Speaker 1: Good morning, Peepsen. Welcome to WIKA F Daily with Me
Speaker 1: your Girl Danielle Moody recording on location. Folks. Today, I
Speaker 1: get into a conversation with our good, good friend, doctor
Speaker 1: Jonathan Metzel, and I get into a conversation with him
Speaker 1: about how the gun laws and the gutting of states
Speaker 1: rights as it pertains to creating their own safe gun
Speaker 1: law measures like New York are a part of the
Speaker 1: larger Republican strategy to destabilize Blue states, blue cities in
Speaker 1: their quest one the gun labby for greed for increased sales,
Speaker 1: but for the Republican Party to be able to and
Speaker 1: point to these cities that they have destabilized and say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is why you need to have us in power.
Speaker 1: This is why we need to be the ones in control,
Speaker 1: because these cities are raging out of control. Well, they're
Speaker 1: raging out of control, and they're not because I live
Speaker 1: in New York City and it is not raging out
Speaker 1: of control. Yes, there is crime that is happening and
Speaker 1: has always happened, But what I get into with Jonathan
Speaker 1: is about the narrative that is used to discuss crime
Speaker 1: and why Democrats haven't found a retort to their message
Speaker 1: to the Republicans message of a law and order You know,
Speaker 1: we know that it's steeped in bullshit, right, they don't care.
Speaker 1: If we actually cared about law and order, then we
Speaker 1: would invest in public schools, we would invest in communities,
Speaker 1: we would create jobs, we would do things that don't
Speaker 1: have people use crime as a last resort. Now, look,
Speaker 1: I am not creating sob stories for violence. But what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that if putting more cops on the
Speaker 1: streets doesn't actually change anything, then what are at some
Speaker 1: of the alternatives that are not just get rich quick
Speaker 1: schemes for the police budgets? Right, So, Jonathan will weave
Speaker 1: together the dots very clearly on you know, the issue
Speaker 1: that I have been talking about a lot, which is
Speaker 1: the rise of white domestic terrorism, the rise in this
Speaker 1: quote unquote appeal to white anxiety and how it is
Speaker 1: affecting not only the upcoming midterm elections, but frankly the
Speaker 1: way in which we're developing policies and how those how
Speaker 1: and why certain policies are developed. I got to say
Speaker 1: this as we only have but five days until midterm elections.
Speaker 1: One of the things that is consistently pissing me off,
Speaker 1: as I know that it is pissing off many of you.
Speaker 1: Is this consistent narrative around the fact that all of
Speaker 1: the polls are shifting to Republicans. Once again, let me
Speaker 1: say this, I don't give a fuck about the polls.
Speaker 1: I really don't. I never have. And I know that
Speaker 1: there are polsters out there that are like, no, there's
Speaker 1: a science to this, in a nuance to this, No,
Speaker 1: there is not. In all honesty. What it is is
Speaker 1: being able to ask questions in a certain type of
Speaker 1: way to be able to conjure out the outcome that
Speaker 1: you want. The only things that matter right now with
Speaker 1: five days left until the election until polls close is
Speaker 1: what I should say. Five days until polls close is
Speaker 1: how many people actually fucking show up. So if you
Speaker 1: are listening to the media right now and allowing them
Speaker 1: to conjure up a state of anxiety or make you
Speaker 1: feel like your vote doesn't matter, then the Republicans are succeeding.
Speaker 1: Right then the media is succeeding. The only polls that
Speaker 1: matter right now are the ones that people are going
Speaker 1: to that they are putting their physical bodies in, or
Speaker 1: that they are mailing their ballots into That's what matters, folks.
Speaker 1: So don't allow this conversations to deter you or make
Speaker 1: you feel like, all hope it's lost, because I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this, regardless of if Democrats win or lose, we're
Speaker 1: still fighting. This shit is not over. Just like how
Speaker 1: we thought that, oh my god, we line up and
Speaker 1: we bring Biden into office and then we can go
Speaker 1: back to sleeping well and taking deep breaths. No, because
Speaker 1: what we know to be true is that the Republicans
Speaker 1: are coming, and they are unrelenting, and they are not stopping.
