WEBVTT - Our Failed Democracy 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.240 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to will Gate f Daily 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:18.640 with Meet your Girl Daniel Moody, recording from the Bunker, Folks, 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.880 I got to say that as I continue to watch, 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.520 and I'm sure that you all are as well, all 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.080 of the reports coming out not only from this country 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.280 but around the globe as it pertains to global warming 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.919 and climate, the climate crisis that we are seeing in 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.559 real time, all of the things that scientists. You know, 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.239 remember when we used to actually listen to scientists and 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.879 believe them as a whole entire country until Republicans decided 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.800 that they would have their own scientists and their own 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:52.360 alternative facts and then distort reality. Well, now their warnings 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.920 have come to pass. And the thing that I wonder 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.760 as I listened to President Biden talk to the American 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.560 people about the crisis that we're in and false short 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.760 of issuing a public health emergency around climate change, is 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.800 are we just too late? You know? I've been watching 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:15.560 videos all over social media of the tarmac at Heathrow 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:20.399 Airport that fucking melted, of a sinkhole that swallowed up 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.440 nearly half of a goddamn street in the Bronx in 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.959 New York after the rain that we just got in. 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.240 There was entire once again subway stations that turned into 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.080 geyser's You're talking about the state of Texas issuing like 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:38.680 a series of alerts because they are experiencing one hundred 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.480 and fourteen degree temperatures for a number of days in 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.960 a row. Where we're talking about drought, where we're talking 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.280 about a food shortage, We're talking about all of these 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.000 things that have now just blown out of control. We 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.080 had twenty thirty year lead time to avoid this, to 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.520 actually create policies and initiatives that supposedly where people were 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.360 supposed to come together in the Paris Climate Agreement to do, 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.040 and then come to find out this week that not 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.280 one country, not one of them that signed onto the 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.000 Paris Climate Agreement, is on track to deliver what it 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.040 was that they said that they would deliver to the world. 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.600 So the world is on fucking fire. No one has 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:22.120 infrastructure built to sustain the rising temperatures that are now 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.840 going to be the norm, and what we are going 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.760 to see is the chain reaction of events that are 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.320 going to come to pass. I talked about this yesterday 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.040 with regard to the price of food, the price of water, right, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.000 Because what's going to happen is that as folks are 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:41.680 just trying to water their lawns or keep their plants alive, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.359 you have farmers that are trying to water their produce 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.480 in order to keep us alive. You have the entire 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.400 country of Italy declare a climate emergency because they're in 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.560 a major fucking drought. So you talk about the fact 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.400 that we are all interconnected, we have not been acculturated 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.840 to be noble citizens, and surely not under Trumpism, because 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.400 that was all America first. Well, you know there is 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.600 no America first, Italy first, this, that and the other thing. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.400 We're all fucked right. That's what it means to be interconnected, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.480 and that's what it means when you don't have a 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.360 community mindset and instead are continuing to function in silos 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.600 as if one country's actions doesn't affect the other. We 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.400 can no longer pretend that we are not in a crisis. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:30.919 And you know what's funny is that when you are 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.200 looking to voters right now on where climate change falls 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.520 in their list of issues that they're concerned about, Well, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.920 when you're looking at people sixty five and up, who 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.960 are generally the ones to vote in mid term elections 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.560 and off presidential year elections. They don't really care about 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.560 climate change, right because more than half of their lives 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.200 are fucking over And many people have actually articulated that 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.040 in the public sphere because I guess they're shame around 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.120 being so fucking selfish. Does not matter because the world, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.720 right is just so selfish. But when you talk to 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.760 young people, particularly Generation Z, climate change is kind of 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.920 the number one thing because they're wondering how they're going to, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.080 I don't know, be able to sustain on a planet 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.200 that we are killing every single day. So you know, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.080 you have Joe Mansion, who has once again said that 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.200 he is not going to vote for any climate legislation. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.920 Why should he give a fuck? His family are multi millionaires, 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.680 right that are making money off the backs of the poor, 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.159 stupid people in West Virginia. And yeah, I said stupid 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.159 because today I'm fucking pissed. I'm pissed that this motherfucker 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.920 stays in power. I'm pissed that nobody calls him out. 