This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 2284, Democrat versus Republican, how to talk about American politics.
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There's just one month until a pivotal presidential election in the U .S.
In this first installment of a four -part series, we share the vocabulary that you need to participate in interesting conversations about American politics this season.
Hello, Aubrey. Welcome to a politics episode.
Yes, this is we're talking politics, so we're going to keep it interesting.
We want to give you guys the tools to have a political conversation.
Right. There's an election in the U .S.
This might come up.
And if you are interested in politics, you want to be able to participate in that conversation.
We're doing a four -part series to give you the vocabulary, the chunks and tips to be able to have these really interesting conversations.
Yes. As of today, we're about one month out from the election.
The election is always the first Tuesday in November.
And so some people are saying this is going to be the most important election of at least the last 50 years.
I don't know. It's a very important election.
Let's say that. So we want to give you guys the tools to discuss it.
So what are we breaking down today?
Well, this is a series, first of all, Aubrey, right?
Exactly. So in this part one, we're going to explain a lot of the terms that you might hear or that you might want to be familiar with in order to have these conversations.
And then we're also going to give you tips about when should you talk about politics?
Should you talk about politics at work?
What can you do if someone clearly disagrees with you?
How can you still make that a respectful conversation?
And we want to give you all of these tips.
So we have divided this into a four part series.
So make sure you follow both here, the All Yours English Podcast and the Business English Podcast to get all of these episodes.
Yeah. And we know that often politics is actually a way to connect if we do it the right way.
We just have the debate in the US, possibly the last presidential debate.
We don't know if there's going to be another, but I heard that there were a lot of watch parties.
So on college campuses, a lot of people are at bars watching together.
And this is a social thing to do.
It can be social. It can be fun.
I mean, it's a competition.
We get into it. You're sitting side by side viewing one of the most important moments in the history of the US.
A lot of consequences for the world as well.
We know that. And so this is actually a way to connect with people around you.
Absolutely. And if you go to one of those watch parties and you have no background information, that would be a pretty boring 90 minutes.
Right. So if you have a lot of what we're going to share today and also these tips, then when it comes up, you're going to know how to have that conversation.
I'm excited because these are really interesting conversations.
Do you like to talk about politics with you?
Well, I do. Well, I consume a lot of politics.
I consume a lot of like, um, I listen to the podcast, Pod Save America.
Uh, I consume a lot and I think about it a lot.
I talk about it a fair amount, um, with a lot of people.
So yeah, I'm pretty steeped in this stuff, Aubrey.
I'm pretty steeped in it.
Yeah. Me too. And it's, so let's dive in here.
We're first going to talk about the two main parties in the US just to explain, you know, what are Democrats, what are Republicans?
Yeah. All right. Let's get into it, Aubrey.
So let's, let's wind up.
Let's get started with who are Democrats.
I mean, this is also changed by the way over history.
Yes. That's the thing.
If you look up the history, political parties change a lot over time.
What it started at is very different from what it looks like today.
And the best really, the best way to define a party is, you know, their stand on the issues.
So first social issues for Democrats, they advocate, advocate for abortion rights, voting rights, um, rights for LGBTQ and action on climate change as well as legalization of marijuana and some other drugs.
Yeah. And then in terms of economic issues, they are, they're really all about, um, they believe that government will solve the problem.
Let's say that the belief is that government should play a larger role in solving problems.
Whereas, I mean, that's how I see the core difference between Democrat and Republican, bigger government, smaller government.
Um, however, it kind of goes in a weird direction when you talk about certain issues like abortion.
Uh, so anyway, I'm going off the rails a little bit already here, but economically speaking, I think that, you know, healthcare reform, what does that mean?
Operate healthcare reform.
What do we say? So Democrats are more likely to want to have the government provide healthcare mandated healthcare to subsidize, at least subsidized healthcare.
Right. So then healthcare is available to all.
Yes. And often this means healthcare reform rather than just keeping things the way they always were.
If they don't feel like everyone has access to healthcare, then they would be advocating for reform.
Yeah. And it's, it's not all or nothing.
It's, it's, it's probably in the U S I don't think it's ever going to be a hundred percent government paid for or a hundred percent private pay.
