Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / ONELEGUPALEX Media Welcomes Tom Joseph, Founder of America's Main Street Party - Powered By Podmatch - 5-5-26
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett.
- 0:06Speaker 2: And welcome inside to this edition of One leg Alex Media,
- 0:09Speaker 2: Part three of the Conversation andre Districting and as promised,
- 0:14Speaker 2: the Main Street Party. Yes, there is a party called
- 0:17Speaker 2: the Main Street Party, and I want to get you
- 0:20Speaker 2: to know them right now, especially on the heels of
- 0:23Speaker 2: all the redistricting going on. How your district can benefit
- 0:28Speaker 2: from being informed of aware of the Main Street Party.
- 0:33Speaker 2: I want to bring on Tom Joseph, powered by Podmatch,
- 0:37Speaker 2: who not only founded this party but also has a belief.
- 0:41Speaker 3: In the moneyless Congress system. Yes, a moneyless Congress. Let's
- 0:46Speaker 3: dive right in with Tom Joseph on the Main Street
- 0:51Speaker 3: Party and more.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Thank you for having me on your show, Alex. I
- 0:56Speaker 1: appreciate the opportunity to talk about my initiative.
- 1:00Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, I love the initiative, a moneyless nominating
- 1:04Speaker 4: system for Congress. There is so much money that go
- 1:07Speaker 4: into all these campaigns, and I guess you've had some
- 1:10Speaker 4: experience watching it, being maybe a victim of it. Tell
- 1:13Speaker 4: us where this whole idea came up. You can't.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Like a lot of things. It's by accident, you know,
- 1:19Speaker 1: it's not really setting about doing this I made a
- 1:26Speaker 1: commitment to try to do something because things were so
- 1:31Speaker 1: partisan during COVID. I mean, they haven't got any less partisanship,
- 1:35Speaker 1: but I just decided to try to come up with
- 1:42Speaker 1: a different way to nominate people for Congress. I was
- 1:45Speaker 1: always fascinated by the idea that jerrymander districts were uncompetitive
- 1:51Speaker 1: and how that could ever occur because I have a
- 1:54Speaker 1: business background and marketing is like, what is going on
- 1:58Speaker 1: here that the market doesn't correct itself? And I figured
- 2:03Speaker 1: at some point there would be a market correction and
- 2:06Speaker 1: I would work on that.
- 2:08Speaker 4: So jerry mandering is very interesting because we just saw
- 2:10Speaker 4: what happened in Virginia last week, and now Florida's got
- 2:13Speaker 4: their own situation going on. I feel like people don't
- 2:17Speaker 4: really know about jerry mandering or care about it until
- 2:19Speaker 4: it so how big the districts were getting, right, That's
- 2:22Speaker 4: where the real alertness and awareness of it started.
- 2:27Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and that is it was something that
- 2:31Speaker 1: only happened every ten years. I think now that that
- 2:34Speaker 1: people think, number one, it's a rigging system in itself,
- 2:38Speaker 1: and now that we're using it like as often as
- 2:41Speaker 1: we can to kind of regain the system. I think
- 2:44Speaker 1: just makes it more apparent how disturbing this is is
- 2:47Speaker 1: a kind of insult on our democracy.
- 2:51Speaker 4: So tell us more where you got into this, How
- 2:54Speaker 4: you got into this whole game, Because getting into politics
- 2:56Speaker 4: you got to know people, you got to have connections.
- 2:58Speaker 4: So where do you stay in and how did you
- 3:00Speaker 4: get into this whole Try to change the system if
- 3:03Speaker 4: you will.
- 3:05Speaker 1: I don't like to think that I'm in polity, Okay,
- 3:09Speaker 1: I mean I'm a business person. I think the way
- 3:12Speaker 1: to disrupt the system is to, you know, figure out
- 3:17Speaker 1: a way around it. And I'm approaching it like, hey,
- 3:21Speaker 1: an app in a portal, deployed within the current political
- 3:25Speaker 1: committeese in a legal way can disrupt the system. We
- 3:29Speaker 1: can figure out a fair way to nominate a person.
- 3:33Speaker 1: And believe it or not, if you interject a fair
- 3:36Speaker 1: contest into an unfair district, you're actually in produced in Canada,
- 3:40Speaker 1: should win. You know.
- 3:43Speaker 4: I bang the druma about this a lot because I
- 3:45Speaker 4: see a lot of unopposed seats in my own district
- 3:48Speaker 4: and there are so many elections that are unopposed. Could
- 3:51Speaker 4: a moneyless system make these seats more competitive around the country?
- 3:55Speaker 1: Yeah, and well, you're in New York City, right, Yes,
- 3:59Speaker 1: so there's a I've make a distinction between what I
- 4:01Speaker 1: would call naturally uncompetitive districts. It would be an unngerrymannered
- 4:05Speaker 1: city or an unjerrymanered rural district where I think our
- 4:09Speaker 1: system may not do very well. And then there're swing
- 4:13Speaker 1: districts where they are naturally pushed towards the center because
- 4:18Speaker 1: you have to fight for those votes. Gerrymandered districts who
- 4:21Speaker 1: are places where people the parties that bury to opposition
- 4:25Speaker 1: votes and our system uses issues positions on issues to
- 4:32Speaker 1: at least create incentives for people who are in the
- 4:34Speaker 1: opposition party to participate in the nominating contest, to elevate
- 4:39Speaker 1: candidates at least for some of their issues. And that
- 4:41Speaker 1: to me, when you put it on top of the
- 4:44Speaker 1: fact that people in the parties really hate the other party,
- 4:47Speaker 1: you know they would much rather like in a red
- 4:49Speaker 1: district elevate an independent pink candidate than a Republican the
- 4:55Speaker 1: vice versa. In the blue district, the Conservatives who have
- 4:59Speaker 1: been gerrymandered into there and make voiceless or say, hey,
- 5:02Speaker 1: I want to push now a baby blue candidate that's
- 5:05Speaker 1: not financially tied to the Democratic Party. When you do this,
- 5:09Speaker 1: it creates opportunities for us to create two moneyless caucuses
- 5:13Speaker 1: within Congress, you know, Pink and Baby, you know, really
- 5:17Speaker 1: factions within the parties that are not beholden to party,
- 5:20Speaker 1: which not be holding the party money.
