Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Woke f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: Last week, we witnessed a bold, racist, anti democratic move
Speaker 1: by the Tennessee Legislature two oust two of its duly
Speaker 1: elected members, two young black men from the body because
Speaker 1: they joined with protesters their very constituents who are tired
Speaker 1: of being gunned down, who were tired of being used
Speaker 1: as target practice in their classrooms. Justin Jones and Justin
Speaker 1: Pearson lost their positions in the Tennessee House because they're
Speaker 1: black men who have a voice in a platform. Gloria Johnson,
Speaker 1: the white woman who also participated with the other two.
Speaker 1: They were dubbed the Tennessee Three, kept her job. When
Speaker 1: asked on CNN why she believes that happened, she said, well,
Speaker 1: because I'm a sixty year old white woman and they're
Speaker 1: two young black men, plain and simple. We don't need
Speaker 1: to contort ourselves into pretzels to look for any other
Speaker 1: reason than the one that is staring us in the
Speaker 1: fucking face. I will tell you that Keith Boykin recently
Speaker 1: also tweeted something that I said to myself ma'am, this
Speaker 1: is it. This is that thing where he said this,
Speaker 1: showing a video clip from January sixth, He tweeted this
Speaker 1: last week. The Republican Party today made it clear as
Speaker 1: day that a peaceful black man with a megaphone is
Speaker 1: more threatening to them than a thousand violent white men
Speaker 1: with deadly weapons. That's it, folks, that's it. In a
Speaker 1: fucking nutshell, right, that was it. From before right they
Speaker 1: assassinated Martin Luther King to now right, which is that
Speaker 1: peaceful black people demanding justice, right, demanding accountability, are more
Speaker 1: dangerous than the white vigilantes and militia that they are
Speaker 1: readily arming with their lack of gun regulation and reform.
Speaker 1: These white legislatures in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kansas, they know
Speaker 1: exactly what the fuck they are doing. They are working
Speaker 1: overtime to not only silence black voices, queer voices, indigenous voices,
Speaker 1: but they are arming to the teeth. They're white militias.
Speaker 1: So let's make no mistake, right and pretend that we
Speaker 1: don't know what the fuck is going on, because the
Speaker 1: direction is underway. It never stopped. January six was the beginning,
Speaker 1: not the end. Donald Trump was a symptom, not the
Speaker 1: sole cause we find ourselves in this moment because we
Speaker 1: refuse to own up and be accountable for America's history.
Speaker 1: We think that Donald Trump is new, That motherfucker is not,
Speaker 1: nor is he the sole problem. This has not pinned
Speaker 1: the tail on the fucking elephant. It is an entire
Speaker 1: ideology that we have been fighting against since the formation
Speaker 1: of this country that a few white men want the
Speaker 1: ability to dictate the humanity, voice, movement, vote, and livelihood
Speaker 1: of everyone else. And they are doing so, come hell
Speaker 1: or high water. So the question, the question that is
Speaker 1: on everyone's mind is when are the American people going
Speaker 1: to activate in community and collaboration with one another and
Speaker 1: saying enough is a fucking enough. It is not enough
Speaker 1: for us to think that we are safe in our
Speaker 1: blue bubbles. Because let me tell you something. The Tennessee
Speaker 1: legislature found a way to nullify the voices of those
Speaker 1: in Memphis, the voices of those in Nashville, the voices
Speaker 1: of those that are in the cities, and reappropriate power
Speaker 1: back to the rural, racist areas of the state. If
Speaker 1: they can do it there, they can do it in
Speaker 1: fucking New York, they can do it in California. They
Speaker 1: can do it in all of these places that we
Speaker 1: call quote unquote blue states. But that's not how they
Speaker 1: are moving anymore. It is not. As our next guest,
Speaker 1: our friend Jonathan Metzel, will say, it is no longer
Speaker 1: moving north against south. It is moving rural against the
Speaker 1: cities the urban areas. In all of these places, it
Speaker 1: is rewriting the rules so that they can consolidate power
Speaker 1: and exercise it however the fuck they see fit. So without, folks,
Speaker 1: without the collective action of all of us, we are
