Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody. Recording from the Home Bunker, Folks,
Speaker 1: this show was recorded before the polls closed for the
Speaker 1: midterm elections, and so the conversation upcoming between Jonathan and
Speaker 1: I is really one at the fifty thousand foot level
Speaker 1: of what is at stake and what we do the
Speaker 1: day after and the day after that. And here's what
Speaker 1: I want to impart upon, folks. And I know I
Speaker 1: say often on this show that you know, I hold
Speaker 1: about a mustard seed of hope, and to be honest,
Speaker 1: that's really not true. I've been kind of thinking about
Speaker 1: my relationship to hope and my relationship to faith over
Speaker 1: the last couple of months, but truly the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. And the thing is, I do this work
Speaker 1: on Woke af with my other show, Democracy Ish, writing
Speaker 1: and spending time on social media platforms because I truly
Speaker 1: believe in the promise of this country. I really do.
Speaker 1: I believe that it can be better than what the
Speaker 1: founding fathers have even framed. I believe that there is
Speaker 1: a lot that is good here. And I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: naively when I was younger I remember President Bill Clinton
Speaker 1: saying that there is more that is right with America
Speaker 1: than that is wrong, and there's nothing that can't be
Speaker 1: fixed about America with what is right about America. I
Speaker 1: remember Barack Obama when he became the talk of the
Speaker 1: town at convention talking about the fact that there are
Speaker 1: no red states and there are no blue states. They
Speaker 1: are just the United States. The reason why I went
Speaker 1: into politics was because I believe that all people in
Speaker 1: this country should be treated with dignity and respect and
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to access their version of the American
Speaker 1: dream without oppression, without degradation or dehumanization. And so I've
Speaker 1: made it my mission in order to wake people up
Speaker 1: to their power. It isn't just about waking people up
Speaker 1: and to live in a state of rage all the time,
Speaker 1: but it is to understand that we are powerful. Your
Speaker 1: vote is powerful, your voice is powerful, and if it wasn't,
Speaker 1: then people wouldn't be working overtime to try and silence
Speaker 1: you and to try and throw out the thing that
Speaker 1: makes this country great, which is our ability to choose
Speaker 1: our elected officials, the ability to live in a country
Speaker 1: that is governed for and by the people. We have
Speaker 1: lost sight of that we have become complacent. We have
Speaker 1: allowed our elected officials to become complacent and to become
Speaker 1: the fucking proxy of corporate America. And so what I
Speaker 1: am saying is that regardless of where things stand right,
Speaker 1: whether there's a red wave or a blue wave, the
Speaker 1: reality is is that we need to wake the fuck
Speaker 1: up before we all drowned, right before we all drown
Speaker 1: in their ideas of what America should be. We are
Speaker 1: the ones with the power, We are the ones with
Speaker 1: the vision. We are the ones that know what is
Speaker 1: best for ourselves, and for too long we put up
Speaker 1: these representatives because we believe that they knew more than
Speaker 1: we do. The fucking reality is is that if you
Speaker 1: see the slate of Republican candidates, you know, good god
Speaker 1: damn well, you know a hell of a lot more
Speaker 1: than they do, and you care a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot more than they do. So, folks, what I need
Speaker 1: us to get to a place of, after we rest,
Speaker 1: after we wipe away tears and wipe our brows right,
Speaker 1: and stretch our sore backs and hands from dialing and
Speaker 1: campaigning and canvassing and doing all the things, is that
Speaker 1: I need for you to harken back to those that
Speaker 1: fought for freedom and equality and justice that they would
Speaker 1: never see. This is not about us anymore. And once
Speaker 1: we remove our egos and our need for immediate gratification away,
Speaker 1: then we see a bigger picture, right, We see what
Speaker 1: is actually possible, because possibility doesn't come from a place
Speaker 1: of scarcity. It comes from a place of abundance. It
Speaker 1: comes from understanding that we can do the audacious things
Speaker 1: if we decide to be audacious. And what fear does.
Speaker 1: What fear does is shrink us into being afraid of
Speaker 1: our own fucking shadows, our own neighbors across the street
Speaker 1: or next door, or above us or below. That's what
Speaker 1: Republicans want. They want us living in fear of ourselves
Speaker 1: and everybody around us, and only they alone can come
Speaker 1: in and save the day with their fucking law and order.