- 5:23Speaker 4: And what's them have been pink and purple because we
- 5:25Speaker 4: hear the term purple a lot.
- 5:27Speaker 1: Well, you know, you know, I you know, the idea
- 5:30Speaker 1: I think for a long time is that you come
- 5:32Speaker 1: up with a third party that would be in the middle.
- 5:35Speaker 1: But it's really hard, I think for people to say,
- 5:38Speaker 1: you know, there are certain litmus tests that make people
- 5:41Speaker 1: liberal or conservative. Our approach is really that let's not
- 5:45Speaker 1: look at a third faction, let's look at create two
- 5:47Speaker 1: more factions. One. That's because I think at the end
- 5:50Speaker 1: of the day, conservatives want to vote for conservative Liberals
- 5:53Speaker 1: want to vote for liberals, and that's what our country
- 5:56Speaker 1: is about. So I think, you know, we're going to
- 6:00Speaker 1: go into these districts that are deeply conservative liberal and say, hey,
- 6:05Speaker 1: what how blue really are you? And I think there's
- 6:07Speaker 1: so many issues that people do agree on that are
- 6:10Speaker 1: more centric that would push this representation back towards reasonable
- 6:17Speaker 1: and allow Congress to function. You know, you have to
- 6:21Speaker 1: if you're so oppose the other party, it's just ramming
- 6:24Speaker 1: your legislation through regardless of the other parties and not
- 6:27Speaker 1: really coming up with the lasting reform. And that's that's
- 6:31Speaker 1: why we see this pendule swing back every four to
- 6:34Speaker 1: eight years.
- 6:36Speaker 4: You know, I think a moneyless and I think, boy,
- 6:38Speaker 4: these were threatening all the super packs and all the
- 6:41Speaker 4: packs out there, and maybe that's what your plan is
- 6:43Speaker 4: to disruptive in the pack system we got going on here.
- 6:46Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting, you know, I in our time figuring
- 6:49Speaker 1: out how to solve this problem because I thought that
- 6:52Speaker 1: super PACs are evil and if I think for the
- 6:54Speaker 1: most part, you know, we all want to return it,
- 6:56Speaker 1: and you know, but for this to work, I really
- 6:59Speaker 1: had to have prize money. So I came up with
- 7:01Speaker 1: the concept for a super pac that serves a common good.
- 7:04Speaker 1: I mean, super PACs generally support either candidates or causes,
- 7:08Speaker 1: you know. I this super pac would support the will
- 7:11Speaker 1: of the people. It says, if you follow the rules
- 7:13Speaker 1: of the contest and you elevate a canadate and you
- 7:16Speaker 1: choose it, the super pac would back that candidate in
- 7:19Speaker 1: the general election, regardless of whatever they did. It's really like, hey,
- 7:24Speaker 1: we're going to back the people's candidate, and this super
- 7:26Speaker 1: pac does this equally across you know, ten districts five red,
- 7:30Speaker 1: five blue, or twenty ten red, ten blue. Then it's
- 7:33Speaker 1: a totally non partisan way. He used the super vigor.
- 7:37Speaker 1: It's very unique to me. This is the big innovation
- 7:41Speaker 1: of what we've done because allows, you know, some of you,
- 7:44Speaker 1: I could just find one person with a lot of
- 7:46Speaker 1: money and really do a lot of damage.
- 7:49Speaker 4: I want to say this. You know, Carter was the
- 7:51Speaker 4: peanut farmer that got elected president, and all these guys
- 7:55Speaker 4: except for Trump, and even as they as the years
- 7:58Speaker 4: got on, they all got funded. But there were some
- 8:01Speaker 4: early on that you know, just had the will of
- 8:03Speaker 4: the people vote them in compared the money. Where do
- 8:07Speaker 4: we go go south with this? Like, how did we
- 8:10Speaker 4: go from you know, the everyday person to hey, if
- 8:13Speaker 4: you're a billionaire, you most likely will be elected or
- 8:15Speaker 4: can get elected.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Well, we have to be honest. The fact that you know,
- 8:18Speaker 1: Trump had messaging that resonated, he messaging Amma, and he
- 8:22Speaker 1: got people off the bench. And to me, that's our
- 8:25Speaker 1: goal too, is to really figure out there's a lot
- 8:28Speaker 1: of people who are not engaged. I feel like if
- 8:30Speaker 1: we create a compelling competition, we can get people off
- 8:34Speaker 1: the bench. And that's really you know the basis of
- 8:37Speaker 1: demogra the whole thing about governments derive their power from
- 8:42Speaker 1: the people ultimately, and you know sometimes it may take
- 8:45Speaker 1: war or revolutions for that to happen. This is a
- 8:48Speaker 1: peaceful way to create disruption. You know. The other way
- 8:52Speaker 1: we involve blood. And you know, if we don't break
- 8:56Speaker 1: the system soon the civil is going to happen. I mean,
- 9:01Speaker 1: people are really really dissatisfied and the whole income inequality
- 9:05Speaker 1: is just getting out of control. Now. You know, I
- 9:07Speaker 1: do sports.
- 9:08Speaker 4: So you wanted to make it an Olympic sized contest
- 9:11Speaker 4: for Congress.
- 9:12Speaker 1: What does that mean? Well, I think this is something
- 9:15Speaker 1: that people can relate to that you can't buy your
- 9:20Speaker 1: way onto the Olympic team. You can't just because you're
- 9:23Speaker 1: on the Olympic team the last hand at time doesn't
- 9:25Speaker 1: mean you're going to be on the next time. You
- 9:27Speaker 1: got to earn your way on. And there's a process
- 9:30Speaker 1: to get there that involves skill and talent that doesn't
- 9:34Speaker 1: involve money. And the idea that like Olympic Organizing Committee,
- 9:39Speaker 1: these officials you have thankless jobs where they you know, choose.
