Make America Sane Again

And you know, I will tell you that for me, the image, the last image that we saw of the Obama's leaving the White House in twenty seventeen after the inauguration of Satan to become President of the United States, was a devastating day. And it was devastating I think for you know, tens of millions, if not hundreds of

millions of Americans. Right the idea that we could have experienced the historic administration eight year term of Barack Obama to then hand the keys of America to a adamant, vocal white supremast islamophobe, homophobe, transphobe, misogynist, criminal piece of shit is what was daunting. And I think that we spent you know, following that moment of just disbelief. I think it's taken the last five years for us to really wrap our minds around what this country has been

through and what Republicans have taken this country through. And what I find so troubling is that it, to me, is just so fucking obvious how dangerous the Republican Party has become. It is so obvious to me that we are dealing with an unhinged cult that has no moral fiber, that has no value set, that is pretty much using guerrilla style political warfare in order to stake their claim to power, that they have no thoughts on relinquishing, whether

it's through election or not. And when I saw Obama, you know, standing at the podium in the White House, and you know, he was there to discuss the twe your anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and to remind Americans that when the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare was rolled out, that there was such opposition because Republicans who were in the pockets of big farm as are many Democrats, namely Kirsten Cinema, who sits in the Senate, but remind you she wasn't there at that time, but you know, to

think about the fact that there was such grave opposition to providing Americans with quality healthcare to set up a situation where insurance companies, right, we're not able to squeeze Americans and American families into a position where they would have to make a choice between getting healthcare and I'm putting food on their table. And I know that we say these things, and for a lot of folks it just sounds like a talking point, but it really isn't. Right.

Like people, more people than not in this country have gone fucking bankrupt because of medical bills. That if you do not have health insurance and something happens to you, or you have shitty health insurance and something happens to you and you end up in the hospital for an indiscriminate amount of time, you are fucked, right will you may have wished that whatever illness, whatever accident took you in there, took you all the way the fuck out by the time that you come out, and you see

that now you're swimming in six figure debt. Right. So, it was a real triumph for America to start slowly to implement this imperfect policy of the ACA, to begin to do what other industrialized nations like Canada, our neighbor above us, has been doing for decades, Right, I had a conversation recently with a friend of mine who had had lived in Canada for several years, had lived and had worked in Canada, and she said it was mind

blowing that they covered everything. She goes, even acupuncture. She goes, I was able to go to acupuncture, to get massages, all of this preventative care. She goes, Yes, those things were more expensive, but it was because the government was paying for them. And like you being able to get eight massages a year, right, and sages are not you know, we of course in the United States, that's something that

we see as a luxury. But to get that kind of body work done, to work and allow your blood to flow better, to loosen your muscles, to move your ligaments, to stretch your body out right, to create more fluidity, more nimbleness, prevents a lot of serious injury, prevents the need for there to be knee surgeries and hip replacements

and all of these things. So it isn't just oh my god, because you know what Republicans would say, Oh my god, we're going to pay for people to go to the SPA, because God forbid, our tax dollars go to preventative care. So that we don't spend our last days and our last dollars inside of a fucking hospital,

right being held hostage, buy health insurance or medicaid. Right, So I think that, and I say medicaid because let me tell you something, the amount of paperwork that goes into being able to get basic things covered in the United States, like you need to have some type of law degree and medical degree and accounting degree in order to be able to understand, whereas in places like Canada, this shit is just basic, right, Like everyone has healthcare,

everyone has a doctor, Like their medical bills are non existent there, you know, like you see all of the benefits. Healthcare is actually not even a health issue. It is an economic imperative. And that's what former President Obama was saying yesterday at the White House before he passed the mic over to Biden. But for me, I just want to go back to the nostalgia for a moment, because there is something about Barack Obama that is so endearing, charismatic,

the ability to put people at ease. You know what's funny is that I talk to you often, you all often about disease, right, and the fact that you know where does dis ease come from. It comes from not being at ease, right, dis ease, right, misaligned right, not at ease in agitation in a state. Right that is the opposite of ease. And I don't want it to

be lost on people. But the ability that Obama had, the skills that he has to be able to orerate in such a casual way that is both relaxing because you feel like somebody with sense and charisma and a personality and strategy and thoughtfulness is at the helm. So as I was sitting at my kitchen table watching the TV behind me, I found myself being nostalgic for the feeling that he was conjuring this feeling of ease in watching the news that I haven't felt in twelve fucking years.

