WEBVTT - How to Steal An Election 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.600 Welcome. Today could happen here. It's it's the last episode 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.840 that that there were that I'm recording this year. Um yeah, 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.960 I'm your host. Be along, and today we are going 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.439 to tell you a story of the Republican Party using 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.599 extensive political violence and attempt to manipulate an election to 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.440 install their unelected presidential Canada's dictator of the United States. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.520 And of by this, of course, I am referring not 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.720 to the election, but to the election of two thousand's okay, 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.839 So for for for those of you who do not 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:40.680 remember this story, and this is okay, I was like 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.800 three when this was happening. But weirdly, I have a 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.720 very very this is legitimately one of my first memories. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.840 Is just I have the words engraved into my mind 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.560 hanging Chad's and so we we we will get to 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:56.680 what exactly that is, but that the two thousand election 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.120 was one of the most chaotic elects in the history 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.440 of the United States. Now, the US has a long 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.920 history of really really weird elections. I mean, you know, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.640 from from from the subspective of sort of like is 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.000 the U s representative democracy? I think there's a pretty 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:20.360 good argument that no election until like after the Civil 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:25.319 Rights Act is even sort of a legitimate election. But 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.080 you know, I mean and and so far as you 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.760 like consider elections to be legitimate, which you know, okay, 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.360 but you know, the u s is, no is no 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.360 stranger to someone winning an election than not taking office. 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.240 There are, in fact, there are if you if you 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.440 go back into your berking history, there are two different 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:48.160 elections that are called the corrupt bargain Um. There's John 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.840 Quincy Adams and I think it's four makes this really 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:58.520 really weird alliance with the original American political Slee's ball 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.720 Henry Clay to get himself often sold as president. Although 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.680 that that that's an election that's like truly an election 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.639 with there are no heroes where it's it's John Quincy 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:16.000 Adams Henry Clay allying to bring down Andrew fucking Jackson. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.160 So you know, no no heroes there. There there's there's 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.200 another election after Reconstruction, which is the end of Reconstruction, 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.800 where the Republican Party literally trades and like trades ending 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.919 Reconstruction for putting their president in office. After a truly 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.440 genuinely wild set of voting results happens, we're like all 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.840 of the votes are in a box, and the two 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.840 parties are fighting over like who's going to count the votes, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.600 because the guy who counts the votes from like the 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.040 box is the person who's going to determine who wins 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.480 the election. And so there's this whole negotiated thing where 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.680 the eight hundreds, like racist Southern Democrats are like, okay, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.400 we'll we'll give you, we'll we'll give you this election 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:00.480 if you promised to pull troops out of the South. 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.839 So okay. You know, American elections have always been sort 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.280 of more fraudulent than people give them credit for, but 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.600 the two thousand election, even by the standards of like 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.760 an American election, is some bullshit. So let's let's let's 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:17.840 go back. Let's go back to the origin of the story. 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.120 The year is two thousand. For the last time in 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.239 human history, humanity has taken collective action to stop and 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.320 impenny catastrophe, having by the heartrending labor of a bunch 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.880 of siss admins, including a guy that I knew growing up, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.080 who spent fucking New Year, who literally spent New Year's 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.200 Eve until the bell ring, like basically in a closet 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.120 with a bunch of computers at his job trying to 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.000 make sure what UK wouldn't happen. But you know, we 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.120 did it, actually we we actually did it. There was 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.640 there was, there was like you know, there was human 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.120 collective action to stop a major catastrophy from happening. And 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.400 Al Gore, a Democrat who claims we have invented the Internet, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.000 is running against Harvard educated Harvard and actually Yale educated 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:04.600 oil man caused as a cowboy whose name is George Bush. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.600 And I, oh god, I don't know, I I don't 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.760 I feel like people have kind of forgotten how really 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.160 genuinely sleazy George Bush was. Like he he has this 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.040 sort of public like, you know, one of the reasons 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.040 he wins elections, and he has his public images like 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.000 the guy who you know, like everyone like he he's 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.120 the presidential candidate who you'd want to have a beer with. 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:30.520 But again, like literally everything from he's like public mannerisms 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.719 down to like the minutia of his accent to like 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.160 the stupid cowboy hat that he wears, all of this 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:38.520 this is a bullshit, right, This is a fucking Harvard guy, 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:43.040 And all of this is you know, like completely intricately 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.719 manufactured by a set a set of like very very 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:55.119 very like sleazy but incredibly ruthless and efficient Republican political operatives. Now, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.279 George Bush's father is George H. W. Bush, who was 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.440 the first to only director of the CIA to become president. 