Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woga F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from our podstream
Speaker 1: studios in Times Square. You know, today, folks, I am
Speaker 1: going to have an interview with a new person to
Speaker 1: woke F Daily, for Nita Toulson. And if you've been
Speaker 1: watching these congressional hearings on voting rights, you have seen
Speaker 1: her now multiple times on Capitol Hill. She's a professor
Speaker 1: at the University of California and she's been working on
Speaker 1: voting rights her entire career. What got me to ask
Speaker 1: for Nita to join woke F was an interaction, an
Speaker 1: exchange actually, that she had with Senator Ted Cruz, which
Speaker 1: you may have seen because I retweeted the clip and
Speaker 1: the clip went viral, where he asked her directly, do
Speaker 1: you think that the Texas voting rights law is racist?
Speaker 1: And she responded, yes, I do, and then went on
Speaker 1: to express why she feels like the voting rights laws
Speaker 1: suppressions targeting of people of color is in fact racist,
Speaker 1: and how race neutral laws have been a thing since
Speaker 1: reconstruction in this country. It is how for one hundred
Speaker 1: years black people had absolutely no protection in this country right,
Speaker 1: And you know I will talk to her about whether
Speaker 1: or not she thinks that our democracy can survive, this
Speaker 1: can survive in action by Democrats right now, because, folks,
Speaker 1: I got to tell you that I have reached my
Speaker 1: breaking point with this in current administration, with this Congress,
Speaker 1: and where we are headed in twenty twenty two, people
Speaker 1: are so fucking concerned with keeping their jobs, as in
Speaker 1: my favorite line in The American President, that they are
Speaker 1: forgetting to actually do their fucking jobs. Right. You have
Speaker 1: one job as an elected official, and it is to
Speaker 1: make sure that you uphold our constitution. It is to
Speaker 1: make sure that all Americans, not just some, not just
Speaker 1: the rich, right, not just the top one percent, not
Speaker 1: just white folks, have the ability to live a full
Speaker 1: and complete life, right that are able to pursue their
Speaker 1: form of happiness. Right that are able to all be protected,
Speaker 1: to be able to participate as full and complete citizens
Speaker 1: and our fucking democracy. And they are failing, and this
Speaker 1: fucking administration is failing right now. And you know I
Speaker 1: can tell you that I have reached a point right
Speaker 1: where yet you can say to me, Danielle Well, the
Speaker 1: Biden administration, they've only been in power for nine months,
Speaker 1: and you know, we need to give them more time.
Speaker 1: And do you know what I'm going to say to that,
Speaker 1: we don't have any more fucking time to give. Right
Speaker 1: in but a few handful of months, the calendar year
Speaker 1: changes and we go into twenty twenty two, and at
Speaker 1: the beginning of January, you are going to see a
Speaker 1: blitz of fucking campaigns and ads and all of these things,
Speaker 1: because within several months we will have midterm elections. And
Speaker 1: right now, if you pay attention to polls, which you know,
Speaker 1: if you listen to me regularly, you know that I
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck about polls because I think that
Speaker 1: they are as good as shaking a magic eight ball
Speaker 1: and kind of seeing what happens. But the reality is
Speaker 1: that in a couple of months we have a consequential
Speaker 1: midterm election that I would argue is even more consequential
Speaker 1: than that of twenty eighteen, because when Republicans get power again,
Speaker 1: not if, but when they get power again, they are
Speaker 1: not letting it go. They are going to be rabid,
Speaker 1: fucking pit bolls with a bone, and they won't let
Speaker 1: it go. They will change every single fucking rule in
Speaker 1: the Senate, in the House to make sure that Democrats
Speaker 1: never hold that gavel again. And then what Democrats will
Speaker 1: do is get on television and get on radio, and
Speaker 1: get on podcasts and wine and bitch about what Republicans
Speaker 1: are doing to this country. And I will turn around
Speaker 1: and want to verbally bitch slap every single fucking one
Speaker 1: of them who has sat around and thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: Republicans who are gonna come around. I will go directly
Speaker 1: to the Joe Mansions and the Kursten Cinemas and say,
Speaker 1: you now will be forever remembered and engraved in the
Speaker 1: minds and the history books of this country as the
Speaker 1: two people that allowed our democracy to fucking fall. This week,
Speaker 1: right now, you have Kirsten Cinema, not at the White House,
Speaker 1: right because this is how much power this bitch has
Speaker 1: not at the White House, but as White House staff
Speaker 1: has decided to go to her in the Senate to
Speaker 1: talk about the reconciliation bill, to go to her and
Speaker 1: beg her to do what is right for this fucking country.