And that's what dawned on me, right, Like I haven't and I don't know if we have as a nation felt at ease. And mind you, Obama came into office off of like the rise of the tea party, the collapse of the housing market, riot, coming off of the

Internet bubble burst. Like there was so much at play when Obama came into office, and so it's not as if we were in rosy times, but they are nothing incompared to the catastrophe, to the catastrophic, like consistent catastrophic events that we have been dealing with over the past

five fucking years. So I sit here and I was just like, man, they really need to deploy this man more, right like, because it hearkens back two better times and not the quote unquote better times that the Republicans are trying to harken people back to when white people were to be feared and were the authority, and men were the authority in every single place, and so you needed to step off sidewalks and watch what you said for fear of retribution by the white CIS male authorities. And

so it is. It's not that going back to that time make America great again. But I'm like, make America fucking sane again, make America at ease again. Make me want to believe that this country is filled with possibilities instead of problems. The way that I feel right now when I'm watching these rockets haul off into space and I'm saying, how do I hitch a ride? Do you know what I'm saying, Because that's how I'm feeling, not

only about this country, but about the planet. You had general General Millie sit before Congress this week as well

to speak on the war in Ukraine. And this comes off comes off of what we have seen in Bucha and what President Zelinski said to the UN that Butcha is just the beginning, right that if we think that what we are seeing and what we are hearing about rape and torture and you know, and and and people being put into camps and divided from their families, and like those that are left like this is why there has been an international another another international refugee crisis with

up to three and a half or more than at this point three and a half million people fleeing the Ukraine because of the ship that we just saw in Butcha. So you see this, General Millie says before Congress, I have never seen in my four decades of service a time when when the world has been this dangerous, that we are looking at a threat to Europe that we have not seen on levels since World War Two. And He's like, and let us be clear that I'm not

just talking about the threats that Europe can sustain. I'm talking about the fact that what is happening is a

threat to the United States and national security. So then I think to myself self, if we are living in nuclear times, okay, if we are living in nuclear times, you have the general saying that the world has never been this unstable since World War Two, But you have an entire American news outlet, Fox News that has hosts that are promoting Kremlin talking points and telling us, don't believe your lying eyes, but believe the lion ass words that are coming out of my mouth, and that these

are doctored videos and they're fake, even though our own satellites and satellites around the world are like, no, no, no, no, this is not anybody's doctored anything. This is not staged. This is Russian war crimes. Right. If we all know this to be true, what are we going to do

about it? Meaning that the world is once again coming together this week to decide on more sanctions, more economic sensions, shutting down any use by any Russians, event the American dollars that they are holding anywhere, We are shutting down their ability to trade. Right Germany, which Germans rely a lot on the wheat and the oil that comes from Russia, and they're getting ready to sanction that. No new businesses, no new friends like you know they're drake up in

this bitch. And so what I'm saying is de escalation does not look like it is happening. And while we can continue now forty plus days into this war where we have all in forty days, if you look at a split screen picture of Zelinsky in February, and you look at a picture of him now, it looks like these last forty days look like forty years on this man's face. And so I say that not as like a joke or a plug, but the devastation that has already been caused is sees no sign of de escalating.

What it seems as if is if Russian aggression and criminality is growing, what is the world going to do about it? Again? Are we just trying to avoid the inevitable Putin is not going to stop? And when Biden said a couple of weeks ago, when the White House wanted to walk back what he said, when they should have just fucking stood by it, is this motherfucker needs to be removed. And I'm not just talking about from office.