Speaker 1: Their law and order and their values are bullshit, and
Speaker 1: we know that. So at this time, dear friends, we
Speaker 1: must hold steadfast to who the fuck we are and
Speaker 1: how we want to show up, because regardless whether the
Speaker 1: outcome is good, bad, or indifferent, there is still work
Speaker 1: to be done. Because this union is not yet perfect,
Speaker 1: and it is each generation's responsibility to perfect it to
Speaker 1: the best of our ability and then pass on the baton.
Speaker 1: And right now we're doing a shit fucking job because
Speaker 1: we have polluted waters, we have crumbling schools, and we
Speaker 1: have a white supremacist national part that is working to
Speaker 1: assume power. And here's the thing. We know that every
Speaker 1: time that we make progress that there is whitelash. Every
Speaker 1: single time that we move the needle further, that we
Speaker 1: bend that are a little more, there is always backlash.
Speaker 1: This ain't nothing new, but the question, and this came
Speaker 1: from Ann who you will hear from later in the week,
Speaker 1: The question is how long? How long will the white
Speaker 1: lash be? Because following the Civil War we had reconstruction.
Speaker 1: Reconstruction only lasted twelve years, and then following that reconstruction
Speaker 1: we had Jim Crow for about a hundred. So it
Speaker 1: isn't about what that backlash is going to be, because
Speaker 1: that's going to be expected because these are the ancestors.
Speaker 1: These are the fucking people whose ancestors were standing in
Speaker 1: front of public schools because they didn't want integration. Right.
Speaker 1: These are the same people that held up bats and
Speaker 1: were beaten queer people for daring to live their lives
Speaker 1: out in the open. These are who these people have
Speaker 1: always fucking been. They ain't dying off. They're like motherfucking gremlins.
Speaker 1: So what is being asked is for persistence, is for vigilance,
Speaker 1: and is for hope and to have faith that the
Speaker 1: work that we're putting in will have impact. If there's
Speaker 1: nothing else to be taken from this time, win or lose,
Speaker 1: it is that we took our eye off the ball.
Speaker 1: We just assumed that democracy was something that would just
Speaker 1: continue because it had for over two hundred and some
Speaker 1: odd years. But things don't just continue without hard work.
Speaker 1: We don't always get to see the fruits of that labor,
Speaker 1: but we plant the seeds anyway. Coming up next, my
Speaker 1: conversation with our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm David. Plots of Slates Political Gabfest. As another election
Speaker 1: season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all
Speaker 1: the noise and the news. Each week on the gap Fest,
Speaker 1: John Dickerson, Emily Bathlona and I decipher the headlines, break
Speaker 1: down the races, and tell you what issues really matter.
Speaker 1: We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree,
Speaker 1: but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have
Speaker 1: a good time. So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest, new
Speaker 1: episodes every Thursday, folks. So you know that whenever we
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to talk to our good, good friend,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel, we are always pleased. Jonathan. At the
Speaker 1: time of this recording, we don't know the official outcome
Speaker 1: of uh the midterm elections, and frankly, even if we
Speaker 1: were recording this a week from the election day, we
Speaker 1: may not know. Um. But I want to start off
Speaker 1: today with just kind of you know, taking your temperature.
Speaker 1: You have been on a media junket, mad dash, spreading
Speaker 1: the good good word about the danger that we are in,
Speaker 1: about what people need to be paying attention to. The
Speaker 1: thing Jonathan that you know that I always appreciate about
Speaker 1: you is that you try and weave in optimism, you
Speaker 1: try and weave in hopefulness while also sounding the alarm.
Speaker 1: So I just you know, again, folks, as we're as
Speaker 1: we're talking right now, the polls have not even closed yet,
Speaker 1: but I want to get a sense of how you're feeling.
Speaker 1: I'll share how I'm feeling, and then we'll talk about
Speaker 1: you know, where we go from here, well, I think
Speaker 1: if I had to say again, not knowing that outcome,
Speaker 1: I heard a rumor that Trump got every single vote,
Speaker 1: but I can't confirm it until we know for sure.
Speaker 1: But I would say, if there's a if there's a
Speaker 1: silver lining to all this, it does seem like there
Speaker 1: are an awful lot of people voting, and it does
Speaker 1: feel like people are paying attention. I mean, as you
Speaker 1: and I've been talking about a lot of bad stuff's
Speaker 1: been happening, people understandably are living their lives and just
Speaker 1: trying to stay a float right now. But part of
Speaker 1: the reason we're in this pickle right now is because
Speaker 1: January sixth happened, and the Republicans doubled down on running
Speaker 1: for every school board, every election, monitoring every single thing.
