Hanging Onto Our Democracy

feels like how long I've been recording. I was a senior advisor at the Center for American Progress, where I co launched an initiative under lgbt Progress, the Fire Initiative Fighting Injustice to Reach a Quality, which looked at how

discriminatory LGBTQ policies adversely affected black queer people. And during my time at CAP, you know, which is the largest progressive think tank in the country, I had the opportunity to be surrounded by some of the biggest thinkers and leaders, and at one time, in those glory glory days of the twenty tens, there was a pipeline of talent that was going into the Obama administration, coming out of the Obama administration into CAP and into creating different policies and

ways in which we can progress as a country and as a nation. And you know, during the last I would say ten years plus, Patrick will tell us that CAP is turning twenty years old, which is so wild for me to think about, but that a lot has changed. You know, when Center for American Progress was established, it was you know, about pushing forward, pushing this country to reach its possibility. And now we're in a place of just trying to hold on bare knuckle to our democracy.

And this shift has taken place in the last ten years, and it is wild. And so this interview with Patrick will go into what it is he believes that Democrats need to be doing. You know, this interview you will hear will be roughly, you know, the day before the final day to vote in this consequential midterm election. It is unbelievable to me where the polls are. But like I've said to you all on Woke f that I believe in the bodies that show up at the polls.

I do not believe in the tea leaves being read. Because understand that the horse race is necessary for ratings, and what is good for ratings is real shit for our democracy. So we will see. But if you have yet to vote, and you know people that have yet to vote, tell them that this is our last free and fair election. If they like their lives, if they like you know, democracy, if they like freedom, then they need to go into that voting booth and vote Blue

all the way down the ticket. Because the alternative is a cult that is looking to not only reverse rights in this country, but they are looking to create a climate of violence and misery that we have never seen. And so it is important for us to understand what is at stake, which is why I have Center for American Progress President and CEO Patrick Gasberg coming up next. Indisputable with Doctor Rashi Ricci is one of the latest shows on the TYT network and also the fastest growing

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a wide range of policy topics. In the bullpen. It is an indisputable fact that you will love this show. Listen to Indisputable with Doctor rashad Ricci on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode. Folks, I'm very excited to welcome to woka F Daily for the very first time, Patrick Gaspard, who is the president and the CEO of the Center for American Progress and CAP Action Fund and a seasoned

expert on progressive politics and campaigns. Patrick, I need this discussion to go well, so so let me let me first. Uh, let's let's start, you know, Danielle, I hope that next Tuesday goes at least as well as as this discussion with I meet too, so as folks who listen to oka F. No, I am a CAP alumni. I was with CAP under LGBT Progress back in the twenty tens, and I'm a big fan of the work that CAP

has done as a former senior advisor. So I just you know, before we jump into mid terms, Uh, Patrick, I wanted to get a sense of your leadership at Center for American Progress and you know the importance of this massive progressive organization, particularly in these times. Well, Danielle, first, thanks for having me on. It can't believe that this is my like inaugural moment on your phenomenal show. And it's really great to be able to speak with a

CAP alum. Thank you for all the work that you did when you were with a CAP, and thank you for your ongoing and unique and important public service. Look, it's a privilege of a lifetime to be able to be the head of this organization as it turns twenty next year. I'm sure that since you're an alum, that your listenership understands that the great advantage that CAP has is that we are engaged across all issues that are debated and litigated in Washington, DC and in our state capitals.

We have centered racial equity, injustice, economic inclusion, climate, health expansion, and fundamentally democracy integrity. And anybody who lived through the last four years under the previous president understand why we would center democracy integrity in this critical moment in this country.

So CAP turns we have kind of a three legged stool at CAP where we have our deep research leg our, muscular advocacy, leg and our nimble communications and all of those things work in concert to pass legislation, to land that legislation in the lives of people in community, and then to be able to kind of tell a story about it that can hopefully accrue to our benefit at the moment when people have to make the kinds of choices that they're making next Tuesday. I can't believe that

it's been twenty years. I mean, it is. It's it's wild to me because I I feel like, I mean, I wasn't around in the beginning, but CAP was still nascent. It was still this this new building entity. And so you know, you have this this layered approach and the tentacles in every place and space at a time that our democracy is really under attack. You know when I feel like when CAPP was built at the beginning, it was about the expansion of progressive ideals and the expansion

of this idea of equity and justice. And what it looks like to take a layered approach to the advancement of our country and our body politic. What does it mean for you now though, at a time when the very democracy, the very foundation of this country is at risk. It means that we are in the right place at the right time to say and do the right things

