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A House Divided: Various Times Congress Tried to Beat the Snot Out of Each Other · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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Speaker 1: for tuning in. Oh, in these divided political times, you
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Speaker 1: have to wonder how difficult it may be to maintain decorum.
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Speaker 1: Let's give a shout out to our super producer, mister
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Speaker 1: Max Williams.
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Speaker 2: Shout out.
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Speaker 3: Who you talking about?
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Speaker 1: Max Williams from earlier, Yes, from earlier, like Henry Kissinger
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Speaker 1: from earlier, You're Nold Brown, I'm Ben Bolan and day
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Speaker 1: we are with the help of our returning guest Alex Circa,
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Speaker 1: we are exploiting.
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Speaker 3: We are exploring.
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Speaker 1: We are exploring a series of times that people in
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Speaker 1: Congress and the US Congress and the wholes of power
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Speaker 1: didn't feel their words were adequate to navigate situations.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. They in some cases entered into fisticuffs like the
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Speaker 3: fighting Irish you know, little fella, what do you call
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Speaker 3: that pose? Yeah, it seems very unpractical, impractical, or maybe
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Speaker 3: it's completely practical. It is like one of the fists
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Speaker 3: for blocking the old one two.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the hook and the jazz.
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Speaker 4: I think whoever drew it didn't know how to.
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Speaker 1: Underhanded boxing is definitely No, it's I see all the
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Speaker 1: time and old movies. It's like a very specific old
1:50
Speaker 1: timey boxing pose and it requires fancy footwork too.
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Speaker 3: You know, you think these beefing congressmen got into some
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Speaker 3: little tappity dancing when they were fighting each other.
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Speaker 1: Well, we're about to see they certainly were not practicing bipartisanship,
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Speaker 1: right the old can't we all just get along?
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Speaker 3: We can't.
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Speaker 1: Spoiler alert spoiler Yeah. Let's go to Deborah Caldwell in
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Speaker 1: a great article eleven historic fights worse than the Sequester.
2:22
Speaker 1: Debora points out Congress has always been a wild and
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Speaker 1: wooly place, and I think, you know, for a lot
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Speaker 1: of us, you know, the majority of people in the
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Speaker 1: United States are not, in fact members of Congress. We
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Speaker 1: can't even get elected to the House, right, which.
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Speaker 4: Is unless you're a member of the New Hampshire State
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Speaker 4: of House Representatives, which is like four hundred and fifty
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Speaker 4: people for New Hampshire.
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Speaker 2: This that note in here, right here.
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Speaker 1: Classic granite state Max with the facts.
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Speaker 3: That seeking in the fon and peace fall in love.
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Speaker 1: It's just right now, we've got several different situations here.
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Speaker 1: This is Nola, a bit of a listical episode.
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Speaker 3: What'd you say, uh huh, Yeah, it is indeed, So
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Speaker 3: let's go ahead and jump right in with the eighteen hundred
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Speaker 3: election that nearly led to a Civil war. One thing
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Speaker 3: that I think we've all experienced is sort of the
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Speaker 3: rose colored glasses approach to history. That is often the
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Speaker 3: case in like early childhood education, middle school even where
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Speaker 3: it's sort of like, oh, you know that all the
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Speaker 3: founding fathers were pals and they were just hanging out,
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Speaker 3: and you know it was just all sunshine and roses
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Speaker 3: and getting drunk together, and well that probably that part,
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Speaker 3: that's why that part was true. Yeah, you know, despite
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Speaker 3: coming from different backgrounds, different political ideologies and belief systems,
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Speaker 3: they all were able to just get along, chop it
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Speaker 3: up and make nice and get things done right right, No,
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Speaker 3: they didn't. That cartoon verse, though, is often the way
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Speaker 3: it's portrayed. Sure, just learning about this stuff, just.
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Speaker 1: Like the first Thanksgiving, Right, there's a bit of myth
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Speaker 1: making a foot because we know that these guys often
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Speaker 1: did not get along put diplomatically. I also will find
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Speaker 1: it unendingly hilarious how back in the day, if you
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Speaker 1: ran for president and you won, then your vice president
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Speaker 1: would be the guy who ran against you. It's a
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Speaker 1: very weird, weird way to set up a crew. But
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Speaker 1: as you were saying, well, this stuff comes to a head,
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Speaker 1: there are legendary disagreements between founding fathers and two of
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Speaker 1: the guys who beefed the hardest really got beefed up.
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Speaker 1: They were beefing John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. And it
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Speaker 1: goes to exactly like our culminating moment. Here is the
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Speaker 1: election of eighteen hundred and go to a Encyclopedia Virginia
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Speaker 1: A for Dare, I say, blow by blow.
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Speaker 3: Oh you dare, and I will back you up on this.
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Speaker 3: So the Democratic Republicans had won the election. Again, I
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Speaker 3: always get a little flummoxed when it comes to like
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Speaker 3: early versions of Democrats and Republicans. In this case it
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Speaker 3: was the Democratic Republicans, which seems like some sort of
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Speaker 3: weird kaiju hybrid of political leanings. But they had in
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Speaker 3: fact since the election, but unfortunately it wasn't clear who
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Speaker 3: was actually going to be the president. This was something
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Speaker 3: that was totally TBD. And in eighteen hundred, this Constitution
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Speaker 3: that we've heard so much about did have a stipulation
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Speaker 3: that each elector be awarded to votes, and that whichever
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Speaker 3: candidate got the majority of votes would be president, while
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Speaker 3: the second place, the runner up they also ran, would
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Speaker 3: be vice presidents.
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Speaker 1: Great idea, again, he says with sarcasm.
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Speaker 3: So these electoral votes, this is basically the founding of
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Speaker 3: the electoral college. Right, this is totally.
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Speaker 4: This is like the second time and the first time
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Speaker 4: the first two elections weren't really elections.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'm just saying what we know is the electoral
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Speaker 3: college today is a little different than this, but this
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Speaker 3: is sort of the like bones of it.
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Speaker 1: And this is Yeah, you're right, we could call this
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Speaker 1: a precedent of sorts. I would argue it is a
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Speaker 1: president indicative of the deep structural problems with the electoral
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Speaker 1: college in general. Jefferson is hanging out after these electoral
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Speaker 1: votes are counted, and all those Democrat Republican folks, who again,
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Speaker 1: as you point out, are the same party at this point,
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Speaker 1: they wanted Jefferson to be president. They were like, this
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Speaker 1: is the guy we picked him. Jefferson has seventy three
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Speaker 1: electoral votes. But plot twist, Shyamalan does Aaron Burr and
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Speaker 1: that's the one all these guys are picked to be
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Speaker 1: vice president. They were worried about taking off Burr. He's
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Speaker 1: kind of a hot head. He does shoot people in duels.
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Speaker 1: And this is way before the musical made him catchy
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Speaker 1: to the American public. We've talked in the past about
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Speaker 1: his troubled career, and the Democratic Republicans kind of messed
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Speaker 1: up their grounds game, their electoral game. They were supposed
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Speaker 1: to arrange for at least one of their people not
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Speaker 1: to vote for Burr so they could say without pissing
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Speaker 1: Burr off. Ah, good, hustle, Bud, your vice president Jefferson
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Speaker 1: just has more votes.
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Speaker 3: That's a little greasy, isn't it.
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Speaker 1: That's super greasy. I mean, that's politics, it really is.
