WEBVTT - Choose Consciousness 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.400 Good morning, Keeps, and welcome to bige up daily with 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.160 Meet Your Girl. Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:32.839 I can't express the grief, anger, rage, frustration I have felt, 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:39.480 as many people with hearts and minds have felt at 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:51.479 the horrific beating of Tyree Nichols. I told you and 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.320 many many others that you did not need to watch 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.960 the video in order to feel like you are connected 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.720 to two and want justice, because you see, we are 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:10.360 filled with a lot of trauma. Our bodies are holding 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:18.440 traumatic tissue, right And I saw a post the other 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:23.160 day that said that ourselves actually are hold like nine 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:29.600 generations of trauma, which seems absolutely insane. But then at 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.560 the same time you're like, oh, this makes sense. So 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.360 when people say things like, oh, you know, these are 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.120 just a couple of bad people or a couple of 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.959 bad cops, and it's not all cops and baul blah, 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.880 and I'm saying, it's an entire fucking system that my 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:55.680 ancestors have been fighting for and against for hundreds of years. 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.000 Like that's the reason why I can't watch these videos 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.280 that I can't watch for entertainment films like twelve years 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.680 a slave or you know biopics that are steeped in 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:14.919 this country's violent history, because I feel it physically manifest 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:21.079 in my body, and in order for me to continue 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.320 to do the work that I do, I need to 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.600 have some boundaries in my self care and self preservation 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:34.560 because you see, they are trying to kill us, and 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:41.280 they are succeeding. Whether it is through heart disease, heart attack, 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.240 whether it is through drug overdose suicide, whether it is 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:51.920 through shootings, mass shootings, or police shootings or police beatings 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:57.359 or suffocations. They are trying to kill us. White supremacy 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:04.680 is working over time. And what I find, folks, is 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:09.359 that if we don't set some type of boundaries, if 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:16.119 we don't find a way to delve into what our 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.760 purpose and path is in creating some type of change, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:27.000 in feeling like our time spent here is about doing 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:34.040 more than what is for our own fucking comfort. I 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.040 have white folks that listen to this show that DM 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:44.760 me often send me tweets messages showing their outrage and 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.960 disgust and saying, what can I do? I want to 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.760 do something and we all I can tell every single 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:56.440 white person that listens to me on a regular basis 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.720 is you need to talk to your white family members, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.800 your white friends, your white colleagues, because they don't listen 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:10.920 to us. It is like sending out a fucking dog 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.640 whistle and if falling on non listening ears, they don't 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:21.640 listen to us, but they may listen to you. And 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.800 what I am looking for is not white people that 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.040 want to be patted on the back for doing the 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:34.279 right fucking thing. I want white people who have black mindsets, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.960 mindsets that are steeped in justice and equity, right and 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.520 challenging a system that you know was made for your comfort. 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.400 But you are choosing choosing to use that privilege in 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:52.719 that voice to wake up your fucking neighbors, your friends, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:05:00.320 your family because you see, what I have real lies 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:09.800 is that it is going to take a majority of 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:19.359 white Americans to choose consciousness, to choose discomfort, to choose 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:24.760 the knowing rather than the ignorance. And right now we 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:30.400 are at a slippery motherfucking slope where you have the 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.320 descentenses of the world, and the McCarthy's of the world, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.680 and the mcconnells of the world, and the Abbots of 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:37.839 the world, and the Trumps of the world, and the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.600 Bannons of the world and the Giuliani's of the world 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:47.040 that are working fucking overtime to keep you disinformed and 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:52.120 full of fucking white rage. And what I am begging 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.360 for is that white people don't fall for the rope 0:05:55.360 --> 0:06:00.840 of dope that we are not going to get through 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:07.760 this life right this authoritarianism, this fascism that is raining 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:13.760 down supreme one state after the other, fucking North Dakota. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:20.560 It's threatening to jail librarians, google it. Where the fuck 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:27.040 do you think that this is headed. Queer people, black people, 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:32.000 and people of color are low hanging fruit for fascism. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:39.680 You're next. Because if you don't look like them, if 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:41.960 you don't think like them, if you don't pray like them, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.640 if you don't love like them, if you don't talk 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.200 and walk like them, if you don't hate like them, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:57.560 they are coming for you. So if we don't spend 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.479 our time in whatever time this God and this universe 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.960 is providing for us right now, to figure out how 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.479 to activate those around us, then we are wasting time 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.200 and we are wasting breath, and frankly, we don't have 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:17.520 time to waste. Coming up next is my conversation with 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:23.720 Christina Sinsoon Ramirez, who is the president of next Gen, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:29.640 the nation's largest youth voting organization that got a lot 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.480 of young people to the polls, which is why our 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.520 midterm elections, on top of black people sharing up in 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:44.360 mass why Kevin McCarthy's majority is so fucking slim. So 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.960 we get into a conversation about the youth vote, about 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.600 what is turning the youth on, what are they connecting 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.320 to and disconnecting from, and how to keep these folks 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.760 engaged because there are some of the last hopes that 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.680 we have. So coming up next my conversation with Christina 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:11.960 Sinson Ramirez, folks, I am very excited to welcome to 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.360 Woke f Daily for the first time. Christina Sinson Ramirez, 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.880 who is the president and executive director of next Gen America, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:28.160 one of the nation's largest youth voter mobilization efforts and organizations. Christina, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.440 you know we are in the beginning of twenty twenty 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:37.320 three and twenty twenty two. The twenty twenty two I 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.160 talk about it as if it is its own title, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:43.439 because it caused so much issues in friction and anxiety 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.440 because of the midterm elections. The midterm elections boasted the 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.560 highest youth voter turnout that we've ever seen. Right, it 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.680 was historic in a lot of ways. And there's a 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:00.560 lot of speculation that folks have had as to why 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.520 I believe that youth are always attacked prior to any election, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.760 that they're never going to turn out, that they're not reliable. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.960 It's a lot of negativity. And so I want to 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.840 before we dive into where we are right now, I 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.040 want to give you an opportunity to reflect on where 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:25.040 we have come from from the twenty twenty two midterm elections. Well, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.160 you know, you just had so many important things right 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.560 there about like the myths about young people that this 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.920 election busted through, and also the last two elections. So 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.080 we've had historic high turnout in twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.760 the highest youth voter turnout in American history twenty twenty two, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.880 and everyone said Democrats were going to lose, and they 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.839 were going to lose terribly, and then they held the Senate. 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.240 They flipped a Senate seat and Republicans won by a 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.880 time emergin the House and you can see the ship 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.160 show that it is now because they don't have the 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.960 full numbers to actually govern even even with holding the majority, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.120 because their party is a mess. And so young people 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.560 in large parts saved American democracy. And you know, the 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.199 myth about young people is twofold. One is that young 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.400 people are apathetic, that they don't care. Well, this is 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.520 actually the most politically engaged generation in American history. And 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:18.960 the second thing is that as people get older, they're 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.600 just going to get more progressive. And what we're seeing 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.960 with older millennials as they're aging out of like the 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.160 younger voter population, which I'm an older millennial, is that 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.000 we are actually staying progressive. And there's still a lot 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:33.840 of research needs to be done on why. But you know, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.320 and I think it's a huge part, is that we 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.560 are also the most young people represent the most diverse 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.280 generation in American history. And if you look at who 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.720 the Republican Party is today, it doesn't look like most 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.800 of America and it doesn't represent the needs and especially 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.760 young people. They're either people of color or queer themselves, 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:53.840 or they have friends that are, and they look around 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:55.439 them they say, I don't want to be aligned with 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.480 a party that doesn't even give us space to fully 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.760 exist as full equal human beings in this country, and 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:02.320 so I think that that's also a huge part of 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.800 why you're seeing young people stay progressive. And the last 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.559 part just being that this is the first generation in 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.640 American history to be worse off than their parents economically, 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.560 and so young people also are trying to not just 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.240 make change around the margins, They're really trying to make 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.480 a bold, progressive policy change. And that's why you see 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.680 so many young people turning out, is they understand that 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.840 they have power to make a real difference. You know, 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.400 I want to dig into a couple of things that 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.559 you said, but most notably the fact that this generation 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.600 is going to be far worse off economically than their 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:43.200 parents generation. I would also argue emotionally and spiritually because 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:50.640 of the number of traumas that they are up against, right, 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:58.920 global health pandemic, you know, of impending recession, climate change crises. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.840 But I want to talk to you about, you know, 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.680 what are some of the things that you hear from 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.440 young people with regard to not having had their parents 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.880 generations and before them set them up for success. What 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.920 is the what is what is the feeling and the 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.479 response to what we know is a fairly new statistic. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.480 You know, I think that that's part of the reason 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:30.400 you have young people so wanting deep changes and deep 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.960 structural change also in an economy and how the economy 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.160 works is this is a generation also that grew up 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:37.920 into in the wake of the two thousand and eight 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.960 financial crisis that saw occupy Wall Street. You had Bernie 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.840 Sanders run for president and aptly name greed by the 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.680 ultra ultra wealthy in this country as causing a growing 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:56.439 gulf of inequality and tax policy, labor policy, wage disparities 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.400 all helping grow that divide. And so you know, you 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.640 have a huge flow of information for young people on 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.520 social media where they don't have to look at a 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.840 traditional outlets about how to develop their own ideas and 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.520 understanding of the world. This is a generation that is 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.520 most likely to live with their parents since the Great Depression, Yeah, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.760 you know, least likely to own a home. And you have, Yes, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:20.600 a lot of young people are our young families, but 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:21.920 you also have a lot of young people that are 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:23.960 saying I don't feel like I can ever have kids 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.040 because of the amount of debt I have, or because 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.040 I'm afraid of the future of the climate crisis and 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:35.559 just the amount of economic and you know climate instability 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.520 that I feel in this moment, and so it's a 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:42.200 huge burden you said mentally, emotionally, and but I do 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.079 think you know at next and we are an explicitly 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 progressive organization, but we don't put our hope in any 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.200 single one politician or party to solve these problems. We 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.400 put our hope in America's young people, because if we 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.960 look at any time, our country has made a great 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.280 leap forward on an issue that people said was impossible 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.400 to solve or was just going to take longer. It 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.560 took the courage, imagination, and impatience of young people pushing 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.800 to make that change. You know, I just I oftentimes 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:12.760 say that I feel really bad for today's youth. I 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:18.440 feel like the prior generation and generations have failed them. 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.680 And it is largely Bernie Sanders was completely right. It 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.040 is largely due to greed. It is largely due to 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.240 this idea that we are not We're an abundant nation 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.840 for some right and then for everyone else. You're left 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.920 to fight for the scraps that are left behind. And 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.960 that is what we've left our young people when we've 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.400 given them, We've told them all you need to go 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:45.960 to college. Right, if you want to make it in America, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.960 you need to go to college and be competitive and 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.160 then put yourself in six figures worth of debt. So 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.440 then when you get out of college, you have to 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:56.840 take the first job that comes your way. That may 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:58.640 not even be a good one because you've got to 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.320 start paying back those student laws. Because the likelihood that 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.840 you're going to pay them back, you know, before you 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.920 turn fifty is real slim, right, um, and again depending 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.040 on what kind of feel that you go into. So 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.800 I want to switch gears to what it was And 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.720 I know we've touched upon this, but what it was 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:23.000 that you think really got young people to the polls 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.920 in twenty twenty two, because you know, we know that 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.200 mid term elections are historically low voter turnout. It is 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.760 really the I would say that the fifty to sixty 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.320 five year olds that are more likely to turn out, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.600 and that is the generation that is still quite conservative 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:46.040 in their thinking and you know, our heart are more 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.240 likely to attach themselves to the Oh, America was once great, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.280 So we we're with the make America great again trumpism crowd. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.640 What compelled these this this crop of young people to 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:03.120 recognize the importance of this midterm. You know, we saw 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.920 we were expecting high youth voter turnout and then I 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:08.920 think what really solidified for a lot of young people 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:10.840 who had turned out again and historic numbers in twenty 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.200 eighteen and twenty twenty, but they caught Republicans and I 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.880 think everyone by surprise. This election was just the historic 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.440 numbers by which young people out and young people turned out, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.680 and how many voted for Democrats. And you can really 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.160 look at it as this was an election in a 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.360 referendum on protecting the rights of abortion and an entire 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.920 generation of young people that had grown up with the 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.320 right to decide what happened with their own bodies and 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.520 their own futures, their own health and that was taken away. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.800 So our polling showed that two thirds of young voters 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.200 said they felt like abortion was on the ballot and 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.920 it was motivating them to vote. You had historic numbers 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.880 of young women in particular registering to vote on their 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:54.360 own in key states. In some states like Pennsylvania, you 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.480 saw women registering by a ten point margin difference of 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:03.440 but then men after the decision to overturn Row and 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.400 eighty one percent or sorry, seventy one percent of young 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.119 women that turned out to vote this election voted for 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:14.119 Democrats and fifty three percent of young men, so we 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.880 saw a huge gender gap. Still, the majority of young people, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.400 overwhelmingly by a twenty eight point margin, voted for Democrats 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.240 this election. That's exit. Pulling from circle are good friends 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:29.720 at Touch University, but taking away a fundamental right of 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:34.080 an entire generation helped young people get motivated and also 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.240 understand that again fascism was on the ballot. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.919 you know, and it's and it's hard I think for 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.440 you know, I don't know, Actually I don't know. Why 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.480 do you think that it's harder, seemingly harder for older 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.760 people to wrap their minds around fascism, and yet the 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.600 younger generation seems to have gotten it, like oh no, no, 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.800 And is it because they're fresh out of schooling so 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.879 they understand like the current issues and comparative government in 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.680 a way that older people are so far departed from 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.800 understanding comparative government in that way. I mean, I think 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.440 there are a lot of older folks that are also 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.520 concerned about the growth and fascism and authoritarianism. But when 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:20.600 we look at voting patterns and where people are voting. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.359 It's true that the oldest generations are still voting for 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.760 candidates and a party that it has really veered towards 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.520 fascism and authoritarianism and QAnon conspiracy theories and you name it. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.440 You know, you see that younger people are the targets 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:43.399 of what where authoritarian rule and fascist rule gets to 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.960 determine who gets to be fully American, whose rights get 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:51.200 to protect and be protected, well, immigrants, people of color, 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.800 queer folks, trans folks, they become the target. And so 0:18:55.600 --> 0:19:00.080 a lot of those folks are younger and or identify 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.199 in that way that are younger. And so that's I 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.600 think a huge reason why you see young people saying 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.520 no to a fascist's gime that has no place for 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.920 communities of color, for indigenous folks, for queer folks, and 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.480 it was even willing to go to the extreme of 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:21.120 rolling back reproductive rights and healthcare on you know, any 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.800 childbearing age woman in this country. You know, it's just it, 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:32.960 it's so absolutely wild to think about how much America 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.400 has regressed. I mean, for the first time, I think 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.480 it was in twenty twenty one, was the first time 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.960 that America was labeled as a backsliding democracy right in 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.639 the history of this country, and that that in it 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.480 of itself didn't set off more alarms, right and I 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.160 and I mean that in the way that if you're 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:55.760 announcing that one of the stalwarts of democracy in the 0:19:55.800 --> 0:20:02.200 world is now backsliding and trending in in the negative direction, 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.399 you would think that that would be on everybody's headline paper, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.159 right like it would it would be headline news. And 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.800 yet it's not so fast forward. You know, we have 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.440 midterm elections. Thank god, young people showed out, Thank god 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.359 people of color showed out. Thank god Black people came 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:26.000 out and recognized that every election is the most consequential election, 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.040 given the lengths that the Republican Party is willing to 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.879 go to steal an election, to deny a free and 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.240 fair election. And so now we have arrived at a 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:43.119 place where Kevin McCarthy is the Fisher Price Speaker of 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:47.040 the House basically justin name only, because he's given away 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.720 every bit of credibility and every bit of power to 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:56.320 the far Speaker of the House. And you have Democrats 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:01.000 still have the Senate and the White House. What do 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.640 young people what are as they are seeing this shit 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:10.200 show unfold in the House of Representatives and this implosion 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.720 of the Republican Party, or should I say the revealing 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:18.000 of who the Republican Party is? What do young people think? 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.040 Because in my mind I would say, well, god damn, 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.760 you know, if this is who we have in charge, 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.840 maybe I should just opt all the way out. Or 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.879 is it working in the reverse where people young people 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:34.120 are like, this is the ship show that we have. 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.840 I gotta opt all the way in. You know. I 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.280 think one, young people are overwhelmingly progressive, right, but they 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:47.040 are many don't identify as Democrats. They care about progressive policy, right, 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:52.000 And I think that we have quickly become a one 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.560 party that clearly believes in democracy and one that doesn't. 