America's Existential Crisis

our interview that is coming up next. And you know, there are a lot of times UM when political analysts scholars will dig into why they believe, um the Democratic Party is facing the challenges that it is facing, why Republicans seem to be able to win these culture wars that they start, and they will offer in their deep dives many of the reasons and the ways in which Democrats need to stay away from progressivism, that Democrats need to pay attention to quote unquote working class voters, and

so on and so forth. And I have to tell you that I am really tired of having the same conversations over and over again. And I'm also really tired of folks having conversations and debates and totally disregarding the

role that race and racism plays. It is intellectually dishonest to continue to have conversations about how and why our democracy is failing and considering and continuing to have conversations and talk about particular classes of voters, when in fact you were just talking about white people and how to keep white people happy so that the Democratic Party can win.

And when people continue to say things like, oh, well, we need to go after swing voters and we need to move at a pace that is comfortable for the majority, what you are saying is that by even articulating the reality that is racism and segregation in this country, that Democrats will be doing themselves a disservice. That Republicans are able to continue to use the politics of manipulation and identity politics for their gain while stirring the pot for

their aggrieved white working class base. But that Democrats, if you were to then actually peel apart the lump, the lumping of people of color and have honest conversations about the needs of these groups and how they are reflected back in the needs of the majority of Americans, then somehow you're going to piss off white people and then you're going to lose everything. The fact remains, folks, and I don't know how many fucking times that we have

to say this. White men don't vote for Democrats, White women don't vote for Democrats, they never fucking and they never will again. Why because once the party opened itself up to people of color and started to advance policies and initiatives that would benefit those that were purposefully marginalized and left out of the American dream, white people fled.

And so the only way to have an honest conversation about the direction that this country is going to go in is to say whether or not Democrats will once again follow in the footsteps of Republicans and ignore their growing base, ignore the Democratic the demographic shift, in favor of continuing to go after and water down policies so

that white people remain fucking comfortable. There is no difference in the article that I am about to read to you and what it is that Dissantis is doing in Florida to ensure that white Floridians remain comfortable, right, Because until we decide that we are no longer going to offer up a body politic that is centered on whiteness, white wealth, white comfort, white growth, then we are never going to actually solve the problems that are facing this country.

Because you see here in the conversation that Jonathan and I will have, which I think is in my humble opinion, one of the most important conversations that Jonathan and I

have had in the last two years together. It is the most honest conversation that we have had, not just talking about one particular issue, whether it's COVID or gun rights or voting rights, but no talking about the collective right, because that is the problem in general with America right now, is that we don't talk about the collective, that we don't talk about the community. That instead we only talk

about one group, and that is white people. And we use every single fucking phrase and word to describe the needs of white people without journalists and analysts and scholars actually using the word white. And I am tired of

the bullshit and we'll call it out. So here's this article right now that was up in the Washington Post earlier this week, and it's entitled Democrats are engaged in a new politics of evasion that could cost them in twenty twenty four, new study says, and it's written by Dan Balls, who's the chief correspondent, and it brings up this new report that is being done thirty three years after the original by Elaine Camrack and William A. Gulston

and These are two scholars from the Brookings Institute that initially wrote The Politics of Avasion back in nineteen eighty nine after Mike Decoccus lost the presidential race. And this was their examination because over the last several right they believe it was the last six presidential elections between I believe it is nineteen sixty eight and a nineteen eighty nine, Democrats lost all but one Jimmy Carter, who would then

only go to serve one term. Republicans were winning all of them, and not only winning, but winning the electoral votes in a significant margin as compared to Democrats. Now, we have to understand that what was happening thirty three years ago, it's not the same as what is happening now. Climate change wasn't even in our lexicon at that time, right.