Although it was a hundred percent private insurance up until Obamacare and Obamacare was a big moment in the U S because it became a way that a lot of people could finally access insurance, access healthcare.
Even with Biden, he's lowered the cost of drugs.
And so, you know, things have changed, been shifting over the years, but this has been a hot button issue in politics.
So Democrats still is because whoever in power could make, you know, drastic changes.
So yeah, that's for sure.
And then also childcare being available, potentially government being involved in making childcare, either mandated or subsidized, paid sick leave, paid maternity leave, these types of things and also supporting unions.
Yes, for sure. And I would say with the paid sick leave, this can also really vary depending on the state.
I think another notable thing about Republicans is they believe more in this concept of a state self -governing more, right?
That's what they advocate.
And I see here in Colorado, we have something called PFM LA.
So Colorado has become used to be a red state, super interesting actually.
Uh, now is a purple state and Denver's very blue.
The out, outlying areas countryside are very red, but we have PFM LA where it's, it's a, it's a stronger, slightly more, uh, government supported system of paid sick leave and family leave.
So you might find that in Colorado and not find that in like Nevada or something that might be a little more right leaning.
So a lot of these days, they'll write on the head that it's like, it's about, do states have control or does the federal government have more of a say?
Yeah. And definitely with Republicans, they're advocating for states rights.
They want states to vote on, you know, most issues, whereas Democrats might want the federal government to decide for a lot of things.
I mean, the biggest thing with abortion is Roe v.
Wade was the law of the land for what, 40 years.
Right. And that said that, uh, everyone had access to abortion and, and then what the new Supreme court did under Trump is that they brought it back to the States and certain States had trigger laws where they then could say, okay, because it's no longer a national law to have access to abortion.
We don't have that anymore in our States.
Right. And so that's a big, also a huge hot button issue in this year's election.
You should watch for that.
Think about that and think about what your stance is on that so you can discuss it.
Right. Yes. And as a preview for later on in these series, we're going to dive into some of those hot button issues.
Like you said, some of the issues that are really important during this election so that you guys have, it's really difficult to take part in a conversation.
If you don't, you know, have some information about it, have an opinion.
So we're going to give you everything you need for these individual issues so that you can have that conversation.
Yeah. Yeah. We'll come back to the hot issues that are likely to come up in the next debate.
If there is another one or your conversations, anything else we want to say about Dems?
I mean, first thing to say, it's important to say Democrats are, we use the term left, right?
That is the left and Republican right.
I think in other countries, it matches up differently.
The left and the right are different, I believe.
So I just want to make sure that's clear in the U .S.
Democrats left, Republicans right.
And then there's a huge chunk of the country that are actually somewhere in the middle or economically speaking, they're more conservative and socially they're more liberal.
But these days, I think that we're going to the extremes, Aubrey.
Yeah. And you also use the words liberal and conservative.
So the left is more liberal.
The right is more conservative.
Okay. So yeah, it's interesting.
We have these conversations, but we're also going to share about independent voters.
So let's get into some of these terms because first of all, we have party.
There are all these different, you know, it's a group of people that are organized in order to put specific people in power.
You're part of a party.
So there's of course, the Democratic Party, Republican Party, but then there are quite a few other parties in the U .S., independent, libertarian, green.
Yes. The tricky thing is we have sort of a two party system right now.
Lindsay, what does that mean?
That's right. Yeah, that's true.
I mean, there is the green party.
There is the libertarian part.
There's the libertarian perspective.
Yes. But when it comes to elections, there's really only two choices.
Usually there is a third party.
But if you vote for that third party, you're basically saying I'm not voting.
You're kind of opting out.
Yeah. Unfortunately, Democrats and Republicans are so popular here.
I guess you could say that one of those two is always going to get the majority of the vote.
So even if someone doesn't agree with either of those candidates, they're likely going to vote for one of them because they know voting for a third party is sort of a waste of a vote.
They're just can never get nice support.
Yeah. It's more about the third party will more determine like whoever loses or gains more vote.
Like they can sway the election, right, because they don't necessarily get those votes from the third party, the candidate that wins or loses, but it, but it's really not, not voting.
So it's not really interesting with this election because there is a third party.
RFK is on the ballot in Arizona.
