Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to will Gate ap Daily
Speaker 1: with Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from an undisclosed location, No,
Speaker 1: just kidding. I am up in Rhode Island this week,
Speaker 1: and folks, I'm very excited because this month of January
Speaker 1: is about bringing back on some of my favorite guests
Speaker 1: and friends to get their thoughts about where they are
Speaker 1: as we have turned the page on this new year,
Speaker 1: and to get a sense of where they think our
Speaker 1: politics is going to take us in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: And so on today's show, I'm so excited to be
Speaker 1: joined by my friend, doctor Christina Greer, Associate Professor of
Speaker 1: Politics at Fordham University. And you know, I love having
Speaker 1: her on because, unlike me, she's a bit more hopeful
Speaker 1: about this current moment. And you know, she makes the
Speaker 1: good point that being a professor and working with young
Speaker 1: people the next generation of political scholars and leaders, requires hopefulness.
Speaker 1: It requires that you can pass the baton to the
Speaker 1: next generation and hope that they take it further than you.
Speaker 1: The problem that I have isn't in my hope or
Speaker 1: faith in the next generation. It's the ship show. Apparently,
Speaker 1: you know that we are giving them to inherit. As
Speaker 1: I look at the current landscape and as I'm recording
Speaker 1: this right now, yet another scandal unfolding about George Santos. That,
Speaker 1: of course, Kevin McCarthy either plays like he has amnesia
Speaker 1: or he is just that dumb, or he's just that
Speaker 1: conniving when it comes to holding on to his Fisher
Speaker 1: Price gabble, which is you know, sickening because I've said,
Speaker 1: you know, I used to hold members of Congress, those
Speaker 1: elected officials in such high esteem. I believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: they went into public service because they cared about, you know,
Speaker 1: moving the country forward. They cared about the lives of
Speaker 1: the American people and creating policies and legislation that you know,
Speaker 1: would help make their lives better. But that's not where
Speaker 1: we are, and those days are long, long, long gone.
Speaker 1: But you know, you can't help but feel sick for it,
Speaker 1: you know, in your stomach. And you know, these latest
Speaker 1: scandals around George Santos and where he did he get
Speaker 1: his money from? Is that even his real name? Now?
Speaker 1: He apparently was a drag performer in Brazil or you know,
Speaker 1: dressed up in drag and you know, frankly, I could
Speaker 1: give a fuck about whether or not he, you know,
Speaker 1: dressed up in drag. I just hate the fact that
Speaker 1: he's decided to associate himself with a party that is
Speaker 1: true trying to turn very magical, fun, joyful performers and
Speaker 1: performances into something that is depraved. I hate the fact
Speaker 1: that you can't trust not a thing that that man
Speaker 1: has said, not about his own life or anybody else's,
Speaker 1: because he's lied about everything, and that he is a
Speaker 1: sitting member of Congress that is getting access to classify
Speaker 1: documents and we don't even know who he is, and
Speaker 1: that should make everyone sick, but apparently it doesn't bother Republicans,
Speaker 1: because how do they tell the difference between one grifter
Speaker 1: and liar from another right. It's just that George Santos
Speaker 1: is just so fucking bad at it. But regardless of that,
Speaker 1: I get into a conversation this episode with my friend
Speaker 1: Christina Greer about what she thinks about where our politics
Speaker 1: is headed, particularly, you know, the latest story around Solomon Pennia,
Speaker 1: the former Republican candidate in New Mexico that hired four
Speaker 1: hitmen to shoot up the offices of Democratic leaders, and
Speaker 1: the fact that that is not getting the kind of
Speaker 1: mainstream media play that it should an outrage, but instead
Speaker 1: we want to talk about twelve documents found in Joe
Speaker 1: Biden's garage. It's like, can we pay attention to the
Speaker 1: things that are important, like the rise in political violence
Speaker 1: that is being, you know, fanned by the Republican White
Speaker 1: National Party. So, folks, you know, sometimes it is hard
Speaker 1: to muster the faith and belief that you know, young
Speaker 1: people are the future when the present is just so bleak.