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.399 And so you have one choice really at this point. 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.560 But I also think, you know, even in a moment 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:03.199 like this where there is a lot of cynicism, what 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:05.399 I see is also a lot of hope from young people. 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.560 And also you and I are like on the older side, right, 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:13.240 like enough to remember the Democratic Party of the nineties 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.359 that was willing to sell out black women, that was 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:17.640 willing to sell out immigrants, that was willing to sell 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.679 out the queer community, that was pretty similar on the 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.440 Republican Party, on foreign pacy, on this similar place on 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.560 the social safety net, and we've come a very long way. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:29.199 Like so I like to remind ourselves that we are 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:31.560 at a place where the Democratic Party has centered canceling 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.159 student debt, has centered tackling the climate crisis, has been 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.000 willing to have hard conversations about race and policing in 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:42.480 this country there is a clear distinction, and also supports 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.919 gay marriage. Like young people organizing and communities of color 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.080 organizing have shifted the Democratic Party. So while we're in 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.960 a moment where there's fascist and authoritarian threats that are 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.920 very real, there's also something happening in the Democratic Party 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.119 where the voices that were often pushed to the margins 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:01.919 are being centered. And I think that that's an exciting 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.480 moment that young people also recognize as happening. And also, 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.720 you have very exciting, young, dynamic candidates running. Even while 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.399 the House isn't it feels like some peall, you have 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.919 young candidates that are an elected office that are helping 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.760 frame for young people what's possible and make them feel 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.320 like their voices are now being heard in the halls 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:28.119 of Washington. Christina talks to us to about how the 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:35.600 ever apparent climate crisis is shaping up the youth vote 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:41.400 as well. In the past few years, every fire season, 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:48.200 every hurricane season, every tornado season has been quote unquote historic. Right. 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:52.640 We had people over the holiday season frozen to death 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.520 in their cars because the temperatures dropped in such an 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.800 abrupt way in Buffalo, New York and it was more 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:04.520 like a snow hurricane than a snowstorm that hit that area. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:09.320 We have seen billions of animals die in Australia due 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:16.800 to fire. How does climate change play with the young people? 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:22.280 And as we look at that and guns and abortion, 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.080 police violence, how would you kind of rate you know, 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:30.080 these levels of importance for them? You know. So our 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:33.280 organization was started ten years ago with the intention of 0:24:33.280 --> 0:24:36.119 being able to build a political force that would be 0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:39.719 would be able to push candidates to tackle the climate 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.360 crisis to the scale needed. And we originally started organizing 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:45.200 all people, but then we quickly realized like within the 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:48.240 first year, oh, most people that care about climate change 0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:49.400 are the people that are going to have to face 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:51.959 its greatest consequences, young people. We need to focus on 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:54.879 organizing young people and building up their political power and 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:56.520 I'll tell you that ten years ago when we started 0:24:56.520 --> 0:24:58.200 and I wasn't here, the other people will tell you 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:00.280 it's like everyone said it was a waste of money, 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:02.680 that it was a waste of time, young people would 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:06.440 never turn out. And it's ten years later and we've 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:08.840 had the highest youth voter turnout. We passed the Inflation 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:13.720 Reduction Act, which is the largest single climate bill that 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:16.679 any country's class passed in the world to tackle the 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:18.880 climate crisis. And if all of it gets implemented, we'll 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:21.280 be able to cut carbon emissions by forty percent in 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:24.919 a very short time period. And so young people the 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:30.040 crisis as in their top three issues, and most young 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:33.920 people I talked to, you know, we're feeling. People are 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:37.719 feeling the real consequences of the climate crisis. You know, 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:40.680 I live in Texas where we had the historic Texas 0:25:40.680 --> 0:25:46.160 freeze and our Texas singers past out blamed his five 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:48.760 year old daughters, you know, his little daughters on that trip, 0:25:49.200 --> 0:25:52.840 and seven hundred people were estimated to have died died. 0:25:54.160 --> 0:25:56.520 And you know, if you total up the number of 0:25:56.560 --> 0:25:59.160 people that are dying from these catastrophes in a year 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:02.840 or two years, it's more people than died in nine 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:06.920 to eleven. Right, so these are hand made tagities where 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:09.160 thousands of Americans and we're just not I'm talking about 0:26:09.160 --> 0:26:11.320 the globe, but there's thousands of Americans are paying with 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:14.520 their lives. And so you know, there is also the 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:16.480 urgency and that's I think why you see young people voting, 0:26:16.480 --> 0:26:19.639 Like there is a sense of urgency that maybe we 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:22.040 could come out of authoritarian rule, but you layer on 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:25.119 a climate catastrophe and if we don't take the action necessary, 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:28.119 we have to face the long term actions. It's always 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:31.040