Programming Lions

Ep. 27 Exploring the Evolution of Voting Rights in the US | A Critical Deep-Dive

March 28, 2024 Matt Morstad Episode 27
Ep. 27 Exploring the Evolution of Voting Rights in the US | A Critical Deep-Dive
Programming Lions
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Programming Lions
Ep. 27 Exploring the Evolution of Voting Rights in the US | A Critical Deep-Dive
Mar 28, 2024 Episode 27
Matt Morstad

In this informative episode of Programming Lions, we present a detailed examination of the evolution of voting rights in the United States. This episode covers the development of electoral rights from the founding of the nation, through key historical moments and legislative milestones, to the contemporary debates surrounding voter eligibility and disenfranchisement. 

We explore significant eras in U.S. history, such as the impact of the Civil War and the enactment of constitutional amendments that extended voting rights first to black men and later to women. Our discussion is thorough, insightful, and presents a critical examination of the dynamics at play in the shaping of U.S. electoral policies. 

This episode concludes with a reflection on the importance of the right to vote as a fundamental pillar of justice and equity within democratic societies. 

We encourage viewers to engage with this episode on YouTube for a deeper understanding of the critical issues that influence democracy in America. 

Like and subscribe to stay updated on our latest episodes. Together, let's continue to be a community of motivated individuals driven by integrity, purpose, and discipline.


Hit the follow button; it's time to Get Sh!t Done 💪


YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0iOdBM7K2Ps


00:00 Intro

01:15 History of Voting

05:45 Electorate System

09:10 Age

11:30 People in Prison

15:44 Disabilities

19:23 Rapid Fire Voting Style

22:45 Debunking Arguments

26:08 Producers vs Consumers Scenario

30:45 Class System Impact

34:25 Summary


Show Notes Transcript

In this informative episode of Programming Lions, we present a detailed examination of the evolution of voting rights in the United States. This episode covers the development of electoral rights from the founding of the nation, through key historical moments and legislative milestones, to the contemporary debates surrounding voter eligibility and disenfranchisement. 

We explore significant eras in U.S. history, such as the impact of the Civil War and the enactment of constitutional amendments that extended voting rights first to black men and later to women. Our discussion is thorough, insightful, and presents a critical examination of the dynamics at play in the shaping of U.S. electoral policies. 

This episode concludes with a reflection on the importance of the right to vote as a fundamental pillar of justice and equity within democratic societies. 

We encourage viewers to engage with this episode on YouTube for a deeper understanding of the critical issues that influence democracy in America. 

Like and subscribe to stay updated on our latest episodes. Together, let's continue to be a community of motivated individuals driven by integrity, purpose, and discipline.


