Let the People Pick the President
The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jesse Wegman
-
By:
-
Jesse Wegman
About this listen
"People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one, at least in recent years, has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does in 'Let the People Pick the President.'" (The New York Times Book Review)
This program is read by the author
The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose?
Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question - and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans - Republicans and Democrats alike - find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president.
Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed - now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president?
In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from 21st-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President, he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count - and restore belief in our democratic system.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
"Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America's 'core democratic principles' and should be done away with...." (Publishers Weekly)
©2020 Jesse Wegman (P)2020 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Allow Me to Retort
- A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution
- By: Elie Mystal
- Narrated by: Elie Mystal
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them. Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past.
-
-
Informative and Entertaining
- By Kindle Customer on 03-06-22
By: Elie Mystal
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
Justice Is Coming
- How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It
- By: Cenk Uygur
- Narrated by: Cenk Uygur
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The media can't stop talking about the gridlock in Washington, as if a handful of stubborn Republicans are the only thing standing between us and a fully-functional democracy. The reality is that our government was taken over by big business and their allies in both political parties. The getaway driver in this heist was corporate media. The good news is that the American people are very progressive. And soon progressives will take over Washington as well! And when they do, the great majority of Americans will love it.
-
-
Much better than expected
- By Tracy B on 09-23-23
By: Cenk Uygur
-
Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
- By: Alexander Keyssar
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With every presidential election, Americans puzzle over the peculiar mechanism of the Electoral College. The author of the Pulitzer finalist The Right to Vote explains the enduring problem of this controversial institution.
-
-
Exhaustive history of the electoral college
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 02-17-24
-
Allow Me to Retort
- A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution
- By: Elie Mystal
- Narrated by: Elie Mystal
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them. Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past.
-
-
Informative and Entertaining
- By Kindle Customer on 03-06-22
By: Elie Mystal
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
Justice Is Coming
- How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It
- By: Cenk Uygur
- Narrated by: Cenk Uygur
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The media can't stop talking about the gridlock in Washington, as if a handful of stubborn Republicans are the only thing standing between us and a fully-functional democracy. The reality is that our government was taken over by big business and their allies in both political parties. The getaway driver in this heist was corporate media. The good news is that the American people are very progressive. And soon progressives will take over Washington as well! And when they do, the great majority of Americans will love it.
-
-
Much better than expected
- By Tracy B on 09-23-23
By: Cenk Uygur
-
Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
- By: Alexander Keyssar
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With every presidential election, Americans puzzle over the peculiar mechanism of the Electoral College. The author of the Pulitzer finalist The Right to Vote explains the enduring problem of this controversial institution.
-
-
Exhaustive history of the electoral college
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 02-17-24
-
They Want to Kill Americans
- The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship.
-
-
It's informative and frightening
- By Amazon Customer on 07-17-22
By: Malcolm Nance
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
The Fall
- The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty
- By: Michael Wolff
- Narrated by: Michael Wolff - introduction, Holter Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the nation—into further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.
-
-
Terrific rundown of Fox
- By Iread on 10-05-23
By: Michael Wolff
-
Lady Justice
- Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
- By: Dahlia Lithwick
- Narrated by: Dahlia Lithwick
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Lady Justice, Dahlia Lithwick, one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, illuminates these many heroes of the Trump years. From Sally Yates and Becca Heller, who fought the Muslim travel ban, to Roberta Kaplan, who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, to Stacey Abrams, who worked to protect the voting rights of millions of Georgians, Lithwick dramatizes in thrilling detail the women lawyers who worked tirelessly to hold the line against the most chaotic presidency in living memory.
-
-
Beautiful
- By susan c on 09-26-22
By: Dahlia Lithwick
-
The Shadow Docket
- How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic
- By: Stephen Vladeck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes “shadow docket,” regularly making decisions that affect millions of Americans without public hearings and without explanation, through cryptic late-night rulings that leave lawyers—and citizens—scrambling. But Americans of all political stripes should be worried about what the shadow docket portends for the rule of law, argues Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck.
