Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
You know You know know you've got
0:02
a in you. you. When you take
0:04
the next step, you're going to make
0:06
it count it your career, for your
0:08
family, for your life. You can You
0:10
can earn a degree you're proud of
0:12
with Purdue Purdue Purdue Global is backed
0:15
by Purdue University, one of the
0:17
nation's most respected and innovative public universities.
0:19
This is your chance. is This is
0:21
your opportunity. This is your comeback. Purdue
0:24
Global, produce online university
0:26
for working adults. Start your
0:28
comeback today at today .edu. Global.
0:30
EDU. Amen on MSNVC is now available as
0:32
is now available as a podcast.
0:35
We'll begin this hour with
0:37
breaking news. Every Saturday and Sunday,
0:39
Mo Hadine reads reads between the lines
0:41
of the week's biggest stories, spotlighting
0:44
the pressing issues facing our
0:46
country, our world, and those
0:48
fighting to solve them. We We are
0:50
tracking the fallout across the Middle
0:52
East tonight. Search for Search you
0:54
get your podcasts. your podcasts, and follow.
1:08
And if there's anything we know about successful
1:10
movements to defeat autocracies around the world,
1:12
right? Successful movements to take down dictatorships
1:14
is that they build broad coalitions is that
1:16
the coalition may not be united by
1:18
anything other than their opposition to what
1:20
is currently happening and that is what is
1:22
That is actually a precondition for success
1:24
in many cases. And a so for of
1:26
what we're gonna have to do during
1:28
this time is recognize that some people
1:30
will be with us on some issues
1:32
that we care about and they won't
1:34
be with us on other issues or
1:36
other policies that we care about. about, and
1:38
we still need them as part of that broad
1:40
front for democracy. need them as
1:42
part of that broad
1:45
front for democracy.
1:47
and welcome to Why Is This Happening with me, your
1:49
host Chris Hayes. Happening with Me,
1:51
your host, Chris Hayes. Well,
1:53
as I speak to you,
1:55
the As I speak
1:58
to you, the
2:00
country is preparing
2:02
for the second.
2:04
of Donald Trump and the Democratic
2:06
Party and the broader, let's say,
2:08
central left, the broad coalition of
2:10
folks on the center left, ranging
2:13
from, you know, Noam Chomsky to
2:15
Liz Cheney, is trying to figure
2:17
out how they are going to
2:19
deal with, work against, maybe compromise
2:21
with this new Trump administration. And
2:23
there's been a pretty notable different
2:25
tune being sung by a lot of prominent...
2:27
Democratic politicians about Trump. I think in 2016,
2:30
to generalize, Democrats generally thought it was a
2:32
fluke. He had lost the popular vote by
2:34
three million votes, which is like not an
2:36
insignificant amount actually, and in fact, it's a
2:38
larger amount than he wanted by this time.
2:40
And that He was an aberration and needed
2:43
to be resisted from day one. And we
2:45
saw that with the woman's march that happens
2:47
the day after inauguration. We saw it. Democrats
2:49
skipping his inauguration. And generally this, you know,
2:51
this notion of resistance, which became a kind
2:53
of watchword. This time around, you have a
2:55
lot of prominent Democrats saying, we have to
2:58
take a different tack. We have to work
3:00
with Donald Trump on areas of shared agreement.
3:02
You even have Bernie Sanders, obviously, who's sort
3:04
of to the left of the Democratic caucus,
3:06
saying, I look forward to working with Trump
3:08
on capping credit card fees at 10%, which
3:10
is some policy that Trump, in his sort
3:13
of inimitable way, threw out at some campaign
3:15
stop, which don't hold your breath for that
3:17
to happen. You've got Tom Swazzy who's a
3:19
kind of centrist moderate Democrat in the Long
3:21
Island district that Donald Trump won, running op-ed
3:23
this weekend saying, we can't just resist, we
3:26
have to look for areas of agreement, you
3:28
have Rokana who's a progressive from California member
3:30
of Congress saying the same thing. And so
3:32
there's an interesting debate happening about, okay, what
3:34
do Democrats, progressives, liberals, people on the left,
3:36
that whole spectrum of folks, what do they
3:38
do this time around with Trump? Should there
3:41
be lessons learned? Is there evidence that the
3:43
previous approach didn't work because he got elected?
3:45
Does that mean new approaches have to be
3:47
tried? Should there be more? treating him
3:49
like a quote unquote normal Should
3:51
there be more should there
3:53
be more cooperation or for areas
3:56
of shared agreement? And
3:58
this is something that
4:00
I've been thinking about
4:02
too, not so much
4:04
about too those terms, but
4:06
even how we cover
4:09
him and how we
4:11
do it. you know, this
4:13
time as opposed to know time. as And so I
4:15
thought it'd be good to talk to someone who's
4:17
sort of been in the trenches of this who's
4:19
2016. in the trenches after Donald Trump. after
4:21
Donald was elected, there was this
4:23
group called itself Indivisible that that
4:25
this kind of manual. was
4:27
from former Capitol Hill staffers Hill
4:29
like, here's how to think about
4:32
here's how to think about in real terms, terms,
4:34
how to resist Donald Trump in
4:36
politics. And Indivisible became this
4:38
mass organization. It's very distributed. There's
4:40
thousands of local groups. And
4:42
they've remained very active. They played
4:44
a really key part in
4:46
defeating the attempt to repeal the
4:48
Affordable Care Act. Care Act. And they've
4:50
done a whole bunch of stuff since
4:52
They were very were on child separation.
4:54
They've been activated in the election, and
4:56
they're still around. election Leah Greenberg is one
4:58
of the folks that is
5:00
co of the folks back in 2016. And
5:03
she's the co -executive director there the
5:06
And I thought it would be good to kind
5:08
of check in with her about how Indivisible,
5:10
which is one of the biggest groups that kind
5:12
of came about in response to Trump 1 .0,
5:14
about how they're thinking about Trump 2 .0. So,
5:16
1.0 about how to the program. Great to be
5:18
here. 2. So Leah Greenberg. Will you
5:21
tell me first
5:23
a little bit me
5:25
first a little bit about your background and
5:27
how Indivisible came about the first time. time?
