Speaker 1: Good morning, Keeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody back in our pot Stream
Speaker 1: studios in Times Square. Folks, it has been a couple
Speaker 1: of days since the Buffalo shooting. And later in the show,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be joined by doctor Basil Smichael, who's
Speaker 1: the director of public policy program at a Hunter College,
Speaker 1: and Basil and I are going to get into a
Speaker 1: conversation about what really is the Democrat's theory of power.
Speaker 1: How is it that Republicans have done something that, if
Speaker 1: you look at it, as Basil will say, from a
Speaker 1: purely political science perspective, is brilliant. How do you decide
Speaker 1: that over decades, you're going to begin to invest in
Speaker 1: the areas where this country has made intense change. It
Speaker 1: has come through the courts, it has come through state legislatures, right,
Speaker 1: it has very rarely come from the oval office. And
Speaker 1: yet for Democrats, the only thing that we've ever been
Speaker 1: focused on as democratic establishments are those higher echelons of office.
Speaker 1: For the last five decades, Republicans have been making inroads
Speaker 1: with secretary of States, with school boards, with city councils,
Speaker 1: with governorships. We saw how this was unfolding while Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was president, when you know the Senate was going
Speaker 1: to decide while we're not sending COVID relief to blue states,
Speaker 1: we're only going to pay attention to who's in the
Speaker 1: red states. The reality is that we do not have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to get another bite at the apple. I
Speaker 1: have been saying this for years now. You lose democracy,
Speaker 1: it does not come back. And there is no point
Speaker 1: to be made over the last several years in this
Speaker 1: country that says that our democracy is safe and secure.
Speaker 1: We had a white domestic terrorists drive for hundreds of
Speaker 1: miles to do reconnaissance in a black neighborhood to take
Speaker 1: as many black lives as he possibly could. Now folks
Speaker 1: refer to this individual as a terrorist as I have,
Speaker 1: as a white supremacist, as he so proudly wrote about
Speaker 1: in his hundred and eighty page manifesto. Let me pose
Speaker 1: this question in the eyes of the law. What the
Speaker 1: fuck is the difference between Kyle Rittenhouse and the Buffalo
Speaker 1: white supremist. Kyle Rittenhouse drove across two states within ar
Speaker 1: fifteen over his shoulder, going to look for people to
Speaker 1: shoot and harm. Now, folks on the right want to say, well,
Speaker 1: he was out there protecting property. It wasn't his motherfucking
Speaker 1: property to protect, wasn't in his state, wasn't on his
Speaker 1: front fucking lawn. Peyton can say the same shit, Well,
Speaker 1: I was going to protect property from what. The only
Speaker 1: difference in these scenarios is that the buffalo white supremist
Speaker 1: decided that he was going to walk into a grocery
Speaker 1: store and take as many lives as possible. Kyle Rittenhouse
Speaker 1: decided to put himself in the middle of a peaceful
Speaker 1: protest and erupt in violence. He got off. Not only
Speaker 1: did he get off, he was fucking offered internships in
Speaker 1: Congress at the goddamn White House. The reason why we
Speaker 1: are seeing this persistence in violence and anti blackness is
Speaker 1: because there is no accountability. There has been no real
Speaker 1: accountability for the thousands of white people that decided to
Speaker 1: attempt to overthrow our government. The democratic establishment doesn't even
Speaker 1: outside of the one six House Commission, doesn't even really
Speaker 1: talk and fucking remind people on a regular basis. You
Speaker 1: see me if I were Nancy Pelosi and Chuck's humor,
Speaker 1: every time I had a microphone in my face, somebody's
Speaker 1: cell phone in my face, I would be talking about
Speaker 1: white supremacy and how fucking dangerous the Republican Party is,
Speaker 1: because you see, what they are not lacking on that
Speaker 1: side is passion and rage. Their passion amounts to violence, right,
Speaker 1: it amounts to legislation meant to threaten and cause as
Speaker 1: much harm as possible for those that are not white,
Speaker 1: not siss, not straight, and not Christian. For folks that
Speaker 1: think that they are sitting comfortably right now in blue
Speaker 1: states and oh, this won't affect me, Doctor Basil Smichael
Speaker 1: later on this show will tell you exactly how it
Speaker 1: is going to affect you that in the next six months.