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.680 So yeah, but Bush Bushes running on this sort of 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.640 neo conservative alliance of Texas oil men, evangelical hardliners, and 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.800 weapons contractors. Um, the weapons contractors part uh winds up 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:20.440 being incredibly relevant when nine eleven happens and both Bush 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.640 and Dick his co uh what's it called vice presidential 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.800 I guess candidate at the time, but his vice presidential 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:33.160 selection Dick Cheney, who is like Dick Cheney like saying 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.960 that he's like the physical human embodiments of the military 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.920 industrial complex, is under selling how closely tied, um, Dick 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.880 Cheney is to the military dustrial complex. And you know, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:45.280 like this is this is part of the reason why 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.120 the ward Rock happens, because again, like this entire coalition 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:52.200 is just like it is, it is the it is 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.920 is the sort of height of the military petro dollar coalition, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:02.600 just a a coalition of peer evil like fueled by 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:07.320 war profits and homophobia. And but you know, part part 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.760 of part of what's been happening in this entire period 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.320 is this is this is the year after the Battle 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.880 of Seattle on the anti globalization movement hasn't been smashed again. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:17.919 This is There's other thing is this is pre nine eleven, right, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:19.760 This is this is a very very short period of 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.720 time where like in between the Battle of Seattle and 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:29.640 uh eleven where American politics are very very very weird. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:35.480 And you get another thing that we don't really have now, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.120 but from the nineties until about nine eleven kind of 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.039 existed where that which was that there was a period 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.320 where third party is kind of mattered ish like Ross 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.520 Pirot like in the nineties. Arguably maybe could have won 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.880 the election if vietn't just like given up. But yeah, 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.000 you know what one of the sort of products of 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.800 this is that the Green Party is actually a real 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:03.920 thing in in two thousands in a way that they're 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:05.719 kind of not right. And then this has been this 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.560 this sort of unfolding of a bunch of left wing 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.320 social movements into which is absolutely disasterous attempt to enter 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:16.040 party politics. Um, but they pull you know, and this 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:17.240 is the thing that no one has ever heard the 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.239 end of. But they pull a bunch of votes into 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.320 Ralph Nader in Florida, which winds up being a big deal. 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.000 But the product of this is that this election is 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.920 on a just on a knife's edge. Both sides of 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.560 this election are unbelievably close. The entire election comes down 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.760 to Florida. Now, the problem with the entire election coming 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.040 down to Florida is that the American electoral system is 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.080 a fucking joke. It is a disaster. It is a 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.960 a genuine embarrassment. The United States is a country that 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:55.680 has more resources than like, it has enough resources that, 0:07:55.760 --> 0:08:04.440 like Genghis Khan would weep like, it has genuinely unfathomable 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:11.440 amounts of resources, and its election system is basically run 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.800 by a bunch of weird dipshit like party if like 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:20.880 local like a weird patchwork of like completely underfunded and 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:26.000 overworked local government officials who never have real budgets and 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.160 who just spends like two months not sleeping with their 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.600 like three co workers trying to make the elections work. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.680 And this is really weird because like most places on 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:41.360 Earth that have elections, um, there's like, you know, a 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.600 national thing that sort of does the elections in the US, 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.120 like no, no, it relies heavily on volunteers. It's just 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.960 like this weird patchwork quilt of stuff, and Florida being Florida, 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.959 a bunch of stuff goes very wrong very quickly. Um. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.880 There there's two very famous ballot problems, the most aimless 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.120 of which is hanging chads. So okay, okay, what what what? 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:07.160 What is a hanging chat for people who have forgotten? 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.880 Are people who you know weren't alive then? Which I 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.679 realize is I man, the fact that the fact that 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.960 I have coworkers who are not alive for hanging chads 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:20.240 is really really disturbing thought. But okay, so what is 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.880 a hanging chat? Um? The answer is that in Florida, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.560 the way this ballot works is that you have to 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.240 physically punch holes in your ballot. And you know, you 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.120 punch a hole in the place, like okay, so today, 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.280 right when you fill in a ballot, you have to 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:38.160 like fill in a square right with a pencil in 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.240 in in Florida, you have to like hold punch that square. 