Speaker 1: How does that look to me? It looks like Joe
Speaker 1: Biden doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, and it
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't look like he has the strength and the
Speaker 1: mustard and the fortitude to get shit done that he
Speaker 1: told the American people he was going to deliver on
Speaker 1: day one. Now, I understand that there is a big,
Speaker 1: big gap between the campaign promises that folks make on
Speaker 1: the trail and then what it comes to get done
Speaker 1: in order to get things executed into reality. I know
Speaker 1: that the gap is big. But here is a thing
Speaker 1: you don't get any more time. You knew the urgency
Speaker 1: of the moment when you were campaigning in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: as you were campaigning against an open white supremacist right,
Speaker 1: an open fucking fascist. You knew, good god damn well
Speaker 1: that the Republican Party wasn't just under the spell of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. No, No, Donald Trump gave them permission to
Speaker 1: take their hoods off and be exactly who they have
Speaker 1: always wanted to be. You know what I saw this
Speaker 1: week that also turned my goddamn stomach, which was a
Speaker 1: New York Times article do democrats will democrats muster the
Speaker 1: same amount of courage as Liz Cheney ding ding ding
Speaker 1: New York Times, Liz Cheney doesn't have any fucking courage.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take courage a decade after your gay sister
Speaker 1: gets married and has kids to come out on sixty
Speaker 1: minutes and now decide that, oh, you were totally wrong
Speaker 1: about same sex marriage. You know, six years after the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court passed same sex marriage in this country and
Speaker 1: a decade after her own fucking father, Darth Vader, came
Speaker 1: out in support of same sex marriage. Right, you don't
Speaker 1: get a trophy for that. You also don't get a
Speaker 1: trophy for recognizing reality and the fact that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: did indeed lose the twenty twenty election. It is not
Speaker 1: courage to come out and acknowledge the truth, then, my god,
Speaker 1: I must have so much courage to come out every
Speaker 1: day and acknowledge that gravity fucking exists. I am so
Speaker 1: tired right of turning these fucking people into heroes and
Speaker 1: heroines and martyrs for acknowledging reality. That is how far
Speaker 1: the goddamn bar has fallen. You know, Joe Mansion and
Speaker 1: Kursten Cinema, they might as well be the president and
Speaker 1: the vice president of the United States right now with
Speaker 1: the amount of fucking power that they're wielding, Which is
Speaker 1: why to me, it was important to bring Professor Fernita
Speaker 1: Tulsin on to talk about the fact that, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: what Congress really does have power. You know, there are
Speaker 1: things that Congress can be doing right, because by virtue
Speaker 1: of the Constitution, you have the power to get things done.
Speaker 1: You are a coequal branch of governments. And yet they
Speaker 1: are walking around and asking for fucking permission or expecting
Speaker 1: Republicans to turn into what exactly moral bound patriots. I
Speaker 1: don't know how many goddamn times that people have to
Speaker 1: show you who they are for you to believe who
Speaker 1: they are. Right, not one god damn Republican voted in
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives to pass the John Lewis Voting
Speaker 1: Rights Act. Many of those fucking disgusting human beings worked
Speaker 1: alongside John Lewis, listened to his stories of being beaten
Speaker 1: and jailed for the right to vote. They worked alongside
Speaker 1: this man for decades, and upon his death, he had
Speaker 1: one ask, which was to get this done. And those
Speaker 1: Republicans spit in his face and spit in the face
Speaker 1: of every goddamn American in this country, regardless of party,
Speaker 1: when they decided to vote against our democracy. So tell
Speaker 1: me again what we are waiting for here. I don't
Speaker 1: understand how much more Democrats need to see before you
Speaker 1: look fucking dumb, and you recognize how dumb you look
Speaker 1: to the American people. You want to go out now
Speaker 1: and campaign on what exactly because you haven't done dick
Speaker 1: and frankly, if you thought that you were going to
Speaker 1: be campaigning on the vaccine rollout alone, well, we've reached
Speaker 1: our what our cliff right now in terms of how
Speaker 1: many Americans are actually going to get vaccinated? And now
Speaker 1: it's private industry that is doing more work, more heavy
Speaker 1: lifting by having their mandates that this administration doesn't want
Speaker 1: to do. Why, oh, we don't have the power to
Speaker 1: do it. It's funny to me that when Democrats are
Speaker 1: in control, they want to talk about what power they
Speaker 1: don't have, but when Republicans are in control, all we
Speaker 1: feel is the weight of their fucking foot on our necks. Right,
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell didn't have the power to appoint three Supreme
Speaker 1: Court justices and stall the appointment of Merritt Garland, but
Speaker 1: he did it. And guess what, and he did so
Speaker 1: unfucking opposed. Right. No one decided to sue Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: No one decided to bring this to federal court in
Speaker 1: order to get action done. Barack Obama didn't decide to
Speaker 1: do a recess appointment and get things done because he
Speaker 1: had the right. No, because Democrats are too fucking concerned
Speaker 1: with keeping every goddamn person happy, as opposed to actually
Speaker 1: doing what needs to be done and understanding that you're
Speaker 1: not going to keep everyone happy, that everyone isn't going
Speaker 1: to like you, and being liked isn't your fucking job.