Speaker 1: And Democrats, god love them, Um, we're not We're not engaged.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Republicans really saw this as a power
Speaker 1: grab moment, and we were doing other things. I mean, certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, saving the economies and important, and stimulus money
Speaker 1: is important, all those kind of things, but we were
Speaker 1: not focusing in the place where the change was really happening.
Speaker 1: And I think if we had to do it again,
Speaker 1: you know, the minute all these people were storming school boards,
Speaker 1: we should have like stormed back with our own people
Speaker 1: storming the school boards. And if they were running for
Speaker 1: a crazy election post, we should have been running our
Speaker 1: own person for that election post. So I just think
Speaker 1: we gave up on the local government angle of this
Speaker 1: too much. And I think that's really the issue. But
Speaker 1: I'd say that the optimism is right now. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of people who appear to be engaged and
Speaker 1: paying attention, and hopefully that's something we can sustain, you know,
Speaker 1: going forward, you know there, I think that there is
Speaker 1: actually a lot to take away from this moment. I
Speaker 1: think one, Jonathan, is that we, oftentimes, and we, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the big we Democratic Party. We not you
Speaker 1: and I, but we in the Democrat Party often, you know,
Speaker 1: play this game from election to election, from candidate to candidate.
Speaker 1: And what I heard the other day, and I keep
Speaker 1: saying this because I like to get folks's reaction, is that,
Speaker 1: you know, former Senator Doug Jones from Alabama, and if
Speaker 1: you remember, he was placed into the Senate in a
Speaker 1: mid term election because of black women voters in Alabama,
Speaker 1: not because of the investment that had been put in
Speaker 1: by the DNC or the DSCC, the big establishment funders
Speaker 1: in order to win his campaign. And he said this,
Speaker 1: He said, the Democratic Party is too vested in candidates
Speaker 1: and not a movement. They move from candidates to candidates
Speaker 1: as opposed to here is who we are. Here are
Speaker 1: our values as Democrats, right, and this is and this
Speaker 1: is who regardless of the name that is on the ticket,
Speaker 1: this is what they stand for. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your reaction to that because I also thought, you know,
Speaker 1: we as Democrats, we love to fall in love with
Speaker 1: our candidates. We want to fall in love with them,
Speaker 1: we want to have a beer or a glass of
Speaker 1: wine with them, we want to hang out with them.
Speaker 1: And I don't necessarily think that we need to take
Speaker 1: our democracy like we do dating frankly, right, this is
Speaker 1: so I want to get your reactions to what he said. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that it's not like we have to agree
Speaker 1: on an issue. I mean, I certainly don't think that
Speaker 1: the Republicans all agree on an issue. I think the
Speaker 1: Republicans agree on the importance of power, and so it's
Speaker 1: more like if somebody may or may not agree with
Speaker 1: us about this one issue, but the idea of like,
Speaker 1: I mean, Republicans understand what it means to take over
Speaker 1: the judiciary. And I feel like with all this noise,
Speaker 1: there have been two people on television who have been
Speaker 1: warning about this for the past two years. Us we've
Speaker 1: been saying this ship, you know, spoiler alert, Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: where's already been. We've been saying this ship forever. And
Speaker 1: so I just think that I think that it's it's
Speaker 1: not even like everybody agrees on one issue. It's more like, oh,
Speaker 1: that person doesn't agree with me about filling the blank issue,
Speaker 1: therefore I'm not gonna blah blah blah with them. And
Speaker 1: it's more like the bigger goal is not this one issue.
Speaker 1: And so I just think that because the Democrats aren't
Speaker 1: going to agree on energy policy, they're not going to
Speaker 1: agree on Middle East policy. I think that if the
Speaker 1: bigger goal is not just like we're all on board
Speaker 1: with one agenda, that's not going to work with the Democrats.
Speaker 1: But but the Republicans, the bigger goal is to control
Speaker 1: the judiciary. It's not about any one particular issue. And
Speaker 1: I don't think the Democrats see that. They see it
Speaker 1: as a bunch to different interests that are whatever. So again,
Speaker 1: like because I'm not optimistic that there could be one
Speaker 1: slate that everybody who identifies as a Democrat would agree on.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's there is no core value set, really,
Speaker 1: but I do think if the goal is, like, Okay, look,
Speaker 1: as you and I've been saying, the goal is to
Speaker 1: have people in positions of power who are gonna you know,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I mean, I just think of how
Speaker 1: many Democratic candidates have been picked apart because of one
Speaker 1: particular issue, and really it's more than Democrats don't ever
Speaker 1: see the bigger picture, or they don't see it often enough.