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Speaker 3: And again, a system that is relatively easily gamed when
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Speaker 3: you have these sort of kots. I guess is that
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Speaker 3: a thing. I'm just gonna call it cahoots. That's a
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Speaker 3: fun word. A game. There's a board game called.
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Speaker 1: There's a board game called alex Is a Green.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, got a good We got a solid nod from
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Speaker 3: from Circus very Oh. I'm sure I definitely remember playing
8:15
Speaker 3: it at least once. I'm the kind of guy, by
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Speaker 3: the way. As an aside, that buys board games that
8:20
Speaker 3: never placed them chest of board games that I've never
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Speaker 3: been opened, because I get one that I think is
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Speaker 3: super nerdy and fun. I'm like, this is confusing. I
8:30
Speaker 3: can't figure out how to play Murder on the Haunted
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Speaker 3: Hill or whatever.
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Speaker 4: All the rules and I will strictly tell everyone the rules.
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Speaker 1: Will we we'll play block with you guys for money.
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Speaker 3: Is awesome, but I lost a couple of the pieces
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Speaker 3: and now useless. Well, I got one that's a game
8:51
Speaker 3: that's so fun. It's it's not that big a deal
8:52
Speaker 3: to have to buy it a few times. But cahoots aside,
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Speaker 3: Like you said, this doesn't really pan out the way
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Speaker 3: that they anticipated.
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Speaker 1: Oh no, you know, because these guys are going head
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Speaker 1: to head against a group called the Federalists, which you
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Speaker 1: might remember from their famous papers. They were named very creatively.
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Speaker 1: So the Federalist Party saw this as an opportunity to
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Speaker 1: block US Jefferson out of the presidency, and they really
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Speaker 1: did not want Jefferson to be president, so they said, look,
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Speaker 1: we'll do whatever. You know, there is no expense that
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Speaker 1: we are scared of here. Yet again, that old document,
9:36
Speaker 1: the Constitution had some rules, had some board game Rules
9:40
Speaker 1: for the Future of America, and this little piece of
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Speaker 1: paper specified that a tie has to be resolved by
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Speaker 1: a specific group, the House of Representatives, voting by state,
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Speaker 1: and that Federalists love this because they control several delegations
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Speaker 1: in the House of Reps.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, tiebreaker pretty common in most board games and politics.
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Speaker 3: So that being the case, ben with the Federalists controlling
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Speaker 3: some of these key House delegations, they were able to
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Speaker 3: block the election of Jefferson for thirty five of these
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Speaker 3: roll call votes over the course of six days. And
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Speaker 3: if you can imagine, this is almost like filibuster level obstructionism.
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Speaker 1: Well, Dungeons and Dragons would call their alignment lawful evil
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Speaker 1: at this time because they're weaponizing parliamentary.
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Speaker 3: Proceeds, right exactly.
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Speaker 4: Mean, how many votes did it take Mcarthury to get
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Speaker 4: in there, because that's a good cop. It's like, how
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Speaker 4: many you took mcarthy get I think I think that
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Speaker 4: was like sixteen, So we think about like more than
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Speaker 4: twice as many votes.
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Speaker 3: So they're saying.
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Speaker 1: The Federalists are they go to Aaron Burr Pictures, smoky
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Speaker 1: back room and yeah, yeah, yeah, and we could get
10:53
Speaker 1: a sound effect whatever the Illuminati version is.
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Speaker 3: There was a smoky sound effect. It doesn't really make smokes,
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Speaker 3: I guess sort of inherently.
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Speaker 1: Well, let's play in now. It's yeah, yeah, let's trigger
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Speaker 1: you little jazz nastasia. Yeah, speakeasy time, far before the
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Speaker 1: invention of speakeasies and jazz.
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Speaker 3: And you nailed it though.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. So we're going for the vibe, folks, and thank
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Speaker 1: you for having our backs.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 1: These guys go to birth in this back room and
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Speaker 1: they say, look, will help you quick pro quo if
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Speaker 1: you will do a couple of things for us, you know, scratch,
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Speaker 1: we'll scratch yours. You don't like Jefferson either, and X
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Speaker 1: And outside this room, by the way, Uh, there's the
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Speaker 1: other political party of the time, the Democratic Republicans, and
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Speaker 1: they're going bang bang bang on the door, their cop
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Speaker 1: knocking on the door, and they're like, you guys are
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Speaker 1: stealing the election. And you know that's super mids of you.
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Speaker 3: Wow, this is way before the invention of the term mids.
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Speaker 3: By the way, we're in it for style poetic license.
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Speaker 3: I don't we're talking about Jefferson here, are we sure?
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Speaker 4: Before the invention of the term mids, we.
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Speaker 3: The concept of mids is eternal. But I don't think
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Speaker 3: that that.
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Speaker 1: You guys are so hard right now shout out to
12:12
Speaker 1: Oxford's a word of the year.
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Speaker 3: Of the year. I only just found out that it's
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Speaker 3: short for charisma. It is. I did not it is
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Speaker 3: it is. It is, yes, charisma quote Matt Berry spelled differently, right,
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Speaker 3: are I z Z.
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Speaker 1: We don't want to make an enemy of big o
12:31
Speaker 1: Ed Oxford English.
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Speaker 3: Apparently the kids also refer to people that have a
12:35
Speaker 3: lot of ris being wrizzlers, like other wrizzler, you know, batman,
12:40
Speaker 3: villain of style. Shout that's superpower, really fetching, you know.
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Speaker 1: So these rumors start flying around, well again, this sort
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Speaker 1: of rarefied air of people who run the United States,
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Speaker 1: and folks are talking, the streets are talking, and the
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Speaker 1: streets are saying, these federalists are going to put a
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Speaker 1: member of their own party into the presidency. They're going
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Speaker 1: to do a little finger move, right, Chaos is a ladder,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera, from Song of Ice and Fire
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Speaker 1: or Game of Thrones, And so Jefferson tells Adams any
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Speaker 1: attempt to defeat the presidential election will be met with
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Speaker 1: quote resistance by force and incalculable consequences.
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Speaker 3: Wow, that's fighting words.
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Speaker 1: It's definitely a threat. It's it's a weird one.
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Speaker 3: So the Democratic Republican governors are absolutely livid, and it
13:41
Speaker 3: starts to become pretty clear that they are going to
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Speaker 3: gather up their forces in the form of militias, which
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Speaker 3: is important because there wasn't really an official, actual facts,
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Speaker 3: you know, government funded mandated army, right, there was a
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Speaker 3: series of these loose kind of collections of forces.
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Speaker 1: Well, they're coming off of a revolution which taught them
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Speaker 1: to distrust large armies from say, the British Empire, etc.
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Speaker 1: So the governors in this time are in the in
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Speaker 1: the late eighteenth century early nineteenth century, they're kind of suserings, right,
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Speaker 1: they have these fiefdoms that they're running, and so they
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Speaker 1: gather up their gangs and they say, look, if the
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Speaker 1: Federalists steal this election from Jefferson, whom we have all
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Speaker 1: chosen to be the president, that we're going to roll
14:39
Speaker 1: on you, you know, if you want to smoke. And there's
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Speaker 1: a letter from March twenty first, eighteen oh one that
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Speaker 1: is a great example of this from Pennsylvania.
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Speaker 3: It is where you start seeing terms like usurping or
14:51
Speaker 3: usurpation is also a very assan of ice and fire
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Speaker 3: term usurper. I called you usurper. But really quickly, you guys,
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Speaker 3: is what they were doing illegal? Or was it just
15:04
Speaker 3: kind of in bad tastes? You know what I mean?
