Critical Race Theory

the toilet. Success meaning that a year ago, right, a year ago this week, Americans, particularly black Americans, gave President Biden a huge, historic, fucking win by electing him President of the United States. Right. We did so because the four years previous we had been led by a criminal, an idiot, a misogynist, a racist, a homophobe, a transphobe, and every other phobe that you could think of. And we said no to fascism in America, no to authoritarianism,

no to the resurgence of white supremacy. And we thought that by electing Joe Biden and by cleaning out our government agencies, that we would be able to re establish and reimagine how our democracy should work and how it can work for all people. Well, over that year, right Republicans have decided to do the complete and total opposite. They have decided to construct an entire ideology that is steeped and centered around white supremacy. And guess what they

are fucking winning. We thought that they were going to end up doing another autopsy like they did back in the early two thousands one Obama one, that they were going to have to reassess what they were doing, that their allegiance to Trump and America's rejection of him would somehow force Republicans into recognizing their wrongful ways. But no, it did the opposite. They went back into their tool

shed and they just retooled their messaging. But understand this that their messaging has been the fucking same for fifty goddamn years. It has been the ability to tap into white rage and white racism as a way to win elections. They don't need to offer these people anything. And that's what Jonathan and I will talk about later. That's why he wrote his book Dying of Whiteness, because it wasn't about what Democrats can offer you. It was about for

Republicans and for white racists. Who are one and the same. It is about playing the long game. It's about the Supreme Court. For them, it's about ridding this country of be weighed. It is about putting black and brown people in their place. It is about kicking women out of the workforce. And how do you do that. Well, you don't do that by saying it's illegal for women to work. No, you make it illegal for them to be able to have the power to decide when and how and if

they want to start a family, right. You make it damn near impossible, so that there is no planning that they can have. There's a reason why planned parenthood is called planned parenthood, because you have the ability to plan whether or not you actually want to become a parent. But see, what Republicans have always wanted to take away is people's power. That is that their m because the only people that they believe that should have power in

this country are white, cisgender Christian men. That's it. And if you object to that right, then you are thrown out right of the country of the apple cart of their unders standing in their desire right as an American right like you don't exist, You're just they throw the

baby out with the bathwater. So if you don't understand, then, as Democrats, how to appeal to and again I don't mean to win, but how to create an appealing message that not only showcases how fucking wrong Republicans are, but at the end of the day that you're still trying to figure out how to juggle life, You're still trying to figure out how to make ends meet, because again, they're not creating policies and or programs that are allowing

for your life to have any ease. No, because also tied to the fact that they believe in white supremacy is also the fact that they believe in big corporations. They believe in privatization. They believe that government should not do anything for you while they take in your tax dollars. They rake in that money. Right, the form at which you were then paid back for that money is in

social services, is in public education. But the war that they have now, folks, is to not only take your money and give it to big corporations, right, it's also to take your money while they dissolve those agencies and those safety nets to begin with. Take critical race theory as an example. Now, critical race theory is a theory that looks at the founding of this country right through a lens that is outside of the scope of whiteness, that does not only take history through the lens of

the oppressor, but those that were oppressed. Right. It is an idea. It is a theory that is taught in higher education and isn't even taught in our fucking public schools, let alone in Virginia where Glenn Yuncan made it the cornerstone of his campaign. Now, just imagine for a moment that Republicans instead of making the cornerstone of their campaigns, you know, how to keep Americans healthy, particularly as we

are continuing our way through a global health pandemic. How to better educate Americans so that they can get better

paying jobs and compete right globally with their peers. Instead of creating infrastructure plans that look at how we are going to fight against and create buildings, bridges, and roads that are going to be able to deal with these one thousand and one hundred year storms that now are just becoming the norm, instead of doing any of that, Instead of dealing with the problems that are barreling down

on us as a nation and as a Globe. Their decide instead to spend hours and hours of time on Fox News on Newsmax talking about their new boogeyman, which is critical race theory, their idea that we are going to teach white kids how to feel bad about themselves.

I can't tell you how many times I have listened to white parents that the media loves to fucking give their fifteen seconds of fame too, to talk to them about how they don't want their children to feel bad and whatever happen to reading, writing, and arithmetic, Because one, you're not educating a child in the twentieth century anymore, and there is more to learning than those three things.