Speaker 1: So I want to push back a little bit because
Speaker 1: I wrote a piece probably a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 1: now for the Daily Beast, and the piece was on
Speaker 1: patriotism and the fact that we seed patriotism, we've ceded freedom, liberty,
Speaker 1: family values right all to the far right. And language matters,
Speaker 1: particularly when you're trying to persuade people from one point
Speaker 1: of view to the next. So when you say, you know,
Speaker 1: there's not a slate of things that we can agree on,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you to that point, But couldn't
Speaker 1: the banner of freedom be that thing that we are
Speaker 1: coalescing around because frankly, you know, from healthcare, to public
Speaker 1: education to the formation or not forming a family is
Speaker 1: based around the idea that you have freedom, you have
Speaker 1: choice in this country. And so rather than use the
Speaker 1: word of choice, we take the word freedom back from them.
Speaker 1: And then whether you're going in front of a climate audience,
Speaker 1: or you're going in front of a school board, or
Speaker 1: you're going in front of you know, a medical board
Speaker 1: or what have you, that what you're carrying with you, right,
Speaker 1: and what you're weaving in is this idea of freedom.
Speaker 1: Is that not something that you think that we can
Speaker 1: coalesce around because we've seeded that conversation and allowed these
Speaker 1: red hat you know, rabbit racists to claim that, to
Speaker 1: claim that mantle. I mean, I guess the question would
Speaker 1: be do you feel like defending democracy was enough, was
Speaker 1: concrete enough for people to mobilize around. But that's not
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. I don't because I'm when I
Speaker 1: say freedom, I'm not just talking about democracy versus fascism.
Speaker 1: I'm literally talking about your freedom to live the life
Speaker 1: that you want to live, that your family wants to live.
Speaker 1: And I think that there are so many ways to
Speaker 1: weave in whatever issue or interest area you want to
Speaker 1: under this larger battern of Americans. We're about freedom, right,
Speaker 1: the freedom to live, the freedom to like, and you
Speaker 1: can run down that list. But we don't talk in
Speaker 1: that way. We don't speak to the electorate in that way.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if you think, in all of the
Speaker 1: ways in which you have talked to people, particularly those
Speaker 1: in the in the middle and then these red states
Speaker 1: and in these rusted areas, you know, patriotism and freedom
Speaker 1: I think is something that would resonate with them. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. I mean, I'll give you
Speaker 1: a counterexample to that, which I think it is pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: The minute New York election was on the I mean,
Speaker 1: it seemed absurd that the New York governor election was
Speaker 1: going to be about crime, because crime is way lower
Speaker 1: in New York than it is here in Tennessee. And
Speaker 1: New York actually, for all the crap, has actually been
Speaker 1: doing pretty good. Subway ridership is as of last month's
Speaker 1: back up to the pre pandemic levels. The more people
Speaker 1: who come back, the more people there are around. So
Speaker 1: this idea of like New York is a burning hellscape
Speaker 1: with immigrants running around with mattresses and all this crazy stuff,
Speaker 1: you know. But the thing is, there are all these
Speaker 1: great things about New York, right, I mean New York,
Speaker 1: as you and I have talked about could you run?
Speaker 1: I mean, I just feel like New York. New York
Speaker 1: didn't fight back and say, hey, here's what's great about
Speaker 1: New York and here's what fighting for is the ability
Speaker 1: to have like ten million people living in a dense
Speaker 1: urban area and bike lanes that go everywhere, and you
Speaker 1: can get a train anywhere at night, like just to
Speaker 1: make that cool or something I understand like this, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know Zeldon was trying to He wasn't. He didn't
Speaker 1: give a crap about New York. He's trying to scare
Speaker 1: people in the suburbs that like exactly who never who
Speaker 1: don't live, who don't live, and don't have a daily
Speaker 1: understanding of what it is like what the beauty that
Speaker 1: you describe last week of being able to bike from
Speaker 1: one borough to the next, and like where in the
Speaker 1: country where you know, can you do that other than
Speaker 1: in New York safely? And so you know, Obama framed
Speaker 1: the election as hope, and that was a guiding principle.
