Speaker 1: You're listening to Waiting on reparations, a production of I Heartry.
Speaker 1: Get out the way, Mitch, get out the way, like
Speaker 1: move Mitch, get out the way. Get out the way,
Speaker 1: mich get out the way. Like move bitch, get out
Speaker 1: the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Twenties in the past
Speaker 1: made the good guy young. It's a new day and
Speaker 1: for now the good guys one. We made Georgia blue
Speaker 1: and Republicans mad the shortest suit and we can't rest
Speaker 1: on our laurels now because there's more to do, because
Speaker 1: we got to senate in the House to tell Mitch
Speaker 1: McConnell not a word out his motherfucking mouth. They don't
Speaker 1: like democracy to go in another route. So in about
Speaker 1: two years, yeah, we gotta shut them out. But now
Speaker 1: we stopped with the preaching the choir. Then go Biden
Speaker 1: by the arms, hold his feet to the five war knock.
Speaker 1: Did this thing something we should have mind? But y'all
Speaker 1: get primaried. If you see you would lie, you will
Speaker 1: need to retire. You receiving the ire we was calling
Speaker 1: the truth because the situation was dire. You was thinking
Speaker 1: of sweet and that's something really yush out. They said,
Speaker 1: y'all radical I want to see what they're talking about. Hey,
Speaker 1: my name's Dope Knife Franca and we are waiting on reparations.
Speaker 1: So we won. Yeah, okay, it was a little bit
Speaker 1: of background on like the last couple of days for me. Um,
Speaker 1: Monday night, myself and Paul will be joining us later
Speaker 1: a little later on the show. I met up in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and got in the car and proceeded to drive
Speaker 1: around the state of Georgia for twelve hours putting up
Speaker 1: yard signs and then like five different countries and so
Speaker 1: and then I went we went back to Atlanta and
Speaker 1: I had just like a normal work day. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: completely dead signed very excited that Mitch McConnell is going
Speaker 1: to be sen minority leader and that we have two
Speaker 1: senators elect here in Georgia that we will be able
Speaker 1: to push towards things like universal health care and ending
Speaker 1: the world on drugs by ending betteral funding for UM
Speaker 1: narcotic task forces and things like that. Well, I was
Speaker 1: just about toside, So I just want to make that
Speaker 1: clear from the top. Well, I was about to ask
Speaker 1: you about that. Don't worry, We're gonna We're gonna take
Speaker 1: it easy on you today because like one of the
Speaker 1: whole things about this episode is like shining a light
Speaker 1: on some of the work that you've been doing. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm getting sworn into my second term as commissioner at
Speaker 1: four thirty today, so it's just like, see, see your
Speaker 1: girl is out there working hard jobs. So okay, well,
Speaker 1: I mean today we're gonna be you know, just getting
Speaker 1: some insight from Mariah with on the work that she
Speaker 1: did in this campaign, some of her feelings about how
Speaker 1: it's turned out, and by campaign, you know, for you know,
Speaker 1: just for the sake of due diligence. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the recent Senate elections as well. We're also going to
Speaker 1: be talking to the deputy campaign manager for Daniel Blackman,
Speaker 1: who was running for public service public service commissioner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the yeah, candidate for Public Service commissioner. Candidate for Public
Speaker 1: Service commissioner. We're gonna be just getting little inside in
Speaker 1: how that campaign went and everything like that. But um,
Speaker 1: with this win for Warnock and us, of the apparent
Speaker 1: win for us of if I don't want to jump
Speaker 1: the horse, what does that mean for Democrats and like
Speaker 1: how can progressives eventually leverage that? Well, what it means
Speaker 1: for Democrats is they don't have any excuses for not
Speaker 1: getting anything done. As you know, they tried to under
Speaker 1: Obama when they you know, in his first two years,
Speaker 1: had the House, in the Senate and the Executive and
Speaker 1: like all we got was like the A C. A.
Speaker 1: When we could have been tackling climate change like ten
Speaker 1: years ago. Uh, you know, could have done so many
Speaker 1: things and didn't because no one was paying attention. But
Speaker 1: now we are. And so, um it means that the
Speaker 1: sky is theoretically a little bit. I think this is
Speaker 1: where social movements then come in to create a clear mandate,
Speaker 1: like for what the people need. Um, and uh, making
Speaker 1: it clearer that we were watching. Um. It is exciting
Speaker 1: that we have senators elect that we can actually hold
Speaker 1: accountable like Kelly Left. I wasn't accountable to ship like
Speaker 1: David Purdue. Are you kidding? Um? And so I'm very
Speaker 1: very very very excited to fight the Democrats and other Republicans. Finally, So, um,
Speaker 1: I mean it means to you know, two thousand checks.
Speaker 1: Hopefully that is now the floor. We can make that
Speaker 1: recurring and retroactive to last March. Um, things like marijuana legalization. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no excuse for them to not just go ahead
Speaker 1: and get these don then, in fact, it would behoove
Speaker 1: them to do so, because treading lightly when you have
Speaker 1: such a narrow margin of victory as these gentlemen had,
Speaker 1: is it easy way to lose? I think, Um, who
Speaker 1: see it is? It is up in like two years?
