Who's claiming power this election? What's happening in battleground states? And why do we still have the electoral college?

All this month, the Thruline Podcast is asking big questions about our democracy and going back in time to answer them.

Listen now to the Thru Line Podcast from NPR. Hey everyone, you're listening to Code Switch.

I'm B.A. Parker.

And I'm Jean Dembe.

All right, Jean, I've been thinking about how some leaders are revered, you know, even when

their policies are particularly violent and heinous.

I mean you've got to narrow that down to a few hundred people but are you

thinking about anybody in particular? Fair. Former president Andrew Jackson

comes to mind. Okay yeah. He's the man on the $20 bill. He's been celebrated as the super air quotes here common man president.

Yeah, I distinctly remember after Trump was elected in 2016

that he very proudly hung a portrait of Andrew Jackson behind him

in the Oval Office, which was a choice.

I brought the Andrew Jackson portrait there.

Right behind me, right, boom, over my left shoulder.

It's definitely a choice, but then again,

Trump says that his election was the most similar to Jackson's,

and listen as a personal hero.

But Jackson was, you know, a personal hero. But Jackson was a brutal slave owner who at the time of his death

owned 150 people on his Tennessee Cotton Plantation where he's now buried.

And Jackson is probably most infamous for seizing land

and extending slavery to the west,

...