WEBVTT - The Problem With the Lesser of Two Evils 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.600 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.239 me your girl, Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker, Folks. 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:26.160 I will say this that the decisions that are coming 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.800 out of this administration as it pertains to the continued 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.760 humanitarian crisis that is happening at the hands of the 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:41.200 IDF in Gaza, the looking away that the United States 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.800 government is doing as we are seeing pictures come out 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:51.720 that show terror tactics being used on Palestinian men and boys. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:59.080 The idea that you would have a US government official 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.399 when asked, and I've posted this exchange in my stories 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:12.440 on Instagram, when asked by Sky News if they supported 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:18.040 the images that have been circulating of men and boys 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:22.480 being stripped down to their underwear and thrown in the 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:31.720 back of IDF military vehicles and being detained. Understand first 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:38.080 that the detentions that Palestinian people are put under are 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.920 basically they are held without any type of due process. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:48.600 The people that were released in the exchange for hostages 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.480 are people that never even knew in large cases what 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.960 the fuck they were being held for in the first place. 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.320 They never saw a judge, right, they were just picked 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:06.360 up and put in jail indefinitely. So when the US 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:11.600 government's response is, oh, we're asking them to look into it, 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.680 and oh, we find the images disturbing. And the follow 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:20.960 up question from Sky News was so, either you condemn 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.239 the images or you don't. Either you still have leverage 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:30.200 with the Israeli government or you do not, And you 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:35.280 could see the growing irritation and frustration from the US 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.160 official who was trying to make it seem as if 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:44.520 this reporter was, you know, asking a quote unquote gotcha question. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.800 This is not a gotcha question. Either you are a 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:58.480 democracy that condemns acts of terror or you don't. I 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.919 don't understand why we need to get a better picture 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:10.440 of the nuance here. It's bullshit, and it's becoming increasingly 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:16.200 increasingly fucking difficult to stand up and tell people that 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.920 they need to vote to save democracy when clearly we 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.959 don't give a fuck about democracy elsewhere. One hundred and 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:29.880 fifty three nations signed on to the UN resolution for 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.480 a ceasefire because eighteen thousand. 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:38.040 People are dead and a majority of them are children 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:45.160 and women, because that's how you ensure there are no 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.160 further generations. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:55.120 So, folks, you know, I find myself some days in 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:03.800 absolute tears, in dismay, just you know, weighted by grief, 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:10.160 and the challenges that we are facing right now just 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:16.800 feel in some ways insurmountable because we don't seem to 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:25.560 have a government that actually gives a shit. And I 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:34.719 don't know how I personally continue on the grounds of 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.440 we have to fight to preserve and sometimes we have 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:42.240 to fight to hold on because folks, I understand the 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.240 anger and the pain because I feel it. I also 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:51.359 know that things will get incredibly fucking worse, irreversibly. So 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.320 if Donald Trump is in the White House again, we 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.359 are absolutely between a rock and an hard place. We 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:06.599 are absolutely not in the place of luxury where we 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.440 get to be excited about and put on T shirts 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.320 for a knock on doors for a candidate who we 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.919 believe in. That's not where the fuck we are, and 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:19.440 we just have to get over it. It is disgusting. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.839 It is a hard fucking pill to swallow, and I 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.200 ask you to take in as much water as possible 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.599 in order to do so, because that's what I'm doing. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.000 I'm not out here raw ryeing for Biden. I'm not. 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.159 I never have been. I did when he was able 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.479 to usher in the vaccines I did when he was 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.480 able to topple Donald Trump. But that wasn't about Biden. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.840 It was about the people of the United States recognizing 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.800 the stakes that I pray to God that we continue 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:56.280 to do so in twenty twenty four, because you know, 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:06.760 what we are seeing is disgusting and indefensible. Because if 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.640 you were to swap out those fucking pictures and put 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:14.760 it in Ukraine, then this president would be all full 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.839 throated and have a whole fucking lot to say about 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:23.599 Putin and his tactics and being a war criminal. But 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.120 somehow that is not the case here. And the question 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:33.679 that we have to keep asking ourselves is why. Coming 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:40.400 up next my conversation with the founder of Spread the Vote, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:46.240 the executive director Kat Calvin, who has joined our show before, 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.719 to discuss the ID crisis in this country and how 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.839 it affects our ability to vote, to move, and for 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.080 people to have a voice in our democracy. That conversation 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:07.120 is coming up next, folks. I am very happy to 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:13.160 welcome back to wok F Daily the founder of Spread 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.960 the Vote, which is a nonprofit organization working closely with 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:24.840 some of America's most vulnerable population, including the incarcerated Cat Calvin, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:31.240 welcome back. We are at a precarious time. And I 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.120 say this because while I know that it's eleven months 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:42.840 out from an election, the rumblings that I'm hearing from 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.680 people who follow me, from people who I am friends with, 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:53.400 are not good about their feelings about voting right now. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:58.160 This is your bread and butter, your you know of 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.440 your business, and so I just want to start off 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.600 with asking you what are you hearing right now? 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.840 Nothing good? I'm you know. 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:14.080 The situation that we've been in for many cycles over 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:19.520 the past years, are everyone's sort of feeling forced to 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.480 choose the lesser of two evils, right. We're very rarely, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.240 particularly in national elections. You may have like a city 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.280 council member or something that you like, really love, but 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.400 for bigger elections, for Congress, for president, I'm you know, 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:33.920 even obviously a lot of times for governor. For bigger elections, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.720 it's usually I hate both of these people, but I 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.120 hate this person less writer. I hate both of these people, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.120 but one of them is want to be fascist, right 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.480 or something like that, And so I'll just vote for 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.400 the lesser of two evils, and like it's exhausting, it 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.400 gets hard. It's also you know, we're at like, what 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.000 is this the fifth election cycle where the message is 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:55.640 vote or it's the end of democracy? 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:56.400 Right? Yeah? 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.280 Yeah, And so that is. 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.480 What we've had over and over and over, and people 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.040 have shown up over and over and over. And the 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:08.240 problem is on both sides of the aisle, both parties 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:14.280 have completely failed their voters in every way. I'm for Republicans, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.680 I mean we even now have Republicans in Congress saying, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.960 can you give me one thing we've done that I 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.319 can go back to my voters with and they can't. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.600 For Democrats, not only have they absolutely not done anything, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:32.120 but the positions they support are increasingly untenable to more 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.000 and more of their voters, and not just sort of 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.280 young people or the TikTok crowd. My mother, my aunt's, 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.560 you know, my grandmother are all like, what is going on? 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.640 How can they be supporting these issues? What are they doing? I' 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.160 And so now we're at a point where voter it's 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:49.280 the end of democracy? 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:51.080 Is it working? 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.880 Because neither side really seems to be standing up for democracy? 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.200 And we keep showing up and voting and working. I mean, 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.520 the American people have worked hard since twenty sixteen, to 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.640 help make elections, you know, fair, to help get people 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:08.720 to the vote. Have really put their hearts and souls 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.440 into it over and over and over, and they've been 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.240 failed over and over. And I think we're at a 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:18.160 moment right now where between you know, the many genocides 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:23.560 happening around the world, between the economy. They keep telling 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.599 us the economy is great, but I don't know anybody 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.520 who isn't a millionaire who doesn't feel the economy is 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.280 absolutely failing them right, and the desperation and failures on 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.800 every front, and everyone's looking around at this you know 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:37.960 nation burning down around us and saying, well, we keep 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.040 saving democracy and it's not doing anything. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.040 And I think that we are in real trouble next. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.640 Year because it is again going to be an election 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.760 between two people everybody hates. But this time, I don't 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.480 know what argument can be made, particularly on the dem side, 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.600 that voting for Biden again is going to do anything, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.000 because we've now seen that's he's not much better than 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.400 anybody else who we could choose. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.520 I think it's and I hear everything, and those are 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.440 exactly the responses that I'm getting right now from people 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.400 and I'm just like, I just want you to imagine 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.960 what could be potentially worse than the four years that 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.120 we experienced under Donald Trump. Like, if you are hurting now, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.520 I want to know what you think will happen with 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.160 somebody that says that they want to be a dictator 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.640 and they are saying so out loud to rousing applause 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.360 that when they put people in camps like that, they'll 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.040 continue that. And so what should the narrative be if 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.720 it can't be we need to save democracy again. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:44.920 I mean, here's the thing. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.920 Trump at least is saying out loud he wants to 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.880 be a dictator, but Biden is spending our tax money 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:51.920 funding a genocide, right, and so like this is the 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.000 problem is that you know that I was in a 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.679 meaning today and I got this news alert from The 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.079 Atlantic saying that ty had said out loud that he 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:02.560 wants to be a dictator, and I sort of like 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.480 saw it to like write it out to everybody, And 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.480 everyone's response was sort of like, I mean, at least 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.480 he's honest, you know, like, at least you know what 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:12.760 you're gonna get. But we keep voting for these dums 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.600 who we know are a little bit or a lot racist, right, 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:20.400 who we know are mostly owned by corporations who we're 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.320 not I mean, we're not seeing democracy in action right now, 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.559 and so I think that's the problem. You know, what 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.400 needs to happen on both sides of the aisle is 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.560 both parties need to say we are not going to 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:36.120 have these same men run as our candidates, right, because. 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.880 We're also now seeing how many I mean now Mansion wants. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:40.840 To run a third party campaign. 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:43.320 Right, Joe Stein hasn't learned a damn thing, right. But 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.199 of course all these third parties. There's these two women 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.679 who are women of color and they're socialists, and they're 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:50.839 running and they're really taking off on TikTok because young 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.320 people are like, young women of color, who is socialist, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:55.200 Let's vote for them? And this is the thing, right, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.640 there's so many third parties that seem attractive. And what 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.240 the Republicans and what the Democrats need to do is 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.160 going to Trump, who's about to be a convicted fella, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.679 and go to Biden, who everybody hates, and say, you 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.240 guys aren't running, We're gonna have primaries, we're gonna choose 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.360 someone else. But you can't, you cannot they're not gonna 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.959 do this because it takes balls of the type that 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:14.800 politicians don't have. 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:16.520 But no, they are. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.160 We're now gonna have two nine hundred year old white 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.280 men who have failed this country over and over again 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.080 running And I don't know what the answer is. I 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:30.040 don't you know, because what what kind of democracy is 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.520 worth saving if it's the kind that we are living 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:34.040 in now? 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:43.400 Right, I've had a nightmare the other day as a 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.120 black queer woman in this country that like it's either 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.680 I'm gonna have to either I'm gonna need to go 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.800 underground or like be in a cam and like I 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.600 want to tell myself that I'm just making up paranoid 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.600 stories and it and it could never possibly happen. But 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.480 the fact is that all of our worst fears can 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.679 and will happen, particularly if Donald Trump becomes president again. 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.240 But I am someone who does not want to sell 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.960 people fear, right, like I want to sell you hope 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:17.520 of you know the fact that you do have the 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.800 power to shape this very imperfect democracy. But the fact 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.160 is that you're right. We're looking at what is happening 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.080 in Gaza, We're looking at where our tax dollars are 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.200 going we're looking at what the lives that is ripping apart. 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.800 We say that we give a shit about children, and 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.200 clearly we do not, right, But as black people, we 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:38.720 knew that. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:39.840 Right, And that's the thing. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.920 We don't care about children in this country. And you know, 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:50.160 it's interesting that this conversation sort of keeps happening on 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.600 so many different levels, because you know, during COVID, we 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.320 magically solved child hunger in America. 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:57.240 We were like, oh, you know. 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.240 What, as for a beat, well, just for a hot minute, 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:01.160 we could do that. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.000 And then the second they could, they were like, never mind, 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.760 way to let kids starve again. Right, Like, we solved 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.320 child hunger in America and then made the active, involuntary 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.480 decision to allow children in this country to starve again. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.040 So anyone who's surprised that we don't care about brown 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.880 children dying in any other country, right, Like anyone who 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.560 doesn't care about the fact that we're not even talking 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.720 about the genocides in Congo and Sudan has got a 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.440 saying about those. No, but those are all based on 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.600 our and the Western worlds, where we are the biggest 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.040 economic engine of that. It's our fault, right, And I 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.120 think that that's what's frustrating for people. And it's particularly 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:43.040 frustrating because us as citizens, we would not make these choices, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.720 and we would gladly make sacrifices to not have those 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.800 things happen. I think probably every millennial Gen z Er 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.880 and Gen x or would happily throw our iPhones into 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:57.280 the ocean if we knew that that would end a genocide, right. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.160 And we saw this during apartheid, right when it was 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:04.320 students who were chaining themselves to their classrooms and shutting 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:09.840 down colleges saying you have to defund from the businesses 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:11.160 that are funding a part time right. And it was 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.000 those kinds of movements we see over and over again, 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.960 like if we have the choice of where our taxes 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.280 were being allocated, we'd have the best education systems and 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:21.280 the best healthcare in the world. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.880 And so I think that's what's most frustrating is we're. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.640 Being forced to pay for these things. We're being forced 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.960 to not feed children in this country, which no one 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.840 would voluntarily choose. And I think that's you know, and 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:39.520 the argument that we always make with folks is eighty 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.840 percent of the decisions that are made that impact your 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:44.840 life are made. 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:45.800 By state and local government. 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.920 So even if you hate your member of Congress, even 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.600 if you hate you're the president, whatever, the people who 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:58.160 are really impacting your life are city council, board of supervisors, right, 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.600 your state, rap et cetera. But even now that argument 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:08.800 doesn't really wash because we are watching that twenty percent 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.359 impact the world and impact us in ways that are massive. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.439 I mean, look at you know, it's the eight percent 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.480 interest rate to buy a house right now, right which 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.119 it was impossive for most people. It was two percent, 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.520 you know, and so like it's everything. I think we're 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.359 at a point and everyone sees it, accept the people 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.280 in power, which is unbelievable to me. 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.320 Oh no, not see it. They just don't give a 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.840 damn right because they're projected. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:35.600 They don't care. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.400 We're at this point and we've seen this. We saw 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.680 this in Nazi journey in Germany. Right, We see this 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:47.160 in every single country where the people voluntarily choose a dictator, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.200 it's because their country is at this exact point. There 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.399 was a really good opinion piece in Washington Post. I 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.919 think I came out yesterday the day before, but he 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.240 literally broke down like this is actually how Trump can 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.840 easily become a dictator. And he is exactly right on 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:02.760 every point. And he made the point at the end 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.160 where he was like, you know what, you could say 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.520 that I'm being overreacting. You could say there are a 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.520 million things that could happen, that maybe that this will happen, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:11.840 but look at the. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.600 Reality of the situation. Mean's not wrong. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.440 And if you look at history, this is how it 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.960 Loo came to power because Germans felt this way after 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.920 the war right, and so we I don't know, I've 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.159 been trying so hard to figure out because you know, 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.639 we've got to start our election work in January. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:31.000 We start really early, yep. Yeah, and it's already. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.280 Really difficult to talk to folks who are unhoused, to 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.800 talk to folks who are returning citizens, who are former 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.919 foster youth. You know, the people we work with are 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.720 the people the government absolutely does not care about. You know, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.880 we just put out a report. We have a national 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.280 program to help incarcerated people vote, and we work really 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.639 hard and we have a seventy nine percent turnout rate 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.040 among acarcerated voters. And it takes a lot of work 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.120 to try to convince folks who are incarcerated to vote right, 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.399 But I don't know what our message is going to 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:06.679 be because it's it's difficult to find where that hope is. 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.520 And that's the thing is like, again, you are working 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.160 with the population of people that on a good day, 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.880 on a great day, people don't care about right, let 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.040 alone elected officials. And so now that we are in 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:26.199 a series of very good terrible bad days, no good days, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.320 it's like, how do you convince people that they have 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.040 power to your point when it's just like, aha, and 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.520 I voted the last you know, the sky is falling 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:41.040 twenty sixteen, twenty twenty. You know here I am twenty 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.200 twenty two. You know here I am now again on 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.920 the precipice of twenty twenty four. And if I'm looking 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.200 from that span of time, is my life better? Right 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.359 for a lot of people, No, it's not. It's measurably not. 