5:29
Absolutely. I'm a former congressional staffer, as you
5:31
mentioned, you and I had spent a lot
5:33
of my career before Trump was elected
5:35
working in the field of human trafficking. in the
5:37
field of human trafficking. So congressional staffers to talk to
5:39
advocates from the human trafficking field about
5:41
how to understand and how to move policy. And
5:43
after And after Donald Trump was elected, like
5:45
a lot of people, I was looking
5:47
at the work that I had done, and
5:49
I was looking at at. what was at
5:51
stake Donald Donald Trump was preparing to come
5:53
in. And I was very, very alarmed and
5:55
felt like we needed to move from
5:57
the policy work that I had been doing to
5:59
organizing. to build power to stop Trump and
6:02
what was happening. And my husband Ezra
6:04
Levin, who's my co-founder, co-executive director, had
6:06
worked on poverty policy before that. He
6:09
had the same set of reactions. And
6:11
we were looking around, we were seeing
6:13
this massive wave of people who were
6:16
organizing, right? Regular people who were out
6:18
there all over the country who were
6:20
suddenly looking for answers on how they
6:22
were going to push back and stop
6:25
Donald Trump. And so we took all
6:27
the lessons that we had learned when
6:29
we had learned. And so we took
6:32
all the lessons that we had learned
6:34
when we met the Tea Party in
6:36
our own congressional careers, a very, very
6:39
effective local organizing force that organized, that
6:41
focused on their own elected officials. We
6:43
figured our friends would read it, they'd
6:46
share it with their families, maybe somebody
6:48
would let us know in six months
6:50
that they had read it, and they'd
6:52
used it at a town hall, and
6:55
we would be super proud of ourselves.
6:57
That's not what happened. Instead, thousands of
6:59
people picked it up, they started organizing,
7:02
they started running, they started running with
7:04
it, they started organizing, they started running
7:06
with it, and suddenly we had catapulted
7:09
ourselves into this point. but a really
7:11
important one, which is it really matters
7:13
if you can get a bunch of
7:16
people. It doesn't have to be a
7:18
huge amount, 20, 25, 30, 100, who
7:20
are represented by an actual member of
7:22
Congress to contact that person or to
7:25
organize together and say, come meet with
7:27
us, to say, these are our priorities.
7:29
Like that. I guess at some level it's obvious, but
7:31
it's amazing how a-hard it is to do that and be how
7:34
often it isn't done by non-professional groups. There's all kinds of groups
7:36
that are, you know, creating this kind of agitation or lobbying from
7:38
a sort of top-down professional way, but actual grassroots, hey, me and
7:40
25 of my fellow members of your district are really angry about
7:42
this thing, and we want to hear what you have to say
7:44
about it, and we want to meet with you and talk with
7:46
you about it. That's right, and that is the core of our
7:48
theory of change of change, right. is that if
7:51
you organize locally you push with you push
7:53
with your elected officials, you can
7:55
either get them to listen to
7:57
you or you can often exact
7:59
some political consequences if they do
8:01
not listen to you and they
8:03
do not do what you're asking
8:05
them to do. them to effect is
8:07
true in in and it can it
8:10
be even more true on the
8:12
very local level. If you get
8:14
right? If people to show up to
8:16
a county commissioner meeting, that is
8:18
a is alarm for that county
8:20
commissioner. commissioner, right? And so. this kind local organizing,
8:22
if you know what you're talking
8:24
about, if you come in armed
8:26
with an if you puts you pretty
8:29
much automatically puts you top much of in
8:31
like the top 1% of your day. In
8:33
fact, what's funny is that
8:35
that basic lever is you can lever,
8:37
right, that you can kind of get a kind of 10x,
8:39
100x power response from showing up used
8:41
to often used to terrible ends.
8:43
of, you know, The problem with this with
8:46
this big debate we're having about
8:48
the inability to build housing the
8:50
that sort of nimby versus yimby versus yimby.
8:52
postures towards it. A lot of times just a a
8:54
few people show up to the planning meeting
8:56
people that are the people that are motivated to
8:58
come the meeting or people that people the new
9:00
affordable housing housing development. and so if there's five
9:02
of them there and they're like we don't
9:04
want this that like, we don't power that's outsized of the
9:06
insights I think for your group is that
9:08
that Progressives can use that to their advantage if
9:10
they could also get get or 10 people to
9:12
show to show up. 100% 100% you be a really You can
9:14
be a really outsized influence in your elected
9:16
are simply organized and you you are simply organized and you
9:19
are prepared and you show up to you you
9:21
use the tools available to you, whether that
9:23
is local press, whether that is social media,
9:25
whether that is organizing your friends, or whether
9:27
that's just calling into their office on a
9:29
regular basis and checking in on the status
9:31
of the thing you care about. on a
9:33
regular So when you think about, in on the
9:36
status of the this of viral moment. You
9:38
said you weren't, you were anticipating sort
9:40
of put it out there, maybe people
9:42
will use it, and then it became
9:44
this sort of the move on of
9:46
its generation in some ways. mean, it
9:48
was similar in some ways to move on,
9:50
which also kind of virally took off,
9:52
was distributed, have local groups, move on move
9:54
on obviously much exists much much a very effective
9:56
much a very This was organization. This was 2016. What
9:58
do do you think you look back on those
10:00
four years. What are the kind of successes
10:02
and failures? What are the winds losses? What
10:05
do you think? Oh yeah, we really nailed
10:07
that. Okay, we didn't nail that and I
10:09
want to take some lessons from it. Well,
10:11
I would start at the beginning because I
10:13
do think that we're a little bit memory-holing,
10:15
just how deeply uncertain the immediate period after
10:17
Donald Trump was elected back in 2016 was,
10:19
right? You had Democrats, including Democrats like Chuck
10:22
Schumer, who were talking about, well... you know
10:24
we lost an election is an election they
10:26
have consequences maybe we'll work together on infrastructure
10:28
that's actually a big part of why we
10:30
wrote the indivisible guide because we were really
10:32
disappointed and frustrated with the lack of leadership
10:34
that was coming from a lot of Democrats
10:37
in Washington in Washington in November and December
10:39
and we were thinking the thing that's going
10:41
to shake them out of this torpor is
10:43
having a big bunch of their constituents show
10:45
up and get mad and that is exactly
10:47
what happened right. Chuck Schumer had daily and
10:49
weekly and weekly protests outside his house, outside
10:51
of all his congressional districts. He had this
10:54
massive wave of constituent protests from Indivisible, but
10:56
from a lot of folks across New York,
10:58
that got him in shape and got him
11:00
moving back into a resistance posture. This happened
11:02
with a bunch of Democrats. I think that
11:04
we can forget a little bit, we can
11:06
sort of look back and think that it
11:09
started with the women's march, which was obviously
11:11
like a huge and enormous moment, but there
11:13
was a lot of people kind of running
11:15
around in circles for the first few months.