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.159 Joe Biden and his fucking press event to the world 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.200 around climate change is calling out Republicans but not calling 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.960 out fucking Joe Mansion and Kursen Cinema. Oh, because what 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.200 what are we afraid of? That he's going to continue 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.200 doing nothing, That he's going to continue rolling with then 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.640 acting like a Republican and being a Democrat and fucking 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.720 name only. Like, at this point in time, I just 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.960 wish that we would stop operating from a place of 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.960 fucking fear and start operating from a place of reality 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.640 and strength. That motherfucker needs to go, right along with 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.279 Merritt Garland needs to go. And it's just like these 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.240 fucking quote unquote moderate white men are going to be 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.480 the fucking death of us. And I'm just wondering when 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.479 everybody else is going to start to realize that. Coming 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.599 up next, my conversation with voting rights advocate and political 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:38.000 narrative strategist Maya Contreras, Folks, I am very excited to 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.440 welcome to wok F Daily for the first time, Maya 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:46.760 contrerez who is a voting rights advocate and political narrative strategist, 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.599 which I like that name and I may steal it 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.479 at some point. Maya, thank you so much for making 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.320 the time to join woke F. I want to start 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.800 off our conversation today. You know we are a month 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:06.719 plus a little bit out from the reversal of Rob 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.839 Wade from the Supreme Court to dramatic decision to take 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.839 away for the first time, I think in modern history, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.400 to take away a right that Americans have had over 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:21.440 the last close to fifty years, and we are still 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.440 dealing with the repercussions of that. Many states, as you know, 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.640 had trigger laws that were already in place, so women 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.720 and people with uterus is in roughly I believe it's 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:37.000 thirteen plus states have lost the ability to have bodily autonomy. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.880 The White House with their with their outgoing White House 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.560 Communications Director push back against activists in a way that 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.600 was really shocking, kind of pinning activists in a way 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.800 against establishment Democrats and saying that those that are fighting 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.000 on the ground and are the first line of defense 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:00.800 are apparently out of step quote unquote with establishment amocrats. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.280 I wanted to get your initial reaction from that statement 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.920 and then you know the subsequent actions and things that 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:13.760 we have been hearing, reading and observing on social media 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:19.440 in the news as it pertains to this administration emergency 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:24.920 action against this reversal. So when I first heard with 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:29.960 the outgoing Secretary set I I put like twelve hands 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:37.080 over my face. I was, I just was. I was fatterned, 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.680 but not surprised. And the reason why I say that 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.520 is my grandfather taught an American university. My mom was 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:46.720 born in Washington, d C. I spent a lot of 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.200 time in DC grang up and one of the number 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:50.920 one things that I learned about DC when I was 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.280 eight years old was that DC is allergic to creativity. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:08:01.040 And yes, and I will say that because of that, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.760 you have people that are moving into a bubble there 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.800 who are still thinking in ways that are very antiquated. 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.800 And one of my issues with and first of all, 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.120 let me say this too, I live in definitions. One 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.040 of the things that doctor ebra Max Kindy said and 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.680 I love, is that we need to live in the definition. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.200 So when I say, when I use the word establishment, 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.520 anyone that steps into Congress becomes establishment, I want you 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.440 all to understand that that is an establishment. And you're 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.400 moving into establishment, and you're choosing to work in an 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.960 establishment environment. It is very difficult to work in something 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.480 that was not created for the vast majority of us. 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:46.640 It is very difficult. The bones of DC inside that 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.640 is racism, misogyny, misogynoir. That is what you're walking into. 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.360 That's why that's the se as difficult. Now on top 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.960 of that, when you have messengers and are vast the 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.760 vast majority of them are white and who have never 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:04.200 worked in activist spaces or advocacy spaces, this is the 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.760 kind of messaging that comes through where the fault Laes 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.080 is in not recognizing that they need to have more 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:16.280 people that work in those spaces inside of the White House. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.359 That was the biggest mistake. I will say she fundamentally 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.040 in that moment. I think I'm not going to assume 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.360 what she thought, but I'm assuming she did later regret 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:29.520 to say it. I think that she was trying to 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.320 hit hit back off of people who have been maybe 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:37.720 performative and their activism. But what it did is hurt 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:43.040 people that are waking up in their daily lives fighting 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:49.000 against this tide of racist codified policies that are coming 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.920 out through throughout the country. So that I will say 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.480 that was my initial reaction and a little bit of 0:09:55.400 --> 0:10:00.160 where I saw the mistake coming from. You know, I 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.200 find that you know as somebody not not quite like you, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.040 not as embedded, but I spent over fifteen years in Washington, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.960 d C. I went you know, undergrad political science, grad 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.600 school education policy, and then worked on the hill, ran 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:20.080 the gamut until I fled DC in twenty sixteen to 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.959 move to New York. And what I can say about 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.600 inside the Beltway is that you are absolutely right. Creativity 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.000 is an oasis there right that many and maybe not 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.360 even an oasis, I'll say, a mirage that you you 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.760 kind of think with new administrations that you will come 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.440 to this place of consensus and biparticism, and you know, 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.440 and this this imagined place of yesteryear, and what we 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.760 are seeing, I think more and more is that the 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:56.440 behind the curtain scotch drinking, handshaking, you know, kind of 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.839 politics that Joe Biden cut his teeth in are no 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:05.080 longer apparent. Yet the people that he employs and that 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.319 still find themselves employed in Washington, DC and in politics, 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.880 are still of that mindset. And so where they're viewing 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:18.280 activism right, even the acknowledgement that this administration is not 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.800 going to its full capacity of power to push back 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.960 against the compounded crises that we're dealing with, that we 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.480 are the problem somehow. And so you know, for many 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.560 activists who I've talked to, particularly around abortion. They were pissed. 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.400 They've been pissed at this administration. You know, they were 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.840 pissed at this administration because we have yet to have 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:44.120 a president under the word abortion, let alone fight for 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.880 it in a way that would say that we are 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.199 going to go to the very lengths that our executive 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.760 power allows us to go. We go in there, right. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.960 And So what is it that you see or think 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.320 about this administration what it's been faced with, Because I'm 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:06.200 not saying that they walked into a warm, welcome setting 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:08.480 where they could kind of take on task one at 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.520 a time. They kind of walked into a five alarm 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.600 fire and now it really is one across the planet. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.560 What do you think that this administration isn't getting and 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.680 do they have an opportunity to make a pivot? So 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:24.400 I have said this and I just said it in 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.160 an article I wrote for Dame this week that the 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:33.000 message is policy. So we have to look at what 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:40.640 our legislators are doing in Congress, and by that this 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.400 administration and by that I mean the one hundred and 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.640 seventeenth Congress is actually doing quite well. They've introduced a 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.280 host of amazing legislation to codify abortion, to expand protections, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.559 to protect our data from being released, and things like that. However, 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.400 we have a Senate that is gridlocked, and no matter 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.880 what anyone says, Joe Biden has no sway or control 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.440 overmansion and cinema because these are separations of power. He's 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.600 not a dictator. He cannot tell them what to do. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.360 These stories of LBJ saying that he leaned people in 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.360 the corner and intimidated him, those are overblown and if 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.520 you read the history the history of LBJ there, they're 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:24.360 much blown and exaggerated. Second, I will say this, Joe 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.240 Biden is somebody that is a moderate president. It's like 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.360 when a lot of people thought when Obama got elected 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:32.160 that he was going to do all these things and 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.160 really swing to the left, but he was moderate too. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.720 We have to recognize that when we're electing moderates, we're 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.439 going to get moderate responses. So I don't so all 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.960 the things that Joe Biden is doing. I'm not surprised. 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.760 That's why he wasn't my first pick for president either. Right, 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.360 So that's why to me, we have to recognize when 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.160 they're showing us, I'm telling us who they are. That 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.720 is who we're getting now regarding backdoor deals. I want 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.840 to go back to that for a second. Unfortunately that 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.520 still exists the local level and the state level, and 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.480 at the federal level. I mean in New York, we're 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.600 both New Yorkers. We are haunted by the ghosts of 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.880 Tammany Hall and Robert Moses. We have so many people 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.959 that once they move into spaces of power, want to 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.360 stay there. This is the problem with the entrenchment of power. 