Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds, and Senate Democrats have re elected Charles Schumer as their leader. We have such a great show for you today. The Atlantic's George Conway stops by to talk to us about his very smart take on presidential pardons. Then we'll talk to the dlcc's Heather Williams about what Democrats can do to reclaim the majority. But first the news.
So, Molly, I'm going to shock you here. Mister Trump did not win a landslide. He didn't even get fifty percent of the popular vote, but he did get more votes than in the past. What are you seeing here?
So Trump did win the popular vote, but he has now fallen to just below fifty percent in the popular vote. He has gotten more votes than in past elections, but it is not exactly the unprecedented and powerful mandate that Donald Trump claimed on election. I mean, I think the story here more than anything, is that California takes too long to count its votes. Like we are weeks and weeks past his fucking election. It is goddamn December.
But Molly, mister Trump says he's going to get paper ballots. Those are going to be so easy to count.
Trump has, according to the Associated Press, forty nine point ninety seven percent to Harris's forty eight point thirty six percent. So I just want to say, like, this was a very close election, but it was also not a high turnet election.
Right.
The numbers are seventy six million point nine that's for Trump and seventy four point four million for Harris. So it was a close election. But more importantly, like a lot of the Democratic base did not turn out for Vice President Harris for whatever reason, and if she had gotten the twenty twenty numbers that Biden had, she would have won. Also, California needs to count its votes faster.
I think we should start branding Californians as lazy. Maybe that'll help.
So South Korea, we got to talk about South Korea. I always tried not to talk about international foreign policy stuff, just because I know so little about it. But I wanted to talk about this because it's a really good example of people pushing back on a government that has overreached too far. And look, I hope it doesn't have to happen here, but I think it's really important to talk about this. So South Korea's president said he will
lift martial law. He had enacted martial law just a few hours earlier, late at night, so he was fighting with the Congress, their version of Congress, and he declared martial law. And in the end, people came out and protested, and Congress did the right thing. And some people, even like members of Congress, broke through the barricade and climbed fences to get inside the building and then vote. And
so it's a really good example. And these had gathered outside of parliament to protest this sudden introduction of military rule. So I just want to point out, like this is a really good example of a situation where people save themselves from an authoritarian overreach. And I hope that never has to happen in America.
Let us hope.
Speaking of hope, let's.
Introduce what hope is compared to twenty twelve of these days, we're hoping because Lindsey Graham is signaling something that things are going to go better than we thought.
I want to talk about this because this is not about the American people making Republican senators and Democratic senators, but really Republicans in this one because there are fifty three Republican senators in the next Senate and forty seven Democratic senators. So the job of senators under this article two, section two is advice and consent. Right, as a United Said senator, you have to advise the president on his
cabinet and consent to his nominees. I know that these Republicans don't like conflict and want Trump, mister Trump to have his people. But some of these nominations are bat shittery, you know. Some of these nominations are okay, you know, and normal, and some of them are completely insane. And so this is an opportunity. So Timothy Schneider talks about this idea of protecting institutions. So the first thing he
says is don't obey in advance. The second thing he says in his rules of fighting against authoritarianism are to protect institutions. So these editors need to protect the institution of the United States federal government. And one of the ways they can do this is with advice and consent. And so I think it's really important that they do their jobs. And I just want to read this because this is a great example of someone not doing their job.
Tom Tillis, the Senator from North Carolina who's actually up for a re election in twenty twenty six, said, I like Cash Betell's chances of getting confirmed. So this is a wildly inappropriate nominee for the FBI, and he is being touted as having a good chance of getting confirmed by Tom Tillis, who will literally be fighting for his
political life in twenty twenty six. So Lindsey Graham has opposed to Tom Tillis, who is in you know, Lindsay Graham is in South Carolina, much more red state, said of Tom Tillis to CBS, and this I think is really important because Lindsay Graham does actually really care which way the winds are blowing. He said. I think some of these articles are very disturbing. Graham told CBS News. Heg Sith obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is going to be difficult,
so we'll see what happens. Hegsath is is up for running the DoD that's a three million plus people full organization. Hegzeth characters himself as a heavy drinker. But you know, it certainly seems as if he's used the organization's funds for personal expenses Somali.
