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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,

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Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of

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Speaker 1: today's best minds. We're on vacation this week, but that

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean we don't have an amazing show for you

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Speaker 1: Today the Washington Post Metropolis blog Gillian Brackau talk to

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Speaker 1: us about the.

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Speaker 2: History of strikes.

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Speaker 1: But first we have Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

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Speaker 1: survivor David Hogg on his new organization, which is dedicated

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Speaker 1: to electing more people to state legislature and Congress. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, David Hog. Thank you for having me

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Speaker 1: so talk to us about what you're working on.

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Speaker 3: I just graduated college and as my next step, I'm

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Speaker 3: working on launching a pack and super pac called Leaders

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Speaker 3: We Deserve, dedicated to helping elect young people across the country,

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Speaker 3: especially in state legislatures, to help turn the tide on

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Speaker 3: the far right agenda by investing in the future. We're

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Speaker 3: focused on electing candidates under the age of thirty to

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Speaker 3: state legislatures and under.

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Speaker 2: Thirty five to Congress.

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Speaker 3: But really most of our focus is on state legislatures,

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Speaker 3: especially in states like Florida and Texas that are not

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Speaker 3: going to flip in the next cycle or two, but

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Speaker 3: have a chance of doing so in the next decade

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Speaker 3: or so.

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Speaker 1: That is pretty interesting because you've come from Florida, right,

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about, you know, the Democratic

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Speaker 1: Party in Florida. One of the reasons why DeSantis won

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Speaker 1: by so many points and why he really did well

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Speaker 1: there was because Democratic Party sort of imploded in Florida.

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Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about that and how you're how what you're doing dovetails there.

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Speaker 3: I've been involved since I was seventeen years old, which was,

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Speaker 3: you know, just basically five five and a half years ago.

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Speaker 3: So I can't talk to the specifics of the internal

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Speaker 3: politics that happened pre twenty eighteen within the Florida Party obviously,

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Speaker 3: but I do not regardless of whatever is going on,

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Speaker 3: no matter how strong or weak a party is in

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Speaker 3: any state, the best solution all around, I would believe,

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Speaker 3: is investing in the future with some of these really young,

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Speaker 3: charismatic young people across the state in Florida, people like

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Speaker 3: the leaders against the Don't Say Gay Bill, other young

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Speaker 3: people that are standing up and fighting for what's right.

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Speaker 3: As we've seen is common in Florida after twenty eighteen year.

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Speaker 3: It's common in the media to talk about how DeSantis

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Speaker 3: is just getting win after win after win. But what's

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Speaker 3: not talked about a lot of the time is the

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Speaker 3: fact that Florida consistently passes progressive ballot measures. But because

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Speaker 3: of the way that a lot of the districts are drawn,

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Speaker 3: it has trended towards Republicans in the rout in the

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Speaker 3: past decade. But I don't think that that's necessarily something

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Speaker 3: that's going to last forever. I think what's part of

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Speaker 3: DeSantis's wins are the fact that there is an aging

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Speaker 3: population that is retiring and moving to Florida that even

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Speaker 3: when they were my age, we're already more conservative than

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Speaker 3: my generation is, and they only since they've gotten older,

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Speaker 3: and my generation has the greatest asset that you can

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Speaker 3: have on your side in politics, perhaps even more than

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Speaker 3: billions of dollars, which is time, because not even the

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Speaker 3: coke breathers can buy more of that. And that's what

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Speaker 3: we see this as you know, we might not be

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Speaker 3: able to flip the state legislature this election or the

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Speaker 3: next win, but we're laying the groundwork so that in

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Speaker 3: ten years, when you know, in seven or so years,

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Speaker 3: when redistricting happens, we have a better chance at cutting

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Speaker 3: off the supermajority and making some gains there and giving

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Speaker 3: young people hope that it doesn't have to be this way,

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Speaker 3: that there are people, you know, imagine that justin Jones,

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Speaker 3: but in Florida right well, that can show them that

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Speaker 3: it's not all hope is lost. There are people that

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Speaker 3: look like you and think like you in the state

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Speaker 3: legislature and that your voice matters. And that's kind of

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Speaker 3: what we see this as as a way of investing

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Speaker 3: in the future and taking from the recent movements of

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Speaker 3: the past five years. You know, for every year of

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Speaker 3: Trump's presidency, he was so incompetent that there was a

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Speaker 3: new chapter of several social movements that was born, for

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Speaker 3: the Women's movement, to March for Our Lives, to the

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Speaker 3: Sunrise Movement, to the Movement for Black Lives. Right. What

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Speaker 3: we're trying to do here is take some of the

