WEBVTT - Issues Are Animating 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.680 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to ok F Daily with 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:19.360 Meet your Girl Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks. 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.560 Often we have folks that join this show to talk 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:28.200 about democratic messaging, to talk about who they should be 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:32.720 outreaching to and how often and why why it should 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:37.320 matter that you roll up on black and brown communities 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.400 only two or three months before an election, as opposed 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.880 to you know, working three hundred and sixty five days 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.560 of the year to ensure that you are making your 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.120 party the most attractive right and developing policies that matter 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.320 and affect people's lives, and that they understand said policies 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.200 and why they need to vote for you, and so 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.840 on today's show, I'm really happy to welcome to ok 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:11.000 F Daily for the first time to Tenda Musapatiki. She 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:16.040 is the founder and CEO of Voter Formation Project, an 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:22.319 organization that she started in twenty twenty to diversify the electorate. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:27.080 And you know, we get into a conversation today about 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.240 how while on one hand, the twenty twenty election was 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.800 the most historic in terms of voter turnout in the 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:40.080 midst of a pandemic, and at the same time it 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:47.640 is still retail politics and antiquated twentieth century retail politics 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.640 that the Democratic Party still uses. And it's like, when 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.960 are they going to get hip to how people think 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.040 where they are and how they engage and use that 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.360 in a way to bolster civic engagement. What would the 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.560 country look like if one hundred percent of the people 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.720 who were eligible to vote actually voted. What would it 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.600 look like if those that were in voter suppressed districts 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:20.920 and states, right were armed with information and power and engagement, right, Like, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.240 what would that look like? And I know that there 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.040 are organizations on the ground, you know, that are doing 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.080 the best that they can. But it's also like, we 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:37.080 have an entire Democratic National Committee that has just seated 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.919 the South, seated the Midwest, and put all of their 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.600 stock in state in the coast. And we can see 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.120 by virtue of the flipping of Georgia and the flipping 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:54.760 back of Virginia that we should not seed anywhere. Right. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.440 What we need to do is a mass education project. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.240 And so I'm really excited for you to hear the 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:10.680 conversation with Tatanda coming up next. Friends, I am very 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:18.040 excited to welcome to WOKF Daily, to Tenda Musapati wait Musafa, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:25.160 tell me again, Musapa Tiki to Tenda. Musapa Tiki, who 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:33.080 is the founder and CEO of Voter Formation Project, which 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.640 is an organization whose work is to try and create 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:41.680 the most diverse electorate possible by ushering black and Latina 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.360 folks who have faced the most severe barriers to the 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:50.720 ballot to the ballot. To Tenda, let's start out with 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:58.440 telling me more about your organization and what you were 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.640 thinking and was feeling about the strategies that you were 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:07.360 going to use in the most consequential election of our lifetime. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.760 Yeah. Well, first, thank you so much for having me. 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:15.160 I am really grateful to be here. And it's a 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.240 huge moment, a huge moment for democracy. And so I 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.080 founded this org at the end of twenty twenty. I 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.680 had been in the communications, tech and democracy space for 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.040 a little over ten years at that point and knew 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.560 that I really wanted to start to build out an 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.360 organization that did the kind of work that I thought 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:39.440 was reflective for the moment, that really leaned into digital experimentation, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.479 using the best tools that we have in digital marketing 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.120 to reach out to the people most disenfranchised in our 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.520 communities and who have the least information to the ballot box. 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.599 I also cared a lot about how it is that 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.760 people are treated in their workplaces and how it is 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.960 that we can create strong strategies and work while also 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.279 treating people with dignity and respect, because I strongly believe 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.320 that if you are going to be a warrior for 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.279 this moment, we need to be rested. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.680 That way we can continue to persevere over time. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.279 And I wasn't seeing that in any of the workplaces 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.120 I'd been in, except for corporate ones, which was very interesting, 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.760 and so I really knew that this organization needed to 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.080 exist to meet the moment, and we are really focused 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.200 on deeply understanding how it is that digital messaging can 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.279 impact people's thoughts and feelings and attitudes about civic engagement 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.920 while ahead of ever ever asking someone which is the 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.440 key gap that's been missing, I think many. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.000 Of your listeners are familiar or even. 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.280 Working in the moment where we focus all of our 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.359 time and energy and attention on getting people to vote 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.719 between September and November of an election year, and we 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.720 are inundated with ads about candidates, We are inundated with 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.359 negative ads about issues that are tied to candidates, but 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.200 there is no year round work about how it is 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:57.400 that we make people feel good. 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:58.240 About civic engagement. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.880 Why is civic agent engagement portant, Why do these institutions matter, 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.960 and why is it important that we don't just abandon 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.279 it because we think the system's broken, and the system 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.080 isn't broken. We don't have any messaging about that to 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.360 any community year round, particularly those most disenfranchised and feeling 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.960 the effects of our society as it is now. And 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.240 I really wanted to fill that gap because I think 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.760 one of the most powerful things about digital tools, especially 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.480 digital marketing, is one it's always constant and pervasive because we're. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:28.480 On our phones all the time. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.719 And two, it has incredible power to help influence people's 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.960 feelings and emotions daily, and it seems a huge strategic 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.560 loss not to use that most of the year every year. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:43.440 It's insane, it's almost more costly not to And so 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.760 I really started this org not just to begin to 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.840 do this work, but measure its efficacy over time, which 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.720 is a big part of what we do, which is 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.000 a lot of digital marketing and research and messaging. But 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.719 it just seemed crazy to me that we had ceded 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.360 the Internet to these bad forces. Most of the you'ren't 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.920 expected to remedy. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.240 It with like what a few two months and. 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.400 Like content for two months. That's not how psychology works, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.000 that's not how human emotions work. And if we are 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.320 serious about protecting our institutions in our democracy, we need 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.480 to be serious about defending it in word and in 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:18.800 media every day. 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:19.880 Every day. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.920 You know, talk to me about what you have discovered 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:31.320 over the course of time since the founding of your organization. 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.680 And you know, the question that I have really is 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:39.600 that do you really think that it is a mismanagement 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.000 or misstep on the part of let's say, the Democratic 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.920 Party in their lack of ability to educate and use 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.320 social media as a way to educate, or is this 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.280 just par for the course that you don't really want 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:59.120 that many people engaged in our electoral process, right, And 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.440 when I say not that many people engage, I mean 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.200 people of color, right and young people. We talk about 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:10.040 this every single election cycle, every single election cycle. It 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.840 is the same conversation. The messaging is bad, they don't 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:14.480 know how to speak to people, they don't get out. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.240 It's not a three hundred and sixty five right style campaign. 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.400 It is one that is pushed in two months. And 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.520 so I wonder, one, do you think that this is 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:30.080 purposeful or is it just laziness, a lack of understanding 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:35.160 how social media and people work and think right? Or 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.679 is it purposeful? And if it is purposeful, a purposeful 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.720 marginalization of certain groups, then how does your organization and 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.280 the work that you are doing seek to really remedy that? 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.160 And is it more of a long term right, not 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.000 what I think the Democrats want and what Republicans want, 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.120 which is just, you know, give us a quick return. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.360 Yeah, so I would say I don't think it's purposeful 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.280 on the part of the Democratic Party. I do think 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.800 it's purposeful on the actors who most of the time 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:09.840 are in the Republican Party, who say that we have 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.040 voter fraud, we have insecure elections, we need to take 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.800 all these extra precautions, like that is a made up problem. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:17.240 It is a made up problem. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:18.680 It does not exist. That is not a thing. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.320 Our elections are actually quite quite secure. And if you'll notice, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.040 the people who tend to get arrested for voter fraud. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:26.840 Are the ones proving it doesn't exist. 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:27.360 Speaking on it. 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.360 Georgia indictments like those are the people who are in 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.600 trouble for like voter fraud and Rico, not voters. Okay, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.240 so it's a made up problem. I will say, what 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.360 I think is happening on the Democratic party side is 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.880 the problem of inertia, where there is a set of 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.960 people who have determined and gained their power and their 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.400 financial power and their personal wealth through a series of 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.439 tactics and strategies that are no longer applicable for the moment. 