Speaker 1: The violence that we are going to see in this
Speaker 1: country is going to grow as we head into midterm
Speaker 1: elections where Democrats, Joe Biden, being our leader, has said,
Speaker 1: We're going to focus on inflation. You're going to focus
Speaker 1: on inflation. Yeah, I know that the cost of shit
Speaker 1: is high. I know that gas prices are high. Do
Speaker 1: you know what else? I know? Women and people with
Speaker 1: uteruses are about to lose the ability to have an abortion.
Speaker 1: Not only that they're going to lose the ability to
Speaker 1: have access to birth control. Not only that they are
Speaker 1: going to be tried and convicted as criminals for trying
Speaker 1: to have bodily autonomy. Not only that that if in fact,
Speaker 1: you attempt to move outside of your state in order
Speaker 1: to get the kind of reproductive healthcare that you need,
Speaker 1: that you can wind up in prison and those that
Speaker 1: helped you do that will also arrive in prison. So
Speaker 1: how were we talking about freedom of movement or freedom
Speaker 1: at all in a country that is going to begin
Speaker 1: to regulate the bodies of people with uteruses at our
Speaker 1: state's borders. But the New York Times the other day
Speaker 1: wants to run articles about what the Taliban is doing
Speaker 1: to women in Afghanistan, and oh my god, these people,
Speaker 1: how heinous, how backwards? Where the fuck is the expose
Speaker 1: on the Republican Party turned into a white supremacist, fascist
Speaker 1: extremist cult. Where is that conversation you mean? Because they're
Speaker 1: not talking about what he jobs that then we're not
Speaker 1: talking about control, We're not talking about patriarchy, We're not
Speaker 1: talking about Christian fundamentalism and the abuse that that reigns
Speaker 1: down on people who do not subscribe to that way
Speaker 1: of thought. Tell me how Republicans are different than the Taliban.
Speaker 1: I will wait because I don't see it. What I
Speaker 1: see is a right wing zealot political party that has
Speaker 1: created a violent insurrectionist movement to threaten the lives of
Speaker 1: people who they don't see as human. Within the hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty page manifesto, the Buffalo Terrorist talked about white birthrates,
Speaker 1: which is a point of conversation on Fox News often
Speaker 1: from the mouth of Tucker Carlson. Talks about masculinity, talks
Speaker 1: about replacement theory, which once again Fox News and entire
Speaker 1: network has dedicated themselves to stoking the fears and escalating
Speaker 1: the violence of fragile white men. Tucker Carlson did a
Speaker 1: documentary called The End of Men. The biggest problem in
Speaker 1: America to him, is low testosterone rates in white men.
Speaker 1: So what do you think that the action is going
Speaker 1: to be When you have these mouthpieces like Tucker, like
Speaker 1: Laura Ingram, like Ron de Santists, like Donald Trump tell
Speaker 1: you to go and take your country back, tell you
Speaker 1: that white people should not be feeling discomfort and if
Speaker 1: they do, we must do something about that. Peyton like Kyle,
Speaker 1: like Dylan. They're not fucking mentally ill. They've been fed
Speaker 1: a steady diet that all Republicans have been fed, which
Speaker 1: is that black and brown people are coming to take
Speaker 1: from you. Meanwhile, if we actually taught history, which we
Speaker 1: do not, all we do is provide American propaganda about
Speaker 1: exceptionalism that no one experiences. If we would actually talk
Speaker 1: about history in its real context, white people would know
Speaker 1: that they have been the ones that have robbed everyone
Speaker 1: and everything. Raping and pillaging is how they have had
Speaker 1: access to power and have been a part of the
Speaker 1: hierarchy at the top. So the audacity to even have
Speaker 1: the idea in your mind that somebody is coming to
Speaker 1: take something from you that you did not willingly. You
Speaker 1: do not own anything, you didn't create anything, you stole,
Speaker 1: you robbed, you raped. That's how we are here. So
Speaker 1: what black and brown people and other people from marginalized
Speaker 1: communities are only trying to do is create equity. Because
Speaker 1: white folks Republican, these conservatives operate from a place of
Speaker 1: scarcity in the country that they then also want to
Speaker 1: turn around and tell us it's the most powerful and
Speaker 1: the wealthiest, but we can't do for the least. Oh,
Speaker 1: because you don't want people who don't look like you,
Speaker 1: don't level like you, don't pray like you, to have
Speaker 1: access in the way that you do. Folks, they've been
Speaker 1: saying the quiet parts out loud four decades. We just
Speaker 1: have always wanted to believe that somehow these people are
Speaker 1: better than who they are showing themselves to be. President
Speaker 1: Biden gave what folks are saying. It is an emotional
Speaker 1: speech about the shooting, about white supremacy being a poison,
Speaker 1: about we as a country needing to hold one another.
