Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal Is The Two-Party System Working 20240712

If you say no, the twoparty system is not working, your line is going to be 202 7488001. If you are unsure what you still want to talk about this issue, your number is going to be 202 7488002. You can alwaysd text us your opinion at 202 7488003. Keep in mind, we are always reading on social media, on. Witter, and cspan we are going to have live on the two current thirdParty Candidates running for president. Coming up at 8 00 we are going to hear from Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins. Coming up at 9 15, the jorgensenn nominee jo will discuss her platform and strategy for this years election. If you want to hear directly from those candidates, keep watching the show. First, we want to hear from you about the twoparty system in the United States. Do you think the political system is working . There is a story from cnn that talked about this earlier this year. Even if they are down on the independent candidates being presented, nearly 40 of americans think a third local party is needed to fix the system and another 47 think it needs improvements, according to a new poll. Shows 38 of respondents think a twoparty system is seriously broken in the country needs a third party. The highest number who said so since tracking the number in 1995. Independents were the most likely to have said the twoparty system is broken, at 62 . 37 of democrats and early 1 of republicans said the same. We want to know what you think. Do you think the system is working or is a third party needed in the United States . Give us a call and let us know what you think. Jeffe going to start with who is calling from indianapolis, indiana. Jeff says yes. Good morning. Caller we have tried in the past to initiate third parties, but they cant seem to build infrastructure for the financial wealth to gain enough traction. For the most part, when it comes to issues that people are dealing with politically, the twoparty system has been able to deal with most of those issues. Votedjeff, have you ever for a thirdParty Candidate in either state, local, or National Elections . Caller no. Host you say you plan to vote for thirdParty Candidate . Caller no. Host have they not had any platform . Caller theyve never been able to address the issues i felt was important to me. Host lets talk to chris who is calling from auburn, maine. Chris says no. Do you think the Current System is working well enough . Caller no i dont. I am a far leftwing democrat. Bet of my friends tend to far right republicans. I am baffled by a system where, party, lets say the republicans and another rightleaning person run against a single democrat and the right leaning person and republican get 60 of the vote combined and the democrat gets 40 of the vote, and the democrats still wins. We have that situation going on right now in maine. Maxlinear is a very strong trunk supporter trump supporter. Susan collins is embattled and we have a close race where she might be pushed out. I sarah gideon, was a democrat. If max length siphons enough votes away from susan collins, it is entirely possible that that could result in sarah winning. Im happy with that, but it is not the way it should be. If the people voted for rightwingers, they should get a rightwinger. The same thing happened when al gore lost in florida. A leftwinger ran against gore and siphoned away some 90,000 votes. We need a system where everybody can run and you can vote for who you believe you need to vote for, however, put down a second that way weice and can expand the number of people running for office. Host let me make sure i understand you. You would change the way the election system works overall, where people can choose more than one candidate instead of one person for each office . Caller absolutely. That way the twoparty system is going to lose its grip on power. Right now im afraid to vote for a thirdParty Candidate, even though i like one. Because that may result in us losing the election. I have voted thirdparty. I have voted for a rightwing guy wants once. Not going to vote for him again, but at the time my second choice would have been the democrat, which is kind of weird. Our system result in us being unable to vote for the person we like. Host lets talk to dan was calling from michigan. Dan, correct me on the name of your town. Caller im doing good. Host you dont think the twoparty system is working . Caller im not pleased with it because the way they shut it off, the democratic candidate for the republican candidate has to adapt a whole platform or nothing. In other words, you are not looking at any prolife democrat, you are not looking at any prochoice republican. So many people vote by one issue, that is one issue i have. But i dont like the twoparty system. It is either all or nothing and i dont think many people are that way. Its just, i dont know. I liked the guys, before me. I agree with what he had to say on it. Host lets go to steve who is calling from florida. Steve, good morning. Caller good morning. I dont support the twoparty system. Really good comments previously. Of them spoke about the issues i feel. Nothing really gets done. Getsrepublican president voted in for four years, then all of the policies and everything that they put through the system will get you raised the next four years if a democratic president or if a Democratic Congressional majority its put in the next four years. It goes back and forth every four or eight years, just negating everything and we dont make any progress. That is the one reason. Is, if juston what the person before me said if a very progressive candidate is running in the primary against a very moderate and one of them wins and the other, lets say the moderate winds, then the Progressive Party supporters are alienated and disenfranchised to the point where they dont really feel passionate about getting out there and vote. Even though they may be the geordie of voters, the republican is going to win the election. Pecos, it creates such a rigid atmosphere that the tot Commonsense Solutions any problem get knocked off the table. For instance, medicare for all. Efficient, right idea, but people say, oh, no, thats socialism. Host if you dont think the current twoparty system is working, how do we change as americans . Do you need to start at the local level . Do you need to look at thirdParty Candidates at the statewide level . Is the president ial level the way to start . Caller i think we need to start on the local level, for the reason the previous caller said. The Democratic National committee and the republican National Committee are such powerful corporations and they just inherently destroy thirdParty Candidates. I. E. Bernie sanders. You have to start the local level. , say, you cane is know, an i dont american socialist candidate instead of a democraticsocialist candidate and caucus separately. I think it would have to start at the state and local level because if you check to start it on a National Level, so many people have tried and the Democratic National committee and the republican National Committee thrive on the twoparty system. So, another candidate for my third or fourth party are not going to there is a barrier to entry there. Host lets talk to mike who was calling from wisconsin. Mike says the Current System is working. Caller i think it could be working. I think the Democratic Party has to stand up for what they back all the time. They cant kowtow to the republicans. On issues like abortion and such. They have to be strong on those things. They have to get away from that fox news. They are going to get blasted by them. They have to stand by their own beliefs and push it through. Also i got a kick out of the debates. Voters, league of women now each party wants to put their own people in there so they can ask their questions. If the democrats were to stand by their own beliefs, but the Party Platform is, i think they would do a lot better. Host lets look and see how the thirdParty Candidates did in the previous president ial election back in 2016. How is a chart that shows the vote broke down for all of the candidates in 2016. Major that there were two third parties that receive more than one million votes, with the libertarian candidate, gary johnson, receiving almost 4. 5 million votes in the United States. 3. 3 of the votes in the 2016 election. Green Party Candidate jill stein received 1. 1 of the vote, or. Bout 1. 5 million votes neither one of them received any electoral votes, but together the two thirdParty Candidates pulled about 5 million votes in the last president ial election. We will be talking to the current libertarian and green party for president to see how they think theyre going to do. Look and see what our social media followers are thinking about the twoparty system. Whether they think it is working or not. Here is one of our followers from facebook that says, absolutely not. It is two wings of the same bird of prey. Both parties rely on corporate contributions to maintain their stranglehold on the political process. I believe it was madison who warned about the tyranny of organized factions. Here is another person texting in. No, a twoparty system does not this nation justice. Neither party does enough for everyone. We need a third party to be better served. We deserve it. Here is another text that says, no, the twoparty system is not working. We need a Workers Party to address the concerns of the common worker. Theis a tweet that says, twoparty system has come one conglomerate. Their policies just for slightly and the American People continue to fall for. One last week that says, we need five parties that all get equal coverage in the media. Our question for you this morning is, do you think the twoparty system is working . Lets talk to karen who was calling from phoenix, arizona. Karen says no, the twoparty system is not working. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Theer no, i dont think twoparty system is working. To promotearty needs themselves more. The ideas from each one, there is good ideas. And then when it gets to the senate, it just freezes up. Host karen, how do we change the system . Caller i think that when we get there,rd one in their if they promote themselves enough with the good ideas, they will get the electoral votes. Host do you think they should start pushing at the president ial level what you think there needs to be more work done at the state and local level first . Caller i think it needs to start at the state and local level. Host have you ever voted for a thirdParty Candidate . Caller yes, im going to be. Host youre going to vote for a thirdParty Candidate in the National Election in your state and local elections . Which one are you talking about . Im trying to think of his name. The astronaut. Is not democrat and he is not republican. He has really good ideas. Host ok. Lets go to randy who is from inglewood, ohio. Randy says no, the twoparty system is not working. Good morning. Caller good morning. I think that since we are going through all of this, we ought to try to not have any party. Have everybody run as an independent, both for your best candidate. That way you have to know more about everyone you are voting for. A lot of people if they are republican, they vote all republicans and they may not even know their congressman or whoever, they just vote on party lines. Congress,get to everybody is independent. Im sure there are times when republicans [indiscernible] you can see that now. The democrats are voting for it. Same way,ote the republicans vote the same way. Maybe congressman ought to just not have a d or r in front of their names. Host lets talk to thomas calling from houston, texas. It seems like you are not 100 sure. What do you think about the twoparty system . Caller first you got to get a chance to vote. With Citizens United and all of the rest of this, if you dont get a chance to vote, what is the difference . Ive got a bet with a friend of mine. He is conservative. Massive spread of voter fraud, so i said, how many people have been arrested . I told him maybe 500, he says 1500. Can you let me know how many people have gone to jail for voter fraud . Weve got to read of the money and give people a chance to vote. Every time i go to vote, well, were not voting in your strict today. District today. You cant keep weaving the goalpost. Is this fair . Thank you. Host lets go to carl calling from west babylon, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. I absolutely agree with the previous speaker. More than a twoparty system. We ought to have a Constitutional Convention. What do you think . Host what would you change in the constitution if there was a Constitutional Convention . Especially about voting and parties . Caller first of all, i would like to see multiple parties. Ifont want 100 parties, but we had multiple parties there could be some general consensus, some agreement. We are at a loggerhead in congress right now. They never seem to agree. Host first of all, let me point out that right now there is no mention of Political Parties in the u. S. Constitution. You would mandated that there be multiple parties . Caller i wouldnt mandate anything. I would have a Constitutional Convention so that we as citizens of this country could decide what direction we want to go into. I dont like seeing congressman and senators six years, four years would i dont like seeing Supreme Court justices lifetime. Yearst like every four having to vote for a president. We need to move ahead. Changehat would you president ial terms to . Ander right now it is four i would like to see at seven. Thats a really interesting proposition there. Lets go to clyde was calling from fayette, mississippi. Clyde says no, the system is not working. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host im good. Ahead, clyde. Ofler no one that i know ailey the political system in the political system, republicans or democrats, is adhering to the scripture that says, trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding. I have done that and found a cure for likes being shot at police, but you have not heard anything about it. Invention. [indiscernible] im telling every black listening to me this morning, the police, the gang banger cannot shoot you down. Callingts go to rita from freehold, new jersey. Good morning. Caller good morning. Yes, i believe in our twoparty system. I disagree with the guy saying they should go seven years so we could be stuck with trump for seven years. I think the democrats are too weak right now. If this was the Republican Party, trump would be gone. Right now he is committing genocide, he is murdering people. Now we are being blackmailed with money if we dont send our children back to school. He is not going to give us money for our schools. That is genocide. By thebeing exterminated Republican Party and it is crazy. Host lets go to tom who was calling from waterford, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Expert taking my call. I believe the twoparty system is working. It can be expanded to a three party, four party, 10 party, whatever. If you do that you are going to get people in office who are not qualified and the majority, obviously, not put them in party. Host you are saying that if the system expands beyond the two major parties the thirdParty Candidate might not be as qualified as the democrat or republican candidate . Caller it is not so much being qualified. I think that could be an argument, because your thirdparty person could be qualified. I am young enough to have been there before. We had ralph nader as the third party. We had ross perot as a third party. They were probably qualified, but unfortunately they did not have the majority. Suited majority is best with a twoparty system. You cannot divide it any more than two, otherwise you dont get a majority. Host speaking of president ial candidates from third parties, the previous caller mentioned the runs of both ralph nader and ross perot. There have been thirdParty Candidates who have received electoral votes in the united votes, not just popular but electoral votes for president. Lets look at who those were. Going all the way back to 1860, john breckenridge, who was in the constitutional Democratic Party received 72 electoral votes for president. Bell, who was the Constitutional Union party also received 39 electoral votes. In 1912 former president the indoor roosevelt ran as a thirdParty Candidate under the progressive ticket and received 88 electoral votes. 