thrown into chaos has gop candidates simply act like trump and refuse to admit defeat. the warning lights are blinking red that this could happen. right now the trump-owned party, as i like to call it, is executing a strategy to seize control of the t.o.p. from the bottom up and reshape america's elections. it's been doubbed the precinct strategy, and guess who's the svengali driving this hostile takeover. >> we're tacking action, and that action is we're taking over school boards. we're taking over the republican party from the precinct committee strategy. we're taking over all the elections. we're going to take over the election apparatus. american citizens that are volunteering, they are now going to volunteer to go to become a precinct committeeman. they're going to swvolunteer to become an election official. they're going to run for county clerk and overthrow these county clerks. they're going to take over the secretary of states. we're going to take this back village by village, precinct by precinct. >> we're going to take over the election apparatus, take over all the elections. the battle cry from insurrection braveheart steve bannon. bannon, who appears to have as many political lives as he has shirts that he wears at the same time. he was pardoned by the former president. he is under indictment now for contempt of congress because he wouldn't honor a subpoena from the january 6th committee. amazingly, he is still running a podcast, chumming the waters in trump world with red meat hysteria that the election was stolen when it wasn't. it's a lie. propublica broke down how bannon has convinced thousands of trump loyalists to run for positions in local politics, influencing who serves on election boards, school boards, as well as other critical county and state party positions, stuff they think you're not going to notice. to measure the bannon effect, propublica interviewed gop leaders in 65 key counties and 41 report the an unusual increase in sign-ups. the green dots on the map show where at least 8,500 new republican precinct officers joined those county parties since bannon went on the war path. and look at this chart. propublica found the number of precinct committee members in arizona's largest county, maricopa, surged after bannon issued the call for the far-right takeover of that area's republican party. yes, maricopa is where that bonkers cyber ninja audit was held that ultimately wasted everybody's time because it concluded once again that biden soundly defeated trump there. of course, this big lie nuttiness is not just playing out in arizona. wait until you hear the twisted tale from nevada gop politics. you're about to hear firsthand from a witness to what happened in his backyard. this latest episode of a trump tsunami. a former gop chair of nevada's crucial clark county, home of las vegas, where he says party leaders have been inviting the proud boys, yes, the proud boys into the tent, until he wasn't able to stop it. but first let's turn to one of the lead reporters on this massive propublica piece. isaac, thanks so much for joining us. this all sounds like a sneak preview of coming attractions. insurrection 2, the sequel. at its core, what's the plan? >> the plan is exactly like you said, jim. take over the republican party from the bottom up, at the local level. but the reason this is important is because that local level, we have locally-run elections in this country. that's really where the rubber meets the road. and people usually don't realize this or don't think about this, and every state's a little different, so it's a little hard to keep track of. but the people who run the polling precinct, the people who sit on the board that sets the rules for the election in the county and that certify the results in the county, usually they get there through the county party. when something weird happens on election day, someone makes a complaint, it's the county party chair who shows up to try to resolve that. in some places, the county party controls who actually even gets on the ballot. so what this movement is targeting, what they're doing by filling these county party positions with people who believe that the last election was stolen and they need to stop that from happening again, is they're then putting themselves in position to use the powers of those county parties to directly influence how elections are actually run. >> and i mean how influential is this bannon podcast, this war room podcast that he's doing even while under indictment? i mean, are there that many trump gop officials who are watching this and following his every word, or is that overstating things? >> well, i talked to a number of county chairs who all of a sudden starting getting these calls about people wanting to become precinct chairs and really had no idea why all of a sudden this, you know, little-known position was suddenly in such hot demand. but it was because of bannon's show. that's where people got this idea. and the fact is that bannon's podcast, even though he's been kicked off youtube, remains one of the most popular podcasts on apple's platform in the country. and it has hundreds -- more than a hundred million downloads on one of the services that tracks this. >> it's amazing. i was checking this out the other day because i was curious. can you still find bannon's podcast on your iphone and the apple podcast section, and you can, amazingly, despite