In this week’s The<\/em> Reason Roundtable<\/em>, editors Matt Welch,<\/a> Peter Suderman<\/a>, Katherine Mangu-Ward<\/a> and Nick Gillespie<\/a> survey the political landscape ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

0:31—Key midterm issues<\/p>\n

11:50—Most laughable major party pre-election pitches<\/p>\n

29:28—Weekly Listener Question:<\/p>\n

“How small, of all that human hearts endure,<\/p>\n

That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.<\/p>\n

Still to ourselves in every place consign’d,<\/p>\n

Our own felicity we make or find:”\u00a0\u2015 Samuel Johnson<\/p>\n

My pithy query is this: do you think candidates would attract the 8-15% of independents by refreshingly stating their actions in office will have little to no effect on individualized happiness? For example, Democrats and Republicans have squabbled over tax cuts—a somewhat nominal 39.6 to 37% for the top rate, while Federal spending on every single mandatory and discretionary program has remained relatively unscathed, but the tax cuts are held up as an Us vs. Them when discussing policy. Will cynicism ever prevail?! Are there any real-life Bulworth<\/em> examples?\u00a0Thank you!<\/p>\n

49:45—This week’s cultural recommendations<\/p>\n

Mentioned in this podcast:<\/p>\n

“Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Have a Clear Advantage Going Into Election Day<\/a>” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown<\/p>\n

“‘Election Fraud’ Can Become Our Awful New Hyperbole<\/a>” by Bonnie Kristian<\/p>\n

“California’s Anti-Vaping Ballot Question Isn’t About ‘Protecting Children,<\/a>‘” by Steven Greenhut<\/p>\n

“Herschel Walker’s Unseriousness Overshadowed What Should Have Been a Serious Race<\/a>” by Joe Lancaster<\/p>\n

“A GOP-Led Congress May Focus on Owning the Libs. Instead, It Should Focus on Owning Inflation.<\/a>” By Veronique de Rugy<\/p>\n

“Turning ‘Saving Democracy’ Into a Campaign Slogan Isn’t Helping Save Democracy<\/a>” by Eric Boehm<\/p>\n

“The Death of Social Security: Debating Bush’s plan for private retirement accounts<\/a>” \u00a0by James Glassman and Tyler Cowen<\/p>\n

“How Georgia’s Outlandish Ballot Access Law Is Protecting Marjorie Taylor Greene (and the Two-Party System)<\/a>” by Eric Boehm<\/p>\n

“Morris P. Fiorina: Why ‘Electoral Chaos’ Is Here To Stay<\/span><\/a>” by Nick Gillespie<\/p>\n

“Still Fab: Why we keep listening to the Beatles<\/a>” by Charles Paul Freund<\/p>\n

“Long and Whining Road: The Beatles, the boomers, and boredom<\/a>” by Nick Gillespie<\/p>\n

“Has the Libertarian Moment finally arrived?<\/a>” by Robert Draper<\/p>\n

Bulworth Raps<\/a><\/p>\n

Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com<\/a>. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.<\/p>\n

Today’s sponsor:<\/p>\n

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  Audio production by Ian Keyser<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

  Assistant production by Hunt Beaty<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

  Music: “Angeline,” by The Brothers Steve<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

  The post "This is what democracy looks like. And it kinda sucks."<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Plus: Peter Suderman may or may not attempt a rendition of a famous rap from the movie Bulworth. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-78316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}