One of the things I think that made cable news a little more smart was when we didn't have to hear from Chris Clomo on it anymore. But unfortunately we still have to hear from the news what are you seeing here?
So, actually, you know what, I can talk about this because you know, when the news broke about the pardon, I took a minute. I was on television and I said, you know, I need a minute to think. I don't have a take. You'll have to come back to me. And I got numerous very stupid articles written about that, and I want to point out that, like it's okay not to have a take, especially about stuff you don't know about, Like I'm not a lawyer. I am not versed in pardons and how they're doled out, and you
know what the ethical considerations are there. I really am not. And so the fact that we're you know, we're often asked to give hot takes, we really should pause and we don't necessarily always have to give that said oh my god. Chris Cuomo and Steven A. Smith joined together this week to urge President Joe Biden to give a pardon to President elect Donald Trump what they wanted.
I'm so shocked that these two could come together for such a bad take. It's so out of character.
It's I just want to point out, like, obviously Hunter was given a pardon by his dad because his dad felt that he had been prosecuted because and there's a lot of evidence to support the theory that the prosecutions of the gun charge, the tax fraud. You know, those are things that usually would not be risen to the level of seriousness that they were. They've been really kind of trumped up for you know, probably because of his close proximity. It was his father being president, so you
could make that case. But Donald Trump actually did a bunch of stuff right, he did a bunch of stuff wrong, and he's gotten away with a lot of different things, and so you know, it's not really the same. And also what anyway, that is my two cent. George Conway is a contributor to The Atlantic. Welcome back to Fast Politics. My body, George Conway.
I I'm like that, I'm like the filler guest. You are not the filler guest I was last week. It was like, can you go on the podcast in like thirty seconds and I didn't respond immediately, and I think he got mad at it. But it's like, it's like I'm always like the last person who asked to go on your podcast.
It's so funny because actually that's not true.
Everybody's out on vacation Thanksgiving, leaving the country political asylum. I get that I'm the frashest squad in football.
I get that that could not be less true.
Occasionally you need the fourth string free safety and youry you are monster.
That is not true. But I want to point out I just want to take a minute here to say, have you noticed a lot of our Instagram friends seem to be taking vacations to Canada.
I'm going to Canada soon.
I mean, like, how many times can people post photos of like we're really enjoying our trip to Canada.
But I like Canada. I think he is one of my favorite places with with hockey and Molson.
Yes, it's great a country so great. Ninety percent of them.
Live and I know how to speak the language. Eh, I'm not some kind of just this hoser coming across the border. You know, I know about Timphorton's I know the history of hockey basically, and so I think I should qualify.
Can we talk for a minute about cash Betown? Again, I am not a lawyer. He does not seem to be well suited for the job of FBI director.
Discuss Well, it depends on what your conception of the FBI director is. If you're if you want a neutral forcement officer, he's probably not your guy. But if you wanted someone who is going to basically undermine law enforcement and destroy the agency and seek vengeance upon your enemies, he's the perfect choice.
And let's just go a step further with this. I personally, as someone whose grandfather was child by the FBI by an out of control FBI director named jadgarb.
Your family has just a bunch of communists, right, You.
Even admit that he was a communist because they were very you know, they were artists and bohemians who believed.
Oh right, right, right, right right. You got to watch those artists. I mean, who who you know? There was this painter in Vienna, the whole lot of trouble ones.
He was more he was more a dictator than a painter. But yes, so let's just talk about this a second. I mean, it seems like I was very I thought there was a chance that Republican senators. I didn't think there was a chance, but I hoped that the media could bully Republican senators into taking their advice and consent rale Article two, Section two. Seriously, it seems like that is unlikely.
