tons of young 22 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 2: people getting baptized, like bigger numbers than they've had in decades. 23 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:21,759 Speaker 1: Yeah, this kind disputes some of it, but I didn't 24 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: find his reasoning compelling. But here's the part I wanted 25 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: to get to, and it's funny. I'd not really been 26 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: aware of this as a fan of history. On his 27 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: list of the twenty five most interesting ideas he came across, 28 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,160 Speaker 1: number seven was was eighteen seventy two the most important 29 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: year for political freedom in the world. 30 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 2: Okay, let me think for just a second. What happened 31 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy two, something around reconstruction. 32 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: I don't know, kind of sort of certainly eighteen seventy 33 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 1: two that are come with both fists flying if it 34 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: wants to take on seventeen seventy six. But in the 35 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: essay Freedom, the author David Bell points out that for 36 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:13,080 Speaker 1: most of democracy's history, voting was a performative and communal act, 37 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: with public decorations and even open parades. 38 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 2: The secret ballot. 39 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:21,120 Speaker 1: That most Americans associate with the ballot box is a 40 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: relatively recent invention, at least in modern Western history. It 41 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:27,959 Speaker 1: was in eighteen seventy two the town of punctra Fact 42 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: in West Yorkshire, Britain, held an election for Parliament that 43 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: they decided should take place by secret ballot. Others deemed 44 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: the experiment of success, and within decades most of the 45 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: Western world adopted this method of voting. 46 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 2: Wow, so I did not know this? How did it 47 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 2: work beforehand? 48 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: You would like to fill it out in front of everybody? 49 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: Or the powers that be would say, Oh, there's Joe 50 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: Getty voting for the Republicans again. Interesting, Wow, there's no secrecy. 51 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: Previous elections in the West had largely involved public meetings, 52 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 1: often highly raucous ones, in which everyone could see how 53 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: everyone else voted. Such settings made it difficult to conceive 54 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 1: of the act as anything other than an expression of 55 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: communal as opposed to individual preference. But once voting became secret, 56 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: it became far easier to imagine it as an expression 57 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:19,919 Speaker 1: of purely personal choice in accordance with an individual's deep 58 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,359 Speaker 1: beliefs and values. Another change encouraged the shift, the development 59 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: of voting booths, in which closed voters could, before marking 60 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: their ballots, commune solemnly with their consciences. US began to 61 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: adopt the secret ballot a decade yet later. By World 62 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: War One, the secret ballot was nearly universal in Western democracies. 63 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 2: Hmmm, I thought I knew most stuff. I did not 64 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 2: know that. I did not know that stuff. 65 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: No, I didn't either. 66 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 2: Stuff most thanks. 67 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: Yes, Then he writes, imagine what people would say if 68 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 1: the White House said it was banning secret ballots and 69 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: forcing all voting to be public, and this thus open 70 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: a state coersion. Imagine that and you get a sense 71 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: of why eighteen seventy two you can plausibly be considered 72 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: a formative moment in political freedom. 73 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 2: That's a pretty good one. Yeah, so too. 74 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 3: The first time I went to vote, I grew up 75 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 3: obviously in a very liberal area, and I walked up 76 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 3: and they had a whole stack of you know, ballots 77 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 3: right there, and I set up and I handed on 78 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 3: my little thing that you had to turn in, and 79 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:18,200 Speaker 3: they said. 80 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 2: Oh, we don't have any of those. 81 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 3: Could we get a Republican ballot please? And everybody you like, 82 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 3: turned and looked at me. 83 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 2: I was like eighteen. I was like, okay, Wow, it 84 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:27,839 Speaker 2: was very it was bizarre. 85 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: Wow. 86 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that ain't supposed to happen. I know it's 87 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 2: not now, I know, Yeah, you know it's not suppose 88 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 2: to happen. Yeah. 89 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,279 Speaker 1: The whole primary thing where you have to like say 90 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: out loud which way you swing. I've always felt uncomfortable 91 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: because since I was aware of voting at all, I 92 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 1: just always assumed, of course, it's a secret ballot. I 93 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: don't have to declare what I am to you, right, 94 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: A pole worker or activist or whatever. It's none of 95 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: your damn business. 96 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:57,680 Speaker 2: You're young. What was your first presidential election? Katie Obama? 97 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 2: Obama want to vote in? 98 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 3: And I also was chuckled at for handing her my ID, 99 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 3: thinking we needed an. 100 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 2: ID to vote. Yeah, I know, I've had that experience 101 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 2: several times. Or I get up my driver's you don't 102 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,599 Speaker 2: need that, I don't. I find this troubling that I 103 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 2: do not need my ID for this. 104 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:17,600 Speaker 1: Yes, I need it for everything, everything I do all 105 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:20,279 Speaker 1: day long, but not this. Oh no, that would be oppressive. 106 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 2: Nice. I'm old. I voted harding my first presidential vote, 107 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 2: and you regret it, don't you? And I regret it 108 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 2: looking back about Jack l for the hype, I was 109 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 2: trying to keep the women's from voting, and well, right, 110 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 2: and rode that way as long as I can. Well, 111 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 2: I guess that's it.