Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. Well Come, well come, welcome, Well come, well, come, welcome,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 2: You guys.
Speaker 3: It's a really, really busy political season. So you guys
Speaker 3: heard on the main episode we talked about is the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party ten too big? And so we thought it
Speaker 3: would be a good opportunity to talk about what is
Speaker 3: it that we want from our political institutions and specifically
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party, but maybe that and beyond. So we
Speaker 3: wanted to have that conversation with you all today. Angela,
Speaker 3: this is something that came to us from a viewer question,
Speaker 3: and you thought it was important enough for us to
Speaker 3: talk about in a larger capacity.
Speaker 2: So why don't you kick us off with your thoughts?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think that what I am really struck by are
Speaker 5: the number of people who feel abandoned by a two
Speaker 5: party system, and most specifically based on the people that
Speaker 5: I speak to the most, or the people even write
Speaker 5: into our show, comments under our posts, or they send
Speaker 5: in videos, folks who feel abandoned by something that they've
Speaker 5: been very, very loyal to, and I think those criticisms
Speaker 5: are fair. I think with striking are the folks who
Speaker 5: the party has gone to court, has gone to pursue
Speaker 5: and thereby leaving its base. Those folks don't feel seen
Speaker 5: or heard either by the party allegedly, right like when
Speaker 5: we look at the math, which a math and from
Speaker 5: the most recent election, hundreds of millions of dollars were
Speaker 5: spent to court Nikki Haley voters, then Lizen Dick Cheney voters,
Speaker 5: then Never trumpers, all of these folks, and it looks like,
Speaker 5: I know, Tip, you said that we shouldn't rely on
Speaker 5: this data yet, but based on the data that we
Speaker 5: do have at this point, I doubt it'll change that much.
Speaker 5: Certainly won't get over into double digits. Four percent right
Speaker 5: of Republicans voted for Kamala Harris in this last selection.
Speaker 5: So to me, I just don't understand. I'm not, you know,
Speaker 5: the best business person in the world, not the best
Speaker 5: business mind, but I don't understand that ROI that return
Speaker 5: investment doesn't seem sufficient. And then when I consider my
Speaker 5: own needs, my family has always voted for the Democratic Party.
Speaker 5: I can't think of a time where my parents didn't
Speaker 5: support the Democratic Party.
Speaker 4: But in Seattle, Washington, where I grew up, you know, my.
Speaker 5: Dad has been on the opposite side of every elected
Speaker 5: official because he's an activist. You know, he hasn't always
Speaker 5: garnered friends. He's garnered some friendships in some working relationships,
Speaker 5: but I think largely I have mostly felt abandoned by
Speaker 5: the party my dad. One of his more recent battles
Speaker 5: with the governor of the state until recently until assume
Speaker 5: he recently is Jay Ensley. And when you look at
Speaker 5: the contracting dollars right of black folks who are in
Speaker 5: business in the state and the number of contracts that
Speaker 5: they actually gain from the state, it is ridiculous. We're
Speaker 5: talking about like point zero zero one percent of contracting
Speaker 5: dollars going to very qualified black businesses. So I guess
Speaker 5: what I'm saying is I don't know where we really
Speaker 5: fit because some of the things that we are actually
Speaker 5: fighting for as a people should not be partisan either.
Speaker 5: So I don't think that whether or not a black
Speaker 5: business is qualified and gets contracting opportunities should be partisan.
Speaker 4: I don't think that voting rights should be partisan.
Speaker 5: I don't think that domestic violence or women's choice reproductive
Speaker 5: justice should be partisan. So part of me feels like,
Speaker 5: why should this be a struggle for either party.
Speaker 4: When this is just like what is right is what
Speaker 4: is humane? Right?
Speaker 5: So I struggle with, like why am I having to
Speaker 5: ideologically align with any party in this instance on these
Speaker 5: set of issues. Some of these things find their partisan
Speaker 5: Let's talk through these. Like I don't think livable wage
Speaker 5: should be partisan, but I want people to earn a
Speaker 5: livable wage. I don't think that like climate change should
Speaker 5: be a debatable but for whatever reason, it is. But
Speaker 5: I also want to figure out, like in our has
Speaker 5: those hierarchy of needs, can we align on what our
Speaker 5: value systems are and like what party, if there's a party,
Speaker 5: can support those things. I know I just talked to
Speaker 5: in the circles by bad y'all.