1948 former u. S. Senator wasnt former back then, but strom thurmond, who ran as a democratic candidate received 39 electoral votes. Wallace968, george received 46 electoral votes. In addition to receiving popular votes, they also received electoral votes, which shows that a thirdParty Candidate can get into the running for president of the United States. Now, what are we looking at when people talk about where they are aligned in the United States . This is coming from gallup. This is the most recent information gallup has four americans right now. The may 28june 4 period, 25 of americans when asked do you consider yourself a crack, republican, or independent . 25 say they are republicans. Or the percent say they are independents. And 31 say they are democrats. So, according to this more americans identify themselves as independents and either democrats or republicans, which may show something for independent and thirdParty Candidates. Lets go back to our phone lines. We are asking you, is the twoparty system working . We will go to tom, was calling from winterhaven, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning back to you. I did want to weigh in. We dont have any more a twoparty system. Research. A source i cannot cite, unfortunately, the nonparty affiliate had surpassed democrats and republicans. I am a bit of an oddball as a caucasian, red 50s american male in that i am libertarian. Most young people i speak to, without discussing politics, listening to their opinions, they are libertarian and dont know it. The Largest Party in this willry, if it is not now soon be registered nonparty affiliate and libertarian. Host lets talk to donald who was calling from pontiac, michigan. Morning. Caller good morning. Is the that the problem purging of the moderates from both parties. I think it started to take hold ,ew gingrich was the speaker from that point on. Host ok. Lets talk to mark who is calling from louisville, kentucky. Mark says, the system is working just fine. Caller yes, sir. I think there should be a thirdparty system that kind of media rates, you know, the cops have an internal affairs. I think we should have an internal affairs for inside what is going on. We the people, for the people should know what our people is doing for the people, you know . If there is some dirt, you could know what right there. Far as thew, but as twoparty system, i mean, why does everybody want to change . It is already what did they say . A liberal . There is four or five parties to begin with. It was written in the constitution. Those guys were brilliant. They wrote the constitution perfect. It has been flawless. The only thing that did not count on and they even have bunker rails that would not allow crooked to get out of hand. Question, i guess i would have wanted mostly to know. Know, it says in your constitution. It would be your duty to get some corrupt person out. Hes not done anything to anybody, and everybody is hammering him. Meeting e and no meaning, yet they keep bashing him, whatever is going on. Everything he is doing has proven itself. Shoot, i cant really touch on that part of it. Host lets go to thomas calling from georgia, good morning. Caller hello, good morning to you. How are you . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller the federal government has become the hatfields and the mccoys, to be perfectly honest. Instead of voting on bills and issues that need to be passed, they are worried about whos to, who is the most powerful, yet the coronavirus issue, they try to reopen the economy and get a spike in the disease coming back. Makes no sense. They spend 90 of their time on recess and have more recesses than school students. The issue at hand is what this economy needs. Do we need another stimulus check . What does it take to get rid of the coronavirus . I do not agree with someone who week working300 a and unemployment at 600. The federal government needs to slap themselves and give a serious look at what the economy needs, the people, not the parties. Thank you. Rotman is author of dupeing the twoparty and here is a little bit about what he said voters now vote the party, not the candidate. Candidates depend on the party brand. Everything is team loyalty. The stakes are too high for it to be otherwise. The consequence is today america has a genuine twoparty system with no overlap, the development the framers feared most. And it shows no sign of resolving. The two parties are supported by geography and values. Neither side has a chance of coming the dominant party in the near future, but the elusive permanent majority promises so much power neither side is willing to give up on it. That is coming from the atlantic. For the atlantic. 538 has a story talking about how difficult it is for a thirdParty Candidate to win the election in an article called america is not really set up for thirdparty election bid. Even if i thirdParty Candidate can win over true independence and some republicans and democrats like ross perot did, it would be difficult to garner the votes to win because of the Electoral College. Take the case of perrault. He won 90 prison 19 of the vote, the largest popular vote share for a thirdParty Candidate thans 1912, but did not win a single electoral vote. He lost by eight points to milk until clinton in may main. Give their states electoral votes to the candidates who won the majority or plurality of votes in the state, so for thirdParty Candidate to receive electoral votes, he or she must win state outright, which perot was not able to do in 1992. Some candidates with a stronger Regional Base like segregationist George Wallace have had success winning a handful of electoral votes, but otherwise the thirdParty Candidate hasnt been able to overcome the major party duopoly. What we are seeing play out as a contact known in political law,ce as do vendors voters are loath to waste their votes on the thirdParty Candidate unlikely to win and while this law doesnt entirely hold up in other countries, it remains very true in the United States. That is coming from fivethirtyeight. Com. We are talking to you about whether you think the twoparty system is working. Lets go back to some of our social media followers of the what they are saying about the two already system. One tweet says i want a third party that has every republican plank i like and every democrat link i like. Your thirdParty Candidate may the twonks i like candidates who got the most votes faceoff in a finalround. The winner needs to get more than 50 of the vote. Need to eliminate the stupid Electoral College. Another tweet president ial a late debates should allow thirdParty Candidates regardless of how much money they raise. Another says it is not that the twoparty system is not working, it is that the twoparty system politicians arent working. Term limits. Text, twoparty system would work if the Electoral College was abolished. We also need term limits for congress so the same people are not in power forever, two terms for senate and five for house. We want to know what you think about the twoparty system and whether you think that system is working. Jay is calling from scottsville, virginia. Caller there is the reason a reason the founders did not want a party system. Humans tend to be demagogued easily. The Supreme Court in buckley versus vallejo essentially decided that free speech was money. Money spent to demagogue your emotional brain to clarify bias in your reasoning brain. Thus, the plan was supply you with what supply with what you want supply you with what you want to deconstruct your humanity and become an animal consumer. Thank you. Host andre calling from little who says no, the twoparty system is not working. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host just fine, go ahead. Caller i dont think we should have in any party system. We should be voting on the individual and the policies they are promoting to us. System is a lesser of two evils, one gang or the other and we are excluding the minority by creating any type of party system. Good,onomist that had a freedom to choose and limiting milton friedman, freedom to choose and limiting government it by thekeeping citizens. Now we are offtrack in this current war with republicans and democrats who have amassed so much power since the beginning of their time. Personally, i dont see that there is any way to rectify it Going Forward unless every major citizen banded together and had ideas, which i think would be very unlikely. Javier callingto from clinton, North Carolina, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning, cspan. I want to say that cspan is a National Treasure and i appreciate all of your hard work. I believe the twoparty system works. What doesnt work in the United States is honestly, as much as we blame the politicians, what doesnt work is american citizens ignorance and apathy. Most of our citizens do not know how the system works. We complain all the time about politicians, but we simply take no time to learn how the system works. If we talk about individuals, the other day, if the individual doesnt learn how the system work, we cant be claiming that the politicians are bad, even if we had no parties or 10 or a hundred arteries. We dont follow parties. We dont follow politics. Host how do we fix it . How do we fix the lack of Civic Knowledge . Caller i think it is our duty. We can talk about schools, we can talk about education, but at the end of the day, it is our responsibility. A gentleman just now said that if we had no parties vote for the person, i get that, but at the end of the day if we dont take the time to learn who that person is, what they stand for, liberal, conservative, its not going to work either way. I think our twoparty system does work. It would work better if we as citizens engaged some more. I am very proud to see that these days, this past months this past few months, our citizenry is starting to Pay Attention, and it doesnt matter to me if you vote republican, democrat, independent. I want my country to Pay Attention and take your civic duty seriously. Donnalets talk to calling from vero beach, florida, good morning. Caller good morning. Betweenf have a dilemma the two candidates for this year because i not confident in either one of them i am not confident in either one of them. If there was somebody else to vote for, i would probably vote for them. I think sometimes the government level, if there was three parties or whatever, would make it easier for us to decide. It is kind of like they are saying joe biden has dementia, i am not happy with trump, who do i vote for . Then i go back to see who their running mate is. That may be helpful, but not in every case. It is going to be a very, very hard election, and i think there do need to be a lot of changes. Are, i dontthey have the knowledge or the capability of telling somebody what to do. Donna, there are two other people running for president outside of President Trump and former Vice President joe biden, abby on the show later today. We will see the green Party President ial candidate Howie Hawkins and the liberal Party Candidate jo jorgenson. Anything they can say to make you vote for them for president . Caller i dont know anything about either one of them. Everything is joe biden and trump. If we knew more, if they had the money, the funds to promote themselves, they would have a better chance. And i will be listening, i assure you. I appreciate you taking my call. Host lets talk about other news going on around the country, especially with President Trump and news that broke late yesterday. President trump commuted the sentence of roger stone. Lets look at the story in ays Washington Post President Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime friend robert stone roger stone, while also lashing out against a years long probe into russias interference in the 2016 election. The move, which the white house announced in a lengthy and pugnacious statement is the latest attempt by trump to discredit special counsel Robert S Mueller the thirds investigation after it consumed much of his president the. While the commutation was celebrated by trumps stalwart supporters, the muted response by republican lawmakers and stones history as a dirty trickster, indicated that the president s decision to interfere with the nations Justice System could be fraught with political risk. Trump uses unique president ial authority to undermine unanimous finding by a journey jury that stone broke the law many times by lying to congress and obstruction of justice. We will be talking about other stories that happened, but i wanted to make sure we talk about that story. We brought that story to you for people who did not hear it in the overnight hours. Back to our question is the twoparty political system in the United States working . Lets talk to mo calling from miami, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I think the twoparty system is just fine. The problem is the rules. It to majorre league baseball, for example, if you have one team that owns the stadiums, the cameras, the tv stations, the referees, and the , now you say, now you guys dont play. One team has a much bigger advantage and can abuse the other side. You need to have unity of purpose and fairness. In another example, you have two brothers playing. One starts to fight to the other. What do you say to them . Love each other and play fair. You have to play fair, so we need a set of rules that guards the unity of purpose and fairness. Karen calling to from jacksonville, florida, good morning. Caller good morning. Ishink our twoparty system broken, but i also believe that it was made this way. From its inception, it was designed to limit the people who could partake of it. People were intimidated. Women did not get to participate until the early 1900. Then we had the segregation, so black people were not allowed to have the vote. In that time, all these people were running our government and it was basically because they were part of the great economy, because even though they say they are public servants, there is money in politics. If you have the money, you have the power. If you have the power, you make law and you dont concern yourself with the powerless. System why our twoparty works exactly as it was designed to do. Lets look at some of our social media followers and see what they are saying about the twoparty system in the United States. Twopartysays the system is as obsolete as the Electoral College. Both deny the will of the people and cost the taxpayers dearly for politicians who work parttime for a full salary and a self bestowed golden parachute. Public financing of pam payne Funds Campaign funds must be implemented. Or foursays if three or five groups have to Work Together to create legislation, that builds collaboration. That being said, this year on for joe all in. Couldr tweet says it if they Work Together. Oppositetimes the party disagrees because it was