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Speaker 3: most charismatic and impressive young people from those movements and

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Speaker 3: help raise them up to run for office and other

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Speaker 3: young people with different backgrounds too, that have experienced in

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Speaker 3: areas such as artificial intelligence and others to show them that,

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Speaker 3: you know, our generation is stepping up and we're not

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Speaker 3: just yelling from the outside. We're working to changes on

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Speaker 3: the inside if we can't get them to do the

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Speaker 3: right thing. Because it's not just enough to have a

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Speaker 3: movement on the outside to hold politicians accountable. We need

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Speaker 3: better politicians to begin with, right, and we've had amazing

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Speaker 3: politicians before, but there have been far too few of them,

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Speaker 3: as evidence by what my generation is currently going through.

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Speaker 2: Right as we.

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Speaker 1: Look at Florida and we look at this idea of

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Speaker 1: a kind of more progressive state leaders, what kind of

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Speaker 1: races are you looking at?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so the races that we're targeting, I want to

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Speaker 3: be very clear, we're not here to challenge incumbent democrats

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Speaker 3: by any means whatsoever. That those are not the races

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Speaker 3: we're targeting. We're going after open blue seat primaries, and

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Speaker 3: our main focus is going to be helping to elect

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Speaker 3: young people in those seats because they often don't have

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Speaker 3: that much investment. But part of our theory of change

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Speaker 3: here is if we can help elect more young people

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Speaker 3: that understand what it's like to have the anxiety of

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Speaker 3: not knowing, if you're going to survive math class. We

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Speaker 3: can more young people turn out across the state right

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Speaker 3: because they see that their values, their voice is being reflected,

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Speaker 3: and that helps candidates up and down the ballot. And

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Speaker 3: this isn't to say that we don't need older people

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Speaker 3: in politics. We absolutely do. We need seasoned professionals that

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Speaker 3: have done this work for decades. I think it's important

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Speaker 3: to point out though, that you know, with somebody like

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Speaker 3: Joe Biden, the reason he's effective is because he's been

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Speaker 3: around for so long. He was first collected with twenty

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Speaker 3: nine years old, if I remember correctly, to the Senate.

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Speaker 3: It's because he has all of that experience on the

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Speaker 3: hill that he's able to do things like work to

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Speaker 3: get the IRA passed. And obviously the movements on the

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Speaker 3: outside help with that too, but there's nothing quite like

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Speaker 3: gaining that experience from a young age, being part of

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Speaker 3: that system that enables you to get things done. And

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Speaker 3: I see that as what we're kind of trying to

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Speaker 3: do here is to invest in these young people that

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Speaker 3: understand that anxiety because I look back at what older

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Speaker 3: generations went through that's similar to school shooter drills, and

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Speaker 3: I think of nuclear bomb drills. Right, The generation that

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Speaker 3: went through nuclear boom drills went on to pass some

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Speaker 3: of the most actually the most comprehensive arms reduction treaties

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Speaker 3: in human history. And I believe it's going to take

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Speaker 3: our generation coming into politics that understands that anxiety to

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Speaker 3: do a similar thing, working hand in hand with the

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Speaker 3: older leaders, to be mentored and learn from them.

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Speaker 1: There was some good gun legislation past after Marjorie Stone Douglas.

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Speaker 1: Can you talk about that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So after the shooting at my high school, Marjorie

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Speaker 3: from in Douglas High School. You know, a lot of

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Speaker 3: people said, it's great you young people care, but this

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Speaker 3: is Florida. Nothing's going to change her. It doesn't matter

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Speaker 3: how angry you are, it doesn't matter how tragic what

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Speaker 3: happened is. It's not going to change. And I think it,

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Speaker 3: honestly is a consequence of just us, frankly, not knowing

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Speaker 3: that much about the real political climate in Florida at

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Speaker 3: the time. We just didn't care. We said whatever, We're

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Speaker 3: still going to try, and we showed up working with

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Speaker 3: our younger state legislators like Lauren Brook, Carlos Diarra Smith

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Speaker 3: and ask Amani and so many others well, Anna I

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Speaker 3: was elected in twenty eighteen, but many others at the

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Speaker 3: time that worked with young people after park then to

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Speaker 3: give us a voice in Tallahassee that we were able

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Speaker 3: to change lots because young people showed up in Tallahassee

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Speaker 3: demanding action, and older people showed up with us, but

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Speaker 3: obviously centering the power of those young people and the

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Speaker 3: innocence that they represent, I think helped to push the

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Speaker 3: Florida state legislature. And although they didn't ban assault, which

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Speaker 3: is a major part of what we wanted, they did

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Speaker 3: raise the age to buy a gun in the state

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Speaker 3: of Florida to twenty one, and they also passed a

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Speaker 3: law that would enable somebody who is a risk to

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Speaker 3: themselves for others to be disarmed, which has been used

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Speaker 3: over six thousand times since Parkland. And mind you, a

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Speaker 3: Republican state legislature passed that, right, it shows the power

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Speaker 3: of these young people to show up.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think that Republicans they don't see this coming, right?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think about you know, I'm a little

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Speaker 1: older than you are, sadly for me and I didn't

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Speaker 1: have lockdown drills growing up, but your generation is clearly

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Speaker 1: so traumatized by these lockdown drills.

