WEBVTT - America Is Broken 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.760 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WIKA F Daily with 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:19.320 Me Your Girl Daniel Moody recording from the Brooklyn Bunker, Folks, 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.080 I want to start out by saying a deep appreciation 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.560 to all of you who listened to the show, who 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.520 listened to yesterday's work Wednesday, who have been sending me 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:36.320 notes and dms and encouragements and commenting on patron and um. 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.720 It has been a really challenging couple of weeks in 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:46.159 this country for me in particular, for black people, for 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:51.720 queer people, for bipoc people, for people with uteruses. It 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:59.240 is just it's too fucking much, and I am really struggling. 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.440 And so I'm just going to be transparent about that 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:10.520 fact and that I don't know what is going to 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.800 happen in the next couple of weeks, let alone the 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.000 next couple of months. As we make our way to midterms. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.160 Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are offering nothing in terms 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.520 of their leadership except for more finger wagging, more thoughts 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.920 and prayers, and more bullshit about what it is that 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.040 they can't do. I've never heard a party say how 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:38.200 much they can't do something than Democrats. Never hear Republicans 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.040 when they were in the minority, ever say that they 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.440 can't get something done. They block shit, they throw wrenches 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.960 in everything, And when Democrats are in the minority, they 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.760 just go along for the get along, hoping and praying 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.240 that then the big bad bully will be nice to 0:01:54.280 --> 0:02:00.400 them when it's their turn. Wake up, they don't give 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.280 a fuck. Chuck Schumer and a pressor is like, oh, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.160 right now, more than ever following this Texas massacre, we 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:15.040 need bipartisanship. Shut up, like, are you stupid? Do you 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.880 not get who you were dealing with? These people don't 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.440 give a fuck about bipartisanship. They don't give a fuck 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.520 about the Constitution. The only thing in the Constitution that 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.400 they care about is the right to bear arms. They 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.000 don't care about civil rights. They don't care about kids. 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.640 And I wish that you would just fucking say so, oh, 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.320 I know that in their hearts, But no, you don't. 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.560 I don't know how many times people have to show 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.519 you who they are? How many times this Republican Party 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.280 has to show you who they are? Greg Abbott in 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.560 his bullshit press conference that he gave yesterday one or 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:58.120 two as my friend Wajahat said, Chicago this incident. Oh, well, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.000 look at Chicago and they're gun violence. They have laws 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.280 on the books, and people still get killed ya from 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.239 guns that are coming in from out of that fucking city. 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.320 You want to tell us that teachers need guns, and 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:18.400 this classroom, this school, Roba Elementary needed more doors, and that, oh, 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.360 the shooter clearly had mental health issues. It's not as if, 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.200 first of all, Republicans give a fuck about anybody's mental 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.760 health because you don't fun health insurance and you voted 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.680 sixty six times to try and fucking overturn it, not 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.520 to provide anything better, just to get rid of it 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.080 all together. So you want to talk about mental health 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.880 and lay everything on mental health, but then do absolutely 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.440 nothing about that. You want to talk about how you're 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.480 the party of family values, how you're the party that 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.880 cares about babies, and that you're pro life. No, what 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:52.480 you are pro aar fifteens. Greg Abbott has seen at 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.040 least according to Beta of Rourke, five mass shootings in 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.280 the state of Texas. And do you know what he did, 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:05.280 not a fucking thing. What he did instead was decided 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.200 to allow Texas to be the easiest state in the 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.880 country for you to get a gun in you don't 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.200 even need to do many training, you don't need to 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.640 need a background check, you need nothing. You can walk 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.719 into the state of Texas as the fucking shooter did 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.279 by two ar fifteens over the course of twenty four hours, 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.279 four hundred nearly four hundred rounds of ammunition and not 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:34.280 near fucking red flag go up. But Abbott wants to 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.200 sit there at a press conference and say, let's not 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.040 politicize the issue, but you are passing policy to ensure 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.080 that Texas is ground zero for as many mass shootings 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.159 as possible. But the people of Texas, you'll keep voting 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:56.120 for this motherfucker. Vete Work interrupted his bullshit narrative and 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.680 said you were doing nothing, that you have blood on 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:04.760 your hands. He was escorted out by police people saying, oh, 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.760 this is not the time. Tell me when the fucking 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.480 time is, because it surely isn't in the in between 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.719 between anybody's mass shootings, because then we've all moved on 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:20.680 to another crisis. Ten days, folks, ten days between Buffalo 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.440 and Texas, And do you know what happened in between 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:30.159 those Sandwich historic massacres? Multiple shootings across the fucking country. 