Speaker 1: No, that's real, and I agree with you on what
Speaker 1: you have identified as what really should be non parties
Speaker 1: and issues. But it seems the other side works over
Speaker 1: time to create the divide and not I can't really
Speaker 1: gather for any other reason than to build their own
Speaker 1: political power. It's like I've got to be opposed to
Speaker 1: a woman's bodily alternomy because we got a whole extreme
Speaker 1: quote Christian coalition who are betting on us to hold
Speaker 1: this position. I've got to be against DEI and equity
Speaker 1: and inclusion and making sure we have the work reverse workforces,
Speaker 1: because I got a whole group of people sitting over
Speaker 1: here in my back frame who are counting on me
Speaker 1: to keep this workplace white. And so I don't even
Speaker 1: know that. I think you would find that the people
Speaker 1: within the party structure who would say these are kind
Speaker 1: of natural and frankly human rights, and that I'll not
Speaker 1: be divisive by and large, But that's not what we're
Speaker 1: getting these days. What really alarms me. First of all,
Speaker 1: I was visualizing Eddie Rye is standing up to Jay
Speaker 1: Insley and jay z better fall back. But in all seriousness,
Speaker 1: what I'm most concerned about as it relates to the
Speaker 1: party system two things. One Already, for instance, in the
Speaker 1: state of Florida, the largest political identity is Republican by
Speaker 1: a million votes over Democrats, but then they're being closed
Speaker 1: in on by independents, so we almost have a third
Speaker 1: a third, a third where folks are choosing no party.
Speaker 1: Now there is a consequence to this in my state,
Speaker 1: we have closed primaries. It as exists in almost the
Speaker 1: majority of states around the country, where if you don't
Speaker 1: belong to a political party, you may not vote to
Speaker 1: select who gets to become the nominee of that party
Speaker 1: for governor, for US Senate, for really important seats. And
Speaker 1: that is troubling to me because it's just now at
Speaker 1: the point where black people can choose nominees of their
Speaker 1: choices in a lot of states, where younger people in
Speaker 1: coalition with the black and brown community can choose candidates
Speaker 1: of their choice, and right at that very moment, we're
Speaker 1: now seeing defections from the party and into an independent
Speaker 1: structure who don't who don't have a voice in that process.
Speaker 1: So that aloarns me at one level. The second thing
Speaker 1: that alarns me as we think about takeaways from this
Speaker 1: last election is just the same theme of the independence
Speaker 1: and their performance have outperformed Democrats, meaning more people who
Speaker 1: were non party registrants and the registratives independents. They showed
Speaker 1: out the second highest of all groupings of voters by party,
Speaker 1: including over the Democrats. And what is that saying? And
Speaker 1: I think the complexity the problem that the Democratic Party faces,
Speaker 1: which I consider myself a member of and have had
Speaker 1: at various times leadership in and have been my state
Speaker 1: party's standard bearer. When I was a nominee for governor
Speaker 1: of Florida, and I took that as a real serious
Speaker 1: responsibility to speak to the needs of the people in
Speaker 1: our state who had basically withdrawn themselves from the process,
Speaker 1: their belief in and their faith in the process, because
Speaker 1: after all the sky is falling, and after all the
Speaker 1: promises of what I'm going to do when you put
Speaker 1: us there, these folks still buying laws were finding themselves
Speaker 1: in the same unchanged political and social and living environments.