Speaker 1: They don't give a fuck about these elections, right, So,
Speaker 1: regardless of the outcome, what we know to be true
Speaker 1: is that we have work to continue to do. I
Speaker 1: am a big proponent in rest and rage, right. I
Speaker 1: rest so that I have the energy and the focus
Speaker 1: to be able to think ahead, to be able to
Speaker 1: create strategies, have conversations, We've narratives that get people bill activated.
Speaker 1: But what we all have learned since two thousand and
Speaker 1: sixteen is that the work is not done. Saving our
Speaker 1: democracy doesn't just happen on election day. It is a
Speaker 1: daily practice. And so if we are not moving in
Speaker 1: that way if we are not recognizing that not one
Speaker 1: election alone is going to save us. It is going
Speaker 1: to be a series of elections at the state, local,
Speaker 1: and federal level over the course of years and decades
Speaker 1: that are going to save us. Right it's the layered
Speaker 1: strategic approach that is going to ultimately save us. But
Speaker 1: if there's nothing else that we need to hold right now,
Speaker 1: it is this without vigilance. Without vigilance, our democracy dies.
Speaker 1: It is not enough to just tweet, It is not
Speaker 1: enough to just talk. We have got to vote, and
Speaker 1: then we have got to continue to stay vigilant to
Speaker 1: make sure that the people that we vote for continue
Speaker 1: to make decisions based on our best interests and not
Speaker 1: the interest that is accruing on their accounts. Do you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? It is time that we recognize
Speaker 1: and we own our own power, because guess what, folks,
Speaker 1: they are getting ready to wield these gavels and wield
Speaker 1: these batons, and they are coming after every single one
Speaker 1: of our rights. So understand, election day is not when
Speaker 1: the work is done, it is when it truly truly begins.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, my conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzo.
Speaker 1: It's no secret that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: there's The Bituation Room podcast hosted by comitian and commentator
Speaker 1: Francesca free Erantini for a lighter take on the heavy stuff.
Speaker 1: Each week, the Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts,
Speaker 1: and activists to break down the issues in a way
Speaker 1: that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket.
Speaker 1: Get the Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Scottify, Stitcher and
Speaker 1: streaming on YouTube and Twitch friends. You know that whenever
Speaker 1: we have the opportunity to speak with our in house doctor,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel, to talk about all the things from
Speaker 1: guns to COVID, the rise of white resentment, it is
Speaker 1: a treat. And Jonathan, today I want to talk about
Speaker 1: one thing. You want to talk about another. So it's
Speaker 1: going to be dealer's choice. Which you are going to
Speaker 1: be the dealer today? So let's begin with guns and
Speaker 1: New York. Tell us the latest on the wild wild
Speaker 1: West that is becoming America. Well, this is the you're
Speaker 1: actually the same topic, but you you'll only realize it
Speaker 1: of price start talking. So the issue is this, I've
Speaker 1: been living here in Tennessee. That's why I am today
Speaker 1: down in the South studying gun culture, and there's been
Speaker 1: a particular playbook that the NRA and other gun dealers
Speaker 1: have used to basically spread. I mean, if you went
Speaker 1: twenty years ago in Nashville, for example, if you told
Speaker 1: anybody you could carry a loaded gun into a park
Speaker 1: or into a bar, or in the trunk of your
Speaker 1: car into a government building, they'd be like, that's frigging preposterous.
Speaker 1: That's like anarchy. And now all those things are like
Speaker 1: second nature, and anybody who says I'm gonna we should
Speaker 1: have restrictions on guns is run out of town, like
Speaker 1: there's no university of the allegation. How did they get that?