Speaker 1: Coming up next my conversation with my good friend doctor
Speaker 1: Christina Greer. Folks, you know that whenever I have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to chat with my friend, doctor Christina Greer, Associate
Speaker 1: Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, I am always
Speaker 1: quite pleased because she is, folks, much more optimistic than
Speaker 1: I am, and as a professor, I would assume first
Speaker 1: of all that you need to be. But Christina, this
Speaker 1: is our first show in the new year, so happy
Speaker 1: new Year to you friend. I want to get your
Speaker 1: sense of what are you feeling and thinking about our
Speaker 1: current political climate and how we kicked off this one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteenth Congress with a absolute shit show. Well,
Speaker 1: one happy new Year. I love spending time with you too.
Speaker 1: I think I'm always, you know, optimistic, because I teach
Speaker 1: young people, so I'm with the future of this country
Speaker 1: on a weekly daily basis. So I feel like we're
Speaker 1: in good hands. And I love gen Z. I just
Speaker 1: think they're the Besneys, and they're interesting and they're heart scrabble.
Speaker 1: They're a lot more like gen Z like us, you know,
Speaker 1: because they're kind of growing up without everything. They didn't
Speaker 1: really have helicopter parents. Money is a little wonky, like
Speaker 1: everything's uncertain, and so they're kind of a transition generation
Speaker 1: the way we were, from technology and race and gender
Speaker 1: and immigration. I mean, so many things were going on
Speaker 1: when you think about our childhoods, and same with them.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of tragedy, it's a lot of chaos,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of confusion. So I really feel good
Speaker 1: about them. As far as this new Congress, you know, yes,
Speaker 1: am I worried about our Democratic Republic. Absolutely? Am I
Speaker 1: worried about the world and other countries that are unfortunately
Speaker 1: following our suit with January sixth? Absolutely, do I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Biden has done much better than expected. Yes,
Speaker 1: Do I think that Republicans have a good chance of
Speaker 1: overplaying their hands. Yeah, it's going to be a difficult
Speaker 1: Congress because the margins are so slim. You know, we
Speaker 1: have divided government where Republicans control the House now and
Speaker 1: Democrats control the Senate by a small margin. But you know,
Speaker 1: you have Hackem Jeffries, who's been under the tutelage of
Speaker 1: Lancy Pelosi for many years, and she's still there, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of serving as a shadow mentor. Luckily for the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, she's passed the baton and we're starting to
Speaker 1: think about a new generation of leaders. You know, Huckem
Speaker 1: Jeffries is early fifties, so it's not like he's a
Speaker 1: spring chicken. But like nobody is out into and octen nagarian.
Speaker 1: So I got a lot of octagenarians and septagenarians, you know,
Speaker 1: running stuff. You know Bernie Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters is
Speaker 1: eighty four, Like she looks fantastic, but she's eighty four.
Speaker 1: You know, Nancy Pelosi eighties, you know, Joe Biden eighty.
Speaker 1: I still understand why these people don't want to spend
Speaker 1: time with the grandkids. But hey, that's just me right,
Speaker 1: Like I would think my mom's like I love being
Speaker 1: a grandma and she's like, you know, going to them
Speaker 1: all with my knees like whatever. So I think Republicans,
Speaker 1: because they've got so many factions and they've let the
Speaker 1: inmates start running the asylum, they have created not just
Speaker 1: a dragon, a series of dragons that they are now
Speaker 1: trying to contain and quell. And these dragons have said,
Speaker 1: I will burn this country down to the ground if
Speaker 1: you don't give me what I want. And I believe them, right,
Speaker 1: I believe they'll do it. Um. But I do think that,
Speaker 1: you know, Democrats are at least trying to have a
Speaker 1: unified front, like we do have a lot of our
Speaker 1: own factions. But the blessing for Democrats is, you know,
Speaker 1: the progressive wing isn't ready to burn down the country
Speaker 1: to get what they want. You know, they actually will sometimes, right,
Speaker 1: but I mean they're willing to come to the table
Speaker 1: with a good faith effort to at least compromise and
Speaker 1: try and have a more nuanced and adult conversation. You know,
Speaker 1: you also just have to look at the quality of
Speaker 1: candidates the Republican Party has come to. Please get what
Speaker 1: give us a rundown of the trail, Like, what's the
Speaker 1: long term strategy for them. You can't have a party with.
