You’re a student of history and you keep sort of going “America survived worse we’ll get through this,” right? You seem to have some sort of precognition about all this.

Well that zen-ness is showing some cracks but I still am hopeful. I’m so optimistic tonight and and I’m seeing a lot of signs that America is bouncing back, or is about to. The problem that I identify in this book, which is that the Republicans between an experience they had in 2000 and action. That they took a legislative action in 2002 and have learned how to, and succeeded in basically, rigging our election.

The exit polls which are the gold standard around the world as you know, we took down the government of Ukraine. Actually the Ukrainians did in 2004. The Democratic guy, according to the exit polls won, but according to the official results the Russian guy won. That got people out into the street and that was about a five point spread.

well in Pennsylvania and Florida the exit polls showed that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by more than five points and by more than three points in Wisconsin and in North Carolina.

I know Tom. I read this and I thought first of all I’m so [not] enjoying reliving 2016 this primary season, but that made me -ugh. Just so you people hear what Tom just said in the book.

You and I are gonna talk to Greg Palast about this tomorrow, but you know Tom, they have become an extraordinary party of cheating. Of finding out new and different ways to cheat Americans out of their vote haven’t they.

Well yeah, and this is what happened in 1978. The party was in the wilderness you know. After the Nixon scandals and then you know, in 1976 Jerry Ford was beaten by a peanut farmer from Georgia that nobody had ever heard of. So you know, they thought and there were literally books being written about the end of the Republican Party. As I’m sure you well remember. What came out of that was a Supreme Court decision in ’76 called Buckley versus Vallejo that said that if a billionaire wants to own a politician or even a dozen politicians. You know, so fully fund them that they just basically are that person’s personal servant. No problem, that’s legal, that’s free speech.

Then two years later, in the in the First National Bank decision in 78, the Supreme Court extended that logic to corporations. Now the Democratic Party is still getting most of their money from Unions but the Republican Party was screwed. They were out with nothing and so they said, okay the doors are open and they just invited all these big corporations’ billionaires in. They’ve become the party of billionaires and big corporations ever since, and if that’s your identity, it’s hard to win elections. That when people know that you got to figure out a way to rig the election. Which is what’s going on.

 

The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back -by Thom Hartmann Arm yourself with your vote! If voting was so pointless, why do Republicans work so hard to suppress anyone but themselves? The answer will shock you.

Well Tom, I like that you’re always in the know. Obviously so, these books are so thorough, but I’ve been afraid sometimes to talk about this. Because I thought this is part of what they want. For us to debate, us to despair, to depress our turnout. For us to think it’s already rigged. Our vote is not gonna count. So you also talk in the book about what we do to fight back and I think first of all right blu-nami as we call it here on the show, right. We need to have not just a blue wave, a blue tsunami!

First of all we got to get these levers of power back. To change all these unfair laws. I mean ,we Mitch McConnell. He voted down this week three election security bills. They are clearly asking for foreign interference. For one, in terms of interference.

Thom Hartmann:

Right, but he wouldn’t even allow a vote He is just sitting on this stuff and I don’t recall if you were with us back in like 2005. A bunch of Air America hosts went to Washington DC and we met with a group of Democratic Senators and this was after the 2004 exit polls showed that John Kerry soundly beat George W. Bush.

Stephanie Miller:

We had John Conyers on my show quite a bit then. Who wrote the book What Went Wrong In Ohio.

 

What Went Wrong in Ohio: The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election -by Congressman John Conyers They did it to us in Ohio If voting was so pointless, why do Republicans work so hard to suppress anyone but themselves? The answer will shock you.

Exactly, so at that meeting, one of those Senators said, because we thought maybe it was rigged voting machines back then. We didn’t know that the Republican Party even had this strategy of throwing people off the voting rolls and then when they show up to vote giving them provisional ballots. Which they think are counted but are never counted in red States. In any case, at that meeting one of the Senators said to us, speaking for all the rest of them. We don’t really want to talk about this out loud. Because it’ll discourage people from voting if they think their vote won’t be counted.

Well now we know what the strategy is. Now we know what the scam is, and what I’m trying to do with this book is expose it. Particularly in red States where this where this goes on. The red shift that I described earlier doesn’t happen in blue states, only in States for the Republican Secretaries of State. If you live in a red State and you are given a provisional  ballot, get out of bullhorn. Raise holy hell! Because that ballot will not be counted and you have been screwed and we need everybody to know that.

Because of the way that they’re getting away with this. Some have since 2004, unlike 2000 when you know Jeb Bush used the Texas felons list and that that led to tens of thousands of African Americans in the streets in Florida and multiple lawsuits. Now what they do is they go here’s a provisional ballot and people don’t know that they got screwed.