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Speaker 2: Can you talk about that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean my generation is very traumatized by these

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Speaker 3: lockdown drills. I mean we have the daily anxiety of

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Speaker 3: going to school, and high schoolers every day wonder whether

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Speaker 3: or not they're going to survive methods. But it's also

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Speaker 3: elementary schoolers, you know, that are asking when they're told

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Speaker 3: that there's going to be they come up with different

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Speaker 3: ways from what I've heard of describing to elementary schoolers

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Speaker 3: when they go through an active shooter drill, they'll say

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Speaker 3: it's something like a scary bear or a monster that

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Speaker 3: they're trying to hide from, to try to make it

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Speaker 3: less scary to the children. But eventually they end up

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Speaker 3: growing up and as they get older, they learn what

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Speaker 3: that is, and it's an incredible amount of anxiety. When

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Speaker 3: I talk to John del Bolope, who's one of the

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Speaker 3: leading youth bolsters who works at Harvard, he's one of

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Speaker 3: the lead bolsters in the country too, and I ask him,

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Speaker 3: you know, I've known him for almost basically since right

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Speaker 3: after Parkland, and I asked him, you know, what is

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Speaker 3: the difference between our generation and many generations that have

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Speaker 3: come before us in terms of our attitudes toward politics

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Speaker 3: and our view of the world. One of the craziest

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Speaker 3: things that he said to me is that young people

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Speaker 3: have described to him in these focus groups. High schoolers

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Speaker 3: have said the anxiety that adults feel every day, probably

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Speaker 3: by paying taxes or paying bills or whatever it is,

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Speaker 3: how it's just lingering the back of your mind, like

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Speaker 3: it's always there that you're thinking about it.

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Speaker 2: That's what it's like for.

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Speaker 3: Young people to think about school shooter potential school shooters

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Speaker 3: coming into their school. It is a constant thought every

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Speaker 3: single day and anxiety that they have. And it's not

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Speaker 3: like they're of course they're very scared, but it's obviously

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Speaker 3: not an immediate thread to them because they know that

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Speaker 3: it's likely not going to happen at their school statistically speaking,

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Speaker 3: but it's still an anxiety that they have every day.

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Speaker 3: It's also about the long term fear that young people

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Speaker 3: have of the future. I mean, we live on any

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Speaker 3: this is going to be the coolest summer for the

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Speaker 3: rest of our lives. That is bringing anxiety to our generation.

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Speaker 3: Not to mention the economic pressure that we're under still

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Speaker 3: as a result of the failure to fully recover after

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Speaker 3: the two thousand and eight recession and student debt and

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Speaker 3: so many other factors that stress out our generation. And

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Speaker 3: it's not to say other generations haven't been through incredibly

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Speaker 3: stressful things.

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Speaker 2: They have.

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Speaker 3: Thankfully, my generation is not going through the Cold War

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Speaker 3: right now like many others for us did, but we're

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Speaker 3: living through a time with nonetheless major challenges ahead. But

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Speaker 3: what makes me hopeful is knowing that over the past

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Speaker 3: four years of studying history in college, that great generations

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Speaker 3: are not born. Great generations are made by the moments

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Speaker 3: that make them.

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Speaker 2: I just want to stop you for a minute.

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Speaker 1: It's good to hear you, and I agree with you,

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Speaker 1: but I just think about what the gun crisis. If

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Speaker 1: the people during the nineteen fifties could have ended the

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Speaker 1: Cold War, they would have. I mean, the gun crisis

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Speaker 1: is not like the Cold War, because the Cold War was.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was ultimately there are larger causes. But

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Speaker 1: with the gun grass like legislators tomorrow could just end it, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it is really a you know, it's something

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Speaker 1: where it is your own politicians targeting you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I feel like the perversity of it is not something

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Speaker 1: we talk about absolutely.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's certainly, thankfully not as challenging as ending

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Speaker 3: the Cold War, but it is challenging, and that we

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Speaker 3: have a cycle whereas more shootings happen, more Americans buy

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Speaker 3: guns because the gun industry fearmongers, right, then they're able

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Speaker 3: to pump more of that money into politics, which then

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Speaker 3: actually loosens gun laws by passing things like permitless carry,

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Speaker 3: which then casts people to want to arm themselves more.