And the fact is, while killings of black people, while the racial wealth gap was still in existence, while all of these things, we weren't having those conversations out in the open because no one gave a shit about black people. Now that's not to say that people actually care now, because they do not. But I want to unpack pieces of this article and pieces of the quotes that are taken from the report that was done by this group,

these two political people at the Progressive Policy Institute. Excuse me, So, these two folks, William Galston and Elaine Camerack wrote this report initially thirty three years ago. They have revamped it for the politics of this moment, and it's been covered in the Washington Post. Here's one of their opening quotes. A Democrat loss in a Democratic loss in the twenty twenty four presidential election may well have a catastrophic consequences for the country. We know this, right, We know that

there is catastrophic consequences. But I want you to understand the three things that they believe are the pervasive myths that Democrats have been organizing around or have been completely disorganized around, depending on how you look at this picture. But here is what they believe. The three things that are leading Democrats astray. Number one, people of color, the grouping of people of color that they all think an act alike. That's number one. Number two that economics Trump's culture.

And number three, which is one that I strongly disagree with, a progressive majority is emerging. These are the myths that they outline that Democrats actually need to understand. But I want to read you this as well, because I find all of this so like I want to scream. This is why I'm taking my time. So this is directly

from the article quote. Their analysis is a centrist critique of a party that they fear has moved too far to the left and in the process increasingly has lost touch with the swing voters right and I'm using air quotes for those that are listening for the swing voters

who still have the power to decide elections. Its publication comes a week after voters in San Francisco recalled three members of the local school board in a battle that underscored the limits of left wing politics even in such a liberal city, and an outcome that's set off alarms inside the party. Gallston and Camerack argue that in an age of close elections, five of the past six were decided by five points or fewer, mobilizing base voters is

not enough to assure success. Now, let me pause right here, because that is utter and complete trash. Why do I think that? Because all Republicans do is organize and strengthen their base. Their base is white evangelical Christians that they have been pushing forward their agenda for the last four fucking decades. The problem with Democrats isn't that they actually

pander to their base, which they don't. All Democrats have been doing over the past three and four decades is pandering to the group of white working class Americans that don't fuck with them and have never fucked with them. Right. When have Democrats actually quote unquote tried to ensure the success of their base, which is Black Americans, Latin X Americans,

LGBTQ Americans, those that live at the intersections, young Americans. Right, when have they ever offered up policies that have been polled that have said that if you do these things, these people are with you. For instance, fucking voting rights right number two, student loan debt relief number three, fucking action on climate change. These are not quote unquote progressive

and overreaches in policy. They are actually the fundamentals of creating a secured democracy, right, One that allows people to have financial freedom, one that allows them the liberty that is said in our Creed, of being able to choose their representatives and to create a government that is foreigned

by the people. And then the other is tackling Oh, I don't know the existential of existential crises, which is the fact that our climate isn't just slow pace changing, it is rapidly fucking changing, and we all see it happening now with our own eyes. In the same way in the movie don't look Up said there's a comet coming. Oh, but we'll wait until we see it, and it's too late for us to actually make any changes. So these are not liberal ideas. They're the foundation of how you

secure a fucking country in a changing world. And so again, stop with the lies, right, stop, stop with the analysis that doesn't actually use a racialized lens, which is all that America has ever used, which is why we have such an extreme gap in health and wealth in this

country depending on your race. Let me take a breath, because I am It is this type of critique, dear friends, these type of articles that allow democrats to have the cover to once again disregard the group that gets them to power in the first place, in right, in exchange for their desire to chase after this very small, fleeting, shrinking class of people, white people. Let me go on.

This is what they say in the report quote. Even though deepening partisanship has reduced the number of swing voters. Oh really, the narrow margins of our national elections have made these voters more important than ever. This reality will dominate national politics until one party breaks the deadlock of the past three decades and creates a decisive national majority. Now, let us also once again be very clear about how each of these parties actually think about breaking this deadlock

that they are talking about. So, how do you have a decisive national majority? If you are a Republican, you roll out four hundred voter suppression laws across the country in every single state. That's number one. Number two, You roll back policies that Americans actually voted for in places like Florida that would restore voting rights to those that

were previously incarcerated. You roll that back. Right. You make examples of people who have one accidentally voted, and if they are people of color, you throw them in jail, like they did in Texas for six federal for six years in federal prison, well over the time that you get for actually killing a black person. Right in these United States, you do everything in your power not to win more votes, but to make sure that those that

you know will not vote for you cannot vote. So it is really easy, right to look at the governorships that are held by a majority of Republicans and decide that you're not looking for new voters, you're looking to restrict the number of people that are able to vote.