Speaker 1: You know, Laura Bobert is one of your stars. Matt
Speaker 1: gets tiptok, like, you know, we we will get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of you and your predilection for young girls. Right,
Speaker 1: m You've got Marjorie Taylor Green, who's like a loon.
Speaker 1: I haven't even touched on George Santos, where you know,
Speaker 1: we don't know jokes about this man, but like he's
Speaker 1: clearly mentally unstable. If you're gonna lie about your mother,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna lie about literally everything in your CV.
Speaker 1: And also, we're gonna get to the bottom of George
Speaker 1: Santos because you can't go from making fifty thousand or
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand dollars and being evicted every few months
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden having five million dollars and
Speaker 1: being able to loan yourself seven hundred thousand. Where is
Speaker 1: that money coming from? Now? Republicans aren't going to ask
Speaker 1: that question because we didn't ask that question of Marco
Speaker 1: Rubio when he was able to pay off all his debt.
Speaker 1: We didn't ask that question of Brett Kavanaugh when he
Speaker 1: was able to pay off all his debt miraculously. And
Speaker 1: this is these are people who had hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of debt. So we know Republicans aren't going to do it.
Speaker 1: And the Rogerstone model for Republicans is just to like
Speaker 1: throw so many chaos bombs. We're just we're all over
Speaker 1: the police trying to grab truth and knowledge and figure
Speaker 1: out what's going on. And it looks like Democrats are
Speaker 1: just being petty and going after Republicans all the time.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, y'all keep doing stuff, right, you keep
Speaker 1: breaking the law or potentially bringing the law, and we're
Speaker 1: trying to find out. But I think that like at
Speaker 1: some point Republicans are going to expose themselves for the
Speaker 1: fact that like they don't have any policies. But I mean,
Speaker 1: but Christina, we keep saying this, we do, we keep
Speaker 1: saying this, as Democrats said, at some point in time,
Speaker 1: you know, the American people are going to realize they
Speaker 1: don't have an agenda. I mean, they didn't put up
Speaker 1: an agenda for the twenty twenty election. The RNC did
Speaker 1: not put up a new agenda, and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: let's run it back to twenty sixteen, like it was
Speaker 1: a mixtape. So you know what I'm saying. So it's like,
Speaker 1: at what point, because we keep way for people to
Speaker 1: be like, oh yeah, that's right. They really don't have nothing.
Speaker 1: They literally have nothing to offer the American people except
Speaker 1: a roll back to the nineteen fifties. But then it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. But here's the thing. I think you're talking
Speaker 1: about changing hearts and minds, which I don't think it
Speaker 1: is going to happen for the vast majority of Republicans,
Speaker 1: right because if you've been with this nonsense clown car
Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen, like you're in it, Okay, you clearly
Speaker 1: are comfortable in it, so be in it. But I
Speaker 1: think that the Democrats are getting more and more people
Speaker 1: who one or two things who either were like I
Speaker 1: don't really care, nothing really affects me. I don't know.
Speaker 1: They're starting to pay attention a little bit more. And
Speaker 1: also younger people, not all young people, because we've seen
Speaker 1: Republicans are doing very well recruiting young people to their racist,
Speaker 1: fascist ideologies, but there are a lot of young people
Speaker 1: who are like, this is not what I want, Like I,
Speaker 1: you know, like I can have a complicated question conversation
Speaker 1: about a woman's right to choose like they are seeing
Speaker 1: nuanced conversations about the environment. They are seeing it's like
Speaker 1: my education system did fail me. Wait a minute, like
Speaker 1: I could pay all this money to the government, and
Speaker 1: like my school wasn't like my friends school. Like that
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. There are a lot of people
Speaker 1: who were putting two and two together. They're frustrated that
Speaker 1: the quote unquote government looks a certain way, but they
Speaker 1: are also they are able to decipher the difference between
Speaker 1: these two parties because if you look at some of
Speaker 1: the disaggregated data for these close raisings that we saw,
Speaker 1: which is really scary that they were close. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not saying like, oh, we're out of the woods, we
Speaker 1: were nowhere in it. I mean, we were praying about
Speaker 1: herschel Walker. The man couldn't put together two sentences with
Speaker 1: a flashlight and some assistants, And we were praying to
Speaker 1: God that Reverend Warnock, and that not even Reverend Warnock,
Speaker 1: because we knew that he wasn't above average candidate, But
Speaker 1: we were praying to God that the people of Georgia,
Speaker 1: after all the gerrymandering, voter suppression and threats, that they
Speaker 1: would make it to the polls and be able to
Speaker 1: do the right thing right. I just think, I guess
Speaker 1: for me, it's so, if we're not trying to change
Speaker 1: hearts and minds, because you say it's a lost cause,
Speaker 1: then what are we trying to change. I think we're
Speaker 1: trying to articulate a vision to get more people off
Speaker 1: the sidelines and more present and active because I think
Speaker 1: that we've put a lot of focus on national politics.