Hit the follow button; it's time to Get Sh!t Done 💪


YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0iOdBM7K2Ps


00:00 Intro

01:15 History of Voting

05:45 Electorate System

09:10 Age

11:30 People in Prison

15:44 Disabilities

19:23 Rapid Fire Voting Style

22:45 Debunking Arguments

26:08 Producers vs Consumers Scenario

30:45 Class System Impact

34:25 Summary


Welcome to another episode of Programming Lions, where we are on a mission to be more productive humans in mind, body, and spirit. Today we have an interesting topic, which is the right to vote. We are going to cover the history, who can, who can't. And then we're going to wrap up with some opinions. Is this a productive system or not? So let's get right into it. All Boys. The right to vote Yeah. Is one of the most important. Duties that an American has. And so we're going to cover it today. This is not a topic that we've really dug into deeply at home. And so I'm looking forward to this because. You both did a little bit of research, had a little bit of homework for the podcast, let's say, and then we're going to have some dialogue about laws, practices, and a little bit about the history and hopefully we'll learn something. And then at the end, we'll wrap up with some conclusions around Anything we learn, anything we think that could be done a little bit differently, maybe to make the current system a little bit more efficient, fair, whatever that might be. Without further ado, let's talk some history. History of voting rights in this country has changed quite a bit over the years. And what have we learned? Since the very beginning, White men have been able to vote. And then I think it was not just, wasn't it just, wasn't it white men that owned property? Yes, sorry. So it was actually a pretty small percentage of, even the citizens at that time. Yeah. It was only white men that owned property, and I saw something that was like 10 percent or less of the population. Yeah, so there's that, and then eventually just white men, everyone in that category, and then there's a civil war. Everyone knows about that. And then 14th amendment allowed, black people to vote. Yes. Only men though. No, no women still. Okay. And then, The 19th Amendment allowed women also to vote. Okay, great. Yeah. Alright, so do you know when those, Very critical amendments went through. The one for black history, for blacks, which was the 14th was 1868. Okay. And then the one for women's, suffrage was August 18th, 1920. 1920. Okay. So blacks got the right to vote in 1868, women in 1920, and now. Everybody has the right to vote. with the history, let's talk about that a little bit because that's a little bit of a dark history. We had obviously people who founded the country, made rules around difficulty to vote, Blacks slaves not having the opportunity to vote and arguably they were contributing greatly to the country in terms of building it and the production to build out the origins of the country, and they didn't get the right to vote. Pretty poor judgment, but it's great to see that we got it corrected in 1868. What do you think about that? I think it's good. And how about women getting the right to vote in 1920? Good. Yeah, okay. Seems fair. Those are some good history pieces. And now, basically every citizen, anybody of any gender or race, ethnicity has the right to vote as long as they're a U. S. citizen, is that fair to say? Yeah. Yes. That's exactly. That's correct? Okay. Does anybody not have the right to vote? Yes. Who cannot vote? The people who could not vote are the ones who are imprisoned or people who came from Mexico and like just crossed the border basically, they can't vote either. And what else is a critical, age when voting starts? 18 and or higher. Okay. Why can't we vote? We'll get to that soon, Max. Max, do you think you're of the right mind to be voting? You do. Okay. You might be. You might be more educated on these topics than a lot of people who are voting. Okay. All right. Nonetheless, you've got a few years before you can cast your ballot. Okay, buddy. Let's do a quick recap. So as of today, current place in time, anybody of any gender, race, ethnicity can vote as long as they are over the age of 18. They are a legal citizen of the United States and they are not in prison. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And then also in some states, it's where if like you have a mental issue, you also can't vote. Is that right? Okay. Yeah. Max would be one of those. Max might be. Yeah. Yeah. So that's another good point that we should cover is the right to vote for certain, let's say class of people or mental capacity. Is up to the states in some cases, right? So they put in the 14th and 19th amendment as. Part of the federal law constitution so that it couldn't be overridden by the states But there are certain things in states that they have the capability to decide on themselves I think prisoners is one of them people who have been convicted of crimes if they're in and out of jail If they have the right to vote Ever or whatever so there's some nuances there that the states get to decide on correct? However, one other sort of piece of factual nature in terms of how our system works, are you boys familiar with the electorate college? No. Yeah, okay, tell me what you know about the electoral college It's where the people that we elect like from a certain community in