Episode 37 - Different Perspectives on Democracy with Jeremi Suri and Rick Kennedy

This 'Different Perspectives' episode features Jeremi Suri and Rick Kennedy who will be discussing democracy from a historical perspective, its current state and ways to improve it. Rick is an Interim State Chair of the Forward Party of Texas and a two time democratic candidate for US House. He’s a self described hater of gerrymandering. Jeremi is a Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Recently, he's authored a book on the American Civil War called “Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy”. Jeremi is also the host of “This is Democracy” podcast. Forward Party: https://www.forwardparty.com Rick Kennedy: https://ballotpedia.org/Rick_Kennedy Jeremi Suri: https://lbj.utexas.edu/suri-jeremi Jeremi's book: https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Other-Means-Unfinished/dp/1541758544 Jeremi's podcast: https://podcasts.la.utexas.edu/this-is-democracy/ Follow this podcast on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Handle is @thinkwithlucie 0:10: Introduction 1:18 Historical perspective on democracy 6:50 Direct democracy 8:01 Populism+Caesar and fall of the Roman Republic 13:48 Role of religion in democracy 15:31 Gerrymandering/redistricting explained 22:51 How to get rid of gerrymandering 24:51 Why we should expand Congress 34:01 Importance of new generation 36:19 Why are Puerto Rico and DC not a US state 39:25 What is the filibuster and why it should be eliminated 46:14 Introduction to the Forward Party 50:03 Abortion ban in Texas and media bias 55:05 Open primaries 55:41 What is the viability of a third party? How can the Forward Party succeed? 1:01:34 Forward Party stats 1:02:50 Forward Party strategy+2023 plan 1:07:17 Ranked choice voting 1:13:51 Why is voter turnout low and how to increase it 1:18:15 Mandatory voting-yes or no? 1:22:52 Democracy dollars 1:25:07 Voting as a license 1:28:34 Democracy exam with cash payout 1:32:07 Are we on the brink of a civil war? 1:36:52 How can we make education more accessible 1:39:27 Women’s rights and why were women excluded from voting 1:43:28 Freedom of speech+CRT+Twitter 1:53:16 My new social platform 1:53:53 2024 election outlook