We need to wake people the hell up!

 

The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back -by Thom Hartmann Arm yourself with your vote! If voting was so pointless, why do Republicans work so hard to suppress anyone but themselves? The answer will shock you.

Well yeah. So as you talked about, as we know. They particularly target people of color, women, the poor. You make an important point. You say in today’s America only a slim majority of people register to vote and a large percentage of registered voters don’t bother to show up. Donald Trump was elected with just 26 percent of eligible voters. So that’s our other mission, Tom. it’s not just check and recheck and check your registration in case you’ve gotten thrown off the rolls. Make sure everyone you know is registered but make sure you get everyone you know to the polls. Because you’re right.

What’s extraordinary is people watch these rallies and feel overwhelmed. But you’re right, Tom. It is not a majority. The majority of America? First of all, how many people didn’t vote, what? A hundred million. I mean, as you say in The Hidden History Of The War On Voting -got to get the book. You wrote,

Right yeah this is our strategy. I don’t know if you saw the story in The New York Times this morning. About the dating apps are now starting to freak out because they’re discovering that people are more concerned about a potential mate’s politics than their appearance. If you put progressive or conservative in your dating app that that has a higher priority. I mean this is, but the other thing that they’re discovering is that the people who are identifying as conservatives on these dating apps are a very small minority. Yeah and they’re going off on to their own apps for conservatives now.

We are the majority. People who care about American values are the majority. People who care about pluralism, people who care about democracy, people who care about their their brothers and sisters. Their their neighbors, they’re our fellow citizens. We are the majority and these hate filled bigot and and maggot hat wearers are very much the minority.

The one thing that we have to do as the majority is show the hell up!

Stephanie Miller:

Yeah, by the way “vote blue no matter who!” You and I did a unity thing after 2016. Remember we came on each other’s shows? This year we’re gonna have to. You’re gonna have come live here with me and I’ll go live with you for a week. Whatever, we’re on the air together every day, but here’s what I want to get to.

So Tom, give us some of that you know what I mean, give us the rules of the road here.

Yeah it’s a really simple stuff that they do in other countries. Vote by mail. I live here in Oregon. I get the ballot in advance. Louise and I sat at the kitchen table and look it over. If there’s somebody we’re not sure of we google them. You know, a big thick voter book comes with it that explains everything and every ballot measure. So you have the time to do it. You fill it out. You drop it in the mail. It’s a paper ballot, you know it’s just run through a scan machine, but it’s got no scams here. Just very straightforward. Stop voter suppression.

North Dakota doesn’t even have voter ID. You don’t even have to register to vote. Which is the case in many other countries as well. At least let’s undo these Republican voter suppression laws which are just devastating to democracy. We need to encourage. No, create it. For those States that still want to have people going to the physical poll.

For a while in Oregon when we first did this, we still had physical polls and some people said that nobody showed up. However, for those states that want to have that, make it a holiday. Make it a national holiday for that matter, and of course, we need to get money out of politics. A lot of those things are addressed in legislation that has already passed the House of Representatives. HR 1 and there’s two other bills that are brother-sister bills kind of thing. Yeah and you know, of course, Mitch McConnell is keeping them on the in the bottom drawer of his desk. So we’ve got to take back the Senate.

Yeah absolutely and by the way, we’ve had, I’m sure you’ve had some people on your show explaining what is happening at justice and in America is no less than a crisis. A five-alarm fire. Democracy literally is on the ballot this November and you said if you want to understand tonight’s DOJ crisis you must understand Barr’s background in history. Then it all becomes clear and it’s gonna get worse and you said Lev Parnas is afraid of Bill Barr and he should be.

You join me I’m sure, in calling total BS on this cover-your-ass interview.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out last night. This is the first time in 40 years that the Justice Department has any prosecutor. Any of the hundred prosecutors anywhere hasn’t recommended the the basic Sentencing Guidelines. Which is what they did recommend, and then Bill Barr comes along it says, oh no I made a decision about this. An Attorney General doesn’t do that and never had literally never has and remember when Republicans went hysterical because Bill Clinton met the Attorney General on her airplane? It’s a national disgrace.

Well if you go back to Clinton’s impeachment and this is why I love one of your tweets Tom you said, if Democrats want to take the White House back from Trump they can’t do it by being nice or promising to work with Republicans across the aisle. These are different times, Tom. These are dire times these, are crisis times, and I agree with you more. We are just -we’re in the fight of our lives this time, right?