-
-
Where was Vladeck?
- By SorenKMiller on 05-25-23
By: Stephen Vladeck
-
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop
- The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
- By: Lee Drutman
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American democracy is at an impasse. After years of zero-sum partisan trench warfare, our political institutions are deteriorating. Our norms are collapsing. Democrats and Republicans no longer merely argue; they cut off contact with each other. In short, the two-party system is breaking our democracy, and driving us all crazy.
-
-
Good book
- By David T. on 10-05-20
By: Lee Drutman
-
Un-Trumping America
- A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again
- By: Dan Pfeiffer
- Narrated by: Dan Pfeiffer
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is nothing more important than beating Donald Trump in 2020, but defeating Trump is just the start of this timely book. Un-Trumping America offers readers three critical insights: first, Trump is not an aberration, but rather the logical extension of the modern Republican Party; second, how Democrats can defeat Trump in 2020; and third, preventing the likes of Trump from ever happening again with a plan to fix democracy.
-
-
If you care about our democracy, listen to this book.
- By kay on 02-25-20
By: Dan Pfeiffer
-
The Deficit Myth
- Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy
- By: Stephanie Kelton
- Narrated by: Stephanie Kelton
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country.
-
-
Good core idea, ruined by polemics
- By Amaze on 06-25-20
By: Stephanie Kelton
-
Dark Money
- The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
- By: Jane Mayer
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against "big government" led to the rise of a broad-based conservative movement.
-
-
"I just want my fair share--which is all of it."
- By Darwin8u on 11-28-16
By: Jane Mayer
-
This Will Not Pass
- Trump, Biden and the Battle for American Democracy
- By: Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the authoritative, “deeply reported” (The Wall Street Journal) account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House.
-
-
Ammerca's Futura does Not included Trump
- By K. Lilja-King on 05-12-22
By: Jonathan Martin, and others
-
The Supermajority
- How the Supreme Court Divided America
- By: Michael Waldman
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Michael Waldman - introduction
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman explores the tumultuous 2021–2022 Supreme Court term. He draws deeply on history to examine other times the Court veered from the popular will, provoking controversy, and backlash. And he analyzes the most important new rulings and their implications for the law and for American society. Waldman asks: What can we do when the Supreme Court challenges the country?
-
-
This should be a serialized media presentation, for the return of some normalization of the Supreme Court.
- By Elaine on 06-08-23
By: Michael Waldman
Related to this topic
-
Democracy in One Book or Less
- How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think
- By: David Litt
- Narrated by: David Litt
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Bryson meets Thomas Frank in this deeply insightful, unexpectedly hilarious story of how politicians hijacked American democracy and how we can take it back.
-
-
Thanks Litt.
- By Andy on 10-06-20
By: David Litt
-
Kill Switch
- The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy
- By: Adam Jentleson
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every major decision governing our diverse, majority-female, and increasingly liberal country bears the stamp of the US Senate, yet the Senate allows an almost exclusively White, predominantly male, and radically conservative minority of the American electorate to impose its will on the rest of us. How did we get to this point? In Kill Switch, Adam Jentleson argues that shifting demographics alone cannot explain how Mitch McConnell harnessed the Senate and turned it into a powerful weapon of minority rule.
-
-
Don't bother, narration intolerable!
- By Joseph on 03-08-21
By: Adam Jentleson
-
The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
- The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
- By: Thom Hartmann
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks: What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison.
-
-
A must read to understand why voting is essential.
- By Brandon WIlliams on 10-05-19
By: Thom Hartmann
-
Enlightened Democracy
- The Case for the Electoral College, 2nd Edition
- By: Tara Ross
- Narrated by: Tara Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enlightened Democracy traces the history of the Electoral College from the Constitutional Convention to the present. The Electoral College protects our republic and promotes our liberty. Americans should defend their unique presidential election system at all costs.