Speaker 1: But what I'm seeing and I'm encouraged by, is a
Speaker 1: lot of people are getting a lot more active on
Speaker 1: local levels and paying attention on statewide levels because they
Speaker 1: recognize the pipeline. They recognize that these people hold a
Speaker 1: lot of power over their lives, and they also recognize
Speaker 1: that these people are in control of a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So while I say, and I agree with you that
Speaker 1: the federal government and Joe Baia, nic Gamala Harris and
Speaker 1: the eighteenth Congress is incredibly important, I also would argue
Speaker 1: that on local levels and in state houses, people are
Speaker 1: starting to get a lot more savvy and pay attention.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what makes me a little more optimistic.
Speaker 1: I just wonder. I guess my feeling is, I do
Speaker 1: believe that more people are waking up. I do believe
Speaker 1: that there is a collective consciousness of raising that has
Speaker 1: happened because I believe that Republicans are overplaying their hand.
Speaker 1: You have the job's decision, you have rollback in states'
Speaker 1: ability to have their gun laws right, like in New
Speaker 1: York City we saw them throw out one hundred year
Speaker 1: old bands. Right, it's all states rights as long as
Speaker 1: it is a state that is run by a Republican.
Speaker 1: If it's a Democrat, then there is no state rights. Right.
Speaker 1: Then then the Republican stooges on the Supreme Court will
Speaker 1: ensure that we're all living in an unsafe environment. My question,
Speaker 1: I guess, is are we too late or is it
Speaker 1: that we are at a time in our politics where
Speaker 1: things need to burn to the ground. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying that we are We have gone over
Speaker 1: the cliff. And so what happens right in order for
Speaker 1: the next iteration to happen, is that the old one,
Speaker 1: the old systems, the old way of thinking, needs to
Speaker 1: being totally incompletely decimated. So is it that, right? Is
Speaker 1: the hopefulness in that I just never thought in my
Speaker 1: lifetime that I would see the fire right? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: that's where we are. So you know, I think about
Speaker 1: this a lot, and I think this is where the
Speaker 1: two of us we end up in the same location,
Speaker 1: but we sort of come to the location from a
Speaker 1: different different path. I'm more of an institutionalist and maybe
Speaker 1: even an increment lists right, So I don't think that
Speaker 1: it's helpful to burn things to the ground because we
Speaker 1: built some things right and like and also it's like,
Speaker 1: I think if it more of a house, it's like,
Speaker 1: but we're all in the house, so like if the
Speaker 1: house burns to the ground, like we're in the house
Speaker 1: where we actually don't have the luxury of standing outside
Speaker 1: of the house. I'm cautious about like the burning to
Speaker 1: the ground theory because I'm like, no, then we all
Speaker 1: just burn to the ground. And maybe I just don't
Speaker 1: have the political imagination as an American politics professor to
Speaker 1: imagine what that burning to the ground looks. I think
Speaker 1: if we look at sort of history and you know,
Speaker 1: Danny L. Hammer and Barbara Jordan and you know Cecy Abrahms,
Speaker 1: like you know, these three women that I'm kind of
Speaker 1: working on this book about right now, it's ways that
Speaker 1: you can you can uh take a part parts of
Speaker 1: the house room by room, but not the whole time, right,
Speaker 1: So for anyone who's ever done it's like, right, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think we have the luxury of
Speaker 1: doing a gut reno where it's like we just take
Speaker 1: down the whole house because we already have a second
Speaker 1: house that we can live in. We don't have that luxury.