So again saying that what will dominate the national politics without unpacking the strategies that both parties are using, one being both of them being completely and totally legal because we don't make voting a fundamental part of our push to secure our democracy. We think that it's a nice to have, right. Oh, we would be nice to name a bill after the late great John Lewis and then get that pass. But don't you know, we're not going to do it. But we'll keep fighting, is what democrats do.

And what I realize here, folks, is that you have two parties one that is woefully, woefully ineffective, right. And it isn't just with regard to the three ways in which they decide to evade reality. It's the fact that

both parties center whiteness. Republicans do so in a way that tells white people that they are aggrieved, that they are owed right, and that anyone that gets in their way is somehow undeserving right, and so because they are undeserving, we need to either strip away right the law that allowed them to somehow begin to close these very large

gaps right in our society. And then you have Democrats on the other hand that want to say to these people, oh, we're fighting for you, We're here for you, and give a bunch of lip service, but then actually not put any strategies that are in place because they also don't want to upset white people. So you see who is winning on both sides and who gets completely fucking overlooked and erased. And what this article fails to actually recognize

and spotlight, which is that truth. Why are the white working class and white wealthy people running to the Republican Party because not because of economic anxiety, but because of the fact that they are going to lose power in the next few years, and so in order to not lose power, they need to go with the party that is going to create and a part tied situation in the United States once again, so that they remain on top. And then you have the other party that doesn't want

to see race right. They are the literal white moderates that Martin Luther King Jr. Warned us about, warned us about, but that we're still digging around with. That's the situation that we are in. That's the reality, and so it isn't And then this is what they say. For that, I gotta this is a point that I want to read and I want to get your thoughts on what you think here about what is said and what is

not actually said. Democrats, they write, must consider the possibility that Hispanics will turn out to be the Italians of the twenty first century, family oriented, religious, patriotic, striving to to succeed in their adopted country, and supportive of public policies that expand economic opportunity without dictating results. They note that ultimately, quote, Italians became Republicans. Democrats must rethink their approach if they hope to retain majority support among Hispanics. So,

once again, let me break this down. What did Italians do when they came to the United States and there were signs up in windows that said, do not hire Italians After they were literally ghetto wised and marginalized. Those same people, right, the ancestors of the people that live

in this country now change their fucking names. They change their names and they change their accents, right, and they disavowed themselves of many of their heritages just enough so that they could assimilate into an increasingly hostile and discriminatory country. They were able to do that because you see, they don't wear their differences on the outside like black people do.

And so what this statement is saying without actually saying and delving into that reality, is that Hispanics will have the opportunity, particularly white Latinos, will have the opportunity right to you know, assimilate more into America if they don't align themselves right with say, the immigration movement, with let's say, the education movement, with let's say, as long as they recognize that if they align themselves more so to the proximity of whiteness, even though they are not white, that

they will fare better, That they will be then the next class that people are, the next group that people are chasing, that politicians are chasing. But you see, they can say all of those things without giving the contexts to the situation in which Italians came to this country, Right, It's just so frustrating. Folks like I am deeply frustrated when I see conversations like this happen, and I am hopeful.

I am hopeful that in the coming weeks we will have the authors of this report on woke a f because I have real questions that I want to ask, because I don't understand how, once again it is being looked at through this quote unquote neutral white gaze and perspective that disavows racism and race and the complexities of those issues in this country, and how it has always

been embedded into our politics and into our policies. And if we're not going to tell the truth, then how are we going to come up with a plan that is actually going to fight against this fascist and authoritarianism regime When all you're trying to do is what wardered down said politics, policies that are actually needed to close gaps and to better this country and to strengthen our democracy. How are we going to be able to do these things when we are not telling the truth about the

origins of the fucking problem. So coming up next, Jonathan and I will dig into a very in depth conversation about this America's existential crises and whether or not we have the strength of fortitude or the desire to try and fix what is broken in America. Folks. There is a lot going on in the world in America and society in my own mind right now, and there's no one better to walk us through this than our favorite