the fact that bannon was instigating an insurrection before january 6th. what is the real-world danger that we're talking about here, isaac? >> i think one way to think about this is if people remember the images of people demonstrating outside counting facilities right after the election in 2020, people threatening election workers, and, you know, ultimately people marching to the capitol, a lot of those same people in the months that followed have gone into these republican party positions at the county level. and that means that next time around, by virtue of those party positions, they're actually going to be inside the room, inside the polling precinct, inside the counting facility, in a position to influence the casting, counting, and certification of ballots in ways that they just didn't have the infrastructure to do before. >> and, isaac, democrats have not caught on to this? i mean are they trying to stop this, or are they trying to get in there and make sure that they have their own forces standing by? >> again, i think part of what's hard about this is, you know, everywhere is different, and, you know, people just aren't familiar with these -- these county boards or these, you know, sometimes it's called an election inspector, and sometimes it's called the election judge. and, you know, it's hard at a national level. these aren't tracked anywhere centrally. that's why, you know, i was left to just calling around. what are the places that really matter, and how do we know if this is happening there? so it's just hard to -- you know, hard to keep an eye on from a bird's-eye view. >> yeah. well, it's flying under the radar right now, but thanks to you and propublica, not as much under the radar. isaac, stand by. we're about to get another reminder that what happens in vegas can happen anywhere in america. we're talking about clark county, nevada. the state's largest county where advocates of this precinct strategy seized control of the republican party. a takeover backed in part by the proud boys. yes, the same proud boys that trump told to stand back and stand by. a stance parroted by the man now in charge of the clark county republicans. >> i don't know who they are. you know, when the president was asked if he'd disavow, he said no. and if the president's okay with that, i'm going to take the presidential stance, right? i don't know. >> now, we reached out to jesse law multiple times, the man you just heard in that piece of sound there. he did not get back in touch with us. but fears of violence forced county officials there in clark county to cancel meetings and ultimately call in police protection because the situation was unraveling there. i want to bring in the former chair of the clark county republican party, david sajack. thanks for being with us. we appreciate it so much. so what happened? your successor was able to gain control of the local party there with the help of the proud boys? do we have that right? >> well, yes, indirectly. they started their own organization, an offshoot, and called it the ccrp, the clark county republican party. they stormed our meeting. i happened to be outside the tent listening to mr. law instruct his followers, and most of them didn't know who i was, so i was standing on the side and heard him instruct people to say, hey, just take this form, fill it out, and you're automatically a member. and that's not how the process works. and he said, don't let them stop you and just storm the doors. and that's what they did. they had about 300 people out there, and they stormed the doors, and they stole our bracelets for voting and forced their way into the meeting and just created extreme chaos. so much so that i think it was 13 s.w.a.t. officers had to be called in. >> yeah. it sounds like a little mini insurrection there in vegas. >> it absolutely was, and it was bullying and intimidation at the best. it was at the direction of the state chairman because mr. law is his personally appointed guy, and they were the ones orchestrating it. >> and these are volunteer positions. did you ever think you were going to need police protection to do your civic duty, to get involved in local politics? >> no, sir, i didn't. i came to make a difference and discuss policy and talk about how to govern better and to work together better, not to have my family and my wife and myself threatened repeatedly. and my friends and my supporters. >> what's that been like? you said you and your family have gotten threats. >> yeah. they actually call my wife more often than me and tell her to go back to mexico and how she's not welcome here and some pretty vile language. they threatened one of my friends who's been pretty active and told her to get bulletproof underwear, and they threatened to kill her. so these are not nice people, and they're not here to govern. they're not here to talk about policy. they're not here to help. you know, we got our republican secretary of state, the only statewide officer, barbara sagaski, who stood up to them, and they sent the proud boys to the state meeting to censure her because she dared stand up to them because she's there to enforce the law, not to, you know, kowtow to one side or the other and, you know, make things up. >> and we noticed that there's a republican candidate for secretary of state in nevada, jim marchant, i hope i'm saying that correctly, who went on steve bannon's show recently