Speaker 1: So when you do a gut reno and you don't
Speaker 1: have a second house, it's like, well, we all gonna
Speaker 1: live in the living room while we're doing the kitchen, right,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be some growing paints. And I think
Speaker 1: we are in the middle of a gut reno. That's
Speaker 1: what I would argue. We're in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: And so how that new facade looks, how that new
Speaker 1: room looks, is where we're feeling this tension. And you're like, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, if we've already always had this type of style,
Speaker 1: you're essentially I think you're burned to the ground. Is like,
Speaker 1: let's do something totally different. And I agree with that,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying, we got to be in the house
Speaker 1: while we're doing it. So how do we sort of
Speaker 1: figure that out? And I think for me, My strategy
Speaker 1: is to really pay attention to local and state level
Speaker 1: politics to help us get a better handle on federal
Speaker 1: level politics. You know, to pay attention to these judges
Speaker 1: that come from these tiny you know, states or tiny
Speaker 1: courts that all of a sudden make their way up
Speaker 1: and their federal judges all of a sudden. You know,
Speaker 1: like to pay attention to these pipelines. It's like Matt
Speaker 1: Getz didn't come out of nowhere. You know. People who
Speaker 1: become members of Congress oftentimes you know, spend a little
Speaker 1: time in their statehouse. So if you're problematic, let's cut
Speaker 1: you off before you ever get to run for Congress.
Speaker 1: You know, So like paying attention to the seedlings before
Speaker 1: they become mighty oak. You know. Speaking of which, I
Speaker 1: want to get your thoughts on Solomon Pennia, who yes
Speaker 1: to me, is a one poison apple from the poisonous
Speaker 1: orchard that is the Republican Party. Solomon penny Are, folks,
Speaker 1: as as you may be coming to understand, is the
Speaker 1: former GOP candidate for a House seed out of New
Speaker 1: Mexico who lost by a substantial amount, not a little bit,
Speaker 1: but over thirty five hundred votes. Refused refused to to
Speaker 1: seede to his opponent, and then, as reports are coming out,
Speaker 1: has paid four different men as essentially hitmen, to shoot
Speaker 1: up the offices and the homes of his Democratic opponents
Speaker 1: and other Democratic officials within New Mexico. This man who
Speaker 1: had pictures at the January sixth insurrection, he was there
Speaker 1: pictures at Trump rallies, took a page out of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's book not to seede his loss, regardless of how big,
Speaker 1: and then as shifted to violence. Where is this headed, Christina?
Speaker 1: And how do how do your students right? Because when
Speaker 1: I was a student of political science, you're talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, things that were unlikely to happen, or political
Speaker 1: violence that was the norm in other countries but not
Speaker 1: in the United States. How do you talk about this moment?
Speaker 1: And the fact that I don't think that Solomon Pennia
Speaker 1: is the last Oh absolutely not. I mean, listen, we
Speaker 1: didn't take it seriously when Gabby Giffords was right, right,
Speaker 1: And so the fact that we don't have a persistent,
Speaker 1: full throated denunciation by the Republican Party on a daily
Speaker 1: basis of like, we will not have this in our name,
Speaker 1: we will not have anyone affiliated with us doing this.
Speaker 1: We will not actually ignore this. We are going to
Speaker 1: see it again. And it's frightening and it's frustrating. We
Speaker 1: have a few deadly combinations. One, as you lay it out,
Speaker 1: this is the Donald Trump playbook. I lose, I lose significantly,
Speaker 1: but I refuse to recognize the results. Right. Two, I
Speaker 1: get radicalized by the Internet that tells me that I'm
Speaker 1: a victim and I should actually take what's mine. And
Speaker 1: then three, which is the deadly trifecta, is I also
Speaker 1: have access to guns on guns on guns, and everyone
Speaker 1: says it's okay for me to have guns in my party,
Speaker 1: and I should take pictures with them, you know, like
Speaker 1: how many female Republican candidates have pictures with them and
Speaker 1: their kids around the Christmas tree with big old guns,
Speaker 1: right finger on trigger, which every arms teacher will ever
Speaker 1: tell you never put your finger on the trigger unless
Speaker 1: you were ready to pull it right. So these are
Speaker 1: people who don't even have proper training and don't they
Speaker 1: don't even know how to handle guns. So we have this,
Speaker 1: We have a man who, thank goodness, you know, the
Speaker 1: children who were in these democratic homes, you weren't harmed.