Wednesday guest, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of Dying of Whiteness. Jonathan, you know, oftentimes when there is so much going on, I always say to the guests, what are you paying attention to? I think that that is like a really heavy question these days, because what are you not paying attention to? You have NPR recognizing the fact that we have a new variant B dot a dot two of

COVID nineteen news broke that. Guess what. Boris Johnson has decided that he's rolling back all COVID protections in the

all COVID restrictions in the UK. You have impending war happening in Russia, which has been impending at least for the last two months whenever Putin rolled out one hundred and fifty thousand troops to encircle the Ukraine and then now has made moves about recognizing other parts of the Ukraine as independent vessels to then deflate Ukraine's power as a as a solo nation um and then the United States deciding that they're going to roll out what more,

I don't even know. So I say all that to say, Jonathan, not to mention the fact that you can get more time in jail for killing a dog or dog fighting like Michael Vick did than Kim Potter did for killing an unarmed young black man at the prime of his life who was also a father. And then you can listen to a judge go off on the empathy for this horrible mistake, a mistake that stole a child from their mother. But let us only look at the tears of white women. So when I say, what are you

paying attention to? What are you paying attention to? Well, it's a it's a we're having a moment on our planet right now, and it's not a good moment. I think you're right. I mean, I think you and I are probably we should just do this, we should do this show at three thirty in the morning, because I bet you and I are probably both awake. Um, you know, It's it's just it's a really hard moment right now,

because two things I will say. First of all, well, I mean I've been thinking a lot about Rocky four and how how the Russians used to be the bad guy. You know, they killed Apollo Creed and um, and they had to pay for that. Um. And then and then we had this danumant our system went out. It was better Rocky went to Russia. UM. You know, he promoted change in the final scene of Rocky four. It was a moment where our side was winning. And Rocky also you know, made Vondrago pay for what he did in

a certain kind of way. So think of all the work that went into that. You know, Rocky had trained through three movies. Um. But it also represented like and it's ascendance of our worldview right in a certain kind of ways. So and um, you know I've been teasing my brother loves that. Maybe, so I call him and I quote the final scene of that movie, because Rocky says, if yous can change, we can change, we can all change, or something like that. Like I just call and read

the Rocky quote. But the thing is, it used to be funny when I would do that all the time to him, and now it's actually not that funny anymore. I mean, maybe it wasn't funny in the first place, because did we really win? You know? Is that really what happened or is the loop of history coming back

right now? And so many of us have lived in the past whatever thirty years thinking that the values of our country, which of course have been exposed over the past couple of years and much longer for many people, but the values of our country in opposition to the values of you know, ungoverned, white aggressive fascism, that really we were part of a system that was more vibrant, that people wanted, that allowed creativity and nourishing and all those kind of things. And right now that that seems

like it's up for grabs in a way. I mean, you know, it's it's it's a moment where we rethink, um are you know, they're the dominant narrative. The dominant narrative, for example, is you know, America had a lot of division, but we came together to fight the Nazis and in World War two a victory for a new World order,

all those kind of things. But there was a sub a subtext um in the United States always of kind of the Charles Lindberg's of the world, the people who were saying, what the Nazis aren't that bad, It's just that, you know, the minute Pearl Harbor happened, those voices got silence,

but they didn't go away. And so in a way, right now, it's a it's a really terrifying moment in a way, not just because of the acts of a really an an unhinged aggressor right in Russia with a lot of army and nuclear weapons, um, but also because what it represents for our country, right, this idea that basically um, that form of you know, let's just invade and and you know, let's just invade Arizona or Wisconsin

or something like that. Like I just I see that that logic kind of taking back over the world now. And so it's happening in Russia, but it's also a reflection of kind of a logic that's happening here. And I guess the fear is is our system strong enough to unify in opposition to that kind of I mean, this is honestly, it's not. Yeah, it's I mean it's not. It's I think that you know what what has troubled me,