Speaker 1: I don't need a comforter in chief. I need to
Speaker 1: commander in chief, and right now, with Joe Biden, we
Speaker 1: don't really have either. Coming up next, folks, is my
Speaker 1: interview with Professor Fernita Tulson. I'm very excited to have
Speaker 1: this conversation with regard to voting rights and whether or
Speaker 1: not she thinks our democracy is going to survive. That
Speaker 1: is coming up next, folks. I am so happy to
Speaker 1: welcome to woke af Fernia Tulson, who is the Vice
Speaker 1: Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs and Professor of Law
Speaker 1: at University of Southern California Gold School of Law. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for making the time to join woke
Speaker 1: a F. We are in one of the most i
Speaker 1: would say arguably the most precarious times for our democracy,
Speaker 1: and our democracy hinges on our ability to have free
Speaker 1: and fair elections, and as we have seen since the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty election and the spreading of the Big Lie,
Speaker 1: we have witnessed a barrage of over three hundred plus
Speaker 1: voting suppression laws that have happened across the country. Texas, however,
Speaker 1: Texas is like hold my beer to every other state
Speaker 1: so that they can show up as the absolute worst.
Speaker 1: Which is why you were at the Senate testifying about
Speaker 1: the Texas law. You were asked, very clearly, is a
Speaker 1: Texas law racist? I mean, I screamed that my television
Speaker 1: and I said, hell, yes it is. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You have a lot more decorum than I do, so
Speaker 1: please recount for woke ap audience. You know your answer
Speaker 1: to that question. Is the Texas voter restriction voter suppression
Speaker 1: law racist? In my opinion, it is, and importantly it's
Speaker 1: not just me right. One of the points I made
Speaker 1: in the hearing is that a fellow district court had
Speaker 1: found that the law had been enacted with discrimine tory
Speaker 1: intent and discriminatory effect, and so Texas basically litigated the
Speaker 1: law of the course of the decade, and then they
Speaker 1: passed a new version in order to cleanse the law
Speaker 1: of the discriminatory effect that it had on minority populations.
Speaker 1: And so they exchange with Senator Crews. I think he
Speaker 1: was a little surprised, but you know, arguably the fact
Speaker 1: that Texas consistently litigates its election law, so not just
Speaker 1: the voter ID law, it's redistricting plans they litigate. So
Speaker 1: we have redistrict in every ten years, and Texas pretty
Speaker 1: much spends the bulk of the decade litigating their redistricting
Speaker 1: plans against allegations that the plan was adopted with racially
Speaker 1: discriminatory intend in an effect. And this has been true
Speaker 1: for pretty much the last two decades. And so Texas
Speaker 1: their record on this is just really awful. If you
Speaker 1: were sitting in if you were sitting not just in
Speaker 1: the chair testifying, but sitting in a chair with the
Speaker 1: direct ability to enforce the power that democrats have right now,
Speaker 1: what should what can they be doing? I saw? I mean,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing, the filibuster. We have two people
Speaker 1: that are the issue, right. We have Kirsten Cinema and
Speaker 1: Joe Manchin who believe in this racist relic right and
Speaker 1: and and want to believe that, Well, what if we
Speaker 1: get rid of it, how will Republicans act down the road?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't think you understand that we're
Speaker 1: we are at the end of the road, Like this
Speaker 1: is it? There is no They're like, we're at the
Speaker 1: cliff right now for our democracy. And what is it
Speaker 1: that Democrats can do to fortify in their minds the
Speaker 1: sense of urgency that I swear that everyone else seems
Speaker 1: to have. But these two members of the Senate, that's
Speaker 1: say that they're supposedly Democrats. So I think part of
Speaker 1: the problem is American exceptionalism, right, Like, even that's that
Speaker 1: is that is the that is the whole problem. But please,
Speaker 1: even Democrats believe that, right, Democrats believe that America is exceptional. Um.
