Episode 1

In this transcription, Steve Scott discusses the impact of politics and love in America. He reflects on the divisiveness caused by the two-party system and the influence of money in politics. Scott also highlights the exclusion of independent voters in primary elections and the low percentage of party members who actually support their chosen candidates. He questions the fairness of this system and its implications for democracy. The Iron Curtain fell and the wall came down Now we're forced to live in our hometown Children waging war is worse if all was plain It's the dawning of a saddened day Hello America, this is Steve Scott with politicsandlove.com coming to you from Lubbock, Texas. As the pandemic kicked into full gear, my sweet wife and I lived out the dream. As teenagers, we had always wanted to be alone in a house without adult supervision. The pandemic granted us that wish. Meanwhile, we had cable news to keep us company and it spewed out the political hatred. It seemed like that during that time in 2020, that as riots erupted in the street and the nation's capital, the intensity of this arguing and fighting seemed to really be getting worse right before our eyes. When I was younger, I was too busy raising a family, making money and figuring it all out to really follow politics. Nowadays that the kids are gone and we have less responsibilities, I was able to take a second look and I didn't really like what I saw. My adult life had been about immersing myself in love in order to raise a family. As I followed the news in 2020, I realized that love was just not part of America. It reminded me of the 80s comedy Ghostbusters in which they're combating an ooze flowing under New York City. The ooze was an ooze of hatred. Remember, it was a pink ooze. And the ooze now seemed to be flowing all over America as 2020 rolled on. I asked myself, if love worked in raising our family, could it work in the nation? Could it work in politics? Was I just being naive by thinking that love could be a driving force? As a young man, when I was growing up, there wasn't much love in my home. My wife also came from a home where love just wasn't there. As grandparents now, we enjoy the fruits of the decision that we made as young people to study love and to raise the successful family that we raised. It still guides us today. This is how politics and love came about. It's the application of love into American politics. So let's jump in and see how some good old-fashioned love can help America. I wanted to start out with one of our peculiar institutions that's evolved. The institution of primary elections. It seems odd that a nation of diversity, that our politics are so undiversified, that there's really only two political choices. Let's follow the money and get some insight into how the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee managed to create the dualocracy that we have now and that we just call politics in America and accept as business as usual. To begin with, in 2022, when they had a last full year of accounting, the Democrats brought in $307 million. That's just to the party, to the national party. The Republicans brought in $335 million. Right off the bat, indirectly, you can see that it's a system that creates millionaires out of the political leaders who get elected through its election. And if they're rich, they become richer. Let's consider former Presidents Obama and Trump. President Trump already had money, but his position as the President of the United States dramatically increased his business holdings. Being the shrewd businessman that he is, he won't release his financial records. So we'll never know that well state-kept secret, probably, until well after my death, anyway, of really how much Trump profited off of America becoming President of the United States. Looking at President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, they went from owing $80,000 in student loans. This was a negative, negative worth that they had. When President Obama was elected to the U.S. Senator, he received a $1.9 million book deal. It was then that the Obamas, pardon me, paid off their student loan, and they became millionaires. After holding office in Congress or other high-profile political national office, the payoff usually comes for these folks. Board membership and media careers, they make millions. The Obamas now are estimated to have a net worth of like $70 million from various book deals and other fees that they get. Let's not forget also the animal called political action committees. They're separate from the DNC or the RNC, and they rake in millions. Then there's the so-called lower-tier people, campaign manager, public relation officers. They all rake in money. The long story short is you get rich when you get into politics in America on a national level. The DNC and the RNC, they're big business, big, big business, real big business. I hope I emphasized that enough, that they're businesses. Politicians turn their political success into financial success, all in the name of public service. In reality, so-called political parties are just ATM machines, because political parties are money machines. They're dug in deep, and they rake in hundreds of millions of dollars every year to keep their position. Today, I believe, is the day that George Washington feared. It may even be beyond his fears that he had. In his farewell speech as the first president of the United States, President Washington prophetically described our day as he warned about political parties in his