-
-
Hold your breath
- By Ein on 03-13-20
By: Tara Ross
-
They Don't Represent Us
- Reclaiming Our Democracy
- By: Lawrence Lessig
- Narrated by: Lawrence Lessig
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In They Don’t Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with “them” - Washington’s politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also “us.”
-
-
All Americans should read/listen to this.
- By Christopher W Catron on 03-22-20
By: Lawrence Lessig
-
Supreme Disorder
- Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court
- By: Ilya Shapiro
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The brutal confirmation battles we saw over Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are symptoms of a larger problem with our third branch of government, a problem that began long before Kavanaugh, Merrick Garland, Clarence Thomas, or even Robert Bork: the courts’ own self-corruption, aiding and abetting the expansion of federal power.
-
-
Tremendous detail
- By Charles on 07-15-22
By: Ilya Shapiro
-
Democracy in One Book or Less
- How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think
- By: David Litt
- Narrated by: David Litt
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Bryson meets Thomas Frank in this deeply insightful, unexpectedly hilarious story of how politicians hijacked American democracy and how we can take it back.
-
-
Thanks Litt.
- By Andy on 10-06-20
By: David Litt
-
Kill Switch
- The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy
- By: Adam Jentleson
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every major decision governing our diverse, majority-female, and increasingly liberal country bears the stamp of the US Senate, yet the Senate allows an almost exclusively White, predominantly male, and radically conservative minority of the American electorate to impose its will on the rest of us. How did we get to this point? In Kill Switch, Adam Jentleson argues that shifting demographics alone cannot explain how Mitch McConnell harnessed the Senate and turned it into a powerful weapon of minority rule.
-
-
Don't bother, narration intolerable!
- By Joseph on 03-08-21
By: Adam Jentleson
-
The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
- The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
- By: Thom Hartmann
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks: What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison.
-
-
A must read to understand why voting is essential.
- By Brandon WIlliams on 10-05-19
By: Thom Hartmann
-
Enlightened Democracy
- The Case for the Electoral College, 2nd Edition
- By: Tara Ross
- Narrated by: Tara Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enlightened Democracy traces the history of the Electoral College from the Constitutional Convention to the present. The Electoral College protects our republic and promotes our liberty. Americans should defend their unique presidential election system at all costs.
-
-
Hold your breath
- By Ein on 03-13-20
By: Tara Ross
-
They Don't Represent Us
- Reclaiming Our Democracy
- By: Lawrence Lessig
- Narrated by: Lawrence Lessig
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In They Don’t Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with “them” - Washington’s politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also “us.”
-
-
All Americans should read/listen to this.
- By Christopher W Catron on 03-22-20
By: Lawrence Lessig
-
Supreme Disorder
- Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court
- By: Ilya Shapiro
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The brutal confirmation battles we saw over Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are symptoms of a larger problem with our third branch of government, a problem that began long before Kavanaugh, Merrick Garland, Clarence Thomas, or even Robert Bork: the courts’ own self-corruption, aiding and abetting the expansion of federal power.
-
-
Tremendous detail
- By Charles on 07-15-22
By: Ilya Shapiro
-
Four Threats
- The Recurring Crises of American Democracy
- By: Suzanne Mettler, Robert C. Lieberman
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Four Threats, Lieberman and Mettler explore five historical episodes when democracy in the United States was under siege: the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Depression, and Watergate. These episodes risked profound, even fatal, damage to the American democratic experiment, and on occasion antidemocratic forces have prevailed. From this history, four distinct characteristics of democratic disruption emerge. Political polarization, racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power...have threatened the survival of the republic.
-
-
Very informative
- By Angela Fobbs on 12-31-20
By: Suzanne Mettler, and others
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else.
-
-
A party gone astray
- By Devin on 08-07-20
By: Stuart Stevens
-
Hard Driving
- The Wendell Scott Story
- By: Brian Donovan, Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The only book-length account of the life of Wendell Scott, the one-time moonshine runner who broke the color barrier in stock-car racing in 1952 and, against all odds, competed for more than 20 years in a sport dominated by Southern Whites.
-
-
Outstanding! A must for any racing fan!