to advance the common American enterprise forward. Right, So, we have twenty years now of testing, of researching, twenty years of some tremendous successes, but twenty years also some failures to learn from that hopefully should inform our direction of travel as an organization and then as a country in

the next several years to come. I'll tell you, Danielle that in my brief time as leader of CAMP and my very long history working with the organization, it's clear to me that CAP always was the thing that should have existed from their earliest days that some of us

were involved in public policy and in politics. We always needed a space that could hold the big expansive tent that is liberal to progressive political actors policy leaders in this country to be able to find a common purpose and to understand really profoundly the intersection of all of these issues with one another and how they ladder up

to this notion of democracy and freedom and fairness. There are extraordinary organizations in Washington and in the country that are single issue to focus, and we need them and their expertise is invaluable. But there is something extraordinary about caps superpower, which you know, just kind of glums all of these issues together and tackles them in a way that always centers equity, and there's always clear about on whose behalf we're struggling every day and what we think

is needed to develop a stronger nation that brings everybody along. So, yeah, it's been it's a thrill of a lifetime to do

this work. And you know, it also helps me to continue to carry forward the lessons and the skill sets that I learned when I was a young activist, when I was an organizer for unions, when I became a political and policy director for the Service Employees International Union, all the lessons I learned on both sides of the barricade, either on the protest side in Lafayette Park or on the other side of the barricade. Working as a senior

staffer in the White House. Certainly, my working global diplomacy, given our determination to insert our notion of progressivism in US foreign policy, all of that, uh and my time in philanthropy working on human rights, all of that has come to a head in this moment in the US, In this moment in cap and Boy what a privilege

to be able to lead on those fronts. You know, your your background and your expertise is one that is surely needed because you have a wide perspective and and bandwidth, uh that that you've been operating with for for for so many years. And I you know, I wonder now, um as you're at the helm of of cap and you're and we're just days we're just days away from what I believe and what I said on this show and other programs is the most consequential election of our times.

And I've said many times without being hyperbolic, that this may be very well be the last free and fair election of our time. And you know, right before our interview, I get a text from a colleague that's said, Danielle, I just spoke with a Democratic donor who has their ear to the ground, and they say, we're in for a red wave. Patrick, what do you say to that? Because I, you know, and I got to tell you, I don't believe polls. You know, I believe, I believe

who shows up at polls. I believe hard numbers of ballots that have already been mailed in. Those are the numbers that I believe. But when you hear, and it's been reiterated on cable news in many, many, many, many articles, probably too many to count, that we're in for red wave. What is your response to that? Oh, you know, whoever's calling you needs to hang out with some better people.

Let's help set them straight about the moment that we're in. Look, there is always this kind of bad wedding amongst the Democrats, in particular days out from any election, and let's you know, let's you and I be really sober about this. We know that Americans right now are going to the grocery store, they're going to the gas pump, and they're encountering eight percent inflation. That is a real thing in the lives of average folk. That will matter next The ready matters

in early vote, will matter next Tuesday as well. But you know what else matters, folks recognize that with President of Bio's leadership, with the leadership of Democrats in the House and Senate, we managed to pass real consequential stimulus bill that redounded to the average spoken community. That saved a small business, is that saved our ability to maintain community and education and public safety. And we did it

without votes from Republicans. They know that this administration passed an infrastructure build the likes of which has been spoken about for decades from one administration to the next. I think that the previous it's hard to even call him a president, and previous occupants of the White House, you know, talked until he was blew in the face about how he was going to do this, made an America infrastructure

never got it done. Republicans didn't get it done. Jill Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats who have been toiling with them got infrastructure done, and they got it done in a fashion that center's fairness equity that reverses some of the structural racism that we've had in infrastructure development for decades in the US. Democrats did that. Following that, after you know, a long set of negotiations, they passed the Inflation Reduction Act, that is the largest expansion of

here that we've seen in a decade. It has done most consequential climate bill that's ever been passed in the history of the United States, with real sources going towards climate mitigation and energy transformation. And they also passed the most consequential economic bill we've seen in a generation that comes with meaningful reforms in taxes that's going to compel and force largest corporations, richest folks to pay their fair share.

And then on top of that, just for you know, just to kind of flawed the bingo card, they also managed to push down the costs of prescription drugs. So folks know and feel the benefit of these things. Plus a student debt measure that was passed by the by

by President Biden. But then on top of that, we have this reactionary maga extremists six three majority in the Supreme Court that took away a fundamental right that was assured for the last fifty years in the DABS decision when they rolled back access to a worsen in this country.