Speaker 1: I just felt like New York was caught so flat
Speaker 1: footed that it even New York at a hard time articulating.
Speaker 1: And it's not just some random bs like New York
Speaker 1: actually has a relative degree of safety compared to other cities.
Speaker 1: It has public transportation, it has I don't know, as
Speaker 1: you know, I go to the airport every week. It
Speaker 1: takes me nineteen minutes from Atlantic Terminal to JFK Airport
Speaker 1: on a Long Island railroad. It costs seventy dollars and
Speaker 1: seventy five cents. When I go to the airport here
Speaker 1: in Nashville, it's fifty bucks and I'm stuck in traffic
Speaker 1: for two hours. New York, I can take Long Island
Speaker 1: railroad Atlantic Terminal to Jamaica for less than ten bucks,
Speaker 1: and it always is nineteen minutes. So I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're flat footed all the time, you're
Speaker 1: not kind of selling all the stuff. And so I
Speaker 1: just I just think that I don't know, I guess
Speaker 1: freedom is awfully abstract to me, but I do think
Speaker 1: that here's what we're fighting for in New York, and
Speaker 1: then these kind of examples and make it concrete and
Speaker 1: not just New York, but across the country. I would
Speaker 1: like to think that. I mean, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: your sense, because for me, like these zelden Ads, by
Speaker 1: the end, they were just embarrassing. Like you maybe yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole time you were heart you heard it and
Speaker 1: it was like, oh man, somebody trying to jack my shit.
Speaker 1: Um like after thirty after thirty times of hearing, hey,
Speaker 1: somebody's trying to jack your ship, and then you're like, um,
Speaker 1: this is embarrassing, dude. And so but there was no counter, right,
Speaker 1: there was no counter. So we're more like playing offense
Speaker 1: on these things that Hey, there, I want to tell
Speaker 1: you about another podcast I think you'll love The Brown
Speaker 1: Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Gohler the
Speaker 1: President I've Emerged. BGG is the one stop shop for
Speaker 1: women of color who want to hear and talk about
Speaker 1: the world of politics. Join a Shanty this season as
Speaker 1: she talks to incredible women of color who are changing
Speaker 1: the face of politics and tackling some of the most
Speaker 1: important issues facing the United States, from reproductive justice to
Speaker 1: voting rights, to climate change and more. Tune in every
Speaker 1: Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. I think that all
Speaker 1: of the things that you lift up as opposed to
Speaker 1: being in a reactionary posture, meaning that the Republicans and
Speaker 1: a Zelden say the cities are filled with crimes and
Speaker 1: undocumented people and disease and all of the whatever rhetoric
Speaker 1: that they're using. Democrats normal responses, No, it's not. And
Speaker 1: then to tell you all the ways in which they're
Speaker 1: going to be tougher on crime, and they're going to
Speaker 1: be this, that and the other thing. And what you're
Speaker 1: saying is, why can't we just lift up what's good?
Speaker 1: Why can't you just lift up the reason why New
Speaker 1: York City is one of the beacons and most traveled
Speaker 1: places in the world. Right that the place is you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: the rent is too damn high here, but it's because
Speaker 1: everyone wants to be here. And why is that because
Speaker 1: of the offerings that it has. The other day I
Speaker 1: was I had decided to take an evening walk. I
Speaker 1: watched the sunset over the city, walk back home to
Speaker 1: my block. It's you know, it was before daylight saving,
Speaker 1: so it's pretty dark outside. I can tell you that
Speaker 1: I have never felt unsafe in my neighborhood. I have
Speaker 1: never felt unsafe when I'm traveling around the city, and
Speaker 1: so his idea of this violence, and I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing that has bothered me is that there is a
Speaker 1: lack of a plan for the homeless in New York
Speaker 1: and that when people left the subways there people have
Speaker 1: set up full, you know, homeless condominiums in the cars, right,
Speaker 1: and so there was a lack of a plan to
Speaker 1: deal and to help those people and to mitigate that issue.