- By ThatGuyHerb on 10-17-23
By: Brian Donovan, and others
-
The Everything American Government Book
- From the Constitution to Present-Day Elections, All You Need to Understand Our Democratic System
- By: Nick Ragone
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If the confusion following the last presidential election is any indication, the average citizen knows precious little about the democratic system and the laws that affect their daily lives. The Everything American Government Book unravels the complexities of our democracy and provides listeners with the knowledge necessary to make the right decisions and take an active role in the management of their country. This thoroughly researched work is ideal for anyone brushing up on civics, as well as students of all ages.
-
-
A solid understanding of local, state and national political structure...
- By Amazon Customer on 12-25-19
By: Nick Ragone
-
Working Class Republican
- Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism
- By: Henry Olsen
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conventional political wisdom views the two most consequential presidents of the 20th century - FDR and Ronald Reagan - as ideological opposites. FDR is hailed as the champion of big-government progressivism manifested in the New Deal. Reagan is seen as the crusader for conservatism dedicated to small government and free markets. But Henry Olsen argues that this assumption is wrong.
-
-
Refreshing and insightful
- By Thomas Marks on 12-16-19
By: Henry Olsen
-
What It Took to Win
- A History of the Democratic Party
- By: Michael Kazin
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In What It Took to Win, the eminent historian Michael Kazin identifies and assesses the Democratic Party's long-running commitment to creating "moral capitalism" - a system that mixed entrepreneurial freedom with the welfare of workers and consumers. And yet the same party that championed the rights of the white working man also vigorously protected or advanced the causes of slavery, segregation, and Indian removal.
-
-
Timely and informative History Book
- By Asha Sceanca on 03-24-22
By: Michael Kazin
-
American Secession
- The Looming Threat of a National Breakup
- By: F. H. Buckley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have never been more divided, and we're ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue - it all invites us to think that we'd be happier were we two different countries. There's another reason why secession beckons, says F. H. Buckley: we're too big. In population and area, the United States is one of the biggest countries in the world, and American Secession provides data showing that smaller countries are happier and less corrupt.
-
-
GREAT TO MAKE YOU THINK
- By Brian on 03-01-23
By: F. H. Buckley
-
The Embattled Vote in America
- From the Founding to the Present
- By: Allan J. Lichtman
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America's political leaders have considered suffrage not a natural right but a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. Today, voter identification laws, political gerrymandering, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box. We cannot blame the founders alone for America's embattled vote. Best-selling author Allan Lichtman notes that subsequent generations have failed to establish suffrage as a universal right.
-
-
Old Hat ...
- By Richard D. Parker on 01-17-19
-
Trumpocalypse
- Restoring American Democracy
- By: David Frum
- Narrated by: David Frum
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A huge swath of Americans have put their faith in Trump, and Trump only, because they see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them. If they would risk their lives for Trump in a pandemic, they will certainly risk the stability of American democracy. They brought the Trumpocalypse upon the country, and a post-Trumpocalypse country will have to find a way either to reconcile them to democracy - or to protect democracy from them.
-
-
Trump More Dangerous Than the Axis of Evil
- By J.B. on 05-26-20
By: David Frum
-
Lincoln's Mentors
- The Education of a Leader
- By: Michael J. Gerhardt
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A novel and brilliant look at how Abraham Lincoln mastered the art of leadership: acclaimed historian Michael J. Gerhardt, who appeared during the impeachment proceedings of President Trump, reveals how a group of five men mentored an obscure lawyer with no executive experience to become American’s greatest leader
-
-
Interesting book
- By Brian on 03-07-21
-
Rule and Ruin
- The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party
- By: Geoffrey Kabaservice
- Narrated by: Michael Bulter Murray
- Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The chaotic events leading up to Mitt Romney's defeat in the 2012 election indicated how far the Republican Party had rocketed rightward away from the center of public opinion. Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government and force a U.S. debt default. Tea Party activists mounted primary challenges against Republican officeholders who appeared to exhibit too much pragmatism or independence. Moderation and compromise were dirty words in the Republican presidential debates. The GOP, it seemed, had suddenly become a party of ideological purity. Except this development is not new at all.