Speaker 1: But one thing that is true among democracies generally is
Speaker 1: that they don't last at long. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not alarmist generally, and you know, I believe in
Speaker 1: this country and this is why I do this work.
Speaker 1: I want us to get over this. But there's no
Speaker 1: guarantee that will survive this. Right, our democracy is over
Speaker 1: two centuries old now, and unless it's something that you're
Speaker 1: willing to fight for it could very well go away.
Speaker 1: There's nothing exceptional about America in that sense, then that
Speaker 1: we that somehow our democracy is so revered that it
Speaker 1: could survive anything that is not true. This is why
Speaker 1: consequences for January sixth is very important, because if we
Speaker 1: don't have consequences for you know, political elites who are
Speaker 1: pushing this big lie and who you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole notion of Trump running for reelection again in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four is just insane, right, But that is
Speaker 1: entirely possible because our system has become one in which
Speaker 1: bad actors are not punished for their behavior and their
Speaker 1: actions are corrosive to democracy. And because of that, we
Speaker 1: might not survive this. But until people except that that
Speaker 1: is a possibility, right, then it's entirely likely that you know,
Speaker 1: Democrats will just kind of sit and wait and expect
Speaker 1: Republicans to come around. Let me make one other point,
Speaker 1: because I actually think the historical point is important. After
Speaker 1: reconstruction in this country, for almost a century, black people
Speaker 1: didn't have any voting rights, they didn't have any political power.
Speaker 1: I was telling my children, and I promised, they're young.
Speaker 1: I don't like scare them, but you know, it was
Speaker 1: really common for you know, black people to go missing
Speaker 1: and just never be heard from again because they had
Speaker 1: no protections. They have no way, they had no way
Speaker 1: of petitioning the government for protection, they had no protection
Speaker 1: from the police anything. Right, It was just it was
Speaker 1: a horrible state of affairs. But one of the important
Speaker 1: things that people fail to realize, but I think that
Speaker 1: they kind of realized in the forties, fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: is that we're all in this together. Right. You can't
Speaker 1: have you know, minority communities of any strife who feel
Speaker 1: like second class citizens in this country and think that
Speaker 1: people that sort of view themselves as being at the
Speaker 1: top tier can enjoy their rights too. It's only a
Speaker 1: matter of time before people in the majority find themselves
Speaker 1: as a part of the minority, right, So it's really
Speaker 1: important to protect rights for all people. So just because
Speaker 1: minority voting rights are under assault right now does mean
Speaker 1: does not mean that people in the majority are protected either.
Speaker 1: We are literally all in this together, and if we
Speaker 1: don't fight for it collectively, it will go away. Until
Speaker 1: the Democrats realize that, then they're just going to sit
Speaker 1: there and wait for a party who is essentially a
Speaker 1: minority party and will do anything to preserve their power.
Speaker 1: They're gonna wait for them to come around when they
Speaker 1: have no incentive to come around, you know. And the
Speaker 1: reality is that, you know, after a certain point, you
Speaker 1: reach a certain point where the top can only squeeze
Speaker 1: people so much before they push back. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can only push people down so much and assume that
Speaker 1: the reaction is just going to be like, okay, boss,
Speaker 1: whatever you say, Boss, That's what I'm gonna do. Right,
Speaker 1: four people get into the streets before there is revolutionary action, right,
Speaker 1: that is taken because I don't see I think that
Speaker 1: what troubles me now. And I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: because you are a professor of law. You are guiding
Speaker 1: the next generation of people that are supposed to, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully in some way, shape or form, safeguard right our constitution,
Speaker 1: safeguard our laws. But what I've realized over you know, desperately,
Speaker 1: over the past four year, the four years under Trump,
Speaker 1: is what I thought. And this is I'm an educated person,
Speaker 1: you know, undergrad graduate school, worked on the hill. What
Speaker 1: I thought were secure laws in this country. I recognize
Speaker 1: under Trump we're just suggestions, We're just handshake deals that
Speaker 1: we're kind of done in back rooms, whether you're gonna
Speaker 1: I thought presidents presidential candid I thought they they were
Speaker 1: required to provide their taxes. I thought that you were
Speaker 1: required to let go of your businesses or put them
Speaker 1: in a trust that you we would know that you're
Speaker 1: working on behalf of the American people. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that that was just oh everything. I realized that Trump,
Speaker 1: it's just a political norm And so I mean, what
Speaker 1: opportunities if any, with this very lackluster and very spineless
Speaker 1: Democratic party that we are witnessing right now, if we
Speaker 1: had a party with strength and backbone and fortitude, what
Speaker 1: should they be doing to move these political norms that
Speaker 1: were very easily broken? Right, No one is going to jail. No,
Speaker 1: there's no accountability whatsoever for the things that have been
Speaker 1: done to turn them from political norms to actual laws. Like,
Speaker 1: what power, if any, does the legislative body have in
Speaker 1: order to in order to make that happen? They have
Speaker 1: to go all the way, right. I think the problem
Speaker 1: is moderation. They're trying to figure out some way to
Speaker 1: keep everybody happy while getting something done. And you can't
Speaker 1: do that, Um, you have to go all the way.