And also that in order to create a thoughtful, educated, responsible, accountable citizenjury, that one would need to expand our idea of history and understand who has been adversely affected and how we've gotten to the place that we are in right now, right why we have certain policies that only benefit certain groups of people. Glen youngcan made that the cornerstone of his campaign, and by the time that you hear this, he could very well be the new governor

of Virginia. Not because he has offered the Virginia people anything other than taking away abortion and criminalizing public education, and you know, taking away your right to vote, and not believing in climate change and all of these other elements that make up the neo Republican fascist sentiments. But it's working because in Virginia, the number one thing that

voters care about is education. And like I said yesterday, not about making our public schools better, creating better infrastructure in our public schools, hiring more qualified teachers, creating robust curriculum that would have your children be able to compete right globally, right to be able to get those good paying jobs and health benefits and be able to buy a home, all of those points of what it means

to be successful in America. No, No, it is about making sure that we continue to teach white supremacy, that we continue to teach denialism, that we continue to teach about white exceptionalism and white exceptionalism only. And it's working. So why don't Democrats, Why don't they ever have a bottle? Why don't they ever after fifty years of the same fucking dog whistles just repackaged, right, Why don't they ever

have anything to counter? And Jonathan will say the minute that you are on television debating the merits of critical race theory. You are losing because we never create messaging or ask questions that put Republicans on their heels. We never ask Republicans to explain, while in the midst of a global health pandemic, why they don't want robust healthcare

for Americans. We don't talk to Republicans and ask them why they are creating policies that would force women and people with uteruses out of the workforce, right at a time when we are losing standing on the world stage, largely because of their last president, their last deity who decided to turn his back on the world America first, but didn't offer anything to Americans. We don't ask those people, what has the Republican Party done for you? How have

they put more money in your pocket? How have they given you better paying jobs? How have they given you a voice in your democracy? They want to turn around and say parents should have the right to say what it is that their kids are taught and what they aren't taught. Really, because you don't have a fucking degree in education. Really, because the belief should be that your

children end up better off than you are. But we are living in a time when each new generation is actually going to be worse off than their parents and their grandparents. You know why, because the government isn't coming out to help them in the way that they helped their parents and their grandparents. Right there is no loan for homes, There is no loan to help you get out of your student debt or student debt forgiveness. There

is nothing. And that's because Republicans have wanted it that way, because so long as you are left trying barely to survive, they are able to run their authoritarian agenda. So long as you look at both parties as ineffectual, right, then they are able to then say, well, they've suppressed the vote with voter suppression laws, and then they've suppressed the desire to vote because people look around and they're just like, well, what the fuck do democrats do when we give them power?

They argue amongst themselves, we have no wins right now to be able to offer to the American people and say this is what we've done with the power that you've given us over the last eleven months. What are we pointing to? So instead, where Republicans always win are the culture wars, where they always win is through racism. Right There is a war on wokeism right now. There is a war on even allowing and wanting children in

this country to be conscious of the truth. But there was a war on facts that began folks a decade ago. But instead of us dealing with this head on, what did Democrats do? They laughed, and they joked, and they shrugged them. They said, oh, people that are smart won't believe them. But you see, when you do not provide counter messaging that is strong and robust, then you give people no other choice than to consume the lies. This is why I say that Democrats continually believe that Americans

are better than they are. That does not mean that I believe that Americans are bad people know, but I believe that they need to be led right, and the absence of real leadership, they will follow anyone like sheep over a cliff. And that is exactly where we are headed.

When you can turn an election in the midst of a global health pandemic that is killed over seven hundred thousand people in this country, where people millions of people have lost their job or are leaving the workforce, and you have industry across industry on fucking strike right now because they are tired of working for indentured servitude wages.

When you have that perfect storm and the only thing that fucking Republicans are offering is more fuel to the fire of white rage, and they literally aren't offering any other policy. What the fuck are Democrats doing? Why can they not paint that picture? Why aren't they asking the right questions? This is the frustration that I have. And these elections right that are happening this week are going to dictate what twenty twenty two looks like. And it

is not going to be the blue tsunami wave. It just isn't because from the moment that Biden one, he should have had clear messaging on who Democrats are not and what they are bringing to the table, and then win after win after win of the things that they need, so that then you can look to the opposition and say, what have they done for you lately and clearly state nothing.