- 9:44Speaker 1: They're not powerful. People that run political parties are very powerful.
- 9:48Speaker 1: They're picking. They're saying, hey, we're going to get behind
- 9:51Speaker 1: Alex because Alex is agreed to be beholden to me.
- 9:56Speaker 1: You know that this is a system where that does
- 9:59Speaker 1: not exist. And you know what I did was took
- 10:02Speaker 1: it down to scratch and say, hey, how could you
- 10:05Speaker 1: take a totally fair system and shoehorning and what we did?
- 10:09Speaker 1: What we have and I've done that and that's the
- 10:11Speaker 1: sacred you got to do. Something doesn't require any new
- 10:14Speaker 1: laws because if you go to you know, any of
- 10:18Speaker 1: these legislatures, the only thing that Republicans Democrats agree on
- 10:21Speaker 1: is they like the system that makes it easy for
- 10:23Speaker 1: them to keep their jobs.
- 10:25Speaker 4: The swamp. And look, I know Trump was about the
- 10:27Speaker 4: swamp more for the Democrats, but I think he was
- 10:30Speaker 4: hitting home that both parties have swamp like features of them.
- 10:33Speaker 4: I mean, look how many establishments on both sides are
- 10:36Speaker 4: still there to this day.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Yeah, and the idea that they more or less say, hey,
- 10:43Speaker 1: if I run for reelection, I'm pretty much went right
- 10:45Speaker 1: because they've already Jerremy under the districts to the point
- 10:48Speaker 1: where they know that the numbers favor one. I did
- 10:51Speaker 1: this study where I looked at all the representatives were
- 10:53Speaker 1: over seventy years of age and what their win margins were.
- 10:57Speaker 1: And they're all in jerman where I mean by at
- 11:00Speaker 1: least like sixty percent, sixty to eighty percent of the vote.
- 11:03Speaker 1: And that's an ideal thing. That and the naturally uncompetitive
- 11:07Speaker 1: to be like ninety percent. But they're bearing twenty to
- 11:10Speaker 1: twenty five percent, thirty percent of the opposition vote loyally.
- 11:14Speaker 1: And that's what the parties want to do. They want
- 11:16Speaker 1: to they want to bury people's voice.
- 11:19Speaker 4: Well, I got to ask you this because I feel
- 11:21Speaker 4: like when I hear what you're proposing, it's almost read
- 11:24Speaker 4: there with rank choice voting. I mean, is there a
- 11:26Speaker 4: similarity here to fairness? I mean.
- 11:31Speaker 1: The problem is that the one statement I would make
- 11:34Speaker 1: you know, we can have open primaries, we could overturn
- 11:37Speaker 1: citizen in genit and we got rank choice voting everywhere,
- 11:40Speaker 1: the system is still grossly favorable to encumbass because the
- 11:44Speaker 1: way the money works. So it's not the issue about
- 11:46Speaker 1: ranked choice voting. In fact, what we want to do
- 11:48Speaker 1: is we want to we use what's called approval voting
- 11:51Speaker 1: to eliminate, to reduce a large feel down to a
- 11:54Speaker 1: top twenty, then a top ten to top four. Approval
- 11:57Speaker 1: voting is you're voting for all the people that you approve.
- 12:00Speaker 1: So if there's eight alexes in the field, you can
- 12:02Speaker 1: vote for all eight alexes. But when you get to
- 12:05Speaker 1: top four, we want the public to take a closer look,
- 12:08Speaker 1: and we're thinking about using ranked choice voting to determine
- 12:12Speaker 1: the top two, not top one, and then have a
- 12:15Speaker 1: final round debate and everybody make a final one vote
- 12:20Speaker 1: so that the winner has more than fifty percent. So
- 12:23Speaker 1: to me, this is the process, and it could be
- 12:26Speaker 1: ranked choice, you know, to go from four to two,
- 12:28Speaker 1: or there's other star voting, there's other methods.
- 12:32Speaker 4: No, it's funny because I feel like you still have
- 12:34Speaker 4: to go to the government to get this approved through
- 12:36Speaker 4: the FEC.
- 12:37Speaker 1: No. No, no. So if we wanted to participate in
- 12:42Speaker 1: the primary, yes, but the primary sucks, you know. Our
- 12:46Speaker 1: goal is to make the primary obsolete to create a
- 12:50Speaker 1: way better primary. The primary is supposed to be like
- 12:52Speaker 1: a qualifying round to get into the final right, and
- 12:56Speaker 1: it's terrible, you know, and it's ranked the people of
- 12:59Speaker 1: the money, and right now the media just goes say, hey,
- 13:02Speaker 1: who's favoring this selection. Who's a bigger mountain their campaign bucket,
- 13:06Speaker 1: that's the one a favorite because they know that advertising
- 13:08Speaker 1: determines the winner. We're saying, you know, everybody starts off equally.
- 13:14Speaker 1: There's actually a methodology that allows you to find the
- 13:17Speaker 1: people you agree with and whittle the field down. And
- 13:21Speaker 1: you know, just like you know, we got to learn
- 13:24Speaker 1: the names of the British and Canadian curlers that were
- 13:27Speaker 1: fighting with each other, stuff like that. You know, through
- 13:30Speaker 1: the process of this competition will be compelling, the people
- 13:34Speaker 1: will get their names known, and the winners will be known.
- 13:36Speaker 1: So even without the big money in the general election,
- 13:39Speaker 1: this is something that the people have chosen over weeks
- 13:42Speaker 1: versus the incumbent that didn't do anything to earn their spot.
- 13:47Speaker 4: All right, well, I'm talking with Joseph here, and I
- 13:52Speaker 4: see you have a bunch of different things you've started up.
- 13:54Speaker 4: You started Wilson's Fountain, you actually started the American Mainstream
- 13:58Speaker 4: Party and Mainstream Party and also a bookminder. So to
- 14:03Speaker 4: tell us the entrepreneurial spirit that goes into what your
- 14:05Speaker 4: idea is, because obviously you know how to run businesses.