Speaker 1: But again, that wasn't about crime. And so I think
Speaker 1: that the counter to these these these the antics that
Speaker 1: Republicans like Zelden us is to be like, show me
Speaker 1: the pictures of how you actually want to live, Hey, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be great if you didn't sit in traffic
Speaker 1: for two hours to just get to you know, a
Speaker 1: mode of transportation. Wouldn't you like to be able to
Speaker 1: bike to work, um and and and and and send
Speaker 1: off your kids and and feel comfortable doing so. And
Speaker 1: instead of it being this reactionary about how tough you are,
Speaker 1: to show like, how great it would be if we
Speaker 1: all had the access to these things. And I love
Speaker 1: your framing of that, and I think that that is
Speaker 1: where democrats have missed the boat this time. Around. But
Speaker 1: to me, it doesn't mean that there isn't an opportunity
Speaker 1: because I this is this is why people have been
Speaker 1: texting me all day Jonathan, and probably the same with
Speaker 1: you and asking you how are you feeling? How are
Speaker 1: you doing today? Selection day? How are you doing? How
Speaker 1: are you feeling? And I got to be honest, I
Speaker 1: feel fine? And why do I feel fine? Why am
Speaker 1: I not filled with anxiety and stress and pulling my
Speaker 1: hair out? Because I know, regardless I'm waking up tomorrow
Speaker 1: to fight for freedom, regardless of what happens, I'm waking
Speaker 1: up tomorrow and I'm doing the same work to try
Speaker 1: and wake people up to their power and that this
Speaker 1: is a long haul movement, right, And you know, if
Speaker 1: Republicans take over, yeah, the work is going to be harder.
Speaker 1: But it's always been hard, right, And that that's kind
Speaker 1: of my reality because if if it's like, if we're
Speaker 1: pinning our hopes and dreams on one election or the other,
Speaker 1: then we're always going to be in a place of devastation.
Speaker 1: And that's not where power comes from, right. I Mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's an interesting proposition because I do are
Speaker 1: people burned out on all this stuff? Quite possibly, you know,
Speaker 1: could we do for America what we're talking about doing
Speaker 1: for New York, which is like, hey, here's what's cool
Speaker 1: about America and then kind of make the other side
Speaker 1: uncool by nature of you being cool. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: know how you're feeling. I kind of really can't see
Speaker 1: Biden running again, to be honest, And if that's the case,
Speaker 1: then the Democrats will have the chance to reset again.
Speaker 1: I have no inside information. I just I know the
Speaker 1: cards seem like it's probably time for like there might
Speaker 1: be a change. That's just my feeling, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: And so whatever happens, that the Democrats have a chance
Speaker 1: maybe for a reset. But it's also I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's so much like crap going on with just the
Speaker 1: machinery of elections that it's going to take a lot
Speaker 1: of work. Yeah, I think that it's all going to
Speaker 1: take a lot of work. I don't know if Biden
Speaker 1: is going to run again. I can't imagine that he
Speaker 1: won't barring some type of like medical disaster. I don't
Speaker 1: see him seating and saying like, oh, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to run. And then we open up the clown car
Speaker 1: of a primary to figure out who is going to
Speaker 1: come up behind him. There was an awful it was funny,
Speaker 1: but it was like also sad snl skit. That was
Speaker 1: all about the Democrats going back to the same people
Speaker 1: over and over again to be the champions of this party.
Speaker 1: And it's just like, you know, I don't foresee anything
Speaker 1: different than what they've been doing. But what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is that people can do things that are different, right,
Speaker 1: Like we have to be the ones that are challenging
Speaker 1: these people to be different. And it doesn't we can't
Speaker 1: just care about our freedoms every two and four years
Speaker 1: and then the time in between we just kind of
Speaker 1: throw up our hands or bury our heads in the sand,
Speaker 1: Like that's we've lost that privilege because we hadn't been
Speaker 1: vigilant this entire time about the courts about our democracy.