But that is not where we are. We are right now up Ship's Creek without a fucking paddle and just doing the dance with fascism and authoritarianism because we have no counter narrative. So what this week will prove is the work ahead, and the work ahead, dear friends, is a really fucking deep and I don't know if we have the backbone and have the desire to get the job done. And that is what keeps me up at night. This is what makes me worried on a day to

day basis. Coming up next is my conversation with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of Dying of Whiteness. Folks, you know that I am always so happy each and every week when we get to sit down with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of Dying of Whiteness, which I believe he is a prophet and an oracle, because that's exactly how I believe America will go. It won't be aliens, dear Jonathan, it won't be an invasion

by foreign quote unquote terrorists. It will be of whiteness. Right now, we have critical races. By the time that this airs, we may or may not know who has won the governor's race in Virginia, who has run the governor's race in New Jersey and in other places. But what is troubling to me is that Republicans offer nothing right. What they offer is a rollback of rights, and they

offer a place for the white aggrieved to lay their head. Democrats, however, offer policy change that is supposed to make your daily life better. And yet all we see are polls that are tied. All we see is the idea that as we move into twenty twenty two, into midterms, that we will most likely lose. What do you think, like, what

do you see as as the problem right now? Just with Democrats in general, whether we're talking about this election, that election day, or we're talking about the midterms that we are walking into. It's a supremely frustrating moment. Certainly, the Republicans, there are no surprises, right, Grievance politics, critical race theory, inventing it as blah blah blah. This is the same playbook they've been using for quite a long time now. For me, the frustrating part is the Democrats

don't really have an answer for it yet. And it's only been like twenty years of this playbook or fifty years of this yeah, and so part of the frustrating part for me is I just feel like we're doing

the same thing. So certainly there are of course, I mean, the Republicans recognize that there are that white grievance politics is a winning strategy, and we're of course seeing that right now, but we know that right and so I'm going to be a little critical of the Democrats today at least to begin the conversation, because I also think there were a couple of self inflicted wounds that we've done over the past year that also led us to this moment That don't have to do with something abstract.

It's actually like the concrete world of politics. And number one is I feel like the minute we won the election, we stopped messaging right in a certain kind of way that in a way, the Republicans twenty four to seven, they're messaging, telling people what to think, getting people on board, all this kind of stuff. I don't agree with any of it, but they're basically the Lincoln Project twenty four

seven times a million. And for us, it was kind of like we won the election with a reasonably good sense of messaging, which was taking it to the other side, put the other side on the defensive for progressive audiences, make them feel like they're part of the process, help them crop their like it was a really effective messaging strategy, and then we won and we stopped doing all that stuff, right. I mean, it really feels like the narrative shaping has

totally gone away. So part of it is I feel like our side has lost ability to craft the narrative using the methods that got us here in the first place. And the second don't even get me started, is I'm sorry everybody. We should have just passed the infrastructure bill

when we had the chance. Right. The whole idea here is the Democrats won the election because it's their argument was, we can make your life better and we can get stuff done, unlike the crazy circus of four years of Trump, and they had handed to them on a golden platter a bill, right. It was. It was crafted by centrists. Not everybody got what they wanted, but it would have at least got the ball rolling. And I think it was a mistake to say, well, we're going to hold

back on that because it'll give us leverage. That doesn't work, you know. Basically, it gave time for the other side to undermine everything. And so in a way, I do think when the autopsy or whatever checkup of this moment is told, not passing the infrastructure bill right away, even though a lot of people. I mean I tweeted that at the time and everybody yelled at me, But I

just think we needed an accomplishment. It would have actually increased the leverage of all the parties involved now as opposed to opening them up for what's happening now, which is that everybody's the whim of everybody else. So not passing the Infrastructure Bill is the second, I think massive mistake that we're seeing play out in a lot in a lot of races now because the Republicans can basically

just say, well, what have those guys done for you? Nothing, which is their aim is to make it look like

they're not doing anything for you. And you know, the funny thing is with regard to the Infrastructure Bill is that it wasn't even Republicans that were the obstructionists here, right, you have two Republicans that are in the Senate who decide, I mean two Democrats I always say Republicans because in my mind that's what they are, Mansion and Cinema, who decided that progress was not what they wanted, right, that decided that, you know, fighting climate change and providing families

with much needed paid to family leave where one of the only industrialized countries in the world that don't have that, that don't offer not narrative fucking day and deciding that those are things that they don't want. And so, you know, when I look around, and I've been saying this, this is you know when you say, you know, Republicans don't offer anything new. They just find different ways to talk about their same white grievances. Right so this election cycle,