Speaker 1: I think it's a yeah. So like if they sit
Speaker 1: around and do nothing for two years, like he's gone,
Speaker 1: it's gone, and so like it's it, behooves the go
Speaker 1: ahead and get done. You know, double the minimum wage,
Speaker 1: legalize it, um uh, you know, close private prisons, like
Speaker 1: let's really do this, Like sure they might not be
Speaker 1: even for better care for all, but let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get steps towards expanding, protecting the a C A UM,
Speaker 1: getting a public option. Just like, go ahead, do that
Speaker 1: this year to set the stage for truly universal health
Speaker 1: care and years to come, so that in four or whatever,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what year it is,
Speaker 1: I don't know what year be. Um. So when you
Speaker 1: come back around after everybody's votes again, you can tell
Speaker 1: give them clear like, yo, we did it, and we
Speaker 1: couldn't because you know, inter mcconnwell or anything. There's no
Speaker 1: reason why there's no reason why they could. Can't you
Speaker 1: gotta have like tangible benefits, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and and changes to their lives for all the work
Speaker 1: that is, get the Party of Working people fucking show
Speaker 1: us like doing and if you don't, and if you don't, fine,
Speaker 1: if you really don't, too fine, But like that's the end.
Speaker 1: I mean, primary motherfucker's or you know, get ring choice
Speaker 1: voting passed in places like Georgia, where Republicans now see
Speaker 1: the dangers of a runoff challenging their you know, uh
Speaker 1: they're lies like grip on our government structures. And I
Speaker 1: just thought about popping like, yeah, let's do this. So
Speaker 1: now after the presidential election and then these Senate elections,
Speaker 1: like Georgia is like officially blue now, so I mean,
Speaker 1: we still have a Republican control legislature. Um. I would also,
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, the local is very important, and
Speaker 1: so I would also look at the makeup of our
Speaker 1: county commissions. It's not like you know, l A or
Speaker 1: Detroit or Chicago where it's like democratic controlled like local
Speaker 1: governing bodies either U And so like that's really important
Speaker 1: for things like well, since that's what you're like, I know,
Speaker 1: that's that's something that you really care about. Like what
Speaker 1: can be done to like to make that the case? Like,
Speaker 1: how can we start getting people more engaged for you know,
Speaker 1: in the elections that aren't having five hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: spent on them, to outside of elections that have half
Speaker 1: a billion dollars spent on them? Yeah, Like what what
Speaker 1: what can we do to get people more engaged in
Speaker 1: their local and to care about the local makeup, you know,
Speaker 1: because I mean if people were a little if people
Speaker 1: were burnt out after the presidential election and we had
Speaker 1: to like get on people's asses and you know, you
Speaker 1: were out there doing the work that we're about to
Speaker 1: get into to like get people to to actually be
Speaker 1: engaged with the smaller election in this this past center election,
Speaker 1: than it's like, how do we get people even further
Speaker 1: engaged and less burnt out to where they're being involved
Speaker 1: in their local politics and stuff? Yeah? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I believe Charline Caruthers put it that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: good leaders in good movements create new leaders. That's the goal.
Speaker 1: And so through my work, which I'll talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about in the second but like my general
Speaker 1: principle for like the way I moved through the political
Speaker 1: world is that like you bring people in at the
Speaker 1: ground level to teach them the mechanics of organizing such
Speaker 1: that they learn how they learn how to work, like
Speaker 1: how to get to build coalition, to build support for ideas,
Speaker 1: to learn to talk about ideas, and then learn how
Speaker 1: to talk about process such that they then have the
Speaker 1: tools themselves to run for something like county commission, um,
Speaker 1: to run for statehouse or to you know, to go
Speaker 1: from being just a canvas where we're paying to knock
Speaker 1: on doors this time around, to being a field manager
Speaker 1: for someone statehouse campaign or congressional campaign and so um,
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people that like might
Speaker 1: vote reliably democratic previously, but like, given the fervor around
Speaker 1: this election cycle, might have hit the pavement for the
Speaker 1: stime knocking down doors or text banking or you know,
Speaker 1: whatever forms of get out the vote they participant in. Like,
Speaker 1: now they know how to do that, and now they
Speaker 1: can be the one that's leading that effort and bringing
Speaker 1: new folks, and now they get are the ones that
Speaker 1: can be putting that expertise to work in winning running
Speaker 1: and winning their own campaign. So that's at least my
Speaker 1: hope for like the broader win out of all of this, um,
Speaker 1: as well as just like what I try to do
Speaker 1: all time. Word. Okay, so we're gonna get into the
Speaker 1: specific work that you were doing after the bump. Alright,
Speaker 1: So Mariah, so just pretend that somebody is listening to
Speaker 1: the show for the first time and they don't know
Speaker 1: exactly what it is you do other than host this podcast,
Speaker 1: Like explain to then what is your position in the
Speaker 1: city of Athens, Georgia, and then how did that extend
Speaker 1: into the work that you were doing for the elections
Speaker 1: this past few months. Yeah, I am Athens, Georgia's scariest
Speaker 1: radical liberal. Uh. I can't wait for the day that
Speaker 1: I ran for some runs for something bigger and they
Speaker 1: like make my skin look darker in the in the
Speaker 1: attack ads like they did like left warded for warnock um.
Speaker 1: But no, like someone kind commissioner have been since to
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen UM. But outside of that, like, uh, I
Speaker 1: you know I got my start in uh politics, I
Speaker 1: am I hold office now because someone tapped me to
Speaker 1: run their campaign and I learned how to um do
Speaker 1: that and talk about policies such that I was like,
Speaker 1: oh I can do this like I'm gonna run dropics.