Speaker 1: I don't need a comforter in chief. I could give
Speaker 1: a fuck about how you want to comfort people, because
Speaker 1: you know what people find comforting safety protection policies that
Speaker 1: hold the people that do violent acts accountable, and not
Speaker 1: just the person that pulled the trigger, but the person
Speaker 1: that riled up, the person that decided to pick up
Speaker 1: the gun. Where is the FCC and their investigation into
Speaker 1: Fox News? Why has nobody called into that? Because let
Speaker 1: me tell you something, and I said this earlier in
Speaker 1: the week, if Tucker Carlson were a Muslim and Fox
Speaker 1: News was Al Jazeera and we were seeing the same
Speaker 1: level of violence, what the fuck do you think they
Speaker 1: the United States government would be doing. Where do you
Speaker 1: think that those people would be you think that they
Speaker 1: would be safely taken in their millions talking about freedom
Speaker 1: of speech. No, they would be someplace under a jail.
Speaker 1: So why don't we have the same rules that apply
Speaker 1: to white domestic terrorists. Whether you are holding a gun
Speaker 1: or a microphone, you are still doing the same amount
Speaker 1: of damage. And until we decide to start calling these
Speaker 1: people out consistently and by fucking name, nothing is going
Speaker 1: to change. It is only going to get worse. Coming
Speaker 1: up next, my conversation with Doctor Basil's Smichael about where
Speaker 1: we go from here. It's no secret that the news
Speaker 1: is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room
Speaker 1: podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca Freer and Tini
Speaker 1: for a lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week,
Speaker 1: The Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists
Speaker 1: to break down the issues in a way that won't
Speaker 1: just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get The
Speaker 1: Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on
Speaker 1: YouTube and Twitch. Get a behind the scenes look at
Speaker 1: Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an
Speaker 1: original podcast from the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week,
Speaker 1: host Roy Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests
Speaker 1: and experts from the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they
Speaker 1: use comedy to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws,
Speaker 1: and take a closer look at how and why these
Speaker 1: topics matter. Listen to Beyond the Scenes from The Daily
Speaker 1: Show with Trevor Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday, folks.
Speaker 1: I am very excited to be back in studio and
Speaker 1: to also be joined by old time friend colleague who
Speaker 1: we haven't seen each other in two years, doctor Basil Smichael,
Speaker 1: who is the director of Public Policy the Public Policy
Speaker 1: Program at Hunter College, to talk about you know where
Speaker 1: we have been, where we are right now, Basil. We
Speaker 1: are days removed now from the most heinous shooting that
Speaker 1: we have seen in the United States in the last
Speaker 1: several years. I would love to say ever, but we
Speaker 1: can't say that, because we are a country that is
Speaker 1: in love with guns and in love with white supremacy.
Speaker 1: Those two things collided in Buffalo, New York the Tops grocery.
Speaker 1: Ten black people murdered, three other people, wounded, an entire community,
Speaker 1: and frankly, a country rocked once again. What is your
Speaker 1: initial reaction to learning about thee hundred and eighty page manifesto,
Speaker 1: to learning about the reconnaissance that was done, the fact
Speaker 1: that this white supremacist terrorists drove two hundred miles in
Speaker 1: order to commit this act of terror. What do you
Speaker 1: make of this? My initial reaction was that black people
Speaker 1: are being hunted, were continuing and continue to be And
Speaker 1: first and foremost, let me send my regards to the
Speaker 1: Mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown. We used to work together
Speaker 1: at the State Democratic Party, where I was executive director,
Speaker 1: and I spent a lot of time in Buffalo, a
Speaker 1: lot of time in upstate New York. I had just
Speaker 1: been in Upstate New York talking students at RPI read
Speaker 1: to the Polytechnic Institute, and they were talking about how
Speaker 1: they feel that so much has changed in this world
Speaker 1: and are fearful about what it's going to be like.