- 14:09Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's sometimes you just stumble on what
- 14:13Speaker 1: you're doing. I don't have an accounting background. I worked
- 14:15Speaker 1: in factory automation. I was trying to help my dad
- 14:17Speaker 1: out and with a bookkeeping problem. My sister had a
- 14:21Speaker 1: college degree, you know, so I'll do it. I want
- 14:24Speaker 1: to work there. And this is back in nineteen eighty four,
- 14:26Speaker 1: the you know, when the Mac computer revolution was occurring.
- 14:31Speaker 1: But I saw that, you know, people be working from home,
- 14:34Speaker 1: and I had this idea and even though I didn't
- 14:37Speaker 1: have an accounting background, I kind of saw the future
- 14:40Speaker 1: and I committed to it, and it's now a very
- 14:43Speaker 1: successful business. We're featured on Empowered by Meg Ryan. Last summer.
- 14:47Speaker 1: We Pitsford top Workplace a number of times, one hundred employees,
- 14:52Speaker 1: multiple cities. But that to me is like about thinking
- 14:58Speaker 1: outside the box and coming in with innovation. The same
- 15:01Speaker 1: kind of thing happened here. I was really not I
- 15:04Speaker 1: don't have a political science degree. I didn't have one
- 15:07Speaker 1: political science course in my college life. But you know,
- 15:10Speaker 1: as anybody, the founders are just business people just looked
- 15:13Speaker 1: at things and thought about fairness, and for me, I
- 15:16Speaker 1: was there like this system's unfair. I'm going to put
- 15:19Speaker 1: my mind to it. And I never actually expected to
- 15:24Speaker 1: do anything. I never expected to have an impact, but
- 15:27Speaker 1: I once I realized I discovered a loophole in that
- 15:31Speaker 1: I could do something different. I've been almost insane about
- 15:36Speaker 1: this science. I can't get it out of my mind
- 15:38Speaker 1: because I really do think that this is the key
- 15:41Speaker 1: to break the system.
- 15:42Speaker 4: All right, Well, it's very curious and interesting that you've
- 15:45Speaker 4: come up with this in the year two fifty because
- 15:47Speaker 4: our founding fathers out of this great country two undred
- 15:49Speaker 4: and fifty years ago. What a time to put out
- 15:52Speaker 4: this message. Hey, hey, you want to honor the founding fathers,
- 15:55Speaker 4: Let's get the political process back to what they wanted
- 15:57Speaker 4: it to be, right.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so just point. We're not going to make
- 16:01Speaker 1: it for the midterm, but I mean, I think all
- 16:03Speaker 1: we can really do at this point. The app, you know,
- 16:06Speaker 1: is in a beta version. You can go on the
- 16:07Speaker 1: website main Street Party Dot or if you go to
- 16:11Speaker 1: the page of brand New Way. We have the very
- 16:14Speaker 1: first release out, so it's barely functional, but it's a
- 16:19Speaker 1: way where you can actually go there's a quiz. The
- 16:23Speaker 1: ideas that as a constituent. There's seven issues there. If
- 16:27Speaker 1: you try to match on all seven issues, pretty difficult.
- 16:29Speaker 1: But say, hey, these three or four issues very important
- 16:32Speaker 1: to see how many it'll instantly eliminate down from one
- 16:35Speaker 1: hundred candidates down to maybe twenty or thirty.
- 16:38Speaker 4: And how would the candidate know they were nominated by
- 16:41Speaker 4: your party?
- 16:42Speaker 1: No, no, they have to enter. So there's a process
- 16:45Speaker 1: that you know, we would come in and advance and
- 16:47Speaker 1: tell the district, Hey, we're going to run this. We're
- 16:49Speaker 1: really not looking for candidates. We're looking for districts. We
- 16:52Speaker 1: want to find whether there's ten red, ten blue, twenty red,
- 16:55Speaker 1: twenty blue. When we go into this, it's going to
- 16:57Speaker 1: be equal, you know, nonpartisan. We're going to after the
- 17:00Speaker 1: same number of red. We're put competition where they typically
- 17:04Speaker 1: don't find it, but we'll be in their advance to
- 17:06Speaker 1: let them know we're looking for candidates and we're looking
- 17:08Speaker 1: for volunteers. Beyond the committee and in advance, the potential
- 17:12Speaker 1: nominees will have to go in to the portal log
- 17:15Speaker 1: their campaign in submit any kind of information that they
- 17:18Speaker 1: would ultimately be responsible for submitting it should they win.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Like you know, we don't want to wait till they
- 17:24Speaker 1: win to find out that they don't want to submit
- 17:26Speaker 1: their tax records or whatever, you know, So all those
- 17:29Speaker 1: disclosures have to be made upfront. So this is not
- 17:32Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't come without conditions, but they would know
- 17:39Speaker 1: and all this would be the key is that there's
- 17:41Speaker 1: gonna be seven issues that they have to weigh in
- 17:43Speaker 1: on that we're going to hold their feet to the fire.
- 17:46Speaker 1: And now, instead of you voting for a Republican or Democrat,
- 17:51Speaker 1: which these days it's really hard to know what that
- 17:55Speaker 1: is because halfway through the term they change their minds,
- 18:00Speaker 1: they would have to put their positions down and bits
- 18:03Speaker 1: and bites, and we'd be selecting them based on those
- 18:06Speaker 1: key positions. And now, if you're somebody who's been jerrymander Dowd,
- 18:10Speaker 1: say you're a liberal and a red district, at least
- 18:14Speaker 1: you can support candidates that support certain modern issues, so
- 18:19Speaker 1: you have a voice, You have power in those districts.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Right now, anybody who's in a jerrymandered district sitting the
- 18:24Speaker 1: opposition party basically is voices.
- 18:28Speaker 4: All right. This is so this is so fascinating because
- 18:31Speaker 4: I feel like what would mean for a district to
- 18:35Speaker 4: be endorsed by mainstream party and why should they go
- 18:40Speaker 4: for the mainstream party line? I mean, is it is
- 18:42Speaker 4: it a lot? And can we call it a party line?