And if the world knows that, and world leaders know that, are we waiting for the execution of six millions of six million. Is that the number right before the world decides to get involved in a ward that is inevitable that they are going to have to get involved in in order to secure Europe and minimize the threats towards the United States? Like, what is the game that we're

playing right now? That's honestly the question that I have because there's no way that you watch this ship and you say to yourself, oh, yeah, we'll get them in court. Because I'm saying, how many these are not just corpses, These are not just like, these are people's loved ones. These are grandmothers and friends and cousins and five others and sisters that are being slaughtered coming from the store

with groceries, being tortured and raped. So how do we sit back for How long do we sit back and take no military action when in fact, all we do it's talk talk, talk, talk about our big, bad military, if it's so big and bad, and we're all about protecting democracy except for when it's under threat in our own country and we know that eventually we're going to have to get involved. How many lives are we willing

to watch be stolen before action is actually taken? This is the thing that I want to understand, and I also want to understand why this admin ministration, excuse me, this administration refuses to connect the dots between what is happening in Ukraine at the hands of Putin and what

Republicans want to happen in the United States. Why it is so difficult not to also put a target on the back of the Tucker Carlson's of the world and the Fox News is and how they are an extension and an arm of the Kremlin and Putin in the United States that he never had before, but thanks to Donald Trump and Trumpism, he found his way in after

motherfucking decades. So how do we not tie these things together to create the campaign that is necessary to wage against Republicans so that we don't lose in mid terms? Because here's what I'm saying, folks, And I said this on Twitter yesterday, and I've said it on TikTok, and I'll continue to say it until I'm blue in the face. These are not a normal election times. We are not

headed into normal campaign times. We are dealing with an unhinged white supremacist cult that has told us that when they take power, they are going to impeach the current president of the United States on whatever fucking grounds that they make up, and then they are going after their political enemies, from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama and anyone that gets in their way, they will lock them up

and throw away the key. And if you think that I am fucking kidding that, listen to the things that are coming out of the mouths of Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. They are playing for fucking keeps. And if Democrats don't begin to connect the dots between what is happening abroad and what is happening here and

what is happening globally, we're going to be fucked. I get into a deeper conversation about this and what it is that we see as the Republican strategy and what it is that Democrats can do with the time that we have left to combat it with my friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzo. That conversation is coming

up next, folks. As always, you know that when it is Wednesday, we have one man, one doctor that is in the chair with us on Will Gay f and that is doctor Jonathan Metsol, our in house doctor and the author of Dying of Whiteness Jonathan Really interesting news this week to open us up is it is a twelve year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and for

the first time in five years, President Obama. Former President Obama found himself at the White House House with President Biden and with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about the Affordable Care Act and that when he left office, twenty million people had been able to get insurance that had not been able to get insurance before. That number

is now up to thirty million Americans. He also made mention of the fact that over the time that the Affordable Care Act was being pushed, that there was absolute Republican opposition. Republicans tried and failed over sixty times to get rid of Obamacare. They did nothing while they had the White House under Donald Trump to make any gains or to try and repeal Obamacare. What are your thoughts,

particularly after if we had not had Obamacare. I'll ask this first, if we had not had Obamacare, what would have been the ramifications of that during a global health pandemic? Because I think that we don't talk enough, and particularly at a time when Democrats need to really be looking for wins and looking for conversation to offer with regard to what they have done. Where do you think we would have been as a country in twenty twenty till now if Obama Care hadn't of past and we were

met with COVID nineteen. Well, I think it's important to note that actually the Trump administration tried to destroy the Affordable Cact three months into the pandemic, and so that's not a hypothetical question. The Trump administration filed a brief for a case in June twenty twenty that basically, just to quote that brief, the entire Affordable CARECT must fall. So they tried to destroy the Affordable COCT within four