the other side that came up with the idea. They are a bunch of hypocrite. Another tweet says the thirdParty Candidate can influence the two candidates. Was campaigning cause reagan to become caused reagan to become more libertarian. Lets wrap up the hour and go back to our phone lines and talk to people about what they think about the twoparty system, and whether it is working. Christian is calling from oakland gardens, new york, good morning. Caller how are you doing . Thank you. I believe in the twoparty system, but we are having problems now because our country is becoming very divided ethnically. As we go forward into the future and as we become more multiethnic, we are going to have problems with it. Continent, they tend not to use the right leaders. They are the most alltime ethnic continent on the planet. Multiethnic continent on the planet. We will have more problems like that as we become more multiethnic. I did some studies on that topic. As we come for test move forward, we will become more divided. Intellectuals teach our children and they have complex views on government and stuff like that. What is happening is our children are going to a School System that is being taught by ellectuals, and now they their opinions and the way they view the world is very complex. As we move forward and become more multiethnic, we are going to have a lot of complex views and it is going to make electing leaders very complicated. Host dan is calling from clarksville, tennessee. Caller hello. Host go ahead. Caller i am glad to get in on this. I feel like our twoparty system is broke because it is a duopoly that is masquerading as an oligarchy. Have mores that we than two parties in this country. As an example, i am very thankful of cspan for having jo jorgenson on. We have a libertarian candidate on all 15 states ballots. It is the public, it is up to us. We are the ones who decide who wins the election, and you cant put that on even the Electoral College. If you vote for jo jorgenson and get enough of the vote, that is where the electorates go. That is how the Electoral College works. I hear all these people out here saying, it is outdated, no, it is on us. The Libertarian Party has worked hard since the 1970s to be a relevant party, and yet we finally get with gary johnson on all ballots. , notd so much work for us that he would have been the strongest candidate, but he got us on all 50 ballots you have at least ballots. You have at least three choices. The green party is on 48 ballots. Get Mainstream Media to come on board and recognize that this is not a twoparty system, it is a multiparty system. If you go back to the founders, we didnt want Political Parties at all. Host todd is calling from minneapolis, minnesota, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller the twoparty system has the potential to work but it is currently not working. The reason, in my opinion, is because there is so much distrust and animosity between the parties, they cant be productive with one another in anything they do. If you look at the body of work for congress and evaluate somebody who spent 20 or 30 years there, the majority of us would have been fired from our jobs long ago. President s will come and go, republicans, democrats, but when you cant have reasonable discourse, or you have to be afraid to have opinions because youbody is going to beat on to force that opinion, we need to recognize that we need to treat one another the way our parents taught us, be kind to one another, listen to one another people have decent ideas and are capable of coming up with things that matter, however the twoparty system now is essentially dumbed down, where the last time we had talented people in congress were likely the founding fathers. What we have now, it is so media savvy. Thereso tv blurb here and and soundbites and whatnot, it is a very scary dynamic created by both parties. Host lets talk to maria from savannah, georgia. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir, wonderful program. I am enjoying it thoroughly. I have difficulty turning it off. I think the twoparty system can work. Up that if youet want to vote, or you want to be on a the way they have it set up i will just say my point and use an example. People are pretty basic. I agree with the gentleman who said there is ignorance and apathy in our system and people need incentive devote. Two vote. To vote. If we give them a gift card or something, then they will vote. We pay people to be on jury trials, 10 or 15, and america is rich enough. If they were to say, i will give you a 50 gift card to vote, more people will vote. Voters inou think america should be required to vote . Voting is voluntary so people only vote when they want to. Should it be required that voters come and pick a vote . ,aller i think as an adult when you become a certain age you are responsible. You are responsible for the country you live in, the laws that are made, responsible for beliefs, and i think people should be responsible. It is your responsible duty to vote so we can get what we need in our country for us to be a better country. That is how i feel. Host jerry is calling from dayton, ohio, good morning. Caller good morning. Need a we definitely , and werty system already have, like the gentleman pointed out, we already have a Libertarian Party, but they to make a enough size difference. Republicans and democrats will deny them. They strive third parties off the ballot, so it is an uphill battle. Host that may be true on the National Level. Should the libertarian and green parties be focusing more on local and state elections where democrats and republicans would have a hard time keeping them off the ballot . Caller yes, i think they should , and i think it starts at the local and state level, but it is an uphill battle. Libertarians have been getting on the ballot years, but they to makeve the backing inroads. To add at is good third party to vote for if you dont like the two major candidate. The third party before in a president ial election and people say it is throwing your vote away. I dont believe it is. I dont believe it is. Until we come up with something better, i think we need to stay with we need to continue to battle, to have the thirdparty. I like the idea that you have candidates a chance host lets talk to amy calling from orange park, florida, good morning. Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Go ahead. Caller i think the twoparty system is definitely not working , and sometimes it is like that by design. It always comes down to the lesser of two evils. I think even in 2020 where we , outaced with that again of the two candidates that we have now, neither of them are candidate that are inspiring or someone we can look up to and really want to lead our country. I think whether you are a democrat or republican, conservative, liberal, whatever, we should all get behind this ranked Choice Voting. What ranked Choice Voting will do is force the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to put forward the best candidates they have, because if our votes are 2016 when it in came down to hillary and donald trump, and there was also jill stein. Host we would like to thank all of our viewers, callers, and social media followers for joining us this first hour to talk about the twoparty system. Coming up, we will have two candidates vying for the white house on the thirdParty Candidate on the show. First up, Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins and then later libertarian Party Candidate jo jorgenson will be here. We will be right back. On q a, aaront geiger smith talks about voting in the United States and the issues today. Shelby county decision has had a massive impact on voting right, and there is not any Voting Rights advocate or attorney that doesnt see it as just a ground shaking impact. Laws of course the voting that are discriminatory are still illegal, there is not federal oversight based on the history of discrimination on the stopgap they need to make four voting changes. Watch sunday night on cspans q a. Topook tv on cspan two has nonfiction books and authors every weekend. 9 00 p. M. Onday at afterwards, former college desousat done nash face ofe facial socialism in the United States. He is interviewed by benjamin powell. Eastern, dr. Discusses hisl book which country has the watchs best health care . Book tv on cspan two this weekend. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with green president ial candidate Howie Hawkins here to talk about his run for president and the history of the green party. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host you are part of the original u. S. Green party and you are running for president. Tell us the history of the green party, how has it changed since 1984, and what does the party look like today . Guest we got started in 1984 after the german greens elected 19 people to their bundestag, their congress, and people around the world said maybe we in 1984 inhat we met st. Paul, minnesota and said, we cannot build this out of the president ial run. We have to start in local politics, and we proceeded to do that for the next dozen years. In 1996, ralph nader let us use his name on ballots for president. We got on over 30 ballots, and then he ran an active ballot in 2000 and we were on over 40 ballots. That put us on the national spotlight. Andave been here 35 years currently have 100 29 elected officials in local offices. It is one of the best kept secrets in american politics, more than any independent Progressive Party has. You have to go back to the heyday of the socialist party before the 1940s. What has changed as we have a lot of ballot lines running local candidate, a lot of experience, and our orientation politically has changed, not just advocating peace and Environmental Justice reforms, we are talking structural changes to ecological structuralism. Host how many people would you say are in the green party as of today . Guest i think a ballpark would be half a million. 250,000 enrolled or registered in the green party where you can do that, but you cannot do that in every state and we do not have a ballot line in every state. If you roughly double what we we havee states that the green party, it is half a million. Host cspan will be airing speeches by you on your running p. M. I 8 00 and 11 00 100 Green Party Convention been like . Whatid the green party did the Green Party Convention look like . Guest we are similar. We have primaries and delegates are committed to states, and there will be a roll call today. We came in with the most committed delegates so the rollcall should nominate me. With the coronavirus pandemic, we have had to do this virtually , so there has been an adjustment and we had to get the technology up. So far, it has gone smooth. We were originally going to be in detroit between july 9 and 12, but now we are online so that is different. Raisingw, you had been money to run for president. How has your fundraising been going for this years campaign, and how does it compare to what President Trump and former Vice President biden are doing right now . Guest they are going to raise aliens. Billions. We are trying to get to our first million. They are on another order and magnitude in terms of financing. Weraised over 200,000 and just qualified for federal primary matching funds. We are the only campaign doing that. The republicans and democrats do not want to do that anymore because if you accept that money you have to limit your spending to 50 million. They raised so much money they dont want that now. We are the only campaign in the country that has been trying, and this week we reached the threshold. We needed to raise 5,000 in 20 states and contributions of 250 or less. We will be submitting our paperwork to the government next week and that will give us 250,000 back. Host lets talk about your platform. You have our cspan viewers wondering what is your platform for president and why they should vote for you. We should vote for you. Guest vote for us if you support our platform. Do not waste your vote on a platform you do not support. Do not silence your voice. At Real Solutions for life and death issues. The first is the covid pandemic. We have had a Record Number of people come down with infections yesterday. The chart is shooting through the roof in terms of infections and deaths, and we are six months into this. Presidingrties are over a failed state. Why cant we do a test, trace, isolate solution like other countries . Wins,is a loser, covid and he is like typhoid mary making his people sick. Where is joe biden . Using hismazing voice, get the personal protective equipment and medical supplies that are in short supply in states like texas and florida. It is a total disaster. We have people out on the streets protesting the centuriesold pandemic of racism and police brutality, so not just reforming Police Practices but Community Control of the police so they work for us, not ourselves themselves. When they police themselves, they get away with ardor. Murder. If we could take the Police Department and put it into social services, it will not be enough for these racially oppressed communities that have suffered racism and exploitation and discrimination. We want to defund the police and put it into a Marshall Plan for the city for jobs, education, schools. Trumpimate meltdown, calls Climate Change a hoax but the democrats act as if it is a hoax. The proposal from the house said we will reduce Carbon Emissions by 37 by 2030 and that is not even what the International Group called for. Issue for theour last 10 years. The democrats diluted the content they are not calling for a ban on fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure. If we build that infrastructure we will be locked into decades more of burning fossil fuel and the planet will be cooked. It is a plan to get 20 to negative Carbon Emissions by 2020. The other issue is inequality. Is decreasing so we are calling for an economic ill of rights like roosevelt called for bill of rights like roosevelt called for. That would include a job guarantee, carried income above poverty and medicare for all. Income above poverty, and medicare for all. We are calling for peace initiatives, 75 cut in military spending, getting out of these endless wars, pledging no first use of military nuclear weapons, and then going to the other Nuclear Powers and saying we want complete nuclear disarmament, and agree to the trudy treaty on a prohibition of nuclear weapons. The candidate got the Nobel Peace Prize for that three years ago and hardly anybody in the country knows that because not of the candidates are talking about this issue. It should be a top Campaign Issue and we intend to make it one. They are life or death issues. Host lets let our viewers join this conversation. We are going to open up our regular lines, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 and we are going to open up a special line for green party members. We want to hear from you at 202 7488003. You can text us your opinion at that same number, 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media, twitter and facebook. Mr. Hawkins, i can tell you we are seeing a different different versions of this question popping up on our social media feed so i am going to summarize all of them for you. We are going to start by reading ifrom the new yorker the green party insists on running a president ial candidate in the few states where it matters, i hope people will not waste their votes. That is not because i think joe biden is a hero. Hes notecause i think only better than the alternative but also push a ball. Politics begins once the votes are counted with flex with less exciting business of prodding politicians to keep promises or opening up the political space for them to do what they want. Jillworld, which votes in 1. 