Speaker 1: in for a race car speeding drive over a cliff
Speaker 1: into white Christo nationalism in this country. I will talk
Speaker 1: about this and more with our friend, our in house doctor,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel. Folks, as you know, it's always great
Speaker 1: when we get a chance to chat with our in
Speaker 1: house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, and particularly this week, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: I will say that since the terrible shooting at the
Speaker 1: elementary school in Tennessee, Tennessee has been in the news,
Speaker 1: and I would argue for all the right reasons, because
Speaker 1: the people of Tennessee, is particularly the young people, seem
Speaker 1: to have had enough of their elected officials. And so first,
Speaker 1: while I say that they've been in the news. Let's
Speaker 1: be honest, the mainstream media has been absolutely failing per
Speaker 1: normal with regard to the massive walkout that have happened
Speaker 1: at the schools, with regard to the takeover of the
Speaker 1: Capitol building. So, just because you're down there and Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: was so close to where everything took place last week,
Speaker 1: the tragedy that took place, I wanted to get your
Speaker 1: thoughts on the protests and activism that have been taking place.
Speaker 1: It is an incredible couple of weeks here in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: I mean, it started with the horrible mass shooting in
Speaker 1: a school where nine year old kids and the principal
Speaker 1: and the one of the couple of people that worked
Speaker 1: there got killed, and and it felt like deja vu
Speaker 1: and PTSD all over again. We've had so many mass
Speaker 1: shootings here, so many kids getting killed, but I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's something about like a school shooting that it's not
Speaker 1: just about the death with it, which is horrible, it's
Speaker 1: also kids and parents across the city start feeling really
Speaker 1: unsafe and they're demanding something happened. And so there's been
Speaker 1: a massive, massive movement here high school and college students
Speaker 1: just descended on the capitol Um demanding that something happened.
Speaker 1: I've never seen our campus of Anderbal campus demanding some
Speaker 1: kind of change in this particular way, and and and
Speaker 1: it's just been it's just been pretty remarkable, honestly. But
Speaker 1: the pushback has been that we I'll call them the
Speaker 1: other side. I wish there weren't two sides of something
Speaker 1: like this. We should all be for protecting kids in schools,
Speaker 1: but the other side has doubled down in a way.
Speaker 1: And so when when the students came to the capitol Um,
Speaker 1: there were a number of really incredible, remarkable Democratic Um
Speaker 1: congress people who state congress people who say, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to amplify your voices. That the GOP has
Speaker 1: turned this into an excuse to literally kick those three
Speaker 1: congress people out out And so three politicians with constituencies
Speaker 1: of twenty to fifty thousand people are getting literally kicked
Speaker 1: out of their elected jobs. And and you think, like,
Speaker 1: is that legal? How can they do that? And it's
Speaker 1: because the GOP has an incredible supermajority here because of jeremandering,
Speaker 1: and they've just been really terrorizing the state over the
Speaker 1: past six months since they since they've had this and
Speaker 1: this is just the latest example of them kind of
Speaker 1: flexing their power. And so it is a really volatile
Speaker 1: moment here, and it's going to come to a head.
Speaker 1: We're I'll just say, we're taping this interview on Wednesday
Speaker 1: and the Thursday morning, so tomorrow morning for us, there's
Speaker 1: going to be there's going to be a real showdown
Speaker 1: here because students are descending on the Capitol and the
Speaker 1: GOP is deciding whether to kick out these politicians again,
Speaker 1: kick them out from their elected offices. And let's let's
Speaker 1: just be clear, because I want people to understand as well.
Speaker 1: They're being kicked out because they decided to stand with
Speaker 1: young people who have literally been placed on the front
Speaker 1: lines of school shootings and mass shootings in this country.