Speaker 1: You have to pass HR one, you have to pass
Speaker 1: HR four, you have to put everything on the line.
Speaker 1: There's too much focus on twenty twenty two. Right. People
Speaker 1: are concerned about getting primary, people are concerned about keeping
Speaker 1: control of the House of Representatives. But this is all
Speaker 1: happened in the context of UM, you know, the prospect
Speaker 1: of losing control of the House anyway. So my question is,
Speaker 1: do you do nothing in order to try to keep
Speaker 1: control of the House and not sort of use the
Speaker 1: power to that that the House gives you and you know,
Speaker 1: as as a part of your majority status, or do
Speaker 1: you do everything that you can and then run on
Speaker 1: your record? Right. So that's why I just you know,
Speaker 1: it's better to have something to run on UM than
Speaker 1: to have nothing to run on, right. And and that's
Speaker 1: what I what I what perpetually confuses me because I
Speaker 1: feel like we're always here, right, We're always at this
Speaker 1: crossroads where you know, we're trying to convince our elected
Speaker 1: officials to use the power that they have. I'm working
Speaker 1: on a book project right now that is about that
Speaker 1: that very thing, right, I'm sort of chronicling Congress's exercises
Speaker 1: of authority in the space of election since the founding,
Speaker 1: so that Congress understands that it does have this authority.
Speaker 1: The only problem is use it right, just right, You
Speaker 1: just have to use it. But instead I think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like all eyes on twenty twenty two. But because
Speaker 1: of that, that means that the Republicans can craft the
Speaker 1: narrative right because they are also up for re election
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, right, and they can paint this
Speaker 1: Congress as or do nothing. Congress who you know wants
Speaker 1: to enact all of this liberal legislation when in reality,
Speaker 1: the liberal legislation what would benefit people from all walks
Speaker 1: of life, even Republican voters. I'd rather run on that
Speaker 1: than run on no record and let the Republicans craft
Speaker 1: the narrative about my record. So I don't I don't
Speaker 1: get it. But I'm also not an elected official, so
Speaker 1: maybe I don't fully understand the political implications. But I
Speaker 1: do do election law, so I think I have a
Speaker 1: pretty good grasp on what's going on. I don't think
Speaker 1: that you need to be an acted official to recognize that,
Speaker 1: like either you're going to be elected to do something
Speaker 1: other than have this title and line your own pockets
Speaker 1: with corporate interests or you're not like I like there,
Speaker 1: we're not. You know, I wonder too, do you think
Speaker 1: that because every election we always say the same things,
Speaker 1: elections have consequences. You know this election is going to
Speaker 1: be historic, or you know it's urgent, And because we
Speaker 1: use this language all the time, do you think that
Speaker 1: we have just kind of been a series of folks
Speaker 1: crying wolf? And so now that we are at this
Speaker 1: critical juncture that people don't recognize, including our elected officials,
Speaker 1: just how consequential this moment is? I think that's entirely possible. Right,
Speaker 1: But part of it is, you know, it's not that
Speaker 1: the messaging is wrong, it's just that, So imagine saying
Speaker 1: this is the most consequential election in a generation every time. Right,
Speaker 1: we said that in twenty eighteen, we said that in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Undoubtedly that was true, though, right, imagine what
Speaker 1: would have happened on January sixth if the Republicans control
Speaker 1: both houses of Congress. Right, twenty eighteen turned out to
Speaker 1: be an awfully important election for giving Democrats control of
Speaker 1: the House and stopping some of that. Right, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: was also super important. We were we are in the
Speaker 1: middle of a global pandemic and we had an administration
Speaker 1: that wasn't doing enough to combat it. Right, So, you know,
Speaker 1: these elections, when we say that these are the most
Speaker 1: consequential elections in our lifetime, that actually means something. The
Speaker 1: problem is that when elected officials get into office with
Speaker 1: that mandate and they don't run with it. And that's