Speaker 1: Why when they graduate in certain parts of upstate New York,
Speaker 1: you know it as liberal as the state is, or
Speaker 1: we'd like to say that we are. They had reported
Speaker 1: seeing more pockets of Confederate flags being flown from cars
Speaker 1: on lawns, language about people of color, black people in
Speaker 1: particular that they had not really heard before, so this
Speaker 1: was making them feel very anxious. And then a day
Speaker 1: later I heard about the shooting and I said, yes,
Speaker 1: black people are being hunted in this country. I remember
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen a man traveling from Maryland to kill
Speaker 1: black people in New York and he didn't wound up
Speaker 1: stabbing someone. This country is in love with guns, is
Speaker 1: in love with white supremacy. We have not. The country
Speaker 1: has not been absolved of its original sin of slavery.
Speaker 1: And you know, I went to Catholic school for twelve years.
Speaker 1: I'm actually an Anglican, and I was taught that there
Speaker 1: has to be penance before forgiveness. And I have not
Speaker 1: seen this country engage in any type of penance for
Speaker 1: either their past or their present actions towards African Americans.
Speaker 1: Having said that, it's clear that individuals will travel great
Speaker 1: distances and go to great lengths to manifest their hate.
Speaker 1: And we what we have seen certainly in the last
Speaker 1: few days, but we continue to see in our country
Speaker 1: this inability for the nation to really not only reconcile
Speaker 1: with the existence of domestic terrorism, but even fomented in
Speaker 1: many instes certainly during the Trump earn. We can spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time talking about Trump, we have, but
Speaker 1: it really didn't start with him. It just gave people
Speaker 1: who had these thoughts, who were organizing, and that's an
Speaker 1: important point, organizing around these thoughts and feelings about black people.
Speaker 1: It gave them an opportunity to bring that to the
Speaker 1: forefront without fear of retribution or consequence. And I think that,
Speaker 1: in many ways is the biggest one of the biggest
Speaker 1: lessons of the Trump era for me, action without consequence. Right,
Speaker 1: that folks feel compelled to and able to engage in
Speaker 1: this behavior without fear that they'll have their guns taken away,
Speaker 1: without fear that they're going to be prosecuted. That a
Speaker 1: guy Kyle Rittenhouse killed protesters in Kenosha, right, And so
Speaker 1: without that accountability, there is this freedom to act. And
Speaker 1: that makes me feel nervous for the first time in
Speaker 1: my life. And I grew up in a bron and
Speaker 1: I've been shot when I was twelve, but I feel
Speaker 1: that as a as a black man, in this black body,
Speaker 1: there are no safe spaces for me, and I've not
Speaker 1: felt that way before a mon and that makes me
Speaker 1: really terrify because My question was going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: when was there a time when you did feel safe? Right?
Speaker 1: But the reality is that we have watched a progression,
Speaker 1: just like your students that were talking about seeing the
Speaker 1: slow population of Confederate flags. Similarly, I'm from out east
Speaker 1: on Long Island and Trump Country had has taken over
Speaker 1: Suffolk County in New York, and in my neighborhood that
Speaker 1: I grew up in, right, it was always ninety six
Speaker 1: ninety seven percent white, But I never felt unsafe as
Speaker 1: I started to see Trump flags populated, right. And I
Speaker 1: mean not just a flag that says you know the
Speaker 1: candidate or the person that you're supporting, but it's the
Speaker 1: actual threatening language that they are lying so freely in
Speaker 1: front of their homes or riding around in their cars,
Speaker 1: like go ahead and take my gun if you want
Speaker 1: to this type of threatening posture. You know, what do
Speaker 1: you if there were to be some type of penance,
Speaker 1: wouldn't that come from our education system, which I believe
Speaker 1: has been the biggest perpetuator of white supremacy, and the
Speaker 1: gaslight of American excellence comes from our public school system.