Jonathan um. And this is why I enjoy our conversations because they're not sound bites, right, because we can actually have a conversation yea, and this better audit but yeah, right, like this warrants more than you know, than than than a minute split between three people on the news. Um

is the reality our our system isn't strong. And I think that that is the thing that we are all still trying to come to understand, is that America's system, political system, all of our systems were based on norms,

were based on a shared belief. I saw your tweet um from from the night before that said, you know you were talking about Rocky for and you're like this the same shared values that we had in in that film, which yes, it's it's a it's a boxing movie, but we all know where we were in the Cold War and why it was such like a major thing, right. It's it's the same reason why we feel a deep sense or used to feel a deep sense of patriotism around the Olympics, right because you get to see America

be great at these you know, at these sports. The reality is is that what what was illuminated, not what Trump created, but what was illuminated during the years of tru was the fact that everything that we have known to be true about America was based on a set of false ideals and understandings, and a basically handshake deals between both parties that we may not like your overt spending and we may not like your conservativism, but at the end of the day, we are Americans, and what

does that believe mean? We believe in freedom, we believe in justice. Now, you can then talk to black Americans and they tell you an entirely different story about the truth about America and its allegiance to justice and liberty and freedom and who has that and who doesn't. You can talk to women, you can talk to poor people, and they have a different understanding of those fundamental shared beliefs.

But if you were to just take the fifty thousand foot view, that's who we were, or that's who we thought this idea of perfecting this imperfect union, right, is that each generation has its work. Now have an entire party. Half of the fucking country is waving Russian flags thinking that Putin is their hero, right and look at him and how strong he is, and he's a strong man, right and and but it's like, so the question our

system strong enough? No, we're not even going to have a free and fair election in a couple of months, let alone in twenty twenty four. So to me, that's not it's not our system strong enough. It's like, what are we going to do? Because the bad is here and it's not going anywhere? So how do we prepare? Is my question? But do you believe that we're even in the mindset to start talking about preparation when we're still literally looking up at the at the comment that's

coming towards us. I think there are two ways to answer that. I mean, one way is a SoundBite, which is that half the country potentially has more in common with Russia than with the ideal of America that fought World War two and and liberated concentration camps. Right that in a way, it's not like we've ever thought there was just one way to be American that we've always had George Wallace, We've always had the Birch Society, you know,

we've always had that stuff. It's just that there was there was a democratic ideal that one out over those things, and that doesn't seem to be the case right now, and so, um, you know, there there was, and so so partially I think that it's like it's a scary moment, not just because of Russia, again, but because of our internal politics where where the forces that support those ideals seem to be on the ropes, you know right now to continue the metaphor and um and so that's one

side of the coin um. And so in a way, just the idea that we're mobilizing to make Russia pay, like sanctions or moving troops to defend our allies, you know that that requires that kind of uniformity. Now, maybe maybe at a time when we're all challenged, we can come together a little more than we're doing. I mean, that would be the optimistic switch spin on this. But we've just seen when we were all facing the coronavirus that in the face of a common enemy, we've become

more divided. And partially that's because of Russian disinformation because of what's happened, but it's also because so much crap has been exposed and amplified in this country that it's going to be hard to it's going to be hard to even conceptualize that we're on the same side. Now. There was a good piece in the Washington Post this morning by some people I think at Brookings that talked about how this is a moment really for Democrats to

come together completely. There were two interesting points of this article. I thought number one is every effort has to be towards saving democracy, not about internal divisions among Democrats. I don't know if that's possible in the Democratic Party, but it basically said that, you know it basically no mystery that you're going to be relegated to perpetual you know, um resistance party if if you don't, if you don't figure out ways to unify and divide and not divide.