a state those people then go and vote for the whole majority in that area instead of Because also it's a lot easier to do that instead of counting 20 billion people or whatever votes, yeah, and so it's unique where each state has electorates and their votes are generally representative of the votes in their area or their state. And it's done by population. So each state gets a certain number of electoral votes and then whoever, gets, I think, 270 electoral votes electoral votes out of the total ends up being the president, for example. It's a funky system because you can technically win the popular vote. So what might happen, and the reason that they did this is so that let's just say, As an example, California, the most pop populated state in the Union, if 100 percent of the people in that state voted for one candidate, but then literally like the rest of the country, or let's just say the rest of the country was split. But voted more so for the other candidate, you might say that could really, swing the votes. And so there might be some like geographical or heavy state influences. So I think the reason that the electoral college was established was to help even that out geographically from east coast, west coast, north, south, and so on. So that one state with, or a couple of states with heavy populations couldn't determine Solely the outcome of a presidential race. It is possible that somebody can have the popular vote in a presidential race But not win the presidency and do you know that this has actually happened a couple of times it has a lot. The last couple times it happened was Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, but he won the electoral vote. Really? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. And before that, it was George W. Bush that defeated Al Gore. And my understanding is that Al Gore, Had a slight majority on the popular vote, but did not win the electoral vote. So that's why it's really important when they are campaigning, they spend time in certain states that, they call them swing states are on the fence because states like California and. And others, they go definitely in one or one direction or the other typically. And so it makes a difference in terms of how they campaign. So it's a little bit of a strategy and statistical game that they play in terms of how they campaign and where they campaign and how they spend their energy and time and money and advertising and all that stuff. So it's interesting, right? Yeah. We've covered some facts, boys. Those are really the facts about the voting system. It's not super complicated. We broke it down here in just a few minutes, but I want to circle back on a couple of things. I want to circle back on. those areas that we discussed that do not have the right to vote. Let's start with this area, which is people who are under the age of 18. So as of if you're, if you have your 18th birthday by the November election, then you can vote in that election. But up until then you can't vote. Do you think 18 is a fair age? Yeah, it's probably pretty good. Because that's when they really are mature. Okay. Yeah. Or maybe another good age would be like, where, like, when they, Move out of their parents house, which is around that area, right? Some kids never move on, 21 maybe. Then they never get to. That would be hard. Think about this too. When you think about rules you'd have around who can and can't vote, you have to be able to enforce those rules and enforcing a rule on when somebody has moved in or out of their parents house is a difficult one, but age is pretty straightforward because you show an ID and you've got your age on your ID. Now, it sounds like you agree with. Eighteen, but you can drive a car at sixteen. Why not sixteen? Sixteen to me, personally, it feels a little bit young to be able to start to vote. I think maybe just kids at sixteen aren't aware of, voting. Kids have 16. Politics and economic issues? Yeah, they don't really care. Now, you're aware that the age to drink is 21, right? Yeah. That's three years older than 18. See my math? Yeah, that is strange, the difference between all those years. So you can, so let me ask you guys this. You can choose who the future president of the United States is, but you can't make a decision on drinking alcohol or not. Maybe then like they should lower the alcohol age yeah, it does seem like there could be a consistency around these major milestones of responsibility. And so you could say driving a car is one of those. The right to vote is a pretty major responsibility. Being able to consume alcohol legally, like that's a pretty big responsibility. So maybe something needs to, get modified there, but yeah overall, it sounds like that sweet spot of 18 to 21, you think is an age where people do mature and they're aware enough to participate in the system. Okay. That sounds good. I would agree. Let's move on to another class of people that generally don't have the right to vote, which is people that are in prison. How do you think about that? Is that fair? Yeah, 100%. Why is that fair? It's because they committed a crime, and first of all, you're in prison, I just don't think they should, they just cannot vote. Alright, William, what do you think? I agree with Max where they shouldn't vote because when they like committed a crime, meaning that they went against their own country. And then if you're voting