- 18:45Speaker 1: Well, we don't represent any ideology. We represent a process
- 18:51Speaker 1: and you know what we think ultimately, when our folks
- 18:53Speaker 1: are in the ballot, this is the person who's the
- 18:56Speaker 1: true voice of the people that you know, ideaologies place on.
- 19:03Speaker 1: Populations are in a spectrum right, a bell curve, and
- 19:07Speaker 1: to me, this is really about the map behind. You know,
- 19:10Speaker 1: I don't think the founders really understood the galaxy and
- 19:13Speaker 1: mathematics were present in there, but I think that what
- 19:16Speaker 1: James Wilson thought is that to get to that true voice,
- 19:19Speaker 1: if it's fair, you'll be at the center of that
- 19:22Speaker 1: bell curve. And right now the representatives are, you know,
- 19:26Speaker 1: left and right at that center point they're they're allowed
- 19:29Speaker 1: to be more extreme. And that's the math behind what
- 19:34Speaker 1: we're doing. If money distorts representation, the absence of it
- 19:38Speaker 1: should return that representative to the true center of the curve.
- 19:42Speaker 4: Is that some states now only have one party representing
- 19:44Speaker 4: them right here, there are a couple of states, like
- 19:46Speaker 4: in the New Orland area that only have Democrats representing
- 19:49Speaker 4: that used to be where both parties could represent.
- 19:51Speaker 1: Well, you know, the term jerrymandering I believe originally in
- 19:55Speaker 1: state of Massachusetts. And you know Massachusetts the state that
- 19:58Speaker 1: has you know, if you look to the percentage of
- 20:01Speaker 1: conservative and liberals and how they vote versus the representatives
- 20:05Speaker 1: in the House, it's very distorted. Illinois same thing. You know,
- 20:08Speaker 1: it's like fifty three forty seven, but it's fourteen and
- 20:12Speaker 1: four as far as their representation in the House. So
- 20:16Speaker 1: we're actually gonna come up with a measure where we
- 20:18Speaker 1: look at all the states and see how distorted they are.
- 20:21Speaker 1: But you know, things were right, you'd have a party
- 20:25Speaker 1: representation that was somewhat similar. You know, any state can
- 20:30Speaker 1: gain it that way. There's only five states that have
- 20:34Speaker 1: House representations in that fifty percent. Sure, you know where
- 20:40Speaker 1: there like Pennsylvania's five and four, Michigan it's you know
- 20:44Speaker 1: something forty five. The other states it's you know, it's
- 20:50Speaker 1: way off. So what's the loophole?
- 20:53Speaker 4: I see in your bio there's a loophole that you've
- 20:57Speaker 4: kind of discovered. So what's that loophole?
- 21:00Speaker 1: The loophole is really that the idea of somebody running
- 21:04Speaker 1: for Congress and not spending money. So you know, the
- 21:08Speaker 1: whole this assumption is like if you run for an office,
- 21:11Speaker 1: you got to spend money. But my you know, and
- 21:14Speaker 1: this is what I uh, you know, went back to
- 21:17Speaker 1: the election attorneys like, hey, you know, we can use technology.
- 21:20Speaker 1: I don't want to spend money, so we can create
- 21:22Speaker 1: a primary. That's the loophole. So if the candidates agree
- 21:26Speaker 1: not to spend money, which shouldn't be a hard argument.
- 21:29Speaker 1: If you're we the people of the people, by the
- 21:32Speaker 1: people person you don't want to spend millions of dollars.
- 21:36Speaker 1: You just want to do your thing and represent people.
- 21:38Speaker 1: So to me, it should attract the right kind of
- 21:41Speaker 1: people that don't want to buy their way into office.
- 21:44Speaker 1: That's the loophole, you know. Is that the thing that
- 21:47Speaker 1: we hate about what our selection process for Congress is
- 21:52Speaker 1: what's not allowed. They spend money, they're kicked out.
- 21:57Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I've seen that before where parties actually choose
- 22:00Speaker 4: someone who's who has the money over someone who doesn't.
- 22:03Speaker 4: And that's not the way politics should work in my view.
- 22:05Speaker 1: Well, no, it works for them because they need the
- 22:07Speaker 1: money to buy the advertising, you know, And I get it.
- 22:11Speaker 1: We have a system that creates this, you know, so
- 22:15Speaker 1: in some ways you can't necessarily blame the people who
- 22:18Speaker 1: are part of it because it eventually corrupts them. We
- 22:21Speaker 1: got to change the system.
- 22:24Speaker 4: Ten years ago when the DNC left thousands of ballots
- 22:27Speaker 4: for Bernie Sanders uncounted, like just in a box. Is
- 22:32Speaker 4: that kind of a drove you to get to this
- 22:33Speaker 4: point or is there other stuff? Because you look at
- 22:36Speaker 4: that and you say, boy, how can we trust any
- 22:37Speaker 4: primary if they literally boxed up all these ropes for
- 22:40Speaker 4: Bernie Sanders.
- 22:42Speaker 1: Well, the idea that leadership is involved in the you know,
- 22:47Speaker 1: it's interesting because I've been pitching this to like people
- 22:50Speaker 1: that are more traditional and they're like, well, you know,
- 22:53Speaker 1: how does the party leaders. It's like, the party leaders
- 22:56Speaker 1: don't do anything, you know, and you have to totally it's
- 23:00Speaker 1: a totally reframe it. And I don't know that wasn't
- 23:05Speaker 1: really necessarily a motivating thing for me. I mean to me,
- 23:10Speaker 1: it goes back to Ross Parot and that Ross Perot
- 23:13Speaker 1: identified that the problem is Congress and you know, we're
- 23:17Speaker 1: so lazy as a constituenting We just want to elect
- 23:20Speaker 1: a good president and we think that'll do it. But
- 23:23Speaker 1: the founders realize it really comes down to your local rep.
- 23:27Speaker 1: I mean, the most powerful body is supposed to be
- 23:29Speaker 1: the House. So if we can figure out how to
- 23:31Speaker 1: make that work again, I think the whole system works.