Yeah, I look, I mean, don't you can't tell with the largin in the Senate what it is. You can't really tell what's going to happen, because again, it only takes two or three people. Maybe somebody can't make it, the prim the poet. I don't know anything can happen here. I do think, as I've been saying repeatedly over the past few weeks, prompted by similar discussions about similarly situated nominees,
some of whom have more baggage than others. But I hate Choli saying, I think that you cannot go broke
Benning on the spinelessness of Republican senators. So I think the best that we're that the republic is going to get out of Republican senators in this season of insanely in a pro briate and unqualified nominees is that we're going to see a bunch of them get through, and a couple of them will be taken down like Gates already, and then the Republican centator to say, see, we fulfilled our advice and consent because this one was withdrawn or we didn't vote this one out of committee, and then
they're just gan' to let most of them through. If you stand the line, if you are a Republican centator, donread hear either Makowski or Collins or all the Collins will just say these people will learn their lessons. If you basically vote like a normal human being on each one of these nominees separately, you basically would vote them all down. Nobody in the Republican Party is going to tolerate the political heat that they would get from the right and from Trump and the bashing that would occur
if you vote them all down. So what they'll do is they'll pick a couple, they'll stick together on a couple maybe, and a couple of them will go down. We already I think we're already at least halfway to the quota with Gates going down and most of the people they might get through.
This is the thing I'm always conflicted about with Trump world. You have cabinet members who are good at this and have a have been tasked with dismantling the administrative state, and are you know real project twenty twenty five guys like Russ Vaud Right, that guy really he is. You know, he's been at omb before. He's coming back.
He's actually knows how to work his bureaucrausy, but he wants.
To work the bureaucracy almost completely to help Trump.
Right, he has his own agenda and he's using Trump for agenda, you know. I mean basically, the conservative project was always to reduce the size of government back.
In the day drownded in the bathtub round it.
Well, that's the extreme version of it. But it never really succeeded because it turns out people like expensive.
Goud government. Right. I know this pains you.
I know it pains me, but it's like, okay, that's fine. But now what happened was the right became very frustrated, or at least the more ideological parts of the right became frustrated, and this became sort of like a nihilistic effort basically destroy all institutions since trying to sort of cut them one by one easy have to take responsibility for cutting this program and cutting that program, and that a. They want to basically create so much chaos that the
government collapses women and of itself. They want to destroy the government and then they'll just say, see they're not going to take responsibility for it, and they just see, look at how terrible a system we had.
This sort of tugs at your heart strings a little bit because this is the ethos in which you used to believe.
No, I didn't never believe in utter nihilistic destruction, but you know I wouldn't mind.
Making the government smaller. I'm not criticizing you.
Yeah, right, but this is sort of like, let's just jump off the bridge because I don't.
Know, it's very chaotic.
It's throwing the baby out with the bath water. That's a bad matter, No, but that's right. But basically it's become very very nihilist, stick and destructive. And you know, if you believe in a less powerful government, you're actually what you're going to get when you get this kind of chaos is you're going to get a war up Berntarian government and it's not going to be any smaller. That's the goal, right, Well, because they can't win in
an election. I don't know what's going on in South Korea, but I read this morning that they declare martial law in South Korea, because I mean, this was the statement of the South Korean president that the opposition controls parliament and they rejected as budget proposed.
Yeah that seems bad.
Yeah, that seem great.
Yeah, so let's talk about that for another minute. That I think makes a lot of sense. But do you think they can do that? Yes?
I think in the following sense, it is easier to nihilistically and randomly destroy things that it is to actually skuld They've just decided that the way that they're going to fix all the problems is by creating more darts. And they're good at this. This is one thing they could be actually good at because you don't have to be confident to drive a car off a cliff.
And you think that sort of that's where this is going.
Yeah, I think we're headed toward chaos. And that's why I don't think he particularly cares. Trump cares about whether this nominee goes down or that nominee goes down, because it's not about it's OK, I got more.
I think what's important here is that there are many fractions in this group, and what Trump wants and what Russ Vaught wants are two different things.
That's probably true. Trump doesn't care about policy, okay. He cares about being in control and being in command and the adoration and to the extent that the people don't adore him, seeking revenge on those who don't adore him because they are the enemy. That's all he cares about. It's very, very simple, and there's never much thought. You can't think in more than one step, like if I do this, then I can do that. The man does not believe in plans because he's a sociopath, and sociopaths
are the relentlessly impulsive. But people like law, they have plans, and they have specific plans that may end up creating political problems for Trump. But on the other hand, Trump is not money for anything. So that's a major that's a major, major difference between now and last time, because he's not running for anything because he's old and being you can make, you know, deep down industrially, you can become president of life. I think there is daylight ultimately
between what the technocrat nihilists like want and Trump. But on the other hand, Trump doesn't care, because it's like he doesn't care. He almost doesn't care about his political standing.