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.480 This is maybe the worst ballot design I can possibly imagine, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.560 and it goes terribly wrong. A bunch of these whole 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.960 punches basically don't actually remove all the paper. And there's 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.040 there are so many ways, so many ways that this 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.160 gets sucked up. The hanging chat is the most name 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.240 was one that Haying so a chad. Basically, it's it's 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.760 the piece of paper that when you punch the thing 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.120 with like the whole punch, it's supposed to like it's 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.640 the paper that comes out of the whole right, Haying 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.440 chad is when you do the whole punch thing, but 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.840 the chat is still connected to the piece of paper 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.000 by like one corner. But but but again less less 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.440 you think there's only one way that these ballots get 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.959 fucked up. No, no, no, no, no, there's there are like, 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:34.400 there are unfathomable number of ways that these ballots don't 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.760 punch correctly. They're they're swinging door chairs, there's tried chairs, 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:42.280 there's did bull chairs, there's pregnant chats. It's unbelievable, and 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.120 a bunch of people's votes just don't get counted because 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.080 these ballots. The reason they're doing these whole punch ballots 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:49.840 that these are these are you know, this is what's 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.960 supposed to be like the fancy new like voting technology. 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.640 Right then the new vote technology is the voting machines. 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.160 And the way the voting machine works is basically, the 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.800 votoing machine can check if if if there's a whole 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:01.960 air and if there's a hole in the paper, then 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:03.960 it counts you as the accounts it as the vote. 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.280 But if the entire chad hasn't been punched out, it 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.199 won't count your vote. This is a problem. And there's 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:14.400 another problem. Uh and and that problem is the butterfly ballot. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.959 So the butterfly ballot was original Is this ballot you're 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:22.040 using in Florida that was originally designed to help elderly voters? Um, 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:24.760 it's supposed to be the goal of the ballot is 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.160 to have larger fought sizes to make it more accessible 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.880 for people. Which this is good, right, Like, okay, I 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.000 I support I support accessible design. Is put accessible design 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.840 for voting. The problem is this ballot is designed like ship. 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.080 The way it works is there's a two page ballot 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:41.520 with like a crease in it. All right, It's it's 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.079 kind of like a book, right, like you unfold the 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:45.839 book in the middle of the ballot, you know, And 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:51.240 on both of these pages there are like the different 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.320 different candidate names and parties The problem is, in order 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.440 to pick a candidate, you have to punch like a whole, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:58.920 you have to punch one of the one of these 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.080 served circles. But these st goals are in a line 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.840 down the middle of the crease of the ballot, right, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.000 so you have you have candidates on both You should 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:09.600 you should google what these look like because it's kind 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.200 of hard to explain. But basically what's happening is that 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.360 there are there are different party names on each side 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.200 of the ballot. But then in order to pick which 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.480 party you're voting for, you have to pick for a 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:25.560 specific hole that's supposed to be next to the like 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:27.439 that the candidate you support it in the in the 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:28.920 middle of the page. And the problem is these are 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.120 all on a line, right, They're all a straight line, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.920 which means that two candidates can be like across from 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.800 each other on the same page or on on opposite pages. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.199 And then there's two holes that are like right next 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:42.480 because because the holes are both in the middle of 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.400 the ballot, right, so that you have these situations where 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.120 for example, for and this is the one that's important 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.800 inside of the there's like two lines and then there's 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.880 like it says al Gore Lieberman in it right, and 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.160 inside of those two lines in the in the in 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.440 the middle of the page, there are two holes, and 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.400 one of these holds votes for Core but the other 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.040 one of those holes I is for the candidate on 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:07.920 the other side of the page, which is Reformed Party 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.640 candidate and cryptal fascist goal Pat Buchanan. And the result 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:14.440 of this and says, people start looking through these things 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:19.120 where Pat Buchanan has a bunch of voters from Democratic 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.120 Party strongholds and like also particularly like like a bunch 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.600 of like Democratic Catholic voters vote for Buchanan, and Buchanan 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.240 himself is like, there's no way this is real. Like 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.959 Buchanan's like, you know, he's he's a figure will probably 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.680 like one day do a like we'll probably talk about 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.160 more on this podcast. Yeah, that those behind the Baschard's 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.000 episode about him. He is a he is a fucking Nazi. Uh, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.240 he sucks ass. But he's also so he's some a 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.840 kind of evangelical who like really really really fucking hates Catholics. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:55.880 And you know, so there's a bunch of these Catholic 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.000 like Democratic voters he voted for this guy, and everyone's 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.040 like what the funk happened here. The thing that happened 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:07.240 here is all these people got confused. And yeah, so 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.880 this is a disaster on a hundred million levels. And 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.000 when we come back from ADS, we will talk about 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:27.160 the product of all of this, which is not good. Alright, 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.720 we're back. So on election night, the media starts to 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.440 call Florida for Gore based on exit pulling, but they 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.560 start getting calls for Republican political operatives saying, hold hold on, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.920 hold on, it's actually too close to call. And the 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:48.320 initial count from Florida has the Republican Party ahead. But 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.520 when I say the Hublican Party is ahead, they were 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.080 ahead by like six hundred votes. And so this triggers 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:57.440 a mandatory recount. But and this, and this is another 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.440 problem with this, right we we we We've gone through 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.920 atlant all of the problems with these ballots. Right. The 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.840 recall that they do is a recall using the voting machines. 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:14.000 And those voting machines our guess what the ones that are. 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.480 If if you if you rerun a funked up Chad 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.840 ballot through the same voting machine, it's going to get 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.280 a fucked up result. So okay, so they run this 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:28.640 again and the difference in votes comes down to FLEC 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:35.840 five hundred votes. And at this point, Gore's campaign requests 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.240 a manual recount. They want people to look at the 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.440 ballots by hand and figure out who people actually voted for, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.520 because these machines are a fucking shit show. But in 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.640 any kind of sort of like you know, and even 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:52.760 remotely competent or saying, like democratic political system, there would 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.960 be a bunch of people doing this like they're there, 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.000 you know, like when when an election happens, they would 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.480 be just a very very large number of people mobilize 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:03.440 to make sure that it runs smoothly. There's not there's 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.000 like a bunch of like unbelievably overworked and underpaid. Some 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.840 people are people who also people who are just sucking volunteers, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.560 like a bunch of just random, like unbelievably exhausted like 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.520 local election officials who have to do this recount. And 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.160 this is where the Bush campaign sees their chance to 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.000 steal the election. So the election happens no November seven, 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:28.960 and on November eleven, the Bush campaign sues to stop 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.560 the recount. Now, we talked on a previous episode a 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.840 while back about the Democrats how they have this line 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.560 in the two thousand's about how they're part of the 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.479 quote reality based community and how this is a reflection 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.600 of you know, if you look at the whole quote, 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:50.360 which is from a Republican political strategist, I what's actually 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.880 what they're saying here is that what's happening is that 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:57.200 the Democrats observe reality. Well, the Republicans set out to 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:02.920 define reality. And this is the moment, this election is 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.040 where we get to see how the daynat we we 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.280 we we we get to like really first see these 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.400 these principles in action. I'm gonna read from the Washington 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.560 Post here. Unlike the Gore campaign, which focused on filing 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.320 motions in Florida courts to keep the recount going in 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.760 key counties like Miami Dodd, the Bush campaign waged a broader, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.280 costlier effort on multiple fronts. Blakeman said it was a 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.280 three pronged effort. He said it was a court battle, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.679 it was a recount organization, and it was also a 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.600 pr effort because although the voting effort ended, the campaign 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.919 never did until there was a definitive winner. So what 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.960 happens here is Republicans start this massive media blitz to 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.639 convince people that Bush actually won the election. And this 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.920 this is a really really important moment in sort of 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.200 American history because it's one of the things that solidifies 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.879 um is one of the things that solidifies sort of 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.000 like like owning the lib for example. It's like a 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.360 major point, and it's like like one of the key 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.679 focal points of America of Republican politics, and this is 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.119 eventually going to consume like all of their politics, right 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.639 until when we get this sort of you know, like 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:10.840 now right where that's like we're owning the Libs is 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:12.560 the only thing this is about. You know, this, this 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.600 owning the Libs is kind of like it's it's been 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.400 a partner of Republican politics for a long time, but 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.200 this is where we really start to see it sort 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.280 of consuming everything. And Okay, if you look at their 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.040 like like what they're saying, by modern standards, it is 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.439 incredibly weak ship, right. This is like this is a 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.240 culture that is just a burge from the nineties. Nobody 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.920 has invented real posted yet, but it is really on 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:36.760 the lips stuff. Like they have this whole campaign where 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.280 they call the goyal Libramain campaign sore loser man, and 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.479 everyone has like sore