Speaker 1: What's up? And so the idea behind this project I've
Speaker 1: been working on for the last like six weeks Athens
Speaker 1: Progressive Canvasing Corps. Mary's the need for that sort of
Speaker 1: entry level experience building among just folks that are underrepresented
Speaker 1: in politics. UM, understanding of just like what wins elections,
Speaker 1: which is just face to face voter contact and it's
Speaker 1: easiest to reach people at their homes. Um. And the
Speaker 1: fact that people are fucking broke right now because they
Speaker 1: gave us a hundred dollars like eight months ago, when
Speaker 1: we're like, good luck with your eviction and stuff, and
Speaker 1: so wanting to pay people a living wage to do
Speaker 1: this work because as local elected officials, our hands have
Speaker 1: been very tied by state statutes preventing us from providing
Speaker 1: direct relief to our constituents. So it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I can't just cut you a thousand dollar check if
Speaker 1: I can pay you a thousand dollars if you are
Speaker 1: out of work, and I want to just like walk
Speaker 1: around your neighborhood and talk to people about uh, you know,
Speaker 1: where they can go vote. And so we recruited a
Speaker 1: bunch of people, very diverse coalition of like students, like
Speaker 1: working class folks of color UM, some season organizers, some
Speaker 1: that were very very new to this had no idea
Speaker 1: what canvasing even was when they started. UM folks you
Speaker 1: know on the brink of eviction, experience in food and security,
Speaker 1: like got kids at home that just like needed needed
Speaker 1: work to do and needed it before the pandemic, that
Speaker 1: thing like needed it before all of this. UM. And
Speaker 1: so like bringing those folks in because they're probably not
Speaker 1: paying attention to what's going on in the County Commission,
Speaker 1: not because they're dumb, but because like there were then
Speaker 1: trying to you know, teach their fourth grader math at
Speaker 1: like ten o'clock at night, like I wouldn't either. So UM,
Speaker 1: so we hired on a team. I think it's about
Speaker 1: ended up being about twenty like core canvassers UM to
Speaker 1: go out into their own neighborhoods and knock on nors
Speaker 1: and talk to people about the importance of this election. UM.
Speaker 1: We raised about twenty five dollars UM big shout out
Speaker 1: of the proggressive Campaign Change colition. They ran a fundraiser
Speaker 1: for US and raised about for US in addition to
Speaker 1: what we were able to get through our own campaign
Speaker 1: networks hour being myself to other county commissioners are mayor
Speaker 1: and our Statehouse representative Spencer Fry and so um. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the last six weeks, we went out
Speaker 1: and knocked on about thirty two doors all around Athens,
Speaker 1: which is interesting because thirty thousand is almost exactly the
Speaker 1: number of votes that war knock us off and black
Speaker 1: men were able to get out of our city. Well,
Speaker 1: you don't win an election this close without those margins
Speaker 1: actually mattering. You know what I'm saying. It's it's not
Speaker 1: like this is a blow at or anything. So every
Speaker 1: bit of it matters. I mean, do you look back
Speaker 1: at it now. I mean, obviously they won, so it's
Speaker 1: a success in that way, but do you see it
Speaker 1: as something that like you can break out again for
Speaker 1: more elections? Yeah? Now, I know Hobby, who is the
Speaker 1: you know Oberlin student who was home from Athens, born
Speaker 1: and raised here, would never participated in electoral politics before,
Speaker 1: who knows how to talk policy at the door and
Speaker 1: knows how to work the minivan app and like knows
Speaker 1: who her commissioners are, and so like next time around,
Speaker 1: when like a commission race comes up in her disc
Speaker 1: like we got somebody on the ground that can train
Speaker 1: new volunteers to do this work. Um uh, we got
Speaker 1: you know, James and Elena and Eric who were in
Speaker 1: the fresh out of high school, born and raised in
Speaker 1: Athens that knocked on I think when I saw them
Speaker 1: on one day, it was like one day at two pm,
Speaker 1: and they knocked on two doors that morning, a bunch
Speaker 1: of like seventeen and eighteen year olds. Like what they're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing in ten years? Like think about that?
Speaker 1: So like and so that to me, like like it's
Speaker 1: important that everyone to get two thousand dollar checks and
Speaker 1: like hopefully we can like get if not a green
Speaker 1: new deal, like a substantial infrastructure slash climate like plan
Speaker 1: out of these people. But um, but we don't get
Speaker 1: there if we don't train new people to like be
Speaker 1: a part of the of like continuous sustaining pressure of
Speaker 1: helping build additional power through other offices that like help
Speaker 1: support that work, you know. So I don't know, Like
Speaker 1: it's great that we won, but it's not about that
Speaker 1: for me to be comple on us. I organized pretty
Speaker 1: hyper locally in the grand scheme of state. Uh here
Speaker 1: in Athens, but there's a lot of great work being
Speaker 1: done by folks who go everywhere, who go to the
Speaker 1: places like where know that everyone counts out UM to
Speaker 1: like help build organizing infrastructure there, to help elevate organizers
Speaker 1: into candidates and who have been doing the work for
Speaker 1: far longer than I have. And so I'm really stoked
Speaker 1: to have one of those people with us today. Uh
Speaker 1: Paul Glaize, deputy campaign manager for the Daniel Blackman campaign
Speaker 1: for a Public Service Commissioner UM, to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about what he did both in this race before
Speaker 1: and shout out some of our colleagues within the Georgia
Speaker 1: political ecossystem UM that we got to hang out with
Speaker 1: last night as we watched the results come in. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we'd love to get your take. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'm I'm it's it's it's a very there's
Speaker 1: a lot of emotions today and I think that honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm just really happy that Georgia showed up. I'm really
Speaker 1: happy we do have uh, I guess control of the Senate,
Speaker 1: I think is the best way to say that. UM.
Speaker 1: And it was after having just spent so you gotta
Speaker 1: understand that, like this is my fifth election night this year. Like,
Speaker 1: if you count this little bit of the end of UM.
Speaker 1: I worked three different campaigns and two of them had runoffs. UM.
Speaker 1: And when you do a statewide race, you get to
Speaker 1: organized with so many people. I was like me and
Speaker 1: I was just mentioning. UH. And it's really one of
Speaker 1: the gifts that electoral politics can give you as an organizer. UM.