11:17
And so the actual fact that we were
11:19
able to organize, not just to save the
11:21
Affordable Care Act, but the first step in
11:23
saving the Affordable Care Act, which was getting
11:26
all of the Democrats in line, getting them
11:28
consistent and united so that it was a
11:30
fight between Republicans about trying to get to
11:32
the number necessary to pass it. That set
11:34
of achievements, I think, is the first and
11:36
very significant success that we need to focus
11:38
in right now on. That complicates a little
11:41
bit of the very quick history I gave
11:43
at the top of the show, which is
11:45
what you're saying is actually more similarity between
11:47
the initial reaction 2016 and now, which is,
11:49
and I think this is almost like, deep
11:51
into the DNA of
11:53
Democrats, which is which is
11:55
like, we got our
11:58
butts kicked. Let's work
12:00
together work together of first
12:02
instinct, right? Not the
12:04
instinct of Republicans at
12:06
all. Obviously, at quite famously
12:08
not Mitch McConnell, you
12:10
know, coming out after
12:12
Obama won this enormous
12:15
victory. enormous seats and
12:17
saying, Senate seats in saying, yeah, them, screw
12:19
them all. them all. So what you're saying you're saying is
12:21
that there was a lot of that
12:23
impulse early in in reaction to Trump's election and
12:25
that part of the the posture
12:27
was the product of
12:29
organizing that the grassroots the to not,
12:31
you know, to not. core you
12:33
know, compromise on these core things. and think
12:36
that's a big factor say there generally I would
12:38
say there are in fact a lot
12:40
of similarities now. about Again, we talk about
12:42
the first kind of big active resistance as
12:44
the March, but actually the first big active
12:46
resistance was a ton of people getting
12:48
organized to show up to somebody's house house.
12:50
week or the week, the after the election and have
12:52
a community meeting, right? People went and
12:55
showed up to their neighbors. right? They had
12:57
meetings in churches or synagogues. They got together
12:59
in local libraries, synagogues, they A lot of
13:01
the reason why Indivisible was able to take
13:03
off is because people had already started
13:05
to work. why on a hyper -local level in
13:07
early 2016, and so they were able
13:09
to pick up the indivisible guide was able what
13:11
they had already started trying to do
13:14
and called themselves to take and we were off
13:16
to the races. But that to already happened.
13:18
And we actually have seen that able to,
13:20
this cycle. We had We had a joint movement
13:22
call with about 100 organizations from across
13:24
the progressive ecosystem immediately after the election. This
13:26
was Thursday This was the election on Tuesday. We
13:29
on 140 ,000 people on that call.
13:31
out of that call, call our main
13:33
for people, you know, you know, we we
13:35
cried, we laughed, cried, tried we we to hold We tried
13:37
to hold space for each other's grief, but
13:39
our mean ask for people was to host a
13:41
meeting for your friends, for your neighbors, for
13:43
your community. Get folks together to process
13:45
in person. This is not a healthy moment
13:47
to be doom -scrolling on the internet. It's the the
13:49
of time you need to get face -to -face
13:51
with other people. people. And we have seen over
13:53
a thousand meetings come out of that process.
13:56
Those folks continue to be activated. Those
13:58
communities continue to be activated. all come into
14:00
us and asking what's next. So what
14:02
I would say is that there are
14:04
actually a lot of similarities on the
14:06
ground level in what is happening right
14:08
now to what was happening in 2017
14:10
at this point. That's interesting you say
14:12
that because I think there's a broad
14:15
sense that it's very different that it's
14:17
very different that people have checked out
14:19
that they're kind of like and that
14:21
and I do think I don't know
14:23
if you feel this way that like
14:25
the fact that he lost the popular
14:27
vote the first time and one at
14:29
this time has some profound psychological psychological
14:31
in 2016, it's like the country didn't
14:33
actually choose this guy. Like a quirk
14:35
of a constitutional system that is just
14:37
a terrible wiring in the walls of
14:39
our country basically glitched and we got
14:41
them. This time, you know, there's a
14:43
lot more of kind of, I don't
14:45
know, resignation, depression or like, well, I
14:47
guess this is what America wants. What
14:49
are you going to do? And what
14:51
I'm hearing from you is you don't,
14:53
at the grassroots level in terms of
14:55
the folks that you're in contact with.
14:57
You don't feel like there's resignation. You
14:59
don't feel like there's checking out. Oh
15:02
no, but what I would qualify there
15:04
is, I think that at... For the
15:06
lack of a better term, I'm going
15:08
to say elite stakeholder levels. There is
15:10
a ton of resignation, right? When I
15:12
am thinking about people who run institutions
15:14
that are kind of battening the hatches
15:16
and, you know, hunkering down and trying
15:18
to avoid attracting the Trump administration's tension
15:20
when I'm thinking about corporations that are
15:22
sending their CEOs to Maralago to try
15:24
and reach a detente when I'm thinking
15:26
about, you know, media institutions like ABC
15:28
coming to a major settlement agreement with
15:30
Donald Trump. who are thinking about how
15:32
do they protect themselves, there is a
15:34
ton of resignation going on. But if
15:36
you are looking at actual regular people
15:38
whose values did not change just because
15:40
we lost an election by 1.5 percent,
15:42
right? It is true that we lost
15:44
the popular vote this time. That doesn't
15:46
mean it's 1984. That doesn't mean it's
15:49
a landslide. Sometimes you lose elections. We
15:51
got a lot of people out there
15:53
who are still incredibly frustrated, incredibly concerned
15:55
and looking for answers on how do
15:57
they push back. Okay. so
15:59
that's one one
16:01
lesson was that
16:03
this posture resistance wasn't. organic,
16:06
that it had to be actually mobilized
16:08
and organized from the bottom up.
16:11
What are other things that you think were
16:13
successes of the model, of the indivisible model
16:15
and the sort of broader resistance model in
16:17
the first term? Yeah. What I
16:19
would say was challenging as time went on
16:21
in the first Trump term was that
16:23
the tactics, a lot of the tactics started
16:26
to stay the same and started to
16:28
get stale even as our targets were evolving,
16:30
right? So some of those Republicans who
16:32
were squishy early on and who were maybe
16:34
movable during 2017, during 2018, they were
16:36
a little scared. They did not know the
16:38
size of the wave that was coming
16:40
at them. They could see that something was
16:42
genuinely happening in reaction to Trump and
16:44
they weren't yet sure whether that was a
16:46
wave that was big enough to take
16:48
them down. in their Trump plus five or
16:50
Trump plus 10 district. Over the next couple
16:52
of years, they got a little bit
16:54
of a handle on what they were facing
16:56
and most of them reached an assessment
16:58
if they were in a safe Republican district
17:00
in particular that they were going to
17:02
be in more danger from a primary challenge
17:04
than they were going to be in
17:06
danger from us, from any kind of other
17:09
organized constituent opposition and that they had
17:11
more to gain from representing the far right
17:13
of their party than they did their
17:15
median constituent. So that's one thing that changed
17:17
was, the Republicans became a more aligned,
17:19
more consolidated force. Trump critics were pushed out.
17:21
Trump enablers were promoted within the party. There
17:23
was just less of the room for
17:25
actual constituency advocacy designed to change people's minds
17:27
as opposed to constituent advocacy that was
17:29
designed to share a political message that could
17:32
bring people to our side. And so
17:34
I think we were slow to recognize that
17:36
as that was changing, we needed to
17:38
think about our tactics less in terms of
17:40
how are we going to actually flip
17:42
these guys and more in terms of how
17:44
are we designing and telling the political
17:46
story that is necessary to build the broad...