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.920 All of a sudden, you have people that are willing 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.360 to not be transparent and the deals that they are making, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.080 including city council members that I had in the past 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.200 really supported and liked, and then solve them change the 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.400 moment they moved behind that power door. So what we 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.520 have right now in DC is a more of a 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.520 rarity of people that are willing to speak their mind 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:46.080 and speak freely about it. And unfortunately a lot of 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.760 people who've been entrenched in power are so risk averse 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.360 that they're the ones that are really the problem. So 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.960 to me, what the problem is that's going on the local, state, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.200 and federal level is an aversion to risk. Joe Biden 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:04.280 and of traditional moderate Democrats have long looked at polls 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.240 to decide what people want, well Biden. If we can 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:13.800 fault Biden specifically, it will be that one, people want 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.080 to have access to abortion. Seventy seven percent of this 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.440 country supports that people support SSI, which would help the 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.920 disabled community. They support so many pieces of policy that 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.160 Biden should understand that they're popular and he can make 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.600 these decisions to do more. However, I will say this 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.680 regarding EO's executive ordered, they can only do so much. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.120 They can be thrown out by our scotus, our right 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.120 wing scotus. They can be overturned by the next president. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.960 So this is why they're very difficult. The main thing 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.720 that we want to do, and what I will also 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.200 say that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted to do was actually 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.360 Alya slowly put these pieces together so it's harder to 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.560 blow it down. That's why she never ever wanted row 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.320 Vue way to go in the way that it did. However, 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.800 when was the opportunity to codify it. I went through. 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.640 You should know that I'm an award winning researcher, So 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.320 I went through and would love every single Congress since 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.480 nineteen seventy three to see when there was a supermajority 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.000 and when they could have codified, and it only happened 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.640 two times, Jimmy Carter's administration for two years, an Obama 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.040 for seventeen working days, and for a Jimmy Carter. People 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.560 need to understand, Jimmy Carter was not pro abortion. He 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.400 didn't want federal funds available for it, so that was 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.080 never gonna happen. Not only that, but he had one 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.720 hundred and twenty five men, men that were like, hell, no, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.800 it's not happening, so that that was not gonna happen. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.280 The same with the Obama administration. Obama came in and saying, hey, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.760 let's do this, naively thinking I've got the votes. He 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.760 didn't have the votes. Obama needed to look before he spoke, 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.200 and when saying that, you go back through and you 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.680 see the votes, he didn't have him. He didn't have him. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:57.640 He didn't have him. It would have been filibustered, and 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.200 he didn't have him. If it wasn't filibustered. So this 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.400 is why I'm saying, we have never had the opportunity 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.800 to codify it. We've got the ACA through with the 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.679 skin of our teeth. So That's why people have to 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.040 understand that one of the ways if we want to 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.040 codify wrote and we're trying to do that, it's past 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.320 in the House is not going to pass thissent as 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.280 we have to elact more senators. That unfortunately sounds like 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.560 such an annoying and boring thing, right, But that is 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.280 the reality of our situation if we're talking about strategy. Hey, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:31.000 I'm David Plots of Slates Political Gapfest. As another election 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.720 season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.639 the noise and the news. Each week, on The gap Fest, 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.119 John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.359 down the races, and tell you what issues really matter. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.200 We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.480 but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.440 a good time. So subscribe to Slates Political Gapfest new 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.760 episodes every Thursday. Get a behind the scenes look at 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.719 comedy centrals The Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.920 original podcast from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.520 host Roy Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.520 and experts from the Emmy Award winning series together, they 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.680 use comedy to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.840 laws and take a closer look at how and why 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.399 these topics matter. Listen to Beyond the Scenes from The 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.399 Daily Show with Trevor Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:26.600 Podcast or wherever you get your podcast, new episodes every Tuesday. 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.879 You know, it doesn't It's not even to me, Maya 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:34.280 that it sounds boring. It's just that when I even 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.680 hear the word moderation right now, as we are seeing 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.960 pictures of literally the globe that is on fire, when 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:47.800 we are citing that, I I just watched a story 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.520 right before we were talking today. More women, I think 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.399 it's up one hundred, one hundred and fifty percent of 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:58.680 women looking into sterilization in places like Texas and Ohio. 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:03.000 That those Google searches and those um those research meetings 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:07.400 with doctors are becoming increasingly the norm because they would 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:12.040 rather sterilize then end up in a predicament where they 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.879 are not don't have access to contraception or changes you know, 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.480 in in a month um or that they in fact 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.040 do become pregnant and then of course are not able 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.560 to abort that pregnancy, and so when you hear all 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.240 of these stories and and I mean I could go 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.040 on and on and on. As people know on woke 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.000 a f you think to yourself, where the hell does 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.680 moderation make sense? Where does like you know what I'm 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.760 saying that, And that's it's just like I didn't. Biden 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.480 was not my first choice. He wasn't even my fifth. 