and made some nutty statements about george soares. >> nevada is professional. >> very professional. like i told you and told everybody, george soros started this in 2004 with a machine and a plan, and they accomplished it. >> david, what is going on with your party right now? you have people floating george soros conspiracy theories. i guess it does go to show you that the party is heavily influenced by the likes of steve bannon, and there's just no two ways about it right now. >> well, there's a number of normal moderate republicans that are dead-set against this, but when you bring thugs and bullies into it, it makes it very difficult to govern for either side. mr. marchant is clearly supported by the state chairman and was right next to them when they did the false electoral certification that they sent up to the federal government, saying that president trump won the state. and make no mistake. i supported president trump. i think his policies were fantastic. he did help the economy dramatically. but this is not the way to govern and, you know, some people are being very poorly served, and i don't think he understands the magnitude of what's happening in the field. this is just not a way to win. you do voter registration drives. you get out there, you work, you tell your side of the story, you know, and you engage folks. and both sides got to knock it off too, jim. i'm sorry, but there's as much on their side as there is on our side. it needs to go back to some semblance of normal. we need to govern. we need to help the country. we need to help folks that need help and move on. >> i have to respectfully disagree with you there. it was the trump republicans who stormed the capitol on january 6th. we won't get into a debate on that, but if we keep seeing episodes like this that you experienced there in clark county happening in other places around the country, what are the national implications of that? >> i think they're poor for everyone. you can't govern by this method, and you don't win by this method. you're not going to get -- especially in a state like nevada, which is trending democrat. i think it's plus four dem, plus five dem. you have to have moderates. you have to have people on the other side to win the state. you're not going to thug your way through a victory. and the current state chairman hasn't won in ten years. if you were a football coach, you know, i don't know if you watch any of the football games, james, but a whole bunch of football coaches just got fired. i'm from buffalo, by the way, so please send your condolences. they played a great game. >> they did. they did. it doesn't always work out your way. >> i know. >> isaac, quickly back to you. this sounds like what you're hearing all across the country? >> exactly. and what really strikes me about david's story is they couldn't hold a vote. he had to shut down the meeting. the threat of violence actually prevented the democratic process from working. and in that case, it was the proud boys, and it was david. but in other places, it's qanon followers or oath keepers or people who marched on january 6th, and it's people like david who are being forced out of party leadership. >> all right. isaac and david, thanks very much for what both of you have been doing to call attention to all of this. it's very important. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. it is hard to believe so many still believe trump's big lie, but we're about to dig into why they do and what the lack of trust in the 2020 race could mean for the midterms and 2024. the great donie o'sullivan, he's on the case. there he is. he's coming up next. or an intense burning sensation. what is this nightmare? 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>> no. i mean i think whoever wins, wins. i'm all about that. he will win if he runs again. but the people that know that we were cheated are almost at the point of saying, i don't want to vote because it will happen again. >> what is your reaction to hearing from an american like that? >> well, ten years ago it would have been shock and disbelief, and i would have thought, well, she's an outlier, and she's not representative of anything larger than a fringe movement maybe. but of course that's not the case anymore. >> reporter: barbara walter is a professor at the university of california in san diego. she has studied civil conflict for years from yugoslavia to northern ireland. >> experts who study civil wars and know the warning signs, we've been talking about them, but nobody wanted to believe it. and january 6th made it impossible to deny and ignore that there really was this cancer growing in our own country. >> stop the steal! >> there was a threat that was mobilizing. >> reporter: she warns the constant barrage of lies undermining elections from right wing media, on social media, and from trump himself has put the united states on a perilous path. >> citizens do believe what they are hearing, and if they hear it long enough and consistently enough and if that's all they hear, they absolutely don't think it's a lie. they think it's the truth. >> will you trust the next election? >> probably not. >> but that's a terrible thing, right? >> yeah, it's a terrible thing. >> i don't think you can trust our government anymore. it's sad, but i really don't think you can. >> that's what trump was all about, making the elections in the future fair so we can