Speaker 1: It is these Republican politicians whose negligence and cruelty and
Speaker 1: coldheartedness has children from elementary school to college level have
Speaker 1: to live in a state of fear. Right And so
Speaker 1: these three Democratic officials said we need gun reform. They didn't, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, traffic and underage girl across state lines.
Speaker 1: They didn't, you know, use their political funds to do
Speaker 1: something nefarious and criminal and illegal. They're being expelled from
Speaker 1: their elected seats because they're standing with the people of
Speaker 1: Tennessee who don't want to live in fear. And two
Speaker 1: of the two of the politicians are black and represent
Speaker 1: black districts, and so there's a strong racial component to
Speaker 1: what's happening also, where communities of color now are not
Speaker 1: going to have representation in Tennessee. So it's just it's
Speaker 1: messed up on every every angle, and it seems like
Speaker 1: such such a bad move. It seems like such a
Speaker 1: bad move for them also, like I don't know, they're
Speaker 1: just they're going to make It's just it's just inflaming
Speaker 1: things even more. And so it's guns race ideology. There's
Speaker 1: a profound age gap of what's happening here. This is
Speaker 1: like a bunch of old people trying to suppress the
Speaker 1: will of students UM. And so it's giving tim Square,
Speaker 1: it's giving. It's giving China right now. I mean it's
Speaker 1: like it's it's giving. H We're going to crush you
Speaker 1: no matter what. I'll re send a tweet to you
Speaker 1: that I sent yesterday, which is like people actually literally
Speaker 1: fighting in the on the floor of the of the
Speaker 1: Um session. And so it really just feels like it
Speaker 1: feels like some other time, honestly, And and people should
Speaker 1: pay attention, first of all, because something bad is happening here,
Speaker 1: and they should pay attention. They should also pay attention
Speaker 1: because this is the desantist model, right, get these supermajorities
Speaker 1: and then instill a level of authoritarianism that is linked
Speaker 1: to expanded gun rights. There's something scary about everybody being
Speaker 1: armed and what that means, um and then again it's
Speaker 1: a way to quote unquote own the lives. And I
Speaker 1: mean part of the frustrating part also is for all
Speaker 1: the messed upness of for all the messed upness of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: which feels like it's read state forever, it actually hasn't
Speaker 1: always been that way. Like you have to remember that
Speaker 1: Tennessee is also the state that had al Gore. Tennessee
Speaker 1: is the state that in the nineteen nineties promoted ten Care,
Speaker 1: a national model championed in our state of public private
Speaker 1: partnership for health insurance for all people. And so Tennessee
Speaker 1: actually has a historical tradition of people working together across
Speaker 1: ideological divides. And I just keep thinking this week, certainly
Speaker 1: what's happening is horrible. It's given voice to the most
Speaker 1: extreme and radical and unsettling aspects of our history. Here
Speaker 1: are three of being a slave owning state and all
Speaker 1: these other factors. But it's also like an end stage
Speaker 1: of jerrymandering. I just keep thinking that what happens when
Speaker 1: you mean what happened in Tennessee, is that this Nashville,
Speaker 1: for example, used to have its own congress person. We
Speaker 1: were a congressional district in Davidson County, and then jerrymandering
Speaker 1: let the state basically split Nashville into three different congressional districts,
Speaker 1: so we don't have our own congress person anymore. The
Speaker 1: whole map has been divided so that communities of color
Speaker 1: are split up in all these different districts, so they
Speaker 1: don't have any real voting power anymore. And it led
Speaker 1: to these supermajorities of the power being in all these
Speaker 1: conservative rural areas and cities like Memphis and Nashville in
Speaker 1: a way don't have any representation. They have nothing to
Speaker 1: fight back with. And I'm sure initially like people thought,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is great. If you're a conservative.