Speaker 1: No one was harmed, but we have Republicans are like,
Speaker 1: that's bad, but they're so afraid to say anything more
Speaker 1: because they don't want gun activists to come after them
Speaker 1: verbally or physically. Right, they want to keep that NRA
Speaker 1: money going. They don't want Donald Trump to target them
Speaker 1: because he still can galvanize people in an Internet space.
Speaker 1: But also there's so many Republicans, going back to my
Speaker 1: earlier point, they have created dragons, and they are desperately
Speaker 1: afraid of what will happen if their own party turns again.
Speaker 1: And this is something we've never seen before. Right, we
Speaker 1: saw Donald Trump insult members of his own party. We
Speaker 1: never saw them It's like consulting people of your other party.
Speaker 1: But there's so many Republicans now who were like, I
Speaker 1: help create this, I don't know how to control it,
Speaker 1: so now I have to tiptown to to around. And
Speaker 1: what it reminds me of Danielle, which is really frightening.
Speaker 1: What so many families that are dealing with across the
Speaker 1: country is that you know, when you have these like
Speaker 1: radicalized sons who get radicalized on the Internet, and you've
Speaker 1: been buying them guns since their fourteenth birthday and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you realize your son is a
Speaker 1: threat to himself and others, but you're afraid to say
Speaker 1: anything because you're afraid that he'll turn on you. So
Speaker 1: it's like you just sent him to school every day
Speaker 1: and just hope for the best. Like this is what
Speaker 1: we keep seeing around the country with families, and now
Speaker 1: we're seeing it in full own political party. And I
Speaker 1: guess you know. My feeling here is the mainstream media
Speaker 1: fails consistently and connecting the dots and you know, wanting
Speaker 1: to both sides the situation where both sides are not
Speaker 1: playing the same game, right, And to your point about
Speaker 1: Gabby Giffords, and I have brought this up before, you know,
Speaker 1: it was Sarah Palin that had her Darren mccratic opponents
Speaker 1: in literal crosshairs, and it was the shaming of the
Speaker 1: media after Gabby Giffords was killed that then she took
Speaker 1: down that website, right, And so, but if you live
Speaker 1: in a climate now where there is absolutely no shaming,
Speaker 1: where instead they're celebrating the likes of Kyle Rittenhouse, who
Speaker 1: is a murderer who is now a sought after speaker
Speaker 1: of the Republican Party right as well as as well
Speaker 1: as the mcclusky's that brandished their weapons on their front
Speaker 1: lawn right during peaceful Black Lives Matter protests during the uprising.
Speaker 1: Is it's just like, I just don't see this going anywhere.
Speaker 1: So you tell me last question for you when we're
Speaker 1: you you painted the picture of this perfect storm, Where
Speaker 1: does it go? And how do we brace ourselves? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that you know a lot of people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: we had to towards civil war, and I don't think
Speaker 1: civil war's gonna look like what we think it looked
Speaker 1: like in the past. You know, I think that we're
Speaker 1: in a version of it. And you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that we can have like a unifying candidate president
Speaker 1: just because the right wing right now is in such
Speaker 1: a tizzy and such they're under such I would say,
Speaker 1: almost like a trance. You know. It's like they're like
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has excavated these locusts who have been there
Speaker 1: and we're kind of seeing like Reagan's dream become a reality.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you mentioned Sarah Palin because like, let's
Speaker 1: not forget you know, so much of this can be
Speaker 1: traced back to twenty ten and the Tea Party and
Speaker 1: John McCain introducing the world to Sarah Palin and how
Speaker 1: her handlers were just like, this is a perfect opportunity.