- 23:35Speaker 4: And anybody joined this party line either they're not running
- 23:38Speaker 4: for anything, or how does this work?
- 23:40Speaker 1: Well, we're not again, we're not really technently, we're a
- 23:44Speaker 1: five twenty seven committee, but we don't require membership to participate,
- 23:49Speaker 1: So anybody, it's a constituent that's a will tap into
- 23:54Speaker 1: the voter rules. We're working with organizations that understand election
- 23:59Speaker 1: security and doing all the back end security. Is one
- 24:02Speaker 1: of my pleasant surprise is that there's so much work
- 24:05Speaker 1: that's been done on secure mobile voting that we actually
- 24:09Speaker 1: can pick from three different platforms and have all been
- 24:12Speaker 1: pretty much exercised and implemented. And you're running today.
- 24:16Speaker 4: Have you worked with open primaries, because I feel like
- 24:18Speaker 4: they're sort of along saying we're opening up the primaries
- 24:21Speaker 4: to independent voters. When you're faced with a Democratic or
- 24:26Speaker 4: Republican primary, independence camp vote in either of them, and
- 24:30Speaker 4: I kind of feel it's very exclusive that it's excluding
- 24:33Speaker 4: a whole swad of people.
- 24:35Speaker 1: You know, I totally support open primaries. I've talked to
- 24:37Speaker 1: the folks who work at owned primaries. The problem with
- 24:40Speaker 1: the whole concept of trying to get open primaries is
- 24:44Speaker 1: they got to convince state legislatures to do it. And
- 24:47Speaker 1: it's the only things that Republicans and Democrats agree on
- 24:51Speaker 1: is thwarting this. I mean, the people in Pennsylvania have
- 24:55Speaker 1: wanted open primaries for decades and we're not getting it.
- 24:59Speaker 1: And now the strategy with open primaries is to make
- 25:02Speaker 1: this like a class action suit to the Supreme Court
- 25:06Speaker 1: that representing independent voters to Supreme Court like handling it
- 25:10Speaker 1: like they handled Brown versus Board of Education. The problem
- 25:14Speaker 1: is is we don't have a liberal Supreme Court. I mean,
- 25:18Speaker 1: this is a big jamble that they're going to go
- 25:21Speaker 1: to this Supreme Court and think they're going to be fair.
- 25:23Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I mean they have an
- 25:28Speaker 1: uphill battle. And the argument I have is that this
- 25:31Speaker 1: is an open primary and it's legal, and only just
- 25:34Speaker 1: do this.
- 25:35Speaker 4: And you know, you label yourself an activist, but you're
- 25:39Speaker 4: not crazy like a lot of activists I see today.
- 25:41Speaker 4: So no, it's true, there are a lot of people
- 25:44Speaker 4: that just start screaming everything. So how do you bring
- 25:46Speaker 4: this approach to activism in a more calm call it
- 25:51Speaker 4: an action way.
- 25:52Speaker 5: I guess I would say, I think I'm Donner right
- 25:54Speaker 5: here in the last forty minutes, right, you know, I
- 25:59Speaker 5: one podcast of the time the I think if people
- 26:03Speaker 5: here a personal reason presenting, you know, business monel.
- 26:07Speaker 4: How do you stay so rounded that you're not out
- 26:09Speaker 4: there with signs and screening and everybody like, how do
- 26:12Speaker 4: you change that? How do you stay calm like that?
- 26:15Speaker 1: Well, I think the pressure on a traditional political party
- 26:19Speaker 1: is that they got to have candidates to win. And
- 26:23Speaker 1: my perspective is, this business person, you just got to
- 26:25Speaker 1: get to the next step of the plan. I mean,
- 26:27Speaker 1: it took me decades to develop book minders. I have
- 26:30Speaker 1: faith that what I was doing was right. You know
- 26:33Speaker 1: that it is right for the employees, right for the customers,
- 26:37Speaker 1: ultimately be right for me. And I invested the time,
- 26:40Speaker 1: just pounded on a message and was true to it.
- 26:44Speaker 1: And I feel that that same approach can work here.
- 26:47Speaker 1: I don't need you know, I don't need to win elections.
- 26:52Speaker 1: I need to build a process they'll produce candidates that
- 26:56Speaker 1: will win elections.
- 26:58Speaker 4: Well, it's very interesting. I love that you have the
- 27:00Speaker 4: background You're not just someone who isn't doing anything and complaining.
- 27:05Speaker 4: You're actually doing something about it. And you have a background.
- 27:08Speaker 4: I feel like there's somebody that just complain and not
- 27:12Speaker 4: take action. You know, well, you know.
- 27:14Speaker 1: My background interesting enough, you know, is got into an
- 27:18Speaker 1: accounting system counting for dollars in a very secure way.
- 27:21Speaker 1: And you know, you know, people care about trying to
- 27:24Speaker 1: trust me, try to hackets all the time, but you know,
- 27:28Speaker 1: so counting dollars, counting goats.
- 27:32Speaker 4: My main question to you is how do you protect
- 27:36Speaker 4: something like this from not outside influence, but those that
- 27:41Speaker 4: may want to shut it down? If you get people
- 27:45Speaker 4: actually signing up with you in the sense of how
- 27:48Speaker 4: do you steer clear of the pressures that may be
- 27:51Speaker 4: a Democrat or Republican party might might give you.
- 27:55Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think we're taking a very interesting
- 27:58Speaker 1: strategy and we're attacking them in their underbelly. They were
- 28:02Speaker 1: going where they typically don't face competition, probably where they
- 28:06Speaker 1: don't have very strong people. You know, people have been
- 28:09Speaker 1: for decades in office, never face competition, and we're using
- 28:13Speaker 1: their system. I mean, they'd have to undo their current system.
- 28:17Speaker 1: We're operating within their rules.
- 28:19Speaker 4: So you know, could you say you're recruiting the silent
- 28:23Speaker 4: majority that knows their district sucks, but they don't want
- 28:25Speaker 4: to say anything because they're afraid of being outcastate or
- 28:29Speaker 4: whatever the term might, because they don't want to speak
- 28:31Speaker 4: out against their local.