Speaker 1: A couple of things about that, weren't I also, yes,
Speaker 1: I also don't think that I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of times people have this language. We all need to
Speaker 1: come to the table. And I'm like, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Black folk has been at this table for a long time.
Speaker 1: We've been saying this for a long time. And when
Speaker 1: Trump became president or started running for president, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: all right, even if you don't like Hillary, but this
Speaker 1: thing here you've got to pay attention to because it's
Speaker 1: a problem waiting to happen. So we've been at the table,
Speaker 1: were waiting for a willing partner. So that said, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel very strongly that you know, this
Speaker 1: is a conversation that it's happened in the black community.
Speaker 1: It needs to really happen in the way we should
Speaker 1: be there because we've got to be able to aid
Speaker 1: that conversation. But this is this is this is coming
Speaker 1: for them. This isn't just about us. It hits us first,
Speaker 1: perhaps first and foremost, but it's also coming for different
Speaker 1: parts of the white community too. So if they're not
Speaker 1: really awakened them and aware of this, it's going to
Speaker 1: come to their doorstep next having and it already has
Speaker 1: in many instances. Oklahoma City, among other terms, right. So
Speaker 1: it's it's there the shooting of the baseball the congressional
Speaker 1: baseball game, right, and even then they did not think
Speaker 1: to curb gun violence. The second point I want to
Speaker 1: make is on the flags themselves, because I've seen flags
Speaker 1: from twenty sixteen, I've seen flags to twenty twenty, and
Speaker 1: I'm seeing flags for twenty twenty four. What that says
Speaker 1: to me is that this isn't just about the election.
Speaker 1: This is about a movement. It's about their movement. Trump
Speaker 1: might be the focal point of it and made by
Speaker 1: the face of it, but it's a larger movement when
Speaker 1: you see that kind of energy and vigor, right. And
Speaker 1: the problem that we have is that on the other side,
Speaker 1: there isn't that movement. It is an incident to incident
Speaker 1: activity and objective. It is not a social political movement
Speaker 1: meant to push that back. And that is one of
Speaker 1: the things that I that I'm nervous about that I
Speaker 1: talk about a lot, that there isn't that same level
Speaker 1: of energy. Should we be focused more on what's happening
Speaker 1: in the schools, absolutely, but we should have always been
Speaker 1: this whole thing about critical race theory, banning books and
Speaker 1: so on. That's a that's not new, but it is
Speaker 1: a proxy for issues of race. It's a proxy for
Speaker 1: more or conversations about inclusivity that people don't want to have.
Speaker 1: But here's my issue from an organizing standpoint, there are
Speaker 1: almost fourteen thousand school districts in the country. That means
Speaker 1: that there are fourteen thousand opportunities for us to be
Speaker 1: in the room making arguments, organizing parents, which is what
Speaker 1: folks of color and African Americans they did pre and
Speaker 1: post Brown. We did it pre brand talk about folks
Speaker 1: like Ella Baker in Harlem, among others, that were organizing
Speaker 1: parents because they she believed and others believe that when
Speaker 1: you organize parents around the urgency of us happening in schools,
Speaker 1: you get them to develop urgency around other things in
Speaker 1: their community. So it leads to change. That is that
Speaker 1: at the school level, but also at the city, state,
Speaker 1: federal level, we're not doing that right now. The party
Speaker 1: could be doing that, should be doing that. They're not
Speaker 1: doing that. How does that change? That doesn't change on
Speaker 1: a dime. And that's the problem. But I think about
Speaker 1: why I got motivated to be a politics because I
Speaker 1: saw Jesse in eighty four and eighty eight on TV
Speaker 1: saying the party need to be more inclusive. In eighty
Speaker 1: eight he did it. And think about what happens. Eighty nine,
Speaker 1: David It becomes the first black man of New York City.
Speaker 1: Ninety two, Doug A. Wil It becomes the first elected
Speaker 1: black governor of Virginia. Bill Clinton gets elected that same year,
Speaker 1: and he started to see all these African Americans in
Speaker 1: positions of power. Alexis Herman, Rodney Slater, Ron Brown becomes
Speaker 1: was a DNC chair Secretary of Compress at one point.