So there's going to be a cr in Congress, a spending bil that will take them till next year, when Republicans will then control the Senate, the House, and the President. Say, in twenty sixteen, Republicans had this same trifactor and they shut down the government. It is very possible we're going to head to that in January. It's possible won't, but
it's very possibile we will. And I want you to talk about this sort of fractions because I see fractions in this Republican governing machine, right, like because you have the RFK. I mean even Trump he won with this tent that is almost untenable.
Right But again, they're a nihilists and at the end, at the end of the day, they want confusion and chaos. And as long as everybody gets their own little piece of a pie and gets the display and get their own little grip, a lot of people are going to be happy. But yeah, you're right, there are factions. And I think what would have happened if Trump had lost
is all these factions would have been at hrproats. I mean, one of the things I said over last year that I believe is, and I still believe it, is that if Trump had lost the election, the Republican Party we have been completely fractured because of all these factions trying
to kill each other and take each other out. And we're still seeing a lot of that, I think in the State Party, but I don't see it now happening at the national level because basically they do have a way to take that energy and do something with it, which is to basically dismantle a government, try to undermine every which way.
So again, democrats need to protect institutions and norms.
Yes, I don't think there's democrats. I think anybody who actually knows how the world works and how our government works and how economy works has to try to prefer institution because that stability, even even if it's imperfect, which it is and there always will be, that stability is what enables us to be the most prosperous nation in the world where people, you know, in the nation where everybody wants to come instead of leaving to go to Canada.
Right now, let's talk about the Hunter Biden part.
I have very mixed feelings about the Hunter Biden part. I think it's a bad thing for the president to pardon a relative as a general proposition. I think it was wrong for Bill Clinton to do it with Roger. I think in other circumstances, I think the pardon power is one of the most abused presidential powers. There's no punch about there, and the Mark Rich Barden, you can name so many others over the years. I don't like it. On the other hand, I understand why he did it.
I empathize with why he did it. I mean, there's no question in my mind, I think it made. The case has been made persuasively that but for his last name, he would not have been Hunter Biden would not have been charged, and none of this would have happened, and none of this would have happened if the Republicans weren't looking for some kind of a scapegoat to create a false equivalency and create the story that the Biden family
is more corrupt than the Trunk family. All right, So I empathize and sympathize President, and I sympathize with Hunter Biden. On the other hand, he did come in acrome at least one crime, has been found guilty of that firearms offense, and the jury didn't seem to have like a problem
with that. He did plead guilty to the tax charge, which is a minor charge, and I might have been okay with a pardon that covered offenses that he hasn't been found guilty of and hasn't pled to, because that, I think is the one justification that I can accept for this part, which would be that they're going to continue. This man has suffered enough, he has already been prosecuted,
he was he is going to do time. At least he would have done time or or something, or serve some sentence or paid a fine, whatever is THEE would have done for to him. And I think the real justification for the part is that there's going to be future vindictive action by the next administration. And so that's why I would have had partner for any and all offenses other than the ones that he's already played to
or that he's been convicted of by a jury. All that being said, I think it's just ridiculous to keep talking about because the more we talk about it, the more we play into the false equivalency between Trump and by everyone else, you know, and you were getting ragged about basically saying I have to process this. And the reason why that was the right position was it's not a black and white issue exactly, unless you just look at it very areas a black and white issue. Should
president's pardon relatives? The answer is yes, black and white. No. On the other hand, is this a totally totally suey generous situation? And on the other hand, again it's like, is this even a nanometer compared to the light years of corruption that we've seen and are about to see
from Trump. I can't get into this false equivalency, this double standard whereby a Democrat does something wrong, a Trump opponent does something wrong that you shouldn't have done, and therefore everybody gets to do bad things.