And so it's going to be interesting to see if that's going to pull more Republican votes potentially.
This happened with Ross Perot when it was Bush.
And he really pulled a lot of the Republican vote.
And yeah, so it's interesting when that happens, it can really shift things.
Yeah. Sometimes they can have an outsized influence on the election.
Right. All right. So we've got party.
And then the other thing to talk about is the, the national conventions are basically a party for the party.
Yes, exactly. Right.
We have these big events where there are speakers and music and it's really drumming up support and funding for the party.
And that always happens in August or July, the summer before the fall election.
And so it's all about, you know, basically raising money, getting excited, talking about how are we going to win?
That's the stance of the, the national conventions that happen.
Okay. Good. Yes. All right.
And then we're going to go into actual voting, right, to be registered to vote.
This means, you know, signing up, providing your information.
Anyone who wants to vote must register and this, you know, you have to provide certain documentation.
You have to be 18 and this changes state to state in Arizona.
You have to do it 30 days before the election, but it differs depending on the state's regulations.
Interesting. Yeah. You have to register to vote 30 days before the election is, uh, Aubrey in Arizona.
Yeah. Yes, exactly.
So a lot of 18 year olds, if they don't realize this or if they turn 18 right before an election, sometimes they're not able to vote if they aren't proactive in thinking about it ahead of time.
Oh yeah. And I could see that happening right with teenagers.
They all of a sudden they realize the day of all their friends are going to the vote, they want to vote and they haven't registered.
Right. That's not big procrastinators.
I was as well as a teenager.
I have an 18 year old.
I'm like, let's get you registered to vote now.
You got to get on this.
Yeah, it's true. Anything else we want to say before we take a quick break, we're really just laying down the kind of the fault lines here today.
All the times you need to know, we're going to go into, you know, ballots, mail -in ballots.
This is a big deal.
What happens on election day?
Yeah, we're excited to get into all of this.
All right. We'll take a quick break and then we'll come right back.
Okay. Aubrey. So talking about the word ballot, what does this mean?
And why does it matter?
Yeah. So a ballot is just a process of voting, writing and usually in secret, you can cast a ballot.
Like if you're going to play a game and you're voting for someone in the game, right?
But when we're talking about an election like this, usually in the States, you're casting a ballot, you know, in person in like a small temporary walled booth so that it is in secret.
No one sees who you're voting for and you don't have to tell anyone who you voted for.
Yes. Interesting. You know, here in Colorado, I'm not going to brag, but I'm going to brag.
We are really heavy on mail -in voting.
So, and we do it really well.
We haven't had any major controversies.
The state is pretty efficient around getting mail -in ballots out.
I always get a ballot in the mail on time.
I just do it at home.
And this is a big thing that's happening more and more now.
Although there are some theories coming out that it could really sway the vote in one direction or another.
Yeah, this is interesting.
So let's talk about, you know, absentee mailing, mail -in ballots.
This is a big deal.
So when you go in person, it's at a public building, usually a library or a school, maybe a fire station, but there can be long lines.
It can be, you know, it can take a lot of time.
Some people love that going in person and getting the sticker and feeling like they've done their civic duty, but I'm the same.
I've filled out a mail -in ballot for years because it's just so much easier, especially with COVID.
There were, you know, majority mail -in ballots, right?
Just so much easier.
There's a little drop box by your coffee shop or your library.
You just drop it. I mean, yeah, it's insane.
Because I've seen on the news some states that don't have this, you see on election night lines just around like miles down the road.
And I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, these people, like you can't, you can't do it.
So really interesting is how it varies so much state to state.
Some states automatically send everyone a mail -in ballot.
And maybe Colorado does that.
I know Utah, some states do this so that the majority of voters fill out that ballot and then the rest go in person so much easier, quicker, they're able to count a lot of them ahead of time.
That's a long time.
It didn't work that way.
Absentee ballots are interesting to sort of look into the history.
They were first available to civil war soldiers that were fighting away from home.
Yeah. California was the first state to allow an absentee ballot without an excuse in the 1970s.
So before that, you had to have a really good reason you're out of the country.
For some reason, you couldn't get to a voting center.
And now it's really evolved to where most states allow mail -in ballots.