Speaker 1: How did they do that? They started this narrative that basically,
Speaker 1: your stuff isn't safe and your liberties aren't safe, and
Speaker 1: guns are the ways that you can protect yourself. And
Speaker 1: it's not just about like because of course, the main
Speaker 1: cause of gun death is gun suicide or partner violence,
Speaker 1: but the sin of subtle messages in conservative newspapers, for example,
Speaker 1: saying black people might come take your stuff, or you
Speaker 1: might get mugged, or you might get you a gang
Speaker 1: banger might come, or a card Jacker, this is all
Speaker 1: the NA language, and it made people really anxious, and
Speaker 1: it was overt and covert, and it was also really over.
Speaker 1: If you look at like NRA advertisements, they show black,
Speaker 1: angry black protesters. And what happened was because Tennessee was
Speaker 1: run by very NRA friendly judges and politicians and governors,
Speaker 1: they were just like, yep, the white people want guns
Speaker 1: because they don't make it mugged by the black people.
Speaker 1: And it led to what we have now, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, many more guns than people, out of control
Speaker 1: gun everything, ridiculous situation. But as you know, half my
Speaker 1: life's in New York, and I always thought like, well,
Speaker 1: that'll never happen in New York because we're safe in
Speaker 1: New York. New York has reasonable gun laws. New York
Speaker 1: has common sense, and people just know the importance of
Speaker 1: living collaboratively in New York because you've got to take
Speaker 1: the subway to work. But there was a Supreme Court
Speaker 1: case that we've talked about a million times in the
Speaker 1: show called Group, and it overturned New york S gun
Speaker 1: laws really in a very fundamental ways, and so New
Speaker 1: York does not have that safety lever anymore. That it's
Speaker 1: had for over one hundred years, which is a background
Speaker 1: of like common sense gun laws, which dramatically, dramatically opens
Speaker 1: the market for the n RA. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: New York is open for business for the n RA.
Speaker 1: And what does that mean. That means that a governor
Speaker 1: who's running for New York, for New York governor can
Speaker 1: use the n RA playbook that I've seen here in
Speaker 1: the South a million times over, which is crime is
Speaker 1: out of control. Black people are doing property destruction. Look
Speaker 1: at this thing on the subway. Don't you read the
Speaker 1: New York Post. You we need guns here. And so
Speaker 1: it's just crazy to me that the Zelden campaign New
Speaker 1: York is running an NRA style campaign which would have
Speaker 1: been laughed out of New York even a year ago,
Speaker 1: even a year ago, But now because he has the
Speaker 1: backing of the Supreme Court, New York actually doesn't have
Speaker 1: the fallback anymore. And so the point I want to
Speaker 1: make him, though this is a long pre emplom is
Speaker 1: that New York is actually in a lot of danger
Speaker 1: right now and doesn't realize it. That New York doesn't
Speaker 1: realize it because this narrative of white racial resentment leading
Speaker 1: to fears about crime and property crime, leading to the
Speaker 1: same kind of shit I've seen happen in Kansas City
Speaker 1: and in Nashville and all these places, a dramatic exhalation
Speaker 1: and arms race. And they're saying, oh, we want to
Speaker 1: stop crying. But what happens is you see much more
Speaker 1: of every kind of crime, homicide, theft of guns, partner violence, suicide,
Speaker 1: accidental shooting. It all goes up when there are a
Speaker 1: million times more guns. So New York is fertile ground.
Speaker 1: And every time I try to tell people that, they're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: that would never happen in New York, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where every place else that's tried to resist this
Speaker 1: is said. And again, the safety New York has had,
Speaker 1: always has been, has been its gun laws, which it
Speaker 1: doesn't have anymore thanks to the shitty as Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: And so the point is New York is in danger
Speaker 1: right now, and it's in danger because of the Zelden campaign,
Speaker 1: and it's in danger in a way that it does
Speaker 1: not realize. It doesn't realize that the NRA is running
Speaker 1: the NRA game on New York. And even like people
Speaker 1: I know, like relatives of mine, have said, holy crap,
Speaker 1: there's way too much I'm voting for law and order.
Speaker 1: There's way too much crime in the subway, or what
Speaker 1: if there's another riot where they smash the windows of
Speaker 1: CBS and steal all the you know, antihistamine or whatever like.