4 million the last president ial election, and a lot of democrats say that if jill stein hadnt gotten those votes Hillary Clinton would be president. We are getting this form of question over and over isnt voting for a Green Party Candidate voting for donald trump because that will make him more likely to win . What is your response to those concerns. Guest a vote for the green party is a vote against donald trump. It is in another column. It is the thing you learn in first grade. That is just simple logic. First question are question said politics continues after the election, and if that medicareif you want for all and Student Debt Relief and progressive reforms that Bernie Sanders was championing, and you vote for joe biden, you are voting against those things and silencing your voice and giving away your leverage. You vote for the green party, Everybody Knows you stand for that and you will be heard. When i ran for governor of new york i got 5 of the vote. Andrew cuomo wanted to run up the vote and get ready to run for president. He could not take us for granted. After that election, he adopted three demands we are raised a ban on fracking in new york state, 15 minimum wage, and paid family leave, so if you want leverage after the election you have to vote for what you want and not be taken advantage of. Jill stein brought new voters to the polls. 60 of her voters would not have come out and voted, would have stayed home. If you do the math, if that was true in michigan, she was at the margin. The democrats have got to stop blaming the greens for their own problems. It was not the greens that elected donald trump, it was the Electoral College, and we have been giving democrats the solution to the problem since ralph nader ran into thousand, abolish the Electoral College and have president elected by rank choice about. Joe biden is welcome to embrace first twohe republicans got elected by losing the popular vote and installed by the Electoral College. You would think the democrats would address that problem instead of blaming it on the greens. We aint going away. Host lets go to the phones and let our viewers take part in the conversation. Arizona onm gilbert, the green party line. Caller good morning. And right nextrt pollution. Y with air what are your thoughts on Nuclear Energy as a Clean Solution . Guest it is dirty, dangerous, and uneconomical. It has been the most unsuccessful industrial enterprise since world war ii. , sorance will not ensure it we have the price anderson act. We have nukes in upstate new york. Epsilon wanted to shut them down because they were not making money and instead this state has suffered to the tune of two bill of 8 billion to the tune 8 billion. Carolina with long the obama from administration, all of those projects have been shut down because of cost overruns and over time on the construction. They are in trouble. This is not a viable option. For the same money we might spend on Nuclear Power, weekend on solarwe can spend and wind energy. Host you talked about your run for governor of new york, and you received i believe almost 5 of the vote if not more. How do you plan to win enough votes to make this a significant race for president . How do you get people to vote for you . Guest like i said earlier, vote for what you want. If you are for medicare for all and you vote for joe biden, you will get lost in the sauce. Joe biden is against it so make your voice heard. Make your vote count, dont waste it. That is why people should vote for us it is real simple. If you dont vote for what you want, you are never going to get it. Host joe calling from whitman, massachusetts on the independent line. Caller hello. What are your thoughts on combat globalo poverty . Guest i did not quite here. Caller the International Affairs budget to combat global poverty . Guest i am for a global Green New Deal. We talk about the new deal to convert to clean energy and promote human rights and we should expand that internationally. Global of being the empire everywhere, intervening and getting behind coos and regime change, we should be helping countries, making friends instead of enemies, including helping all countries in the world meet their basic needs budgets for education and clean water. That will do more to create world peace and adjust address poverty. Yes, we should use it to help people in the world instead of trying to dominate them, and make the world safer for u. S. Based Global Corporations. Host cecil is calling from carrie, North Carolina, cary, North Carolina on the democrats line. Caller i have a problem with science. In this apply science guys whats his name . Host mr. Hawkins, our guest . Caller he is a knight in shining armor because of the when yoular depend on it, there is not one day in our life that we do not have the son applied to the earth. Earth. Sun applied to the we can have free energy in all kinds of ways, wave power, title power, and we do not have to spend money. We can make use of free power. Host go ahead and respond. Guest he is right. We only Nuclear Power plant need is the fusion reactor called the son sun. Solar, derivatives of solar like hydropower, that is Natural Energy all around us. Once you build the technology to harvest this Natural Energy around us, you do not have the fuel cost, so it is cheaper than burning fossil fuels. This is the way we have got to go, and it is imperative given the Climate Emergency we are facing that is an existential threat. People think it will be more heat waves and stronger storms. It is worse than that. It is mass extinction of species, agricultural and ecological collapse, putting our civilization in danger. This is the imperative. We have to go solar. Host we have a question from a social media follower who wants to know does the green Party Support mailin ballots . Guest absolutely. I have said early, why the hell doesnt biden go down and demand a Quarantine Program to suppress this virus . He should be demanding universal mailin ballot option so we can all vote in this pandemic. This election is problematic. We have already seen that in some of the primaries. There are no polling places because it tends to be older people who work the polls and they do not want to endanger their lives. We need this option and we need it now. I am absolutely for that, and im angry trump is against it because he does not want people to vote and thinks it is the only way he can win, but where the hell is joe biden . I have policy differences with and he talks about leadership and he is awol. Host mary is calling from syracuse, new york, on the green party line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host i am doing fine. Go ahead. Caller i wanted to make a comment on the third parties stealing votes from the democrats and republicans, and we do see that we take more votes than the republicans. With the last president ial election, if you look at the numbers, especially with the amount of people who didnt vote, you are seeing a lot more people who were being disenfranchised by the twoparty system and do not feel their voice is counted so they are not voting at all. The amount of votes that were not placed one have won the election last year, so we need to have a conversation about why the twoparty system is not working, and how we can stop people from feeling disenfranchised, and be able to partake in the Voting System and feeling like their voices are heard. Host go ahead and respond, mr. Hawkins. Guest mary is right. There were 100 Million People who could have voted in 2016 but stayed home. They are disproportionally working class, people of color, and young people. I believe they are not apathetic, they are alienated. I have done a lot of doorknocking and they believe the two parties do not know what is going on with those folks. They do not know what the issues are and do not see those people except around elections, and are just alienated. That is where the future of the green party is. We think our platform speaks to their needs and concerns. We are going to bring more people into the process. The democrats are worried about us stealing the votes. Whore going to get people and there are a lot of races where we do not have bought candidates. The greens are more likely to vote for democrats. They should get us on the ballot because we will help them out in some races. Host like any other party, you do have some intraparty battles going on. One of our social media followers want to ask about that. He says your rivals in the green party have repeatedly accused you of using railroad tactics similar to that the dnc used on bernie in order to rig the green Party Primary and your campaigns favor. How do you respond to the accusations that you made the 2020 green party antidemocratic . Guest it is not true. Each state party set up its own process. I have nothing to do with the process. In the processes they set up, i got the most votes. In politics, some people are sour grapes when they lose. You do have differences in all Political Parties. Do not believe everything you read on the internet or see on a podcast. Host richard is calling from howard beach, new york, on the republican line. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. One thing i noticed that was absent from mr. Hawkins policy points was the opioid crisis. He mentioned death by police brutality, which is important, but only a few hundred per year. There is a few hundred people dying per day in ohio and indiana and the appellation states like west virginia, and a lot of suicide based on despair and lack of work. I want to know what the green party has to offer for people trying to solve this crisis, because i feel like this is one of the most important crises that we face as a country today. Guest yes, absolutely. Decriminalize all drugs except for marijuana, which we want to legalize like alcohol and tobacco. Other illicit drugs, we want to do like they did in portugal about 20 years ago. Instead of possessing an amount for personal use of an illicit drug, instead of getting a criminal charge, you are given a ticket. It is a violation and you meet with a lawyer, doctor, and social worker, and they look at your situation and see how it can help. We should treat drug addiction as a health problem, not a criminal problem. People are dying and opioid overdoses, particularly heroin, because they are going to the street instead of getting help and being charged with a criminal offense. That is the way to reduce opioid overdoses. In portugal, they hardly ever have any of those anymore. Down andcrime has gone less people are using illicit, hard drugs then before. Deaths ofit depths despair because of the inequality. People have to choose between going to the doctor and paying the rent and they dont go to the doctor and it ends up killing them. There are people whose hopes and life are disappointed and they feel hopeless. They try to cope with drugs and alcohol or suicide. Life expectancy in this country is going despair, which is why Life Expectancy in this country is going down, which is a moral shame. It is inexcusable. Goes, as the drug policy we want to decriminalize all the drugs and provide medical other services, because people may be coping with unemployment or low wages, by getting, you know, taking alcohol or other drugs, so we think that is the best approach to the Opioid Epidemic as well as other problems with drug and downhole abuse. Host now, mr. Hawkins, there is a story in late magazine right now pointing out that in europe, green is the new wave. I am going to read a little bit of that to you. Screen party has not crested yet. Host so the green party is across europe,m and you see that in other areas, where you see the green party ticking up traction in the u. S. . Think conditions here are similar to those in europe. In europe, they have been part of the legislatures for decades now, and many parts, part of governing coalitions. In ireland, the Prime Minister is a green. And it is a commentary on the idemocratic nature of the local, state, and National Level could i think the issues the greens are running on in europe are issues that resonate here. We have got a climate crisis, and we have an issue of economic justice. That is what the Green New Deal is all about. Over 80 of the American People want a Green New Deal. Issue where the greens have stood out in europe is they have not fallen for the antiimmigrant backlash that all the other parties, at least actions of them, have adopted, and i think that attracts a lot of the voters that were socialist Party Supporters or labour Party Supporters to the greens in europe. You have the same situation here, the greens saying we should release the immigrants who are detained from those cages, reunite the, help those people get settled, and process their immigration or asylum applications. Let the people who are camped out on the other side of the breaks can border come into do what they legally have a right to do. This is a crime, what is going on on the mexican border. We would like to have open borders, like the european go aboutnd you can your business, shopping, vacation, work, or residents, and people across the borders, we have that already in the european union. We should have that. A fairrder should be trade zone, rather than a burial , where they keep wages suppressed on the other side of the break and use that threat of Company Moving over to the mexican side as a bludgeon against workers here when they demand higher wages. We should tear that border down and let workers organize across the borders and raise the Living Standards on both sides of the border. Host lets talk to sandy, who is calling from buffalo, new york, on the green party line. Sandy, good morning. Caller good morning. What heo ask howie planned to do for womens rights and whether we can get that womens rights or the equal rights amendment finally passed. Guest i think we are getting close. I am not sure how many more states, but it is a few. That should have passed a long time ago, but, yes, equal rights amendment. I think we need to codify roe v. Wade by congressional legislation, without the hands of the Supreme Court, and womens rights to choose is in the law. Those are the two most immediate things. We have got to enforce the antidiscrimination laws more effectively. We still have an income gap between men and women doing the same work, and that is another area where leadership in the federal government and the justice department, prosecuting cases of discrimination against women in employment and wages is where we have a lot of room for improvement. Host lets talk to jane, who is calling from davenport, florida, on the democrat line. Jane, good morning. Caller good morning. Um, i have a suggestion for mr. Hawkins. I would suggest that instead of emphasizing so much a president ial run for green party and other independent parties, particularly progressive parties and so forth, here in polk county, we have very important offices that are very littleknown, such as the Water Conservation district, the Community Development districts, and downtown develop a districts that the people do not even fill bother to fill out a candidate in the ranc information form, so not know who we are electing. They make it a nonpartisan position, but they hold a lot of power. What would be your thoughts . Guest i completely agree. If the green party is to become a major party and force in american politics, we have got to build it from the bottom up, and i have been saying the should be electing thousands at the local office as we go into 2020. The relevance for that project is it is much easier to run if you have a ballot line, and in 40 of the states, the vote the president ial candidate gets determines whether the green party will have a ballot line for the next election cycle. 