Speaker 1: And so I worry that if we aren't very strategic
Speaker 1: about where we decide to place ourselves, not only on
Speaker 1: the spectrum of identity in politics, but also for the
Speaker 1: purposes of gaining political power, so that we are at
Speaker 1: the negotiating table deciding what goes where into whom I
Speaker 1: feel that we negotiate ourselves into irrelevance, and I think
Speaker 1: it has to be balanced by a real strategy of
Speaker 1: building power and then with that power, negotiating better positionality
Speaker 1: for ourselves, because I can't think of a more generous people,
Speaker 1: a more inclusive people of people who are so attached
Speaker 1: to the trauma that we've experienced over the course of
Speaker 1: our lives that we identify with any community who is
Speaker 1: experiencing trauma. We go to the defense, to the aid
Speaker 1: of and then once those communities find themselves in positions
Speaker 1: of power, they negotiate us out of the table. They
Speaker 1: negotiate us away from power and away from positionality in
Speaker 1: a way from getting what we need to serve ourselves,
Speaker 1: our families and our communities. I don't know the answer,
Speaker 1: Tiff and Angela, but I do know that whatever that
Speaker 1: answer is, strategy lays at the center of it. And
Speaker 1: I think the strategy has to center our community and
Speaker 1: our community's needs, and everything else is subjugated to that.
Speaker 1: Not around a personality, not around a person, not around
Speaker 1: a part of a state or a state, but around
Speaker 1: our needs. And if you comport to that, if you
Speaker 1: can perform on that and for us on that, then
Speaker 1: we can talk. But outside of that, I can't do.
Speaker 1: I receive what y'all were saying earlier around we're not
Speaker 1: in the I can't be doing the coalition stuff right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm not all the way there. But I will
Speaker 1: tell you that my coalition is going to begin with
Speaker 1: the folks who I care about the most and who
Speaker 1: sit at the intersection of the greatest degree of harm
Speaker 1: and impact from this society. That's who's at the center
Speaker 1: of my coalition.
Speaker 3: So I want to say really quickly first that there
Speaker 3: are a lot of I would argue most states, if
Speaker 3: you do not.
Speaker 2: Belong to a party, you cannot participate in the primary.
Speaker 3: There are a few states that have what they call
Speaker 3: a jungle primary, which was what Andrew was referencing, where
Speaker 3: anybody can vote for anybody.
Speaker 2: There are some arguments to be made about that.
Speaker 3: There's also a lot of arguments around ranked choice voting,
Speaker 3: which means that you know, whoever got the most votes wins,
Speaker 3: whoever got the second most votes, they can go to
Speaker 3: a runoff or.
Speaker 1: Sometimes first option, my second option, my third option, right,
Speaker 1: and all those votes count exactly.
Speaker 3: But what's interesting, we actually have a viewer question that
Speaker 3: speaks to I think a lot of what we're talking about.
Speaker 6: Good evening, Angela, Tiffany, and my man, Andrew. This is
Speaker 6: Mante from Maryland, and I had a question for you.
Speaker 5: Just like you, I've.
Speaker 6: Mourned, I've asked numerous questions. I've avoided watching the news,
Speaker 6: and you know, now I'm at the point of acceptance
Speaker 6: and now I'm wondering based on something that you mentioned
Speaker 6: in your mini pot about how we as Democrats failed
Speaker 6: at the ground roots level of reaching out to everybody
Speaker 6: and organizing at that place. What should we do right now?
Speaker 6: We got four years of BS that we know we're
Speaker 6: gonna have to deal with, But what should we be
Speaker 6: doing right now to prepare for those midterm elections and
Speaker 6: especially for that presidential election in four years. Yeah, we
Speaker 6: don't have a rough road to hole, but it is
Speaker 6: what it is now. But what can we be doing
Speaker 6: right now? What do we do at the ground roots level?
Speaker 6: How do we organize at this point? What can someone
Speaker 6: like me who does not live in a swing state
Speaker 6: do to affect the overall the country. I just want
Speaker 6: us to have a goal and something in mind and
Speaker 6: motivate us for these next few years as we deal
Speaker 6: with what we're going to deal with. But any ideas
Speaker 6: you asked Ham will be most appreciated. Thank you for
Speaker 6: all you do and welcome home.
Speaker 2: Welcome home to you Monte from Maryland.