17:49
our coalition to get these folks out. Let's
17:51
stay that because there are ways in which
17:53
Trump 2 .0 I think represents a larger
17:55
threat and is scarier in certain ways,
17:57
just in terms of what it means for
17:59
American democracy. and also the the
18:01
risk of of mismanaging the federal government,
18:03
whether that's terrorism, pandemics, et
18:05
cetera. But etc. thing
18:07
that's pretty striking is on
18:09
this narrow question of mobilizing
18:11
constituents around legislative fights, which
18:14
is the origin of what
18:16
you and Ezra were writing
18:18
about. about in that original document.
18:20
This is one of the
18:22
narrowest congressional majorities we've ever seen.
18:24
we've ever It's going to to be... 220,
18:27
215, and -15, and then 219, -19, 2
18:29
-15, they'll get a few seats
18:31
Stefanic know, at least DeFonic and
18:33
Mike Walls get confirmed and
18:35
they, you know, presumably they run
18:37
special elections, although, you know, we've seen
18:39
seen Democrats outperform in special elections
18:41
at insane at so nothing is - so
18:43
nothing is, nothing's a Those will actually
18:46
be really interesting early fights interesting are
18:48
worth contesting for sure because those
18:50
will be real messages. will be real messages.
18:52
But even if it is, know, know,
18:54
whatever it's gonna be. to be. That is going to
18:56
let's say. sledding is
18:59
gonna be a tough. to
19:01
sort of Mike Johnson, and
19:03
the ability to sort of
19:05
more available in the wheels of this. and progressive
19:08
activists than it to Democrats
19:10
and progressive activists than it was in
19:12
an years ago. Trump in
19:14
an election that Trump actually
19:16
won this time with a
19:18
narrower Well, majority. goes to that goes to
19:21
a basic point, right? He does not have
19:23
a mandate. a He One on on the basis of
19:25
himself from himself from the Project 2025 which he
19:27
is absolutely then going to try and put
19:29
into office. office, One of the constant challenges
19:31
that we heard from people who are running
19:33
focus groups, who are doing testing around groups, who
19:35
you doing testing around locked in message on Trump, But a
19:37
lot of these folks that we lost to
19:39
him, they simply didn't believe some of the
19:41
stuff that he said he was going to
19:44
do, right? That is not a stable coalition
19:46
once you're actually trying to enact your promises,
19:48
even if you do have a big to majority
19:50
when we stopped the first attempt to
19:52
repeal the Affordable Care Act in the
19:54
house They had Act in the They had a
19:56
They had a majority. Wow. I forgot it
19:58
was that big. Yeah, exactly So You
22:48
know know you've got a in you. you.
22:50
When you take the next step,
22:52
you're going to make it count it
22:54
your career, for your family, for your
22:56
life. You can You can earn a
22:58
degree you're proud of with Purdue Purdue
23:01
Purdue Global is backed by Purdue University,
23:03
one of the nation's most respected
23:05
and innovative public universities. This is your
23:07
chance. is This is your opportunity. This
23:09
is your comeback. Purdue Global,
23:11
produce online university for
23:14
working adults. Start your comeback
23:16
today at today .edu. Subscribe
23:19
to MSNBC Premium on
23:21
Apple Podcasts. New New episodes
23:24
of all your favorite
23:26
MSNBC shows now ad-free. Plus
23:28
plus add free listening
23:30
to all of Rachel original
23:32
series, series. Ultra, and and Dejah
23:34
News. And all MSNBC podcasts
23:37
are available ad-free and
23:39
with bonus content, including
23:41
Why Is This Happening,
23:43
Velshi Band Velshi more. Subscribe
23:45
to MSNBC Premium on
23:47
Apple Podcasts. George
26:08
W. Bush, were you were organizing about
26:10
Mitt Romney. And Mitt Romney wanted
26:12
some big, big, you know, he's the Ryan budget,
26:14
right? Let's say budget, right? Let's say he he
26:16
gets inaugurated and they're gonna institute
26:18
the Ryan budget. It's gonna be big
26:21
cuts, basically the privatization of Medicare. cuts,
26:23
basically the you know, you would mobilize
26:25
against, you could use the against, right?
26:27
use the individual true playbook
26:29
for. legislative attempts.
26:31
I think the I think the
26:33
worry people have is, is is
26:35
the toolkit for mobilizing against?
26:38
politics. politics. at
26:40
the FBI at the FBI. homes
26:43
of raiding the homes of
26:45
political opponents, a special -
26:47
appointed by being appointed by
26:49
the General of the United States,
26:51
who starts an opens the investigation
26:54
into all the members of
26:56
the January 6 committee. 6th Committee. There
26:58
it just and I'm just saying
27:00
this for myself myself like what is
27:02
the the toolkit there? Once you once you
27:04
sort of slip off the known world
27:07
of democratic democratic politics where you're involved
27:09
in the sort of constituent action
27:11
that might be able to kill
27:13
a bad bill. to kill a bad bill
27:16
Yeah, well I would I would take a
27:18
step back. So we we titled updated invisible guide,
27:20
indivisible, a practical Guide to Democracy on the
27:22
Brink. And the thinking there was
27:24
that we should be really clear about
27:26
the moment we're in, the is that
27:28
we still have a have a a a
27:30
tattered torn democracy, but some set of
27:32
institutions that are functioning some of
27:34
the time. the We still have people
27:36
who represent us at the local, the
27:38
state, the federal level. level. We will
27:40
still have some form of elections
27:42
in two years. do Things we do
27:44
over the next couple of years will
27:46
determine. the the conditions under which those elections
27:48
take place and the the extent to which they
27:50
are free and fair, right? With all with caveats
27:52
about how free and fair our elections have
27:54
been to this point. elections have been to this
27:56
still are of working within a
27:58
basic theory of. of What do we need
28:01
to do to get to a 2026 that's
28:03
going to be the test point for the
28:05
ability to hold elections in the future? And
28:07
2026, we identified as this crucial hinge moment,
28:10
right? Because fundamentally that's the first time we're
28:12
having national elections and we're able to test
28:14
the ability to have national elections. That is
28:16
our first opportunity to deliver a very significant
28:19
rebuke to Republicans on the national level to
28:21
demonstrate. how deeply unpopular their agenda has become,
28:23
which we're going to do some work on
28:25
making it that unpopular in the meantime. And
28:27
it's also the place at which, you know,
28:30
the folks who have, the folks who win
28:32
in 2026 are going to be the folks
28:34
who manage the election in 2028. So if
28:36
they are people who are invested in liberal
28:39
democracy continuing, then we are in okay shape
28:41
for 2028. If they are mega election deniers,
28:43
then we are in very bad shape, right?
28:45
I think basically we have to start from
28:48
this fundamental question of what is going to
28:50
set us up best and what set of
28:52
messages, what set of stories are we telling
28:54
heading into 2026 that give us the strongest
28:57
ability to win and in doing so to
28:59
gain the power to make it to 2028.