2 , or states, it is 1 , 3 , so that is a very achievable goal for our election campaign. But i agree, the emphasis has to be on building this from the bottom up, then local state legislatures and congress. When we have to caucus in the congress and a ticket for Vice President and president , there will be no way they can ignore it. So i am with you on that. Lets build this thing from the bottom up. Host i am going to ask a couple of quick questions from our social media followers, because i want to make sure i get these questions in before we run out of time. Here is one question what is the green partys view on judicial nominees . Many People Choose their candidates based on this issue. And here is the second question that says, sadly, most americans do not watch cspan and will not see this interview or any interview by hawkins or walker, your running mate. How does a thirdParty Candidate, who is shut out by Mainstream Media, make up for that fact and reach more people . Guest first of all, dont underestimate the reach of cspan. I have seen that was just people i know going on cspan and then other people i know seeing it, who you would not expect to be tuning in. But we do have a problem with Mainstream Media. They act like it is a corporate, twoparty state, and they need to open up and not only cover the horse race, which they always do, but the issues. Debated, andto be that is the responsibility of good journalism. As far as the courts go, one way to deal with the problem of all of these conservatives that have been appointed to the federal court is by legislation, and that is one thing. And also, the courts react to the political environment they are in. Anticonservatives have lost a number of courses in the and thecourt trump conservatives have lost a number of cases in the Supreme Court in recent weeks. The court has to take that into account, our rights. So, yeah, the courts are important, and i think lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is something we need to review. You know, for ideological reasons, president s appoint young man, usually men, and they will be there for decades. That is probably not the best thing. We should have some turnover. There are ways of dealing with the court issue, and it is an important issue. Host lets see if we can get some more callers in before we run out of time. Lets talk to les from dodge city, kansas, on the republican line. Les, good morning. Caller good morning. How muchns, i wonder you know about farming and how much horsepower it takes for a big john deere tractor to plow a field or a kenworth semi truck or a submarine for the navy that stays underwater for 24 hours, and aircraft carrier. Do you know how many horsepower it takes for those big semis and tractors to plow a field . Do you realize it is hundreds, and you are not going to put a windmill on top of a kenmore tractor or john dear tractor and plow a field. You will not put a windmill on top of a submarine and protect a navy or protect our country, and i bet you you drive a car, and i bet you fly in an airplane, too, dont ya . Host go ahead and respond. Guest well, it does take a lot of horsepower to run the machinery you are talking about, and a lot of that machinery uses electric motors. The question is where are you going to get that electricity from . Instead of fossil fuels, we can get it from solar wind and other renewable sources. They run electric motors. The diesel provides the thetricity to generate electricity, but it is an electric motor, more torque than other motors, so that is why there is a diesel electric train, and we can provide that energy by other sources other than diesel, so there is a solution to that problem, and it is a better solution than to continue burning fossil fuels. Host lets talk to norman, who calls from amherst, massachusetts, on the green party line. Norman, good morning. Caller hi. Thanks for taking my call p it i have been in the green party for a long time. I have three short points, and whatevernswer them in order you choose. Streamanels, the revenue provides backdoor funding into fracking. The second is mccarthyism. I mean, it makes our party sound both crazy and stupid. Worst of all, antisemitic dog familys, before a meeting with the leads, praising the America First committee, that is putting our party in the wrong place. Guest i do not know who you are referring to with the antisemitic, mccarthys amments, and the panels being backdoor for fracking, you said, i do not follow that, you know solar panels use the suns energy. After oils going unde under the ground. Host unfortunately, we are just about out of time, mr. Hawkins peered once again, we want to thank Howie Hawkins, the green Party President ial candidate, for being with us on the show today. Thank you, mr. Hawkins. Guest thank you. Host i want to remind everybody cspan will be airing speeches from mr. Hawkins and his running today atker, later on 8 00 and 11 30 p. M. Eastern time. Coming up next, we will go back to our original questions. We want to talk to you about whether you think the twoparty system is working. Once again, you can see the numbers on the screen. Tell us what you think. We will be right back with your calls. Come oncan history tv cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story, every weekend. Coming up this weekend, today, at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, on oral history, an interview with civil rights activist courtland cox, covering his time at howard university, his time serving the secretary general of the 1974 panafrican conference. On sunday, at 4 00 p. M. Eastern 1963 nbcamerica, the news report the American Revolution of 1963, with georgia,from albany, birmingham, alabama, cambridge, maryland, englewood, new jersey, chicago, and brooklyn. At 7 00 p. M. , a discussion on congress, Political Parties, and polarizations with historians edward ayer and Joanne Friedman as well as norman or steam. And at 8 00 p. M. On the presidency, author andrew cohen talks about his book over john history thatd the defined jfks response to the race. R arms explore American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. We want are back, and to hear from you again for the next segment on whether you think our current twoparty political system is working. Our again, if you think current twoparty political system is working, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. No, our current twoparty political system is not working, your phone number is going to be 202 7488001. If you are unsure, but you still have something to say, we want to hear from you at 202 7488002. Keep in mind, you can still text us your opinion at 202 7488003. And we are always reading a social media, add on twitter cspanwj and on facebook at journal cspan. Org. At facebook. Com cspan. Who isalk to john, calling from boston, massachusetts, and he says twoparty system is not working. Caller hi. This is a pretty good show you guys have going on. If the twoparty system is not working. I do not just say that because i have been a member of the Libertarian Party for 15 years. I think, because there is one thing the democrats and the publicans talk about that is a dead giveaway that even they know their twoparty system does not work, and that is the recent vote fallacy. If you do not vote for democrat or republican, you are wasting your vote, or you are giving a defective vote to one of the democrats or republicans that you appreciate less, and that is a dead giveaway, because what they are saying to you there is that your honestly held ideology, which is not held by the republican or democrat parties, is not worth being represented in the electric. It is incredibly disrespectful. Fascistto it as a bullying tactics, because if they really want my vote as a libertarian, their democrat and republican candidates have to Start Talking like libertarians, and i listen to the parties. Thomasct guys like massie and rand paul and ron paul, and i guess, to a lesser extent, ron wyden, the democratic senator who is really big on Civil Liberties sometimes. When they get to election time and they want my vote, they dont earn it by talking like a libertarian. They earn it by saying or they try to bully me into it by saying, well, which one of the twoParty Candidates do you like the least, and your thirdparty vote is defective going to the twoParty Candidate you like the least. It is paradoxical, fascist, and they do it every time we run against a candidate, libertarians, greens, constitutional independence, they do it every time. They say maybe next election, not this election. Dont do it this election, and they say it every single time, and i am sick of it host lets go to doug, who is calling from texas. Doug, good morning. One question for each of your hosts or visitors, i should say. What is their position on term limits . I think that is one of the failings of the twoparty system. Thank you. Host lets go to randall, who is calling from chevy chase, maryland. Randall says, yes, the Current System is working. Randall, good morning. Caller yes, hi, good morning. Getting a qualified its working. It is working within the constitutional, governmental system we have. The reason multiple parties are not working, have not worked, and will not work is the very structure of the system. So if you want and i want to see multiparties we really bothered to learn from other countries. You have to look at, like, a parliamentary system. That requires more fundamental change that these people, no matter how radical, are thinking about. It may be impossible to do, but the way it could work and does work in most developed countries is a parliamentary system, where you have coalitions of parties, and its much changes much able to bring about change much more rapidly, because you have coalitions. If you cannot make a coalition, the Prime Minister has to step aside or has to have a revote. Do not have anything like that, so we have a situation, with respect to the president , we have the most powerful person in the world, and there is almost no way to have change. So we dont bother to update and notge our thinking, because to be able to really change this position for a fouryear period is not the same as it was in 1776. Things happened much more quickly. It is working the way it is set up to, and it probably cannot work to have multiple parties in the Current System, unless you are willing to change the entire system and go to Something Like a parliamentary system. Host lets talk to jason, who is calling from little elm, texas. Jason, good morning. Caller thank you, jesse. The switchboard operator, the only way a twoparty system can work is if the districts are kept roughly at parity come up with Neither Party having more than a 10point advantage in the district. Districts are overwhelmingly one party or the other, it just gives power to the extreme within a dominant i, and they dont fear mean, gal, people on the other site, or moderates, because they know whoever wins the nomination will win. I think in a multiparty or parliamentary system, there is less fear of that, because there is less need for parties to coalesce. Ideologicalrse, elements coalescing into a single party. Our Current System is not set up to favor the center. That is all i have. Host we have had several social media followers asking the question of how many elected officials are there in the United States who are thirdparty or who are not democrat or republican . Friends at our balanced media has a page back and answer those questions. I will go over a few of those people who are not democrat or republicans who are serving in government right now. So, right now, in congress, there are two independent senators, Bernie Sanders and angus king. In the house, justin amash is a libertarian member of the u. S. House. And we have an independent number for two of the at large districts for puerto rico and the northern madera islands. Now, statelevel, and vermont, there are two Progressive Party members who are serving as state senators, and in nebraska and pennsylvania, they also have to two people who are independents. In the state houses, in state representatives, you have a Libertarian Party member in the New Hampshire government, and you have a lot of independents scattered across the United States. And vermont, you have members of the vermont Progressive Party. The same goes for the looked in a governor of vermont, who is a member of the Lieutenant Governor of vermont, who is a member of the vermont Progressive Party. Of state ofetary north dakota is an independent. So there are elected officials right now in the United States who are members of party or who also are independents. So, as you can see, it can happen in the United States. Lets go back to our phone line and talk to you again about does the twoparty system work . Lets go to doreen, who is calling from danvers, massachusetts. The rain says no. Doreen, good morning. Caller i say no with a caveat. I think it can work, but the problem is, when you have one party, to parties opposing at other on a regular basis, and one party gets in office, especially in a president ial office, and is not support the other partys affiliates, we are not representing the full country, which i mean as we the people, you know. Because i think once somebody gets in office, their party affiliation, even though they may present their views on ballots, even though they present their views, should automatically support everybody in office and all the people in the country. Meaning that if there is a democratic senator, and he is working to support his massachusetts, for example, the individuals to be representing all republicans and democrats by voting according to their party, to the vote of the people or the will of the people. Think that once the politicians are in office, they should support each other, and we should come together on Major Political issues and find compromise. I think compromise is the Biggest Issue that we have right now, because we have probably four or five major issues that keep. Changing host lets go to douglas, who is calling from laramie, wyoming. Douglas, good morning. Caller good morning. Foundersbelieve the designed the country or the constitution to accommodate parties. I do not believe they wanted Political Parties. George washington, beginning with paragraph 20 in his farewell address, is let me baneful against the effects of the spirited party, the ultimate dominion of ones faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, is , making itespotism the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and and governments truly elected, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. Ofis a constant danger access, the effort ought to be force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. Thank you very much. Lets see what our social viewers have to say. Host another text that says host lets go back to our phone lines, and lets talk to dan, who is calling from sioux falls, south dakota. Dan good morning. Um, i think it should be just a three party system now, because if you go to many parties, like a green and libertarian, you know, and theres five, i like how you pointed out earlier about the three party system, we have got independents in the house and the senate that are voting, that is where i think we need to go. There are a lot more people getting registered as independent voters now could i do not know what the numbers are, but it is increasing tremendously. My friend out of colorado is getting registered to be an independent voter in this upcoming election. So i think what we need to do is focus on getting