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EPISODE KEY TERMS
Congress Legislature US House Senate Member of Congress Representative Senator Star Wars Episode II Galactic Senate Palpatine Mitch Mcconnell We’re gonna talk about something you might be afraid to ask. What is congress? Let's start with the absolute basics. Congress is a legislative body. Which means like our bodies, it is made up of multiple parts, in this case, of legislatures. A legislature is a group of people that hold power and generally oversee the operation of the government. This does not mean that they are involved with the day-to-day operation of the government, i.e. if the line at the DMV is super long it usually doesn’t mean it's the legislature’s fault. The key with legislatures is that they are only supposed to have as much power as the people give to them. Representatives are generally elected by the people, to do the job for them because they don’t want to. With our DMV example, this means that when the people complain enough to their legislators that the line sucks, it becomes their job to learn enough about the DMV’s budget, staffing needs, and logistics of operating that they can create new laws and adjust the funds to hopefully improve things. This is the difference between a true or “direct” democracy and a republic. In a direct democracy, every single person is in charge of running the government. In a republic, we have “representatives” to do the work for us. There are many different legislatures all around the world and throughout history. The first acknowledged one in history is thought to be the Ecclesia in Athens greece. Here in the United States, each state has a legislature made up of two houses that meets in the state capitol, the Senate and House of Representatives (or Assembly) - except for Nebraska, which only has a Senate. Some states call their legislature the “general assembly” but its the same thing. These state legislatures make decisions specifically for the state they are in. California cannot make decisions for Maryland and Vice-versa. When we have to make decisions that affect the entire country, we go to congress. All of these legislatures meet in the capitol, located in the capital. See what I did there? The building is the one with the “O,” the city is the one with the “a.” Don’t ask me why it works this way. English is hard. --------- Congress is the word that describes the two legislative bodies of the United States, the House of Representatives and the Senate. If you grew up with the flaming garbage pile of special effects and terrible romance that is Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. You are probably familiar with the idea of a Senate as a group of representatives that can be so corrupted by a single individual that it becomes a tool for amassing power and personal wealth instead of representing its people. Or not. The House and the Senate are made up of representatives from the states. In the House we elect representatives based on population, right now that averages out to 710,767 for each member or the house. Every state has at least one, totalling up to 435 voting members of the House. In the Senate we elect two Senators from each state regardless of population, which means right now we have 100. This means that some states with fewer than a million people in them -- states like Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming -- have the same level of influence as a state like California, which has more than 37M people. Sometimes in the news you will hear the terms member of congress, senator, representative, member, and congressman all thrown around like they are interchangeable, but don't be fooled -- they are not. All members of the Senate and the House are considered members of congress. There are 535 voting members of Congress. Congressional staff and journalists often refer to them simply as “members.” Senators are easy, the name describes where they work -- the senate. From there it gets more complicated. The formal title of members of the House of Representatives is “Representative.” As in Representative Jamie Raskin, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, or Representative Jimmy Fremgen. If you are watching an interview with a member of the House, you will usually hear the interviewer refer to them as “congresswoman,” which can be kind of confusing. Even though Senators and Representatives are both members of the Congress, this is a term that is only used for House members. Mostly because it is way harder to get elected to the Senate and Senators get all uppity if you call them anything other than Senator. Another major difference is the length of the term that they serve. The constitution says that Members of the House are to be selected every two years, have to be 25 years or older and citizens for a minimum of 7 years before being elected. Members of the Senate are selected every six years. must be at least 30 years old and been a citizen for at least 9 years. In the House this means that representatives are basically permanently running for reelection, only two years away from losing their jobs at maximum. Some people argue that this is a big reason the House tends to be more fiery in debate, because every speech is essentially a campaign speech. The founders set it up this way because they wanted the House to be closest to the people and by constantly worrying about their jobs, the thought was that they would have to be around and stay in touch with their voters more often to stay employed. This has had, um, limited success. In the Senate you get more of a break in between elections and only a third of the senators are up for reelection at any given time. Political insiders will call this “being in-cycle” and Senators that are up for reelection in the near future tend to behave differently than those that are not. This close connection with the people is also why the House has exclusive authority to impeach a president and raise taxes. The senate, with its longer terms and (theoretically) increased stability, gets to be the jury for impeachment trials, decide whether to ratify or agree to treaties, and confirms presidential appointments. There are MANY more differences and the way that they work gets even more complicated. I’m going to keep making videos explaining how and why congress matters, but I think thats enough boring white guys for now. I hope you enjoyed this video! Visit patreon.com/jimmyfremgen to help fund my ability to make more of them! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Links and stuff: Jimmy on Twitter: twitter.com/jimmyfremgen Jimmy on IG: Instagram.com/jimmy_fremgen Resources and more info: jimmyfremgen.com ~~~~~~ Please support this channel! My current goal is to get to 40 supporters on Patreon so I can hire an editor and make more videos breaking down concepts to survive our democracy. If you’d like to join the fine folks in a pledge to help the channel grow, please check out my Patreon page. Thank you for your consideration! Patreon Politics for People: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem?fan_landing=true Thank you to my Patrons: Andrew McLeod, Brittney Peterson, and Sandy Bennedetti! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT POLITICS FOR PEOPLE Breaking down the basics in government, politics, and civic engagement in five minutes or less, or more. Former High School Government Teacher and former House Oversight Committee and CA State Assembly staffer Jimmy Fremgen tries his best to make complicated concepts approachable. To learn more about Jimmy, Politics for People, or for resources on how you can get involved in politics or government, visit: JimmyFremgen.com Support the creation of more content like this by supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem **Resources for teachers available at jimmyfremgen.com/jimmysblog** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Theme Music “Crane Unfolding” by: John Knight - Support John at https://soundcloud.com/johnknight Images used under license from Unsplash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On bias at Politics 4 People Politics for People is a series by me, Jimmy Fremgen, breaking down concepts of civics into little bite size chunks. Politics for People is intended to be an objective explanation of how concepts work but occasionally my bias creeps in since the concept of unbiased content is a total fallacy. I am mindful of this and try to base these videos around the fundamental belief that good government is based on the principle of caring about the people around us. In an attempt to be transparent so that you can make up your own mind, I’ve created a video about my background and some of the issues that are important to me on my Patreon page.  I should have posted this ages ago when the episode came out, but I forgot.
Even so, it was a ton of fun getting to hang out with Mario, Mari, and Miles -- even if I had to wear a mask most of the time. (Exceptions were made for sips of the very tasty We Are Sacramento beer from Oak Park Brewing Company. Which you learn about here. Listen to the podcast here. Today I was honored to join with Caity Maple of Sacramento SOUP and Sister Libby Fernandez of Mercy Pedalers to call for immediate congressional action to address the emergency unfolding on Sacramento city streets. 
 What is the Electoral College?
You can support this channel on Patreon! Link below Script: Welcome back to Politics for People We’re obsessed with the number 270 every election season but what does it mean once you get there? What happens next? And where the heck is the Electoral College even located? If you have ever felt like the existence of the electoral college makes your vote less meaningful -- you are absolutely right. IN FACT The electoral college was an invention of the founding fathers to create a buffer between what Thomas Jefferson referred to as the “well-meaning, but uninformed people,” and the actual selection of the president. That's right America, even Thomas Jefferson thought we were too stupid to pick the president. But don’t feel bad, he seems to have thought most people were stupid since he owned some of them, decided to reinvent the clock, and rewrote the gospels. So what did they give us? Instead of electing the president via a straight up count of each ballot -- known as the popular vote -- the founders created a system where each state would select “electors” equal to the number of representatives in that state. In California for example, we have 55 votes in the electoral college, which is equal to the number of members of congress we have. 53 representatives, and 2 senators. These electors then meet on the 14th of december to cast their votes for who they think should be president. This result then gets certified by the state and must be delivered to congress by december 23rd. On January 3rd the new congress is sworn in and three days later on January 6th, they actually open the envelopes and announce the results. *How do you become one of those electors? I don’t know, but my friend Ian Blue does and we’ll have a video later this week to talk about his experience as an elector in 2008. There has been a lot of talk about reforming or even eliminating the electoral college. Supporters of our current system argue that the founders created the electoral college with what Jefferson had in mind. That it is a buffer between the lesser impulses of the electorate and the office of the president. That this is the basic idea of our government in the first place. We are a Republic, which means we elect people to make decisions for us. We are not a Direct Democracy as a country, and the electoral college is an extension of that. The ONLY mechanism for choosing a president as dictated by the constitution is the electoral college. There is no mention at all of a popular vote. Though this is the same group of people that said it was totally cool to count slaves as less than a whole person so... Check out my state Propositions video above to learn more about ways we