Hi everyone,
Perhaps some of you may have heard about Dan Carlin, he does a popular history podcast as well as a political podcast. As a fan of his who's been listening to him for years now I really think he is the only one in the US who "gets it" who understands what's wrong with America and how to fix it.
But I'm weary of being in a bubble of like minded Dan Carlin listeners so I want your help to give me a fresh take on his opinions. Assuming you've never heard Dan Carlin's "Common Sense" podcast before. Its ok if you have.
Basically just give me your thoughts/initial reaction to Dan Carlin's central thesis.
Dan's basic thesis is that the political system in the United States is broken and that both parties (Democrats and Republicans) are corrupt. We won't get real change, the change this country needs unless we stop voting and supporting Democrats and Republicans and pick third party candidates. And by "corruption" Dan is referring to how lobbyists and their campaign contributions influence everything.
Now I'm sure you've heard of this type of thing before its nothing revolutionary. Its hard to condense 100+ podcasts into a paragraph, there's so much context and wording that gets lost.
Obviously nobody is for corruption. But Dan is very specific about how he talks about corruption. For example in terms of social issues like gay marriage or abortion rights he rarely gives his opinion (for or against) because he believes, like Harvard professor and author Lawrence Lessig, that corruption, its maybe not the most important issue but its the gateway issue. In other words nothing in America will get fixed unless we fix the corruption problem first.
So first question: what are your general impressions of that?
Second question:
If you believed that Republicans and Democrats were equally corrupt in terms of taking lobbyist money and being influenced by them would you still vote for the Democrats because of their support of gay marriage, abortion rights, women's rights and general support/empathy for minorities and the lower class overall? So would you go with a "lesser of two evils approach" because even if Democrats take lobbying money and are in the pocket of corporations and big banks they still do some good things in terms of gay marriage legalization and abortion rights?