believe when you vote for somebody, that person's going to get your vote. >> you know, they're good people. they're trying to do what they think is right. it's the leadership that's cynical. it's the leadership that knows better, who's feeding them lies consistently. >> they always talk about the big lie. they're the big lie. >> reporter: while just 30% of americans think there is solid evidence that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, 62% of republicans say so. looking ahead to the 2022 midterm elections, only 42% of republicans say they're somewhat or very confident the results will be counted accurately. >> they're priming their supporters to believe that democracy isn't worth defending because they don't want democracy anymore. >> and donie o'sullivan joins me now. great piece as always. i'm kind of curious. when you talk to these trump supporters, do they have any ideas for an alternative to democracy? i guess maybe it's dictatorship, the trump dictatorship? >> we've spoken to, i guess, now hundreds of trump supporters all across the country over the past year, and since the election, and, you know, we have heard from people along the way, when there was a coup happening in myanmar last year, people kind of -- americans, trump supporters are looking to that, saying, oh, that would be great if we had that happen here and trump was put back in power. what i did notice being at trump's most recent rally in arizona a few weeks ago was we spent so much of the past year hearing fantastical claims about venezuelan voting machines and bamboo paper and everything else, and that's how the election was supposedly stolen. the messaging seems to be a little bit more disciplined now, and we're hearing less and less of that from people and more support, more just straight support for those restrictive voting measures that republicans are putting in place at the state level. so what we're seeing now is the base has been laid where there's all these conspiracy theories. people truly believe some of them. some of them really, truly believe the election was stolen. some of them know it's a talking point and know better. but some people literally draped in the american flag believe in this kind of stuff, and that is now giving their support to these kind of restrictive measures we're seeing across the country. >> thank you for what you do, donie. i hope deprogramming some people one person at a time. but great work as always. thanks so much. we appreciate it. and mitch mcconnell is making some headlines today for his warning to gop candidates running on trump's big lie. though that sounds good, i will argue in just a few moments it's kind of too little, too late. hold on for that next. ♪ ♪ ♪ "how bizarre" by omc ♪ no annual fee on any discover card. ♪ ♪ ♪"don't ya leave" by squeak e clean♪ [doorbell] ♪ [doorbell] ♪ [doorbell] all the delivery. no delivery fees. dashpass. you could spend half an hour preparing for the half hour status meeting. orrr... you could cancel the meeting and share updates in slack instead. it's where your whole team is in one place so everyone can stay up to date. slack. where the future works. today we found out senate republican leader mitch mcconnell told cnn's manu raju he's encouraging gop candidates for congress to honor the election results in this country, saying, quote, it's important for candidates to remember we need to respect the results of our democratic process unless the court system demonstrates that some significant fraud occurred that would change the outcome. i guess it's nice for mcconnell to say that, and it echos some of the cautions to the party that we've heard from him in the past, like when he blamed trump for the insurrection but voted to acquit the former president during the impeachment trial. now i can hear all of you guys saying right now, mitch, please. mcconnell has had a year to clean up this party, and frankly he's blown it. >> we need to get rid of this january 6th commission and replace it with a november 3rd commission. this january 6th commission is a total sham and waste of time. if they want to focus on something, how about focus on the election cheating by the democrats? >> that's josh mandell, republican running for an open senate seat in ohio. his main primary opponent is j.d. vance, who tweeted out he's just picked up the coveted endorsement of marjorie taylor greene. all of a sudden she's become the qanon king maker. don't forget she was at the white house in december of 2020, she said, to explore ways to overturn the election results. >> just finished with our meetings here at the white house this afternoon. we had a great planning session for our january 6th objection. we aren't going to let this election be stolen by joe biden and the democrats. president trump won by a landslide. call your house reps. call your senators from your state. we've got to make sure they're onboard, and we already have a lot of people engaged. okay. stay tuned. >> stay tuned. unfortunately for mitch mcconnell, the trump genie is already out of the bottle. apologies for the mental image, trump dressed up like barbara eden from i dream of jeannie, or the trump toothpaste is out of the tube, which doesn't work either. who would buy trump toothpaste? but wait, there's more. republican candidates for congress are running on the big lie big-time. >> if you mess with a rattlesnake, you'll regret it. but