Speaker 1: We own the Libs. We've divided this app we have
Speaker 1: all the power. But what you see with this kind
Speaker 1: of geymandering is actually what happens is not that great. Right,
Speaker 1: there are no checks and balances in the system. You
Speaker 1: give power to the most radical, extreme versions of any
Speaker 1: party that is in a supermajority, and in a way,
Speaker 1: the people who kind of make the deals in the
Speaker 1: middle are nowhere to be found. And so what happens
Speaker 1: with these supermajorities is you end up having to go
Speaker 1: farther and farther to the right to assuage the right
Speaker 1: wing of your own party, and it leads to the
Speaker 1: insanity that we're seeing now. I mean, it's not just
Speaker 1: about guns, it's about every single issue. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: it just it makes me think that like our system
Speaker 1: really needs checks and balances, it needs it needs two
Speaker 1: parties having a kind of conversation about how to fix problems,
Speaker 1: you know. But I will say, and what you're laying out,
Speaker 1: Jonathan is is you know what the Republicans have been
Speaker 1: doing for the last thirty forty years across the country
Speaker 1: and in some places like Tennessee, who have been the
Speaker 1: model for jerrymandering. It has been really obscene. But I'm
Speaker 1: telling you that I'm moving to a place where I
Speaker 1: actually don't believe that we need a two party system.
Speaker 1: I don't think that the Republican Party has ever offered
Speaker 1: anything to the advancement of our society, whether it be
Speaker 1: around public education, whether it be around healthcare, environmental concerns.
Speaker 1: I'm just confused about like what we think the balances
Speaker 1: that we need, because even when they weren't outwardly racist, homophobic,
Speaker 1: rabid and disgusting, we still had the drug war, we
Speaker 1: still had, you know, the terrorism in the communities of color.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just curious when we talk, and I'm
Speaker 1: not just you, but in general, when we talk about
Speaker 1: needing balance, what exactly does that mean. Well, I'm not
Speaker 1: arguing for balance right now, certainly right now, but I
Speaker 1: mean there's a fantasy right now in our political system
Speaker 1: that to get anything done you have to kind of
Speaker 1: own the other side. And in the South, it's all
Speaker 1: I mean, something just happened in North Carolina or North Carolina.
Speaker 1: The GOP now has a vetop majority. Tennessee, the supermajority
Speaker 1: is GOP and there just is no governance happening whatsoever.
Speaker 1: It's all about breeding these cycles of resentment, of domination
Speaker 1: and resentment. It's kind of what it feels like. And
Speaker 1: so it's just it's destroyed. It's destroyed whatever deal making capacity.
Speaker 1: I'm not in any way trying to idealize the Republicans.
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not. I'm certainly not, but I'm saying that
Speaker 1: just something feels so out of black down here that
Speaker 1: isn't just about what they're doing. I mean what they're doing.
Speaker 1: I could, I could give you a list of what's
Speaker 1: happening here in Tennessee, and your viewers would be just shocked.
Speaker 1: I mean, they they cut out the Nashville City Council,
Speaker 1: They've taken control of all the income for the city.
Speaker 1: They've passed these gun laws that are just unbelievable and horrific,
Speaker 1: and so it's really not it's not democracy, it's not
Speaker 1: governance what's happening here. But I don't know, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem very good for the Republicans either, Like, are
Speaker 1: they really enjoying this domination right now when everybody hates
Speaker 1: them and every kid in town is they don't. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't. I mean they don't care like I think
Speaker 1: that in Tennessee in particular, some of the stills that
Speaker 1: I saw coming out of that capital were absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 1: I mean, these young people, young white kids in particular,
Speaker 1: that I saw screaming in the faces of these politicians.