loser man hats, and like they 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.080 have all these like printed signs and like T shirts 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.879 and they're selling merch and you know, and so you know, 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.000 they're running basically an OP, and they're running an OPT 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.960 to convince everyone that like, no, actually we legitimately won 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.480 this election and it's over, and the recounts just people 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.600 being but heard they lost. And this is where things 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.480 get really really weird. So in Miami DoD where there's 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.679 a manual recount going on, a bunch of protesters in 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:17.399 fancy suits show up but starts screaming at election workers. Now, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.320 if this was the old Democratic Party machine like LBJ, 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.679 would have personally pushed six of these guys out a 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.000 window and the recount would have been run by like 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.600 sixty of the earliest dudes, the entire Chicago mob. But 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.640 this is the incredibly decrepit two thousand Democratic Party, who 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.960 have replaced all their mob guys with consultants. And these 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.560 people legitimately, like you know, they believe in the rules 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.800 and the norms and the process. And the result of 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.359 this is that Bush literally destroys the entire United States. 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:53.679 And I think, like irrevocably damaged, like the entirety of 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.680 the of you know, like what what whatever is left 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:01.400 to the American democratic system. So how how this is achieved? 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.760 But back in Miami DoD this Democratic Party operative is 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.080 seen walking around the recount area with a ballot. Now 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.600 this is a blank ballot, right, this guy is going 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.320 to see he's going with an election official to go 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.359 see if he can replicate like the like how they 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.399 h has stuff happens to prove that, like this is 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.320 what's going on. But the publicans see this guy and 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.440 they immediately start screaming about how the Democrats are staling 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.400 in the election, and they like beat this ship out 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.040 of this guy, and just a full on riot starts 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:37.920 in this government building and it works. The recount stops. 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:42.240 The election workers are terrified. The recount yeah, like the 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.040 like everything stopped for the day, they can't do anything. 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.800 And the next day the recount is fully stopped. It 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.119 never resumes, And the Republicans are stunned by this. They 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.280 assumed that, like, you know, the political operatives doing the rioting, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.480 we're gonna like face some oppositions to the Democrats on 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:02.680 the ground for you know, like literally assaulting and intimidating 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.159 a bunch of election workers in order to like stop 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.720 votes from being counted. But there's they they don't, there's 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.000 there's nothing, there's no resistance at all. Um. Here's a 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.240 quote from Douglas Hay, who is there a Republican Political Operatives, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.280 who is one of the organizers of the Brooks Brothers riot, 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.520 who he tried to do a redemption arc in the 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:26.960 media to sort of like be like, oh, I was 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.480 part of the Brooks Brothers riot. But even I think 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.639 the stop the steel stuff is bad, which like I 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.680 think my man doth protests too much. Um, here's just 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.639 the quote. I still don't understand how it was that 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.800 we completely outmatched the Democrats, hey says, And this is 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.120 how Bush wins the election. The Supreme Court, which again 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.000 it should also be know the Streame Court is staffed 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.560 by a bunch of George H. W. Bush appointees. Um. 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.320 Eventually here's the Clayic case and decides that the constitution 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:57.280 says that the winner the winner has to be declared 0:21:57.280 --> 0:21:59.240 by a certain time, so there's no time for a recount. 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:03.600 And they have the election and the Bush and this 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:05.879 is achieved, and this is possible because of the Brooks 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.960 Brothers riot and the Brooks Brothers, right, is what this 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.440 whole sort of Republican opertor things comes to be known 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.760 because they're all wearing Brooks Brothers suits. Um. Now, okay, 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:17.960 there are a lot of people involved in this riot 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.160 who are like at the core of modern Republican politics. Um. Yeah, 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.240 Neil Gorrich and AMYCLEMYN. Barritt, and I think there's actually 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:29.399 one other like Paris and Republicans of elevated senior office. 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.320 There are multiple people on the Supreme Court today who 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.120 were on the Bush legal team when they were doing this. 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:38.639 And you know, there's also the question of the extent 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:41.200 to which roger Stone has involved. He asked roger Stone, 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:46.440 he claims to have organized literally this entire thing. Um. Now, 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.000 other people who were involved with they claimed that roger 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:52.200 Stone was like fucked off at a hotel somewhere else 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.840 and didn't was just sort of around and didn't actually 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.280 organize it. But either way, this set a precedent for 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:05.199 how you can rig an election, which is if you 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:07.640 if you can seize the majority on the Supreme Court 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:09.159 with sort of like when you know you can put 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.600 your sort of loyal minions there and then you can 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:15.280