15:06
Speaker 3: It was just sort of a dick move the election enough,
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Speaker 3: the laws is sort of being written as they go.
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Speaker 1: But questions in terms of fixing the election, right, in
15:17
Speaker 1: terms of raising.
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Speaker 3: A militia, No, in terms of fixing the election, like,
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Speaker 3: did they the idea of them stealing it seems more
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Speaker 3: of an alarmist kind of propagandistic way of talking trash
15:28
Speaker 3: about your your rivals.
15:30
Speaker 4: And they also know because like it was just a
15:33
Speaker 4: flawed systems.
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Speaker 3: But they agreed on the system, you know, it just
15:37
Speaker 3: happened to not work in their favor this time.
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Speaker 1: Also, let's point out that this is like this is
15:44
Speaker 1: an example of no odor among thieves, right, because they've
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Speaker 1: already kind of determined who the president will be and
15:53
Speaker 1: they did not ask the entirety of the American public
15:57
Speaker 1: at this point. They also did not consent. Are a
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Speaker 1: lot of people living in North America or the United
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Speaker 1: States to be people so they're building. They're building the
16:08
Speaker 1: top of flawed Djenga Tower already, and I'm with you
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Speaker 1: on usurpation and so on. Governor Thomas McKee, Pennsylvania, classic guy,
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Speaker 1: you know him, you know him. He said, look, I'm
16:25
Speaker 1: going to take the Pennsylvania Militia, the Penny Boys, and
16:30
Speaker 1: we are going to arrest anybody anti Jefferson and we're
16:35
Speaker 1: going to charge them with treason. And then there's another
16:39
Speaker 1: letter from Virginia.
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Speaker 3: Very British of them. Don't you think his behavior feels
16:44
Speaker 3: very kind of British Crown.
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Speaker 4: Moves only if they are going to threaten people with
16:49
Speaker 4: being drawn and corded.
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Speaker 3: All the season and this whichland kind of atmosphere exactly.
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Speaker 2: I completely agree.
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Speaker 1: All they knew was in terms of governance. All they
17:01
Speaker 1: knew was systems like monarchies, aristocracies and the French Revolution, right,
17:08
Speaker 1: and then their own revolutions. So they were kind of
17:11
Speaker 1: just to be honest, they were improving, they were improvising,
17:15
Speaker 1: and they weren't sure what to do in the long term,
17:19
Speaker 1: but they were sure what they didn't want to happen.
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Speaker 1: And some of these folks want Aaron Burr. Some of
17:25
Speaker 1: these folks want Jefferson. They've got this back and forth
17:29
Speaker 1: of correspondents. We're not talking about when we say militia.
17:33
Speaker 1: By the way, we're not talking about getting a posse together.
17:37
Speaker 1: It's not like alex Max Nol and yours truly saying, oh,
17:42
Speaker 1: we're gonna January sixth up to Washington. On this Jefferson thing,
17:47
Speaker 1: we're talking about Pennsylvania having twenty two thousand dudes ready
17:53
Speaker 1: to go beef, and then we're talking about we're talking
17:56
Speaker 1: about sixty thousand train militia from Massachusetts who were gonna
18:02
Speaker 1: Those guys were veterans, they would absolutely demolish that outnumbered
18:09
Speaker 1: mob from Pennsylvania. And these folks are these are farmers.
18:13
Speaker 1: It's like a shorts to plowshare situation. The folks from
18:17
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and Virginia, they are literally practicing military maneuvers and
18:22
Speaker 1: drills with corn stalks. So, uh, this is where we
18:27
Speaker 1: go to one of Nole's favorite musicals, Alexander Hamilton.
18:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, or Hamilton for sure. It's not you know, I
18:34
Speaker 3: get it. It's good. I just I just didn't finish it.
18:36
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean that I didn't like it. I liked
18:38
Speaker 3: what I saw, but I just I got distracted. I'm
18:41
Speaker 3: gonna have to go back to it now now that
18:43
Speaker 3: it's not, you know, the hottest ticket in town anymore.
18:45
Speaker 3: But maybe I can actually see ruins on state. That
18:48
Speaker 3: is part of it too. Yeah, I think I'm separated
18:51
Speaker 3: enough from the hype now that if I went and
18:52
Speaker 3: saw it in a theater with a proper show, I
18:55
Speaker 3: think that's the way to experience something like hype.
18:58
Speaker 4: You guys excited for the thing that we're all hyped
19:00
Speaker 4: out in April that we were talking about on the side.
19:02
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, death cap for QUDI and postal.
19:04
Speaker 2: Service a second time buying tickets on Speaking.
19:09
Speaker 1: Of hype ruining things, let me show to you exhibit A, folks. Uh,
19:13
Speaker 1: this is a paper straw.
19:15
Speaker 3: Here's the problem with paper straws.
19:18
Speaker 1: Terrible look at that, man, No, no.
19:25
Speaker 2: I can't weird.
19:27
Speaker 3: Well, I've got a BUCkies mug.
19:33
Speaker 1: Thank you for themr So uh so we do o
19:38
Speaker 1: a debt of gratitude to the founding fathers, and we
19:42
Speaker 1: want to let you know, like there's so many of
19:44
Speaker 1: us listening right now who are going get to the fight.
19:47
Speaker 3: Get to the fight.
19:48
Speaker 1: Alexander Hamilton comes in and it's so hard to say
19:51
Speaker 1: that without singing it. He weighs in on Jefferson's behalf
19:56
Speaker 1: and uh, he says, look, my brother in Christ, I
20:01
Speaker 1: get it. Jefferson is a contemptible hypocrite at last. Part's
20:06
Speaker 1: a quote. But we cannot adopt a violent system that
20:12
Speaker 1: undermines this American government. And Aaron Burr, because Hamilton always
20:17
Speaker 1: had to slide in a nag on Aaron Burr, they
20:21
Speaker 1: were very insecure, and he says, look, Burr also has
20:25
Speaker 1: extreme and irregular ambition. He's got no principle public or private,
20:29
Speaker 1: which was a real like these guys would have been
20:32
Speaker 1: savages on Twitter. And Hamilton says, look, the Federalists are
20:37
Speaker 1: playing a foolish game. You kind of have to give
20:41
Speaker 1: Jefferson the presidency because we all agreed on it, and
20:46
Speaker 1: to do otherwise now is anathema to what we proposed
20:51
Speaker 1: this government should function as.
20:55
Speaker 3: So Eventually, one of the fellas that Hamilton wrote to,
20:58
Speaker 3: one James A. Bayard, told his colleagues that he would
21:04
Speaker 3: withdraw support from Burr and throw his support behind Jefferson,
21:09
Speaker 3: allowing him to win, in order to prevent this again
21:13
Speaker 3: this like civil war. It's essentially what we would be
21:17
Speaker 3: looking at and no Federalists at the end of the
21:21
Speaker 3: day voted for Jefferson. Several, however, Federalist members of the
21:25
Speaker 3: House of Representatives. They positioned their state delegates to support Jefferson,
21:33
Speaker 3: and on February seventeenth of eighteen oh one, on the
21:36
Speaker 3: thirty sixth attempt at this vote, Jefferson won by a
21:40
Speaker 3: ten to four margin two states. Stateing and Bayard later
21:47
Speaker 3: claimed that Jefferson had promised to maintain a particular flavor
21:55
Speaker 3: of government, specifically referring to the monetary system, the fiscal system,
22:00
Speaker 3: and also to maintain which is this is probably a
22:03
Speaker 3: term that you remember hearing them when you're studies of
22:04
Speaker 3: the Constitution is strong navy, and not to can any
22:10
Speaker 3: of the Federalists, who you know, had potentially made themselves
22:15
Speaker 3: target for that kind of retribution. But you wouldn't, he said,
22:20
Speaker 3: He said, he said, a lot of no honor among
22:22
Speaker 3: thieves to your previous point, but Jefferson's he claimed to
22:28
Speaker 3: the bitter end that no such deal had ever existed.