for something in the country to work, that's not necessarily balanced. So it makes sense that they do not vote when they're in prison. I do think they may even if they're out of prison, then maybe they can vote because, they hopefully learned or something. Yeah, they're participating in the system again at that point, in terms of labor and work and taxes, perhaps. That's generally the rule, but I'm going to throw out a couple of scenarios because I want to challenge you guys on this one a little bit. And what I'll start with is, Do you think every crime should be punishable without the right to vote? So let's just, let's say for example, there's a difference between somebody who murdered a bunch of people and there's somebody who was put in prison on tax evasion and maybe they weren't aware that they were evading taxes or they were. Committing some kind of fraudulent event and they're going to be out and, but they've contributed to society up to that event and they will, as soon as they get out, do you think that person shouldn't have the rights to vote while they're in prison as well? Yeah, I feel like, yeah, just like they shouldn't if they're a good person, once they're out, they can go vote, do you think everybody that's in prison is a bad person? No. But if they're in there then that means that they committed a crime. They broke the law. Even though somebody's in prison, don't you think that some of the laws that are being passed and the legislators that are passing some of those laws for society, they could still impact people that are in prison, right? Yeah, probably. So why wouldn't they have the opportunity to vote in terms of who's going to best represent their needs? One second. If they committed a crime Look, if they committed a crime bad enough, like murdered, I don't know, seven people. Yeah. They should like, and then they want this person to be in the office for as president. It would probably be like a bad decision because they murdered seven people. That's all fair rationale, boys, I think those are good thoughts. Let me throw another little wrinkle in and you probably know this, but when people are in prison, they go through rehabilitation programs, right? Because they don't have access to I suppose they do, but not really like drugs and alcohol and influences like gangs and things like that where they might have Certainly have like flavors of that in prison But for the most part there are a lot of people that go through Reform and rehabilitation when they're in prison that are trying to make their lives better. They're getting education. They're keeping their body together and all of this And those are what we would call productive You Behaviors in our gsd mindset, even though they've done something bad to get in there. They're trying to work their way out of it And so in a sense How do you feel about those people? That are trying to get back on the right track having the right to vote and participate in the system that they will be entering into eventually I feel like Those would be the good people, they they know that they did something bad, and they're never going to do it again to get them back onto the right track, and then they can start to vote again. Okay I'm a little bit mixed on this one as maybe you can tell I'm not convinced that they shouldn't have the right to vote, but I do think the arguments for when you're in prison, you've given up your right to vote. That seems reasonable, but at the same time, I also could see it being reasonable to allow people to vote. The right to vote when they're in prison. I don't know. That's a tricky one though, right guys? And that is a hard one. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on then to something else that's related. What about people that don't have the mental Let's see, capacity to vote. Maybe they have a disability, a mental disability. Should they be able to vote? The thing is I feel like you can vote, the only other reason if you can't vote is if you Basically, I have brain damage and you cannot read or write or something like that. Because remember you said ballots and you can't do it online or anything. And then if you have this person who helps you, they might choose the other person that you want. How would you fix that, Max? How would you determine if somebody has enough capacity to vote, then? Give them a math test. Give them a math test? My brain explodes. Yeah. This is what Some of those white guys did way back in the day around the time they were giving blacks the right to vote and it was pretty horrible. I think it was under the Jim Crow era laws where they came up with tests. And actually one of you boys brought this test home. Tests, like basically a civics test that you had to qualify. If you were black, you had to qualify to be able to vote. And these test questions were essentially riddles. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It was clearly intended to not get them to be able to vote. And because of that, I think only something like 5 percent of the black population in that state or area was able to vote. And so that is clearly wrong. And that's where I think any time that we have to have people pass an exam or a test, there could be bias in terms of how that exam is constructed, articulated, delivered, and how the answers are graded and scored. That could be really tricky, right? In terms of enforcing, how people Gain the right. Yeah. So I think that's generally going to be a difficult thing in any case. If we have to have people pass a test to be able to vote, I think that one's going to be just, it's almost a non starter in my mind because it's so difficult to remove corruption and do it fairly. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes good sense. Okay. Okay. So we talked about P okay. So people that are, I'll say mentally handicapped. Yeah. What do you do? No? How do you qualify that there are two mental cause there are people that are mentally handicapped that can still function and have the capability to vote, right? And there's some that don't. Yeah. It probably just depends on, like, how bad it is. Yeah. If it's where they can't remember what happened 20 minutes ago, then Of course, they probably should not vote. But then if like they can properly recite to you, what's happening in the news, who's going to administer that test though, Will? That's a good point. I don't know. All right, let's come back to, let me ask you this. So we talked about mental capacity. What about people that are aged and have dementia? What's dementia? Dementia is where you can't remember things. Or Alzheimer's or some, disease that gets into your brain and fogs things. And so you don't think clearly. It typically happens in people that are more elderly. I don't think there's exactly like the law saying that older people cannot vote by a certain thing, right? Because no matter what that when they get old, they start to get a little bit crazy. They lose a little bit maybe. Yeah, but. It's not all bad and it happens to everybody. Okay, but you so you don't think they should lose their right to vote. Yeah. So let's move on. I'm going to ask you guys a few more questions around people, groups, or types. I'll rapid fire some of these, but I want your feedback in terms of should they have the right to vote? Okay. Even though today, generally they, okay. All do. So like fast? So let's start with this. Minorities. Hmmmm Black people. Yes. Ok. White men. Yes. How about Indians. Yeah. Native Americans. If they're a U. S. citizen. If they're a U. S. citizen. If they're registered as a citizen. Okay. How about somebody who came across the border and is in the process of getting their legal documents? No. No. No, not until they got them. All right. How about A female that is 25 years old. Yes. Yeah. Okay. How about a non binary person? Yes. Yeah. How about anybody that's in the LGBTQ community? Can they vote? If they're here, if they're a citizen, yeah. Okay. Okay. We're establishing that. And how about Redheads. Should redheads are weird, right? No, it's not, these are, no, of course, yeah. Duh. How about guys named Jimmy? Yeah. Oh yeah. Huh? What do you think? Should they have the right to vote? Oh yeah, I have a friend, I have a friend at school. He's a great guy. How about guys with mustaches? Those, those weird, like weird mustaches? You think they should be able to vote? Yeah. Come on. They're weird, don't you think? No! How about guys that wear fedoras? What are fedoras? It's a hat. Yeah. How about people that are morbidly obese? Yeah. How about people with mullets? Yeah, look at him. No, of course not. No, people literally look insane. Yeah, people like those guys look insane. All right. How about people that drive big trucks? Yeah. How about people that drive a Prius? Yeah. How about people that are MAGA? Yeah, yes. Yes. Are you sure? I don't even know what that means. Make America Great Again. Make America Great Again. But Max, we could protect democracy by Removing MAGA. Make America great again. That if they follow the rules of being a citizen and not having a mental disability, then yeah, of course they can vote. Okay, so even MAGA Republicans should have the opportunity to vote? Yes. Yes. You guys are crazy. How about, wait a minute. How about ultra MAGA Republicans? Should they be able to vote? How about Biden supporters? Yes. Okay, what do you think about people that watch The View, for example? Yeah. No one even watches the video. That's all of Max there. Okay, how about people that watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC though, huh? Should they have the right to vote? No one watches that either. Dad, that's just a total waste of time. Okay, good stuff. So let me ask you again, is it just better to give everybody the right to vote instead of putting some of these rules and tests on it? It's an interesting question, right? It's safer to do that. It is. It's way safer to do that. so much. If you don't want craziness, then yes, one thing we didn't talk about earlier when we talked about women having the right to vote, they didn't have the right to vote until 1920. Do you know why, or what rationale kept women from voting? It's where People thought that they were not strong enough, or mentally as strong as a man. Yeah. And then, they eventually, and they eventually did it because they started going on hunger strikes, and saying we want rights, right? Yeah. And it's a good thing that they did. I think it's reasonable that women should be able to vote. Obviously to us now it was a different time though. I'll give you a couple of other tidbits of information during that time. I think it was something around 85 percent of people were married. And so when you cast a vote. You cast a vote for your household, let's say today that number is not