Watch 'Last Week Tonight' With John Oliver Tackle US Political System, Calls for Campaign Format Changes
"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver tackles the complex issue that is the primary and caucus election season in his latest on-air rant on his HBO show.
Describing the early 2016 presidential election season as "the electoral foreplay we've been engaging in since February," Oliver sought to explain away the art of crowning a president in a way only he can.
Oliver Sees System as Broken
First on his agenda was addressing the recent ruckus that erupted in Nevada between supporters for Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over how delegates are assigned.
Next, Oliver weighed in on similar concerns raised by supporters of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Recently, Trump backers were outraged upon learning then candidate Ted Cruz stood to walk away with more delegates from the Louisiana primary, despite being bested by Trump by four points in the popular vote.
"The thing is, I get why he's annoyed," Oliver said of threats made by Trump to sue his own party. "And there is no clearer piece of evidence that our system is broken, no more thoroughly dead canary in the coal mine, than when Donald Trump is actually making sense. Because when you see results like that, the process does feel counterintuitive."
Ever since riots broke out in 1968 at the Democratic Convention over the nomination of Hubert Humphrey after his name wasn't even listed on the ballot, party leaders have been given more power in the election process through the primary and caucus system.
In Oliver's view, the problem with that is the system simply leaves too much up to the discretion of state leaders, leaving commoners with an "erratic clusterfuck every four years."
Nowadays, among the most hotly debated topics is the issue of how delegates are divided.
"Remember, you're not directly voting for a candidate -- you're voting to help determine the delegates who will attend the National Party Convention and vote for a candidate on your behalf," Oliver reminded his audience.
Soon, he turned his attention back to Nevada and the standoff Clinton and Sanders' supporters recently engaged in.
"They had a caucus back in February which Hillary Clinton won, but that caucus only determined 23 out of their 35 regular delegates," he said. "As for the remaining 12, those were decided by delegates at the state convention, who were chosen by the delegates at county conventions in April, who were chosen in those February caucuses, which, remember, Hillary won. Now, unfortunately for her, at those county conventions more Bernie supporters showed up."
Oliver sized it all up as another example that the current system has outlasted its usefulness.
Time for a Change
"The arcane party structures don't reflect how most people assume presidential selection works," he said. "And that in itself is a huge problem. Any competition should have clear rules. You don't get to the end of a football game and say, 'OK, who found the most eggs?'"
Oliver added the whole matter of superdelegates just makes the process that much more convoluted.
On the Republican Party side, most states delegates "are only required to reflect their state's choice in the first round of convention voting." After that, they are free to do as they see fit.
To give power back to the people, Oliver proposes waging a campaign to pester party chairs into submission that starts as soon as the upcoming election ends.
"Let's together pick a date early next year to actually write an email to the chair of each party and remind them-politely-to fix this," he said Oliver. "I propose Feb. 2nd. Now, that will be easy to remember because it's Groundhog Day, which does seem appropriate because, unless this primary process is fixed, we are all destined to live through the same nightmare scenario over and over again until the end of fu**ing time."
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