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Speaker 3: And it's a positive feedback loop where these gun companies

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Speaker 3: are making billions of dollars every year and then they're

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Speaker 3: pumping a lot of that into politics to make sure

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Speaker 3: that they're empowering these politicians who then gerrymander their way

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Speaker 3: into power and make us and create a system where

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Speaker 3: voters aren't picking their politicians, but politicians are picking their voters.

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Speaker 3: So it's obviously not the same, but it's still challenged nonetheless,

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Speaker 3: because there is that profit motive there in the first place.

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Speaker 3: And I think part of what we're going to have

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Speaker 3: to do as a generation is show that we're not

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Speaker 3: just on the outside right demanding change, that if you

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Speaker 3: stand in our way, we're an existential threat to your

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Speaker 3: power and we will replace you.

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Speaker 2: Right, talk to me about candidates you're excited about.

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Speaker 3: Well, obviously, candidate's similar to Maxwell Froster are some of

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Speaker 3: the ones that we're excited about. But I think one

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Speaker 3: important point that I forgot to mention earlier is that

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Speaker 3: although we're our main focus is going to be on

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Speaker 3: these open blue seat primaries after the primary election in

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Speaker 3: these states where there are young people that are running,

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Speaker 3: such as Jay Schuster, for example, who's a young man,

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Speaker 3: an attorney that is an expert on artificial intelligence who's

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Speaker 3: running in a very competitive district in South Florida. Candidate's

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Speaker 3: like him are the ones that we're excited about. But

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Speaker 3: also looking at, you know, other young people in these

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Speaker 3: social movements that can run for office that don't even

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Speaker 3: know that it's a possibility, or if they do, they

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Speaker 3: think that they have to run for Congress, but and

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Speaker 3: that state legislature isn't an option for them. The other

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Speaker 3: thing is that I look at candidates like Nobilisieed who

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Speaker 3: have been elected right to state legislatures. She's one of

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Speaker 3: the youngest state legislators in Illinois, and the work that

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Speaker 3: they've done, you know, she's done work to make sure

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Speaker 3: that students that have IEPs to make sure that like

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Speaker 3: the registered to vote. That matters to me because I

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Speaker 3: had an IP growing up, because I have dyslexia.

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Speaker 1: I'm just going to explain to our listeners, and IEP

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Speaker 1: is something when you have a learning disability and you're

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Speaker 1: in public school, you get given an IEP and that

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Speaker 1: you're able to use to navigate the system. It's just

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Speaker 1: a number, but it means you have either ADHD or dyslexia.

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Speaker 1: I'm dyslexic too.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, go on, welcome to the club.

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Speaker 3: Right now, Molly, the main focus that we have is

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Speaker 3: getting it set up and making sure that we really

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Speaker 3: going to go out there and find the best candidates

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Speaker 3: that we can. So when we launch this, we're not

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Speaker 3: launching with endorsements right out of the bat because we

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Speaker 3: have to do the right amount of research and we

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Speaker 3: have to make sure that we have just the best

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Speaker 3: candidates that we can in the first place. We'll be

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Speaker 3: announcing our announcements in the coming.

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Speaker 1: Months, so part of it will be these legislators and

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Speaker 1: focusing on these races that are so important but get

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Speaker 1: a little less attention, like these state house races.

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Speaker 2: State can grow you know those level races. De Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's a vast minority.

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Speaker 1: And then also there's a certain amount of focus on

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Speaker 1: youth turnout too, which does seem like a really important point.

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Speaker 1: So John Delivolpi, who we're both friends with, who is

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Speaker 1: a gen Z Are you guys gen z or whatever?

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Speaker 1: The youngest generation whisper Is had these incredible polls which

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Speaker 1: showed basically that your generation things Republicans are just morons.

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Speaker 2: Talk to me about that.