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.240 And so when I am talking about yes, I understand that, 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.040 America said, you know what, here's an old white evil man, 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.000 Donald Trump. We're gonna get a good white old man 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.040 to battle against him, and then all is going to 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:03.040 be well. Well, eighteen months after an insurrection, an attempt 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.199 to overthrow the government, and a series of laws that 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.560 have been passed in red states, nowhere in sight do 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:14.280 you see Republicans working at a pace called moderation. So 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.879 I'm wondering what you believe is a pivot or pivots 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.359 that need to happen, not just from this administration, but 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.200 at the state and local level with Democrats in order 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.960 to one hold on to the majority in the House 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.960 and in the Senate, even if it's by the skin 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:36.240 of their goddamn teeth, to avert fascism, but in general, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.560 to recognize that this incremental change in progress that we've 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.160 been kind of feeding people for decades plus, it ain't 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.080 it anymore. Sure. I would also say a couple of things. One, No, 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:51.200 I'm not someone who believes in moderation when there is 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.560 multiple crisis. There's a mental health crisis, there's an environmental crisis, 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.399 there's a public health crisis. There's multiple crisises, right, and 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:02.280 crisiss means they're that their need quick emergency response. But 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.400 let me say this first. A lot of the white 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.760 people that ended up voting for Joe Biden, that moved 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:12.000 over to him, this is fine for a lot of them. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.199 You have to understand this was fine for them. They're like, okay, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.640 so that we're good. Now we're going to go back 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:22.240 to brunch. This was fine, okay, So they don't care. Now. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:26.639 I will say this within Congress. The reason why moderation 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.200 has been a word used to describe Congress for so long, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.359 why because seventy seven percent of our Congress now is 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.000 still white. The vast majority of it. I think it's 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.879 seventy eight, seventy six percent, no, sorry, seventy three percent 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.920 is male. So you've understand that black women, women in 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:50.480 color and Congress LGBTQ members, disabled members, they're still make 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.120 up twenty seven percent a fraction of Congress. So when 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:56.520 we say, well, why are things working at such a 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.040 moderate pace, you have to understand that the vast majority 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.640 of Congress doesn't see that necessarily as an emergency. I'm 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:06.960 not saying there aren't some Donald Trump, some very fine 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:12.320 white people on the Democratic sun. I'm not saying that 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:16.320 because obviously by Chris Murphy wants gun safety. You know, 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.560 you have white women in there that are fighting for 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.640 abortion access. But you have to understand, for the vast 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.280 majority of time, these are people that don't necessarily understand 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.640 what daily discrimination looks like. They don't know what that 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.280 Black women go through a medical term called weathering due 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:37.280 to daily discrimination, and it weathers on body. They don't. 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.720 They kind of started recognizing that during COVID, when black 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.280 and brown people were dying at a disproportionate rate, that 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.920 maybe that correlated with health brand and the way that 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.960 we either use I don't know, maybe cigarettes or drinking 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.280 to cope with daily discrimination or lack of opportunities and 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:01.480 all those other stuff. So hye poppies, Sorry, no, no, no, 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.439 they're just in the building and exactly they're they're just 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.160 they're just like co signing that exactly mine. Ye right. 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.600 So what I'm saying is that the reason why the 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:16.440 Democratic Party had long held moderation as a standard is 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:18.840 because you mostly like white people. Now that we have 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.440 more black people, more queer people in it, that isn't 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:27.120 necessarily the narrative anymore. All the great policies, by the way, 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:32.320 that I've talked about, to codify marriage equality, to quotify 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:34.960 abortion rights and all that stuff, most of it came 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.960 from black and brown people in Congress. If you look 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:39.919 at these battis. So that's what I'm saying. So the 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:43.240 Democratic Party couldn't have a long term strategy because it 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:46.280 did not include it for a very long time, centering 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:48.840 people that were the closest to the harm. So this 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:50.840 is why things are starting to change. But this is 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:55.639 also why we need to elect more inclusive It's not 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:59.119 just about representation, it's also about inclusivity. We want to 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.119 lack people that do understand the public health crisis. We 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.199 want people to understand that this is a as a 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:08.119