Yep, I agree. I think that's exactly the answer. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. George Conway.
Okay, that was it. That's it.
Heather Williams is the president of the Democratic ledge Slative Campaign Committee. Welcome to Fast Politics, Heather, thank you.
I'm happy to be here.
So tell us what it is you exactly that you do.
So we at DLCC are the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. We are the Democratic Party's arm responsible for state legislatures, and our job is to build power in states, to create democratic majorities, to protect those majorities that we have all across the country. And I think every cycle we determined the battlefield, the playing field where the greatest opportunities are to build or protect power in the states.
Let's do a quick post mortem. How did you guys do so?
This is an interesting question, and it's interesting because when you look at what happened in state legislatures vis a VI, what happened at the top of the ticket, you would have expect Democrats to have our really rough night. What actually happened was we were able to prevent a red wave in the states. In twenty twenty three, we picked up the Virginia House, and in twenty twenty four, we were able to hold on to the Pennsylvania House by
like one seat, by one seat. That's exactly right. We've defended that chamber so many times, and Pennsylvania obviously did not see the same results up and down the ballot, but we were able to hold on to that legislature. In Minnesota, we held on to the Minnesota Senate in a special election and we held on to a tie in the Minnesota House, preventing obviously Republicans from gaining full control there. And you know, the place that we did
see a change in power was the Michigan House. But interestingly, it wasn't a landslide. We saw a shift of three seats. We had a one seat majority, so that state is still in play. And then I think one of the brightest sort of shining moments in twenty twenty four came in North Carolina where we broke the Republican super majority, ensuring that incoming Governor Josh Stein had the veto pen
which is so important in that st date. And we picked up a bunch of seats in Wisconsin, and broadly, I think the good news is is all of these places remain very competitive as we move from the twenty twenty four cycle into the twenty twenty six cycle.
One of the interesting things about this election, besides the fact that Americans have re elected a convicted felon who has got plans for an even worse second term than the first, is that they didn't necessarily vote Republican down the ballot. And I have a theory that I want you to talk about because I think it relates to these state legislatures too. It strikes me that the brand that is the most popular, at least was in the twenty twenty four cycle, was Trump is on? Was Trump
not necessarily Trump isn't even than Trump? And then below that was Democrats and then the Republicans like that the Democratic brand in itself is not necessarily bad.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I think one of the things that we really benefit from in our placement on the ballot and in the sort of electoral environment that we work in is that our elected officials and our candidates still live in their communities, and I think, to your exact point, they are able to tell the story of democratic leadership, of Democratic party values, of the things that Democrats are out there fighting for every single day
in such an authentic and personal way. You know, they were able to bring to life things like the infrastructure Bill and talk about it in context of their community, in terms of good paying jobs, in terms of better infrastructure in their community, helping connect neighborhoods, or you know, fixing a bridge or whatever it may be. And there is something that, you know, just that allows them to bring these sort of wonky policies to life and to
place them in voters backyard. And I agree. I think that Democrats had places where we were able to tell really strong stories about our you know, solutions for people's pocketbooks and how we were going to have an impact on ensuring that you know, we had equitable access to health care and that we had good access to reproductive health care, that our democracy was strong, and that we were fighting for you know, good public education for our kids.
And there is something just really tangible about having the person delivering that message be a member of your community fabric and being able to tell that to you face to face on the doors.
Yeah, exactly. First talk to me about what you guys can do right now to protect citizens from the uglier parts of Trumpism.
Something interesting is, you know, this administration, as Trump administration, comes of course in with more knowledge than they did when they came into power in twenty seventeen. But we also have a much stronger firewall.
In the states in twenty sixteen, and Democrats were really behind when it came to state legislatures. That's not as true anymore, right.
Yeah, I mean, listen, we still need a party strategy that considers the states as important as building power in our federal government right and in the White House. But while we continue right to work towards that and advocate for that, we have seen increased power and increased attention on the states, and the strength of our firewall in
state legislatures has never been more important. We know that nearly half of Americans will continue to be protected by at least one Democratic majority in their state house.
And when to your.