22:33
Speaker 1: Federalist who were those guys? Anyway, It's March fourth, says Jefferson,
22:38
Speaker 1: eighteen oh one. I am now the third president of
22:42
Speaker 1: the United States. A war that didn't quite happen. Now
22:47
Speaker 1: we know that a lot of us are listening today
22:49
Speaker 1: and saying, all right, so your first example is the
22:53
Speaker 1: time there was almost a fight.
22:56
Speaker 3: But what about you know what.
22:57
Speaker 1: About some street level fisticuffs, you know what about some
23:01
Speaker 1: varments varmenting out in the halls of power? This is
23:12
Speaker 1: our next example. Right before the Civil War. One of
23:17
Speaker 1: the big issues in American discourse is the concept of slavery,
23:23
Speaker 1: the idea that you could somehow rationalize removing all the
23:28
Speaker 1: rights of a human being by saying that they are
23:31
Speaker 1: somehow not human and instead that they are property. And
23:35
Speaker 1: one side of the argument said, look, this is part
23:40
Speaker 1: of American law, and the other side, which won, by
23:44
Speaker 1: the way, spoilers thankfully, the other side said, slavery is
23:48
Speaker 1: super sucking gross. It needs to be outlawed. Thanks for
23:55
Speaker 1: the beat, Max. And obviously no one here and hopefully
24:00
Speaker 1: no one listening is going to argue otherwise. But at
24:05
Speaker 1: this time we have to introduce a heel as wrestling
24:11
Speaker 1: MC call him Uphill, a real you know what, he's
24:15
Speaker 1: a real dish of cold rubbery eggs. John C.
24:19
Speaker 3: Calhoun. I think John C. Calhoun is the namesake of
24:25
Speaker 3: a very short, non impressive expressway in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
24:30
Speaker 1: How long?
24:31
Speaker 2: How long is it South Carolina?
24:33
Speaker 3: So yeah, okay, there you go. Yeah, it's just like
24:36
Speaker 3: the road that you take to get from like one
24:39
Speaker 3: side of town to downtown. So I would say no
24:43
Speaker 3: longer than maybe two miles, three miles. It's the John C.
24:47
Speaker 3: Calhoun Expressway.
24:48
Speaker 4: It's Calhoun is one of these guys that, for like
24:51
Speaker 4: a large swath of this part of history, is just
24:54
Speaker 4: always president, like him and Henry Clay are always president,
24:57
Speaker 4: and oddly enough, John Quincy Adams is always around two.
25:00
Speaker 4: He did a lot after being president. He was around
25:01
Speaker 4: for a while to being president.
25:03
Speaker 1: We need to talk about Millard Fillmore, vice president two
25:07
Speaker 1: days after infamous cold eggs and later expressway namesake. John C.
25:12
Speaker 1: Calhoun dies March thirty first, eighteen fifty. There's this guy,
25:19
Speaker 1: his name's Millard. He's vice president. He also kind of stinks,
25:24
Speaker 1: and he does the funeral for Thank you for the
25:27
Speaker 1: thumbs down, Max, I agree with you. He does the
25:30
Speaker 1: funeral for Calhoun in the chambers of the Senate, and
25:35
Speaker 1: everybody is kind of on edge, right, what's going to happen.
25:39
Speaker 1: The leader is dead. This guy who is ostensibly in
25:43
Speaker 1: charge now his name's Millard? Are you kidding me? And
25:46
Speaker 1: so amid this chaos, Vice President Pillmore addresses the Senate.
25:52
Speaker 1: He does a live show and he says, look, when
25:55
Speaker 1: I first became the presiding Officer of the Senate last year,
26:00
Speaker 1: I didn't think I would have to maintain order in
26:05
Speaker 1: a group of adults. He looked around and he was like, guys,
26:08
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be grown ups. You're supposed to be
26:12
Speaker 1: courteous to each other, you're supposed to be collegiate. You know,
26:16
Speaker 1: order must prevail.
26:18
Speaker 3: Well, it's one of these things where, like you know,
26:21
Speaker 3: with the recent presidential situations, let's just say, in this country,
26:25
Speaker 3: where you know it's easy to take for granted, how
26:29
Speaker 3: much just decorum and tradition is literally all. It's holding
26:34
Speaker 3: the whole thing together. And when people decide to ask
26:37
Speaker 3: out and just totally ignore that stuff, there's not much
26:41
Speaker 3: you could do about it.
26:42
Speaker 1: It's so weird, man. I remember several years back, someone
26:47
Speaker 1: got trapped up in parliamentary procedure. They stood up and
26:52
Speaker 1: they were like, the honorable member of so and so
26:57
Speaker 1: apologizes for offending the honor of the gentleman from so
27:01
Speaker 1: and so, and I thought you guys hate each other.
27:04
Speaker 3: It's pretty obvious question, but.
27:07
Speaker 1: Like, can you imagine being in a situation where someone
27:10
Speaker 1: says you have offended my honor and then there's a vote,
27:15
Speaker 1: and then the other person has to stand up and
27:17
Speaker 1: be like, I apologize for offending your honor.
27:22
Speaker 3: Well, even just the idea of getting censured, you know
27:24
Speaker 3: what I mean, it's sort of like a public pillarying,
27:28
Speaker 3: you know, a slap on the wrists be it's basically
27:31
Speaker 3: officially embarrassing you in front of your friends.
27:34
Speaker 1: So, in its earliest years, the US Senate had given
27:40
Speaker 1: the presiding officer the superpower. If you are in charge
27:45
Speaker 1: of the Senate, you can call these other senators out.
27:49
Speaker 1: You can be like, M, that's a no, no, that
27:52
Speaker 1: is inappropriate language or behavior. And the full Senate didn't
27:57
Speaker 1: have to vote. There was just this one guy who
28:00
Speaker 1: was like, your ViBe's off. And because of John C. Calhoun,
28:05
Speaker 1: this practice changes in eighteen twenty eight.
28:09
Speaker 2: You have to stay in my line, all right?
28:11
Speaker 1: Well, Max, how would you describe John C.
28:13
Speaker 4: Calhoun real life Emperor Palpatine? And side note, if you
28:17
Speaker 4: guys want to get a laugh. Every single time Calhoun
28:19
Speaker 4: is mentioned in this brief, there's a different photo of him,
28:23
Speaker 4: and they all have a theme.
28:27
Speaker 3: Is he wearing an ominous hood and clothes?
28:29
Speaker 4: He just looks like the most evil dude in every
28:31
Speaker 4: photo and every painting of this man. I guess there's
28:33
Speaker 4: no photos of it, but every painting of this man,
28:35
Speaker 4: he looks like the most evil dude ever.
28:37
Speaker 1: He looks like he's.
28:40
Speaker 2: Look so racist.
28:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, he looks like he doesn't blink. He looks like
28:45
Speaker 1: he's always mad at someone to the left or the
28:48
Speaker 1: right of the portrait.
28:50
Speaker 3: I bet he used to beat people with sticks.
28:53
Speaker 4: This is the guy who was so mean, so racist,
28:56
Speaker 4: and so crazy that Andrew Jackson was freaked out by the.
29:00
Speaker 3: He kind of has a bizarro Andrew Jackson look about him.
29:03
Speaker 4: He was He was Jackson's first VP and then quit
29:06
Speaker 4: and formed his own party to a post Jackson. He's
29:08
Speaker 4: one of the guys that started the Whig Party.
29:10
Speaker 1: I always think when I see these portraits of guys
29:13
Speaker 1: who are not looking directly at the at the audience,
29:18
Speaker 1: I always think maybe they had wonky eyes like Calhoun
29:22
Speaker 1: looks like he might have.
29:23
Speaker 3: He might have some Walleye And honestly, in this painting
29:27
Speaker 3: that I'm looking at, he basically is wearing a spooky cloak. Yeah.
29:30
Speaker 1: Well it was a different time. Yeah, for sure, they
29:33
Speaker 1: didn't have central heating. But the so because of Calhoun,
29:37
Speaker 1: who was a little bit too active for the rest
29:42
Speaker 1: of the Senate. Because of him, the Senate changed this
29:45
Speaker 1: rule and they said, look, everybody should be able to
29:50
Speaker 1: call someone out if they're behaving offensively. And I think
29:53
Speaker 1: we can all agree that kind of accountability is key.
29:57
Speaker 1: If the Senate objected to the Vice president's ruling on
30:02
Speaker 1: a certain call, right, if he was being too tyrannical
30:05
Speaker 1: or so on, then they could vote and they could
30:08
Speaker 1: overrule him, and they could say, actually, the guy you're
30:11
Speaker 1: mad at isn't being a dick. He raised a really
30:13
Speaker 1: good point. You're outvoted. Let's move on to other business.
30:17
Speaker 1: Order will prevail. Vice President Fillmore didn't quite vibe with this.
30:26
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty he says, look, a lot of our fellows, senators,
30:33
Speaker 1: a lot of these honorable gentlemen, seem reluctant to hold
30:37
Speaker 1: each other to order. So what I'm going to do
30:41
Speaker 1: is quellvis I'm going to contain the first sparks of
30:45
Speaker 1: disorder before they blossom into a fire.
30:50
Speaker 3: Right, and so.
30:52
Speaker 1: So he said the following quote, which seems a little hardcore.
30:56
Speaker 1: I'm interested. I'm interested in your thoughts here.
31:00
Speaker 3: Might attack or even insinuation of a personal character often
31:05
Speaker 3: provokes a more severe retort, which brit retort. Sorry, it's
31:09
Speaker 3: gonna make sure you those clear, which brings out a
31:12
Speaker 3: more disorderly reply, each senator feeling a justification in the
31:18
Speaker 3: previous aggression. Okay, this is an unpacker, guys, a slight
31:22
Speaker 3: attack or even insinuation, okay of a personal character to
31:27
Speaker 3: don't talk trash. If you do, it may provoke a
31:31
Speaker 3: serious reaction. Someone's gonna come at you, right, which may
31:35
Speaker 3: bring out and even more distant sort of chain reaction,
31:38
Speaker 3: which may even bring out a more disorderly reply, each
31:42
Speaker 3: senator feeling justification in the previous So this is basically
31:45
Speaker 3: a chain of aggression.
31:46
Speaker 1: That's what you're saying, chain, chain, chain. So the idea
31:50
Speaker 1: is that the idea is that there would be this
31:54
Speaker 1: sort of arms race, for lack of a better word,
31:57
Speaker 1: of insults leading to chaos in the Senate, which could
32:02
Speaker 1: very well lead to instability in the nation. The question
32:06
Speaker 1: is what is insinuation? Right? So and so said such
32:11
Speaker 1: and such, and I took that personally. But it turns
32:15
Speaker 1: out old Old Millies, shout out to hip hop fans
32:18
Speaker 1: in the audience, Old Millies was correct. Two weeks after
32:23
Speaker 1: he makes this statement, the things he predicted happened. He
32:27
Speaker 1: said to a Missouri Senator, Thomas Hart Benton, he said,
32:31
Speaker 1: you're out of order. And then a guy from Kentucky
32:34
Speaker 1: named Henry Clay you may recognize from earlier stories, he says,
32:38
Speaker 1: the vice president is out of pocket. He's making an
32:42
Speaker 1: attack on the power and dignity of this noble institution,
32:47
Speaker 1: the Senate. And then everybody else is like.
32:54
Speaker 3: So in this ensuing debate, there is quite a nasty exchange.
33:00
Speaker 3: It takes place between Benton and Henry Foot. Foot Foot,
33:04
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Foot. It just sounds good. Yeah whatever. Benton,
33:10
Speaker 3: who's a bit of a bullish fellow, likes to throw
33:14
Speaker 3: his weight around, literally and figuratively. Uh. He pushes aside
33:18
Speaker 3: his chair and begins to approach mister Foot, who, if
33:22
Speaker 3: the name of is an indication, is a bit of
33:25
Speaker 3: a slight fellow. Uh. At this point, at this you know,
33:29
Speaker 3: the sight of this you know, steam locomotive of a
33:34
Speaker 3: man coming at him full bore foot, decides he needs
33:39
Speaker 3: to defend himself with not his brawn, but with you know,
33:42
Speaker 3: this concealed pistol that he's got. He strapped. He is strapped. Uh.
33:48
Speaker 3: We can't coaching a biscuit right right there.
33:51
Speaker 4: It is.
33:52
Speaker 1: We can't get away with late books at the library.
33:56
Speaker 1: But this guy's rolling up into the Senate with a
34:00
Speaker 1: they did not and uh, and so everybody's losing their mind.
34:05
Speaker 1: An old old steam truck. Benton is bellowing, I have
34:09
Speaker 1: no pistols. Let them fast out of the way.
34:12
Speaker 3: Let the assassin fa yeah, becausin of steamboat Willie, no doubt. Uh,
34:17
Speaker 3: that's amazing. So these boy, this guy is a is.
34:22
Speaker 3: He's got h you know what I'm doing, the hand
34:25
Speaker 3: thing he got, he's got the hutsbah, he's got the cajones. Uh.
34:30
Speaker 2: And he is not.
34:31
Speaker 3: He will not be stopped. He continues on towards him. Uh.
34:36
Speaker 3: And then at this point I guess the funnies enough
34:39
Speaker 3: for the for the presiding officer pillmore to to adjourn.
34:43
Speaker 3: It's like, okay, I.
34:45
Speaker 1: Love how Max puts it to Uh, quickly entertained emotion
34:49
Speaker 1: to a journy. So like this one guy's this huge
34:53
Speaker 1: dude's running at this other guy. He's like, shoot me,
34:55
Speaker 1: then shoot me do it, and this guy is I.
34:59
Speaker 2: Got a first a little bit of a bubble making it.
35:02
Speaker 2: I didn't put that. The US Senate put that.
35:06
Speaker 3: That's even better.