Speaker 1: why it seems like we're just sort of beating the
Speaker 1: drum and saying these things, and that it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: true to people because they're not seeing the change that
Speaker 1: is behind that is basically behind the message. Right, We're
Speaker 1: urging them to turn out and to vote and to
Speaker 1: participate because it's so important, and then they do that
Speaker 1: and nothing happens, or the every day haven't hasn't changed,
Speaker 1: or you know, it's it's hard. I think the elected
Speaker 1: officials the power needs to match the message because the
Speaker 1: message is true, you know. On wok F I try
Speaker 1: not to be the consistent bearer of bad news, but
Speaker 1: that is where I am these days and have been
Speaker 1: for you know, for years. At this point, I want
Speaker 1: to ask you to read the tea leaves for me
Speaker 1: in the best way that you can, given the fact
Speaker 1: that you have sat before members of Congress now three
Speaker 1: times in the last ten weeks, and each time you
Speaker 1: are laying out the urgency of this moment and the
Speaker 1: responsibility that they have. There's only a couple of them
Speaker 1: that I believe get it. Which one of them is
Speaker 1: Representative Jamie Raskin, who has come on this show, who
Speaker 1: I appreciate so so much for the work that he
Speaker 1: has been doing over the past couple of years. Where
Speaker 1: do you see us going if no action is taken,
Speaker 1: if we have no executive order, no passage of these bills,
Speaker 1: like I mean, forget twenty twenty two. I mean, what
Speaker 1: does America look like? I think we'll be a country
Speaker 1: on the decline right. If you look at the course
Speaker 1: of history, you know, they've always been superpowers and then
Speaker 1: they decline in power. We will be a country on
Speaker 1: the decline right if we are not committed to democracy
Speaker 1: as a principle. Now, don't get me wrong. We have
Speaker 1: been committed to democratic norms. You know you mentioned norms early.
Speaker 1: The problem with a norm, though, is that it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily long standing, and it could be disturbed quite easily.
Speaker 1: I mean, we really learned that from twenty sixteen to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty how easy it is to a row democratic norms.
Speaker 1: I think left federal legislation and in fact, perhaps a
Speaker 1: federal constitutional amendment that explicitly protects the right to vote
Speaker 1: will go a long way towards preserving our status as
Speaker 1: the world's preeminent democracy, which is a title we can't
Speaker 1: claim anymore. And so if nothing happens, then I just
Speaker 1: view that as our accepted acceptance that we are a
Speaker 1: democracy in decline and that America doesn't want to be
Speaker 1: a leader in this next chapter of world history. But
Speaker 1: let me be clear, like it's not too late, right,
Speaker 1: there are things, you know, It's what September twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: we still have a while for the midterms. There's a
Speaker 1: lot that Congress can do in this space, and Congress
Speaker 1: needs to do it. If Congress does not do it,
Speaker 1: then I could easily imagine a situation where we still
Speaker 1: have high turnout in elections, but it doesn't move the
Speaker 1: powers you need to at all, because of partisan gerry
Speaker 1: manderin because of you know, other barriers that are put
Speaker 1: in place that inhibit turnout in state elections, because of
Speaker 1: you know the fact that local elections are not getting
Speaker 1: the type of attention that they need because people feel
Speaker 1: that the system isn't working. So everything that's happening in
Speaker 1: the context of federal elections bleeds over rented these state
Speaker 1: and local elections that are also of equal importance, in
Speaker 1: some cases more important, and so eventually participation will decline
Speaker 1: and you'll have perpetual elected officials who do whatever they
Speaker 1: want because they won't race any challenge at the ballot box.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's Woke a F Daily podcasts to
Speaker 1: hear more from today's show, including my full interview with
Speaker 1: Professor Fernita Toulson. Support me on Patreon at patreon dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash Woke a F. Power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.