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Speaker 3: I mean, our generation has clearly been I think we're

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Speaker 3: just fed up and we're tired of the bullshit. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's like MS or X set in their speech after

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Speaker 3: Parkland that we call the yes as a generation, we're

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Speaker 3: tired of the failed policies that are getting us killed

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Speaker 3: in our schools. And there's no amount of spinning that

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Speaker 3: you can do that's going. You know, you can't just

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Speaker 3: keep talking about funding more mental health programs to stop

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Speaker 3: school shootings and do nothing about it and school shootings

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Speaker 3: can continue and just act like there's some amount of

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Speaker 3: spinning or framing that you can do politically, or a

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Speaker 3: number of consultants you can talk to that is somehow

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Speaker 3: going to make young people not feel the anxiety that

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Speaker 3: they're feeling because school shootings are continuing. It's also it's

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Speaker 3: a similar case with climate chain. It can't just keep

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Speaker 3: talking about it and gas lighting an entire series of

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Speaker 3: generations of Americans when every summer it's getting hotter. So

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Speaker 3: for our generation, we're basically seeing the I feel like

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Speaker 3: we're there. We're really the first generation to see it

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Speaker 3: as a whole. The amount of stuff that has been

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Speaker 3: swept under the rug constantly by Republicans that now there's

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Speaker 3: so much of they can't keep hiding it over and over.

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Speaker 3: So it's blatantly obvious for us. And an important point

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Speaker 3: about that is too. In twenty twenty two, young people

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Speaker 3: voted again at one of the highest rates in American history,

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Speaker 3: especially in comarison in twenty fourteen, not only in comparison.

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Speaker 3: I talked about this with John devil Ope. In two thousand,

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Speaker 3: young people eighteen to twenty nine voted about fifty to

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Speaker 3: fifty for Bush and Gore in your average congressional election.

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Speaker 3: In twenty twenty two, you young people voted not only

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Speaker 3: at one of the highest rates in American history, but

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Speaker 3: plus twenty points for Democrats. That is a critical part

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Speaker 3: of the Democratic coalition now that they have to negotiate

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Speaker 3: that the White House has to listen to that anybody

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Speaker 3: who wants to be elected as a Democrat is going

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Speaker 3: to have to listen to just as much as they

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Speaker 3: have to listen to a lot of the other factors

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Speaker 3: within our coalition. Because we've made our voice heard and

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Speaker 3: we haven't gone away. And what makes me excited about

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Speaker 3: that is even when we had both the House, the

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Speaker 3: Senate and the presidency, what we saw a deal to filibuster.

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Speaker 3: But even when we had those three young people still

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Speaker 3: turned out. And what that's evidence of is we're not

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Speaker 3: just voting again something we're voting for or something. We're

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Speaker 3: voting for a better future where kids are protected in

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Speaker 3: their schools. Right, We're voting for a future with an

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Speaker 3: inhabitable planet and for morey just leaders that work to

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Speaker 3: ensure that the interests of the future of the United

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Speaker 3: States are protected and not the short term interests of

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Speaker 3: the NRA are protected in the first place.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, David. I hope you'll come back,

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Speaker 2: of course. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Gillian Brockel, writes the Metropolis blog for The Washington Post.

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Speaker 2: Welcome too Fast Politics, Gillian, Thank you, Balie, longtime listener.

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Speaker 2: Firstian callinter.

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Speaker 1: So you write a blog for the Washington Post. You

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Speaker 1: also write for the Washington Post, but the blog is

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Speaker 1: called Metropolis.

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Speaker 2: Explain to us a little bit about what it is. Basically,

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Speaker 2: it's the history block of the Washington Post. It's where

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Speaker 2: you're going to get your historical contexts for news of

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Speaker 2: the day and you know, learn different and perhaps more

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Speaker 2: realistic and authentic versials of the history that you were

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Speaker 2: taught when you were younger.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the strike, because right now there's a

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Speaker 1: massive WGA SAG, which is SAG Screen Actors Guild.

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Speaker 2: There's a there's a massive strike.

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Speaker 1: The director's Mabel Doo whatever, right, But you know, actors

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Speaker 1: can't promote movies. They can't write. You know, writers are

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Speaker 1: not writing. Nothing is happening in Hollywood. Tell us about

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Speaker 1: the last time this happened. I was hoping you could

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Speaker 1: talk to us about the one in the sixties.

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Speaker 3: Sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, in nineteen sixty there was another double strike with

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Speaker 2: the actors and writers. And if he was really similar,

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Speaker 2: it was about residuals for a new technology. So at

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Speaker 2: the time, playing reruns of movies on television was this

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Speaker 2: brand new thing that was just starting to happen, and

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Speaker 2: there was no contract for that with the Screen Actors

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Speaker 2: Skill to pay the movie actors when their movies played

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Speaker 2: on TV. Previously, there had already been a contract for

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Speaker 2: TV reruns playing on TV, but not movie rerunds, and

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Speaker 2: so this was a new thing. And it was the

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Speaker 2: same with the writers. The writers wanted residuals for movies

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Speaker 2: running on TV, and they struck first, and then the

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Speaker 2: actors joined them, and like in nineteen sixty, the writers