29:01
It's kind of a game of what do
29:03
we need to do to make it to
29:05
the next step? Within that, I think we
29:08
have to be really thoughtful about how do
29:10
we organize against these kind of extra democratic
29:12
efforts, right? I think we absolutely have to
29:14
continue telling that story. I think we absolutely
29:17
have to be very visibly and vocally opposed
29:19
and united behind whoever those political targets are,
29:21
right? Is Liz Cheney my favorite person? No,
29:23
she is not my favorite person. And also,
29:26
that does not my favorite person. And also,
29:28
that does not matter, right? Because fundamentally, this
29:30
is a game of, you know, knock one
29:32
person out, see how the reaction goes, and
29:35
if it's not very visible, right? where we
29:37
know there will be very very intensive repression
29:39
is when we're looking at the pro- Palestine
29:41
movement, right? That was actually the target of
29:44
the most recent bill that Congress attempted to
29:46
move on a bipartisan basis earlier this year,
29:48
the nonprofit H.R. 9495. which was a bill
29:50
that would have given the Treasury Secretary the
29:52
ability to designate specific non-profits as supporting terrorism,
29:55
revoke their tax status. That was pitched and
29:57
targeted at the Palestine justice movement, but it
29:59
could easily have been used against all of
30:01
us. And so we are going to have
30:04
to as a movement collectively defend all edges
30:06
of that coalition because This is fundamentally the
30:08
way that they're gonna come for us is
30:10
they're gonna pick off people and they're gonna
30:13
watch for the reaction and then they're gonna
30:15
go for more. That is a really important
30:17
point. Let's stay on this because you guys
30:19
did some really important mobilizing around that bill,
30:22
which was kind of snuck in a little
30:24
bit. I don't think that many people had
30:26
eyes on it. And yeah, the idea of
30:28
like. from the sort of pro- Palestine, Palestine,
30:30
solidarity movement to Liz Cheney as the sort
30:33
of edges of this of this coalition, those
30:35
are, you know, very, very different worldviews, indirect
30:37
conflict with each other on the central questions,
30:39
right, the war in Gaza, American foreign policy,
30:42
etc. Tell me a little bit about the
30:44
mobilization around that because I thought that was
30:46
a great example of organizers, putting the spotlight
30:48
on something, telling a story, we did it
30:51
on the show, I think partly because you
30:53
guys had spotlighted it, and I was like,
30:55
oh wait, this is nuts. And other journalists
30:57
did too. I want to, you know, there's
31:00
a lot of people that were on top
31:02
of it. Tell that story because that was
31:04
a useful little test case, I think. you
31:06
know, as we head into this era. Absolutely.
31:08
Well, first, I would say a lot of
31:11
credit goes to the ACLU, who had been
31:13
begging the drum on this for a really
31:15
long time, including before the election, when it
31:17
was a lot harder to make the case
31:20
for a lot of audiences, right? Part of
31:22
the story here is that this was a
31:24
bill that had moved forward with pretty widespread
31:26
bipartisan support up until the election. this was
31:29
coming back up again in the house, and
31:31
there was a collective realization across the ecosystem
31:33
that this was handing an enormously dangerous tool
31:35
to a future Trump administration, that this would
31:38
have been a bad bill and indeed we
31:40
opposed this bill. before. It's not an appropriate
31:42
thing to hand to a Democratic administration either,
31:44
but it was enormously dangerous under an incoming
31:47
Trump administration with, you know, everything that we
31:49
know about what they're going to do and
31:51
how they're going to do and how they're
31:53
going to act. And so, you know, our
31:55
version of raising the alarm was really focusing
31:58
in on how many Democrats have voted for
32:00
this, how many can we knock off the
32:02
next time that it's coming up under suspension?
32:04
we were able to stop it because that
32:07
required two-thirds vote of two-thirds to go forward.
32:09
The second time they brought it up it
32:11
required a simple majority. We were never going
32:13
to be able to stop it even by
32:16
holding the entire Democratic caucus united. But what
32:18
we were able to do was drastically take
32:20
down the number of Democrats voting for it.
32:22
It went from, I think, 45 Democrats voting
32:25
for it in the first vote in the
32:27
House to 10 Democrats voting for it in
32:29
the second vote in the House. And so
32:31
in the process of doing that, we turned
32:33
it from something that had pretty broad bipartisan
32:36
support and was perceived as not particularly controversial
32:38
to something that was understood as a tool
32:40
for the Trump administration and that Democrats as
32:42
a broad coalition could oppose. be comfortably in
32:45
the mainstream in doing so within their party.
32:47
And now, as we are heading into the
32:49
next year, as we are heading into a
32:51
Republican Congress, it is totally true that they
32:54
may pass it in the House, and it
32:56
is truly will try to pass it in
32:58
the Senate. But now that we have turned
33:00
it into something that the entire Democratic caucus
33:03
or overwhelmingly the Democratic caucus opposes, we have
33:05
a lot of hope that we're able to
33:07
hold together the votes to prevent them to
33:09
getting that 60 vote threshold that's necessary to
33:11
pass. Yeah, the provision would have allowed the
33:14
U.S. Treasury Secretary to essentially, without real process,
33:16
deem any nonprofit a tax-deductable organization a supporter
33:18
of terrorism and thereby withdraw their tax-deductable status,
33:20
which is essentially the death penalty for a
33:23
nonprofit. I mean, you can't. That is in
33:25
some ways the sort of essential legal core
33:27
of what it is to be a nonprofit
33:29
is this tax status. And it was a...
33:32
bad for a million
33:34
reasons. mean, if anyone's
33:36
actually if laws to deal
33:38
with there's laws to deal with
33:41
supporting terrorism, there's tons
33:43
of them in the
33:45
federal code. It's not
33:47
like this is them don't
33:50
have the ability to
33:52
do that. Also the
33:54
sort of lack of
33:56
process and review to do
33:58
then the power that
34:01
it would give the
34:03
Trump administration to do
34:05
this, but or any
34:07
administration. and And I
34:10
think that was a
34:12
place the Trump it and
34:14
also kind of keeping
34:16
the but together. mean, to
34:19
your point about Liz
34:21
And I think that key is
34:23
to get people to
34:25
vote on these basic
34:28
principles of democracy right,
34:30
independent of their views on the
34:32
war in Gaza, for instance, you know, you
34:35
know, Israel's conduct of that war, that war, right, that,
34:37
or whether Liz Cheney is like a good
34:39
person or you would want to hang out
34:41
with her, want to get people to think
34:43
in terms of, people to
34:45
on the standing defend
34:47
basic process, democratic
34:49
norms, norms. the
34:51
rule of law of
34:54
whether the of whether the group you're defending
34:56
or the group you're defending is
34:58
one that you with. agree with. we, right.
35:00
anything anything we know about successful movements
35:02
to defeat autocracies around the world,
35:04
right, successful movements to take down dictatorships
35:06
is that they build broad coalitions. broad
35:08
And the coalition may not be
35:10
united by anything other than their opposition
35:12
to what is currently happening. And
35:14
that is that is That is actually a
35:16
precondition for success in many cases.