or five months of the pandemic starting. And the other thing that the Trump administration did was they didn't expand medicaid in Red states as the pandemic really hit. And so that's that's not a hypothetical scenario. Really. I guess the flip side question I ask is how much better shape would we have been if we would have expanded medicaid across the entire country when the pandemic hit? And I can tell you we'd been in much better shape than we are when we are now, because it's not

just about medical treatment and access to medicine. The Affordable Care Act also helps with medical bankruptcies, prescription drug costs, preventative care, public health, all these other factors. And so you know, I did a piece and I'll tweet it out after we have this conversation. When when Trump was trying to kill the ACA in June twenty twenty, I wrote a piece for US News and what I said is, just look at the rate of uninsurance before the Affordable

Care Act for non white Americans. And the data was incredible, like the number of Latino African American and particularly a bi Americans, like it's unimaginable now because of the Affordable Coact, that there were like forty percent of entire demographic populations

that didn't have health insurance at the time. And so what the Affordable Charact did first and foremost was it cut the rate of uninsurance in half or more for minoritized populations and low income populations, and particularly in Blue states.

And so really the Affordable Coact has been on one hand of resounding success if you look at Blue states, but it's also really only half the story because really for a healthcare network to work, it's got to cover everybody, and the GOP never let that happen, you know, and talk to us, Jonathan two, Because again I find that the pushback that Democrats tried, I guess at the campaign that Democrats tried to age as a pushback to Republicans

inventing stories like death panels, inventing stories you know that that essentially were the basis of part of your book, right, which is that white people were willing to not get themselves healthcare so long as like the black and brown people down the street, we're not going to be able

to get healthcare that they were. I mean, this is this is the the was the idea around you know, integrating public swimming pools, right, it's um, we would rather our kids not swim and drain the pools that all of our all of our country clubs and in all

of our neighborhoods as opposed to integrating them. And so can you talk a bit about how the Republicans were able like what were some of the messaging, what was some of the messagings that they continue to use that get people to vote against their own healthcare even during a fucking pandemic. Yeah, well they're There are two parts

answers to that. Of course, my entire book was about the It was about the second part of that question, which is, in other words, if you're if you're a Republican strategist in the South, you all you have to say are three things. Um, this is government intrusion number one. This is um, this is an assault on your own freedoms and liberties number two. And black people are going to cut in front of you inline and take resources

that are meant for you. You You say those three things and you get people to not wear pants basically, I mean, you just say you know it. Yes. And so that's what we saw when we were doing research on the Affordable character on the ground at the time, at the time that it rolled out. The first couple of months, everybody was for it. I mean, we interviewed all these conservatives who were like, man, I'm finally getting some help

paying for prescription drugs and stuff like that. Like people were really for it, and then they started saying those three things. You remember, when ACA rolled out, there was the Obama African which doctor posters and stuff like that, and they'd creeping Uncle Sam with a speculum in the room, you know, doing a guyo exam on your wife and all these kind of things. And within three months, people who were supporting it, we just watched it happened like

a SlowMo car wreck, you know. Um, we watched people turn and say, oh my god, this is government intrusion into my life and it's taking away freedoms and liberties. And I think black people are going to come in front of me in line and take resources that are meant for me. Like it's it's just like it's like catnip in a way. And so it was just weird to watch to watch that happen. Right, People supported it and then they were told not to and then they didn't.