Speaker 1: It's the ability to go to a lot of different
Speaker 1: communities UM and meet the people who care UM and
Speaker 1: who are fighting fighting for stuff. UM. So right now
Speaker 1: that network has been strengthened a lot. So I think
Speaker 1: even if we had lost a lot of people on
Speaker 1: the ground, but actually still feel pretty good about this cycle. UM. Definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean like because and then and that's a real thing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes whole cycles go by and no good Like it's
Speaker 1: it's this one period of time where all of your
Speaker 1: actions get a lot higher return on investment, and so
Speaker 1: you have an ethical responsibility to use that intentionally. UM.
Speaker 1: And there's whole cycles where people don't even care enough
Speaker 1: to try. So like the regardless we did that successfully,
Speaker 1: everyone feels pretty good about it. UM. Daniel. However, UM
Speaker 1: is still in the throes of wondering when we're going
Speaker 1: to find out the results. UM. Right now, Bubba McDonald
Speaker 1: is ahead, UM. And in fact, he has more votes
Speaker 1: than both of the Republican Senate candidates, UM, and all
Speaker 1: of UM. I'm pretty sure, maybe not Warnock. I can
Speaker 1: look that up real fast. UM, but he has I
Speaker 1: think the most votes of anyone. Oh no, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he beat out everyone except for Warnock. So how why
Speaker 1: did he overperform the other Republicans? That is the million
Speaker 1: dollar question? And I actually that you know that he
Speaker 1: didn't hitch his wagon to Trump, and so for some
Speaker 1: that have become disolution with the new direction of the party,
Speaker 1: like he seemed like a you know, a solid Republican
Speaker 1: to get behind. Uh. Sexism, you know, people who voted
Speaker 1: for Purdue and McDonald but not Kelly Leffler because they
Speaker 1: hate women, which I whoops, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know for sure, but like, I think these things are
Speaker 1: interesting and probably work together. I don't think I think
Speaker 1: we can roll out the Trump theory M because about
Speaker 1: what McDonald was co chair of Donald Trump's campaign. UM,
Speaker 1: so of the people that pay And now that being said,
Speaker 1: there's a whole subset I think of Trump's voting populace,
Speaker 1: UM that really don't pay attention like they're they're they're
Speaker 1: they've had an emotional draw he's gotten them. He like,
Speaker 1: he's they are an audience for him now for his brand. UM.
Speaker 1: But they're not necessarily political people, which is really normal.
Speaker 1: We we you know, kind of derisively refer sometimes to like, uh,
Speaker 1: certain types of soccer moms UM that you know, gung
Speaker 1: ho for democrats, UM will wave the flag, will you know,
Speaker 1: get out there and put their sign their yard proudly, um,
Speaker 1: and yet still harbord deep resentment towards people of other races,
Speaker 1: you know, Like that's a that's a phenomenon that we
Speaker 1: know on our side, uh exists. And so I do
Speaker 1: think maybe that group of people you're thinking, like disaffected
Speaker 1: white guy is like mid thirties trying to grapple with
Speaker 1: the fact that he has no opportunities in his town
Speaker 1: and feels like he can't ever achieve his life dream.
Speaker 1: Like that set of people, I can definitely see um,
Speaker 1: you know, being you know, being drawn to that. But
Speaker 1: the people that pay attention would all know that this
Speaker 1: guy literally co chaired the campaign for Georgia. UM. So
Speaker 1: we still have a problem. We still have a problem there. UM.
Speaker 1: I do think that there's a lot of people that
Speaker 1: really are inspired more by a UM, you know, a
Speaker 1: local candidate that's talking to the scale of the actual issues. UM,
Speaker 1: someone that they are familiar with, someone who has spent
Speaker 1: years coming to their community, and how as local community
Speaker 1: members to vouch for them. UM. You know, when we
Speaker 1: look at these numbers, it's pretty easy to you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's easy to get down to yourself about a loss. UM.
Speaker 1: But as of right now, Daniel has just under votes
Speaker 1: less than David Purdue. So when you think about the
Speaker 1: money that Daniel spent and you think about the money
Speaker 1: that was spent on David Purdue, the fact that those
Speaker 1: have parody proves a lot about the strength of organizing here. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's hard sometimes to know if there's
Speaker 1: like analogous situations on the Republican side, UM, because by
Speaker 1: and large, we you know, we're we're a party if
Speaker 1: you like, if you're looking at Democrats, we are the
Speaker 1: party where the vast majority of people of color are.
Speaker 1: And simple, this is kind of the and it's gross
Speaker 1: to say, like we sometimes it used to be like
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, you would bring this up
Speaker 1: even if you've got you know, tiptoed towards it, people would,
Speaker 1: um would start to get offended. But this is the
Speaker 1: literal structural and Democrats are not involved in rural hit communities,
Speaker 1: Like this is what it looks like once the impact happens,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to prioritize them. But if you're
Speaker 1: not even in them credibility, then you don't really know
Speaker 1: what's going on. So now we're you know, now we
Speaker 1: have to have this whole conversation trying to piece out
Speaker 1: I mean, this is gonna be a question for the
Speaker 1: next four months. People right now are being paid mountains
Speaker 1: of money to answer that question. Um, it really and
Speaker 1: like honestly, I feel like just us sitting here talking
Speaker 1: are gonna get closer to the truth. And typically that
Speaker 1: has proven right in my in my organizing. And then
Speaker 1: it always frustrates people that spend lots of money on
Speaker 1: on other people, um, that they could have just had
Speaker 1: good conversations and probably gotten pretty close to there. Um.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that that might have been a
Speaker 1: rambling answer to your what we were talking about, But
Speaker 1: I do think we can rule the Trump one out,
Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of stuff there though. I'm definitely
Speaker 1: with Mariah on UM We're about to see a wave
Speaker 1: of white feminist organizing around the issue of uh, sexist
Speaker 1: Republican men who wouldn't vote for Leffler. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a conversation under the like under you know, conversations like
Speaker 1: this that don't like, you know, like don't always like
Speaker 1: have the have the virtue of being on a podcast
Speaker 1: on I heart media, you know. And I guess with
Speaker 1: the vote still, I mean with the counts still, you know,
Speaker 1: out what is what do you envision like your next
Speaker 1: few days looking like? UM, mostly I'm trying to do
Speaker 1: the normal things, which is um, like make sure my
Speaker 1: people are paid, make sure you know all bills that
Speaker 1: need to be paid, you know, I mean, like just
Speaker 1: like the normal business side of things. UM, that's all
Speaker 1: got to get handled. And UM, I like to try
Speaker 1: and be the person that does that because it gives
Speaker 1: people who are incredibly tired a moment. I wanted to breathe. UM.