do flex direct democracy here in California. Some argue that the founders created a system that is outdated for the realities of modern america. We know from records of the Constitutional Congress that the electoral college suffered from the ripple effects of the 3/5ths compromise which increased the power of slave states in congress and the electoral college. The fact that we don’t have slavery anymore seems like a big enough change to reconsider the system. That and that our country has gone from this Map of Population to this modern map and that shows how 50 percent of our population is concentrated in a small handful of regions. There is even a cross state coalition to award each state’s electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide but it cannot take effect until the number of states that sign on equal 270 electoral votes. I’m not here to argue for the abolishment of the electoral college, though most of you would probably be up for that since, 61 percent of people polled by Gallup in September and 58 percent in a Pew Research Center poll in March — believe it should be abolished. The point here is this, I know that most of us are relieved that election day has passed and we are taking a national breather. Unless you have Twitter. If you have twitter, you havent stopped hyperventilating since July. But as long as we have our current system of presidential elections or until enough states sign on to the National Interstate Popular Vote Compact, the most important election in deciding our president, will be when the Electoral College meets on December 14. Its not. Over. Yet. ~~~~~ Links and stuff: Jimmy on Twitter: twitter.com/jimmyfremgen Jimmy on IG: Instagram.com/j.frem Resources and more info: jimmyfremgen.com ~~~~~~ Please support this channel! My current goal is to get to 40 supporters on Patreon so I can hire an editor and make more videos breaking down concepts to survive our democracy. If you’d like to join the fine folks in a pledge to help the channel grow, please check out my Patreon page. Thank you for your consideration! Patreon Politics for People: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem?fan_landing=true Thank you to Brittney Peterson for becoming a super supporter on Patreon! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EPISODE KEY TERMS Electoral College Elector Republic Direct Democracy Learn more (Resources for teachers) https://theconversation.com/who-invented-the-electoral-college-147083 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0174 https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/a-day-in-the-life-of-jefferson/museum-in-the-entrance-of-the-house/the-great-clock/ https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/in-defense-of-the-electoral-college https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/isaac-granger-jefferson https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/arts/design/museums-slave-labor-displays.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT POLITICS FOR PEOPLE Breaking down the basics in government, politics, and civic engagement in ten minutes or less, or more. Former High School Government Teacher and former House Oversight Committee and CA State Assembly staffer Jimmy Fremgen tries his best to make complicated concepts approachable. To learn more about Jimmy, Politics for People, or for resources on how you can get involved in politics or government, visit: JimmyFremgen.com Support the creation of more content like this by supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem **Resources for teachers available at jimmyfremgen.com/jimmysblog** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music by: John Knight - Support John at https://soundcloud.com/johnknight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On bias at Politics 4 People Politics for People is a series by me, Jimmy Fremgen, breaking down concepts of civics into little bite size chunks. Politics for People is intended to be an objective explanation of how concepts work but occasionally my bias creeps in since the concept of unbiased content is a total fallacy. I am mindful of this and try to base these videos around the fundamental belief that good government is based on the principle of caring about the people around us. In an attempt to be transparent so that you can make up your own mind, I’ve created a video about my background and some of the issues that are important to me on my page.  If you've been following along with my series on the California State Propositions, first of all, thank you.
Last week I had to come to grips with the fact that I'm not going to be able to pull off enough editing to go through the remaining SEVEN state Props in time for you to get your ballot in early. Early voting is more important than ever this year and I'd hate for my lack of editing efficiency to be the reason that you miss out on the election this year. So if you are looking for short, pithy, non-partisan descriptions of the ballot in California, here are the places I suggest: https://calmatters.org/election-2020-guide/ https://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup Right now I'm working on a video on...you guessed it, early voting. Go to my YouTube Channel and subscribe to catch it when it publishes this week! This week I signed up with the Sacramento Poor People's Campaign and Sacramento County Democrats to drop off door hangers around the city. I did this for a couple reasons: 1. I am SO SICK OF STAYING INSIDE 2. One of the most effective ways to reach voters is to engage them directly 3. I wanted to do what I can so that Measure A does not pass in Sacramento. 4. I wanted to make a Politics for People video explaining that campaign work isn't that scary.  I picked up my literature and headed to South Sacramento and my assigned precinct. While I was walking around I ran into all of the normal things you do when canvassing, wrong addresses, gated houses, gated houses with angry dogs, and gated houses with angry dogs and threatening signs.