politicians never learn. they want total control, so they lie, waste our money, rig our elections, open our borders. >> i was one of the first to support donald trump for president. he made america great. but the democrats rigged the election. >> the entire system rigged against the people. president trump says the election was stolen, and he's right. >> it seems like the gop talking points for the upcoming midterms are already rigged against our democracy. you'll forgive me for being a bit skeptical of mcconnell's appeals for campaign kumbaya. he's backing senator ron johnson of wisconsin, who questioned the 2020 election results before admitting privately to a democratic activist that trump lost. >> obviously skewed about the results. >> and mcconnell declined to call out alabama republican congressman mo brooks, who is running for the senate in that state, after infamously appearing at the january 6th stop the steal rally. >> today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! >> now, i tried catching up with mo brooks last year in case you missed it, but he took no names and he kicked no ass. he just rode off on his bike. >> it's on video if you can just talk to us for a moment. >> oh, you guys will lie through your teeth any chance you get. >> well, i'll give you the chance to come on if you don't mind. >> there he goes. bye-bye. so, no, this is not a profile in courage from mitch mcconnell. more like a profile in calculation. still more churchillian than what we've seen from texas senator ted cruz, who recently grovelled for forgiveness on fox news for stating accurately that the insurrection was a terrorist attack. >> you called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack. that's a lie. you told that lie on purpose. >> the way i phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy, and it was frankly dumb. >> i don't buy that. whoa, whoa, whoa. i don't buy that. i've known you a long time since before you went to the senate. you were a supreme court contender. you take words as seriously as any man who's served in the senate. i do not believe you used that accidentally. >> it still hurts to watch that. since then, senator, tail between his legs, has been spreading this tucker carlson branded manure that there was some kind of fbi plot to instigate the attack on the capitol and blame trump supporters. they pointed to a man named ray epps. there's no proof of any of it. but cruz has become tucker's talking parrot, perhaps native to the coast of cancun. birds of a feather. it's just another nutty, trumpy conspiracy theory, and therein lies the problem for mcconnell and much of the republican party. check out this invite obtained by "the washington post's" josh dawsey of an upcoming gop fund-raising event. yes, it's for the party's sring retreat. yes, you read that correctly. they seem to have misspelled the word "spring." scheduled to speak are trump, house minority whip steve scalise, and somebody named the honorable kellyanne conway. the problem for mcconnell and the gop is that it's sringtime for trumpism and the democracy party while the. sure, we are ready to respect the results of the democratic process, but you guys go first. and when we return, how the culture wars are also contributing to the erosion of democracy by pitting neighbor against neighbor. we'll shine a light on that next. all-day comfort. all-night shift. head nurse. heart on her sleeve. so, when leaks show up, our protection helps keep them dry. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.™ [ coughing and sneezing ] cold season is back. bounce back fast with alka seltzer plus. with 25% more concentrated power. alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh, what a relief it is ♪ so fast! also try for cough, mucus & congestion. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for rob, it took years to find out why his constipation with belly pain just wouldn't go away. despite all he did to manage his symptoms... day after day. still came the belly pain, discomfort, and bloating, awful feelings he tried not showing. finally with the help of his doctor it came to be, that his symptoms were all signs of ibs-c. and that's why he said yess to adding linzess. linzess is not a laxative. it helps you have more frequent and complete bowel movements, and is proven to help relieve overall abdominal symptoms belly pain, discomfort, and bloating. do not give linzess to children less than two. it may harm them. do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain. especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. could your story also be about ibs-c? talk to your doctor and say yess to linzess. learn how abbvie and ironwood could help you save on linzess. virginia's new governor is asking neighbors to turn in other neighbors not for criminal activity. no, it all stems from the gop's latest culture war obsession. in office less than two weeks, governor glenn youngkin has already set up an email tip line for parents to report teachers for teaching, quote, divisive subjects. he spoke specifically about his concerns over race and history. >> we're going to get critical race theory and other inherently divisive teaching practices out of the schools. >> and this tactic of pitting citizen against citizen is not just happening in virginia. recall the anti-abortion law in texas that the supreme court has allowed to remain in effect. it allows