When whippoorwills come and evening is nigh.
I have it in My Blue Heaven, welcome.
This is Rumble. With Michael Moore.
You are listening to episode 11 of my special mini podcast
series. Entitled blue dots in a red.
See how to win when you're blue in a red state.
Just to turn to the ride if I find a little wild life, we lead
into my. So here on episode 11, I want to
talk about the ballot proposal, the ability of all citizens to
go into the voting booth and pass a law or a state
Constitutional Amendment exists. Now, in half of our state's half
the Six allow people to gather signatures to put a potential
law or Constitutional Amendment on the ballot.
Pass it and boom, it's the law. Just like that.
Now, it really isn't just like that, you may have to collect
thousands upon thousands of signatures.
Then you've got a campaign for it, but what we have seen,
especially in recent years, is ballot proposal after ballot
proposal have passed and become. Wha, I mean, just in this last
election here in November, Or three states made it part of
their constitution that women have the right to have an
abortion and that the government has no say in controlling their
Reproductive Rights, California passed it Michigan.
Past it, Vermont past it. Now those are blue States, but
into red States, the opposite kind of ballot proposal.
In other words, there was a proposal on the ballot in
Kentucky and Montana to Red states to ban abortion to put
that into the Constitution and both States refused to do it.
The pro-choice side, one in Kentucky, and Montana just as it
had one in Kansas the Summer, where the people of Kansas
nearly 60% showed up and voted to keep abortion legal to have
it part of their state constitution, Red State, Kansas
one of the great things about the ballot proposal initiatives
that are allowed in half of our state's, is that?
Well, The obvious, you can pass a law.
You want to raise the minimum wage in your state.
Get it on the ballot and pass it virtually.
Every time a minimum wage proposal to increase the minimum
wages on a ballot, it passes, You want to legalize marijuana?
Get it on the ballot. You want an environmental law
passed, you want Paid Family, Leave passed all of these
things, you can make it happen in your state.
So, that's one of the great things about Bella.
Proposes, its direct democracy. The people write the law and the
people pass it, and if they put it, the Constitution, the state
legislature could have a very hard time trying to mess with.
It doesn't mean they won't try. But there's another Second Great
reason to get ballot. Proposals on the ballot in your
state, especially in the red states by having that ballot
proposal there, you're going to bring out the people who think
like you, who believe the way you believe.
But they often times don't vote, especially if they live in a red
State. They gave up voting.
A lot of people just gave up voting a long time ago because
they go in there to vote for the Democrat, the Democrat always
loses or they go in there and they say there's hardly any
Democrats on the ballot and they just give up they stop voting.
Why bother or they're upset with the Democrats?
They say they're going to do one thing and they get elected and
they don't do it for whatever reason, thousands upon thousands
of people in your red State, who normally would vote for the
Democrat or the Democratic position stay home.
But when they hear, That on Election Day, they could go to
the voting booth and raise the minimum wage or protect a
woman's right to choose or outlaw gerrymandering or create
Paid Family. Leave.
I mean, the list is endless. Think of, if you wanted to bring
out the people that think like you and who if once in the booth
would vote for the Democratic candidates because you know,
they've shown up there, there they see the Democrats, okay,
those Democrats they want Increase the minimum wage and
they wanted to, you know, legalize marijuana.
And alright, I'll vote for them. So many states have seen this
happen that if you get a progressive liberal Democratic
position, put on the ballot where it will become law or it
will become part of the state constitution.
The number of democratic voters shoots way up, there been record
turnouts when these ballot proposals are on state ballots,
So if you want to stand a chance of getting some of those,
especially the disaffected Democrats, the ones who sort of,
given up in the red States, watch how they'll come out to
vote. When they have a chance to
enact, a liberal left Democratic law and then watch how many of
your local Democrats win the election, simply because the
ballot proposal got them to show up.
It's a great side effect first. Yes, you get a good law passed
but then you've Got people in the voting booth who otherwise
wouldn't be there and you get Democrats elected.
And I know I don't have to go through the whole thing with you
again, about how I'm not a member of the democratic party.
I don't pay dues to the Democrats.
If you've listened to my podcast, or watch my movies,
you've seen. I have no problem going after
Democrats, who are no good for the people of this country, but
there is a party that now has turned its back on itself and
allowed itself to implode by becoming the party of trump, the
party of white supremacy and white privilege.