Exact point, when Donald Trump won in twenty sixteen, there were just twenty nine Democratic majorities, and now we have
at least thirty nine. So we've made progress, We've learned a lot, We've continued to build up this firewall, and we have really strong leaders in these states, candidly and honestly in both red and blue states, who are ready to fight for their community, who are ready to ensure that you know, we are our country that is still like rich in good quality public education, that we are still fighting for strong wages and a strong middle class, that we are still you know, working to ensure that
we have equitable health care in this country, and we're going to continue to see that fight happen in the states.
Yeah, talk to me about like for example, what the landscape now looks like going into twenty five, because twenty five has interesting off your elections.
Right, Yeah, we are at a ballot level that sort of perpetually has elections, And in fact, before we even get to November of twenty twenty five, where Virginia will have really really critically important elections, we've got a string of special elections coming up, three of them in Virginia in fact, beginning of January January seventh, and one of those is in the House where we just have a
one seat majority. So we're going to keep our eye on that and be able to tell the story of what those opportunities are and who those candidates are as we truly transition from twenty four into twenty five. After those special elections, we will continue to see lots of special elections in the states.
We always do that.
The real prize in twenty twenty five is ensuring that we hold the House Chamber in Virginia, and then we transition into twenty twenty six, where as we were just talking about a little bit earlier, we're back fighting in these battleground states in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, and doing some analysis on where other opportunities may be for Democrats as we move into these midterms.
You're going to have a governor race in Virginia and also where else.
The governor's race. I'll be in Virginia and we'll have that House Chamber to defend. In addition, we'll see races in New Jersey.
Oh, that's right. I want you to talk a little bit about how do you legislate in a period like this where Republicans control all three branches of the federal government.
That's an interesting question coming into this administration. I mean, one, we've been sort of sounding this alarm about state legislatures being on the forefront of shaping the agenda of the Democratic Party and really being the ones that can show people what is possible and the kind of, you know, communities that we're trying to create. I don't think that that has ever been more true. Now we're going to see this administration obviously move all kinds of stuff into
the states. Project twenty twenty five is their agenda, and so much of what that does is push all kinds of decisions to the states. And we're going to continue to see fifty percent of Americans, nearly fifty percent of Americans. They're building resilient communities protecting their rights because Democrats are in charge, and we're going to continue to see, you know, Republicans in the states that they have power creator our
communities and our rights. And I think as we think about where this administration's agenda is going, I mean, just if we talked about the Department of Education alone, that is going to be if they accomplish their goal, that is going to completely move into the states, and it is going to be our state legislators that are going to determine the funding that ensures that our schools, our
public schools, are safe and equitable for all kids. That we're creating the kinds of opportunities and experiences that allow the future generations of this country to be well informed and really strong citizens and great leaders for what comes next in this country. And I feel like that's just
one piece of the puzzle. So much of it is going to get pushed into the states, and you're going to see Democrats lead strongly, and you're going to continue to see Republicans maneuver their power for their own interests.
State legislature is where some of the craziest legislation is born, at least on the Republican side. That's everything from heart beat bills to anti trans legislation to they threw up a lot of travel ins and qrazy ways. Republicans do that because they have things like ALEC. Right, they have Republican donor funded organizations. Is that rite legislation for them that helps them try to craft legislation to get these ideas going. Do Democrats have the same thing? And if it's not, why not?
Your point is exactly right. And now as we head into twenty twenty five and in again to this new administration, not only do they have ALEC who will write and draft bills that can be used, but they have the full playbook in Project twenty twenty five on the internet right, like everyone knows what they're trying to accomplish, which in many ways arguably like makes ALEX work more visible and
also gives them a direct place to go. You know, I don't think the story of Democrats looks exactly like that, and that I actually don't know that it should. Part of what we've experienced so much at this ballot level is, you know, Democrats going to their state capitals to advocate for what these communities need. And while we share in this country a set of challenges and opportunities, our communities
all look different and they should. And what we see are you know, state legislators who are you know, representing rural or urban or ex surban or maybe they're representing a community that has some kind of business headquarters or they've got a you know, strong perk system or whatever it may be. They're going to their sit capital advocating for that community and trying to solve the problems and
create opportunities that exist there. And I don't know that that is a perfect written bill that can be applied everywhere. Maybe that is too much of a like an optimistic way to look at it. But I think the thing that makes what happens in our state House is so important and in many ways like so honest and authentic, is that they really are advocating for their communities. And there's lots of different ways to do that, and they
yet to you know, do that on their own. And it's not to say that we don't have of a great community infrastructure that helps to tell the story of issues and helps to try to find ways to solve it.