anyone to sue another person for helping someone seek an abortion in the state. in fact, it seems republican leaders have gone all in on dividing the country in many ways. just listen to them. >> america is not a racist country. it's past time for america to discard the left-wing myth of systemic racism. >> president biden wanted to make millionaires out of people who have violated federal law. t >> look out, mr. potato head. you're next. i'm sorry. i think now he's going by potato "x." mr. potato head was america's first transgender doll, and even he got canceled. >> maybe he shouldn't be making comments about mr. potato head. it's just a thought there. now, this is not just empty rhetoric. the new culture wars are impacting our laws and some experts fear they could be weakening our democracy just as badly as the big lie. here to discuss, contributing writer for the atlantic, and author of the newsletter "wait what." molly, you know, i seem to remember glenn youngkin campaigning in a fleece vest in virginia. he was running as a different kind of republican. i was told there was going to be a vest, not a soviet-style police state across the potomac from washington. >> yeah, it's really weird. he was elected -- you know, he wouldn't let trump come and campaign with him. he sort of pretended to be this kind of non-trumpy trump. and then as soon as he got in there, he started, you know, taking away masking in virginia public schools. he started with these teacher hotlines where you can rat out your teacher. i mean he's really gone full ron desantis right away. >> and it's not just youngkin. a recent report shows there are dozens of new proposals opening pathways to punish teachers teaching things that parents don't like. why doesn't this upset the traditional conservative tenets of liberty, anti-censorship, and freedom? i guess, you know, if you want to cancel your teacher, you just have to email the governor in virginia and, i guess, rat them out in other ways in other states. >> well, republicans have really always been sort of into canceling teachers. remember in the '60s and the '70s, you had a lot of banned books in libraries. this is sort of one of those tropes that we're going back to in this new republican party. i mean banning books is never good. you never want to be on the side that's banning books. the good news, though, is that it is getting some kids who might not otherwise be into libraries. there is a little bit of excitement of the idea that there are books that are so dangerous that if your kid reads them, they will somehow become a democrat. >> that's right. rebelling against your parents by going to the library. i never did that when i was a kid, but, you know, we could start a trend. and youngkin's efforts, as we said, very reminiscent of the texas abortion law where residents are turning each other in. how concerned should we be about these laws that seem to be catching on of, you know, citizens ratting each other out? it's -- it's like canceling your neighbor across the street or next door. >> what happened with that texas sb 8 law was that the supreme court made a decision by not making a decision, and they said, you know, stare decisis doesn't matter if we agree with the principle. they sort of said this passively. if we agree with the principle of the law, we don't care how crazy it is. instead of overturning it, which a lot of court watchers even on the conservative side thought would happen, instead they let it stand. so now the message was, if you're a conservative governor and you want to pass a crazy law, you have -- remember, trump has installed a third of the supreme court. so you have a kind of blank check to do whatever you want. and i think we're going to see more laws like this, and i think we're going to see these blue states and red states are going to be very, very different because these red states have no incentive to stop being trumpy. they're just going to race and become trumpier and trumpier. >> yeah. no question about it. mo molly jung-fast, i would never snitch on you by the way. thank you so much for being with us. great to see you. >> thanks for having me. we told you last night about the rigging of electoral maps, the gaming of the system for partisan advantage. it's only been getting worse and further dividing america. but there are some possible breakthroughs to combat new gerrymandering attempts. a reality check with john avlon. there he is right there. he's on the case. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. 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mixed in here? >> there must be a pony in here somewhere. let's see if we can find it, jim. all right, look, the rigged system of redistricting is one of the prime drivers of our democracy's dysfunction. and it's going on right now. it's only once a decade after the census do congressional maps get redrawn. and we're once again seeing how cynical these professional partisans can be. but we are also seeing unexpected signs of hope in places where dogged citizen-driven reform efforts seem to be working. we're seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly in american politics on full display. and the jury's still out as to which one will carry the day. just yesterday a federal court threw out proposed congressional maps in alabama drawn by the republican state legislature to have only one democratic district out of six seats. the