-
-
Kabaservice doesn't make the case
- By MJE on 01-22-16
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
- By: Alexander Keyssar
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With every presidential election, Americans puzzle over the peculiar mechanism of the Electoral College. The author of the Pulitzer finalist The Right to Vote explains the enduring problem of this controversial institution.
-
-
Exhaustive history of the electoral college
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 02-17-24
-
The Electoral College
- A Biography of America's Peculiar Creation Through the Eyes of the People Who Shaped It
- By: Thomas E. Weaver
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Told through the lenses of specific people who both influenced the process and were impacted by the results, The Electoral College looks at how the Electoral College has changed US history and why it endures.
By: Thomas E. Weaver
-
Presidential Elections and Majority Rule
- The Rise, Demise, and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College
- By: Edward B. Foley
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Electoral College that governs America has been with us since 1804, when Thomas Jefferson's supporters redesigned it for his re-election. The Jeffersonians were motivated by the principle of majority rule. Gone were the days when a president would be elected by acclamation, as George Washington had been. Instead, given the emergence of intense two-party competition, the Jeffersonians wanted to make sure that the Electoral College awarded the presidency to the candidate of the majority, rather than minority, party.
-
-
Premise is faulty but research is good
- By Grant on 06-03-20
By: Edward B. Foley
-
Enlightened Democracy
- The Case for the Electoral College, 2nd Edition
- By: Tara Ross
- Narrated by: Tara Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enlightened Democracy traces the history of the Electoral College from the Constitutional Convention to the present. The Electoral College protects our republic and promotes our liberty. Americans should defend their unique presidential election system at all costs.
-
-
Hold your breath
- By Ein on 03-13-20
By: Tara Ross
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
No Democracy Lasts Forever
- How the Constitution Threatens the United States
- By: Erwin Chemerinsky
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No Democracy Lasts Forever argues that the Constitution has become a threat to American democracy and must be dramatically changed or replaced if secession is to be avoided. Deeply troubled by the Constitution's inherent flaws, Erwin Chemerinsky, the renowned dean of Berkeley law school, came to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document is responsible for the crisis now facing American democracy.
-
-
Do You Hate America?
- By Dallas on 11-23-24
-
Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
- By: Alexander Keyssar
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With every presidential election, Americans puzzle over the peculiar mechanism of the Electoral College. The author of the Pulitzer finalist The Right to Vote explains the enduring problem of this controversial institution.
-
-
Exhaustive history of the electoral college
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 02-17-24
-
The Electoral College
- A Biography of America's Peculiar Creation Through the Eyes of the People Who Shaped It
- By: Thomas E. Weaver
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Told through the lenses of specific people who both influenced the process and were impacted by the results, The Electoral College looks at how the Electoral College has changed US history and why it endures.
By: Thomas E. Weaver
-
Presidential Elections and Majority Rule
- The Rise, Demise, and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College
- By: Edward B. Foley
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Electoral College that governs America has been with us since 1804, when Thomas Jefferson's supporters redesigned it for his re-election. The Jeffersonians were motivated by the principle of majority rule. Gone were the days when a president would be elected by acclamation, as George Washington had been. Instead, given the emergence of intense two-party competition, the Jeffersonians wanted to make sure that the Electoral College awarded the presidency to the candidate of the majority, rather than minority, party.
-
-
Premise is faulty but research is good
- By Grant on 06-03-20
By: Edward B. Foley
-
Enlightened Democracy
- The Case for the Electoral College, 2nd Edition
- By: Tara Ross
- Narrated by: Tara Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enlightened Democracy traces the history of the Electoral College from the Constitutional Convention to the present. The Electoral College protects our republic and promotes our liberty. Americans should defend their unique presidential election system at all costs.