Speaker 1: She's the perfect vessel to say and do all these
Speaker 1: horrid things that we've just been wanting to say. But like,
Speaker 1: no decent Republican at the time would ever touch it,
Speaker 1: you know, like John McCain would never said those things
Speaker 1: out in public. But here we are, right, and he
Speaker 1: chose her, So he's gonna he's gonna be linked to
Speaker 1: her in the history books. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: next few years looked like because we've been so each
Speaker 1: election it's been on the brink. I was explaining. I
Speaker 1: went birding yesterday with a good friend of mine who's
Speaker 1: a literature professor, and you know, we talked about nature,
Speaker 1: we talked about politics, and I said, you know, politics
Speaker 1: right now feels like when you hear that story of
Speaker 1: parents where you know you're older now, right and your
Speaker 1: parents are like, hey, listen, you know when you were ten,
Speaker 1: we didn't want to tell you, but like we almost
Speaker 1: lost the house, you know, like Dad and I were
Speaker 1: unemployed and you know we were behind in the mortgage,
Speaker 1: and you didn't we wanted to shield you from it,
Speaker 1: but you didn't know. But like we almost had to
Speaker 1: pull you out of your private school, and you know,
Speaker 1: we literally almost had to go live with grandma, right,
Speaker 1: and you had no idea and you were just a
Speaker 1: kid living your life and you know happy. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's the way American democracy is, where it's like
Speaker 1: political scientists and journalists are like, oh my god, every
Speaker 1: election could be our last, and the vaster jury of
Speaker 1: the country has no idea that we're on the precipice. Right,
Speaker 1: don't forget for president cential elections, we've barely got sixty
Speaker 1: percent of the voting eligible population pay attention and participate.
Speaker 1: New York City elections, we barely have twenty five that's
Speaker 1: like hot numbers in New York City for the most
Speaker 1: important mayoral job in the country. Right, it's an international position.
Speaker 1: And saying for governors races, you know, our participation is abysmal. Now,
Speaker 1: we can talk about sort of the obstacles and institutional
Speaker 1: barriers in systemic ways that we make it difficult, but
Speaker 1: that being said, we still have a lot of soil
Speaker 1: that we could till. And the reason why I'm not like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, everything's terrible is because there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of people that can be awakened and there you know,
Speaker 1: anytime you teach young people, you recognize the ability for
Speaker 1: a different possibility. You recognize that they actually can steer
Speaker 1: the ship in a different direction. They will steer the
Speaker 1: ship in a different direction. So we can provide a
Speaker 1: foundation for them so when it is their time to
Speaker 1: do it, they can figure out how to do the
Speaker 1: gut reno and they won't have to do it the
Speaker 1: way we've done it in the past, and they will
Speaker 1: have a different set of eyes and they will come
Speaker 1: up with a different creative vision. We just have to
Speaker 1: invest the time in them so that they know that
Speaker 1: we're not totally nuts and that we haven't given up.
Speaker 1: So I think we're modeling behavior. I think your passion
Speaker 1: about the future and your concern is a different tone
Speaker 1: than mine, but it's still articulating a vision and sort
Speaker 1: of showing them a way of being as citizens in
Speaker 1: this country who care about this country. That is like,
Speaker 1: it's really necessary and important for them to see. You
Speaker 1: know that they can see two black women who are
Speaker 1: very invested in the survival of this nation and the
Speaker 1: people in it. And we end up at the same destination,
Speaker 1: but it's like right, but we'll both ring the alarm
Speaker 1: in different ways and we get to work in different ways.
Speaker 1: And I think that we're giving them a vision and
Speaker 1: options of how they can get to work when it's
Speaker 1: you know, they're starting to realize it is also their
Speaker 1: time to start getting to work. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I'm not doom and gloom, even though I'm very concerned.
Speaker 1: You see, It's why I always bring you on wokay
Speaker 1: f because we all need varied perspectives and recognize that
Speaker 1: we are in a historic moment and have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to have incredible impact as this country reorganizes, reorients itself
Speaker 1: to who it wants to be. Uh. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know, your folks, your your anxiousness, your frustration,
Speaker 1: your worry is in fact warranted. Um, but how we
Speaker 1: process it uh maybe different. My friend, doctor Christina Greer,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you so very much, and you must come
Speaker 1: back throughout the year to calm times. I love spending
Speaker 1: time with you, absolutely do. So anytime you just say
Speaker 1: the word Larry Bird, I'm there. Appreciate you. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today, dear friends, on a woke app
Speaker 1: as always Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: Get woke and stay woke as fuck.