And they are on a tear to lose as many elections as possible in
the coming future because the American people don't agree with
them. The American people disagree
with the Republicans on virtually every single issue.
And the only way they can get elected now is by trying to make
it difficult for the people that usually vote against them.
Women, people of color young people, make it hard for them to
vote. And so through gerrymandering
and through voter suppression, they've protected a lot of their
seats that they have. No right to because the majority
of people in their areas and their districts in their state,
really don't agree with them on the issues.
Now, I've told you about the situation in Michigan before,
but I just want to underscore what we learned in the year.
2018, we had three ballot proposals that year on the
ballot in Michigan. The first proposal was to
legalize marijuana. No longer throwing people in
prison for possessing or using marijuana.
The second proposal was to Outlaw gerrymandering and take
the drawing of the political maps out of the hands of the
police. Little parties out of the hands
of the politicians in hand. It over to a citizen's
commission, nonpartisan where they'd have to draw the real
Maps, the true maps in the right way and not draw it.
So that it keeps down the vote of the black and brown citizens
of our state. The third ballot proposal in
2018 in the state of Michigan, was intended to instill a series
of voting policies to the state constitution to end voter
suppression. Russian policies, like same-day
voter registration. No excuse, absentee voting, make
it easier for people to vote. So those were the three measures
on the ballot marijuana, gerrymandering and voter
suppression and guess what happened.
All three past marijuana was legalized in Michigan, and voter
suppression and gerrymandering were outlawed.
It also had the secondary effect in that midterm election in 2018
where we record number of. People, voting Democratic showed
up to vote a record. Number of young people showed up
to vote, one of the highest turnouts in the black community,
showed up to vote. Why?
Because I'll long gerrymandering, if you tell the
black or brown communities, in your state that they have a
chance to eliminate voter suppression and gerrymandering
They turned out in droves and young people for both that and
legalizing marijuana turned out in droves and because they did,
and because in the voting booth, what they end up doing voting
for the Democrats. And so every Republican in the
executive branch of the Michigan, Government was thrown
out of office, and the people elected a Democrat for governor,
a Democrat for lieutenant governor, a Democrat for
attorney general, and a Democrat for Secretary of State.
And just like that gone. The Republicans held every one
of those positions and gone. That was that.
The secondary effect of having ballot, proposals on the issues
that people do believe strongly in.
They may not want to come and vote for politicians, but when
they have a chance to create law while that will make their lives
better, that will pay them more than $7.25 an hour that will let
them have a paid family, leave if they need one.
They show up to vote. And then they vote for the
people that agree with them. And that's not the Republicans
and they know it. And that's why the Republicans
were booted out of office. And in this election in
November, not only were those, four Democrats who were elected
to run the government in Michigan in 2018.
Now, four years later, they not only were re-elected, but the
Democrats also took over the Michigan State Senate and the
Michigan House of Representatives.
Democrat is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
And the statistic that kind of blew my mind are couple weeks
ago when I saw the results of November's election in all the
top positions. So I'm talking about, you know,
Governor lieutenant, governor, Secretary of State Attorney
General, the Speaker of the House in Michigan, the head of
the senate in Michigan, the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. Five of the seven are women and
the other two are black men. That's the entire leadership of
the State House. The state senate, the executive
branch and the Supreme Court judicial legislative executive
all run. Now by democrats And the
majority of the house, Democrats, the majority of the
Senate Democrats and for the first time in a long time.
Now, that the gerrymandering was ended, the map was drawn the
right way. The majority of members of
Congress that were sent to d.c. from Michigan for the first time
a majority are Democrats. Just because of that one, ballot
proposal. And then people started showing
up. And then the Democrats for these
last four years, had the executive branch.
And we're in charge people, like what they saw from Gretchen,
Whitmer in the others and they came back to not only real like
them, but the clean house entirely in boot.
All the Republican leaders out executive legislative Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. Women and black men are running
the show in Michigan. There is not a single white man
in this leadership position in the legislature.
In the governor's house. Or the Supreme Court.
Okay, maybe you don't want to say that too loudly, because
white guys are really upset and they tend to create
insurrections and storm Capitol Buildings and take American flag
poles and RAM them into the, into the chests of people that
are trying to protect the capital.