parting words. And quote, this is what he said, However political parties may now and then answer popular means, they're likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be able to subvert the power of the people and to earthen for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. This is the farewell address that he gave on Saturday, September 17, 1796, or not the farewell address, but part of it. Let's dissect part of what President Washington prophesied. He used cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men to describe politicians and political parties. I might add women nowadays too. And they were able to subvert the power of the people. Can you think of any politicians you'd describe as cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled? Of course I'm being sarcastic. I think that's just a job description of the role of politicians. They have to be, or they are cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled. Fast forward from 1796 to today. The DNC and RNC are perhaps, as I mentioned, even worse than President Washington imagined. Can you see the imbalance that political parties create, their politicians create? Consider these numbers. First and foremost, 100% of independent voters do not participate in primary elections. They're not invited. This is for Democrats and or Republicans and their respective party members. That's not a good number. You don't want to hear 100% of a group disenfranchised in a democracy. Now, from my research, about 38 to 49% of voters consider themselves independent. So for argument's sake, let's say this is 38%, even 25%, there's about 168 million registered voters in America. Now, if 25% of the registered voters, and again, I'm shooting low there, that's 42 million people. At 38%, it's 63 million. A recent poll by Gallup puts this as high as 47%. But for argument's sake, we'll just keep it at the lower conservative numbers. So conservatively speaking, somewhere between 42 million and 63 million Americans are disenfranchised of the vote in primary elections. This is outrageous. Imagine in a so-called democracy, if they just declared that, if they just said 42 million to 63 million can't even participate. Where's the love in that? Imagine the riots that we would have on their hands if society excluded 42 to 63 million people from anything. Let's take education right off the bat. 42 to 63 million people aren't allowed to get educated. 43 to 62 million people can't attend sporting events. Look at the Barbie movie this summer. Imagine the riot we'd have on our hands if we were just off the bat, said, sorry, we're not going to allow 42 to 63 million Americans attend the Barbie movie. 42 to 63 million can't get driver's licenses. The list goes on and on. Do you get the message? Primary elections exclude 42 to 63 million people from participating in their so-called elections. Does this shed light on why politics in America is so divisive nowadays? They exclude a third of them and then only allow, really, what became a minority of the people to participate. Let's look a little deeper through another set of numbers. Shift gears to when Biden and Trump's primary elections occurred when they were in these primary elections competing against their own party members. Biden's last time that he did this was in 2020. Trump was in 2016. In 2016, Trump could only convince 44% of his Republicans to vote for him. In 2020, Biden could only convince 51% of his Democrats to vote for him. Now, pay attention to this part. Right on top, we get 38 to 49% of voters as independent. Like I said, that Gallup poll puts it right about 47% right now. At any rate, there's 168 million registered voters. Using 38% number, that leaves 104 million voters. What I'm doing is I'm taking the independent voters and I'm throwing them out. Now we have an electorate that's been reduced from 168 million, saying that 38% of them, the conservative number, are out of the picture. That leaves 104 million voters, half of which, approximately, are Democrat, half of which, approximately, are Republican. So that's 52 million Republicans, 52 million Democrats, give or take some for each party. In Trump's case, remember, he only got 44% of his party. So 44% of the 52 million left is 23 million. So that means 23 million of the 168 million that should be participating is only 14% of the voters. In Biden's case, 51% of the 52 million is about 25 million. This brought him in around 15%. So that means that Trump was chosen as the leader of 100% of us and really only had a base support of 14%. Biden was chosen as the leader of 100% of us and he really only had 15%. This is democracy? Now, here's a number that will add more insanity to this insane arrangement of ours in the name of democracy. In 2020, only about 10% of the voters even bothered to participate in primary elections. That means 90% who are allowed to participate didn't even take part. That's why a term has arisen, a slang term, if you will. It's called being primaried. Political commentators and politicians use this. This is when a candidate is eliminated from the primaries because they're not deemed ideologically aligned. That 10% that participates are usually the more radical extreme parts of their party. Also consider that 83% of congressional districts are so partisan that the dominant party is already a foregone conclusion. So 83% of the time, if you go through all the congressional districts, I think there's 435, it's already a foregone conclusion. Decided by only this 10% that participates. Does this sound like