court held this likely violated the voting rights act in a state that's 1/4 black. and that's not the only pushback. this month the ohio supreme court threw out an even more absurd partisan gerrymander where republicans tried to push through a congressional map where all but two or three seats out of 15 would be republican. despite democrats actually having a registration advantage in the state and voters adding non-partisan redistricting reform to the state constitution in 2018. luckily, republican chief justice maureen o'connor joined with democrats on the bench to stop this blatant attempt to override the will of the voters. so yeah, these reforms can work. if they're given half a chance. take michigan where one of the country's most gerrymandered political maps has suddenly been replaced by one of the fairest, to quote "the new york time." a ballot initiative pushed was passed over partisan obstruction. and while the results don't benefit any one party, that's kind of the point, people. they set up a fair fight. competitive general elections. what a concept. it means that the politicians running in those seats won't simply be able to get away with playing to the base. they'll actually have to reach across the aisle and win over the reasonable edge of the opposition. which is how democracy's supposed to work. but that's exactly what's been under systematic attack. the incentive system in our politics is all screwed up. by design. and that's why the parties are preoccupied with these purity tests and don't seem to give a damn about working together to solve common problems. you don't believe me? let's dig into the data. according to the cook political report, there were 164 congressional swing seats in 1997. that's a plurality with competitive general elections. fast forward 20 years later. you see that number is down to 72. with republican-safe seats skyrocketing to 195 and democrats to 168. and if we don't do something, it's going to get much worse. exhibit a is the cracking republicans are trying to pull off in tennessee right now. it's important to remember the real divides in american politics are not actually red state versus blue state. as much as they are urban versus rural. for example, it might surprise you to learn that the vast majority of southern cities voted for joe biden. take nashville. it voted almost 2 to 1 for biden over trump. it's a fast-growing city. and so state house republicans are trying to push through a map that would effectively divide nashville's davidson county into three districts to dilute the county's minority vote. that's the purpose. that's the point. and yes, democrats play the partisan power grab game as well. take a look at two of the ten house republicans who had the courage to impeach donald trump. adam kinzinger and john katko. they put country over party. but democrats in illinois and new york rewarded their courage by threatening to redraw their districts. and both men decided not to run for re-election as a result. that's a real loss for our democracy. as these battles play out in state after state we should see how many of our partisan divides are being exacerbated by design. it's no wonder we've learned in recent weeks about how the trump administration tried to politically influence the census count to benefit republicans in redistricting. according to workers at the census bureau. they were literally trying to rig the count in their favor. that's as ugly as it gets. the rigged system of redistricting is at the root of so much of our division and dysfunction. but we've seen that non-partisan reforms can work and restore more competitive seats in congress, which will incentivize our representatives to work across the aisle. so no, election reform isn't some wonky distant thing. it gets to the heart of our democracy. if we have rules that reinforce our patriotic obligation to put country over party. and that's your reality check. >> sounds good to me, john avlon. let's do it now. >> let's do it. >> let's do it. appreciate it so much. thanks, john. we'll be right back. a, the compy who invented car vending machines and buying a car 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"don lemon tonight" starts right now. how are you, don? >> you have 2022, which is coming up. and so we're going to see what happens with all of these laws that are taking place across america. that is a precursor to what happens in 2024. our democracy is in peril. the question is can it withstand the two upcoming elections? especially, jim, the one coming up in 2024 where we might have the former guy back in the mix. >> yeah, i mean, one of the things, don, that people are -- they're sort of having a guessing game about is whether or not trump is going to run for president. he's essentially -- he's pretending to run for president right now. so it doesn't make any difference. and you know, one of the things that we hear, don, and maybe you hear too, is oh you guys, you're so obsessed with trump, you talk about trump all the time. well, if he is the leader of the party -- >> trust us, we don't want to. but go on. >> we don't want to. but i call it the trump-owned party, the t.o.p. if that is how it's going to be, and he is for all intents and purposes the front-runner and the leader of the party how can we not have this conversation about him? and he is at the very heart of all of these dangers facing our democracy right now.