Speaker 3: I love that question, and you know, I think Andrews
Speaker 3: as a politician and Angela as a strategist definitely have
Speaker 3: a lot to say about it. What I would say,
Speaker 3: the first thing that is really important to me, especially
Speaker 3: as a black man. You can stay informed and share responsibly,
Speaker 3: like I always say. You though you're not in a
Speaker 3: swing state, Maryland is solid blue, but I'm sure you
Speaker 3: have friends outside of Maryland who might be in swing states,
Speaker 3: who might not be as engaged in the process, who
Speaker 3: might be frustrated like we all feel, who might be
Speaker 3: ready to tune out and kick back and just throwing
Speaker 3: up their hands like epic, because I know I feel
Speaker 3: that way on some days. And you could be talking
Speaker 3: to those people, checking in, letting them know. There are
Speaker 3: no off year elections. There are still those local elections
Speaker 3: that matter. If you're a parent, show up to those
Speaker 3: school board meetings, encourage your other friends to do the same.
Speaker 3: The state elections that matter, the state legislatures Republicans that
Speaker 3: made big gains there as well. So if your friends
Speaker 3: are in other places where that matters, pay attention to
Speaker 3: what's happening there, even in Maryland, pay attention to what's
Speaker 3: happening there, and just don't tune out, don't give up.
Speaker 3: I think that's keenly the most important thing. And consider
Speaker 3: yourself an organizer, you know, if you even But I
Speaker 3: think it's also something important to say, even if it's
Speaker 3: not a swing state, right, even though Maryland is blue,
Speaker 3: there is still a party infrastructure there. I don't I'm
Speaker 3: not a member of the Democratic Party. I just vote
Speaker 3: mostly are always a vote Democrat. But there's still a
Speaker 3: party infrastructure there that needs to be disrupted. You can
Speaker 3: still get involved on that level and make sure your
Speaker 3: issues as a black man are heard, that you're represented,
Speaker 3: because that's what we have to start convincing our people.
Speaker 3: What does this democracy look like if you get to
Speaker 3: shape it. And I think why we saw people stay
Speaker 3: home a lot last cycle is they gave up on that,
Speaker 3: on that part of the dream. They let America capture
Speaker 3: their imagination in the wrong way. So even if you're
Speaker 3: just tapping into the imagination of your group chat, your
Speaker 3: college friends, your voids at the barber, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: I hope you can be a voice to lead the
Speaker 3: people to a righteous belief in what America owes us.
Speaker 3: And as always I would encourage you to tell your
Speaker 3: friends to tap in the native lampid where we keep
Speaker 3: it a buck and we talk about things in a
Speaker 3: very plain, digestible way to make people feel very welcome
Speaker 3: and knowledgeable.
Speaker 4: In this part of the process Turf.
Speaker 1: I thought that was an excellent response, And really, all
Speaker 1: I would add is one triple double down on your
Speaker 1: point around not a swing state, but you are a state.
Speaker 1: You are in a state, and that state has a mayor,
Speaker 1: bunches of them all over. They've got school boards, they
Speaker 1: have county commission races, they have municipal races. They got
Speaker 1: judge races, state attorneys races, judges, judges, judges who seek
Speaker 1: public office. So if there was a thing that I
Speaker 1: would recommend, it would be I would get together with
Speaker 1: those friends who are concerned and are interested and are
Speaker 1: a little bit displaced by what's happening at the federal level,
Speaker 1: and I would decide on some targets. How are those
Speaker 1: school board members performing for you? Are they out there
Speaker 1: banning books? Are they embracing curriculums that are inclusive of others?