Speaker 1: So it's the same thing, but New York, New York.
Speaker 1: Because New York has no history with this, they don't
Speaker 1: realize what's happening. And so this is the narrative of
Speaker 1: racial resentment, this is the narrative of guns, and it's
Speaker 1: being done to New York right now, and I feel
Speaker 1: like people don't see it. And the fact that zelden
Speaker 1: Like is even in this guy is so mediocre. The
Speaker 1: fact that he's even in the room right now, I
Speaker 1: think is because people are too late to figure this out.
Speaker 1: So that's my rant, But I want people to realist.
Speaker 1: So one, Jonathan, thank you for laying the foundation for
Speaker 1: the conversation that I did want to have on white
Speaker 1: racial resentment and how all of these things are connected,
Speaker 1: because I think that I don't think anyone is really
Speaker 1: getting what is happening, let alone folks that are in
Speaker 1: New York that don't recognize that one hundred year old
Speaker 1: gun law was struck down in the last session of
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Let alone, what the Republican Party is
Speaker 1: doing all across the country is that they are creating
Speaker 1: an environment where nowhere is going to be safe. There
Speaker 1: is going to be no understanding or real borders between
Speaker 1: quote unquote blue states and red states, right, because the
Speaker 1: reality here is that if everywhere, if we can stoke
Speaker 1: fear so much in everyone, if one of the things
Speaker 1: that went along with toilet paper during the beginning of
Speaker 1: the pandemic was also the rising gun sales, if you
Speaker 1: can stoke so much fear, like everywhere is unsafe, and
Speaker 1: if everyone has a gun, that means that I have
Speaker 1: to have a gun, even though I'm against guns, because
Speaker 1: if my neighbor has a gun and the people across
Speaker 1: the street have a gun and they you know, and
Speaker 1: everyone is a criminal and no one can be trusted,
Speaker 1: right then, like then I have to be packing as well.
Speaker 1: And so I wonder, you know, one of my one
Speaker 1: of my first questions for you, and I know that
Speaker 1: we we we often volley back and forth on this
Speaker 1: is what is the end game here? Right? Because what
Speaker 1: what what happens? And this is this was part and
Speaker 1: parcel of your entire book around dying of whiteness, right,
Speaker 1: which is the idea that here you have healthcare trying
Speaker 1: to be brought in, nationalized healthcare in a way that
Speaker 1: other industrialized nations have nationalized healthcare, but because of America's
Speaker 1: legacy and fucking you know, in the renaiscence of racism,
Speaker 1: that they're willing to vote against their own best interests
Speaker 1: and literally die. Right that, I'm looking at articles that
Speaker 1: are talking about you know, Trumpism and these objector districts
Speaker 1: and places where their mortality rate is sky high. All
Speaker 1: of these people are literally dying. And so I ask,
Speaker 1: what is the end result? Because when everyone is living
Speaker 1: in fear, when there is no safe place to be,
Speaker 1: what is the hope on the side of the far right,
Speaker 1: on the side of these gun zealots that this country
Speaker 1: turns into. Because not only are they not making it
Speaker 1: safe for themselves for everyone else, it's also not going
Speaker 1: to be safe for them. So I'm trying to understand,
Speaker 1: like the right, what their rationale is. Well, I think
Speaker 1: there are two main things to think about. First, of course,
Speaker 1: is that if you are a gun manufacturer New York
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and other places are huge markets. So
Speaker 1: the minute there's a mess shooting in New York and
Speaker 1: everybody rushes out to get a gun in New York,
Speaker 1: your stock goes through the route, right, So these are
Speaker 1: untapped mark So certainly you're doing the bidding of the
Speaker 1: gun companies, which are of course then in turn feeding
Speaker 1: back and supporting campaigns like the Zelden campaign. Zelden has
Speaker 1: had an A rating from the NRA since twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: and he's on record saying that if he's governor, he
Speaker 1: will overturn the Safe Act, which is the assault weapons
Speaker 1: ban and magazine capacity band in New York. So it's
Speaker 1: financially a windfall. If people in New York all start