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.400 There have been, according to CNN, two hundred and twelve 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.080 mass shootings this year. We are in May. There haven't 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.720 even been two hundred and twelve days in the fucking 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.400 calendar yet, but that's how many mass shootings we have 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:52.760 had in America. This is a uniquely American problem, this 0:05:53.000 --> 0:06:01.880 love affair with guns and violence and white supremacy. I 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.560 have no faith. I have no faith, and I have 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.040 no hope that anything is going to change. Yet anything 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.239 is going to get better. As a matter of fact, 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.919 I am pretty certain, pretty sure, and pretty certain that 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.840 shit is going to get a lot worse. We can't 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:26.120 get through two weeks without hearing about a another historic 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:36.120 mass shooting. Nineteen children from grades two to four went 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:42.440 to school on Tuesday. They didn't come back home. And 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.159 we are telling parents and caregivers in this country to 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.279 just suck it up that there is nothing we can do. 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.919 No rephrase that there is nothing the leaders in this 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:01.679 country want to do. Governor Abbott is leaving that press 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.160 conference and head it over to Houston to be one 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.359 of the headline. It's for the NRA where guess what. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.760 The NRA rally has decided that they're not allowing guns 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.000 into their own fucking rilly, Well, why is that? I 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.120 thought guns were safe in the hands of good people, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.800 and I thought that all you brought into the NRA, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.760 we're good people. So why can't you have fifty thousand 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:27.040 guns there for all fifty thousand participants. Why not let 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.160 them bring in two three a person turn it into 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:35.200 a full on shootout. Oh no, but they're banning guns there, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.440 But you can't ban guns across the country. You want 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.400 to ban it for your protection, but not the protection 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.320 of children and those that want to worship, or go 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.480 to the grocery store, or go to the fucking movie theater, 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:54.000 or leave their homes safely. This country is so fucking sick. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.560 And the thing is is that we are all complicit 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.240 because if you don't vote, you voted for a massacre. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.760 If you did vote and you voted Republican, you voted 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:14.360 for a massacre. This system is broken, This ship is 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.880 no longer working. And how I am feeling is what 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.000 I said yesterday on woke Wednesday. The system needs to 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.360 be brought to its needs. This country needs to be 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:30.760 shut the fuck down. What happens if everyone decides that 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:36.360 they are not going to work anymore. What happens if 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.800 there is a massive boycott organized ain't nobody work in. 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.719 Teachers are not going to school across this country. Your 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.360 kids will not be going to school. What happens if 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.360 all the nurses and doctors decide that they are not 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.360 going to work. What happens when all the police say 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.160 that they're not going to go to work. When the 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.280 grocery store clerks say, hey, you know what, this job 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.520 is too dangerous? Am I going to get how zard pay? 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.680 Shut it the fuck down. That's what needs to happen 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:09.920 to America. I would love to see what members of 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.360 Congress would do on both sides of the aisle. The 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:19.000 cult and then feckless democrats would do if Americans decided, 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.160 you know what, we're fucking done. Democracy is supposed to 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.600 be about the people's power, So we have the power 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.440 to unplug this shit and plug it back in. When 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.920 you have some fucking sense and decide that you can 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.880 actually institute policies that are going to be for the 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.360 betterment of this country and not its obstruction or its demise, 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.320 it is time for us to begin the plan to 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:49.120 unravel this system that is no longer working. America is 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.800 broken and the reality is we're the only ones that 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.120 are going to be able to fix it. Coming up next, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.280 welcoming back to the show for the first time in 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.160 a very long time, doctor Britney Cooper, who and an 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:08.960 associate professor at Rutgers University. Brittany has been the subject 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.520 of many a documentary including In Her Mother's Garden, including 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.079 Who Is Pauli Murray? Among others. She's also an accredited 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.679 author and a truth teller, and she will lay down 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:26.280 some gems in this conversation that left me speechless, that 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.360 actually left me invigorated for the first time in a 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:35.240 long time. She said this, they are going to kill us, 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.400 We are going to war with white supremacy. But the 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.360 reality is is that they cannot kill us all, and 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.040 so we need to go out fighting, fighting for the 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.360 future generations, just like our ancestors, for freedom that they 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.880 would never see. Take a listen to this conversation with 0:10:55.280 --> 0:11:03.839 our friend doctor Britney Cooper, Folks, I am super excited too, 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.800 I guess welcome back after so many moons, so many 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:13.400 moons and crises, the wonderful professor doctor Brittany Cooper, who's 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.400 attended professor at Rutgers University in the Women and Gender 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.920 Studies Department. And if you have not seen multiple documentaries 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:30.480 in Her Mother's Garden Paul Murray's documentary Brittany, you are 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:36.160 everywhere and doing everything and have been for quite some time. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.360 We are living in We'll let me say this for myself. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:45.240 I have never felt the way I feel right now 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.840 in America as a black queer woman. I feel scared. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:56.560 I feel a sense of fear and urgency that the 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:04.559 series of shootings, murders, the rise of this radicalized Republican 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:09.520 white supremacist party. What are you feeling and have been 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.480 feeling in this time, Because you are so connected to 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.240 the truth telling of our stories as black women, as 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:24.400 black people, what are you feeling these days? You know, 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:34.640 I feel distressed and exhausted, and I'm not sure how 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.800 we get off of this track as a country. And 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.600 I think that part of the challenge we face is 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:46.240 precisely a crisis of truth telling and who we're going 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.280 to how we're going to tell our own stories, and 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.240 who we're willing to listen to to sort of let 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.880 guide us. And so I think we're in a battle 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.800 royale between different stories about what this place is, what 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.600 its past is, and therefore what its future is. And 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.600 right now, quite frankly, I don't think that those of 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.800 us will on the side of justice are winning. But 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.040 I don't think that it isn't because we're trying. I 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.400 think it is because in part we don't do a 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.160 good job of assessing what the stakes are. So I 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.720 think that we're continuing to try to fight with like 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:25.720 reason and severity in a world where the other side 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.480 has decided that rules don't matter, that ethics don't matter, 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.880 that it's just a brazen power grab. And I can 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.840 appreciate the moral struggle of that. Right, if you become 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.680 like your enemy, then what distinguishes you? And yet I 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.160 think that there is so much more ground and territory 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.600 for us that doesn't require us to then use power 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.720 for negative ends. And I think that we have to 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.880 keep in mind that the goal is justice and that 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.880 we have to be fierce fighters and defenders of that, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.880 and that can't just be about discourse and online battles. 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.280 It really does have to defeat to the pavement kinds 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.840 of work. Right now, you know when the League decision 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:12.160 Brittany came out, Now, a couple of weeks ago, and 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:17.600 I read through it. I had said to folks before, 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:23.560 I said, these Republicans are not playing games, okay, And 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:28.280 I said Donald Trump became president. I said, marriage equalities 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:33.200 on the chopping block. I said, school desegregation is on 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.000 the chopping block, women's rights. You know, all of these things. 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.160 Folks kept telling me, don't be so hyperbolic, Danielle, this 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:45.120 guy is not gonna fall. Everything is cyclical, right, you 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.720 see by virtue of what was laid out in the 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.880 draft decision, what they are looking at and what they 0:14:53.920 --> 0:15:01.200 are coming for. Tell us what use foresee following the 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.680 finality when this decision is now final, what you foresee 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:10.160 for Black America, black women that is at stake for us. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.880 So it's very interesting the folks who say, oh, this 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.120 is cyclical. The thing to remember about cycles is things 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.080 are cyclical. I think that when Trump got elected, folks 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.040 had a narrative that he was like Nixon, and many 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.000 of us were historians and who work in history, said oh, no, no, no, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.760 this is not a twentieth century playbook. This is a 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.440 nineteenth century playbook. And so I just like to remind 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.880 folks that after the Reconstruction period in the US, which 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.480 was the period after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, black 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.360 people could vote, they could hold national office, We had 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.600 black senators, you could ride on, desegregated transportation, many of 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.119 the civil rights that we understand coming after the sixties. 