Speaker 1: How those city commission races are they appropriating money and
Speaker 1: your part of the community and in parts of the
Speaker 1: community that need investments the most. How those judges doing
Speaker 1: those judges that like to be sleepy around election season
Speaker 1: so you don't notice them, but when it's not an
Speaker 1: election season, they are ruling against our people. Not giving
Speaker 1: us chances, not seeing us as human in those courtrooms,
Speaker 1: I would start to interrogate right where you live whether
Speaker 1: or not the people are there and acting in your interests,
Speaker 1: the people who are there if they are acting in
Speaker 1: your interests, and if they are not. The beauty, but
Speaker 1: also the disappointment about our process is is in midterm
Speaker 1: elections and in local elections, the drop off of voters
Speaker 1: is spectacular, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Speaker 1: It is huge. The opportunity moment that that creates is
Speaker 1: that you get to frankly, if you can organize a
Speaker 1: few of your friends and hit some doors, you can
Speaker 1: pretty much elect the candidates of your choice to these
Speaker 1: local municipal offices. Make your targets. Now, decide who's up,
Speaker 1: and determine whether or not they are in service to
Speaker 1: you or not being of service to you. And then
Speaker 1: amongst you all, you figure out who you all are
Speaker 1: going to run. And I don't mean just this question
Speaker 1: or I'm talking for all of us. That's power that
Speaker 1: we can command. And then once those folks are in
Speaker 1: those positions, we can then elevate them to state legislature,
Speaker 1: into congressional seats, into US Senate seats and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. I think y'all get the picture. But
Speaker 1: this democracy is going to be saved by each and
Speaker 1: every one of us acting right where we are. Swing state,
Speaker 1: no state, no electoral vote. I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about how we rescue this place is by
Speaker 1: putting ourselves in position so that when the opportunity creates yourself,
Speaker 1: we got folks who are right, they're ready to move
Speaker 1: into it.
Speaker 3: And Mark o'nalley is trying to lead the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: I don't know if y'all saw that news. He's writ
Speaker 3: in your backyard. He's right in Maryland, So make friends
Speaker 3: and have him be sure to make you his friends.
Speaker 5: Sorry, Angel, and that's definitely not an endorsement for the
Speaker 5: incoming DNC chair. Just to be super super clear, let's
Speaker 5: go wide open race. I was going to say, Andrew,
Speaker 5: one of the things that I know that you are
Speaker 5: so gifted at is building a bench.
Speaker 4: But I would caution us about building a bench before
Speaker 4: we have a clear understanding of the needs of the people.
Speaker 5: Your last point was an excellent point around, you know,
Speaker 5: really making sure that you are running people and there
Speaker 5: are ballid initiatives that speak to the needs of the
Speaker 5: people of the masses. In order for us to do that,
Speaker 5: we got to do a lot more listening. The question
Speaker 5: was is the Democratic Party tent too big? I don't
Speaker 5: know the answer to that, but what I can tell
Speaker 5: you is I cannot think of a year where I
Speaker 5: felt fully seen by the party. I had moments of
Speaker 5: high hope. Nineteen eighty eight, Reverend Jackson, you know, I
Speaker 5: was listening to his speech this morning. Roland sends it
Speaker 5: periodically to a group chat that we all have, and
Speaker 5: I was like, I just want to hear about the
Speaker 5: importance of the Rainbow Coalition to get so I don't
Speaker 5: lose hope in it. And I also think about two
Speaker 5: thousand and eight, you know, crying with some of our
Speaker 5: elder statesmen, some of our elder states women about the
Speaker 5: importance of supporting President Obama for office. And I think
Speaker 5: about your race, Andrew. It meant the world to me
Speaker 5: to see you as a governor elect. I believed, you know,
Speaker 5: who happened to be black, but spoke to the needs
Speaker 5: of so many people. You were not myopic. But I
Speaker 5: also think that some of these candidates are once in
Speaker 5: a lifetime candidates they really are. I felt like I
Speaker 5: might be potentially seen if Kamala Harris would have won,
Speaker 5: And I felt a little seen when Katanji Brown Jackson
Speaker 5: and Kamala Harris were named right by President Biden.
Speaker 4: Just I just don't want us so.
Speaker 5: Distracted by the symbolism of a thing that we lose
Speaker 5: track of the very important substance of the thing. And
Speaker 5: right now, what I'm deeply concerned about within politics overall
Speaker 5: are the number of people who are erased in the process.
Speaker 5: The turnout this election was abysmal. It is irresponsible, it
Speaker 5: is reckless. But I don't hold that necessarily just over
Speaker 5: the people. I have to hold that over the parties.
Speaker 5: Who are you not speaking to? Who doesn't feel heard?
Speaker 4: How can we reach you?
Speaker 5: How can this podcast reach you so that we have
Speaker 5: an understanding of the needs that of yours that are
Speaker 5: not being met, That must be that should be by
Speaker 5: the political process, because your tax pay our dollars pay
Speaker 5: for them to be met.