it is critical race theory, and it is vaccines. Right before that it was something else. They're not ever offering to give the American people anything. Everything about the Republican ideology is about what you can take back and about

what you can roll back. And the fact that Democrats never never get their messaging together in a way over the last five decades to be able to combat this makes me believe that they don't actually want to win, because nothing that they're doing shows us that they want to win. We needed an infrastructure bill, we needed a voting rights bill, We needed something to offer up to the American people that said, after eleven months, right a year after you would have voted, that this is what

you voted for. And right now we're turning around and in these particular races that we're talking about, and again time this airs, we may or may not know who won these very critical races. But what everything should point to right now is that democratic messaging is failing. It does not work, and frankly, I'm not sure what we

are messaging. So, Jonathan, if you had an opportunity for us to chop in a time machine right and go back to you a year ago, what do you think that Democrats should have been doing from November third of twenty twenty until this moment we're in right now. Democrats won the election on the promise of governance, right, and so I think that what Democrats always do is they fail to take the low hanging fruit of things. You can do that you because you know when the cameras

are off. I bet you ninety percent of politicians agree about many things. And we had an easy win on infrastructure, and so we should have absolutely the minute. And I understand the infrastructure bill was negotiated by centrists, but just think about think about human nature. Forget about I mean, I agree with you about all the critiques absolutely, but

think about human nature. If you if you have something in front of you and somebody says, well, even if you want this thing, I'm not going to give it to you until you do something else that I want you to do. People feel like they're held hostage in a way. So I just think the resentment now is

it just was so predictable, right in a way. I think in a way, the Democrats would have been so much better off with just taking the easy win, and actually the progressive negotiating position would have been much stronger than it is now where they're having to make all

of these bend or backwards things. And so I just think, and I'll tell you why I'm so sensitive about this particular issue is because it reminds me of what happened when Obama won his first term, right, which is Obama had a massive mandate, Like two thousand and eight was an incredible year, and there was completely low hanging fruit

at that moment, which was a jobs bill. Right at that moment, Unions were behind him, workers were behind him, everybody was behind him, and everybody would he would have shown, hey, look I can get some stuff done here. But instead, for different reasons, they said, oh, look we have this one mandate, we might not always have it forever. Let's start with the Affordable Charact. Let's start with healthcare, because that's something that we are never going to get this

opportunity for again. But what they did is they jumped into this hugely contentious arena. It opened the door, the space for delay. The delay actually worked against them because then the other side got to shape the narrative and

in the end, the affordable character. Even though, of course you know, I'm the biggest fan of the world of the ACA, but just that two year debate helped crystallize opinions against it when they could have passed a jobs bill within five seconds, really honestly, and it would have shown like, hey, look we know how to govern. And

it's the same thing here with infrastructure business. Again not perfect, but again your position is stronger if you actually, especially in this moment with the pandemic, show that you know how to govern. And conversely, it's it's actually not passing the infrastructure bill, ironically, for me, has empowered the mansions and cinemas of the world more because all of a sudden we need them more in a certain kind of way.

So if I had to do one thing, it's when you're handed this victory, you take it right and you don't see it as like, oh, we're just going to get this one chance. You know, we're not going to get this one chance to do our thing, and therefore we got to do this thing. So I don't know that.

To me, that's number one. And number two, I would just have hired whoever worked for the Lincoln Project, I would have hired them, you know, to do Biden's messaging because you can't stop going on the attack in this moment. So those were my two things. How about you. You must think about it a lot, yeah, I mean I think about it every day, and all of the things that you are laying out are correct, and it's just you know, there were so many missed opportunities in the

first two years of the Obama administration. And again, I think it's the belief that Democrats want to believe that Americans are better than they are right, that oh, I don't need to message to them because oh, they got it. In the twenty twenty election, That's why there was historic turnout because people got that we are in danger. But the fact is is that when your day to day life starts to flood in, you're not paying as much attention, right because you are in a place of trying to

thrive or in some cases trying to survive. And what I believe that the Obama administration did wrong again, to your point, would spend two years two You wasted years where they could have dealt with jobs, with immigration, and spent two years of a debate with people that were never going to come to the table with them. Right, they had a supermajority. You ram through and you get things done as much as you can so that you

can turn around and point to your achievements. You don't waste time in bad faith negotiations with people who literally told you from the jump that they wanted you to be a one term president. So what does that tell you? It tells you that they're not interested in working with you. And so the fact that the people gave you the gavel and the office means that you have to go full steam ahead and worry about what the dissenters are

going to say later on. Right, but you will have all of these wins that will have piled up that the American people can point to and that you can point to, and they can feel comforted in the fact that this is the team that I want to get behind. Because they know how to govern. And the important thing, just given the way American electoral politics works, is is you really need to win undecided voters. You need unfortunately to win purple states. You need to win win swin states.