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.960 But there was a generation of black people in the 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.320 eighteen seventies that experienced the world in that way and 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.200 then had it all ripped away from them in a 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.480 period of about fifteen to twenty years. Right, that's what 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.200 I see. I see these guys playing a nineteenth century 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.000 playbook in which they want to go back and do 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.760 all of the things. They want to restrict. They want 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.200 to restrict women and childbearing people's right to control their 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.640 their reproductive autonomy. They want to strip the vote away 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.600 from us. They want to go back to this sort 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:28.360 of American exceptional narrative you know, about American greatness, wherein 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.120 you know, racism was merely a blip, and it is 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.120 not a thing that that children are taught about, and 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.680 all of it is designed to sort of control the 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.400 narrative about who the country is. Because these folks have 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.120 decided that racism and sexism and classism are not the problem, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.240 but Rather, it is those who fight against those things 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.400 that are the problem, and it is our willingness to 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.560 tell the truth about them that is the problem. One 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.720 of the scariest things about the leaked decision is that 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.760 we have to remember that when Rovie Wade was decided, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.600 it wasn't decided it as a woman has a right 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.800 to an abortion. It was decided as a woman has 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.720 a right to privacy in making sound medical discision with 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.760 her doctor. The problem with this privacy versus public thing 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.760 is that I think we're not talking enough about the 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.879 assault on private rights, because privacy is every Look. This 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.119 is also the way that this country terrorized gay folks 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.280 by saying you couldn't you know, this is how the 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.200 country came into the bedrooms of gay people right and 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:35.080 criminalize gay sex right. And so when you keep the 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.120 right to privacy, you protect intimate space. When you take 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.320 it away, then everything becomes on the chopping block. It 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.880 doesn't just become about being able to give birth. It 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.200 also becomes about intimate relations. It also becomes about search 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.000 and seizure and the ability of the police to come 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.359 into your house and do anything they want. And I 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.520 think part of the challenge of this moment. Last thing 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.040 I'll say is that one of the reasons that we 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.680 struggle in the messaging on the left about this is 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.280 because you have black folks who say, well, how is 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.119 that different than before They've been restricting abortion. The police 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.520 have been doing anything to things right, but there's a 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:15.480 difference between the de facto actions of the law and 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.760 what is on the books. If the books give them 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.600 the right to do these things, then there's no recourse whatsoever, 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.040 at least when they're going against the law, there's a 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.240 basis for us to fight back. Without that, the gloves 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.560 are off and they can do anything that they want 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.280 to do, which is what they have been asking for 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:45.040 license to do. The Damage Report with John Idarola is 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.760 one of the most popular shows on the TYT network 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.520 that serves as your daily breakdown of the genuine threats 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.920 and challenges facing our country and world. These days, we're 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.679 confronted with an overwhelming sea of shocking, confounding, and devastating 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.119 news stories. 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Hey, I'm David. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:42.000 Plots of Slights Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.600 it can be tricky to sort through all the noise 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.720 and the news. Each week, on The Gapfest, John Dickerson, 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.000 Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.520 and tell you what issues really matter. We do not 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.000 always agree, We definitely do not always agree, but we 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.240 always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have a good time. 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.639 So subscribe to Slates Political Gapfest new episodes every Thursday. 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.400 There has not I've been asking this question, and I'm 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.760 going to ask it to you. Has there been a 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.320 time or a place or a country where you have 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.920 seen them lose democracy and gain it back within you know, 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.360 within a generation. Absolutely not not not that I could immediate, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.040 not that comes to mind. And look and this is why, 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.760 you know, when when when there were black folks online, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.280 right if the you know when Putin invaded Ukraine and said, 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.200 what does this have to be? You know this happens 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.119 to you know, black folks on the continent all the time. 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.520 What does this have to do with us? And my 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.280 thought was, yes, the country has been racist in its 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.680 global foreign policy. That doesn't change the fact that if 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.760 a Western democracy can be invaded and basically shut down 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.879 by a fascist madman, a fascist madman that our last 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.879 president was deeply in bed with, right, come on, a 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.320 significant portion of this country would give him another shot 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.760 to go back to those very policies again. Then what 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.200 we're looking at is a prelude to what the MAGA 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.679 movement in the US wants to make happen in this country. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.399 Ukraine for them becomes a marker of what they would 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:17.800 like to see us do, even when they won't acknowledge 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.440 it because they don't want democracy. If democracy doesn't mean 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:28.600 white supremacy anymore, how do we battle a party that 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.640 has thrown out the constitution, that has no rules, that 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.960 has no allegiance to anything other than power and white supremacy. 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.000 And if we can't do it with facts and truth, 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.560 because the whole of the country could care less. You 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.280 have twenty five percent of the country that is in 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.120 glee mode right now. They are excited. They are looking 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.200 at you know, the terrorists in Buffalo and Kyle Rittenhouse 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.399 and Dylan Ruth as a blueprint. Right. You see a 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.920 Wisconsin in man in just got ten years in jail 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.080 for throwing acid on a Latino man because he said, 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.840 you're going to replace me? Right, So, if you have 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.160 this party that is escalating in their violence and are 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:19.800 saying we have no rules, and then a tepid Democratic 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.200 party that believes that they are operating still in this 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:29.760 closed door, bottleless scotch smoke filled handshake, white man deal world, 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.600 how do we battle through that? Yeah? You know, And 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.400 I tend to take two approaches, right. The first is 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.719 that I think that the democratic parties, such as they exist, 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.440 have got to have bolder solutions, in more creative approaches. 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.120 So we've got to stop worrying about what they're going 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.360 The thing that that's interesting about Democrats is they continue 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.359 to govern for future in which they're not empowered and 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.280 the Republicans never do right. So the Democrats say things like, well, 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:00.600 we can't be bold because if we do this, then 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:02.480 when they get back in power, they're going to do 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.080 it too. Yeah. Well, create a world in which their 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.280 ability to get back in power cannot happen outside of 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.800 fair and square means they don't have power. Because look, 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:14.000 you know, I just like to remind people we have 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:16.919 had what six presidential elections in the twenty first century 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.000 two thousand, two thousand and four, two thousand and eight, twelve, 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.119 twenty sixteen, twenty twenty. In five of those elections, the 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.000 Democratic candidate won the popular vote in five of the 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:31.160 six elections, and yet somehow right you ended up having 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.880 a democratic, i mean a Republican president in three of 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.359 those elections, even though they only won the popular vote 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.960 in one. That tells me something about the country. The 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:46.240 country actually is not voting for right wing policy. They 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.919 are voting for more liberal policy, and yet liberals continue 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.879 to govern as if they don't have a mandate. Republicans 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.800 govern as though even when they continue to lose the 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:00.159 election and by the numbers, as though they do so. 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.000 If we governed like we had a mandate, Biden would 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:05.800 go ahead and pack the court. Yes, I hear the 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:08.400 folks who say, what happens if we just get into 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.399 a court packing scheme. You pack the court with people 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.919 who then support the kinds of jurisprudence that make it 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:19.360 less necessary to need a packed court in the future. Right, 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:23.600 do you use your executive power. We've already taken the 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:27.960 gloves software executive power is concerned, So use it for good. 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:30.320 We already know the other side is going to use 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:32.399 it for evil. Our job is to use it to 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:34.760 try to balance the tables and to create the kind 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:38.680 of power structure in which then we can actually we 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:41.240 can actually put some stops to some of the voter 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:43.879 suppression and other things. The other thing that we have 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:46.600 to have, though, given the tepidness of the Democratic Party, 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:49.960 is robust social movements. That's the only thing you can 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:53.760 do when you have to rise up against governments that 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:56.640 do not serve your interests. And so I think we're 0:24:56.640 --> 0:25:00.760 going to see more and more forms of protests. I 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:02.399 think we've seen a decade of it, and I think 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:04.119 that part of the challenge for us is to not 0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:06.600 get tired and to try to stay clear for me. 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.320 The challenge of protest movements is that then they tell people, well, 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:13.560 don't vote because nothing changes, and it's like, I don't 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:16.639 agree with that, right, I am a radical. I think 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:19.240 like the government is a ship show in many ways. 0:25:19.440 --> 0:25:22.879 And I also think like, if you don't have a 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:26.359 government coordinating, for instance, your pandemic response, then you arrive 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:28.359 at a world where one in every three hundred and 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:30.600 thirty black people has died of COVID in two years, 0:25:30.760 --> 0:25:34.440 one in every three hundred and thirty in the country period. Right, 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:39.000 that is not something that social movements can solve by themselves. 0:25:39.080 --> 0:25:41.760 You need good government to solve that problem. And you 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:45.080