And the other interesting point was, I mean, it used a euphemism that I don't like social issues, but it said that Democrats had made a mistake assuming that you could unify the party in economic issues and not better counter like, basically that we've lost the social issues influencing independent swing voters to decide elections to Republicans in a way. So coming together would also be figuring out some common

messaging to win elections based on social issues. That's an awful lot considering it's February and the U and the election is November. But I think that's kind of a sense of what we're faced. Thing right now is a momentous task, because this is a moment where that kind of. I mean, it's all in the context so fascism and all these kind of things in the pandemic, but that kind of turn is happening again in the world, and it's kind of like number one, how can you fight back?

And number two where is safe? I mean that's those are the two kind of questions. And the thing is, you know, is where is safe? Right? Is probably to me the most important question to ask, because my follower would be, well, what does safety actually look like? Right? Because safety in this climate, I mean, you're we name at the top so many different crises that we are facing all at once. Safety looks like what the ability to have a rocket ship so that you can leave Earth?

You know, like it is safety, financial freedom when millions of Americans are saddled with student loan debt, is safety? Health? You know, in a time when we're at close to a million Americans have died of COVID and we have a completely crumbling, deteriorating healthcare system that can't do the bare minimum, let alone be able to operate that at a health pandemic, you have politicians that are advertising their candidacy with using actual guns, right like, and this is

this is now the norm. So I struggle to understand even what we mean collectively when we are talking about safety, because our idea of what feels safe is no longer the same. And I guess for me in a part of the issue is what happens to what we've been calling social justice in that context? Right? So many things have been exposed and illuminated over the past couple of years, and there has been a lot of effort to recognize

the inequities in our society. But I but I feel like when we're faced with such an urgent threat from an external you know, I think the other question that I think will be asking over the next fifty years is, uh, is what happens to internal politics? Right? In a way, What's what's the impact going to be on on education,

on efforts to address inequity? Um? And I think, you know, there's there's really it's it's kind of you know, I just think of Martin Luther King's debate about chaos versus community, like, what what are the people who care about social justice? Do they do they rebel against the system? Do they

say to hell with everything? Is a protest movement where a Balkanized protest movement um or is this let's win elections because we're in a democracy and you and you enact change by winning elections and appointing judges and stuff like that. And I think you know that that's a that's a kind of urgent question. It's ironically the same question. Yeah, but but the stakes are, believe it or not even

higher right now in the middle of a pandemic. The issues are worse in some in some parts of the country, you know, people don't have water, they don't have safety, and so the question is going to be like, what's the response, right, is the response in the system or is the response a kind of giving up on this system? And I think that that I think that that's that's pretty urgent, right, I mean, are people Do people want to be in a perpetual state of resistance to America

right now? Or do they want to try to come together to save America? And I think that's not an easy question given everything we know about America at this moment. God, Jonathan, those are really good and really existential, right, questions that

you know for so long. I feel like people like you and I who been having these conversations for the last two years have been told in so many ways that we are hyperbolic, that elections will continue, democracy will continue, the pandemic will end, life will go back to what it was. And two years later, here we are and things have not gotten better, they've gotten worse. We were waiting on a vaccine. Okay, the vaccine came in, twenty five percent of the population doesn't want to take it.

We thought that we were going, We were in a good place as it pertains to race relations. Then we all collectively watched, in the midst of a pandemic a black man be murdered and broad daylight by a police officer, and we still had to cross our fingers and our tales hoping that that police officer would go to jail for what we all witnessed collectively. And so, you know, the question is, we have so many questions and there aren't a lot of solutions to the moment that we're

in because we've never been here before. And even if we're using history as our guide, the confluence of all of these things, right is what's making it really imposed to come up with a step by step plan to deal with one thing over here when there are eighty five behind it. So I guess you know, the real question for Democrats as we march into the inevitable loss of midterm elections and then the inevitable loss of the presidential in twenty twenty four and the inevitable loss, is like,

what does what does it mean to be safe? And in a country that is becoming increasingly unsafe, do we still profess to look at look after solely the individual or are we interested now in actually looking at the collective, in recognizing that we do need community? Because I'll tell you that one of the things I think was is the major downfall of America is this bullshit idealization of