Speaker 1: buying guns. It is a it's like it's like the
Speaker 1: you know, mona from heaven for the gun sellers. And
Speaker 1: so their agenda is very clear, which is that the
Speaker 1: minute people in New York start getting afraid and barting guns,
Speaker 1: it's like the one place in the country where their
Speaker 1: market is not saturated. So they have a very clear
Speaker 1: financial interest. And then the other thing, of course is
Speaker 1: I think I can give you five hundred examples of
Speaker 1: destabilizing diverse blue cities and states from fighting over ventilators
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the pandemic to trying to overturn Obamacare,
Speaker 1: which would really only impact places that adopted Obamacare, which
Speaker 1: is like New York. You know, the idea to destabilize
Speaker 1: blue cities and states and show that black people and
Speaker 1: woke prosecutors, you know, they're just living like whatever, is
Speaker 1: actually really good for red states, right because it makes
Speaker 1: them prove like, oh, we're the true leaders and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So two really kind of dystopian. But I
Speaker 1: have to say, quite real agendas that are served by this,
Speaker 1: And again I just don't think people realize, like, look
Speaker 1: at Zelden. Anybody can look it up. Look at Zelden's
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen A rating from the NRA, Like the support
Speaker 1: is very clear right there. But give me a break
Speaker 1: that that dude is going to make New York safer
Speaker 1: his agenda that he's fronting it actually benefits from destroying you,
Speaker 1: making it much less safe to prove a point. And
Speaker 1: so I just think right now, I don't know, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I'm really fucking pissed at the excuse me,
Speaker 1: at the Democratic Well, the Democratic response has not been
Speaker 1: highlighting the stakes here in any way, shape or form,
Speaker 1: And I just think it's like a pants on fire moment.
Speaker 1: Like New York places like that have to hold on
Speaker 1: because you don't have the backing. I mean, the Bruin
Speaker 1: case in the Surfing Court said, you have. Any gun
Speaker 1: law has to justify its rationale based on the intent
Speaker 1: of the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution, which, hey,
Speaker 1: guess what, there were no R fifteens then, And so
Speaker 1: New York's gun laws are really in danger right now.
Speaker 1: And actually, how we think about New York is really
Speaker 1: in danger right now. And so I just don't think
Speaker 1: we've been sounding the alarm in any way. And the
Speaker 1: fact that the Zelden has been allowed to get away
Speaker 1: with these safety claims I just think is a kind
Speaker 1: of failure of leadership right now. Hey there, I want
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Speaker 1: every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Twenty to thirty three percent of the country is lost. Right,
Speaker 1: and we continually talk about the messaging dysfunction on the
Speaker 1: side of Democrats on a whole host of issues. Right,
Speaker 1: whenever Republicans claim law and order, our rebuttal is like, oh,
Speaker 1: but we too are about law and order. And here's
Speaker 1: a billion dollars to the police forces that kill black
Speaker 1: and brown people unrelentingly. Right, And so you know, in
Speaker 1: your research, I'm not trying to convince the twenty five
Speaker 1: and thirty and thirty percent of the population that is
Speaker 1: never going to fall in line with what it is
Speaker 1: that rational people want to think about. So if we're
Speaker 1: looking at you know, I guess like the sixty five
Speaker 1: to seventy five percent of the population that is less
Speaker 1: that is left and these two are people that are
Speaker 1: susceptible to fear and anxiety. What is the messaging that
Speaker 1: democrats need to be What is it? What is the
Speaker 1: rebuttal for law and order? Well, the thing is you
Speaker 1: can co opt the crime narrative. In other words, I
Speaker 1: think we've we've had a reason with a very deep
Speaker 1: emotion that's being manipulated on the other side, which we've
Speaker 1: done all on like the right does all this stuff
Speaker 1: with critical race theory and instead of like fighting back
Speaker 1: with emotion, emotion that is equally evocative. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: kind of the field you got to play on right now.