democracy? It sounds more like, to me, a system that's rigged by those in power designed to stay in power. Now, let's shift gears and look at this example. To me, the primary season in politics is what Black Friday is to the Christmas season for retail stores. Retail stores depend on a short four-week period beginning with Black Friday that can make or break their business for the year. Using the Black Friday analogy, imagine a Black Friday where there are only two stores. Now, we see all the images on the news of shoppers that have participated. I haven't participated in a Black Friday ever, but I raised all daughters and I can guarantee you they have. Now, before the sun's even up, shoppers line up and stampede the retail stores the second they open. Now, imagine the delight of a store owner that could limit Black Friday to theirs and only one other store. Imagine a Black Friday where you have only two choices. This is what the DNC and RNC have done. They've eliminated our choices politically by manipulating this two-party system. Using shopping again as an analogy, would you go to the grocery store that only features two choices? I think you can hear it in my voice, the frustrations growing as I use these examples. Look at the choices you have on the cereal aisle alone, the meat department, an entire aisle for bread. America, your choices are limited politically by the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. You have more choices of cereals than you do political candidates. What do we do? What do we do? Well, we the people need to become the adults in this room. Someone needs to put these children in their places. Let's have an election where all the candidates line up like a foot race and take off running. No more DNC, no more RNC, no more government sponsoring these elections that they have. Let them have their own private whatever they want to have and let them put forth a candidate. But they all enter the same race together. List all the candidates, know a party affiliation, three rounds of election if necessary. In the first round, everyone who registers properly can run. Pick the top three vote getters and they run in the second round. In the third round, choose the top two vote getters. This could end up being two Democrats, this could be two Republicans, this could be two Martians. But it will be two choices of the people. Is anyone else tired of hearing politicians say, this is what the people want? Then they turn around and have an election rigged against choices from the get-go. No one wants only one choice of cereal from the cereal aisle. No one wants only wishes for one set of or two choices of people to choose from. I realize this is a proposal that will shake some people to their core. I'm sure that some will try and call me un-American and that I'm proposing a change to the American system of voting. And I am. It's a system that they know. But it's a system that's evolved. But name calling aside, just think about this in terms of love. I'm proposing a little political social experiment. Call it what you want. A little exercise for all you that are listening. Go to an algorithm of love that I've published on politicsinlove.com. And with this in mind, eliminating the primary season and electing our political officials. Read every one of the qualities listed in the algorithm of love. And ask yourself if this applies to eliminating the primary season and elections. And finally, consider this. We are a two-party system. What will happen if one of those two parties becomes so strong it eliminates the other party? Can you think of any countries that have a one-party system? Please, America, don't answer by stating that the founding fathers wanted it this way. They were interested only in America versus England. Not Democrats versus Republicans. Furthermore, you've got to consider what they were. They weren't founding fathers. They were, in fact, founding politicians. And remember, they were the bunch, the founding politicians, the writer of the Constitution, that only allowed 4% of Americans to vote when they wrote. So that same politician-minded type of person is still running our country today. That's why we've evolved in this two-party system. In those days, when the founding politicians created the country, only landowners over the age of 21 could vote in America 1.0. This is also the bunch that deemed African Americans as only three-fifths of a person. And they didn't even count Native Americans at all in the population under the original Constitution. Politicians in the 1700s were the same shrewd operators they are today. Vote what you think, America, not what a Republican or Democrat politician tells you to do. God bless America, and love one another. Where will I turn? What will stop the burn? Children wonder why, why, oh what have I done? Who will stop the sun? Love, love will open up the doors. Love, love will settle all the wars. Love, love will put our lives in order. Love has never known a border. When will people see our win history? Others wondering how, how they have such poetry. Life's not such extreme. Love, love will open up the doors. Love, love will settle all the wars. Love, love will put our lives in order. Love has never known a border. Can we find our peace with a stroke of fate? The world is left to wonder how, how will families ever thrive? Will their homes survive? Love, love will open up the doors. Love, love will settle all the wars. Love, love will put our lives in order. Love has never known a border. Love has never known a border.