Speaker 1: There is a direct there's a micro and sort of
Speaker 1: a macro effect of my political engagement through Jesse's engagement
Speaker 1: and movement. Right where is that movement today? Maybe it
Speaker 1: was Bernie, maybe it's the Poor People's Movement, Reverend Barber.
Speaker 1: But there has to be something that brings us to
Speaker 1: the table in every school district and every police precinct,
Speaker 1: every police jurisdiction across the country that gets as an
Speaker 1: energized and engage you know. I do interviews with my friend,
Speaker 1: another doctor, doctor Jonathan Mexol, who is the author of
Speaker 1: Dying of Whiteness, and he said to me recently, the
Speaker 1: problem that I'm seeing. And the consistent problem is that
Speaker 1: Republicans have a theory of change, a theory of power
Speaker 1: is what he said, Actually, what is the Democrat's theory
Speaker 1: of power? And he said because marching and protesting great,
Speaker 1: But like you said, that is reaction to reaction. It
Speaker 1: is momentary, right, It is not about a consistent strategy
Speaker 1: or plan. If you were to say what you believe
Speaker 1: the democrats theory of power to be, what would that be?
Speaker 1: I would have to say it is winning elections to
Speaker 1: have more more of Democrats in the House of a Senate,
Speaker 1: more governorships. Okay, The problem is there are two issues
Speaker 1: with that one, because that is an election cycle to
Speaker 1: cycle strategy. If you think about what Republicans do from
Speaker 1: a straight political science point of view, it's actually amazing.
Speaker 1: They have realized that in order to force change they
Speaker 1: have to move multiple institutions at the same time. Think
Speaker 1: about what they've done with judges. Think about what they're
Speaker 1: doing with schools. Think about what they're doing with secretaries
Speaker 1: of state, many of whom are elected in this country
Speaker 1: and run our election systems. They're focused on those elections, right,
Speaker 1: all of these different institutions they are focused on and
Speaker 1: managing operations and policies at the same time. And mind you,
Speaker 1: these are institutions not previously designed for us. That's another issue.
Speaker 1: But the fact is that these are institutions that they
Speaker 1: are moving and manipulating over time to force their theory
Speaker 1: of change. Because as you say, over time, because I
Speaker 1: want people to realize too, this is not something that
Speaker 1: has happening over night. Absolutely, this is the way that
Speaker 1: Republicans have been moving. It has been a five and
Speaker 1: six decade movement. That is that is now perfectly aligned
Speaker 1: and meeting the moment that they but they have planned
Speaker 1: for for decades. And they do it even through substantial laws.
Speaker 1: They'll say, they'll say they'll take that lass, they'll take
Speaker 1: the they'll take the Obama victory over over McCain, fine,
Speaker 1: over Romney, fine, because we focused on this other stuff
Speaker 1: down here, right, They'll take substantial losses because they know
Speaker 1: they're playing the long game. And if you think about
Speaker 1: the if you think about one particular issue, well, if
Speaker 1: you took out any particular issue that's decided on a
Speaker 1: state level, like let's say voting rights, right, think about
Speaker 1: what they have to do to make sure that they
Speaker 1: change state legislatures across the country. During the Obama presidency,
Speaker 1: Democrats lost about a thousand state legislatives LEAs across the
Speaker 1: country on thousand, Now what that and it flipped state legislatures,
Speaker 1: and in doing so, the Republicans are saying, hey, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of policy on the federal level. Presidents matter absolutely,
Speaker 1: but state policy, state vocal policy, that's what's really that's
Speaker 1: where the reborn really needs to grow. Let's stop focusing
Speaker 1: on that. We weren't focused on. Democrats weren't focused and
Speaker 1: as a result, we don't We didn't even contest in
Speaker 1: many races. There are races we don't even contest in
Speaker 1: because it's a foregone conclusion that we can't win or whatever.
