If Presidents Were Chosen Like Oscars, You Might Not Be So Sad Right Now

If Presidents Were Chosen Like Oscars

Are you annoyed by how People choose presidents? Do you generally want there have been one other methodology for selecting the chief of the free world? Fortunately, Hollywood has simply what you’re in search of. If solely the U.S. voted for president the best way members of the Academy vote for the most effective image Oscar — by way of ranked-choice voting, or RCV — the type of people that find yourself within the Oval Workplace would possibly look very completely different. The way in which RCV works is that voters choose their first, second and third decisions on their ballots; if their first selection doesn’t attain 50 % within the preliminary tally, their poll counts towards their second selection within the subsequent tally, and so forth, till one candidate emerges victorious. It’s possible how long-shot films like Moonlight and Parasite ended up successful finest image, and will give much less polarizing presidential candidates a greater shot on the White Home. Actually, a number of states already are experimenting with RCV; Democrats have used it in elections in Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming, whereas Republicans in Virginia have tried it for sure state-wide contests.

“It solves the problem where the majority of people don’t want the plurality winner,” notes Rachael Cobb, an affiliate political science professor at Suffolk College. “It gives more people more ownership and more voice.” Take, for instance, the vote that turned Donald Trump right into a viable presidential candidate, the 2016 New Hampshire main. Trump gained that race with simply 35 % of the vote, beating John Kasich (16 %), Ted Cruz (12), Jeb Bush (11), Marco Rubio (11) and Chris Christie (7). Beneath RCV, it’s doable a kind of different Republicans might need garnered sufficient second- and third-choice votes to win the state and in the end the nomination. Like The Revenant — you bear in mind, the divisive Leonardo DiCaprio film that acquired beat in ranked-choice voting by the extra universally appreciated Highlight in 2015 — Trump’s marketing campaign juggernaut might need been slowed. — Steven Zeitchik

A Fb Web page Purports Madonna’s Daughter Has Gone MAGA, however Reps Say It’s Faux 

There may be each purpose to imagine Madonna voted for Kamala Harris. For one factor, shortly after the election, the 66-year-old pop legend posted a photograph on Instagram of a cake adorned with the phrases “FUCK TRUMP” (“stuffed my face with this last night,” she knowledgeable her 19 million followers). She additionally endorsed her in October and mentioned she was coming again to the USA so she may vote for Harris. Nonetheless, it turns on the market’s one other social media account, this one purporting to include the web musings of Madonna’s 28-year-old daughter, Lourdes Leon, that means in any other case. “Voted with my momma,” Leon — or at the very least somebody claiming to be Leon — posted on a non-public Fb web page together with footage of mom and daughter on Election Day that had additionally appeared on Madonna’s IG account. “I hate that she has to play like she voted for Whorris [sic] but hey she gotta play the rules.” Reps for Madonna and Leon vehemently insist the account is a pretend, that neither would have voted for Trump, and that Leon would by no means be caught lifeless on a platform as uncool as Fb. They add that Fb has now taken down the web page. Truthful sufficient, however the account was in operation for greater than a decade and comprises lots of of non-public photographs (Thanksgivings and birthdays at Madonna’s home; Lourdes understanding along with her father, private coach Carlos Leon). Madonna’s rep suggests these photographs might need been hacked from Lourdes’ non-public Insta account, however even when true, the web page has catfished a notable crowd. Among the many web page’s 135 pals: Madonna’s sister Melanie Ciccone and actress Rose McGowan (neither responded to requests for remark). Rambling realized of the account by way of one other of these pals, who has adopted the web page for a decade and recognized Leon for years, although can not say for positive whether or not it’s legit. 

Jon Batiste Thinks Trump Could Be … Good for Artists?

In his first time period, Trump sought to eradicate federal arts funding. What would be the cultural penalties of his return to the White Home? For Jon Batiste — whose profession has taken him from bandleading on the Late Present With Stephen Colbert to the best echelons of jazz, pop and classical — the second is ripe for alternative. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” says the 38-year-old pianist. “The greatest transformations have come from people at the bottom, not the people in power. [That] is the stuff history is made of.” Batiste, who believes music can heal nationwide division, is releasing his newest album Nov. 15, Beethoven’s Blues, which spans not merely kinds however centuries. The experiment grew out of an improv he dashed off on Who’s Speaking to Chris Wallace final yr wherein Batiste infused Für Elise with blue notes and gospel chords. Why commit a complete album to the long-dead German composer? “It’s been 250-plus years,” he says. “It was due for an update.” 

This story appeared within the Nov. 13 difficulty of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.