- 28:33Speaker 1: I don't know if they're so silent anymore. I mean,
- 28:36Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of frustration for people that
- 28:39Speaker 1: had typically been you know, stompchily loyal the party. You
- 28:43Speaker 1: just feel so disappointed by things that happened on both sides.
- 28:47Speaker 4: And you know, it's funny. I can't even tell which
- 28:49Speaker 4: side you're on. I want to say Democrat, but you
- 28:51Speaker 4: could be a robot. I can't tell. This is how
- 28:53Speaker 4: down the middle you seem to be.
- 28:56Speaker 1: I tell people I'm not a conservative liberal and a
- 28:58Speaker 1: Libra and I am I am.
- 29:01Speaker 4: A liber too. How great is that? Let me ask
- 29:05Speaker 4: you this, Have districts come calling, especially with the Virginia election,
- 29:09Speaker 4: especially with as you say, Illinois, Even in New York
- 29:12Speaker 4: we've had some redistricting issues. Have people come calling.
- 29:16Speaker 1: Yet, Alex, we're in the emphasy of this. I've gotten
- 29:19Speaker 1: almost zero exposure. I mean, I just started getting on
- 29:22Speaker 1: podcasts in February. I you know, I think once we
- 29:27Speaker 1: hit some media, you know, we could get that. But
- 29:30Speaker 1: I don't think we really have traction. I you know,
- 29:33Speaker 1: have a change out Org petition. We don't have a thousand.
- 29:36Speaker 1: We have nine hundred and ninety eight that's signestions on
- 29:40Speaker 1: our change. But you know the first thing we have
- 29:42Speaker 1: to do is get traction. It really helps to get
- 29:45Speaker 1: on podcasts. But to me, this is just starting and
- 29:49Speaker 1: you know, hopefully within an election cycle here we could
- 29:54Speaker 1: get in a momentum where there's people in a lot
- 29:56Speaker 1: of districts that want to see this happen. Is not
- 30:00Speaker 1: just to show the app demonstrating on the website, but
- 30:04Speaker 1: get it to the point where we could download, because
- 30:06Speaker 1: then we could get statistics on where is it being download,
- 30:09Speaker 1: where do we interested who's engaging with it? So that
- 30:14Speaker 1: to me is the next step doesn't require a ton
- 30:17Speaker 1: of money, but at some point we got to be
- 30:21Speaker 1: to attract owners and attract our venture capitalis is a
- 30:24Speaker 1: super back downer, all right.
- 30:26Speaker 4: The other thing about all this is it could actually
- 30:29Speaker 4: bring us back to election integrity. You know, is that
- 30:32Speaker 4: on your mind as well? Is this part this whole
- 30:36Speaker 4: thing you're doing could help bring back election integrity absolutely.
- 30:40Speaker 1: I mean I one of my first jobs in factory
- 30:43Speaker 1: oimation was it Ford Motor Company where the data integrity
- 30:48Speaker 1: problem on electronics line, and the way to solve it
- 30:52Speaker 1: was really bring visibility and tell people where the problems
- 30:55Speaker 1: were what they were. I mean, you know, that's what
- 30:58Speaker 1: you do, You bring transparent see. So I think we
- 31:01Speaker 1: can do with technology. You know. One idea is to
- 31:04Speaker 1: have virtual polling locations. The polling location was small enough,
- 31:07Speaker 1: like an apartment building or a great school district, where
- 31:09Speaker 1: you actually know the people in there, and you allow
- 31:12Speaker 1: the poll wakers to use technology to view that and say, hey, uh,
- 31:15Speaker 1: you know, my neighbor's showing up there and they're dead,
- 31:18Speaker 1: you know, or that person moves. There'd be a way to,
- 31:21Speaker 1: you know, for people to use technology to make more
- 31:26Speaker 1: more confidence in the system.
- 31:28Speaker 4: So you have the mail in ballot situation or do
- 31:30Speaker 4: you think that's just not helping the cause.
- 31:34Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with mail in ballots, but
- 31:36Speaker 1: I think what we're going to do, which is going
- 31:40Speaker 1: to basically make everybody's cell phone a ballot box by
- 31:44Speaker 1: first establishing that link between them and their idea and
- 31:47Speaker 1: then making sure when they vote that they're scanning their
- 31:50Speaker 1: face to make sure that the person holding the devices
- 31:53Speaker 1: the person that's been registered on. So there's no reason
- 31:56Speaker 1: we can't do that. We do that with if you're
- 31:59Speaker 1: going to gamble venmo, check your Amazon account. You know
- 32:03Speaker 1: that we do this every day. We're doing everything. So
- 32:07Speaker 1: to explain this to people of your generation that you
- 32:10Speaker 1: can't vote.
- 32:11Speaker 4: That it's amazing sea all right, you say, it's your infancy.
- 32:15Speaker 4: So how do we get people funding what you're doing
- 32:17Speaker 4: right now?
- 32:18Speaker 1: I mean, they can go to mainstreetparty dot org. We
- 32:22Speaker 1: have some cool merchandise, you know, if they want to
- 32:26Speaker 1: donate to the party, we definitely need that. I mean, ultimately,
- 32:30Speaker 1: the thing to think about is that you know, right now,
- 32:32Speaker 1: when the parties ask for your donation, they're turned that
- 32:35Speaker 1: into a terrible ad. We're going to take their donations
- 32:38Speaker 1: and create a software asset that would be a permanent
- 32:41Speaker 1: benefit of the country.
- 32:43Speaker 4: So you know, and if district's come and say, hey,
- 32:48Speaker 4: we need to change things up, can you then I
- 32:52Speaker 4: don't know how it would evolve legally, but get the
- 32:54Speaker 4: courts involved to fix these registrict things. Is that that's
- 32:58Speaker 4: not really.
- 33:01Speaker 1: We're doing a little different. I don't know if you're
- 33:03Speaker 1: familiar with the book Moneyball, but you know it's about statistics,
- 33:07Speaker 1: and so we're looking for districts. If a district came.