Yeah, I thought that they were different though absentee because I feel like I must have been abroad for one of the elections and the aughts.
And I feel like I had to like register as an absentee voter.
I think it depends on the state.
Okay. It's really interesting if you look at, you know, they'll say, I was researching this some, they're like, we'll share the difference between absentee ballots and mail -in ballots.
And then it very much looks like they're the same, but I think state to state, you might have to register differently.
You might have to provide a reason for an absentee ballot.
Whereas in most states, you can just get a mail -in ballot in advance, and it's no different from your regular vote.
Yeah, however, just, and again, we're trying, we're really going to try in this series, not to express our political views too much here.
You know, we're not trying to sway anyone here, guys, we want to give you the building blocks to be able to speak about this.
But one little anecdote here is I have heard that this may influence more mail -in voting could potentially influence the vote because especially for, because we have a woman on the ballot this year, we have Kamala Harris, the idea of women potentially maybe being pressured, you know, from their husband and saying,
Oh, no, we don't, you know, we vote Republican, we, you know, that's a theory that I've heard that could come out.
It is interesting. I do personally know people who, female friends who just say, I just always vote the same as my husband because he has more time to get informed.
So I trust his opinions.
I'm always kind of like, what?
Think of all of the work that went into getting women the right to vote.
So I'm a big advocate for everyone casting their own vote and really becoming educated on the issues so that they're not just allowing someone to cast two votes.
Right? So if, you know, if a couple is sitting at the kitchen table and, you know, they're seeing each other's votes, that could sway the vote.
Whereas we're not in private booths with the curtains you get and everything.
So I don't know. We'll see.
We'll see. But then maybe you get more vote out because, because more people are just able to vote from home.
So yeah, the convenience, that's a big deal.
So, you know, a lot of people don't have hours to wait in line.
So yeah, there's something to be said for, you know, allowing more people to vote.
I think, we'll, we'll see what happens.
So anyways, that is how voting happens.
And then as I said, election day is the first Tuesday in November, every four years, well, every two years actually, because there's always the midterms, the midterm elections, right?
Which are much less attended, less voted, less paid attention to, but as influential.
Yes. Just as important because you could have a Republican or Democratic president, but they can't get anything done.
If there's gridlock in Congress, this is how the politics work in the U S the president only has so much power.
If the Senate or the house of representatives has a majority from the other party, they're going to have a lot of time.
They're going to have a difficult time agreeing on policy change.
Yes. Okay. Interesting.
So pay attention to the midterms as well.
Um, good stuff. Should we go into a role play Aubrey?
Shall we do it? We want to share just the role play, how you would see a lot of this vocabulary used in a conversation.
So Lindsey and I are just discussing where we will vote in the upcoming election and this role play.
All right, here we go.
Start us out. Okay.
I usually get a mail -in ballot so I don't have to wait in lines.
What about you? I like to go to a polling place on election day.
I usually go to a school near my home.
I have neighbors that are both Democrat and Republican, but no one really puts up signs.
I have a neighbor that volunteers for the libertarian party.
I think she's an independent.
Oh, that's awesome.
It'd be nice to get to know what politicians are really like instead of just their public personas.
Okay. I kind of love this.
Imagine like if you have a friend who volunteers for a party or works for a party.
That's when people really get to know these politicians, how they really are, and not just what they say on TV or in the news.
Right? Oh yeah. They're in the immediate staff for sure.
Yeah, no, that's true.
I want to pick all of their brains.
Tell me what they're really like.
Oh wow. I know. It's true.
You want to know. Interesting.
Interesting. So let's recap today.
We did, you said, I usually get a mail -in ballot.
So you're talking about voting by mail, a mail -in ballot that I can fill out ahead of time and mail in.
And then this was a very inaccurate roleplay for you.
We found out today, cause you say, I like to go to a polling place on election day.
So that's an in -person place where you'd cast your vote, but you're a more in a more of a mail -in ballot girl as well.
Right. That's right.
I don't, I don't need the experience.
I think it's amazing and oh my gosh, obviously I'm very grateful to be able to have that option.
All right. So, so not the whole world doesn't necessarily have the option or, um, but, uh, I don't, I, the fact that I can just mail it in, it's just easier.