But I have to say the fact that women and black Americans Are
running the state of Michigan. Does that sound kind of cool?
Maybe we'll have a chance for something better.
And white guys. Hey, we've been in power for
like I don't know ten thousand years.
It's been a nice run. But maybe we set aside a bit
here and see if other people have better ideas to fix this
country in this world. I know you're thinking I want to
move to Michigan. Okay, it's not Nirvana but I'm
just saying that this is what happens when you have good
ballot proposals and you get people out to vote for them.
It may seem like a lot of work, but you're forming your new
groups or you're joining existing ones. whether you live
in a blue state or a red state, There are ballot proposal laws
and I'm going to read the list of states where you can get
proposals and initiatives laws on the ballot to vote for, and
you're going to be surprised. You're going to hear a lot of
red States. Now if your state doesn't have a
law that allows you to vote direct democracy to vote on a
law or an amendment to the Constitution in your state, then
you've got to work on your state legislature in your Governor to
get that past, especially if you're in a red State.
All they're not going to pass this.
No, no, they actually will pass it.
There's a reason Florida has ballot proposals because the
Republicans there who they believe that the majority of the
people support them. And so they like the idea of
they Pass laws, you know, hateful laws, anti-immigration,
laws, whatever, and sometimes this happens in sometimes,
wealthy individuals or corporations, they want to see
ballot proposals pass it. And they will try to spend money
to get things on the ballot that benefit the rich.
That's why, when you get a law passed that allows for ballot
proposals, you have to make sure that money does not control who
gets their law on the ballot very critical.
Let me just give you a few other examples, over the last couple
of Elections, red state of Alaska, passed a law that says
we will do ranked Choice voting for now on ranked Choice voting
is it's a better way to get a sense of what people truly want
in terms of who they're electing.
So the easiest way to explain this is when you go into the
voting booth, you put a 1 by your first choice in a to buy
your second choice and so that way you don't end up with
somebody that It isn't really wanted by the majority of the
people, you know, if you get to say your second choice and your
second choice then becomes elected, then it's like, well,
it wasn't my first choice. But at least I'm not stuck with
this bozo over here that I and a whole bunch of other people
don't want, but they somehow get elected because they came in
third, and they won with what's called a plurality of the votes,
not a majority, but they have more votes than the other two,
which means somebody who gets 35 percent of the votes can be, the
person who is elected, That's not right.
They didn't want Bozo. Number three at all. anyways, so
Alaska past that Nebraska increase the minimum wage by
sixty or seventy percent some crazy wonderful number.
A few years ago, the State of Florida passed a constitutional
amendment, that says that once a person finishes their time in
prison and their parole, they should get their voting rights
back. So many people if they're ever
convicted of a crime, their voting rights are stripped from
them in many states for life that's wrong.
And it's also a way to bring down the number of black and
brown voters because we proportionally, put more black
and brown people in prison, they don't have lawyers, they don't
have money. And the circumstances of the
crimes they committed are often as a result of their poverty.
It's kind of a way to be racist without looking like you're
racist. I don't know if they're black or
brown, we had to lock them up because of X Y or Z.
Well, okay, fine. So you got away with it, you
have a state that has a, maybe not quite a, just a criminal
justice system. But once they do their time,
once they repay their debts to society, they should be able to
rejoin society. And one of the ways you rejoin
Society is voting participating in the system, Florida decided
to do that now, there have been many lawsuits since voters of
Florida said, this is what we want, and of course, the right
Wingers have held this up in court and made it more and more
difficult nonetheless. They'll just think about that.
The red State of Florida passed a law saying that felons as long
as they were not sexual offenders or committed murder,
felons could vote once they're out of prison.
That happened in a red state. So don't think because you live
in a red state that this can't happen, I want you to think
about this. I want you to think about how
ballot proposals, not only can get good laws and good
Constitutional Amendments passed in your state.
They will also bring out people who believe like, you do vote
for the ballot initiatives, that protect the environment that
protect women's rights, that protect workers rights.
That legalize marijuana. That stop gerrymandering.
And, you know, you don't have to try and get 5 ballot.
Proposals on just pick one of those.