Speaker 1: We went on TV and said, well, critical race theory
Speaker 1: is just an obscure legal theory taught in the law
Speaker 1: schools from the nineteen seventies, Like we actually tried to
Speaker 1: reason it. And now they're saying crime, crime, crime, and
Speaker 1: we're saying, well, crime is actually much lower than it
Speaker 1: was in the nineteen nineties. Like that's not the right answer.
Speaker 1: You have to acknowledge people's fear. Right now, people are
Speaker 1: afraid of crime and crime is on the rise, and we,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't. So I think saying you know,
Speaker 1: I just think that co opting the crime narrative and
Speaker 1: drowning them out by saying, you know, here's our big
Speaker 1: crime initiative and aren't you on board, like make them
Speaker 1: respond to us. That's kind of the only card you
Speaker 1: can have right now is to co opt the narrative
Speaker 1: and then turn it in your I mean again, And
Speaker 1: let me be clear, I think the Democrats have done
Speaker 1: a shitty job. Oh my god, I'm so bad today.
Speaker 1: I think the Democrats have done a bad job of
Speaker 1: responding to people's emotional concern about crime. Like people are
Speaker 1: afraid on the subway. Now it's just an objective fact.
Speaker 1: And so I think, you know, it's like, we're taking
Speaker 1: your concerns seriously, and here's what we're doing about it.
Speaker 1: And why aren't the Republicans on board with it? And
Speaker 1: here's our ten part plan? I don't know. Unfortunately, that's
Speaker 1: the terrain we've got to be on. It's not telling
Speaker 1: people that crime is lower now than it was in
Speaker 1: the eighties, because hey, we're not in the eighties right now,
Speaker 1: and so and so I just think we've had to
Speaker 1: reason our way out of it. And I can tell you, like,
Speaker 1: their construction of crime is ridiculous because it doesn't like
Speaker 1: the most gun death has gunn suicide. It doesn't account
Speaker 1: for mass shootings, even it's you know, it's all property
Speaker 1: crime and shootings by black people. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: they're saying, but you've got to see the field they're
Speaker 1: playing on and then amplify it and co opt it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's really what you have to do.
Speaker 1: And so we should have been saying, we take your
Speaker 1: concerns seriously. The crime is the most important thing to ask,
Speaker 1: which the Governor's kind of tried to do, but not
Speaker 1: in a way that it was believable, but make them
Speaker 1: respond to you by co opting that narrative and then
Speaker 1: saying we're doing this like in a way people can see,
Speaker 1: and I just don't. I think they thought it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's something that people care about in their
Speaker 1: really daily lives. So you need to be the one
Speaker 1: to set the terms of the debate, which means taking
Speaker 1: the crime story and then telling your version of that
Speaker 1: story and making the other side respond to your version.
Speaker 1: But instead, all of a sudden, two weeks to go
Speaker 1: in the election, we're playing catch up because we were
Speaker 1: not nimble enough when all this stuff on the subway
Speaker 1: was happening and all that stuff. You know, what's really
Speaker 1: interesting is that for me right as a as a
Speaker 1: New Yorker, I won't one work from home, but also
Speaker 1: don't really take the subway anymore. And it has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with crime. It has everything to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that, like, I don't want to be around
Speaker 1: that many people. I don't think that it's no longer
Speaker 1: a novelty to be squished into a subway car, given
Speaker 1: the fact that we had monkey pox, COVID, like all
Speaker 1: of these things, and you know, like, for me, it
Speaker 1: isn't it isn't safety. However, I do see the ways
Speaker 1: in which the New York Post and other conservative like rags,
Speaker 1: you know, amplify If there is a mugging on the subway,
Speaker 1: then it's all of the subways there are muggings. If
Speaker 1: there's somebody that has unfortunately been pushed to their death
Speaker 1: on the subway, then it's like every day somebody is
Speaker 1: being pushed to their death on the subway. I was
Speaker 1: at a wedding and ly of my friend and her
Speaker 1: you know, she has members of her family that have
Speaker 1: never been to New York. Their question was, is it dangerous?