It's convenient. I've definitely voted in person before and there is something to be said for convenience for sure.
Yes. A hundred percent if once you've done it once, you're like, okay, I, my vote is getting counted.
So it doesn't really matter how it gets submitted.
And then I shared, I have neighbors that are both Democrat and Republican.
But when I say this, no one really puts up signs.
Sometimes people will put a sign of who they're supporting like in their front yard.
We see them a lot on like street corners and this might be very state to state as well, but in Arizona, this is legal, but I don't see, and this is true for me.
I don't see a lot of signs on people's yards in Arizona, I think because it's a swing state.
So it's like about 50, 50 and a lot of people disagree.
And so often we sort of just don't talk about it.
Well, you're in the middle of a very, like your state is going to be a hot, a hot bed.
Hugely important. I hope that we get into this, uh, in this series, how important Arizona is and, and, and what we think might happen in Arizona, why it matters, um, around there are a few swing states that sometimes go red, which means vote Republican.
And sometimes they go blue.
Like for Biden, that means that they, um, a democratic candidate wins the state.
So Arizona is one of those states that you're not sure exactly what's going to happen because it's so split, which makes politics sort of divisive.
You don't really know who agrees with you.
Well, it's crazy too, right?
You can win in the U S I think we'll get into this later, but in the U S you can win the popular vote and lose the election.
That means you can have fewer people heads voting for you and lose the election because of the electoral college.
That's why it comes down to these swing states with the number of electors.
Um, it's really the upper Midwest, you know, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.
Are we, are we getting into this another day, Aubrey?
And this has happened, right?
Where a state has a certain amount of votes regardless of the population.
So we can't count the popular vote, which means the actual number of voters.
Instead, each state gets a certain amount of electoral votes and that determines who wins.
Yeah, it's really, so it really just comes down to a handful of states.
The winner will come down to maybe 400 ,000 votes or something, you know, or less it's wild.
And when Joe Biden won Arizona came down to only 10 ,000 votes.
That's such a margin.
Yeah. It's really, every vote really does matter.
Yes. All right. So then we said, uh, okay, so libertarian, I have a neighbor that volunteers for the libertarian party.
I think she's an independent and I think, um, exactly.
So you can be registered as a Republican, as a Democrat, or you can register independent, which means you're not affiliated with a specific party and you usually vote more based on the candidate or the issues rather than just voting along party lines.
Yeah, exactly. And the concept of libertarian is someone that really extremely doesn't believe in any government, uh, action or influence or clout, right?
Is that how you see libertarian, Aubrey?
Just very anti -government.
No, we didn't go into all of these parties that like we said would have a very difficult time, you know, winning green is a lot more supporting like climate change, right?
You know, environment.
Um, but it's interesting.
You guys could definitely spend some time finding out about all of the different parties in the United States.
Yes. Good stuff. So then, uh, I guess you just said, I think she's an independent.
Yeah, that, that was it at the end.
Aubrey, what is our takeaway today?
We have just kind of put down the lines, the fault lines, tried to explain the parties, the sides, the basic vocabulary, but we're going to get into some of the, the media issues in this series for sure.
I'm sure we'll talk more about electors, um, maybe some controversies going on.
There's just a lot here.
Yes. Right. Because you have to think about when you have a conversation about politics, yes, you need to have this foundation of the terms and sort of understanding how elections work in the U S.
But what really is going to make those conversations interesting is talking about the issues and sharing, you know, what you believe about those issues.
So we're definitely going to dive into that later in this series.
Yeah. So the first thing to do right now, everyone is hit the follow button so that you don't miss the other episodes.
Are they all on allers English or some of them?
No, you definitely need to follow business English as well because one of the episodes will be there.
We're going to share.
Should you talk about politics at work?
And if so, how, how should you do it?
Okay. So guys, follow right here, go over, open business English from allers English, hit follow over there.
We'll see you in the next episode.
I guess it's next week, right?
We have a month. We have a month here.
So now the election's coming.
We got to get these in.
So you guys are ready for these conversations.
This will be really fun.
Guys, let us know if you have follow up questions and Aubrey, I'll see you next time.
Awesome. See you next time.
Bye guys. Bye. Bye.
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