So folks understand that they feel that we've seen that in the uptick in voter registration, particularly from women and young people in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, following the DABS ruling, following the education debt relief from the President, and following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, I know, Danielle, and you know what the historic trends

look like. More often than not, with very rare exceptions, those who occupy the White House during a midterm elections and losing seat. The historic trend, the Democrats are bucking that trend right now, and in state after state, from the special elections that we've had to the numbers we're seeing in the early vote period, Democrats and key battleground states are outpacing President Biden's approval numbers. And they also are benefiting from the fact that the Republican Party has

gone off the rails. Seventy percent Republican believe somehow that the twenty twenty election was rigged against them. Instead nominated

campidates who are deeply flawed. Right we have Blake Masters in Arizona, Doctor Oz in Pennsylvania, Tutor Dixon in Michigan, Tim Michaels in Wisconsin, Herschel Walker in Georgia, who barely believes that the earth is around, and who all won a role social Security Medicare, and they want to continue to give encouragement to the proud boys, to the old keepers, to the kind of people who visited violence on Paul

Pelosi a week ago. So all that to say, we've given ourselves a fighting chance more than a fighting chance, and we're going to have some success in even some difficult places next Tuesday. The Damage Report with John Idarola is one of the most popular shows on the TYT network that serves as your daily breakdown of the genuine threats and challenges facing our country and world. These days, we're confronted with an overwhelming sea of shocking, confounding, and

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of the Week, and much more. Listen to The Damage Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you here, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. I'm so thankful one for the list of accomplishments that you have laid out, because I think that in this time of great anxiety, of great inflation, which you also named, of political the

rise in political violence. I think that what this administration, first of all, we forget what they inherited from the prior occupant, as you said, which was an absolute disaster a sewer is is what they inherited, and that what they have been able to kind of move this country out of My issue with Democrats and this question is twofold, and is that all of the things that you named. I don't believe a majority of the country actually knows, right, I know, I do know that they remember that they

remember the stimulus. I do know that many people, you know, remember the covid AID that they received as well because of you know, the million plus people who have died in this country that we continue to kind of, you know, forget, right then a million We lost a million souls, over a million souls to this global health pandemic, and that's something that we have we just kind of gloss over. And the prior occupant was responsible for at least half of those deaths. And so, you know, in that way,

I ask about first, you know, the messaging. We have all the right policies, Patrick, We have all the right policies. We believe in the foundation of democracy. We believe in equity,

we believe in justice. And so how is it that when you have what has what has turned into a very rabid, racist, misogynistic cult telling you very clearly that they want to strip away entitlements, they want to take away social Security, they want to take away Medicare, they want to take away public education, they don't believe in climate change, even as this country is being ravished by it.

How is it that Democrats are not messaging, not just in reaction to the Republicans, but about what they have done and what they're willing to do. Danielle, that was a woke af takedown. I know, I know about the

right show. Look, I narrative is always a really difficult thing, and usually you need hundreds of millions of dollars focused around very very specific messaging in order for things to account of Landhole for folks as they get repeated over and over on their TV sets, on their social media, on the door when somebody's knocking there from a canvas, or as I'm going to get to do this weekend in Georgia for Stacy Abrahams and Raphael Warnot. It takes

a while. You know, messaging. You know, I remember somebody once telling me a long time ago that messaging is like a dagwood sandwich where you just got put those layers and layers and layers, and hopefully, I hope that at all you can taste all of it in one bite and then have them come back again for more. You know. Of course, I'd worked in the White House and their President Obama and his first term as the White House Political Director, and messaging was the bane of

our existence in that moment. After we passed what was then record stimulus, after we saved Americans from the foreclosure crisis, we saved your mobile industry. Yeah, oh, and then we got healthcare form done. Even despite all of that, we struggled with messaging in the mid term election, and folks were you know, it's it's interesting. There are some interesting

comparisons here. You have historic accomplishments, but those accomplishments can get swamped in them and the media ecosystem that we're in, if if, if there if folks are just hearing about one issue over and over and over again. Back then in two and ten, it was still overwhelmingly about unemployment, which was at double digits. So irrespect of all the accomplishments. Folks just wanted to hear and understand and wanted to see the impact immediately overnight of the policies on unemployment.

It wasn't until two thousand and twelve that all of that landed in people's community, in their homes in a way that was transformational enough for us to win reelection in two twelve and then win back the majority in Congress some years later. We had to have proof points not just in being able to say we passed the legislation,

but how it was landing effectively in people's lives. Right now, despite all the great things that I just listed that President Biden Democrats have been able to achieve, they have the challenge of inflation hovering at about eight percent now. It's been going down, and there are some very real things that have been done by this administration to kind of turn that around, but that's still a really stubborn metric and that comes with a whole set of anxieties.