Speaker 1: It's basically saying, you don't care about us, right like,
Speaker 1: you don't like we're being murdered and you don't care,
Speaker 1: right like like Brusher said, Oh, we're not going to
Speaker 1: fix this, brush it, We're not going to fix this,
Speaker 1: right so criminal, They're going to crime, and we just
Speaker 1: kind of need to throw up our hands. And I
Speaker 1: just think, not only in Tennessee, but something Jonathan, to
Speaker 1: me feels like we are reaching a real serious inflection
Speaker 1: point in this country. And I want you to speak
Speaker 1: to that is Tennessee foreshadowing to where we are seeing
Speaker 1: this country hit before presidential you know, these really serious
Speaker 1: inflection points, you know. I mean this is the question
Speaker 1: is like what tools do you have when you what
Speaker 1: tools do you have? Like you know, we say, ooh,
Speaker 1: the will of the people is being suppressed and things
Speaker 1: like that. But I mean, just looking at what's happened
Speaker 1: here in Tennessee, votes don't matter as much as they
Speaker 1: did ten years ago. Like they've developed this method of
Speaker 1: like splitting up the votes and fracturing the votes. And
Speaker 1: so even if every Democrat in Tennessee voted, their Democratic
Speaker 1: votes are now split. They're just fractured in a way.
Speaker 1: And so it does it does feel like, um just
Speaker 1: the methods are just absolutely terrifying. The methods are absolutely terrifying,
Speaker 1: and so um yeah, I just I just think people
Speaker 1: really need to I said this on Twitter story. People
Speaker 1: need to pay attention to what's happening in Tennessee because
Speaker 1: it's not like, oh, there's a back and forth and
Speaker 1: you win an election and we win an election, and
Speaker 1: they're figuring out a way to like codify minority rule
Speaker 1: in a way that is kind of bullproof in a way.
Speaker 1: It's pretty terrifying to watch. This is Jim Crow, this
Speaker 1: is apartheide, this is authoritarianism, this is you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: we could the list goes on and on. This is
Speaker 1: not the first time that this has been done in America. Yeah, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we've had a very short period if you really think
Speaker 1: about it, from the Civil rights the passage of the
Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act until now that we've had some form
Speaker 1: of equity in terms of representation in this country. It's
Speaker 1: only been a little over fifty years. The majority of
Speaker 1: time in this country has been exactly what it is
Speaker 1: the Republican Party is rolling us back to. And so
Speaker 1: I don't want people to say, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this could never happen here. We've had a blip on
Speaker 1: a screen in terms of like the longevity of this
Speaker 1: American project, right that saw black people as human beings,
Speaker 1: so women as first class citizens. Like it's been a
Speaker 1: little over fifty years. But let me just say one thing, Danielle,
Speaker 1: which is I think the difference now is that the
Speaker 1: methods that are being deployed aren't just going to work
Speaker 1: in a place like Tennessee. I mean, the reason I
Speaker 1: bring up Tennessee's centrist history and tradition, even though it
Speaker 1: seems like another planet right now, is that what they
Speaker 1: did was they found a way to like mobilize rural
Speaker 1: areas against urban areas, Like this kind of resentment narrative
Speaker 1: is really powerful, and they found a way to structurally
Speaker 1: empower rural areas against urban They call it elites, which
Speaker 1: is hilarious if you've ever live in a city. But
Speaker 1: in a way, the method that what they're doing here
Speaker 1: honestly would work in New York. It would work in
Speaker 1: any place where there are rural areas where people resent
Speaker 1: urban areas and want to take power back. And so
Speaker 1: people in Nashville, I've watched it happen, Like, while this
Speaker 1: was happening, they were saying, oh, no, we're the economic
Speaker 1: engine of the state. There's no way you can control us.
Speaker 1: And then it happened anyway. And so what they found
Speaker 1: a way was to kind of move the seat of
Speaker 1: power from urban to rural areas in a way that
Speaker 1: made cities class and made cities unable to pay for
Speaker 1: social programs or transit or healthcare for people who live
Speaker 1: in urban areas. And so I just feel like, I mean,
Speaker 1: my worry isn't just what's happening in Tennessee. It's that
Speaker 1: if people if this happened in New York, where right
Speaker 1: now Democrats are divided, for example, and there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people in upstate New York who would love
Speaker 1: to take control back of the city from the New
Speaker 1: Yorkers who are now going after Trump and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I just think people need to pay attention to
Speaker 1: the method of what's happening here, because it's not going
Speaker 1: to be like a red state, blue state thing anymore.