35:07
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, we paid for that beautiful line. Taxpayers
35:11
Speaker 1: quickly entertained a motion to adjourn, which literally means while
35:16
Speaker 1: this chaos was happening, Vice President Millard Fillmore was like, hey,
35:21
Speaker 1: should we get lunch or we done? Clap clap clap,
35:24
Speaker 1: lap clip clap with a gavel, and everybody else who wasn't,
35:28
Speaker 1: you know, shooting or being shot at, was like, yeah,
35:31
Speaker 1: things took.
35:31
Speaker 2: A turn, and that man became president and that.
35:36
Speaker 1: Man became president. No, there is another example we have,
35:41
Speaker 1: and I love the way you set this up. Earlier
35:44
Speaker 1: you talked about beating people with sticks.
35:47
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I just you know, I thought that Calhoun
35:50
Speaker 3: had that look about him, some of the eyes right
35:52
Speaker 3: in the eyes, a bit of a wildness, and also
35:54
Speaker 3: that cloak man like Harlem globetrotter style. You can probably
35:57
Speaker 3: can seal quite a large stick in there you would
36:00
Speaker 3: just carry around sort of a chalelee of sorts, you know. Oh,
36:04
Speaker 3: there we go.
36:04
Speaker 1: Nice reference. Yeah, and so probably the one of the
36:10
Speaker 1: most infamous physical altercations in US congressional history occurs on
36:17
Speaker 1: May twenty second, eighteen fifty six.
36:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, And as it turns out, there's an official name
36:22
Speaker 3: for beating someone with sticks. It is often referred to
36:26
Speaker 3: as caning. The brutal and barbaric practice, of course, holdover
36:31
Speaker 3: from slave times as well. Like I mean, people were
36:34
Speaker 3: beaten on their backs until they were had bloody stripes
36:37
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. I believe it's a it's a
36:39
Speaker 3: tactic that still happens in some countries more mistaken.
36:44
Speaker 1: Singapore, multiple actually multiple other countries. And when you specifically
36:49
Speaker 1: beat people on the soles of their feet such that
36:52
Speaker 1: they cannot walk or run away, that torture is bastinado.
36:58
Speaker 1: None of these are allowed technically in political discourse in
37:03
Speaker 1: the halls of Congress. The US doesn't cane people. But
37:08
Speaker 1: it turns out some of the king makers of the
37:10
Speaker 1: US government did get into a caine altercation. This would
37:16
Speaker 1: be I believe aggravated assault technically because there was a
37:20
Speaker 1: use of a weapon.
37:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right in the halls of governments. No less,
37:30
Speaker 3: I guess what led to this beef. The thing. The
37:33
Speaker 3: inciting event occurred three days prior when Senator by the
37:38
Speaker 3: name of Charles Sumner from Massachusetts, who was an anti
37:42
Speaker 3: slavery Republican exactly addressed the Senate spoke to the Senate
37:49
Speaker 3: on the issue of whether Kansas should be allowed to
37:53
Speaker 3: enter the Union as a slave state or as a
37:56
Speaker 3: free state. Man, can you believe this was stuff that
37:59
Speaker 3: had to be discussed. I'm sorry, I know it's it's
38:03
Speaker 3: it's just bonkers to me sometimes, how relatively recent some
38:08
Speaker 3: of these barbaric parts of.
38:10
Speaker 4: History, you know, right, I mean, dad, do this wild
38:14
Speaker 4: dance anytime they want it at a state in because
38:16
Speaker 4: they had to have just many slave states as free states.
38:19
Speaker 1: So three fifths compromise. It was really nasty stuff.
38:24
Speaker 2: And to your point, it's right there in history, not
38:27
Speaker 2: that long ago.
38:27
Speaker 1: Now, history is always closer than it looks in the.
38:30
Speaker 2: Rear view mirror. I mean, think about it. There is
38:33
Speaker 2: a living man.
38:35
Speaker 4: Father was born around then, as we learned the John
38:39
Speaker 4: Tyler episodes.
38:39
Speaker 1: And there are people listening today who were alive during
38:44
Speaker 1: state supported segregation. Right, Uh, this is this stuff matters.
38:50
Speaker 1: So as you were saying, all this guy Sunder, he
38:53
Speaker 1: makes a speech it's called or it's titled Crime against Kansas,
38:58
Speaker 1: and in his beach Sumner name checks two Democratic senators.
39:04
Speaker 3: And also out its last.
39:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, he calls for them. He sends for them, you
39:10
Speaker 1: would say in UK hip hop. They're Stephen Douglas of
39:14
Speaker 1: Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. And while these
39:19
Speaker 1: guys are in the room, Sumner is talking trash and
39:23
Speaker 1: it's not friendly. It's not like a Friar's Club roast.
39:27
Speaker 1: Or if it is like a Friar's Club roast, it's
39:30
Speaker 1: like the Chevy Chase roast where you can tell no
39:32
Speaker 1: one likes him, no one likes it. Yea.
39:34
Speaker 3: To this day, I don't think he's a very popular guy. Beg,
39:37
Speaker 3: can I can I say this trash talk? At least?
39:39
Speaker 3: Please please get to do it? What does he say
39:41
Speaker 3: to Douglas serious, dis is man? Holy cow, these are
39:46
Speaker 3: like beast level cutdowns. He calls him a noisome, squat
39:53
Speaker 3: and nameless animal, not a proper model for an American senator.
39:59
Speaker 1: And people are people, Yeah, people are like, oh snap
40:03
Speaker 1: and then he has this moment in his speech.
40:05
Speaker 3: Where he's like, and I'm not done. I do not
40:08
Speaker 3: field my time.
40:10
Speaker 1: Andrew Butler, South Carolina. You know, gosh, he says, He says,
40:17
Speaker 1: you have taken a mistress who ugly to others, is
40:22
Speaker 1: always lovely to him, though polluted in the sight of
40:25
Speaker 1: the world, is chased in his sight. I mean the
40:29
Speaker 1: Harlot slavery.
40:31
Speaker 3: Oh snap, okay, I thought he was really like putting
40:33
Speaker 3: his bearing his dirty laundry. He got there too.
40:38
Speaker 4: That's what Hamilton did. Hamilton one time too, an article.
40:41
Speaker 4: Out these ten sex workers that I talked to, they
40:45
Speaker 4: all say that Aaron Burr is, you know, their favorite client.
40:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hamilton, the creator of the listical I believe absolutely.
40:53
Speaker 3: Oh man, the Harlot slavery. That's that's good, although I
40:57
Speaker 3: will say not very sex positive, a little bit misogynistic,
41:01
Speaker 3: but it kind of works well.
41:02
Speaker 1: The time, well they were you know, they were all gas,
41:06
Speaker 1: no breaks, and they were all still, of course, very prejudiced.
41:09
Speaker 1: There's another guy in the crowd, you know. That's why
41:12
Speaker 1: I have to be careful with roast and stand up comedy.
41:16
Speaker 1: There's a guy named Preston Brooks. He's important to this
41:20
Speaker 1: story because he is boys with Butler. He's from South
41:24
Speaker 1: Carolina as well, and if he if he did things
41:30
Speaker 1: the quote unquote right way for the time, he would
41:32
Speaker 1: have challenged Sumner to a duel and they would have
41:36
Speaker 1: met with you know, pistols or rape year zadan or
41:39
Speaker 1: something like that. Instead, he picked up the kind of
41:43
Speaker 1: cane that people like him use to beat dogs and
41:48
Speaker 1: also probably other people. So he waits until Senate has
41:52
Speaker 1: rapped for the day, rapped for the day, and he
41:56
Speaker 1: walks into the chamber and he finds some there. Picture
42:06
Speaker 1: it like walking into a lecture hall after class and
42:10
Speaker 1: Sumner is Sumner is putting his stamp on various copies
42:16
Speaker 1: of his speech where he dissed these guys, and then Brooks,
42:19
Speaker 1: catching him unaware, slams his cane onto Sumner's head. He
42:25
Speaker 1: doesn't even waste like nothing cinematic like hitting a hand
42:29
Speaker 1: or something like, you're not gonna stamp that way.