- 33:11Speaker 4: We're talking to elections as well.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Here the if a district came to us and the
- 33:17Speaker 1: numbers weren't right, we wouldn't go there. It's too competitive
- 33:20Speaker 1: or not committing, you know. So we feel like the
- 33:22Speaker 1: ideal district is in this range where the previous winner
- 33:25Speaker 1: had won by at least sixty six percent to somewhere
- 33:28Speaker 1: the low eighty percents. So it gets so to us.
- 33:32Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of districts to fall into
- 33:34Speaker 1: this category. Because the parties of gerrymannered.
- 33:36Speaker 4: The what that's funny saying, because I think they use
- 33:41Speaker 4: the twenty twenty four election stats to do these redistricts
- 33:44Speaker 4: in Virginia. Although they saw, all right, well here's where
- 33:47Speaker 4: Kamala be Trump, let's extend it to that area.
- 33:50Speaker 2: You know.
- 33:50Speaker 4: I just I don't know.
- 33:52Speaker 1: Actually, the more they do that, the more benefits us
- 33:55Speaker 1: it makes the it creates the environment for disruption. More
- 33:59Speaker 1: Like I said, naturally competitive districts and naturally I'm competitive,
- 34:04Speaker 1: just as harder for us it's weird. This system is
- 34:07Speaker 1: going to do the best. You look at the map
- 34:09Speaker 1: behind it where it's been Jerry entered.
- 34:12Speaker 4: All right, So pop Match gives me a list of questions.
- 34:15Speaker 4: I really didn't. I just love talking to you naturally,
- 34:17Speaker 4: and I think we've had a great combo. But the
- 34:19Speaker 4: one question you wanted to talk about, which I really
- 34:22Speaker 4: am interested here is how will the contest wresident winners
- 34:26Speaker 4: fund their general election campaign? I love that question because
- 34:29Speaker 4: let's say you have a contest winner and they're in
- 34:32Speaker 4: the general is it now privatized still or is there more? No?
- 34:36Speaker 1: No, no, This is the idea of how The unique
- 34:39Speaker 1: thing about the way we're using super pack is that,
- 34:42Speaker 1: you know, we want to attract either a ross Pero
- 34:45Speaker 1: type now upfront, it's more of saying that, hey, I'm
- 34:48Speaker 1: going to fund twenty winners, ten red, ten blue. You know,
- 34:53Speaker 1: I'm going to put this up. You're gonna win, You're
- 34:55Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of money. And that to me
- 34:57Speaker 1: is a game changer because now you're in district whatever
- 35:01Speaker 1: and you're saying, wow, you know ross Pero is going
- 35:03Speaker 1: to fund my campaign if I win. That's going to
- 35:06Speaker 1: bring quality competition into the there and they know that
- 35:10Speaker 1: if they win, they don't have to go out and
- 35:12Speaker 1: frankly prostitute themselves to donors that may not even live
- 35:16Speaker 1: in their district. So the idea that you know, one person,
- 35:20Speaker 1: maybe it's a coalition of wealthy people that are in
- 35:22Speaker 1: the center, say hey, we want to restore the voice.
- 35:25Speaker 1: Think about these people go down in history because they
- 35:28Speaker 1: would change, change, fundamentally change the way democracy works in
- 35:33Speaker 1: this country.
- 35:34Speaker 4: Well, I have some ideas in my head. Who going
- 35:37Speaker 4: to connect you to? So I'm going to work on that.
- 35:39Speaker 4: But for now, it was so awesome talking to Tom. Thanks
- 35:42Speaker 4: to pop match for connecting us. And I want to
- 35:44Speaker 4: have more combos, especially with the midterms. Maybe can be
- 35:47Speaker 4: on an ear on the ground and saying, hey, this
- 35:50Speaker 4: district was not repjended well in the midterms, we could
- 35:52Speaker 4: we can go down that route come October November and.
- 35:55Speaker 1: Let's when the app is a little bit further along.
- 35:58Speaker 1: I'd like come back and we'll do down and we'll
- 36:00Speaker 1: show people how they can how they can find represent
- 36:04Speaker 1: the matter of values and hold them accountable.
- 36:08Speaker 4: And at what election would you say was the one
- 36:10Speaker 4: that said okay or what example set you to this course?
- 36:15Speaker 4: I feel like there's going to be one turning point
- 36:17Speaker 4: that set you down this road.
- 36:19Speaker 1: Oh. Actually, it was the middle of the COVID, early
- 36:22Speaker 1: part of the COVID where I was just afraid I
- 36:24Speaker 1: was going to lose everything, and I just kind of
- 36:27Speaker 1: when the PPP funding came up, is like, hey, if
- 36:29Speaker 1: I get this money, I would do something to paid for.
- 36:32Speaker 1: I had no idea what I want to do, and
- 36:34Speaker 1: I almost thought, if i'd do it, this is a
- 36:36Speaker 1: family effort, who's going to really change the system. But
- 36:40Speaker 1: I said, I do this, and I did get the funding,
- 36:43Speaker 1: and you know, I'm here as I survived health wise
- 36:47Speaker 1: and I survived my business, and I said, you know,
- 36:49Speaker 1: I formed a committee. I just started working on this,
- 36:51Speaker 1: and what I started off with was not this. I
- 36:55Speaker 1: mean it was kind of like a you know, just
- 36:57Speaker 1: another more idealistic third part. This was an accident.
- 37:03Speaker 4: She've been on the Young Turks. I mean, that's pretty
- 37:05Speaker 4: pretty reputable, even on different media outlets. So congratulations not
- 37:09Speaker 4: getting this off the ground and running in the Yes,
- 37:11Speaker 4: as the app gets built even more, come back to
- 37:13Speaker 4: one Lego Alex Media and we'll talk more.
- 37:15Speaker 1: I'd love to come back, Alex. Thanks for having me.
- 37:17Speaker 4: On all right. That was Tom Joseph of the American
- 37:22Speaker 4: main Street Party. I absolutely love mainStreet Party dot org.
- 37:25Speaker 4: Check them out.