Speaker 1: For many people, including our campaign manager Ian. We've been
Speaker 1: doing this straight all year, like and for years, I
Speaker 1: mean like all year in terms of like on these
Speaker 1: particular projects. But like it also because the only way
Speaker 1: you can keep doing it is if you just commit
Speaker 1: to making it a significant portion of your life and
Speaker 1: structuring your life around it. Um. Like you have to.
Speaker 1: It's the only way because in so many way it's
Speaker 1: such a time commitment and so much of your thought
Speaker 1: goes into it, um, trying to be good at it
Speaker 1: because you know, for good reasons, you want to represent
Speaker 1: yourself well. Um, and even if you don't want to
Speaker 1: represent your community, you always represent your community. There's not
Speaker 1: that's not a There are so many people that do
Speaker 1: politics that don't have a sense of community that like
Speaker 1: you can get it's easy to get caught up in
Speaker 1: kind of like playing living your life in a way
Speaker 1: that makes sense dealing with them. Um. But the truth
Speaker 1: is that everyone else, whether you're you know, we moved
Speaker 1: around so much when I was a kid, Like I
Speaker 1: never really got to have like like a hometown until uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like preteen years. Like before that, we
Speaker 1: lived in like five or six different places. Um, And
Speaker 1: I love all those places. Um. But you know, you gotta,
Speaker 1: you gotta The older you get, the more you appreciate
Speaker 1: how short of time you know five or ten years
Speaker 1: is um and it means something. I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is going to be a working segway. There's also
Speaker 1: piggybacking off of like when you asked me earlier, Mac,
Speaker 1: like what I do and so and I also wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about last night, so um, you know, we
Speaker 1: were rolled up with the black Man campaign to this
Speaker 1: bar in on Beifford Highway in Atlanta, UM to celebrate
Speaker 1: what we're looking like hopeful returns with some organizers that
Speaker 1: we know from all around the state who would come
Speaker 1: together to watch the results come in. And so hanging
Speaker 1: out with come not click that's he lives in Athens, clead,
Speaker 1: what's luck? Could he last name? Oh? Wait? No, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking okay, sorry, but click Comeau who's been heading
Speaker 1: up our revel Lucian's efforts here in in in Marina,
Speaker 1: a little bits out of Atlanta, UM. Michelle Sanchez, who
Speaker 1: has done a lot of organizing in North Georgia and
Speaker 1: done a lot of work around uh Latina's mobilization for
Speaker 1: this electionated campaigns director for it. Yeah, and I just
Speaker 1: want to talk about this particular moment that I think
Speaker 1: is like very like speaks very much like my brand
Speaker 1: of politics and like what I think like the future
Speaker 1: needs to look like of politics. So like we were
Speaker 1: all of this bar and like most people were watching
Speaker 1: like a football game, and then like the TV right
Speaker 1: above our heads was tuned in the CNN and watching
Speaker 1: the election results come in, and when it flipped, when
Speaker 1: it when Warnock took the lead, when as Off was
Speaker 1: tied with pur New, our little section of the bar,
Speaker 1: everybody started like cheering and like dancing and hugging, and
Speaker 1: like all the other people in the bar kind of
Speaker 1: like looked over, like what's going on and all started
Speaker 1: cheering too. They're like oh cool, yeah, like they didn't
Speaker 1: give a ship, but like first they saw that we
Speaker 1: were really excited, and they got really excited. And I
Speaker 1: think that is like very emblematic of what the work
Speaker 1: is like, like when you get wins and people get
Speaker 1: excited and want to try more. And also when you
Speaker 1: make politics fun, when you make it like a party,
Speaker 1: when you make an average people like hanging out eating
Speaker 1: wings and drinking like uh cocktails, um at a bar
Speaker 1: on Buford Highway, like people find an easy entry into
Speaker 1: it and so um, Like I think that that is
Speaker 1: also what I do and a lot of what you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of what Michelle was doing with like Sada
Speaker 1: to the polls, getting like d days out and like
Speaker 1: food and like just kind of like block party vibes
Speaker 1: um is like really essential to this work. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, Paul, if you wanted to speak more about
Speaker 1: your relationship with these folks and the work that they've
Speaker 1: been doing in the state over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: because it has been a long time coming, and I
Speaker 1: think in this moment there's certain faces that are rising
Speaker 1: to the top of our like liberal media um narratives
Speaker 1: that like they did a lot of work, but like
Speaker 1: there's so many other people that also get zero shined
Speaker 1: because uh, the work we do is so thankless and
Speaker 1: like menial seeming at times of just like actually going
Speaker 1: and knocking on the doors and like st no blade
Speaker 1: and driving around the state putting up the signs, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to give you a chance to
Speaker 1: like chatlet's folks. I'll talk a little bit about how
Speaker 1: you know that what they do. Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: And also I uh really grateful to that bar because
Speaker 1: it was it was a great environment um obviously for
Speaker 1: those of you who don't um live in Atlanta. Um,
Speaker 1: Bufford Highway has the best um like food of every culture.