42:31
Speaker 3: Yeah. Have you guys seen most or any of the Sopranos. Yeah,
42:36
Speaker 3: there's a really incredible scene where Tony he's got this
42:40
Speaker 3: like I think he's a lawyer or no, he's a
42:42
Speaker 3: politician actually, and he finds out that he's sleeping with
42:45
Speaker 3: Tony's ex gar or whatever, remember, and he just walks
42:49
Speaker 3: into the dude's house while he's his underwear and just
42:52
Speaker 3: takes his belt off and just starts like slamming him,
42:55
Speaker 3: you know, while the guy's like whippering in the corner.
42:58
Speaker 3: That is how I picture this guy. That is an
43:00
Speaker 3: excellent scene.
43:01
Speaker 1: It's wallop after wallap headshots and Brooks is like Bam,
43:07
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Bam, I'm a jerk, Bam, bam bam. And
43:11
Speaker 1: Sumner is recovering from this head wound and he's running
43:16
Speaker 1: about trying to protect himself. It doesn't it does these
43:21
Speaker 1: kinds of If you've ever been in a fight like this,
43:23
Speaker 1: you know, they typically don't last very long. This guy's bleeding,
43:27
Speaker 1: he's likely concussed. Head wounds are just super gushers. He
43:32
Speaker 1: has to be carried away. He can't walk on his
43:34
Speaker 1: own power. And Brooks when he's done with this, he
43:38
Speaker 1: walks calmly out of the chamber. It's like if since
43:43
Speaker 1: we're doing anachronistic music, probably in his head there's something
43:47
Speaker 1: like easy, like a Sunday morning play like that. Yeah,
43:50
Speaker 1: he's like and amasic, right, and.
43:56
Speaker 3: It's interesting because both of these guys, to their respective crony,
44:00
Speaker 3: He's kind of become like the symbolic kind of hero,
44:05
Speaker 3: so weird, oh regard super weird, and I believe doesn't.
44:10
Speaker 3: The dispenser of the beating resign and he gets yeah,
44:15
Speaker 3: and what happens next He gets reelected, but then he dies, Yeah,
44:24
Speaker 3: at the age of thirty seven. So it's not all bad.
44:27
Speaker 1: And that's what he's most famous for. And Sumner does live.
44:33
Speaker 1: Sumner takes some time recovering. He eventually returns to the
44:37
Speaker 1: Senate and he serves there for another eighteen years. This
44:43
Speaker 1: turns out to be somewhat prescient, somewhat of an omen
44:47
Speaker 1: for the future of the United States, which is hurtling
44:51
Speaker 1: headlong toward an actual civil war.
44:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
44:58
Speaker 3: I think we've got one more, really juicy one involving
45:03
Speaker 3: fisticuffs to take us home with. Yeah, let's take it
45:06
Speaker 3: homes one.
45:08
Speaker 2: It's fast.
45:09
Speaker 3: We saved it.
45:10
Speaker 1: So the most infamous floor brawl in the history of
45:15
Speaker 1: the US House of Representatives. This is, by the way,
45:18
Speaker 1: from the US House of Rep's website. This thing happened
45:23
Speaker 1: when members of the House debated the Kansas Territories pro
45:28
Speaker 1: Slavery Constitution late into the night of February fifth through sixth,
45:34
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight, and right right before two am, Pennsylvania
45:40
Speaker 1: Republican named Galusha grow real.
45:43
Speaker 3: Name, Galusha, grow your big Galot.
45:47
Speaker 1: Right, they're perfect. Yeah, it gets into a tangle with
45:52
Speaker 1: a Democrat from South Carolina named Lawrence Kiett.
45:55
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting too because, like several of these stories,
45:58
Speaker 3: or at least this one in the last one, really
46:00
Speaker 3: show you the tension that was building around, you know,
46:04
Speaker 3: slavery and the issue, the political divide that was coming
46:09
Speaker 3: very very clear, and it was going to just come
46:11
Speaker 3: to a boiling point. And I think that's largely why
46:14
Speaker 3: he can so many of these, like actual brawls taking
46:18
Speaker 3: place during this time really sensitive. You know, a little
46:21
Speaker 3: spark could just set off a whole forest fire. And
46:24
Speaker 3: that's exactly what happens here. On February sixth, eighteen fifty eight,
46:29
Speaker 3: in an odd precursor to the Civil War, rights Will
46:32
Speaker 3: Fermia for MSNBC, the House of Representatives dissolved into a
46:37
Speaker 3: bench clearing brawl. Is that like where so I guess
46:41
Speaker 3: a bench clearing brawl is in a sport where like
46:43
Speaker 3: all your buddies come to your aid because like you're
46:46
Speaker 3: getting all kicked out on the basketball court almost a
46:49
Speaker 3: basketball field. Because I'm totally a sportsman.
46:52
Speaker 4: It's very common in baseball. So in vice breakout in
46:54
Speaker 4: baseball is that the bench wall come out. But when
46:56
Speaker 4: it gets really serious, people from the bullpen, which is
46:58
Speaker 4: out on the outfit will run in and get in the.
47:00
Speaker 3: Fight as well.
47:01
Speaker 1: Got shout out of Philadelphia exactly almost at yeah, famous
47:08
Speaker 1: famously chill City.
47:10
Speaker 4: Side note, I'm writing an episode you guys don't even
47:13
Speaker 4: know about this one yet where I uh it talks
47:15
Speaker 4: about how Pennsylvania is just extra I've got.
47:19
Speaker 1: This discontinued soda stuff too. I know all of us
47:22
Speaker 1: are excited about that.
47:23
Speaker 3: Oh you doing that one? Cool? Yeah yeah yeah, I
47:26
Speaker 3: am gonna do karaoke, yeah yeah yeah. It was reported
47:30
Speaker 3: at the time by the Congressional Globe that in an
47:33
Speaker 3: instant the House was in the greatest possible confusion, with
47:38
Speaker 3: more than thirty of its members uh joining in to
47:42
Speaker 3: this brawl. You know, like literally picture the cartoon fight
47:46
Speaker 3: with the giant cloud of dust and like people are
47:49
Speaker 3: jumping in and coming out, crawling out, being dragged back
47:52
Speaker 3: in you know. M yeah, it giant on a monopoia.
47:56
Speaker 3: Texts on screen, you.
47:57
Speaker 1: Know, raining cats and dogs, of punches, fisticuffs, uppercuts, you know,
48:03
Speaker 1: hooks and jabs, probably you know, maybe a couple of roundhouses.
48:08
Speaker 1: I like the idea of one dude launching himself and
48:10
Speaker 1: doing that full like two person or two foot kick,
48:14
Speaker 1: you know, or why not a lu king bicycle kick.
48:17
Speaker 1: At this point, it's those linings, right, you know, inventing
48:22
Speaker 1: moves that the WWE will make billions off of in
48:26
Speaker 1: the future.
48:27
Speaker 3: Nor the.