the rugged individualism. If we actually wore more and more community minded, were more thinking about the collective and the betterment of the whole, we wouldn't be in a lot of these situation that we're in. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a and you know, to even make it even more cheerful, it's also going to be in the context

of a world that rewards um unbridled aggression. Right. I mean I think that I think that the reason the stuff in Ukraine matters so much is because it really is potentially the first domino of many to fall um and I just don't mean Russia, you know, China, um and and the United States in a certain kind of way. Um. And so in a way, it's kind of like the

stakes of of thinking in a collective way. They've never been more important, and they've also never been more difficult that the you know, you don't have the luxury of trying to figure it out. Um. You know, and and so I feel like, you know, just a lot of things are happening at one time right now, and and and it makes sense, you know, our conversations over the past few years really are leading to what's happening now.

In a way, I totally agree with that. But but it's it's just that the where do you go from there? You know, it's funny. I don't want to I did a book club last night for Dying of Whiteness, and the people were amazing. It was an incredible conversation, um. And I was talking about how, you know, the kind of core argument of the book that as a tradeoff for a position atop of social hierarchy, white Americans are being asked and willingly trading away their own lifespans and

and people still couldn't get their heads around it. They kept saying, is it a cult? Is there a is there a DSM diagnosis for Trump? Is there is there um? Like, is this their anxiety about being the demographic minority, you know, in fifty years or forty years or whatever. And I kept saying, you know, I love that. I wish that was the case. Honestly, if they it was just a mental illness, we could just treat them up to illness. But really, what it is is a power graph. What

they're doing is they're they're graving power. And if we pathologize them or moralize using public health and saying, look at how dumb they are they're not getting the vaccine, you kind of missed the point that it's a it's a power graph. And so the question is the response to a power graph is not to show vaccine and vaccination charts, you know, it's actually to respond with power.

And the example I gave was that all the nonsense for the critical race theory stuff for school boards, that the minute they started pulling the CRT stuff, our response was to respond to it in content, to say, oh, critical race theory, it's only from law schools from the seventies. The minute that happened relost in other words, you know, a better response would have been the minute that people

started showing up to school boards. A hundred people show at the school boards, yelling at the school board members. We show up seven thousand people to every school board in support of having different kinds of books in the library and being able to have academic freedom. Other words, where was the mobilization, the mass mobilization in support of our ideals, Like I can't remember that happening one time, Like was there a mass mobilization in response to libraries

banning books? Was? You know, I don't know. I guess we all think it's somebody else's responsibility. But yeah, yeah, And so in a way it's easy to say, oh, it's a mental illness or lookout them they are for not getting things. But the thing is we're in a power struggle, and so when when when they are when all the only video of school boards is people saying throw away the books from the library, and not ten thousand people showing up and saying we support having lots

of books in the library. You know that that's kind of where you've lose rights. It's not about debating the merits of critical race theory. I mean, we should do that also, but it's like the minute you're doing that, you're on you're already playing defense, and you really need

to be playing offense. So I don't know. It's just interesting that even now when I do dying a whiteness, things like what I said in the book club was I'm actually arguing against the conclusions of my own book, and people will arguing with me, trying to get me to make arguments I made two years ago. I'm like, no, that's not you know, I'm arguing against myself. So it's

it's a weird time, man. And but I think that that's it's so smart, though, Jonathan, because what you what you are modeling in that book club is the fact that like the world around us is evolving, that there is no idea that is immovable, right, Like it just isn't. And it takes you know, recognition and vigilance to recognize that what I thought two years ago is not reality. Now that's the problem you want to It's not a diagnosis, but that's part of the problem of where we are.