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Speaker 2: struck I think a total of twenty one weeks and

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Speaker 2: the actors for five weeks. At the time, though it

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Speaker 2: wasn't quite as strict as the terms are for the

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Speaker 2: striking workers now, they were still allowed to promote movies

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Speaker 2: and go to award shows. So actually the nineteen sixty

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Speaker 2: Oscars were held in the middle of this strike, and

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Speaker 2: all of the actors were there and all of their

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Speaker 2: glamorous finery, and Bob Hope, who was a member of SAG,

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Speaker 2: was the host, and the first thing he said, you

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Speaker 2: can watch it on YouTube. The first thing he said

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Speaker 2: when he walked out is he said, welcome to Hollywood's

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Speaker 2: most glamorous strike meeting, and let's talk about Ronald Reagan

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Speaker 2: was involved in that. Yeah. So Robald Reagan had been

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Speaker 2: the president of SAG from nineteen forty seven to nineteen

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Speaker 2: fifty two. He was brought in again in late nineteen

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Speaker 2: fifty nine and in nineteen sixty. You know, it's sort

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Speaker 2: of a ringer. He had negotiated the contract earlier for

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Speaker 2: TV actors to get residuals on reruns, so he was

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Speaker 2: brought back in to serve a shorter term as president

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Speaker 2: of STAG again to negotiate with the producers at this

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Speaker 2: time and be involved in this strike. What's weird, and

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Speaker 2: what you know, nobody knew at the time was that

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Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan was also a producer at that point. He

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Speaker 2: had producer credits and really shouldn't have been representing the

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Speaker 2: actors for anything because there was a conflict of interest there.

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Speaker 2: But he just kind of kept through a secret, didn't

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Speaker 2: tell anybody, and they were like, okay.

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Speaker 1: That's very strange. We also Ronald Reagan, this is going

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Speaker 1: to get people crazy. But Ronald Reagan, it really is. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: wanted to join the Communist Party.

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Speaker 2: According to your grandfather, Yes, yes, yes.

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Speaker 1: According to my grandfather, Ronald Reagan wanted to join the

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Speaker 1: Communist Party discuss.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so in nineteen thirty eight, this is Howard Facts,

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Speaker 2: your grandfather's story that in nineteen thirty eight, young Ronald

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Speaker 2: Reagan was new in town in Hollywood, and he did

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Speaker 2: use to describe himself for a long time as a

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Speaker 2: new deal liberal. According to Howard Facts, he also wanted

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Speaker 2: to become a commititist and was not let in because

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Speaker 2: the cognitist thought he was too stupid.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't imagine that's true. I mean, I know

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Speaker 1: my grandfather, I can't imagine that. I mean, I'm sure that, Mike,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they did think Ronald Reagan was stupid. But

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Speaker 1: that may be where it ends. It's quite interesting to

436
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,440
Speaker 1: talk about the sort of what happened, because you know,

437
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:41,920
Speaker 1: when we think about this strike, there's a lot of

438
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 1: talk of AI and things that aren't necessarily relevant to

439
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:50,600
Speaker 1: this sort of history and this. Actually they really were

440
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 1: striking about a lot of the same stuff. Residuals, who

441
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: makes money, who owns things.

442
00:20:56,160 --> 00:21:02,879
Speaker 2: It's residuals for a new platform for previously made work.

443
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,560
Speaker 2: I mean, it's really the same thing. And it was

444
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 2: the same thing that in the beginning the producers said,

445
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:12,680
Speaker 2: you get nothing the actors and writers will negotiate, and

446
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 2: in the beginning the producers said, we say, you get nothing.

447
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:21,800
Speaker 2: In the end, the strikers were successful. They if somewhat,

448
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:26,920
Speaker 2: they got residuals for movie reruns for movies made after

449
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,600
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty so after the stern they also wanted residuals

450
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 2: for movies made before nineteen forty eight. They did not

451
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 2: get that, but they did get the start of a

452
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 2: pension plan for SAG and so that was a big concession.

453
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:45,840
Speaker 2: Some people were not happy about the contract that ended

454
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 2: the strike that Reagan negotiated. One of those that you

455
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 2: know said to be Bob Hope was not happy about it.

456
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,439
Speaker 2: And then later James Garter, you know, the famous actor.

457
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:01,920
Speaker 2: She wrote in his memoir that he was vice president

458
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,240
Speaker 2: of the Screen Actors Guild at the time, and he said,

459
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 2: the only thing I remember is that Ronnie never had

460
00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 2: an original thought and that we had to tell him

461
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,440
Speaker 2: what to say. That's no way to run a union,

462
00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,439
Speaker 2: let alone a state or country.