35:18
And so And so. of what we're going
35:20
to have to do during this
35:22
time is recognize that some people will
35:24
be with us on some issues
35:26
that we care about, and they won't
35:28
be with us on other issues won't
35:30
be with us on we care about or we still
35:32
need them as part of that broad front for
35:34
democracy. need them And one of the things,
35:36
too, I think to think about is
35:38
that public opinion is going to be
35:41
important, I think. I'm a real believer
35:43
that public opinion is a real thing.
35:45
to be It's not simple and exogenous. It's
35:47
not just like people feel a certain
35:49
way. It is completely constituted by all
35:51
kinds of different factors, things that are
35:53
happening in the world, the the information
35:55
sources people have, their peer groups, a a million
35:58
a million different things what we call
36:00
it. public opinion. But one of the things
36:02
I found encouraging was the Washington Post ran,
36:04
you know, pulled a bunch of stuff, it
36:06
was probably two or three weeks ago before
36:08
the holiday break, and they asked people about
36:11
like, do you approve or disapprove of, you
36:13
know, Donald Trump prosecuting political opponents, you know,
36:15
or prosecuting reporters? And, you know, huge majorities,
36:18
like, the worst, most anti-democratic stuff, huge majorities
36:20
of people, if you ask them, are like,
36:22
no, I don't like that. And that is
36:24
something to work with, you know? I mean,
36:27
we would be on what much worse shape
36:29
if big majorities were like, yes, that's good.
36:31
Right, right. Well, and I think I think
36:33
that sometimes we can be a little reductionist
36:36
in analyzing what is success and not success
36:38
with something like this, right? The administration has
36:40
a lot of power. They will be able
36:43
to do a lot of things unilaterally. Success
36:45
is sometimes going to look like stopping that.
36:47
It's going to look like, And the reality
36:49
is we're not going to be able to
36:52
stop everything, but consistently if we have a
36:54
story that we're telling to people about how
36:56
the Trump administration is out of control, how
36:58
it is corrupt, how it is chaotic, how
37:01
it is delivering for billionaires and corporations, but
37:03
not for you. how it is inflicting cruelty
37:05
on people around the country. These are the
37:08
kinds of stories that we're going to activate
37:10
people heading into the midterms around. And so
37:12
it's not necessarily are we going to be
37:14
able to stop everything that they're going to
37:17
do. It is, are we going to be
37:19
able to make sure that they, and specifically
37:21
Republicans in swing districts, Republicans in swing states,
37:23
pay a price for it. We'll be right
37:26
back after we take this quick break. You
37:35
know know you've got a in you. you.
37:37
When you take the next step,
37:39
you're going to make it count it
37:42
your career, for your family, for your
37:44
life. You can You can earn a
37:46
degree you're proud of with Purdue Purdue
37:48
Purdue Global is backed by Purdue University,
37:50
one of the nation's most respected
37:52
and innovative public universities. This is your
37:54
chance. is This is your opportunity. This
37:57
is your comeback. Purdue Global,
37:59
produce online university for
38:01
working adults. Start your comeback
38:03
today at today .edu. really
42:10
funny to bring up funny you there's
42:12
an because there's an that I always
42:14
think about I always think appeared some point
42:16
during 2004. was It was stunned by competent
42:18
political And I always think about
42:20
that line because it so perfectly
42:22
captures this thing, which is that this
42:24
can run a very effective political
42:26
operation and be really bad at
42:28
governing. and be really doesn't mean those
42:30
things don't actually correlate to each
42:32
other. correlate to joke. that joke I think think about
42:34
because there's a little bit of this of
42:37
this people are doing of people doing of like Donald Trump
42:39
for you know, as strange as he is and
42:41
as weirdly chaotic as it all was, they ran
42:43
an all political campaign, they really did, he was
42:45
an effective candidate, they ran an effective campaign,
42:47
and they won an election. A lot
42:49
of that, I think, was produced by
42:51
the macro conditions that you just referred
42:53
to. It doesn't mean that they're suddenly
42:55
figured out how to be good at
42:57
governing. was produced there's a lot of weird
42:59
sliding between those two things that people
43:01
have, you know, decided that like, oh,
43:03
he's gonna be good at governing this
43:05
time. this time. other thing people think
43:08
people are not... that that people are
43:10
for granted, and it's because no one
43:12
has experienced this in America. in America in
43:14
living memory, not since the late 19th century,
43:16
is that that when he's inaugurated on
43:18
January 20th, he immediately becomes a lame
43:20
duck. a lame duck. And this has not happened in not happened
43:22
in our lifetime. It's not happened in the
43:25
last century. Grover Cleveland in the
43:27
late 19th century is the last
43:29
time this happened. this happened. He ended up
43:31
being absolutely swallowed up by the
43:33
financial crisis of 1893, of which basically
43:35
destroyed his second term and he was
43:37
basically forgotten. Even though he was
43:39
seen at that, when he had started
43:41
his political you when big turning point
43:43
for post -Civil War, post as this politics. point
43:45
for post-civil war, post-civil
43:47
war, I actually think the lame duckness matters. So
43:49
I I wonder if you do too. I think people
43:51
lame very quick to be like, oh, he's I ignore
43:53
the if you do run again, yada, yada, I don't know
43:55
if that's true. He's also super old. I would be
43:58
more worried about that if he were 50. were 50. But
44:00
there is a gravity that pulls on
44:02
lame duck presidents that's different than first-term
44:04
presidents. I absolutely think it matters. And
44:06
I think it's a really important factor
44:08
in how we develop strategy, right? Because
44:10
fundamentally what happens with a lame duck,
44:12
what's different than in 2016, when you
44:14
had Democrats who were already looking towards
44:16
2020 and saying who's going to be
44:18
the leader of our party, but you
44:20
had Donald Trump who was definitely going
44:22
to be the candidate for Republicans. This
44:25
year, it's actually... a leadership vacuum on
44:27
both sides to some extent or there
44:29
is a there's a contest for power
44:31
on both sides for the future of
44:33
the party and this pains me because
44:35
I have done my fair share of
44:37
JD Vance jokes but I think we
44:39
have to take JD Vance very seriously
44:41
as a political force and as an
44:43
avatar of a broader set of actors
44:45
you know Silicon Valley folks like Peter
44:47
Thiel like Elon Musk people who believe
44:49
that they have invested in and bought
44:51
out this Republican Party and are intending
44:53
to use the power that they have
44:55
bought, right? So I think that we
44:57
have to be really intentional about how
44:59
much are we telling a story about
45:01
Donald Trump, how much are we telling
45:03
a story about Donald Trump, how much
45:06
are we telling a story about Donald
45:08
Trump and Republicans, how much are we
45:10
telling a story and linking JD Vance
45:12
explicitly to some of the biggest and
45:14
most damaging parts of what is going
45:16
to happen, you know, the laws and
45:18
put himself on the ballot again, but
45:20
much more likely we are running against
45:22
somebody who has been shaped and molded
45:24
by the post or the Trump Republican
45:26
Party and by this period and who
45:28
was doing it after a couple of
45:30
years of the factions contesting for power
45:32
amongst themselves. Yeah, the Vance point is
45:34
important. I also think the Musk aspect
45:36
of this is just a complete, a
45:38
totally new factor. Totally new. I've been
45:40
pretty obsessed with it. Maybe just out
45:42
of a desire for novelty. To be
45:44
totally honest, I've been covering this guy
45:47
for nine years and it's like, well,
45:49
this is a similar. I haven't seen
45:51
this one before. I mean, a lot
45:53
of things Trump does, you have seen
45:55
before, you know, and there's so much
45:57
of it is, he's just doing what
45:59
he does. I am personally shocked. genuinely
46:01
by how quickly the Musk thing went
46:03
zero to 100 miles an hour. Like
46:05
from, and not in terms of his
46:07
own politics, which I think were clear
46:09
for a while, but from sort of
46:11
playing with the idea of endorsing him
46:13
to, you know, to endorsing him to
46:15
putting a quarter of a billion dollars
46:17
in, to never leasing his side, to
46:19
being essentially a kind of co-president figure.