Just increase the minimum wage just increase the minimum wage
in your state. And look how many people that
will bring out. Who will then vote for the
liberal Progressive Democrat. That's on your ballot.
My friends in red States, think about this and find out to.
If you can, do ballot proposals, just in your city, or your
county because that will be good for where you're living.
And it'll be good to bring out and discover your new friends,
your new blue friends, who want these laws passed?
Okay. So as I said, half the states in
this country allow for ballot proposals, where the people the
citizens, the voters, get to enact laws or amend the state
constitution, depending on what state you live in.
Most of these allow amendments to the Constitution.
Some you can pass just the law, but whatever ballot proposals,
direct democracy are allowed in these states.
If you live in one of these states, I want you to consider
getting at least one ballot proposal on the ballot in the
2024 election. Here they are the ballot
proposal States. Alaska right away, a red state,
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida,
Idaho Illinois. Maine Maryland.
Massachusetts Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada. North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma
Oregon. South Dakota Utah, what the
state of Washington? And yes, Wyoming.
And also the District of Columbia.
I mean, you have a wide variety of States blue States and red
States. I just read.
Now, these states are states that allow in some capacity for
citizens to initiate ballot proposals.
If you didn't hear your state mention, that means more than
likely, you can't get a law. Put on a ballot for the citizens
to vote on. So you've got to make that a law
in your state. You've got to get that passed.
To allow ballot proposals on the state ballot and think of the
great campaign you can wage to make this happen because the
question you'd have to ask the legislators if they did want to
allow this is so you are against the citizens of this state.
From determining what the law should be.
Well yes I tried. I am I'm I think it's much
better just to leave that up to the experts, the politicians in
our state capital, they they know what's best for the people
and know the people don't know what's best for themselves and
they should not be able to go into the voting booth and and
pass a law. What what's their other
argument? No, I'm telling you if we had a
real movement going for this, look at all the blue states in
the liberal states, that it weren't on that list.
I just mentioned States like New York, where the state
legislature can add a ballot proposal to the ballot, but not
citizens, that has to change. It should be in all 50 states.
Just the right to choose alone should be on every state ballot
because all the polls have shown in every single state, including
the red States. The majority of people did not
want to overturn Roe v-- Wade. You know, they may not be for
abortion themselves personally, but they didn't want to upset
the status quo. The majority of Voters are women
not men. You have a ballot proposal that
supports women's rights. That has a great chance of
passing. So far, this year, since Roe v--
Wade, the five ballot proposals it run in November and the one
in the summer in Kansas the pro-choice position past And
even here over the weekend, the Supreme Court in South Carolina,
in red deep red, South Carolina, the Republican Supreme Court,
threw out the abortion, Banning law that now exists.
Our, it says that you can't have an abortion after 6 weeks.
Supreme Court in South Carolina, through that out here over the
weekend. Gone.
That's the position of the American people.
That's how the majority of Americans feel.
You put that on your ballot, it's not only going to pass,
it's going to bring out like-minded.
People to vote for other things, on the ballot and other
candidates, the kind of candidates we want elected so
that we can remove these Chrome stirs.
Pick a ballot proposal for the 2024 election right now, so you
can get started, get it on the ballot, bring out your base,
your voters, your Progressive liberal, Democratic people, who
maybe don't vote very often, but they will come out to pass a law
that benefits them in the rest of the people in your state.
Make this a top priority. Don't be satisfied with
continuing to be just a little blue dot in the Red Sea.
It's time for change. We can make this happen and you
are the people that connect night, this You can make this
happen. I want to recommend also a
documentary called slay, the dragon of how people in Michigan
and other states. Have used the ballot proposal to
stop gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Please, watch this incredible, documentary slay.
The dragon, I'll have a link for it here on this podcast page.
I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with our final episode episode
12 in our series blue dots in a Red Sea.
Please join me for that. Please share this with other
people. And if your first time podcast,
listener, welcome, thank you for signing up.
You can subscribe to my sub stack here, all my writings and
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So please Consider doing that. Thank you for being part of this
incredible Movement. We are making great progress.
My thanks to producer and my editor Angela, vargo's, I wish
you all well and I will talk to you very soon.
This is Michael Moore. What the hell happened, man,
we're so happy in my life. Ever.