463
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,359
Speaker 1: But the history of workers' rights, I mean, this is

464
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 1: what really this strike is about, is how are writers

465
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,480
Speaker 1: going to be compensated? Our actors going to be compensated?

466
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 1: Are you know, what does that compensation look like. The

467
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:41,639
Speaker 1: fight for labor has been really an American you know,

468
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 1: it's been something Americans have been doing for a long time.

469
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that. Yeah, I mean since the

470
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:51,360
Speaker 2: Industrial Revolution, you have, you know, the start of unions

471
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,320
Speaker 2: and striking workers and anybody who wants to get read

472
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,040
Speaker 2: in on the history of labor in the United States,

473
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 2: I can't recommend. And that Kim Kelly book Fight Like Hell,

474
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 2: which came out last year, and it's just terrific and

475
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 2: you know, really just goes over that. I mean, the

476
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 2: reason that we have all of these things that we

477
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 2: think of as givens today, like fire eving sits for

478
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 2: the buildings that we work on, and having the exits

479
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 2: be unlocked and not padlocked shut, you know, the eight

480
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 2: hour workday, everything, all of that comes from the labor movement.

481
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,480
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people in my generation I'm

482
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 2: like an X and an annual X annual. I think

483
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't know that just because we

484
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 2: grew up when labor was at its weakest. Gen Z

485
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 2: seems to be really a part of the sort of

486
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 2: revival of labor unions that's been happening in the last

487
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 2: few years where you're seeing people looking at actors not

488
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 2: just as these you know, glamorous, spoiled prima donnas, but

489
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 2: saying no, this is a worker who is offering a

490
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:02,399
Speaker 2: service that the producers can't do and therefore should be

491
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 2: getting a piece of the profits like any other labor right.

492
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 1: I think that I'd love to talk to you a

493
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 1: little more about what's happening with labor in this country,

494
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: because we're seeing from Amazon to Starbucks to the larger

495
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: ways in which unions were able to fight against wealth inequity. Well.

496
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,199
Speaker 2: One criticism that people have had of the labor movement,

497
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 2: particularly in the United States versus other countries, is that

498
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 2: Americans don't have a sense of solidarity the way they

499
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 2: might and say the UK as workers, because we see

500
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 2: ourselves as sort of temporarily moor or you know, as

501
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 2: like my big break's going to come tomorrow. The idea

502
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 2: that you are a worker, that you are, you know,

503
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 2: a member of the working class, we don't have that.

504
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 2: We you know, sort of fed this like American dream

505
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 2: you can make it big, it's just how hard you

506
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 2: work sort of thing, and that has really crushed a

507
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:10,919
Speaker 2: lot of the class solidarity in the United States throughout history,

508
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 2: and that includes racism and dividing workers by saying, well,

509
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 2: you you white. For white workers, you can have it

510
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 2: slightly better at least for black workers. Just don't side

511
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 2: with the black workers too. And that the you know,

512
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 2: inherent racism in US history that's threatened throughout US history

513
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 2: has really been used to benefit people who would seek

514
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 2: to crush the labor movement. You know, in the last

515
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 2: few years, that's really broken away. And that's happened in

516
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:45,160
Speaker 2: journalism too. You see all of these newer media places

517
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 2: like Fox and everywhere else becoming unionized. And that's happened

518
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 2: at the Washington Post, which has been reported on a

519
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 2: little bit this year. We have, you know, the highest

520
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,399
Speaker 2: union membership ever in our news room right now and

521
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 2: we are negotiating a contract. And happened for a year.

522
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: Will you talk to us about an interesting piece you wrote,

523
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: So your historical quote turned out to be fake, was

524
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: a problem that many of us have had in our lives. Yeah,

525
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 1: the story of a January sixth defendant who had a

526
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: quote that he used during his federal trial. When governments

527
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 1: fear the people, there is liberty when the people feel

528
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: the government there is tyranny, and he attributed to Thomas Jefferson, right, And.

529
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson didn't say that. And actually Monticello keeps a

530
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 2: really good database of things that Thomas Jefferson did and

531
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 2: did not say, So that is actually one of the

532
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 2: easier quotes of historical quotes. Two fact checks. But yeah,

533
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 2: I mean it's a pretty common thing. People are always

534
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 2: you know, something I said with the sand this book

535
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 2: piece that I wrote a few months ago is that

536
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 2: a lot of people think that doing history is quoting

537
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:10,200
Speaker 2: people and sort of like manipulating the quotes into whatever

538
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 2: you want them to be. And there's that kind of

539
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 2: misuse of quotes, and then there's just like the full

540
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 2: stop made up quotes.