So that's part of it. But the flip side, of course, is the other thing we always talk about here, which is that Democrats don't know the Democrats know how to play politics, right, and so just to say hey, this is great, Look we're helping you all those kind of things, feel good, come by all that great, you know, Biden

Obama reunion tour great. But I mean if we were Republicans, we would be turning this and it's on its head right now, you know, Republicans want to kill your They want to kill your fucking grandmother, you know, you know, like the Republicans are trying to kill your grandmother, or the Republicans are trying to kill white people by taking away the affordable I like, you know, play some politics with this stuff. Don't just message the field good stuff,

um and so to development. But Jonathan, I want to I want to go to I want to go back to the three points that you laid out, because this is what Republicans apply to every issue, all right, right, so it's so so let's let's just reiterate it again. You said first, right, all Republican strategies have to do is say what say that this is going to impose on your liberty? Number Number one is um, this is government intrusion in government intrusion into your life, big government,

and they did that in the Affordable Care Act. They literally had Uncle Sam with a speculum m who and Uncle Sam looked really evil. So it was the government was so intrusive that it was doing a gynecologic exam on your wife. Like that's how that's how, that's how crass. The advertisements were at the beginning of your number Number two.

So number one is the government at tuition Number two is the government is then impinging on your freedoms and liberties, your freedom to be an individual choice, be a libertarian, you know that kind of thing. And then number three, of course, is the racial component, which is, these are resources that shouldn't be going to you, but instead they're going to Mexicans who are pouring over the border and stuff like that. And so that's a component of everything.

That's really a component of everything. And the thing is it ties into deep anxieties, like it's not just let me just be clear, it's not just the racism gene. It is in part, but it's also but it's all of those things. It's all of those three things combined. I mean, you just nailed the three things that Republicans will apply. They'll apply it to abortion, they'll apply it to help they'll apply it to general healthcare. They'll apply it to voting, they'll apply it to why your taxes

can't be lowered, they'll apply it to pharmacis. I mean, this is it's like, oh, how do we fight back? Well, what is the response on each of those three points that Democrats need to make? Just let's just use healthcare. But if these are the same points that are being used to and applied in every single case, then why is it so goddamn hard for Democrats to say, these are the three things that we need to come up with a response to. It's reigning in Nashville today, So

I feel like swearing for some reason. So I'll just say, like, we need to go on the fucking offensive, like we played defense every every damn time. And that's the issue is we don't we were playing defense all the time. So we wait for them to make the three points and then we respond to the three points with reason and stuff like that, like go on the offensive. Right, So I think if we would ever frame the issue in advance of having to respond to those three points,

we'd be in much better shape. I mean again, the Affordable Cact is a perfect example. Um, you know, without healthcare, the GOP is killing your grandmother, or the GOP hates white people because it's denying them help, you know, something like like just craft craft your own narrative that puts them on the defensive and forces them to answer to their own base. We never do that. We only appeal to people's common sense and then we wait and play defense and so um and so I wish we could

take the affordable Cactus a perfect example. Like I watched this happen where we put out the thing, everybody got healthcare, people were happy, and then we assume people were gonna you remember this from the time, right, Everybody's like, well, the minute people get a benefit, they're never going to give it up, like they like it, like Medicare or Medicaid, right, And I'm like, it's much hardway from people, right right, Well, I mean, yeah, that that's true, except that you also,

I mean that was true for Medicare and Medicaid and know your passport and your you know, um whatever kind of crap ways to do in the fifties. But now like that doesn't it doesn't work that way. You also have to craft the narrative now. And so it's not just like people are going to see the benefit and they like it. You also have to frame that what that benefit means. Right, And So what I learned studying the Affordable Care Act is the Democrats really appealed to

common sense and they thought the many people. Yeah and so, but the Republicans had a narrative, right, they had this really compelling to you know, totalizing narrative. And so I don't know, I feel like this is the twelfth anniversary of the Affordable CARECT and we should use this as an opportunity to go on the offense about the narrative, like start going on the offense knowing how the other side is going to play it, and really and really start hammering that. I mean, right now is a great

time to do that. And so again, like today, I only caught a little bit of that of that, you know, I think people should rebel in the success of this program against all odds, and the Affordable Charact that was passed wasn't even as good as what they thought it could be, and it certainly isn't as good as it could be now because nobody ever let it improve. But it's still a pretty remarkable achievement. So it's important to