Speaker 1: This is like a model that could work in a
Speaker 1: lot of different places. I mean, work, I think is
Speaker 1: an interesting word, because what they are setting up is
Speaker 1: implosion right like this, This kind of politics, this kind
Speaker 1: of Jerryman during this kind of bleeding out of the
Speaker 1: cities that are in fact your echo economic engines, this
Speaker 1: type of disruption and education like and health and all
Speaker 1: of these things, it's going to lead to implosion like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is there is no so you know,
Speaker 1: it is it is. It is the model of dying,
Speaker 1: of whiteness. It is. It is the model of you know, um,
Speaker 1: if I can't have what I want, I'll I'll blow
Speaker 1: up and gut the entire country. There's no longevity to
Speaker 1: this um and it's and it's a dangerous model at that.
Speaker 1: And I think that all eyes for the next you know,
Speaker 1: week or so will continue to be should be I
Speaker 1: should say should be on tennessee what happens later on
Speaker 1: this week and moving forward and just you know, with
Speaker 1: with just a bit of good news, folks, you know
Speaker 1: what happened in Wisconsin in the same week. UM has
Speaker 1: been fascinating to see the Supreme Court in Tennessee go
Speaker 1: back to being liberal after you know, after the election
Speaker 1: that could now reshape the policy, the policies that were
Speaker 1: put in place to ban abortion, um, so forth and
Speaker 1: so on. And so the mayor's race in Chicago where
Speaker 1: you had an aunt, you know, a pro cop um
Speaker 1: you know official beat by am by a former principle, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that we have to hold the these moments
Speaker 1: because there is an infliction point that is coming, but
Speaker 1: there is a resistance that is rising. Uh, and I
Speaker 1: want people to understand that as well. No, and again
Speaker 1: it's it's really whatever s happening in Tennessee is a
Speaker 1: reflection of the country, which is attempt to control and
Speaker 1: then massive pushback from people and students and a generational struggle,
Speaker 1: and then the old world kind of trying to hold
Speaker 1: onto it's how or quote unquote through ways that are
Speaker 1: incredibly destructive. And it really is true here that Nashville
Speaker 1: and Memphis are like the economic engines at the state.
Speaker 1: And so if you destroy the cities, what do you
Speaker 1: you know, I don't I don't know what the financial
Speaker 1: model is except for farming, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: plantation model. I don't know what they're imagining. And so
Speaker 1: it is um, it is that and and certainly this
Speaker 1: is just I mean, where does this all lead? Right?
Speaker 1: Where does this all lead? Is kind of scary, But
Speaker 1: I certainly think that remember you, like we used to
Speaker 1: know people like five years ago who'd be like, I
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to politics and stuff like you can't
Speaker 1: have that physician anymore because this is happening everywhere. I mean,
Speaker 1: this morning, a Democrat got convinced to switch to the
Speaker 1: GOP in North Carolina, given in North Carolina a veto
Speaker 1: proof majority in both houses there Wisconsin flip back to
Speaker 1: the other side. And so I don't know, everybody, just man,
Speaker 1: don't quit your day job like this is this is
Speaker 1: this is really happening all over and it really is
Speaker 1: such an ideological fight that is not It's not just
Speaker 1: the kind of North South battle that we have grown
Speaker 1: up with thinking. It's it's really like the ideology of
Speaker 1: generation and race and equality that's happening all across the country. Well,
Speaker 1: let history be our guide. None of this leads anywhere. Good,
Speaker 1: So people pay attention. As always, Jonathan, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for making the time to join Woke F We
Speaker 1: always appreciate you. Hang in there, everybody that is it
Speaker 1: for me today? Dear friends on Woke f as always,
Speaker 1: power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.