541
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: Take for example, rapper and former presidential candidate Kanye West.

542
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: He told TMZ that four hundred years of slavery was

543
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: a choice, later citing Harriet Tubman saying I freed a

544
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 1: thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if

545
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 1: only they knew they were slaves.

546
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, Harriet Tubman did not say that. I don't know

547
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 2: what say. Harry Tubman did not say that. Yeah, unbelievable.

548
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,160
Speaker 2: So back to talk about Reagan. So by the time

549
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 2: Regan miss president, he had you know, gone totally conservative,

550
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 2: and as people would remember, ended up being one of

551
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 2: the more anti union presidents we've had. Everyone remembers the

552
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 2: air traffic controllers strike in nineteen eighty one, and you know,

553
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 2: his argument there was that these were federal workers and

554
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 2: that federal workers are not allowed to strike. It is

555
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 2: illegal for a federal worker to strike. And so she,

556
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 2: rather than negotiate, gave them forty eight hours to go

557
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 2: back to their jobs, and the ones that didn't were fired.

558
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 2: It was tens of thousands of air traffic controllers. She

559
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 2: took a tough stands there, but not all presidents have

560
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:36,479
Speaker 2: done that. So there was the biggest illegal wildcat strike

561
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 2: and American history was in nineteen seventy. It was the

562
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 2: Postal Service. More than two hundred and ten thousand postal

563
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 2: workers struck for about eight days. I mean, it completely

564
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 2: brought everything in the United States to a standstill.

565
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 3: You know.

566
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:58,239
Speaker 2: Eventually the Possessor General gave them an immediate raise. They

567
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 2: ended the strike. Soon Congress passed another race, and no

568
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 2: one who struck was ever punished, even though that was

569
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 2: both an illegal strike and a wildcat strike. They did

570
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 2: not have the permission of their union leadership to strike,

571
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 2: and they just did it anyway because they said conditions

572
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 2: were so bad and they were paid so poorly. And

573
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 2: Nixon was president then and he didn't do anything about it,

574
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 2: he didn't hurt them in any I.

575
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: Mean, there is always this like liberal fantasy that Nixon

576
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: wasn't as bad as Nixon actually was.

577
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that, but yes, the postal workers who

578
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 2: did this illegal wild cat strike were not puttishing anyway,

579
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 2: and they were completely successful in getting what they were

580
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,719
Speaker 2: asking for. Good for those postal workers. And then Reagan,

581
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 2: you know, a decade later, says, well, federal workers aren't

582
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 2: allowed to strike, therefore they're all fired.

583
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: I mean that was sort of a seminal moment in union, absolutely,

584
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: and I mean it fits with ultimately a lot of

585
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 1: the stuff that Reagan did. Though again, like he did

586
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: sign this no fault divorce when he was governor. That

587
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 1: was the first date to approve no fault divorce, and

588
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 1: no fault divorce led to greater freedom for women and

589
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 1: less domestic violence. And like it's such a small thing

590
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 1: that we don't think of as being as seminal as

591
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: it was. But I am curious if you would do

592
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: two seconds on Eugene Debs because you wrote a piece

593
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: and again this we're back to can a person run

594
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: for president from a jail cell? Not that Donald Trump

595
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 1: is going to jail, though.

596
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 2: He probably if he were a normal person, might be.

597
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 2: But yes, continue, yeah, I mean Trump and Duds's politics

598
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 2: cand of not be any more different. Dubs was a

599
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 2: union leader and a socialist. But he is the reason

600
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 2: that we know that it is legal for someone to

601
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 2: run for president a while being indicted for a crime,

602
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 2: be in jail. So Eugene V. Deves was jailed in

603
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty for speaking out against World War One and

604
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 2: continued to run for president from jail and got something

605
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 2: I can't remember. He ran for president eight times and

606
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 2: so I don't remember it was that election. R now

607
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 2: they were election, but at one point he got almost

608
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 2: a million votes. It was a good percentage of the vote.

609
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 2: You can run for president from jail. Yes, nobody knows

610
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 2: if you can be president from jail, but hopefully we

611
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 2: won't have to find out. You know, people say that

612
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 2: history repeats itself, and a lot of historians disagree. There

613
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 2: and right now, this is something for which there is

614
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 2: no historical president. What happens if you elected president who's

615
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 2: in jail. I think the chances of the trials happening

616
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 2: before the election our stand. But that's something we may

617
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 2: have to confront that has never been confronted in history.

618
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 1: Gillian, thank you for joining us.

619
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

620
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in

621
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds

622
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you

623
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend

624
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,479
Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.