take a victory lap about that. But in the meantime, start scaring the crap out of people that the Republicans are going to kill your grandmother and so, you know, and so I just think we need to go on the offense about this thing and create a point of making the other side go on the defense or have to answer that, and healthcare again is a perfect example

of that. I mean, but like that, you know, you you make the joke about all go ahead and say that the Republicans are going to are going to kill your grandmother, but they literally said that your grandparents were up for being sacrificial lambs during COVID. Yeah. Like, I truly watch that in a Fox News clip that I thought should have been on SNL. That was just like, no grandparents would be willing to sacrifice their life for

their grandkids. And somehow Republicans turned that bizarre death march into some active patriotism as opposed to wearing a fucking mask that would keep grandma and grandpa alive. All right, I mean we're swimming in f bombs today, in which I love, and so let me just say that. You know, again, I just think that we should because even with that stuff with Grandma and Grandpa, we were appealing to common sense and they were casting this narrative that then we

had to respond to. So I just wish, especially because we have these things called the midterms coming up, that we start crafting some narratives that put them on the defensive. And I think, again, healthcare is a perfect example, because people actually do have the benefit in a lot of places.

And so I think using that to using that to craft some aggressive marketing that actually turns this very predictable narrative on its head and makes people have to answer for it, I think would be now would be a

great time to do it. I really do think that, you know, let's let's shift now with a couple of minutes that we have left to talk about the midterms, right, because last week when we were when we were chatting, we were talking about the lack of messaging, right, the lack of clarity, and we were talking about the fact that it's not enough to just say that Democrats have a big tent and so they can't figure out how to message, and it's easier to message to those that

are a monolith, which it is. We know those things

to be true. What I find really troubling, though, Jonathan, right now, about how even the midterms are being characterized on mainstream news is that we're headed into a normal midterm with like a normal group of Republicans, and that they're not unhinged, that they are not steeped in their value set of white supremacy, and that this is not a danger a threat to the world, given that even their national syndicate, Fox News, who right now is upholding

talking points from the Kremlin about war crimes in Ukraine at the hands of Putin and Russian soldiers. What do you say about? What do you say to how we're discussing the midterms that are still a couple of months away and making it seem as if this is a normal election. You know, it's funny because think about what you've heard. The only thing any of us have heard about the midterms is that we're going to get wiped out, right, And I mean if there are a couple of ways

to think about that strategy. Either that's a conscious strategy to let that narrative burn out, you know what I mean, and like let it let it become so clear that we're gonna that we're gonna um lose, and then let that burnout before the midterms. That's that's one possibility. Wait, because we have short attention spans until a while down the road to rally the base, let all this stuff play out. I don't, I just it's hard for me

to know right now, Like, like, what's the strategy? Honestly, Um, you know, there's a lot of people saying, now, oh, all the powers in the in the in the suburbs,

like those are the main swing voters. So really you've got to start crafting messages that appeal to So, I mean basically, because of course the US elections, like there's the base, and there's the base, and then there's there's like vacillating middle, and whoever wins the middle wins the election, right, And so the assumption is, like people hate Brandon so much, or they hate what Biden's doing so much, or they hate whatever, that it's just going to be a wipeout.

And of course jerrymandering also, But it's hard for me to know, and maybe you can help me here, what's the what's the democrats master strategy? Right now? I mean Democratic coalition? It feels so fragile, and I think it's not just I just feel like people really don't realize

quite what's at stake with this mid term. So we need like one narrative because I do think it's viable that if it is true that the Republicans wipe out the Democrats, it seems pretty likely that they'll impeach Joe Biden, right, I mean it seems pretty likely that it seems pretty likely that there would be like a massive constitutional crisis. And I just I don't see the urgency about like

the on the ground mobilization. And this isn't just mobilization about like the major things, like you know, we should be mobilizing, as we were saying last time, about you know, we need some narrative that like gets everybody riled up about the school board election and about the people who are going to control the elections, who's running for those positions and all those kind of things. You know, I just feel like, I don't know, I just I feel frustrated, honestly.