46:21
to the extent that when Mike Johnson's
46:23
negotiating a bill, he is telling reporters,
46:25
yes, I've spoke to Donald Trump and
46:27
I spoke to Elon Musk. These are
46:30
my two bosses and I've spoken to
46:32
both of them. And I think it's
46:34
in some ways ominous because when you
46:36
look at places like Hungary, where Victor
46:38
Orban has these very wealthy oligarchs, they're
46:40
aligned with him and they use their
46:42
power in private markets and their money
46:44
to do things like purchase opposition media
46:46
outlets. And it's very, it's ominous in
46:48
that respect. But it's also kind
46:50
of promising in the sense that I don't
46:52
think Musk is the same political appeal and
46:55
talents that Trump does. And I also think
46:57
his ideological vision is actually wildly unpopular and
46:59
is now seems much more of the driver's
47:01
seat than I would have even guessed two
47:04
months ago. I think all of that is
47:06
absolutely true. I think that, well, first of
47:08
all to say I resent how much of
47:10
my time I'm now having to spend trying
47:12
to psychoanalyize these. to absolutely maladapted humans. But
47:15
this is an incredibly complicated and weird alliance
47:17
that has developed, right, between two people who
47:19
are used to being each the center of
47:21
the universe. There's one set of questions around
47:24
how long can that kind of arrangement be
47:26
stable, even if it is suiting their interests
47:28
between two people who are this egotistical, this
47:30
egomaniacal. There's another set of questions around what
47:32
political opportunity does this open up for the
47:35
rest of us, right? You know, Americans may
47:37
have voted for Donald Trump, but they didn't
47:39
actually vote for a South African billionaire who
47:41
has a record of, you know, walking into
47:44
organizations and smashing them up to come in
47:46
and do that to the federal government, right?
47:48
mean organization. This is weird stuff. It is
47:50
not what people expected. It is not what
47:52
they voted for. Again, I do think this
47:55
goes to can we hold and deliver a
47:57
clear opposition message or are we validating some
47:59
of this stuff? There's, you know, there's limited
48:01
public pulling around kind of how popular Elon
48:04
Musk is and who he resonates with, but
48:06
I think he's broadly perceived to be more
48:08
popular than he actually is, if you actually
48:10
dig into it. He is not a person
48:12
who is actually that well liked across a
48:15
broad swath of places. He's also somebody who
48:17
is new to politics and thinks he knows
48:19
more than he does. Right? And I think
48:21
you saw that with some of the, I
48:24
think you've seen that sometimes with his political
48:26
quotes to date, right? He is. freely talking
48:28
about going after entitlements, after stuff that, you
48:30
know, most Republicans who've been in office for
48:32
a long time understand to be a third
48:35
rail. He is blowing up a budget deal
48:37
and, you know, trying to get what he
48:39
can out of it. In this case, in
48:41
the most recent case, he was successful in
48:43
doing so, right? Like a lot of the
48:46
aftermath and a lot of the analysis was
48:48
that Donald Trump did not get what he
48:50
wanted, which was a debt ceiling, you know,
48:52
at the cost of blowing up a bunch
48:55
of political capital before they've even taken office,
48:57
right, and demonstrating the weakness and the dysfunction
48:59
of the Republican majority, and frankly giving Democrats
49:01
an object lesson in what's possible if they
49:03
all hang together. So I think it's an
49:06
incredibly weird dynamic. I think it's one that
49:08
if we are thoughtful about how do we
49:10
how do we maintain our own discipline, we
49:12
can exploit. You know, one thing I keep
49:15
thinking about when I think about resistance and,
49:17
you know, Certain things happen in American politics
49:19
sort of cyclically. There's this notion of thermostatic
49:21
public opinion. So when, you know, a pro-immigration
49:23
leader is elected, the public gets more skeptical
49:26
of immigration. When an anti-immigrant leader gets elected,
49:28
they get more supportive of immigration. We see
49:30
this on a whole bunch of different things,
49:32
right? So there's cyclical trends. There's things that
49:35
are in response to macroeconomic, people don't like
49:37
inflation. We saw this across the world. But
49:39
then there's more secular trends, things that persist
49:41
election to election. And the biggest one we've
49:43
seen is rural areas moving to the right.
49:46
Election after election. Doesn't matter even if the
49:48
rest of the electorate is sort of pinging
49:50
back and forth thermostatically. Rural America is moving
49:52
further and further to the right. Election after
49:55
election. We saw it in 2018, where Republicans
49:57
actually picked up Senate seats because of the
49:59
nature of those states that they were running
50:01
in. And we're seeing this class realignment, working
50:03
class voters. increasingly not just white working class
50:06
voters moving towards the right. And I wonder
50:08
if you think about that in terms of
50:10
indivisibles organizing. And I know you guys have
50:12
groups everywhere. I think it's very easy to
50:15
kind of stereotype. It's like, oh, these are
50:17
all people in metro areas with college degrees
50:19
and, you know, resistance lives, whatever. But how
50:21
much you think about this huge problem for
50:23
the coalition, which is losing support among these
50:26
huge parts of the American electorate. Yeah, well,
50:28
I'm glad you asked that because it gives
50:30
me the chance to share one of my
50:32
favorite kind of underknown statistics about indivisible, which
50:35
is that we've actually got a really large
50:37
rural caucus and a very significant rural organizing
50:39
footprint. And if you think about it a
50:41
little bit, it's actually for some pretty clear
50:43
reasons, right? Because if you are in a,
50:46
if you're in a metropolitan area, you probably
50:48
know a lot of other liberals and progressives.