Speaker 1: Like it's a it's a very long road and pretty
Speaker 1: much if you want the best Cambonian food, Thai food,
Speaker 1: Indian food, um, uh food from any of the Latin countries,
Speaker 1: I am sure like Central and South America. Um, you
Speaker 1: go there. Um and it's and it's important. So when
Speaker 1: our revolution wanted an election night live stream, UM, that
Speaker 1: goes you know, that's that's one thing that goes on
Speaker 1: their Facebook page. That's like but you know usually there's
Speaker 1: like five people watching and their Facebook pages five people.
Speaker 1: So we need people like Mariah in office. Um, we
Speaker 1: need people uh like you dope knife to step up
Speaker 1: because we lookn't know, just for the listeners, his face
Speaker 1: got like like his eyebrows crunched all the way down
Speaker 1: to his nose when that we don't get them one
Speaker 1: day though, we don't get them in there. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think i'd let you have
Speaker 1: the hook on that. Yeah. I'm I'm now your Jewish
Speaker 1: mother in politics, I'm constantly going to be questioning your ambitions, um,
Speaker 1: and whether or not they're high enough, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: You know, it's important to us to make sure that
Speaker 1: whenever we have resources whenever, so like, let's an easy
Speaker 1: resources like our revolution letting us to a live stream
Speaker 1: on their Facebook and sitting out an email to tell
Speaker 1: people to tune in. That's a huge opportunity. So our
Speaker 1: people are the people that ran the Coordinated Campaign's Latino outreach. UM.
Speaker 1: That's Maria do Rosario Palacios, who is the person who
Speaker 1: got me into community organizing. UM when I was in college. UM,
Speaker 1: I don't need to talk for people listening like that
Speaker 1: way forever ago because that wasn't UM. But when I
Speaker 1: was like twenty, UM, Maria and I were in college,
Speaker 1: UM at Gainesville State College, home of the Fighting Geese.
Speaker 1: That was actually our mascot. But luckily we were so
Speaker 1: small and for we didn't have a football team, so
Speaker 1: no one had to honk and stands as their you know,
Speaker 1: as their school spirit. UM. But basically, the Dreamer generation,
Speaker 1: the Decca kids of Gainesville came of age and it
Speaker 1: was very important to them on a basic honorable level
Speaker 1: to be civically engaged. They felt a very strong, they
Speaker 1: still feel a very strong UM commitment to that this
Speaker 1: is what their parents, this is what their parents earned,
Speaker 1: and they needed to validate that. UM. And we had
Speaker 1: a multicultural student affairs office in the college that needed
Speaker 1: that wanted a media person, and I was in school
Speaker 1: for theater and film. I was in a film class department.
Speaker 1: Sent down an email like, hey, there's this there's this
Speaker 1: opportunity for team fifty an hour, fifteen dollars an hour, um,
Speaker 1: which you know, to a college kids, you're sitting there
Speaker 1: going like, hell, yeah, fifteen dollars an hour, and they
Speaker 1: get to like help people, great, sign me up. UM.
Speaker 1: And I get over there and this woman, I swear
Speaker 1: to guy that I take almost every opportunity I can
Speaker 1: to lionize this woman because it is mind blowing, uh
Speaker 1: to see the amount of work she does. Um. This
Speaker 1: woman will keep working, honestly until it could like potentially
Speaker 1: start to hurt her. And then you have to like
Speaker 1: like but tell her like, hey, it's it's good. You
Speaker 1: know you've done enough. Um. But basically, Maria Um was
Speaker 1: a working mother of a young kid in school. Twins
Speaker 1: on the way and the act of kids have to
Speaker 1: pay out of state tuition, which makes even this community
Speaker 1: college cost prohibitive, but these kids felt honor bound and
Speaker 1: so they all took two three jobs over they had
Speaker 1: to do. UM. And while she's doing that and organizing
Speaker 1: with the students, like Maria and I basically created a
Speaker 1: student activism UM environment at our school. One had not existed.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while, this one club would do something. UM.
Speaker 1: But we managed to get that going UM an even
Speaker 1: like wildly successful. I mean like for like for what
Speaker 1: it was. UM. We actually got our school on Bill
Speaker 1: Maher once UM where he said new rule, Uh, the
Speaker 1: University of North Georgia has to change its name to
Speaker 1: Cracker State and the home of applying the mullets. And
Speaker 1: it was our it was our night Hawk with with
Speaker 1: Joe Dirt mullet UM, and they sold hoodie. UM. So
Speaker 1: those are the people that got me in the community organizing.
Speaker 1: We've our town has at large voting, so everybody can
Speaker 1: vote for everybody in the city. UM. So literally like
Speaker 1: they segregate the entire black community into one district. Black
Speaker 1: community puts up a candidate. Magically, some teacher is convinced
Speaker 1: to run, and all the white people vote for that candidate,
Speaker 1: so that candidate wins. UM. And that's how it's always been.
Speaker 1: And that's the fight that I was. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I was like born into UM and from and
Speaker 1: so she is actually now honestly, there are multiple organizations
Speaker 1: that a lot of their ship uh to to Maria
Speaker 1: doing things. UM. Anybody else you want to shut up? Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course. Uh. Michelle Sanchez is a friend of ours.
Speaker 1: She was the first Latina to run in South Hall County. UM.
Speaker 1: She ran the Progressive Turnout Project operations for the general
Speaker 1: election UM and is now well, I guess until whenever
Speaker 1: this is certified, whenever this campaign has done. She is
Speaker 1: the coordinated campaign, which is the Cynic Campaign's Latin X
Speaker 1: outreach director. UM. And Maria backs her up on that. UM.