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.959 I think we truly have a series of leaders, both 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.840 in office in many cases and behind the scenes, who 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.760 are ill equipped for this moment and who do not 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.360 understand the gravity and I think the intensity for which 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.240 younger people who I'm defining as forty five and under 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:22.319 are experiencing our country and our democracy, and therefore are 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:28.840 not yet ready or fully understanding the need for actual, prescriptive, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.120 year round messaging. Because I think a big part of 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.679 the problem is the finances of it. And that's a 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.320 piece that like I think, you know, normal everyday people 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.360 don't think about, but because of my job, I think 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.559 about every day. It is the finances of who is 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.640 going to pay for this outreach all the time, and 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:43.960 if it's committees and candidates. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.040 They have to fundraise for it. 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:46.720 They have to get that money from normal people, but 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:47.920 then they have to give it to candidates. 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:48.160 Right. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.640 Our financial our eluctant financial system one is very fucked up. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:54.000 There's way too much money in it. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:11:00.760 And it is not designed for people to actually have 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.640 more folks voting, even though it is one thousand percent 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.480 in Democrat's best interest to have the most diverse electric possible. 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.400 That is oftentimes why you see Democratic campaigns running voter 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.359 registration at all. In many cases, in many many demographies, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.440 the equation to fifty plus one requires voter registration of 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:25.120 new constituents and the activation of lapsed voters. And the 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.160 folks who are the strategists, who wield the most power, 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:29.960 and who have the most influence, and who have the 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:34.679 most fundraising prowess have not yet adapted to this modern model. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.760 The thing I have been telling people over and over 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.079 and over again, as I think many people, and I actually. 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.160 Think Joe Biden did this at first. He was like, 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.120 I can work with these Republicans, I know the blah 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:43.600 blah blah. 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.880 No, these are not the people that we were dealing 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.760 with before. We are in a completely new way of 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.400 these folks thinking. And Hitler did not become Hitler on 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:54.120 the first try. 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.120 No, it was the third. And guess where we're at. 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.440 So in this case, do I think that Donald Trump 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:03.320 has the longevity in terms of his health. 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.199 I don't know. Evil people tend to live longer. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.240 But McDonald's tends to kill people. So what I'm saying, who. 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:14.480 Knows, But that facistic moment can absolutely get a new 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:15.640 leader who can usher it in. 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.360 Right. It's the ideas that we are fighting against here. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.760 It is the marginalization of people. It is the factionism. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:29.120 It is the people trying to equate democracy with fascistic 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.280 control based on religion. These are not American values at all, 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.400 and I don't think they know the majority of people 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.839 do not hold those stances, which is why they're fighting 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:38.600 so hard to change the system that way that their 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.960 person can get in. And so the system and the 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.040 constructs for how we run our elections, particularly for people 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.000 on the left, is not meeting the moment. 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:54.480 In those lines, I agree with you wholeheartedly because I 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.120 think that there is an inertia and a complacency, and 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.240 I think to your point in the way that Joe 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:04.120 Biden even entered his first term as president, was you know, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.760 I was a member of the good old Boys network, 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.760 Like there are still good Republicans. You know, this is 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.840 still the America of you know, my father and my 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.840 father's father. And I'm speaking at the factories and I'm 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.440 doing those things, and I'm just like, are we really 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.920 still doing retail politics in the same fucking way we've 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.400 been doing for the last like half century plus and 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.960 thinking that that's working in the age of TikTok and 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.440 Facebook and Instagram and threads and Twitter and x and 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.880 all like in every single other fragmented space that communication 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:41.560 flows through. And so to your point, it is bizarre 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:48.400 to me that we know right, like it is not 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.920 it's not unknown, the ways that social media gets after people, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.800 the way that I can very much talk about my 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.720 favorite lufa and then that show up in all of 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:03.080 my advertisement on social media, right, the way that like 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.160 these algorithms are made to keep you on. And so 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.760 the fact that we haven't figured it out then, I 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.440 mean you have now and have