-
-
Hold your breath
- By Ein on 03-13-20
By: Tara Ross
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
No Democracy Lasts Forever
- How the Constitution Threatens the United States
- By: Erwin Chemerinsky
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No Democracy Lasts Forever argues that the Constitution has become a threat to American democracy and must be dramatically changed or replaced if secession is to be avoided. Deeply troubled by the Constitution's inherent flaws, Erwin Chemerinsky, the renowned dean of Berkeley law school, came to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document is responsible for the crisis now facing American democracy.
-
-
Do You Hate America?
- By Dallas on 11-23-24
What listeners say about Let the People Pick the President
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emily
- 11-18-20
Really informative
The beginning of the book was sometimes a little slow, but I found the book overall incredibly informative and helpful for understanding the electoral college and the arguments for and against it. I appreciated that the analysis was fact based more than opinion based. I had seen a documentary recently arguing for the electoral college, but found it mostly emotion based and not factual, and this was a refreshing change from that. I'll definitely be recommending it to my friends and family.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Taylor
- 04-21-20
eye opening
Cool perspective on the electoral college and the history that surrounds it. The narrator is great as well
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris Swan
- 03-22-20
Outstanding Summary of the National Popular Vote
Excellent book about making our politics work better. National popular vote and rank voting is the answer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justin D. Sweeney
- 11-14-20
Every American should read this book!
I was skeptical of the EC going in to this read...now I’m 100% convinced it needs to be abolished.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sagid Manriquez
- 06-18-20
Amazing book!
Well-researched and non-biased book. Congrats to Jesse Wegman for writing such an interesting, factual, and intellectually stimulating book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Billy
- 06-09-20
Definitely Worth a Listen, but be critical
On the whole, I think this book is worth listening to and discussing. I entered the book expecting the same general arguments. While those are present, the author does go into a bit more history and a few deeper arguments than other texts. (However, as the author notes, it is not an all-encompassing list.)
Two things I would submit to while you listen. (1) Chapter 7 deals with an inter-state compact. It's certainly an interesting proposition, but the Supreme Court has heard a set of cases that might turn that chapter on its head. The decisions are not yet available so I cannot say the author is incorrect, but the Chapter assumes presidential electors are free agents. That may not be accurate depending on the outcome of Baca. (2) The author's operating concept a republic is incorrect. He frames it as a representative democracy (akin to Athens) when it is really quite different. One hallmark of a republic is layers between the leader and the governed. That said, this definitional change does not substantively alter the arguments of the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CJFLA
- 06-25-20
Simple logic
An excellent explanation of the electoral college and why it should not exist. The fact that less than one million people in certain key precincts will determine who wins the 2020 presidential election is mind boggling. Every vote needs to count. Period.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- I know where you live
- 08-06-20
Well Done 👏 ✔
I highly recommend this to anyone that is registered to vote in America or wants to learn more about a controversial topic that has played a direct role in how the US has taken shape since James Wilson and James Madison both helped forge the governing document that laid the foundation for how we pick our president.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Liam Krammer
- 11-17-20
INSPIRING!
Great content! Loved the definitive viewpoints on both sides of this issue. Well balanced & easy to understand. Thank you, Mr. Wegman & Reed Hunt for sparking your interest. 🇺🇸
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe Ganem III
- 08-03-20
Required reading in schools and universities for anyone wanting to preserve US democracy
We are almost 250 years beyond the founding of this great country and are still clinging to a vestige of compromise aimed at preserving racism and slavery in the south to get their approval of that document. We are long overdue to eliminate the electoral college impact on electing the presidency. Jesse Wegman does an outstanding job of charting the historical course that got us to where we are today and makes a compelling case for changing to a popular vote elected president. He carefully navigates us through a series of well worn myths and gives us the facts necessary to make the case. We should all push our politicians to vote in favor of the state cmpact binding all electoral votes to the popular vote winner and therefore bypass the pain of changing the constitution and removing the electoral college. We can do this before the 2024 election. The past four years of a non-popularly elected presidency, in of itself, should be enough motivation for us to fix an intolerable system the overrides the importance of one person one vote.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!