48:29
Speaker 1: Northern Republicans of Free Soilers team up against Southern Democrats,
48:34
Speaker 1: and I got to tell you there are probably a
48:35
Speaker 1: lot of grudges getting settled here. There are probably a
48:38
Speaker 1: lot of sneak shots at people who didn't like each
48:41
Speaker 1: other from the jump, and some of those examples are
48:44
Speaker 1: lost to history. But it was absolutely a brawl. The
48:48
Speaker 1: speaker of South Carolina Democrat named James Orr was just
48:52
Speaker 1: uselessly hitting the gavel. It was like order order, and.
48:58
Speaker 3: It wasn't the menu today, buddy.
49:00
Speaker 1: They weren't listening because they were busy beating the snot
49:03
Speaker 1: out of each other. So eventually he leans to the
49:06
Speaker 1: sergeant at arms, a guy named Adam J. Glossbrenner, and
49:09
Speaker 1: he says, you know, look, if people aren't listening, arrest them.
49:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, get them out of it. Have you guys ever
49:15
Speaker 3: been to like a I guess, for lack of a
49:16
Speaker 3: better term, minor league wrestling events, Yes, like, yeah, a
49:21
Speaker 3: lot of times. There are some very interesting and problematic
49:25
Speaker 3: political kind of like they'll be like the Luca Libre
49:27
Speaker 3: guy fighting like a mister America, you know, and it's
49:31
Speaker 3: clearly a kind of creepy commentary on you know, border protection.
49:35
Speaker 3: I picture this, This whole scenario should be made into
49:38
Speaker 3: a wrestling event with all of these you know, government
49:41
Speaker 3: reps just having at each other, you know, pulling off
49:45
Speaker 3: their powdered wigs. Yeah, yeah, with that. I don't know
49:48
Speaker 3: if they wore powdered wigs, but I'm just you know,
49:50
Speaker 3: it's a good they were.
49:51
Speaker 1: Fancy they wore powdered wigs, otherwise everyone would know they
49:54
Speaker 1: had lice. Please check out the very first episode of
49:58
Speaker 1: our show. Why do Bidish lawyers wear those wigs? They're
50:01
Speaker 1: called perukes. So okay, if you are James Orr at
50:07
Speaker 1: this point then you're doing the right thing. You have
50:10
Speaker 1: followed your order of order of operations. And if you
50:15
Speaker 1: are Adam Glossbredder, now the onus is on you. Now
50:19
Speaker 1: the ball is in your court. What are you gonna do?
50:23
Speaker 1: He's got the house mace. What you guys know about
50:25
Speaker 1: it's symbolic, it's kind of ridiculous. It's a fancy or kine.
50:29
Speaker 1: And so he according to this MSNBC article we quoted earlier,
50:34
Speaker 1: he walks into the fray and he is getting in fights.
50:40
Speaker 1: These people, by the way, to the point about hair pieces,
50:44
Speaker 1: they are literally snatching wigs. John Bowie, Knife Potter and
50:49
Speaker 1: Cad Walader Washburn riped the way they snatched the wig
50:53
Speaker 1: off a democrat from Mississippi named William Barksdale. And then
50:57
Speaker 1: Potter like holds it up and he goes scout, super classy,
51:02
Speaker 1: super classy. This like a world Star moment. You know,
51:06
Speaker 1: if this were filmed on a cell phone, you would
51:09
Speaker 1: hear the person filming it just yelling world star. That's
51:12
Speaker 1: an Internet reference that might do.
51:14
Speaker 3: And I think you know, Barksdale was kind of getting
51:16
Speaker 3: clowned already because he was wearing a wig or it
51:19
Speaker 3: was like more of a two paves. Was not a
51:21
Speaker 3: ceremonial peruke or or you know, hair piece. It was
51:25
Speaker 3: definitely a cosmetic thing to hide a lack of actual hair.
51:30
Speaker 3: But apparently when he put it back off, he put
51:32
Speaker 3: it on backwards, getting it kind of caught up in
51:35
Speaker 3: the melee of it all.
51:36
Speaker 2: What's even worse is no one knew he was wearing
51:40
Speaker 2: a wig, and tis what I mean.
51:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were totally like, you know, mocking him.
51:45
Speaker 1: It was.
51:45
Speaker 3: This is actually a moment that's often played for laughs
51:48
Speaker 3: in a kind of physical comedy, you know, where a
51:51
Speaker 3: character you know, will get.
51:52
Speaker 1: This where the humor kind of quells the tension.
51:56
Speaker 3: That's what happens, right, It becomes more of like a
51:59
Speaker 3: ah like that think of this dummy, and you know
52:03
Speaker 3: they have.
52:04
Speaker 1: That pause and the music stops and they pointing each
52:07
Speaker 1: other like and then the other guy was about to
52:10
Speaker 1: kill him, is like, I guess that is funny, and
52:13
Speaker 1: then everybody starts laughing, and then it goes to a
52:16
Speaker 1: freeze frame roll credits.
52:19
Speaker 3: The mid air jump, you know, right, high fives. Look
52:22
Speaker 3: what are we doing? Guys love each other, you know,
52:27
Speaker 3: the business of running the country.
52:29
Speaker 1: So we are going to call it a rap, thanks
52:32
Speaker 1: of course our recurring guest Alex Circa.
52:36
Speaker 3: And it's also just ninety something.
52:40
Speaker 1: Yes, a fan of circumstance, we are. We also want
52:44
Speaker 1: to point out that, of course we're dunking on the
52:46
Speaker 1: United States here with the help of our research associate
52:49
Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. However, it is very important for us
52:53
Speaker 1: all to know this is not a glasshouse situation. It
52:56
Speaker 1: is a glass planet. There are tons and tons of
53:00
Speaker 1: parliamentary fisticuffs and fights and brawls. I want to give
53:04
Speaker 1: a shout out to South Korea in twenty twenty where yeah,
53:09
Speaker 1: when more the almost forty people got got up in
53:13
Speaker 1: a tangle like a massive fight. It happens more often
53:16
Speaker 1: than you think, folks.
53:17
Speaker 3: Indeed, I mean, after all, you know, these people aren't
53:21
Speaker 3: somehow superior supreme beings. They have just as many foibles
53:25
Speaker 3: and failings as the rest of us, in some cases
53:28
Speaker 3: way more so. You know, always important to remember not
53:30
Speaker 3: to put anybody up on a pedestal. Least of all,
53:33
Speaker 3: are our humble politicians humbule public sent not very humble,
53:39
Speaker 3: are very humble modest public servants.
53:42
Speaker 1: Also good not to put canes to people's heads, as
53:46
Speaker 1: everybody's grade school teacher once said use your words, so
53:52
Speaker 1: I think it was always to a super producer, mister
53:55
Speaker 1: Max Williams. Thanks to our own King over the Head,
53:58
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland aka the Wizard. Shout out to Alex Williams,
54:02
Speaker 1: composed this slap and pop.
54:04
Speaker 3: Indeed, thanks to Eaves, Jeff Coates, and Christopher frasiotis here
54:07
Speaker 3: in spirit. Ben, Thanks to you for not coming at
54:12
Speaker 3: me with a cane, even though I see it in
54:14
Speaker 3: your eyes sometimes that you really want to.
54:16
Speaker 1: I don't look at you as often as you think.
54:18
Speaker 3: Man, WHOA careful We'll see you next. Type Books. For
54:29
Speaker 3: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
54:33
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,