Speaker 1: All right, But in making these decisions cycle to cycle,
Speaker 1: you lose sight of the long term plan, which is
Speaker 1: what the Republicans have had for decades. As you said,
Speaker 1: So here we have arrived where we have midterms in
Speaker 1: six months. We have the Democratic Party that says that
Speaker 1: they are going to run on inflation, not white supremacy,
Speaker 1: not fascism, not authoritarianism, not voting, not any of those things.
Speaker 1: They're going to run on inflation. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that kitchen table issues issues that the gasp. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that those don't matter. I'm saying that in the
Speaker 1: large grand scheme of things, if you are not living
Speaker 1: inside of a democracy, those things start to matter less,
Speaker 1: right because the gaps between the haves and the have
Speaker 1: not are going to be just ripped further apart. What
Speaker 1: do we do because again we're only focused on mid terms,
Speaker 1: then we're focused on twenty twenty four. I don't know
Speaker 1: this country makes it to twenty twenty four intact. And
Speaker 1: I have been saying that, and people tell me that
Speaker 1: I'm hyperbolic, and I'm like, tell me where I have
Speaker 1: lied over the last several years. When I said in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen that Donald Trump's presidency was going to be
Speaker 1: white supremacies last stand, I said that on air the
Speaker 1: minute that Florida went bread, here we are, and it's
Speaker 1: not white supremacies last stand. It is a reaffirmation. Right.
Speaker 1: So that is the one clarification that I would make
Speaker 1: about what I said. I said, Oh, this is going
Speaker 1: to be their last stand. No, they have doubled down
Speaker 1: and they are reaffirming what white supremacy looks like in
Speaker 1: the twenty first century, and so six months I believe
Speaker 1: we will have another shooting. I think that we were
Speaker 1: going to see them more and more, because I honestly
Speaker 1: I don't know the difference between what Kyle Rittenhouse did
Speaker 1: and what Peyton Gendrin did. I really I have no
Speaker 1: except one was a march that you decided to shoot
Speaker 1: up and a judge said that that was okay. But
Speaker 1: you decided to drive cross states in order to do that.
Speaker 1: This man decided to drive two hundred miles and shoot
Speaker 1: up a grocery store. What's what? Where's it? What's a difference?
Speaker 1: So what do you see over the next six months. Well,
Speaker 1: the one thing that really troubles me is to a
Speaker 1: point that you made earlier. You know, there's a really
Speaker 1: interesting report that I was done at. Seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of the world's population now lives in the lives in
Speaker 1: a country where the democracy is in backside, the democratic
Speaker 1: backside seventy percent of the world's population in the United
Speaker 1: States included. So our institutions are failing us and a
Speaker 1: smaller and smaller number of people are making decisions for
Speaker 1: more and more of us. What I think, the point
Speaker 1: that I made before is is probably where I would
Speaker 1: go with this, because my mentor in this business told
Speaker 1: me very very early on, people vote for one or
Speaker 1: two reasons, pride or anger. And if we're thinking about pride, right,
Speaker 1: what has really brought out people in major ways? Anger
Speaker 1: doesn't do it enough, at least on the Democratic side.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a little more kind. We kind
Speaker 1: of have to love people, right. And if I think
Speaker 1: about it, if I think about major political movements, I
Speaker 1: think that's where the Democrats should go. Clearly, it's really
Speaker 1: difficult for the establishment to create it in and of itself.
Speaker 1: So go where the heat is. Go where the strength
Speaker 1: and the power is. If that means signing on and
Speaker 1: get it right, getting Rever Barbara or others to take
Speaker 1: a more forceful role in moving people through the party,
Speaker 1: do that. But we've got to go, We've got to
Speaker 1: go where that power is. And I don't think I
Speaker 1: don't think the system, the institutions, the party, its structure
Speaker 1: itself is set up to do that. But we need
Speaker 1: to find that. We need to find that thing that
Speaker 1: really creates that social political movement. It's happening in ways
Speaker 1: that are I don't want to say that disconnected but
Speaker 1: they are much more they're not as connected to what
Speaker 1: happens in the party as much as it probably should having.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, I also feel, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to do a little more research on this, that one
Speaker 1: of the problems is trying to overlay all that we're
Speaker 1: doing on top of a Democratic coalition that no longer exists.