that third party as one, and then have a libertarian, green, all go together in the independent party, and just to let you know, that guy earlier, Howie Hawkins, i am an original member of the green party. We started in minneapolis, minnesota, in the 1980s. Our goal it was only to get cannabis legalized in one state, and that was it. We definitely accomplished that goal and went way beyond that, so i am really happy about that. But, yeah, the twoparty system is not working. That is why i love your show, cspan, because it is more independent, down the middle. You have got msnbc that is so far to the left, obviously fake fox news that is so far to the right, and i hate watching their shows, because they skew into their view. That is why we need more cspan. It is independent. I love it. Thank you. Host lets go to elias, who is calling in rockville, maryland. Elias, good morning. Caller good morning. I do not think the twoparty system is working. To be honest, i do not think adding more parties is going to work. The real problem is all the money to the companies and big firms putting in the politics pockets just to buy them. Until that problem is solved, we should not mess around with adding more parties were doing such and such. Another big problem that i think is easy to fix is keeping, like, a limited term for all of congress and senators. I think this way, people will vote their conscience and be more adaptable instead of just, like, staying there forever and getting money from big firms and just, like, keep doing their own agenda, like raising money, keep putting their pockets, instead of doing what the American People need. Who isets go to les, calling from nevada. Les, good morning. Caller yeah, i love your show, man. I was thinking about what is going on here with the Electoral College, the twoparty system and all of it, and it all comes back to too much money in our elections. And that comes back to the Citizens United decision. Obama called the Supreme Court look right at him and said, that is a horrible decision. We are all going to pay for it. And we are. The more money that is spent on elections, the less control we have on our politicians, and the more control of the money he has. There is a site for conservatives and aside for liberal views to look at each other and clash a little bit and also try to Work Together, to get problems solved. We are not solving problems, we are just snapping at each other, and theres good ideas of both sides of every issue. Host lets talk to gilbert, who is calling from birmingham, alabama. Gilbert, good morning. Caller yes, thank you, cspan callers,trigued by the especially the twoparty duplicity, and the words of ralph nader, it is just not working. Two issues here the nation has been outsourced over the last 20 years, bipartisan support with the democrats and the republicans for that to happen. It could have never happened. When obama, whom i voted for twice, as an independent, i voted for him twice, the democrats had control of the senate come of the house, and the presidency, and they did not moves that were necessary. So it is twoparty to pacific. Closing on this note. When you think about when it was past, when it came down, the big corporations that did not need the money, they were already online to get the money. Twoparty duplicity. I do not know what they are going to do with the upcoming election. I cannot see myself voting for either candidate. Have a great day. Host lets talk to susan, who was calling from seminole, florida. Susan, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I believe that the twoparty systems are not working, and the out,endents are being left because we cannot vote in the primaries. Certain states can, but we cannot. And i do believe that the beingrty system is controlled by Citizens United. All it does is take money from the banks, wall street, and corporate america, and it does not serve we the people. That is what i have to say. Thank you. Host lets talk to tim, who is calling from charlotte, North Carolina. Tim, good morning. Am unsures, ok, so i of the twoparty system in the sense that the twoparty system extent as faran as allowing america to grow wealth, but we still have some of the same issues that we had back in the 1950s and so on with equality, bad pay rates, so it is kind of unsure whether or not this system is going to be able to actually get itself together, get off of the high wars of just trying to galvanize more money, put it in the pockets of the ridge, instead of actually saying we are going to fix the problem to the public. Everyone can continue to grow. Go back and look at what some of our social media followers are saying about this issue. Here is a text that we got in that says host here is a tweet that says host and one last text that says host lets go back to the phone lines and talk to anna, from harvest, alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. There was a phrase several years ago, and i am probably paraphrasing, that it is not perfect there to our system is not perfect, but it is the best thing going, and i was a registered democrat for years. I dont always go democrat. Wille with who i think help me, my family, and my friends better than the other person. About the Electoral College, if we eliminate the Electoral College, we will be run by people from new york and california. So that is all i wanted to say. Thank you. Host lets talk to jesse, who is calling from new jersey. Jesse, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I am actually the libertarian candidate running to represent new jersey second congressional district, so obviously i do not believe the twoparty system is working at all. It is only working for the corporations and the wealthy people who run those corporations. You can see some of the conditions of the American People through news media conglomerates. They use news media conglomerates in the twoparty system to control what we do as americans, and they create restrictions through the federal government, and we should have municipalities controlling themselves, because communities and individuals need to make their own decisions. So, no, but twoparty system is not working, and we need to start working for third party, but it takes personal responsibility, and it takes our decisions, because they are not going to detach from us. Thank you. Host lets go to dave, who is calling from new york. Dave, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning. Myank you for taking call. The key is how funds are raised. Weak, andrties are they are weak because they do not have control over the money. That means somebody like the coke brothers, they can go ahead and fund candidates who maybe have extreme positions apart from the parties themselves. The parties dont have control over them. So the key is fixing the money situation and giving more control to the Party Leaders themselves, who have to speak to a broader constituency than just one congressional district. Who lets talk to kevin, is calling from san antonio, texas. Kevin, good morning. Caller good morning. No, the twoparty system is not working, because people supported donald trump just because he said he was republican. He does not have any republican basically ran off of a brand, and then, like i said, that is not good for our country. Host now, have you voted for a third party, kevin . Caller yeah, i voted for ross perot back in the day, you know, because bill clinton was part of the establishment, and he was not really a democrat. You know, he did more to destroy, like i said, the public airwaves, financing, then democrats. Host so what is your response to people who say voting for thirdParty Candidate in a president ial election is throwing away your vote . Caller well, you have got to vote, you know what im saying . You have got to vote, because it is not about the top line. If you vote in the top line, then you still get other people that you can vote for. Host ok. Once again, lets go back to look at the gallup poll and see how many people in the United States are identifying themselves as republican, democrat, or independent or thirdparty members. So, once again, if you look at the most recent gallup poll, when people are asked, in politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a republican, a democrat, or an independent . According to the most recent gallup poll, from may 28 to june 4, we see that 25 of people right now consider themselves to be republicans. Shows 40 ndent column of people are identifying themselves as independent. Are31 of the people identifying themselves as democrats. So right now, people who identify themselves as independents, not being members of the republican or democratic outnumber the republicans and the democrats. So right now, those independents for those thirdparty voters, the people who do not belong to any party or belong to a thirdparty come are actually andumbering the republicans the democrats, so that is from the current gallup poll. Lets go back to our phone lines. Lets talk to bill, who is calling from harmony, North Carolina. Bill, good morning. Caller good morning. Hello . Host go aheadhost , bill, you are on the air. The twopartyes, system is not working. The corporate controls everything out there, including the fbi and any kind of investigation, and discrimination is running at an alltime high when it comes to justice in america. Host now, bill, have you ever voted for a thirdParty Candidate . Caller yes. Well, it was basically the independents it has been several years ago, just to get everything exactly on there, but i am not real happy with either democrat. But i would pick joe biden over imald trump, but not real happy with either candidate there. Host what would you say to people who say voting for any thirdParty Candidate, especially in a president ial election, is throwing away your vote, since i thirdParty Candidate has not won a president ial election . Well, in some ways you are, but personally, myself, i think with everything going on in america, Bernie Sanders would be a better choice than anything we have got up there so far. That is just to say that the Corporate Party is not going to go along with him. L. T. , who isalk to calling from cuddy, pennsylvania. L. T. , good morning. Yes, i feel that most of the problems we have is our own fault, because, lets take a foreign automobile. Lets take a rollsroyce or a bentley, and lets put a drunken full behind the wheel. What do you have . It is the same thing with the system. The system is fine, but it is the choices that we make. And believe me, ignorance is their best friend, and to use our ignorance for their advantage. Very simple. Host we would like to thank all of our callers and all of our social media followers for weighing and, again, on that question. Coming up next, jo jorgensen, the libertarian president ial nominee, will join us for discussion on her platform and her strategy in this years election. We will be right back. Binge watch book tv this summer. Saturday evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, settle in and watch several hours of your favorite authors. Tonight, were featuring commentator, author, and founder of national review, william f buckley, author of over 50 books, including up from liberalism, flying high, and the reagan i knew. Binge watch book tv all summer on cspan2. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app, and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with jo jorgensen, who is the libertarian Party President ial nominee. She is with us this morning to talk about the Libertarian Party and her run for president. Ms. Jorgensen, thank you very much for being with us today. Guest glad to be here. Thank you very much. Host give us your picture president. Viewersld our cspan consider you and vote for you for president of the United States . Guest because government is too big, too nosy, too intrusive, and the worst part is they often hurt the very people that they try to help. We need to put the decisionmaking power back to the individuals. Individuals can make the best decisions for themselves, and they can spend their money better than vera katz and lobbyist in washington. Lobbyists ins and washington. Host tell us about your platform and how would you govern as a libertarian . Our platform is basically, we are on your side. With the environment, what we would do is we would look at it as a solution, if you look around the world, wherever there is bigger governments, there is more pollution. Wherever there is less government, theres less pollution. In fact, i was on a debate stage with a socialist candidate who, in her closing, said, you know, the u. S. Department of defense is the largest polluter on earth, and then she went on to say how Global Corporations work. I would say is you do not go to the people who are causing the problem. The federal government is causing the problem, why would you go there for help . Care,if we look at Health Government has botched it up, and we do not have a free market system, and in fact, the more government got involved, the more prices went up. Also, i would bring the troops home. There is no reason for us to be the worlds policeman. I want to turn america into one giant Switzerland Armed and neutral. There is no reason why taxpayers in alabama, california, wherever, should be paying for germanys and frances defense. And being in the middle east is making us less safe, not more safe. The purpose of the military is to protect us, not make us less safe. Host now, i will ask you some of the same questions i asked Howie Hawkins earlier in the show about the questions that we are going to get and we have been getting on our social media feed about thirdParty Candidates. Many of our social media that ifs want to know they vote for a libertarian stateate in a national or election, isnt that throwing their vote away, since libertarian candidates have never won on a National Level . Do you consider a vote libertarian candidate throwing your vote away . Guest i think the only wasted vote is one for trump or biden, because they will give us more of what we dont want. If you want higher taxes, bungling of government, if you want to keep troops over the world, if you want more pollution, more Expensive Health care, then by all means, vote for trump and biden. I would say if he wasnt indifferent, vote for something different, which would be the Libertarian Party to die would also say we can make change, even without being elected. Now, the libertarian candidate gary johnson in the last politica president ial votes. N won 4. 