Speaker 4: Right, Like, what do we need to do? I want
Speaker 4: to get underneath that. I don't.
Speaker 5: I do think the party might be too large, But
Speaker 5: I think the party might be too large because it
Speaker 5: hasn't figured out a way to adequately speak to the
Speaker 5: needs of all these people. I also think that it
Speaker 5: may not be large enough because as it is right now,
Speaker 5: there's not a clear path to victory. So that means
Speaker 5: that there's something missing. There are some issues missing. There's
Speaker 5: pieces of the platform that are missing. There's a Palestinian
Speaker 5: American that didn't speak on the DNC stage in the
Speaker 5: summer missing.
Speaker 4: There are you know, like we're like, we we have
Speaker 4: a problem in this country.
Speaker 5: I'm saying we and we have a problem, like we
Speaker 5: got to figure out a way not to treat people
Speaker 5: like they don't matter and then just erase them and
Speaker 5: then hope they don't show up to vote against us.
Speaker 5: Like that's not that's not democracy.
Speaker 1: To me, No, but it is very emblematic of what
Speaker 1: it means to try to arrest power. And I think
Speaker 1: all parties, regardless of you know, affiliation, ultimately that's what
Speaker 1: they're climbing toward. That's why I elected officials aren't really
Speaker 1: out for everybody to vote. They're out for the people
Speaker 1: who are going to vote for them, to ensure that
Speaker 1: they get out to vote. That's why we are doing
Speaker 1: Valterea rallies all over the city. We're doing voter rallies
Speaker 1: in places where we're trying to stimulate a particular vote
Speaker 1: to vote a particular way to achieve a particular win,
Speaker 1: and I would.
Speaker 4: I would.
Speaker 1: I think part of the let me acknowledge that it
Speaker 1: is easier to do the job that Republicans have to do.
Speaker 1: It is it is much easier if we were their party,
Speaker 1: and that's because they are. They are the they are
Speaker 1: the majority, and largely are are organized around the protection
Speaker 1: of that majority, and whatever ways we want to start
Speaker 1: to shred it, but largely it's we have power and
Speaker 1: it is our job to keep it. And if that
Speaker 1: means I'm going to harm myself, but my alignment and
Speaker 1: proximity to the people who are at the top of
Speaker 1: that chain is so close that I'll benefit from it,
Speaker 1: then I'll make that sacrifice. So their job is easier.
Speaker 1: Ours is harder. And the other thing about our job
Speaker 1: is we think that everybody in that coalition shares our
Speaker 1: belief system along the spectrum of policies, and some folks
Speaker 1: are just there because the other side won't make a
Speaker 1: home for them, the other side will not be in
Speaker 1: coalition with them, and so they're here in this shared space.
Speaker 1: But quite frankly, they ain't standing with us on black lives,
Speaker 1: then I going to stand next to you on issue X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z, and so the listening part is going
Speaker 1: to be important. But then also some hard decisions are
Speaker 1: going to have to be made if this is only
Speaker 1: cozy for you for this reason, hey, we can't rock.
Speaker 2: Well this istitly a conversation that is ongoing. You can't
Speaker 2: get to it all now.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we we all have so much to say
Speaker 3: about this, but we we we lose our just so
Speaker 3: you guys know, we normally we like keep the party going,
Speaker 3: but we lose our our video crew at a certain
Speaker 3: hour and we we definitely want to honor workers right here,
Speaker 3: so let our go. So this is but what will
Speaker 3: we visit this conversation many times and and would love
Speaker 3: to hear your thoughts and and your suggestions about it.
Speaker 3: Like we said, we want to make sure that you
Speaker 3: all have a seat at the table too and how
Speaker 3: you think we should move forward. So thanks for tuning
Speaker 3: into this mini pod. Remember our minipods drop every single Monday.
Speaker 3: You can catch them on YouTube. You can also get
Speaker 3: them anywhere you hear your podcast and be sure to
Speaker 3: tune in and we'll see you next week on our
Speaker 3: main episode.
Speaker 2: We'll also see you every Monday on the minipod.
Speaker 4: Thanks for tuning in, Welcome home, Yeah.
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