Speaker 1: So the privilege of just walking around dazed and confused
Speaker 1: is over. And that's kind of what I want people
Speaker 1: to take away from the mid term is that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: not being engaged or saying politics isn't for you, that
Speaker 1: time has passed. Yeah, I mean you know, remember like
Speaker 1: it and it's not even like democracy or equality, Like
Speaker 1: remember when all these people were storming the school boards
Speaker 1: demanding no more books and stuff like that when they
Speaker 1: were burning the books on top of burning masks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you and I were saying, like, where's the counter
Speaker 1: to that? So it's not like, but like where were
Speaker 1: the ten thousand people out there in support of having
Speaker 1: lots of books in the library, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: it's not even like it's got to be some one thing,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like one there's no counter to
Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff that is about daily life. Also, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll see. I'm I'm curious to know what we
Speaker 1: know by tomorrow when the show ends. Right now, we're
Speaker 1: obviously talking into a in the show airs. Obviously, we're
Speaker 1: talking to a vacuum right now. But yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: let with the last minute or so that we have,
Speaker 1: if Democrats are able to squeak out a win, what
Speaker 1: do you think we do next? I don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna sweek out a win. Maybe I'm this is Devil's
Speaker 1: Advocate Jonathan. Oh, yeah, that's true. A good point. Um,
Speaker 1: I think corrupt all the voting machines and uh, and no,
Speaker 1: I was kidding. I think I just have a feeling
Speaker 1: that people are awfully burned out on all this crap,
Speaker 1: and I feel like if there was some reasonable way
Speaker 1: to come back towards some kind of middle ground, that
Speaker 1: is even possible. Um, I don't know. It's just like
Speaker 1: you're not going to out Trump Trump or to Santists
Speaker 1: or whoever. But it does seem like it does open
Speaker 1: up a space to like, I don't know, maybe that's
Speaker 1: too hopeful, but that is kind of my feeling. I mean,
Speaker 1: even the right wingers I interview, they're like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I do think a lot of people are afraid right now,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know, but I know the negative
Speaker 1: affect always takes the air out of the room. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, but I do feel like the root the
Speaker 1: attack is to the center, not to the extreme. I
Speaker 1: feel like, if what happens after this election is it's
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green against AOC for the next three decades,
Speaker 1: then the Democrats were just going to be a perennial
Speaker 1: protest party. So I don't know, that's my feel How
Speaker 1: would you answer that question? How I answer it is
Speaker 1: that you know, people need to understand that our rights
Speaker 1: and privileges that we have in this country don't go
Speaker 1: by election cycle, And the reality is is that you know,
Speaker 1: I am going back to you. And I continue to
Speaker 1: say this on Wokaeth and every other show that I
Speaker 1: am on, that I'm going back to the roots of abolition.
Speaker 1: They had an audacious idea about abolishing the founding economy
Speaker 1: of this country after centuries of watching enslaved human beings
Speaker 1: beat down, broken apart, terrorized and murdered and raped for centuries,
Speaker 1: and they had this audacious vision to end it and
Speaker 1: what would what could we what could we do instead?
Speaker 1: And they kept at it and they did not for
Speaker 1: those that were fighting, those that were free and those
Speaker 1: that were enslaved. For those that were fighting, they were
Speaker 1: fighting for something that they would never see. And so
Speaker 1: I kind of need people to pull themselves and this
Speaker 1: is me saying this, to pull themselves out of marinating
Speaker 1: in the misery and start to think about what they
Speaker 1: are going to do to recharge and refocus and think
Speaker 1: not inside of their own egos about the immediate gratification
Speaker 1: about what they want to see, but what they want
Speaker 1: their legacies to be. Yeah, that's where I want people
Speaker 1: to think. That's what I want the tomorrow and the
Speaker 1: day after tomorrow and the day after that to be
Speaker 1: about because it cannot be just about what we need
Speaker 1: in this moment, because what we need no longer matters.
Speaker 1: You know, if let's just say, for conversation's sake, Biden
Speaker 1: doesn't run again, it will be an opportunity for the
Speaker 1: Democrats to define their values. I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: there's that opportunity. So you know, again, who knows what
Speaker 1: this opportunity will be and who does what'll happen. But
Speaker 1: if that's the case, it does seem like something like
Speaker 1: that might come up organically. But again, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to I'm not trying to push anybody out
Speaker 1: the doors the President of the United States with that, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: By the time that this airs, we still probably will
Speaker 1: have no idea where things lie. But I hope that
Speaker 1: folks that are listening to this recognize and start to
Speaker 1: think about where their fight is going to lie. Regardless
Speaker 1: of the outcome of this election. It may be easier,
Speaker 1: it may be much harder, but regardless, we're still going
Speaker 1: to have to fight. And that's just the reality of
Speaker 1: what it means to be part of a democracy. It
Speaker 1: doesn't just happen. Thank you, dear friend, for making the
Speaker 1: time to join us. We appreciate you, my pleasure see
Speaker 1: you guys. That is it for me today. Dear friends
Speaker 1: on woke f As always, power to the people and
Speaker 1: to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
Speaker 1: as fuck.