the desire to tap 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:19.760 into what emotionally connects people to their devices and to 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.840 these platforms and then turn that into what also connects 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.920 you to your civic engagement, right and responsibility. I think 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.560 is just crazy at this point. Now I say that, 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:38.440 and I don't want to overlook the fact that the 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:44.280 last election happened in the height of a pandemic and 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:49.320 we had historic turnout. So talk to me about too, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:57.880 the compelling nature not necessarily of the candidate, but of 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.920 the issues that we're facing that are driving people to 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.200 the polls that might not have gone to the polls 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.560 if we hadn't have been in the midst of a 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.880 pandemic with you know, the beginning of which began with 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.560 a facistic leader, you know, and then we're like, oh 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.040 my god, we're never going to get well if we 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:19.320 don't get rid of this guy. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.240 Yeah, it's god. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.240 That election was just so revealing for a number of reasons, 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.160 but one I think a few things impacted it. One, 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.120 people were at home and had time to pay attention 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.480 to like the fuckery, right, Like people were not in 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.760 many cases rushing to and front work or like out 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.240 and about living their lives like we were in the 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.440 house or at work. And if you were at work, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.080 you probably weren't happy about it because you wanted to 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.560 be in the house because there was a pandemic and 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.080 you were a frontline worker for whatever, like at whatever 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.680 job that you had. Right like that I think brought 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.920 to like a lot of things. The other thing that happened, though, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.160 is we had governments really thinking in a way that 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:57.760 they never have about how can we still have people 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:02.480 both safely. And it's pretty incredible to me actually that 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.520 now that we still have this pandemic, by the way, 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.080 folks aren't still thinking about how to get as many 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.760 people to vote safely. Like we still live in the 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.920 United States of America where like everyone's getting shot frequently. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.400 So why aren't we still thinking about how more people 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:18.160 can vote safely? 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:19.480 I'll tell you why. 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.360 Because there are people interested in making sure certain communities 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.240 don't get to vote safely. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.280 And so in that. 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.200 The issues that like are heightened for people were ones 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.880 of education, access, wealth, like questions about safety at work, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.640 and those issues still matter. So we ran a test 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.880 during the midterm cycle and found that issues framing for 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:49.200 younger voters in particular was extremely motivating for them to 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.680 feel better about saving engagement. So usually in previous election cycles. Again, 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.400 I've been doing this for a decade and like tracking 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.720 research and whatnot. Usually, the most impactful messages on turnout 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:02.280 or people registered to vote tend to be informational. A 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.119 huge reason why many people don't vote is they just 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.720 don't have enough information. It's not familiar to them. It's 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:08.800 a convoluted process. You have to take time out of 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.680 your day to do it, and so easy presentation of 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.040 the information necessary to vote makes a difference for many 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.080 many people. This was the first time in my life 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:21.960 I had seen an issues framing outperform an information framing 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:22.560 for a. 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.560 Certain cohort of people. And it is not. 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.240 Lost on me because when I think about millennials and 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.720 Gen Z, the world that we have grown up in 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:32.960 is very markedly different from that of our parents. We 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.360 are very acutely aware that the planet's going to burn 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:37.600 us up and could easily kill us or ruin our livelihoods, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.000 because that is happening every. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.160 Day in our livelihoods. 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.119 We are the first generations to understand that it is 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.399 very likely that we could get shot at school, and 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.639 we have to practice how not to get shot at school. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:49.439 This is a generation of people who have not been 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.960 able to afford housing. This is a generation of people 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:53.960 who have not been able to afford rent. This is 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:55.760 a generation of people that when they had their first 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.240 kids there was a formula shortage. This is a generation 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.960 of people who, you know, church was not a thing 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:03.480 that we went to, but yet we're being told what 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:04.920 we can do with our bodies because people went to 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.280 church and institution that is deeply unfamiliar to most of us. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.720 This is the first generation to lose many rights for 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.600 half of this population when there weren't any. This is 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.760 the first generation that had the bravery to be out 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:16.680 and be clear and be told to sit back down. 