Speaker 1: And then obviously Councilman Collead Um who is the head
Speaker 1: of Our Revolution Georgia UM their efforts here UM for
Speaker 1: the runoff. UM he and I you know went to
Speaker 1: them and said, no, you really need to hire local organizers. UM,
Speaker 1: we don't, you know, we shouldn't be bringing other people in.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't know the ship like which is a case
Speaker 1: it has to be made and then like finally someone
Speaker 1: will come in and really get it. And then they
Speaker 1: they're like, okay, thank you, and I'm like, I promise
Speaker 1: you it will It'll be good. Trust us. UM. And
Speaker 1: Khaled's running from mayor of South Fulton, which I am
Speaker 1: lately obligated to say is the blackest city in America. UM.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna have cleed honestly. And we've got an
Speaker 1: interview with him like three in the morning one time
Speaker 1: to send around somewhere. Kaled is one of the o
Speaker 1: g s. Kaled is one of the people that showed
Speaker 1: that you could be authentically progressive and run for office
Speaker 1: in Georgia. UM. And I have in terms of this
Speaker 1: what this newer definition of progressive is. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to exclude the work of all the people that
Speaker 1: have been doing this for decades. UM, but it's it's incredible.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited for that. One organizing extends into the
Speaker 1: realm of the arts earlier, not earlier this year. Last year,
Speaker 1: you co founded the Atlanta Artists Relief Fund. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: backgrounds mostly in the theater community with some of the
Speaker 1: film community. UM. And it's really nice because between Daniel
Speaker 1: and myself, UM, then we like have credibility with a
Speaker 1: majority of the community. UM. Daniel with music UM, and
Speaker 1: then me from the like acting performers side um technicians. UM.
Speaker 1: I would like I've never been like a roadie, but
Speaker 1: that is one of my jobs. Um. And we when
Speaker 1: COVID hit, we found it an organization to start obvious,
Speaker 1: a mutual aid effort um. And then at a certain
Speaker 1: point people didn't want to do all the administrative work
Speaker 1: and it was we weren't able to keep scaling in
Speaker 1: any way. And when you have a moment like that
Speaker 1: with COVID, that's an organizing opportunity. There's a window of
Speaker 1: opportunity there to get in with authenticity and credibility and
Speaker 1: do good work while people are paying attention, because they'll
Speaker 1: stop paying attention. They always do. There's always a new
Speaker 1: crisis UM. So you only have that window of time
Speaker 1: to get what every funding you can and give it
Speaker 1: to the people that are best suited to do it. UM.
Speaker 1: So we got in there. The entire Theory community was
Speaker 1: pretty much just like paralyzed. We were all looking at
Speaker 1: all of our shops closing down. UM. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I say our shops like it's a like I
Speaker 1: owned a theater. By that all the theaters are are
Speaker 1: in a lot of trouble all the stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: y'all know all the performing are performing halls and you
Speaker 1: know everyone's hurt. Um, So we did a COVID relief effort. UM.
Speaker 1: A woman named Bridget McCarthy who was another one of
Speaker 1: us artist organizers that did some electoral politics. UM. She's
Speaker 1: a writer and uh, there's a lot of work um
Speaker 1: with incarcerated folks. UM. And she runs that organization. Now,
Speaker 1: UM almost flipped an R plus ten house district in Connecticut.
Speaker 1: UM and turned down going to run the second campaign
Speaker 1: to go take it, you know, for real, Um, to
Speaker 1: stay here and do work in Atlanta, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of good organizing that happens in Georgia. And she
Speaker 1: was just excited to be in that in that space.
Speaker 1: How can progressives like leverage the situation because out you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, theoretically, if it's a lot, it's a lot
Speaker 1: better of a situation. I would imagine to have to
Speaker 1: fight against liberals than to fight against republicans and fascists
Speaker 1: and authoritarians and stuff. So now that we can actually
Speaker 1: have a debate theoretically, because you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: the d n C do be on some flex too,
Speaker 1: I said it, But like theoretically we can, you know,
Speaker 1: at least have these debates. It's not like we're bringing
Speaker 1: these high progressive ideals to fucking the doorstep of Trump
Speaker 1: and Mitch McConnell anymore. So what can we do in
Speaker 1: this in these next few years to actually take advantage
Speaker 1: of that as progressive? Okay, on some real ship. I've
Speaker 1: always believed that it is morally acceptable as progressives to
Speaker 1: work with what would be considering, you know what, the
Speaker 1: the establishment, moderates, whatever. But I think I think everyone
Speaker 1: knows we're talking about, and I think it is import
Speaker 1: to make a distinction between moderates and uh power. Um,
Speaker 1: it's okay to work with power to a degree in
Speaker 1: places like Georgia where the stakes are high, you know,
Speaker 1: like democrats here are functionally very weak. Um. Like the
Speaker 1: way the ship is supposed to work is like what
Speaker 1: Mariah and Tim and Russell and Mayor Gertz did here.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry I just left someone out, didn't I
Speaker 1: Maria Spencer and Spencer, Um it's supposed to work like that.
Speaker 1: You have people that have built independent networks that agree
Speaker 1: to come literally combine their networks to raise money to
Speaker 1: go do some good ship that we all collectively agree on,
Speaker 1: and you earn the trust in the way you go
Speaker 1: about the negotiations. It's okay to do that here for
Speaker 1: the most part, that that conversation changes entirely once this
Speaker 1: is a blue state at that point. If we do
Speaker 1: not have the only way to do this is that
Speaker 1: over the next two and a half three years, we're
Speaker 1: all swirling in the current together and that wagon is circling,
Speaker 1: and as we're circling, we decide who we're going to
Speaker 1: join hands with. We need to have our independent power
Speaker 1: structures in place by that time so that whoever the
Speaker 1: person is that grabs and holds you know, holds on
Speaker 1: with the other people um, doesn't have to rely on
Speaker 1: them if the other person let's go. So we need
Speaker 1: it by that time. If you don't have it by
Speaker 1: that time, there will be just a not even need
Speaker 1: to talk about it, subconscious cultural um confusion, and they'll
Speaker 1: be blast ceiling and don't like there's not and there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be there's gonna be no record of it.