Speaker 1: Because if you look at that coalition that got Obama elected,
Speaker 1: there's the folks of color or the black foots, didn't
Speaker 1: come out for about a year, but eventually did it
Speaker 1: what we would call those Latte liberals, lives the liberals,
Speaker 1: high income, high educational team and Democrats, and historically it
Speaker 1: was also blue collar, white white nails, mostly organized labor.
Speaker 1: The problem is that Obama did very well around those
Speaker 1: high educational team and high income earners early on, eventually
Speaker 1: got people of color. That working class population never went
Speaker 1: to him, and I think there's still this conversation about
Speaker 1: trying to bring those folks back into the party, trying
Speaker 1: to go get rural voters, try to talk to these
Speaker 1: suburban voters. All valuable and I think worthwhile, but we
Speaker 1: really have to sit down and think about who the
Speaker 1: new Democratic coalition is, including a lot of young voters
Speaker 1: who need to who want to be a part of
Speaker 1: something right, including a lot of young birds voters. We
Speaker 1: need to find what those people, who those people are,
Speaker 1: what those policies are, and focus on that because if
Speaker 1: we try to, if we're trying to cobble together a
Speaker 1: frame coalition, it's going to keep falling out of our hands.
Speaker 1: We need to find something that's strong, that is resilient
Speaker 1: and build upon that with the kind of policies like
Speaker 1: whether it's affordable college or more toward universal health care,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. We've got to find that sweet spot.
Speaker 1: But I think we are strategy and we're willing to
Speaker 1: take losses in the short term with a long term goal.
Speaker 1: I don't think we're there yet. Last question for you, Basil,
Speaker 1: is this, we lose midterms. Have you ever seen a
Speaker 1: democracy be lost and gained back in a handful of
Speaker 1: the years, Because I don't think that folks understand the
Speaker 1: urgency and the alarming situation that we're in. I personally
Speaker 1: believe that Democrats lose midterms, which everyone is normal political climate,
Speaker 1: the party in power all always loses. I get that
Speaker 1: we're also not in normal times. We're also not dealing
Speaker 1: with two normal political parties anymore, we lose what happens
Speaker 1: everything that we're we're nervous about now, just that that
Speaker 1: feeling becomes worse and the policies become worse. You think
Speaker 1: this pro this pro life movement has strength with this
Speaker 1: Scotus decision. If the Republicans gained both houses, you're going
Speaker 1: to see lawmaking away from what the President wants to
Speaker 1: do that is going to be ten times as worse
Speaker 1: because they're going to find ways to create legislation that
Speaker 1: if they can't do it, mashally push it into the
Speaker 1: States to try to really curtail people's rights and ability,
Speaker 1: you know, sadly, maybe even ability to move around in
Speaker 1: this country. And I don't I don't mean like show
Speaker 1: me your papers communist Russia. I mean like you want
Speaker 1: to be able to go get services in New York
Speaker 1: and you live in Texas, They're gonna find and because
Speaker 1: you can't get what you need in Texas, they'll they'll
Speaker 1: find a way to keep you from getting what you
Speaker 1: need to get. You know, That's what that's what makes
Speaker 1: me most fearful. We're going to be in a position
Speaker 1: where where I live that is going to make it
Speaker 1: so that my movement is constrained, my ability to go
Speaker 1: and get the kind of services that I want to.
Speaker 1: But it's healthcarity. Thing else is how constrained is that
Speaker 1: going to be? Um It used to be sort of
Speaker 1: that was a red state issue. It's going to be
Speaker 1: a red and blue state issue. If there even anything
Speaker 1: as red and blue states anymore. M going forward. That
Speaker 1: is that is my real concern. Everything we take for
Speaker 1: granted and say that that's somebody else's probably will our
Speaker 1: problem individually and it will not matter where you And
Speaker 1: that's that's the that's the that's the thing that excures
Speaker 1: me most because a lot of times you can use
Speaker 1: their money and mobility to say I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: here and I'm gonna be okay, I'm not gonna save you.
Speaker 1: That's the that's when you'll feel it, doctor Basils. Michael,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time to join
Speaker 1: will kay as. We appreciate it absolutely. The Damage Report
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