That's where all that's where all them, that's for all the power is in this country is who wins those things. And so the way you do that is you govern true to your ideals. You governed true to your base, but you also rack up wins that will help. I mean, we're Democrats are are losing undecided voters right now. They're

losing them. You know the poll that came out of Georgia yesterday showing herschel Walker, who's never done anything politically in his life except support Trump, way ahead of Warnock. Is you know, it's got to be a real wake up call, um. And the and the answer is, I mean, then it's natural human because of course, like we all support social safety net, we all support climate we all support like all these things are super important. But but it's like seven steps to get there, it's not one

step to get there. And for the Democrats, they just have so much more to gain by racking up wins and not every win is going to be one that the other side's going to pose. You can also lure your opponent into supporting something like they did with infrastructure in a way that would have made it very costly. I mean, if they would have. If I don't, I don't think a lot of Republicans would go would have gone in two thousand and eight against a jobs bill.

They wouldn't have. It would have been political suicide. So you make it costly for the other side. But what we've done is the opposite, right, we can't govern like Republicans, so we can't just say, oh, we've got a mandate. And I think it's a debated question if the Biden election was even a mandate for any one group. It wasn't a mandate for progressives or for centrists or anything. It was like showing the power of people working together.

So I just think, again, you're absolutely right, you take the wins where you get them. But it's also the more you start winning, the more it puts pressure on the other side to have to answer to its own base for why aren't you delivering to us? And you know, to me, that's the that's the frustration, and you know the reality too, is that every win isn't going to

be historic. And I think that, you know, one part of the problem that Democrats have is that everything needs to be this all encompassing, you know, historic piece of legislation, and not everything is going to be that. Some things are just going to be a fixed some things are just going to be as solved. And that should be okay because as long as you continue to provide for the American people, then they will be on your side. But the moment that you want to waste time and

you know, this is the conversation. I got into a back and forth on social media and on a radio show that I did the other day out of Pennsylvania where there where, you know. One of the people that I was on with was saying, you know, Biden has only been in office for ten months, like, how are you expecting him to have done all of these things? And I said, because we are don't have the time. Are you operating on a different time clock than I am?

Where you have mid term elections that are breathing down our neck and we have the understanding of what happened during the Obama years that can happen again now. Is the past not prologue to you, I don't understand. And so for us to keep saying like, oh no, no, give them more time, we don't have time to waste. Our democracy is hanging in the balance, and nobody seems to be acting with a sense of urgency, and to me,

that is one of the problems. I want to talk Jonathan two about this fact, particularly around this Virginia race which young Ken Glennie Younkin the Republican has essentially made a referendum on critical race theory, which by the way, isn't even taught in Virginia, right, which has made the referendum on critical race theory and essentially on race in general, and is using it, using it much better and much

more thoughtfully than Donald Trump has. Can you talk to us about what you think of how they are having this conversation around critical race theory and ultimately races and white aggrievance, right, that is happening in Virginia, and why it could possibly take effect and take hold around the country as we go into midterms. Well, first of all, what's happening is horrific, right, It is shameful, There's no doubt about that. But I would also say just in

line with our conversation already. It's very predictable, right, Um, And so the question for me, I'm not surprised Republicans are winning basically on a racist message. That is, you know, and and and and like every one of these things, there's a bigger agenda, right for somebody in a back room somewhere, or this isn't really about critical waste theory. It's about defunding public education. It's about money, right, and so this is this is this is serving a larger purpose.

And it's the same thing with guns. Um, you know guns, it's not about Second Amendment. It's really about opening LA and New York, which are a hugely lucrative gun markets. So there's money is behind every one of these things.

Like none of the people were actually like, show me one Republican who just took ibermecton without also sneaking in a booster and uh and monoclonal antibodies and and and I'll I'll unfortunately show you a dead Republican and so um, all these things have a money trail where they're whipping up this populist, racist fervor for a bigger financial purpose.