5 million do you think you will do better than what gary johnson did . And how would you bring people out to vote for the Libertarian Party . Guest i think we will. First of all, let me say that we ecstatic that most of the volunteers have been nonlibertarian. Wele are signing up saying do not want the same thing, and that is very unusual, especially for a libertarian campaign. Usually we have the core libertarian voters first, and then we go from there. But we, from the very start, have had nonlibertarians signup, so i think this is going to be a much different movement. And especially after donald trump. You know, the reason the polls got it wrong as they were not polling people who had never voted or had not voted in 20 years, and they wanted something different, so they voted for donald trump. He is not a professional. Politician. He basically parachuted in, and yet he is giving us more of the same. We have got increased spending, we have got increased deficit, we have got all the things that people say they dont want. So now they say to get a true outsider, they need to look outside of the democrat and Republican Party. Host what is fundraising looking like for you right now . Because, as we have heard, we expect both the democrat and republican candidates to raise in the hundreds of millions, if not 1 billion, to run for president. What is fundraising looking like for you, and how much money do you expect to raise, to run your candidacy . Guest well, it is looking great. We are way ahead of projections. Now, i am not going to give any estimate, especially with the coronavirus. Things are just a little different, however, i can say we are right on par with the previous campaign, and i think we will be breaking a lot of records. Me remind ourt viewers that we are going to open up our phone lines, and if you have questions for jo jorgensen, the libertarian Party President ial nominee, we will open our regular lines, which means, democrats, you can call 202 7488000. Republicans, your number is going to be 202 7488001. Independents, you can call 202 7488002. We are going to open up a special line for Libertarian Party members. That line is going to be 202 7488003. Keep in mind you can also text your questions to that number, 202 7488003. And we are always reading on social media, on twitter cspanwj, and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Now, ms. Jorgensen, i am going to ask you a question that came up earlier in the show, when it came to thirdParty Candidates. ThirdParty Candidates do not get the attention from the Mainstream Media as the democrat and republican candidates. How do you get your message up to more people, so they can understand what you are offering and what the Libertarian Party offers . Guest well, pretty much the same way anybody gets their message out, which is through social media. And we are just having a fantastic day when it comes to social media. And, can i mention, you just mentioned the phone lines, how you have democrats and republicans, and today is a special line for libertarians, i would like to point out that the Libertarian Party is the only party, other than the democrats and republicans, who have been on the ballot in all 50 states in back to back president ial nominations or president ial elections. So we actually are separated from all of the other third parties in that we have had that kind of support. And in fact, it was after we were on the ballot, three consecutive president ial elections, that they started increasing Ballot Access laws, because they saw us as a threat, because they know they have a failed message, and they know that basically we are going to offer something that the people want. And we are a much larger force to be reckoned with than any other third party, by far. Host given that you are going to appear on the ballot in all 50 states, do you think that should automatically qualify you for all of the president ial debates that are coming up later this year . Guest i believe so, especially since so many parties since there are so few parties who do qualify. If you have an electoral chance of winning, then the state we are in now, i think everybody should be on the ballot. Where maybe 30to different parties could all potentially be on the ballot, or could win, then maybe there would have to be a system of ballots, where, like we have in sports, we start off with a few and build your way up, just like they did with the democratic and republican debates. But, absolutely. The people who could potentially vote for you, elect you as president , should be able to hear what you have to say. Would a Jorgensen Administration be dealing with the current coronavirus, covid19 pandemic . You think states should be ordering people to be wearing masks, and do you think there should be more testing done, coronavirus testing done in the United States . Guest well, i really think trump bungled this. When he shouldve done from the beginning is get rid of the fda obstacles to get the testing kits out, because we needed early testing. Remember, one of the reasons i said people should vote libertarian is what the government does is the people they are trying to help they often hurt. That is exactly what they have done with the fda. The fdae was noble, but has gotten in the way every single year, every single day, with medications, testing, anything else. And so what President Trump should have done is used his emergency powers, should have come in and cleared the efficacy requirement, so you only had to approve safety. And what was sad is there were over 60 Different Companies making testing kits, and in the beginning, the fda only approved two of them. And you might wonder, well, i guess the other Companies Went out of business, or they could not manufacture their testing kids. No. Those testing kids were going around the world pure we kept hearing news reports about how Southeast Asia was doing a great job testing their people. Yeah, they were testing people with kits made in our country that even we could not buy, so trump and the fda got in the way of testing. If we had had testing early on, we would have had who needed to stay home, who could have been outside, and then we would not have lost the tens of millions of jobs. And as far as the states, i do not want a strong federal government ruling the states, and i think most people dont. If you dont like what is going on in your state, it is easier to move to another state rather than moving to another country, so i think that the president , as a leader, the tone, and the , wasem that trump caused he and dr. Fauci got up there week after week, saying stay home, stay home, stay home, so then the governors followed suit. I would get up there and say this is serious, you need to get tested, however, you are an adult. You dont need to government to be your mommy and your daddy. You can make decisions with your doctors, and that was at the tone with the governors to not shutdown the states. One last thing. For some reason, we have got this idea in our country that if the government does not do it, it does not get done, and that happened with, you know, asking people to stay home. When they started lifting the requirements a couple of months ago, they took a poll and asked people do you think we are opening too soon . Something like 78 of people said yes, we are opening up too soon. So there are plenty of people who would have stayed selfquarantine, even without the government locking them up under house arrest. Host lets let some of our viewers take part in this conversation. We are going to start with barbara, who is calling from baton rouge, louisiana on the democratic line. Barbara, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you so much for taking my call. I am a first time caller. Personally, i feel that it does what the affiliation is of the person, whether shes democrat, republican, libertarian. I think what is important is the heart of the person, and it is so important that people do what is right, because there will be no justice on this earth. There will be no peace on this earth until there is justice. The heart begins in of the people. That is all i really wanted to say. Risk ons, ms. Nd jorgensen best go ahead and respond go ahead and respond, ms. Jorgensen. Guest we have lobbyists in washington whose only focus is gaining more power, earning more money, handing out power to corporations. We hear a lot of complaints about corporations. A lot of people think the problem is with corporations no, the problem is with the federal government who is given the power to these corporations. We need to realize that people can live their own lives peacefully, if we just create a framework for them to be able to do that. Do we want a government, sure. Police, courts, the military. Anything beyond that, people should be able to make their own decisions. Let me give you an example, and i think this is a good example, is gay marriage. Minicooper dont realize that as recently many people dont realize, that as recently as 2012, barack obama and Hillary Clinton were against gay marriage. Yet the Libertarian Party since 1972 has said, we will leave that up to the individual and their religion, government should not be involved. That shows real hard. Finally, i would like to point out that the Walt Disney Company in the early 90s was giving benefit to espouse his, partners , since we did not have gay marriage, partners of the employees. Corporationst realizing they have to treat your employees and heart, they have to have the best interests of their employees in order to get the best employees. So we have corporations offering benefits for gay marriage, decades before the federal government says it is ok for people to choose who they want to marry. Host monte is goin calling from sugarcreek, ohio on the libertarian line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Joe, i would like to ask a question about how you feel about unions and skilled trade labor. I just want to know what your stance is. Guest i think unions can provide a vital role, and if people want to voluntarily get together and bring their grievances to companies, absolutely. Now, the government should not stack the deck, should not empower the unions to where they can hold a corporation hostage. I realize that over 100 years ago, maybe there was a need for that, but there is no need for the government to step in between voluntary negotiations between employers and employees. Host anthony is calling from lakeview, ohio on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Jo, i am a longterm registered theblican, i have served on republican National Committee, and you have my vote this november. I would like you to talk a little bit about the issues of victimless crime, and how much that fuels many of the conflict between citizens and police times. D tragically at guest i gave my acceptance speech yesterday and i started off with a case in which a father came out as gay [no audio] because there were laws against homosexual activities. You have to people in a loving relationship. Why should the government step in and say what kind of interactions we should have within each other and what they shouldnt. When we look at sex workers, wherever you have minimized restitution legalized prostitution, you see fewer diseases, more harmony, less violence. Why shouldnt people be it were to engage in consensual activities . I would add that basically prostitution consists of capitalism and sex. There is no problem. Where is the victim . I would say the victim would be ple who cannot get dates you know, there are people who would prefer to maybe have a date that way. Or, as Charlie Sheen put it, he doesnt pay for the women to come to him, he pays for the women to go away. Why shouldnt he have that option . Weve got drugs. The biggest problem we have right now is not the drugs, its the drug prohibition. I would ask somebody, when is the last time you heard, say in the customer owner in the halls of a high school Liquor Store Owner in the halls of a high school . Someone breaking into houses because they couldnt pay for ivanka habit . 2 pay for their habit . All of these are prohibition problems. Two drugs cause problems . They do, however, it would be more manageable if they were legal. You look at alcohol prohibition, alcohol use. , but addictione and social problems did not go up. I what is the difference have never used drugs and i thet plan to what is difference between me drinking bourbon in my home and someone smoking marijuana in your home . If there is no victim, there is no crime. I would add that gambling and anything else that is not hurting anybody, besides hurting yourself and loved ones, which if it were legal, it would be easier to get help if it was out in the open. Host one of our viewers wants to know how you would balance the budget and reduce the debt. Guest first of all, Social Security. I am fashioning my plan after the cato plan. I would like to have the media opt out for young people, because they know it will not be around. For people who put money into the system, i want federal assets, that the federal government should not own anyway. Some of these prime Downtown Office spaces, some of these Excessive Military equipment. Give the people money for their Social Security so that is not a recurring debt. I would also bring the troops home. We spend more than the next 10 countries combined. We can cut our military budget by two thirds of 1 trillion and still have the Largest Military budget. There is no reason for us to be anywhere else. Why are we spending money defending other countries, and why are we spending money . These are countries that make us less safe. Two cuts, thate would be a huge cut of the budget. Department of education. Education is a local issue, it should be decided among parents, teachers, and students. Known reason we need the government telling everybody how they need to run their education. That needs in appalachia are much different than the needs in new york city. Host lets go to robert, calling from michigan on the independent line. Good morning. Caller got a couple of questions i will bring to you. I would like to know why American People, and washington kicked prayer out of the school. Guest i use this as my primary example of why we have such divisiveness in this country. It, say you look at want prayer in your school, and say your nextdoor neighbor doesnt want prayer in his school. What happens is you guys have to battle it out, you have to go and campaign for your candidate, he has to go to the ballot box, and it is a winner takes all or one size fits all. Instead of running that decision to the government, how about, again, go back to having a heart, let people make that choice. If you want to use your money to send your kids to a school with prayer, great. If your neighbor wants to send his or her kid to a School Without prayer, great. You should have that decision. Instead, we send money to the federal government, to an expensive middleman, and then gives us more costly education. It wouldnt be such a tragedy if Public Education did not cost more than private education. Governmentrun education versus your choice education, we would see, first of all, better education for a lower price because Public Education actually costs more than private education. And secondly, people get to make their own decision. The problem with the government right now is you cannot choose education, health care, retirement, any of these things, without it going through the government. These are the decisions people should be making on their own. Host like any other party, the Libertarian Party also has some drama. Own intraparty i will read this quote and then ask you this question this comes from libertarian john labo washingtonwas post. Congressg a member of subjected to debates where a bunch of unknowns taunted, calling him a fraud, and he said, characterizing the criticism amash faced online. Conventionn delegates nominated the ticket of some lady some guy who podcast from his basement, 2020. How much support are you getting from your party , and is there a concern that you are not a name brand . Guest a lot of support. First of all, some lady. I have a phd in organizational psychology, i also have an mba and i have run a couple of companies. I have just been polite and not corrected you. I am actually dr. Jurgensen, not some lady. As far as the podcaster, the , in hise can podcast is late 30s, he had made enough money from the company that he started that he could retire. I dont think there are many millennials who could retire. So i think that is admirable, and i think it shows what a good candidate he is and not that he is somebody in the basement. Secondly, when you said factions. Let me make a different point first, which is bad, that is a very slanted view of what happened. It is extreme. But to answer the general question of factions, there are factions in every party. Look at what the