You know, the usual. Toward the end of my list I was walking through Meridian Family Apartments near Elder Creek Rd dropping off fliers on doorsteps. It was the middle of the day and I was surprised not to see anyone outside until I turned a corner and two men in a minivan called out to me. "Hey man, come over here!" (Nope. I've seen this movie.) "I see you out here with your phone and people are getting nervous. We have kids out here man, what are you doing?" I guess I had stuck out. Solo white guy walking through a neighborhood in a mask, t-shirt, and shorts going door to door with my phone out. Upon reflection, he had a point. I walked toward the van and the voice. A large man with white hair and a sneaking hairline reclined in the driver seat, his hand hanging out the window, smoke curling off the blunt between his fingertips. His passenger looked over at me through the windshield, equally curious but not as direct. The driver continued. "You know man, from where you are standing right now, murder has happened within 35 feet. I watched a prostitute crawl into my driveway before she bled out. People are nervous here. They're jumpy. YOU gotta watch out!" He reached out the window, thrusting his business card at me. "This is who I am, who are YOU?" I looked down and saw his name and written beneath it his title, "paralegal." I stepped back from the car and pulled my mask down to deescalate the situation. I wanted him to see my face to know I had nothing to hide. I explained who I was, a campaign volunteer passing out information on Measure A, Measure C, and Naila Pope-Hardon for School Board. I told them that I had been a former history teacher and was trying to help people in our community understand government better. He visibly relaxed. It was clear he had been testing me, looking out for his neighborhood. I had passed - so far. He introduced himself as Waymon and pointed to his passenger, "this is Arthur." I returned the pleasantries while keeping to the sidewalk, maintaining my distance for COVID and in case the situation changed. Waymon was right, I was in an unfamiliar neighborhood alone. I reminded myself to be more thoughtful about my surroundings. The two of them explained that they were both former prisoners, having spent more time in prison than I had been alive. We spoke for a few minutes about their experiences on the inside. They asked me about myself and I explained my background. That the only times I had been in a prison had been on formal visits as a congressional staffer - a far cry from calling one home. Something registered in Waymon's eyes when I mentioned congress. "We need streetlights," he blurted out. "And that system that goes on top of it that can tell the difference between gunshots and fireworks." "And speed bumps!" Arthur leaned over from the passenger seat. "I'm tired of seeing animals get killed. We've got kids around here, that could be them!" I realized I may have given off the wrong impression. I don't sit on the City Council, I couldn't shift the funding for the "ShotSpotter" program to their neighborhood. Waymon and Art didn't care. I was in front of them and listening. "Can you help us?" Without promising results, I said I'd try and asked them to help me brainstorm ideas while we walked through the rest of the neighborhood to the last few houses I had to get to. Art and I set off through the complex looking for the last few numbers on my list. This time around with Art by my side, I got to meet the neighborhood. It gradually became clear that though I had been oblivious to it, I had been watched since the moment I walked on property. Now, with the social proof of my chaperone Art, I was a celebrity and everyone wanted to find out about the white guy with the pamphlets. Two cars pulled up, slung low on altered suspension and oversized rims and the passengers popped out to say hello. Art leaned his head back and declared "We're running for Congress!" (30 minutes ago I was a threat, now I was being drafted into public service?) A few houses turned into a stop at Waymon's house for a 0.0% beer and a conversation in the driveway about criminal justice reform. I was introduced to OG, who told me about his brother, still serving time. He told me the story of meeting his brother for the first time in decades, through the visitation window after he had left prison himself. I realized, I was getting the pitch and readied myself to explain that I had no power, no ability to pluck someone out of prison, innocent or otherwise. Its the same one I've had to deliver to the families of prisoners a handful of times since I started working in politics and it doesn't get any easier. OG handed me his phone, he wasn't about to miss his chance. On it was a picture of an elderly man in a poorly fitting inmate uniform. "He's been in there since he was 17 man." I asked how old he was now. "59" I felt disappointed in myself and looked at the ground. I couldn't do anything. I felt powerless to offer any semblance of help. Regardless of what he had been convicted of doing, I couldn't imagine being held to account for a mistake I made at 17 for the rest of my life. "Would you mind if I write to him?" It felt like a pitiful attempt at something, but it was all I could think of. OG looked up at me with a wounded smile and a little bit of optimism for the first time since I met him. "Yeah, I think he'd like that." ---- So now I've got speed bumps to research, a letter to write, and three new numbers in my phone for the next time I am out canvassing in the neighborhood. I'm going back to walk next week in Sacramento on October 24 at 10AM. If you would like to join me, please send me an email at jimmy at gocatuli.com or DM on Instagram (@j.frem). If you would like to get involved in your community, please feel free to reach out and I would be happy to help point you in the right direction.  ABOUT POLITICS FOR PEOPLE