Speaker 1: There's gonna there's nothing like that. But you we just
Speaker 1: won't be able to get past a certain point in
Speaker 1: the tears going up, we just it's just gonna stop.
Speaker 1: And that's the way that ship works. So like we
Speaker 1: have to have our structures in place no later than
Speaker 1: And when we talk about someone that's progressive having the
Speaker 1: responsibility to run for office, whatever that office may be,
Speaker 1: what we are talking about is that, hey, we have
Speaker 1: this window of time. If you agree that we have
Speaker 1: this window of time, if that's what the timeline feels
Speaker 1: like in your soul, then someone has to do it.
Speaker 1: And if there is like, if you can find someone
Speaker 1: else and support them, cool, absolutely do that. If you
Speaker 1: can't find someone else, then you have a responsibility. That's
Speaker 1: how we get most people to run for office. That
Speaker 1: has to happen um at the same time, though, during
Speaker 1: these next two years, Stacey Arams is coming for the
Speaker 1: governor's mansion and to be yeah, and to be clear
Speaker 1: on what that means, because people seem to not I
Speaker 1: don't know how dumb everyone else in the country must be.
Speaker 1: But if you don't know this, if Stacy Abrams is
Speaker 1: the governor of Georgia, Stacy Abrams functionally decides who the
Speaker 1: next two presidents are like in terms of political credibility,
Speaker 1: like as these Southern states go blue. The person whose
Speaker 1: opinion is gonna matter the most is not gonna be
Speaker 1: Jim Clyburne. And at that point in time, whoever, like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to have the Southern the Southern states
Speaker 1: and the Democratic primary to win the presidential primary, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do it. Also, if we notice the
Speaker 1: last two presidential campaigns in the Democratic primary, that's what
Speaker 1: fucking happened. So like like with Bernie, I'm not mad
Speaker 1: at Bernie for for any for any ability or inability
Speaker 1: to not be himself. I'm that at Bernie because that
Speaker 1: was an undisputed fact and he did nothing to come
Speaker 1: and change that reality. Now, his pivot two, the first
Speaker 1: serious presidential level, respectable engagement and investment into organizing in
Speaker 1: the Latin X community, is incredible. So this is not
Speaker 1: too there's there's actually a miner like political philosophical divide
Speaker 1: professionally in politics into the kind of party politics on
Speaker 1: that answer, and like that makes it sound sometimes like
Speaker 1: more than what it is, but ultimately, these people are
Speaker 1: the people to do the hiring of the firing. So
Speaker 1: they're like minute opinion about something that they only think
Speaker 1: about for ten seconds. If that just gets calcified because
Speaker 1: I've never come back and think about it again later on.
Speaker 1: It does have real impact. UM, so you have to
Speaker 1: think about those things. So for the next two years.
Speaker 1: First off, this state just save the goddamn country. That's
Speaker 1: a fucking fact. And anybody who does not recognize that
Speaker 1: will not be allowed to come to work in Georgia.
Speaker 1: Why would we work with those people when they don't
Speaker 1: even funk with us enough to respect us. That means
Speaker 1: people here have more value and can step up and
Speaker 1: do things. So, Paul, how can we keep up with
Speaker 1: your work and the work of folks that uh you
Speaker 1: work with? So in UM what so Councilman Colleede is
Speaker 1: running from mayor as I said South Fulton. UM, I
Speaker 1: pretty much wouldn't do much of anything if Kalid didn't
Speaker 1: funk with it. UM. You can find him at colleed
Speaker 1: Cares k H A l I d Cares dot com. UM.
Speaker 1: Maria Dolasario Palacios runs an organization called Gainesville Familia Nidus. UM.
Speaker 1: You can look them up online. Michelle Sanchez, you can
Speaker 1: find all of us on so social media. UM. And
Speaker 1: if you want to get involved anything I'm doing. UM,
Speaker 1: this year is gonna be pretty North Georgia centric, so
Speaker 1: just be prepared to come up. As for me, I'm
Speaker 1: about to take a fucking break. The niggle like me
Speaker 1: is about to check out and not follow anything election
Speaker 1: related for at least like three or four days. I
Speaker 1: just need to fucking break. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: next week, we're going to be doing an episode that
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for a long long time. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about black people and comic book sci fi
Speaker 1: fantasy nerd shit. I don't even know what we're gonna
Speaker 1: call the episode yet. I'm thinking like blurred them or
Speaker 1: like um um black nerd them or like the Revenge
Speaker 1: of the Blurds. I don't know. We'll figure it out,
Speaker 1: but that's what we're gonna be doing next week. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk about some of the intersections between
Speaker 1: like black nerdum and like black like fantasy as like
Speaker 1: tied to after futurism and it's political implications um and
Speaker 1: so it should be really good episode next week. I too,
Speaker 1: am taking a weekend to sleep hard. Um. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to not answer my phone. Ah, No one's gonna
Speaker 1: hear from me. Everyone's gonna think I died. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be great. Um, but yeah, we'll see you all next week.
Speaker 1: I'm ling with Franca, I'm Dope Knife, and we are
Speaker 1: waiting on reparations. See you next week. Waiting on Reparations
Speaker 1: as a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting
Speaker 1: on Reparations on the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.