Democrat Party did the tulsi gabbard, the only antiwar, propeace candidate out there, and the democratic establishment shut her up. Look at the mark rutte. They are not have look at democrats. They are not happy with joe biden. Because the Party Structure was Strong Enough that they got to choose the candidate, instead of ting the Democratic People because i am not hearing anybody who is happy with joe biden. In the Libertarian Party, we are allowed to make our choices. When our delegates go to conventions, they get to choose whatever they want. They are not bound by what the vote totals say. If you look throughout everything you have said, everything i have written, not once have i criticized justin opinions, for not being enough libertarian. I think that the criticism that he should have entered the race sooner so that people could see wa what he was four, i think that is somewhat valid, but, again, it is not a skewed presented. That was that is just an example of the media, who are very biased, going against the Libertarian Party. So glad we have social media i am so glad we have so many followers. Host if you prefer dr. Jorgensen we will use that from that point on. Lets go back to the phone lines to jersey, calling from indiana, on the republican line. Good morning. Jersey, are you there . Caller good morning. , like President Trump, the cards are stacked against you, not only on the republican and a democrat side being thirdparty and being small right now, how do you plan on overcoming that . And, if you could touch on your Second Amendment plan and your beliefs in that please . Guest ok, because we are a small party, to keep doing what we are doing. Again, the social Media Outreach has been amazing. The number of volunteers signing up has been amazing. I recently went up to oklahoma and talked to my state coordinator and asked her, what kind of volunteers are you getting . She says, most of them are not libertarians, and they have put a little meet and greet together for me in a local restaurant. They did it less than 24 hours notice, called everybody the night before. When my plane landed and i went to the restaurant, the restaurant was filled to capacity and there was a waiting line of at least 30 people in 90 degree heat, waiting to see me. That shows we are making progress. As far as the Second Amendment, i am a gun owner. Even if i werent a gun owner, i would still be for the Second Amendment. I think we need to get rid of every gun law passed in the last 100 years. I would point out that that is a perfect ample of how libertarians are for individual rights, for individuals making their own decisions, not based on personal preference. An example, dick cheney, comp is a against gay marriage, until he finds out competently against gay marriage until he finds out that his daughter has come out of the closet. Libertarians have been for gay marriage since 1972. We have also been for the Second Amendment since 1972. Even people who dont have guns or like guns are for gun ownership, and that is one more law that i would say is a victimless crime, simple gun possession. No matter what gun it is, if you are not using it to commit a crime, it is not a crime at all to have a possession of drugs, guns, anything like that. So i would ask the republicans out there who want to keep their guns, and you hear the democrats wanted to take them away from you, maybe you should consider allowing people to peacefully own drugs the way you peacefully own drugs. As far as people who are democrats who want to take guns away from everybody, maybe you should take a look and think, maybe people should peacefully be allowed to keep drugs around the house, then people should be allowed to keep guns as well. If they are not being used for a crime, what is the problem . Host a question from our social media followers. This question is, if you are elected as libertarian president , how would your executive branch work with a republican and democrat legislative branch to get things done . Guest first of all, i would remind them who is president , that i got elected. Secondly, people in congress jobs. Heir cush they get money, power, and prestige. I would point out that i was elected president , and if you want to keep your job, perhaps you should follow what your constituents want, which is to follow my plan. Also, i will not accept anything other than a balanced budget that is a lower budget than we have been doing. A lot of people point to ronald reagan. He made government smaller, isnt that great . Weather dont realize is that government got bigger every year for eight years underneath him. Congress did not present him with a balanced budget, he had no choice. No, he did have a choice. And i will have a choice. If they give me a budget that is not balanced, or a budget that is larger, i will tell them to work on it some more. What we have now is you have this crazy system where we plan to spend more money, than if we dont plan to spend twice as much, we call that a cut. That is not a cut. I like the idea of the Weight Watchers plan, which is, you dont say, i planned to gain on the 10 pounds last month, step on the scale and you have only gained eight pounds, and you go, wow, i lost two pounds that is a ridiculous way to think of things. We need to start at zero every year and not talk about what we keep, we talk about what do we want to spend this year . Stephen,s talk to calling from kansas city, kansas on the libertarian nine. Good morning on the libertarian line. Good morning. Morning. I, good as a libertarian, we know that the common phrase thrown around is, taxation is theft, even though that is not realistic. Jos taxdering what plan was, specifically what her ideal income tax rate would be. Guest ideally zero federal income tax. Now, can we get rid of the federal income tax on the first day . No. Within the first year or two. A lot of people become puzzled, how can you get rid of the federal income tax, where does the money come from . People dont realize that the federal income tax only gives us about half of our budget. So getting rid of the income tax would only get rid of half of it. We need to cut so much from the military, from Social Security by providing people with a stable retirement that they can control, that if we get rid of these other things then that would give us much less spending, which is richard b. Again which is where it should be. Again, the more the government runs the more we are at war fighting with each other over how things are spent. Host this is coming from chris, from tennessee. Do you intend to make Real Progress on Race Relations in our country, because it seems to be going the opposite way we want it to. Guest yes. A lot of people dont realize how we have Racial Injustice built into our laws. Let me give you the example of the drug war. A lot of people point to the fact that blacks get stopped more often simply while driving, simply while walking through a neighborhood. That is absolutely true. If they get stopped more often, if they have a drug on them, than they are going to get caught, whereas away person is much less likely to get caught. What a lot of people dont realize is that it is actually built into the system, in that if you look at drugs people of color tend to use, those have longer prison sentences than the drugs words tend to use. That is built into the system. I would like to mention one thing people dont realize, to give you an example of just how deep the problem is. We have all heard the story of a womanks, how she was who refused to sit in the back of the bus. What a lot of people dont realize is that, that was a governmentowned, governmentrun bus, and the only way that racism was able to go on for so long, was the government was putting it into place. Riders back then were black. Look at today. Uber, again, 60 of their customers. They would go out of business, as well they should. However, the government does not go out of business. They can discriminate all they want, and they just keep raising taxes. Private companies cannot discriminate as easily and get off as scottfree as the federal government. We now see that today. There is a woman who, on her private facebook, this is highly publicized, her private first facebook put all lies matte. The Company Fired her. What i would like to make note or was was not talking not treating a coworker, an employee, a customer or client, anybody like that. And this was her private facebook, not the company facebook, and yet the company said, we dont tolerate that. So i see a bigger backlash with private companies. In my example, how they treated gays better in the early 1990s than the federal government did 20 years later. I would like to last quote milton friedman, who said if you make red, who are you going ad, who are bre you going to choose to buy bread from . If you want to make a profit, you will go with the cheaper price. You will not discriminate. Can you discriminate . Of course. You will not do as well in the marketplace. Of market does a great job getting rid of those who discriminate and who dont treat their customers right. Host lets go back to off on lies and talk to robert calling from largo, florida on the democrat line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host just fine. Go ahead. Actually, i will vote i did vote libertarian because i dont like trump and i dont like hillary. I will vote for you again. Here is my question. What do you think of the Second Amendment . Guest i believe i already addressed the Second Amendment. I am for it. Owning a gun should not be illegal. However, i would like to expand this into policing, because there are actually two questions i could have explained a little further, but i dont want to go on too long. The thing about police relations, and even the previous answer about Race Relations. I would like to point out that when we look at what is happening in minnesota and these other places, where we have got kind of a soldier mentality between the police force and the citizens, i would like to point out that crime is a local issue. If you get assaulted, robbery, burglary, anything that sat, it is a local issue. No reason for the federal government to get involved. We have the federal government giving tanks, grenade launchers, all these other things, so now, our local police, is said of having is service mentality, now, it is an us versus them mentality. I dont want to be at war with other countries, and i certainly do not want to be at war with my citizens. That is happening because the federal government is getting involved where it shouldnt be. It is shown through research that if you got more weapons, you are more likely to use them, and you are more likely to have that attitude, and who is be hurt are basically people of color so we need to get the federal government out of miniaturizing local police. Also, i would like to point out, if you have a local referenda, this gives back to the federal government overstepping its bounds and spending money where you dont want it to, if you have a local referendum, do you want to raise taxes to rehabilitate the high school gym, or the local park, whatever. Some people might vote yes, some might quote no. You want your taxes increased so we can buy a tank . I think people would say, no, i dont want to buy a tank. I would rather put the money into the high school auditorium. The federal government takes over money and gives us stuff we dont want. It is the reason we are in this position. It is making Race Relations worse and it is also making policing worse. Host a couple more calls before the top of the hour. We will start with gordon, calling from kansas city, kansas on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Dr. Jorgensen, you being a realize thato you being an isolationist, china will walk all over the top of us if you are elected, and iran will wipe out israel if you are elected, in the whole world will be in chaos if you are elected . I am voting for donald trump. Thank you. Guest nowhere in my platform say i am nowhere in my platform is its way that i am an isolationist. I apologize if i did not explain myself earlier, you can go to my website and read it. I want to turn america into one giant is a learned, armed and neutral one giant switzerland, armed and neutral. Switzerland has international banking, it welcomes tourists, immigrants. It trades with other people. The best way to have relations with other people is to trade with them. I would like to point out, the last thing we can do is get into a war with china. We have enough homes to blow each other up, we never want to get into a war with china. What is the best way not to do that . Through free trade. A quick story in the early 1980s, i was driving a fighter. I had driven into a parking lot and this older gentleman came over to me. I could see he was scowling. I thought, did i cut him off . What happened . He is glaring at my car. It turns out he was a world war ii veteran. How dare you . How can you buy a car from italy after what they did to us . I did not want to get into a fight or even a debate with him, i was so grateful for his service, and i think veterans should be held in the highest regard. So i did not get into the debate with him. What i wanted to say is, look, if we are buying cars from italy, they are not going to attack us. Look at japan. Look at all the hondas and toyotas we buy. You cannot bomb your best customer. So if we can trade freely with china, and if china can trade freely with us, there is only so much we can control that china does, but if we get rid of the tariffs and say you are welcome to trade here, then why would they bomb us and why would they get into a fight with us if we are their best customer . Host we will see if we can get in one more quick holler. Calling one tonya the republican line. Caller good morning. I have had a lot of pushback from democrat friends. Of yours in regards to personal freedoms, topics like trans rights, marriage, equal pay. They say that you are antipersonal freedoms. I dont think that. I am not sure how to explain to them your stance on these topics. Guest you can maybe explain to them i dont know if i should even be saying this we have had this difficult time changing answers. Then once you get an answer in, some algorithm changes in. It. I dont know exactly which questions you are referring to, but i can tell you that we keep finding answers that are wrong and we keep trying to change them. We have our preferred answers on our website. As far as personal freedoms, again, several examples gayrights, we have rosa parks who had been discriminated against by the government, how the private market can do a much better job. The only way that we can promote rights is to get the government out of the way, because they are the ones who are for special interests, they are the ones who think it is ok to discriminate. If companies discriminate, they get hurt for it in the process. Mywe look at individuals, running mate, who is white, jewish, is married to a black woman, if you allow people to peacefully interact by the illegalused to be eas if you allow people to interact peacefully, they can make their own decisions. Host we would like to thank dr. Jo jorgensen president ial nominee of the Libertarian Party for being with us this morning and answering questions from our viewers. Thank you so much. Guest my pleasure. This was great. You. To do it, thank host i would like to thank all our viewers, callers, and social media followers. To nin again tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Again for another edition of washington journal. Remember, stay safe and continue to wash your hands. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap. 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