as high. The other thing is there's a lot more women that are in the workforce today and they're contributing in terms of working in corporate America or entrepreneurs and so forth. There was certainly some back in those days, but it's more predominant now. And so you might say that they have more interest in The voting process. I've also heard the argument that women are not susceptible to the military draft, the military draft is. Yeah, it's where like they, get people into the military by them forcing them to. That's right. So you can be you can be prosecuted criminally and fined and put in jail if you don't comply with the military draft. The last time we did a military draft was Vietnam. But they did this during the world wars of Vietnam and women have always been voluntary for service, not part of the draft. I've heard some people argue that women don't get the right to vote because they're not eligible for the draft, which kind of, I understand, but what do you guys think before I weigh in on it? I mean like that it's bit barely ever happens that there is a military draft. Yeah, and yeah, so You They don't, there's no need. Okay. So you think that arguments can be debunked maybe? I would agree with you. I think it's a point. I don't think it's a very point because in general, if we are going to draft people to go into the military, to be on the front lines, men are certainly more equipped to do that. And there's also a very difficult job of staying behind. And when you stay behind, you've got to take care of things that the men that left aren't, yeah, they have to take care of all that. And we've talked before, I told you stories about your great grandparents who, was drafted into World War II and your grandmother worked in a factory and she had to keep things together back home. And they didn't have kids at that time, but people that do have children. Of course, then somebody's got to stay home and take care of the kids. And it's it's a pretty heavy job and it's a big sacrifice. I think either way, whether you go into the military or not. And so from that standpoint, I feel like it doesn't really hinge on the ability or the right to vote. So I don't think that's a great argument. I don't think there's really a good argument for women or minorities not to vote. And this is a great example of how we got to the right answer. This is the United States. I've got another interesting scenario for you. Some people would argue that if you don't contribute into the system, meaning you don't pay taxes, you're a net sort of consumer of government wealth and taxes versus a producer of taxes that you shouldn't have the right to vote. Do you understand what I mean by that? Yeah. People that like do not work basically and just collect money from the government shouldn't vote. So there would be people that work that are producing and paying taxes into the system, that keeps the government running. And then there are people that are taking money out of the system. Maybe they're not working. They're on unemployment or they're on welfare programs or other. And so there are some that argue only people that are producing and putting into the system should have the right to vote because they're contributing to it and other people are dependent on it. What do you think about that argument? That's a good point. Does make sense. Maybe it would make sense if like, when you're above a certain age, right? Then you have to have a job, right? And maybe then then, From then on, then you have to have one or else you can't vote. Let me run you through a scenario and how this could get, maybe Dangerous or how this could get twisted and under the sort of the current program is everybody gets the equal right to vote, correct? Let's go through a scenario where we have to go out for lunch Once a week, three of us, but there's 10 people total. And let's just say we're not father, son, which is we're just part of the group. Okay. And there's a couple of rules as the 10 of us go out for lunch, we have to do it every week. And then it's a democratic system. Meaning we vote for what we're all going to eat and we vote for who's going to pay. So it's pretty reasonable to think that the first time you go to lunch, you look around the table and say how should we pay? It. Let's just pay equally, split the check. Yeah, and then we say what do you want to order? And okay, we'll just do it on, whoever gets six votes. That's what we that's what we order or majority votes for one thing. And that's what we order and eat, right? Then come back a week later and Max comes to the table and he says guys I Lost my job. So I don't really have money to pay today. I'm just letting you know Meanwhile, I say gosh, I've got this business. It's been doing really well max. I'll pick up your part of the check today So I pick up Max's part and my part and the rest of the table splits it We all vote like normal for what we're gonna eat Fast forward to the following week. Will comes to the table and he says, I spent my money on something else and Max is still out of work, but Hey, Matt, you said you had that business that was doing well. You think you could cover us today? Yeah, sure. I'm a good guy. Fast forward a couple more weeks and now everybody sees, gosh, I can just show up and say I spent my money on something else or I'm not earning. Matt, he's doing great. He's super productive, and he's making