Speaker 1: Is New York? You know? Is it like? Is New
Speaker 1: York City dangerous? And I'm like, do do I look
Speaker 1: like I would live in a place that's like do
Speaker 1: I look like because some type of warrior to you
Speaker 1: that like I would be taking my life in my
Speaker 1: own hands every day, and so it is about the storytelling.
Speaker 1: And I still am, I still am uncertain about Oh,
Speaker 1: Lauren Order, Lauren Order. And you say crime is the
Speaker 1: most important thing. And it's just like you know, Hope
Speaker 1: put cameras is putting cameras on every subway, which frankly
Speaker 1: they should have had before. Um you know is do
Speaker 1: you am I dragging you down with the with the
Speaker 1: with the invective here I love it? Um No, I
Speaker 1: mean the show is called woke af I just try
Speaker 1: not to curse with you on Jonathan, but like I
Speaker 1: curse on a regular basis. Um, But like I wanted,
Speaker 1: I do think that we always our narrative is always reactionary,
Speaker 1: regardless of whatever the issue is. Democrats are and to
Speaker 1: your point, we never set the debate, we never set
Speaker 1: the tone and forced Republicans on their heels. And that's
Speaker 1: why we are consistently playing catch up. That's why we're
Speaker 1: consistently reacting to what is being said about us instead
Speaker 1: of telling people what we are about. Look, I was
Speaker 1: in New York last week. I had m bike with me.
Speaker 1: I played in a softball game, at Randall's Island. Then
Speaker 1: I biked over to my friend in Harlem. In Harlem,
Speaker 1: we had a great drink on the street super Friend.
Speaker 1: Then I biked all the way down Manhattan and went
Speaker 1: over the willinsbri Bridge, and then I went to a
Speaker 1: party in Williamsburg, and then I went to dinner and
Speaker 1: green Point. And there were so many people out in
Speaker 1: New York, all different neighborhoods, all different stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And like I'll tell you right now, in Nashville, I
Speaker 1: could never do that. There's no way in hell. You know.
Speaker 1: There's first of all, you can't even ride a bike
Speaker 1: here because there's no bike lanes and bike and the
Speaker 1: cars will run you over. We have the highest pedestrian
Speaker 1: fatality rate in the in the country. I think here
Speaker 1: there are no separate bike lanes. There's really very little
Speaker 1: foot traffic outside of downtown. So, like the things about
Speaker 1: New York are like awesome. So how can you go
Speaker 1: on the offensive. How can you go on the offensive
Speaker 1: and say, here are the values of living in a
Speaker 1: place where it's really good gun laws, and here's where
Speaker 1: you can do and here's how we're going to make
Speaker 1: that cool. Like set the terms of the debate that
Speaker 1: way and say we respond to crime. But the great
Speaker 1: thing about New York is blah blah blah blah, like
Speaker 1: set the term, set the term that way. Like I
Speaker 1: just feel like New York has stopped like advertising itself,
Speaker 1: you know, and the stakes right now are super super
Speaker 1: super high, and like, I don't know, I went to
Speaker 1: a Broadway show the other night and then walked around
Speaker 1: Times Square and then rode my city bike from Times
Speaker 1: Square back down to Brooklyn. Like there's there's no place
Speaker 1: in the country you could do that. And it was
Speaker 1: totally fine. But to say oh, it's totally fine, it's
Speaker 1: not to dismiss people's fear of crime. It's like you
Speaker 1: have to take that concern and then tell a different story.
Speaker 1: And the other thing, of course that's frustrating is New
Speaker 1: York is safe because more people are coming back right now.