Breaking down the basics in government, politics, and civic engagement in ten minutes or less, or more. Former High School Government Teacher and former House Oversight Committee and CA State Assembly staffer Jimmy Fremgen tries his best to make complicated concepts approachable. To learn more about Jimmy, Politics for People, or for resources on how you can get involved in politics or government, visit: JimmyFremgen.com Support the creation of more content like this by supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem You can support this channel on Patreon! Link below ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Links and stuff: Jimmy on Twitter: twitter.com/jimmyfremgen Jimmy on IG: Instagram.com/j.frem Resources and more info: jimmyfremgen.com Please support this channel! My current goal is to get to 40 supporters on Patreon so I can hire an editor and make more videos breaking down concepts to survive our democracy. If you’d like to join in a pledge to help the channel grow, please check out my Patreon page. Thank you for your consideration! Patreon Politics for People: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem?fan_landing=true Thank you to Brittney Peterson for becoming a super supporter on Patreon! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EPISODE KEY TERMS Affirmative Action ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn more (Resources for teachers) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-11/endorsement-affirmative-action-ban http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1422494&session=2019&view=general https://calmatters.org/election-2020-guide/proposition-14-stem-cell-research/ https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music by: John Knight - Support John at https://soundcloud.com/johnknight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On bias at Politics 4 People Politics for People is a series by me, Jimmy Fremgen, breaking down concepts of civics into little bite size chunks. Politics for People is intended to be an objective explanation of how concepts work but occasionally my bias creeps in since the concept of unbiased content is a total fallacy. I am mindful of this and try to base these videos around the fundamental belief that good government is based on the principle of caring about the people around us. In an attempt to be transparent so that you can make up your own mind, I’ve created a video about my background and some of the issues that are important to me on my page.  EPISODE KEY TERMS
Learn more (Resources for teachers)
ABOUT POLITICS FOR PEOPLE Breaking down the basics in government, politics, and civic engagement in ten minutes or less, or more. Former High School Government Teacher and former House Oversight Committee and CA State Assembly staffer Jimmy Fremgen tries his best to make complicated concepts approachable. To learn more about Jimmy, Politics for People, or for resources on how you can get involved in politics or government, visit: JimmyFremgen.com Support the creation of more content like this by supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music by: John Knight - Support John at https://soundcloud.com/johnknight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On bias at Politics 4 People Politics for People is a series by me, Jimmy Fremgen, breaking down concepts of civics into little bite size chunks. Politics for People is intended to be an objective explanation of how concepts work but occasionally my bias creeps in since the concept of unbiased content is a total fallacy. I am mindful of this and try to base these videos around the fundamental belief that good government is based on the principle of caring about the people around us. In an attempt to be transparent so that you can make up your own mind, I’ve created a video about my background and some of the issues that are important to me on my page.  Pre-game Bets
-Choose a candidate before. Drink if your selected candidate has a larger flag pin. -Stripes or solids? Will the candidates have a patterned tie or not? One drink per incorrect choice. If you are wrong on both, Chug. Also. Shotgun a beer. Do this before the debate. You are going to need it. VP Debate drinking game Each candidate will have a few words unique to him/her. In addition, each debate will have a few 'community' words. Kamala Harris:
Mike Pence
Common words: -fake news, Covid-19 (Specifically, Coronavirus does not count), interrupt, “Can I respond to that?” Good luck!!! EPISODE KEY TERMS
Non-Partisan Moderator Spin Learn more (Resources for teachers) https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/do-debates-matter/ https://www.vox.com/2016/9/12/12847632/debates-trump-clinton-polls-political-science https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-06/2020-election-debates-don-t-matter-the-way-people-think https://www.brookings.edu/events/do-presidential-debates-matter/ https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/elections/presidential-debates-effects-research-roundup/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/us/trump-taxes-takeaways.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT POLITICS FOR PEOPLE Breaking down the basics in government, politics, and civic engagement in ten minutes or less, or more. Former High School Government Teacher and former House Oversight Committee and CA State Assembly staffer Jimmy Fremgen tries his best to make complicated concepts approachable. To learn more about Jimmy, Politics for People, or for resources on how you can get involved in politics or government, visit: JimmyFremgen.com Support the creation of more content like this by supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jfrem |
About JimmyJimmy has worked as a travel writer, teacher, congressional aide, cannabis regulator, public affairs consultant, and zoo train driver. CategoriesArchives
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