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:59.359 Who has to go to the grocery store knows that 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.720 it's not right. I and that I know, and that's 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:07.560 you know, And it's so it's hard to because people 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.400 aren't stupid. And I think that one thing that social 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.800 media and you know, I have a lot of respect 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.920 for the kids on the TikTok which I'm too old. 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.000 I look at it. I'm like, you guys are doing 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:20.159 You're doing all right. 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:21.920 I mean some of you maybe not stop trying to 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.960 sell me things I don't want. But you know, they 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:28.320 put things together and then they now have the medium 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.719 to be able to spread these messages. And so, you know, 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.600 once people started to understand the amount of money that 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.440 gets sent to Israel every year, the amount of money 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.159 that we've spent on the war in Ukraine, right, all 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.679 of these things, and they're putting comparables together. And this 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.440 is the thing I've been, you know, for a long 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.080 time doing because I'm trying to convince Congress to pass 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.119 ability in every one ninety I'm and you know, it 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:58.000 would cost America about twenty billion dollars to sell homelessness, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:00.960 which is a lot less than we spend on a 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:02.879 lot of foreign worths. It's less than we're spending on 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.560 murdering children in Gaza, right, Like, And people are putting 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:08.639 this together, and they're like, wait a second. For the 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.000 amount of money we've spent, we could have better healthcare, 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:12.600 we could have this or that, but I have all 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.920 these you know, I'm credit card debt is at an 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.320 insane hi in America and no one has any savings. 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.480 And you know, their story after story after story of 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.480 all these people working three or four jobs and they're 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.840 having one or two meals a day, and yet we 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:29.840 have the money. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.040 To murder people, right I. 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:33.440 You know, Jeff Bezos is getting into real estate now, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:37.080 So good luck to anyone who wants to have a 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.359 roof over their heads in the next twenty years. And 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.600 I think that's that is where we are now. And 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.080 it's hard. It's hard to talk to people, to people 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.320 about building a bench. And you know, oh, well, there's 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.760 these young people of color and they're queer, they're immigrants 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:53.720 this or that, and they're running and if we vote 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:55.680 for them in forty years. 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.680 Maybe one of them will be a senator. Right Like, 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:59.000 it's a hard argument. 0:21:59.200 --> 0:21:59.960 It's a hard argument. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:05.960 And the Democratic Party is not helping. No you, no, 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.880 I'm the Republicans aren't interested in helping. And so it is. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.920 I don't know anyone right now who has any sort 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.640 of answer besides the thing we always keep hearing, well, 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.280 you have to save democracy, you know, vote to save 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:22.879 your vote. It's like, well, I'm voting to save my 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.439 vote for what purpose? Because the vote keeps feeling wasted, 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:27.720 like it's those those same arguments aren't going to work, 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.120 and there really needs to. 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:34.040 Be a fundamental shift in how. 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:42.720 Both parties, but particularly the Dems, choose to operate. I mean, really, 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.679 what needs to happen is, you know, Biden needs to 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.440 not run, right, I'm Trump needs to not run. If 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:54.920 it's you know, Nikki Haley and and you know one 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:56.840 of the cash Frow brothers like that, you know, that's 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.400 a race people can get be hided. It's just they 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:04.199 need to understand that having these same people. You know, 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.720 McCarthy is stepping down now, thank god, maybe McConney. 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:09.760 I mean, ain't nobody wanted him there in the first camp, 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.240 you know, But now now we're looking at a potential 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:17.639 one seat majority the Republicans will have in the House. 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:19.360 So oh dear God. 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:21.520 More and nothing's gonna happen. You know. 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:23.199 Look, I hate to say it, but how did we 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:26.000 just have a whole pandemic that killed senior citizens but 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:27.960 it didn't kill any of the most evil one suit 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:29.120 we actually need to die. 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:36.240 I don't know. The Grim Reaper is off. I don't know. 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:41.240 I don't know. Valid question valid not a one of them. 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.879 Oh dear god, it's because they Oh I'm sorry, wait no, 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:49.040 let me say this. Why didn't happen? Because they have 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:51.879 the healthcare the rest of us don't. They have the 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:55.960 access to the platinum health care package that our tax 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:58.840 dollars are paying for. So that's why. 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:00.240 And you know, it's funny because I I think a 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:02.119 lot of people don't know. So there last week. I 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.760