So number one is these aren't just crazy things. These are all these are and these are these are serving particular financial and political aims, which are power and money. And so given that we know that that's the playbook. Um, the minute we're debating the merits of critical race theory, we've lost, right, I really do believe that because this is the provocation. It's the same provocation as we saw.

You know, we've seen this so many times, and like, you know, two much from now, nobody it will be something else, right, I mean, how many people are talking about ibermecton right now? Do a search on Twitter. It's like six people. And two three weeks ago it was like the most important, you know thing of calamity ever. It was on the number one segment on every news station.

Was that. Yeah, And so you have to find a way to like change the channel, put the other side on the defensive, don't take the bait and we take the beat. Everything. This is some very very I understand, very very provocative debate. This is very challenging. This is very racist and hurtful. But you have to find a way to fight back, which isn't just defending the merits of critical base theory and the flip side for us is we are pushed in a position where we are

now having to defend the merits. I mean, I'm a scholar of critical race theory, but I never had to like go on TV and argue about its merits before. And so the minute we're defending the merits of CRT and that becomes the flash point. That minute that's the debate, we've lost a lot. So we have to figure out a way to change the channel. We had figured out a way to change the channel, and unfortunately that's where

messaging comes in. That's where counter moves come in. You know, what they're doing is they're amplifying extreme radical positions and making them mainstream positions. And that's a playbook that's open to us too. We can fight back with a million different ways. But when again, I'm a practitioner of critical race theory, actually believe in it quite strongly. I've devoted

my career to it. But I would also say, the minute we are having this debate where we're going on TV and defending the mirrors of critical race theory, we're fighting on the wrong terrain as opposed to putting the other side on the defensive and having them answer to their base, which is what we should have been doing

in the beginning. You know, I just I feel like every time I'm in these conversations with you and with other academics and you know, and scholars, is just like, if we know what they're doing, if we have the playbook, then why is it that every time that these conversations, these arguments, these false wars come around, why are we shocked?

Why are Democrats continually taken off guard as if and I continue to say, it's because they think that the American people are better than they are, meaning that we don't need to explain right why these things matter or why you should be asking better questions because to your point, we don't force Republicans to answer any questions. Why do you only want history taught through the perspective and the

eyes of whiteness. Why are you afraid of immigrants coming into this country, like make them answer for their racism and say it out loud and put it on the record. And yet we never do that And I don't understand why. Well, but the other thing is, I mean, I agree with you, but it's also like we don't need them to answer for the racism, the racism is you know, you just turn on your computer like or you know whatever. The

racism is not a mystery right now. The question is like, how do you respond to their racism, this particularly racism, this critical race theory racism, right, and so like calling them out on it, it's not going to work. Shaming them, it's not going to work because they're just doing it, right. But I do think that there's a way where you

can turn the tables. I mean, again, it would have taken a different but again, I just we lost the CRT debate the way the same way we lost the mask debate and the vaccine debate and the healthcare debate, which is the other side rallies this narrative and we don't have an answer for changing the narrative. But the changing the narrative is on one hand, rallying our base, but it's also turning the tables and making the other side have to answer for it, which we don't do.

So shaming them about their racism, like, I think your point is actually a much better point, which is like what the f have you done for me? Or something like that, like that kind of thing, you know, So I would just say, you know, we're just I don't know. We we took the bait here and people were kind of like everybody was laughing about Remember like six months

ago was laughing about the whole CRT thing. And it turns out like does tremendous potency because it plays into all these stereotypes and if you don't actively take the narrative to the other side, you're going to lose it. You're gonna lose, which is what what's unfortunately happening. Yeah, I just you know, every day I look for mustard seeds of hope. Every day I look for I do

every every day. I'm out there looking for something that is going to provide me with a sense of of of ease in the fact that Democrats know what they're doing and know the enemy that they're dealing with and how to deal with that enemy. And every day I come up empty, right, because the people that have the power to you know, to have a bullet a bullhorn, right to message to the masses in the way that

they need to hear, they lose every time. And I'm just like, Democrats are so brilliant at being able to like snatch success and like throw it in the toilet, right like and that to me is just like And then I'm sitting around as an educated person with a degree in political science, and I'm thinking to myself, why am I a Democrat? Like other than the fact that I believe I have the same ideology, but like we

don't have the same spirit. And at some point in time, if you begin to turn off people like my mother who has decided to stop watching the news on a regular basis and ask me every day what is wrong with Democrats, then like you're losing the very people that are supposed to be the foundation of your party. I would say two points about that I think important. Number one, which we don't seem to see. The way to circumvent that is by actually having achievements that you can tell.