Where Republicans want to drag America backwards in the hope that they can stop evolution, that they can stop progress, that they can stop a demographic shift. If we don't talk right about America's origin story, if we continue to whitewash it, if we gas light the entire nation and generations to come, and then remove books, remove education, remove enlightenment,

remove critical thinking. Right, it is it's about power, and it's about control, because if you know nothing right, and you believe that the people that you represent are actually there for your good will but they're not right, then like you're easy to control and manipulate, particularly when the basis like the systems that are supposed to be there to protect you, like our education system, our healthcare system, our environmental system, all of these things are broken down,

then your basic needs aren't even being met. So then what happens, right, violence? Right, Like, so all of these things are bubbling up. We're watching it on a macro scale. Happen in the Ukraine, but to your point, it's happening in the United States. We just don't call them invasions. But I don't know what else you would call what we've seen at school boards. I don't know what else you would call the insurrection. I don't know what else you would call the overtaking of the Capitol Building in

Michigan in twenty twenty. If those aren't those, if we're not using the language to describe what is happening, then we definitely do not have the strategy in place to stop it and also to rebuild the structures that support you know, like think of how much work went into building the public school system, for example, after Brown versus Board of Education rights, massive mobilization of effort and resources

and talent. And so I don't know who's defending those structures right now, because those are the structures that support our world view. I actually don't agree that it's going backwards. Um. I think that it's it's a power graph in a certain kind of way that in a way we have to see it as a zero sum formulation in a way now it feels awfully regressive right because it's anti scientific,

anti expertise, and but but I don't know. Part of what's happening is they're making liberal America or the United States, if you think of the Russian approach right now, pay a high price for supporting pluralistic democracy or social programs. Those become very costly in the face of trying to defend yourself. So it turns, with the strength of liberal America into into real liabilities in a way. And so

the question is what's your response. And again, I with all due respect, I mean, I'm a scholar of critical race theory, right I've built my career on it. But I would also say that fending crediical race theory is not where we need to be right now. It's every time that happens, you mobilize and you support that ideal and you support that structure. I just feel like critical race theory is a textbook example right now of how we got derailed and did not support or fight back

in a way that really took um. You know, you know that that's obviously an effort to control school boards and defund education, but we're too easily derailed. I mean, I think everybody should read that Washington postpace this morning, even though many people want to agree with it, just to just to see about what kind of wents it stayed. I mean, Jonathan, there is so much that is at stake, and I know that we do our very best not to present a dooming gloom perspective, but the reality is

is that if you are not concerned. If you're not up at three am, you're really paying attention. And I do believe in balance, trust me, but I also believe that these times are going to get continue to get more and more increasingly perilous. And the question is what can you do right as individuals, as part of communities to keep yourself safe and examine what that safety looks like in order to be able to make it to the other side. Because the road that we are on,

dear friends, is going to be a long and rough one. Jonathan. We just appreciate each and every week that you are on this road with us, and so we will see what happens next week. Appreciate you. Take everybody in WWRD. What would Rocky do? I haven't beat the shit out of somebody. Yeah, folks, And now for your woke moment of wellness before we close out the show. The articles, these conversations that we are having can be incredibly debilitating, and I mean this, I say this all of the time.

And I talked to you yesterday about feeling guilty with just resting, just laying down on my couch, and so this morning I decided to do a very lengthy meditation usually I do you know, if I have time about five to fifteen minutes right, Yes, this morning I decided to do one that was over thirty minutes because I realized that my my vibration is out of whack right now, that any time that I take a little bit of a break and then dive back in, it's like all

of my nerve endings are on overload. And what I recognize is that for me to be able to focus on what this service is that I am offering, what my purpose is on this planet for as long or as little time as we have left, I need to be able to steady myself. Right. You want to vibrate highly because you are aligned with the most tie. You don't want to be jittery and all over the place because you are taking on all of the negative and

toxic energy that is around you. So for folks who have yet to try meditation or yoga or any type of stillness, I just recommend each and every day finding

time to just be still and breathe. Whether you're listening to a guided meditation, or you have singing bowls that you that you play, or what have you, but just trying your best to put on a timer on your phone to sit still for two minutes and just breathe right and just ground because you will find that in these challenging times that that is going to be a

skill that we are going to need to develop. That if you can find yourself grounded and centered in the midst of in the midst of chaos and conflict, that is going to be how we win, how we win internally, how we stay healthy, and how we continue to stay focused. That, dear friends, is your woke moment of wellness. That is it for me today, dear friends on Woke af as always power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.