Speaker 1: So it just felt really unsafe during the pandemic because
Speaker 1: like everybody was gone, yeah right. So but again, you
Speaker 1: have to tell your story and then set the terms
Speaker 1: of the debate, and we're not doing that. And I
Speaker 1: really think the governor has man I hope she wins,
Speaker 1: but I sure think she has not set the terms
Speaker 1: of this debate and let it be this other thing,
Speaker 1: you know, before we wrap up, I will say this,
Speaker 1: there have been a couple of people who I thought
Speaker 1: have done a really good job, but unfortunately it's only
Speaker 1: a handful of people. I thought that Charlie Christ when
Speaker 1: he went against Ronda Santists in their debate, he was
Speaker 1: very clear about what Ronda Santists is doing to Florida,
Speaker 1: about how dangerous Florida has become, about how you're turning
Speaker 1: neighbor against neighbor. And I think that that is actually
Speaker 1: like a really important narrative. You know, we just had Halloween,
Speaker 1: right and I'm talking to my mother who lives in
Speaker 1: the suburbs, and she's like, oh, what, you know, how
Speaker 1: is Halloween in you know, in Brooklyn. I'm like, it was.
Speaker 1: It was wonderful. I'm like, you see all of these
Speaker 1: neighbors sitting out on their steps and giving out candy,
Speaker 1: and all of the restaurants and the stores are open,
Speaker 1: and you know, my girlfriend was like, you know, this
Speaker 1: is probably the most community based holiday that there is. Right.
Speaker 1: All of our other quote unquote holidays are family, family oriented,
Speaker 1: they are container oriented, whereas Halloween is about the community
Speaker 1: and about going out into space. And I think to
Speaker 1: your point that if you're not selling that right and
Speaker 1: saying why it feels safe, why you can walk around
Speaker 1: with your kids, why you can bike from one burrow
Speaker 1: to the other, Why there is like this sense of
Speaker 1: like camaraderie, right that even in the pandemic, there was
Speaker 1: a sense of we are New Yorkers, we will get
Speaker 1: through this. We take care of each other, We're dropping
Speaker 1: all food to one another, and all of these things
Speaker 1: that if you're not, to your point, selling it right,
Speaker 1: then you're allowing somebody else to run away with the
Speaker 1: narrative about us and about progressive blue states in general
Speaker 1: that are just not real. I mean, because there's no
Speaker 1: one who wouldn't want to be able to hop on
Speaker 1: their bike and go see their friends and go, you know,
Speaker 1: go to a show and go do this thing and
Speaker 1: that thing and feel comfortable and safe doing so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank guns in New York. That's not who we fucking are.
Speaker 1: Or get the fuck out of here, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that. Like I'm just saying, like New York
Speaker 1: is not is not met that it's not New York
Speaker 1: has not met the challenge right now. It's really quite terrifying.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, well, I will say this, Oh do
Speaker 1: we Lucy? Did I? Lucy? You know we're here? Um,
Speaker 1: I will I will say this that we need a motto.
Speaker 1: We need a motto as a party, we need a motto.
Speaker 1: As a country, we need an entire rebrand. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if we're going to get the opportunity to
Speaker 1: do it right by the time that this episode airs.
Speaker 1: We only have but like you know, one hand worth
Speaker 1: of days until the midterm elections. Well, it's a reality.
Speaker 1: There's some clips from this interview, like, let's spread the word,
Speaker 1: let's get people out there. Man. I just I pray
Speaker 1: that the what we have seen is that so far,
Speaker 1: over twenty million people have early voted. That always work
Speaker 1: both well for us. How many people show up on
Speaker 1: election day? How many people continue to hold their elected
Speaker 1: officials accountable. I hope that we have the opportunity to rebrand,
Speaker 1: and the only way we get to do that is
Speaker 1: if we vote. Doctor Jonathan Metzel, as always, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for making the time for wok F N
Speaker 1: four your rage today. We got f bombs in all.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we have to go there. I mean, I appreciate
Speaker 1: that it's anytime. I mean, this is where we're we're
Speaker 1: at the uh you know, we're at the front lines here.
Speaker 1: We gotta you know, we gotta stand up right now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that is it for me today, dear friends
Speaker 1: on woke a App. As always, Power to the people
Speaker 1: and to all the people power, get woke and stay
Speaker 1: woke as fuck.