50:50
If you're in a rural area, if you're
50:52
in a pretty red area, the indivisible group
50:55
might be your social, it might be your
50:57
only social outlet, right, for people who think
50:59
like you do. And so. Some of the
51:01
groups that I'm actually really the proudest of
51:03
are the folks who are kind of holding
51:06
up the banner for progressive causes or for,
51:08
you know, even just center left causes in
51:10
really rural areas, you know, they might not
51:12
be doing organizing that we even think of
51:15
as super partisan, but they'll be doing a
51:17
campaign on why is the local hospital closing
51:19
or they will be running the townsgate pride
51:21
parade. They'll be holding up some kind of,
51:23
you know, stand for liberal values even in
51:26
places that are that are pretty hostile to
51:28
them. I do think it's a problem and
51:30
I think it's a problem of significant underinvestment
51:32
for the Democratic Party. from a lot of
51:35
our own institutions from a broad sense of
51:37
we need to do what is necessary to
51:39
get to the electoral math for this cycle
51:41
as opposed to we need to do what
51:43
is necessary to invest for the long term.
51:46
Recognizing that in a lot of these places,
51:48
are we need to do what is necessary
51:50
to invest for the long term. Recognizing that
51:52
in a lot of these places, are we
51:55
going to win in the next cycle even
51:57
with a real investment? No. But actually it
51:59
matters a lot if we're losing by 20
52:01
points or if we're losing by 20 points
52:03
or if we're losing by 30 points or
52:06
if we're losing by 30 points or if
52:08
we're losing by 30 points or if we're
52:10
losing by 30 points or if we're losing
52:12
by 30 points or if we're losing by
52:15
30 points or if we're losing by 30
52:17
points or if we're losing by 30 points
52:19
or if we're losing by 30 points or
52:21
if we're losing by 30 points or if
52:23
we're losing by 30 points or if we're
52:26
losing by 30 points or if we're losing
52:28
by 30 points or if Holding those margins
52:30
down doesn't matter a lot to winning locally,
52:32
but it matters a ton to the rest
52:35
of the state and to whether we're actually
52:37
able to get someone like Aruban Diego into
52:39
office. And so I do think there is
52:41
a long-term underinvestment problem. I also think that,
52:43
you know, we should be real that it's
52:46
not just about. is money being put into
52:48
organizing in these places. It's also about the
52:50
media ecosystem. It's also about the information environment
52:52
that these folks are exposed to. The closure
52:55
of local papers, the shift to algorithm-driven social
52:57
media, you know, the dominance of Fox News
52:59
in a lot of these places. It's not
53:01
just about in person, it's also about the
53:03
actual information that people are getting exposed to
53:06
and how they're processing it. Yeah, and the
53:08
one thing I would add to that is
53:10
like they are also genuine grievance and resentments
53:12
that are not crazy, which is to say
53:15
if you survey the commanding heights of American
53:17
politics, finance, and culture and say it's all
53:19
run by people in large metro areas with
53:21
college degrees, you're not wrong at all to
53:23
come to that conclusion. That actually is true.
53:26
that it actually is all run by and
53:28
if you feel like I am not that
53:30
I that and those people don't know me
53:32
that's not that is not a at all
53:35
the crazy grievance there's other grievances there there's
53:37
some uglier stuff too mixed in but that's
53:39
central thing which is not even about the
53:41
information environment it's not even about politics it's
53:43
just like yeah like everyone who is power
53:46
in this country at the biggest level at
53:48
the top of the pyramid are people that
53:50
live in big metro areas and have four-year
53:52
college degrees or advanced degrees, that's not a
53:55
crazy thing to think. because it's
53:57
true and also to
53:59
feel like some some
54:01
about that. that. Yeah, I I absolutely
54:03
think that this is a place where
54:05
there is some real tension the the ways
54:07
in which our systems and our institutions
54:10
work work and what we end up representing
54:12
to people. If you think about what
54:14
it takes to run for takes to for
54:16
example, if you think about Congress as
54:18
an institution, a place where as an 98
54:20
% of Democrats Democrats are currently holding office
54:22
have college degrees. And you think about
54:24
what it takes to run for Congress,
54:26
which if you do not have $200
54:28
,000, you will not be taken seriously
54:30
by the Democratic by the Democratic congressional campaign committee. Think about
54:32
how much of a barrier that is to
54:34
a nurse, to a teacher, to the
54:36
shop steward at a union where in an
54:39
area where you've got a compelling local leader
54:41
but they absolutely do not have the
54:43
social network. They absolutely do not have the
54:45
personal wealth that's gonna get them into
54:47
office. And so if we think so if we
54:49
think -bottom, what are the ways
54:51
in which our own institutions are,
54:53
you know, are, enacting systematic barriers to
54:55
people who are are working class seeing
54:57
themselves as represented in office, in office?
54:59
it's a pretty massive set of
55:01
questions. It's a great, great, great point. is a Leah
55:04
Greenberg is the co -founder and director director at
55:06
to It's a movement of thousands of local
55:08
groups to resist the GOP GOP agenda. elect
55:10
local champions, and fight for progressive policies. If
55:12
people want to learn more about Indivisible Indivisible
55:14
or this conversation, they want to sign up,
55:16
like where should they go? up like can
55:18
go to can go to .org. If you would like
55:20
to join or start a group, we will
55:22
be happy to connect you locally to make
55:24
sure that you find your in -person group so that
55:26
you can organize to resist the Trump Trump agenda
55:28
to build a better democracy. All right Leah
55:30
thanks so much, that was great. much that was great. Thanks.
55:38
Once again, great. thanks to to Leah Greenberg. got
55:40
a lot of that conversation. If
55:42
you want to find out more about
55:44
the about the organization you can go to can go
55:46
to .org. also You can also contact us. us
55:49
You can email us@gmail.com..com. We've gotten
55:51
some great emails from you. Recently, can you
55:53
can get in touch with us using
55:55
the hashtag whippod. You You can follow
55:57
us on Talk by searching for Whithod also follow
55:59
me me. across a variety of blogging platforms,
56:01
threads, Blue Sky, and what what used to
56:03
be called Twitter, all with the handle
56:05
Chris L. Hayes. Be Be sure to hear
56:07
new episodes every Tuesday. Why is This
56:09
Why Is This Happening is presented
56:11
by MSNBC MSMEC and Produced by Donnie
56:13
Holloway and Holloway this episode was engineered
56:15
by Bob was features music by
56:17
Eddie Cooper. features Aisha Turner is the
56:19
executive producer of MSNBC Audio. You
56:21
can see more of our work,
56:23
including links to things we mentioned
56:25
here by going to to things.com slash
56:27
here by this happening. NBC News. Aiman
56:38
MS-N-N-D-C is now available now available as
56:41
a podcast. hour begin this
56:43
hour with breaking news. Every
56:45
Saturday and Sunday, Eamon Mohedine reads between
56:47
the lines of the week's
56:49
biggest stories, spotlighting the
56:51
pressing issues facing our country,
56:53
our world, and those fighting to
56:56
solve them. We are tracking the
56:58
fallout across the Middle East
57:00
tonight. East for Search you get your
57:02
you get your follow. and follow.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More