They're being clear that they intend to go right at sour security and medicare by either gutting them or sun setting them. They're playing Russian Roulette with our economy and They're gonna hold a debt limit hostage to get whatever policies they want. They're gonna go back and reinstate Donald Trump's tax cuts, which were for the wealthiest corporations and Americans.

And they're gonna follow a set of policies that are really similar to what this trusted in England after she thanked their economy and got roundly bounced out after a couple of weeks. And they're going to work no matter what they say now. They're going to work to pass a national abortion ban like the well proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham earlier this year. They are going to do these things. You know. The one thing I will say about magor Republican extremists, when they tell you that they

intend to do something, take them out. They do it because they do it, including up to you know, violating the Capitol on January sixth and almost bringing great harm to members of Congress and indeed bringing harm to police

officers a number of other people. You know, I'm thinking right now, Danielle of the sisters in Georgia who were the election workers who testified January, how terrified they were just because they did their civic duty, and I worry that if Republicans are successful next Tuesday, that we're going to move increasingly to a nation towards a democracy where folks life shamas are not safe just helping to basically count votes. That's not the America that I want to

wake up to on Wednesday. So I hope your listeners going out of participating an early vote where that's available to them, but certainly are going to take the time on Tuesday to go out and cast their ballot, but will also knock on a few doors of their neighbors to get them out as well. Patrick, last question for you, you know, oh no, no, I know, but you'll have

to come back. This was your inauguration. But you're you're you will, you will be back on woke a f But um, you know, political violence UM is at an all time high in this country but also around the around the world. UM. And my own mother, after the attack on Paul Pelosi, said Danielle, I'm really worried. I'm I'm worried for you who speaks out and writes. I'm worried for representatives because I think that good people will decide to stop doing what they're doing out of fear

for their lives and those of their family. You know, what do you make of this time, and what, if anything you know can you express to those that are feeling hopeless, that are feeling you know, that are that are having their fear takeover a deep breath. Here we have to give your moms or reassurance. We have to get everybody to um feel a good deal more hopeful and optimistic about the future despite the dark times and the challenges that we're having here in the US and elsewhere.

We have to recognize, Danielle, that this didn't come out of out of the ether. That the change that we've seen in this country, where we've become a good deal more radicalized and polarized UM and where we seem to have seemingly two different Americas in geography and culture and certainly in the outcomes that we have in our elections, didn't happen. It didn't come out of it end just anywhere.

And ten years ago we started to see a real difference in the media ecosystem that we're in, driven by algorithmic governance on social media that's really driven folks to their worst instincts, where even the most marginal peripheral most polarizing conspiracies confine a community that gives people a sense that their own little house of mirrors is the world. The problem we got to work on, as probably have to work on. We have to change the regulatory environment

for information democracy in America. We need the Department of Homeland Security to step up its efforts. They've been monitoring They and the Department of Justice have been monitoring groups that are that are just overwhelmingly supremacists and violence in nature, like the Proud Boys, like the Oath Keepers. That monitoring has to go to direct accountability, and there have to be consequences for the threats and the actions that have

been taken. We have folks like Mark Finchum, who's running for Secretary of State in Arizona, who have been given active and open encouragement to people who are walking around with guns around ballot boxes. We have to defeat candidates like that, but we also have to put the resources in place to defend and protect and promote those who are trying to administer our elections in a safe and secure fashion. And then, lastly, we need to make sure

that we are prebunking the rumors. The conspiracies that these folks are putting out there that even really good hearted people will quickly and easily be manipulated by and subscribe to. There are some real differences in how we view equity and fairness mean in our country. But at the end of the day, I really do believe, as Prison bidenstead of the other last evening, that the vast majority of Americans stand firmly against the vile rhetoric that we've heard

and the violence that we've witnessed. But at the end of the day, that majority of Americans will only win the day if we have real administrative legal backup to build accountability and consequence, and if we keep pushing our politicians to their better nature by having the accountability at the ballot box. When the Governor of Virginia comes out and makes fun of the fact that Paul Pelosi was violated in that way, the governor of Virginia used to pay a price at home and the only way that

politicians fear, which is around their support. So you know that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Yeah, Patrick, aspart, thank you so much for the work that you're doing at the Center for American Progress. I feel after speaking with you that it is in good hands. My alma mater, as I like to say as people graduate from GAP, is in good hands. And I hope that you will make time to join us again post midterms to see where we go from there. Appreciate you, Appreciate you, Thank

you so much for what you do. Please tell your mom we're going to work it out as liston. That is it for me today, Dear friends, on woke app as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fun