You know, maybe we need our we need counter three points. Yeah, I think that we need strong counterpoints to the list that you just put together. But I also think that we need a bucket of cold water dumped on the heads of the Democratic establishment as well as voters in recognizing that if Republicans do what the posters say right now that they're going to do that there is a shellacking. In the same way that Obama got completely blown out of the water in midterms, this is a different situation.

We are living in a different environment, right and I think that we should have saw the warning signs back in the early two thousands with regard to how dangerous Republicans were coming, but we're becoming. But we said, like, oh, like this is normal. It was never normal for Republican Senate to hold the Supreme Court Justice hostage. It was never normal to say that you wanted to make a president a one term president. It was never normal any of the ways in which we watch President Obama be

treated over those last eight years. But we wanted to once again shrug our shoulders and say that I've had everything to do with race and not everything to do with a longer strategy around race and racism. Right, and so they impeach Biden what like, and do so. And again we also have to remember, and one of my favorite memes that comes out every once in a while to remind us that all of the atrocities that we've ever talked about and see in the world were legal. Right.

The genocide against Choose in you know, in the Holocaust was legal, Apartheid in South Africa was legal, colonization was legal. So being able to come in and remove Joe Biden because you don't want a Democrat to be president of the United States, and you're going to do everything that you can to mar this party because now you have power, and when they had power, they did nothing. I mean, who's going who who are we to blame right for this scenario that we're in right now? Do we just

blame Republicans you think? Or do we have to blame Democrats as well? Well? I mean that's really what I was going to ask you, is like, what are the Democrats right now? In other words, are the Democrats a

you know? I mean if the Democrats were like a laser focused sink, a strategy that combined a bunch of different interests and a bunch of different demographics, but how to strategy, then these mofos would never have gotten away with like like the minute they start banning books, we send ten thousand people, ten million people to to to support books. And the minute they start showing up for school board, we send ten billion people. In the minute their anti mask we are like out there in droves

supporting masks and vaccines and stuff like that. But we've just taken it all lying down. And partially that is about just what we're up against, but partially it's that the Democrats, you know, I do really kind of feel, to be honest, doing a lot of on the ground research here, that there's a secret fantasy Centrists feel like the Progressives are going to get wiped out. Progressives feel like if we get beaten bad enough, the Centrists are going to get wiped out. So there's like a fracture

within the Democrats that I think is very dangerous. And I say that because you know, my friend Jason Stanley, his work is his work about fascism, talks about the biggest thing that gives rise to fascism is a fractured resistance, right, and so, and that's what kind of what we're seeing is that the Democrats don't have The Democrats are not going the same way down the river in a certain

kind of way. And so, you know, I think again there's a fantasy that, oh, the Centrists are going to get exposed once and for all, and the Progressives can take over and we get have Medicare for all. But it ain't going to work that way, you know. So I think the Democrats really need a kind of big ten approach right now, and and and at least right at this moment. I mean, they had it when they elected Biden honestly, but then it all fell apart the

minute the minute the election was over. I think you got to figure out how to get that back. Yeah, I mean, this is this is where we are, and I and I just I want to remind people that

we are not living in normal times. And I think that the what I get really frustrated at is that the purpose I always felt that the media had wasn't just to you know, have wonderful ratings and bring in, you know, billions of dollars that it was actually supposed to at least the news anyway, was supposed to educate the masses to the issues at hand and to the risks that we are, that the danger zones that we

are in. Um, right now, we just have folks looking at the Kremlin and wagging their finger about Russian State TV and saying nothing about how they are influencing our our body politic right now. Well, Jonathan, as always, we appreciate your insights, and we'll continue to discuss this as we get closer and closer to midterms and see where we land. I mean, somehow I feel like we're gonna have no shortage of material. So yeah, there's that everybody

hanging there as always dear friends. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.