I'm going to give you a hard time here. What if Democrats had the same kind of mechanism to do things. So, for example, let's talk about Mallory mcmorrow's in the state legislature in Michigan. Amazing, incredible, incredible legislator or everybody loves her, she's really a superstar. What if Mallory McMorrow had you know, what if these legislators had bills that were, you know, pre written the way an ALEC bill was. But you know,
Mallory's not going to need it. But someone, you know, the one beleaguered State House Rep. In Huxatani, Pennsylvania, what if they had pre written bills that were like free breakfast for kindergarteners or protecting public education. Even though Democrats don't act like that and they're not craving like that, it's just more of a thought experiment. What if there was a place for that kind of cravenness, but to legislate for the good.
Well, I would say two things. One, Senator McMorrow is also an incredible communicator, and she's able to tell the story of a moment or of an issue in such an incredible way. And there's a lot of power in that and that is I think it's both hard to replicate and it is a skill that is not universally shared. So I think she's got that ability to do that.
But my idea is more just like should that mechanism exist?
You know, I think you can make the argument that in some ways it does. Take the free school lunches, free food for kids at schools. We saw this past in Minnesota, we saw it pass in a number of other places. Our media environment, for all its challenges, also creates opportunity where you know that stuff isn't done in
a vacuum, it's not done behind closed doors. And I think some of what Ali was able to do when it started was there just wasn't the amount of attention on legislatures that there is now, and so there need to create the kind of model policy had more value at that time than it does now because now I can access everything in a real way and we see issues move. And so we saw this the free food for kids, free lunches in breakfast like travel to a
number of states. And I think that's a great example of sort of the system working in sort of an honest way where there's good ideas put into the world and someone moves forward with it and someone else is able to grab onto it.
It's a really good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. Malarie mcmaar was amazing. She was just an example of state legislator who has become through her own incredible ability to connect and real celebrity. This is so interesting. What do you just give us a last thing? If you're a person listening to this podcast and you're despairing, what should they do.
I hope this is not come across as sort of out of touch, but I think we just can't give up. And the greatest thing about state legislatures and state legislative candidates is they're going to show up in their state capitals, in your backyard and in January when they go into session, and they are going to do good things and it's going to happen quickly because that is how the system is designed, and I think it's We definitely did not take the step forward that we had hoped in this election,
but we are not completely in the dark place. There is hope and there is opportunity to continue to make progress on the things that we care about to ensure that we've got strong, resilient communities and to find a local candidate in your state or in your neighborhood who is raising their hand to run for office, or maybe it's you, and getting up and getting into your community, and knowing that there is still things that we can affect in our state legislatures. So all hope is not lost.
It's going to take all of us sort of rising and falling at different times and feeling the impact and the weight of these results and holding space for that, but also knowing that there are people who are getting back up on the saddle and ready to fight once again, because that's how we continue to make progress.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
No moment.
Jesse Cannon, Ma.
You know, we live in a country that is depressing when our bills are being written about conspiracy theories that are totally stupid. What are you seeing here?
I mean, I feel like this is Florida man. Yeah, this is Florida man. Legislation so Florida Bill to ban weather modification introduced in response to conspiracies theories about government made hurricanes. It's very easy to ban things that don't happen, and this is part of the central tenet of MAGA is to create bills that ban things that aren't real. And now Florida is going to ban weather modification, which is not happening, at least not in Florida, and they
don't want cloud seating to happen. And so it's I mean because of crazy conspiracy theories about government and made hurricanes. There are no government made hurricanes, and Florida is going to make sure her do. I mean, like there's you know, cloud seating has its own problems, but this is not what this is. This is just crazy nos.
Yeah, I say, you google harp and get word Bolli. Jesus.
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.