So we should have passed the infrastructure Bill and then had something that we could all rally around, because it would have shown, hey, we can all work together in a certain kind of way. Now I understand, believe me, I understand the importance of strengthening the social safety net. I understand climate is ruining our country. But as a

strategic move, passing the infrastructure Bill would have allowed. In other words, the whole other side is geared to show that you're not doing anything because you're wasting time on all these theories. So the way you circumvent that is

by passing the infrastructure fill. You know, it gives you something concrete that then you can answer with it's not just about messaging, right, And so I feel like we play right into their hands by not having something concrete to counter by saying, yeah, look, dude, we're building infrastructure. Go ahead and have your little debit or something like that. But without that, and their whole thing is they don't want us to get anything done. And so I just for me, this is really going to go down as

a very very bad error. So I just think it's it's not just about messaging. But the other part, of course, just to say it again is you know, I don't know. I just keep thinking of the research I did with Dying of Whiteness, right. You know, it was twenty twelve when when I interviewed people who were rejecting their own healthcare and they said, like, we're playing the long game, Like if I accept Obamacare, then we're not going to be able to control the Supreme Court, which then will

let us overturn abortion. All these kind of things like people. Even on the ground, they were all kind of I mean, white supremacy is a great organizing principle for a political party, but in a way, people top to bottom bought into it, right. They all thought, well, you know, hey, I'll reject my own healthcare because what's more important for me is expanding

the Second Ammendment and overturning abortion. What's happening this week in the Supreme Court the Democrat The Democrats don't have a coherent narrative, and I really feel like it's it's you know, it's harder to fight when you don't have that kind of coherent narrative. Yeah, and you know, and it's harder to fight when you just have no warrior

spirit in you whatsoever. Well, but let me just say one thing about that, though, because I think it's important to note that after the after the civil rights movement in the sixties, you know, society was really afraid that there would be you know, garbage workers were striking and

teachers were striking, and everybody was striking. And the way society address that was by making people feel this isn't a party thing, that the system wasn't going to work for them, and so all of a sudden the seventies the eighties, people check out, and that's when you get Reagan and all this kind of stuff. And so in

a way, there's a there's a message. Somebody is making a lot of money to make you and me, and people in college now and people in high school now feel like the system isn't working for them and it doesn't matter Democrats Republicans. But that's a crafted message. And I also think, you know, we have to be very wary of that, because somebody is being paid to make us feel like the system isn't going to work for us, so it doesn't matter who we vote for. And that

isn't you know, it's an evil message. We have to be careful of that. No, it is an evil message. And you're totally right. And the fact is is that if we're aware of it, why aren't the Democrats in power? If we understand that, part and parcel is not only to pass three hundred voter suppression laws across the country, but then also to craft a message that makes you feel like your vote doesn't matter. So for those that want to show up, we're going to make it difficult

for you to show up. And for those that are on the fence about whether or not they want to show up. We're going to send a message that says that your vote and voice doesn't matter because regardless of who's in power, it's never going to change your day to day life. Right, And so that those two things colliding is the perfect storm of where we are. Everybody is on strike, right. We have shipments of things that

are sitting in water. We have we have you know, CEOs and shareholders that are making bookoo, bookoo amounts of money while the poor are getting poorer by literally the minute. And we're talking about a labor shortage when there isn't a shortage of labor, there's a shortage of like good

paying jobs with benefits. Right where people are deciding that I don't want to work for you know, indentured servitude wages, that I actually want to be able to work forty hours a we can put food on the table and get my medicine and get groceries all at the same time, and recognizing that neither party is actually working for that

to be simpler and easier. Right, Instead, they're turning the American people into these lazy victims that they don't want to provide you back your own resources, your own tax dollars in order to help your life be better. And so yeah, I think that it is a dangerous narrative. We'd know it, we see it. And the fact is is that why isn't it being delivered to the people who need to hear it the most? No, absolutely right,

absolutely right, doctor Jonathan Metzel. As always, we appreciate your insight, your analysis, and your oracle sense of the fact that we were all in fact going to die of whiteness. But at least we have our weekly therapy sessions, so I feel better about it to appreciate you. That is it for me today, dear friends on woke f as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.