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.560 We are living in a fucked up situation compared to 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.600 our parents, and so it is not surprising to me 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.000 that these issues and things that we want to fix 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.280 that are frankly being forced upon us from a generation 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:29.440 with outsize power. 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:31.040 Are animating. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:33.160 And when I explain that to people, they're like, oh 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:34.800 my god, Genz's been through so much on like the 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.119 millennials too, Like, it is not lost on me that, like, finally, 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.679 when y'all realize that we are not children anymore, that 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.080 we actually are like the middle aged John Tie's watching 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:45.960 the kids on TikTok with Bama Rush That is me 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:46.840 currently all the time. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:51.480 Yeah, we couldn't feed our kids, like people couldn't feed 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.120 their children because of systems set up by the older generation. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.239 We can't afford college, we can't afford homes. We are 0:18:58.320 --> 0:18:59.080 mired in debt. 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.280 It's like the cantiford college. Can't afford not to go 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.240 to college, right, like can't afford can't afford not to work. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.919 But there are no jobs like it is you know, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.719 when you list out all of the ways in which 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:20.800 the latest two generations have been robbed of the prosperity 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:27.000 that prior generations, it was just a given right, It 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.160 was just a given go get your ged. Here's Levittown 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.639 for you. Here are all these things, here's the GI bill, 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.960 here's the new deal. Here are all of these opportunities 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.159 for you to build inside of the middle class. And 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:46.480 what did we give millennials? Kind of like like r 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.880 not getting taught in school and not. 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.560 Being forced to go to war right like and when 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.479 I say forced for a lot of low income people, 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:56.600 the military is the best. 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.400 Option for you because housing education. Right. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.600 We live in a system that has been rigged against 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:06.080 us while being told that the. 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.640 Generation should each make each generation wealthier, and that never happened. 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:16.800 Right us, So, yeah, and issues are animating. 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:20.200 It's we also saw. 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.040 An instruction that was fun, right that that was great too, 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.480 also televised. You know, when we think about the issues 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.720 being animated, when we think about this generation, these generations 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.959 that are coming now being less fortunate than the generations 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.840 that went prior, when we think about oh, not to 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.000 mention the fact that, you know, authoritarianism is not only 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:44.679 taking a hold in the United States but around the world, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.879 and that thirty percent of the population would love to 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.960 appoint Donald Trump as their king right as opposed to 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.720 have a democracy that is multiracial so that they can 0:20:54.760 --> 0:21:00.399 continue to have this fallacy of white supremacy and the 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.880 privilege of their of their skin. When we take all 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:08.879 of those things into consideration, you still have a large 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:12.720 slot of people who are like, government does not work. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.440 These are all of the reasons why government does not work. 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.800 So why the fuck am I voting? What do you 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:20.480 say to that? 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:24.880 A few things. One, it's a very rational thought. 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:27.200 I'm not going to look at folks who have had 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.600 a system not work for them and have never seen 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:36.400 change or you know, monumental change happen between between administrations 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:38.440 and say it's a rational thought. 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.520 But let's look at locally how these things can help. 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:43.919 I think local elections are a really strong and easy 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:49.360 and fast demonstrator of how government can be helpful. Right 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:51.800 like if you are looking at your local school system 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:53.560 and your school district, and I think that's one of 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:54.880 the backlash things that's going to. 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.240 Happen for the tactic of let's change. 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.640 All of our school policies and let's make our schools 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.440 like matic for right wing policies. People are not realizing, 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:05.879 oh shoot, who I vote for at this local level 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.399 impacts my kids, their education, their access to things. It 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.679 impacts the roads, it impacts my local taxes, it impacts 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.639 my direct life. And I think once that starts getting 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.240 explained to people and you start showing concrete examples, another 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.080 good one at the national level would. 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:22.719 Be called them bidom bucks. 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.040 We came out of a pandemic, you got extra money, 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.440 we had our student loans pause, like all of these 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:30.919 things that had made a difference in people's lives. We 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.200 need to tie that back in a very coherent way 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.240