a lot of money, and he can afford it. He doesn't seem to have a problem picking up everybody's lunch. Over time this sort of like morphs into, there's one person buying lunch every week. Yeah. And then, what are you gonna eat? If you didn't have to pay for it, and you knew somebody else was gonna pay for lunch, and there was, let's just say chicken tenders, fried chicken tenders, dry, or there's a nice Wagyu beef filet mignon with an au jus sauce. What are you going to order? The beef filet mignon with the au jus sauce. Yes. So you order the beef filet mignon that somebody else is paying for because you got to vote with Your nine buddies against the one person who's actually providing everything. I just leave the group. That's essentially how the current tax system works. We've got a small percentage of people that pay all of the taxes. And then there's a big contingent that either pays none or they are net receivers from the entitlements system. And so you see why that could cause some potential. Riffs in terms of you have people voting wanting more from this small group. That's providing and You've heard people call Billionaires like Elon Musk greedy, but at the end of the day, that's weird. Who's really greedy right then? Yeah, it's interesting. It's an interesting thing when you unpack it, isn't it? Yeah, that, that is interesting. What do you think, Max? So then, who would you rather be? The freeloader, or the person who's grinding away to to take care of everybody? You'd rather be the freeloader, Max? Yeah. Okay, Yeah I would too, cause we're just getting free stuff. I would not, I would still not want to be the freeloader. I know, but like that's like in this scenario, yeah, I prefer to be that. But like in general dad, if like we're not at that lunch and yes, I prefer to be the other guy because he's making money. Yeah. So anyway, you can see how in a scenario like that, which does essentially play out a bit, how that can drive the wrong behaviors by society for people who are getting entitlements. And then over time, they want more entitlements and they want fancier entitlements. And then you demonize the person who's actually providing all the productivity to pay for the entitlements, which is pretty weird. And there's this. Issue of spending other people's money. When you spend other people's money, you never do it as wisely as when you spend your own money, right? Yeah. So I've heard that proposed in terms of you've got to contribute to the system, but it's a tricky one because. If that just means you're paying in taxes there are years where very wealthy people have certain deductions, and so they're not paying in, and then there are certain years, that other people are paying in and it's, I think it would be a really difficult thing to administer, and at the end of the day, it does seem like it's the most rational thing, is just to give everybody the same opportunity to vote. We all live in the same America, and If you talk to wealthy people, even this, let's say, in this scenario we just went through. Yes. They would want to see the other people in the group doing well and being productive. And I think this is a misconception, generally, that, Rich people or corporations want to see, the low people suffer, and I don't think that's actually true. Here's why. Imagine if you are a billionaire. Yeah. Would you want the people around you to be super poor? No. Why? Because then they can't buy your stuff. They can't buy your stuff. That's a good point. What else? They also, if they aren't in dire straits or extremely impoverished, then, they're less likely to commit crime and potentially crime against you because you're the guy that has money. So things like robbing you, extorting you, whatever it might be. I can say like wealthy people don't want a massive income gap because then now you got to start trying to. Be careful about protecting yourself from people that want what you have. Yeah, so I think it's a little bit of a misconception that wealthy people want to keep the lower and middle class down. I actually think it's the opposite, but who does want to keep those. People turnin and spinnin and doin their taxes and voting. It's the government. Oh. It's the government. The government has the highest incentive to keep control over the society. Not billionaires. At any rate, that's an interesting twist. Yeah, interesting. With that, I think that was a fitting sort of ending to this critical thinking topic of the right to vote and some of the nuances around it. It's interesting when you break down all these pieces, right guys? Yeah, very interesting. And it sounds like the summary we got to is Pretty much everybody should have the right to vote, which they do today, as long as they're a legal citizen. The topic of people in prison, we're a little bit on the fence about. And we have some inconsistent views, maybe, across even our little GSD group here. But, in general, we've aligned to where the country is currently at. That's a good sign that our democratic system makes generally some sense. Now, year to year, we might not agree with the outcomes, but it generally makes sense, right? Okay, any other final words? No. Subscribe. Oh, yeah. And comment. And and follow us on Instagram we will sign off. Thanks, boys. If you enjoyed this content, please subscribe, like, comment, share. 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