Mourning the Democratic Party

all other intersectional spaces. And when I criticize this administration, when I criticize the Democratic Party, what it seems to be getting lost with the trolls on social media who lack the ability to understand nuance and lack the ability to understand the grief that people feel in this moment is that it comes from a place of deep sadness. My anger and rage, as I've come to understand, it isn't just anger and rage. Rage comes from a place

of deep emotion. And I went to Washington, DC, worked on Capitol Hill, worked in the classroom, did policy work, advocated for same sex marriage, and did all of these things because I believed in the possibility of this country. What does it mean to believe in possibility? It believes that we don't just throw people away. We don't just throw whole fucking communities away. We don't toss up our hands and say, what do you want me to do? When we're in power, it means that you utilize every

tool in your fucking toolbox. It means that you work for the betterment, and that when you see things that are so tragically wrong that you call them out not just as a call out to wag fingers, but as a call out to open up people's eyes to recognize the power that they have to make this country better.

But without eyes being opened, without people being able to turn their rage right into the possibility into working towards progress, and not just being ostriches and burying our heads in the sand or laying down our accouch and saying that we're too exhausted to move, Which is okay, It is okay to break down, because the moment is calling for the heightened emotions that we are all experiencing that we can't.

But the very idea that to be critiquing this administration and calling out their apathy and their inaction is somehow me advocating for people not to show up at the polls is somehow me advocating that I don't believe in this country just goes to show me how little people fucking know in general. Right, But what is disheartening is how much you can work and dedicate and advocate and how in small moments people cease to silence you. And this is what I know to be true about me.

Is in the coming week or so, I'm taking a break from Twitter in particular because I think that much as many guests have come on the show and said, and many people I know have experienced after they've experienced a considerable amount of backlash that results in people calling for your rape or your death or for you to be silenced, is that clearly you've hit a fucking nerve.

And I'm okay with that. But what I'm not okay with is putting my own emotional health and mental health and well being up for target practice to fucking trolls. But what I realize is that the more that other people are listening to you, the more that other people are connecting with your message, the scarier the dissenters become. And so what I want to offer to folks is that we will all in our own platforms in our

own spaces receive a lot of pushback. We'll receive a lot of pushback because that's what happens when you speak the truth. That's what happens when you challenge the status quo and you challenge norms. So I'm not just going to tell people, oh, just get out the vote and just vote more is if that is going to solve our problems. It's not voting sure as fuck is not

going to solve our problems. But I do say that I understand now for those that have reasoning behind not showing up at the polls why they don't, But that to me is just casting a ballot for Republicans because they're sixty five and older crowd always votes. They never miss a fucking election, not from the Schoolhouse to the State House and to the White House. They don't miss one.

So what I will say is that I need for this administration to offer up something, even it is to lay out in no uncertain terms, where the fucking blame and rage that we are feeling should be pointed. Right,

our economy is struggling. Why is that because of decisions that Republicans and Donald Trump made, So say that right, women and people with uterus are angry because they've lost bodily autonomy and now they are in fear for their lives and the fear for the lives of their family right, So say that, and say who was able to steal to Supreme Court seats and put three Republicans on the bench that would have us in this moment, Tell the

fucking truth. That's all that I am advocating for is for this administration to turn on their microphone, to turn on their bully pulpit, and instead of continuing to make fucking deals with Mitch McConnell and this rabid, fucking radicalized cult, to engage the people and tell them the truth. You cannot just tell people to vote and not tell them who to vote for. You cannot just say, oh, you

must choose me because the other guy is bad. You need to say, in no uncertain terms, why the other guy is bad, Why they are not only bad, but they are a danger to democracy, That they are a danger to your ability to put food on the table, that they are danger to your safety. But if you are not while you have this platform called the White House, using every opportunity to tell the American people the fucking truth about who they are dealing with, and that we

are set up in two camps right now. And it isn't Democrat and Republican, right, it is patriot and it is traitor. That is what somebody had sent to me that apparently Ulysses S. Grant had said at one time, that is the world that we are living in. So

tell the fucking truth. Don't tell me that I have friends from across the aisle, because those motherfuckers try to build a gallows and kill there are other friends from across the aisle that Donald Trump said, oh, they're not here to harm me at the Stop to Steel rally when he knew that he was sending people that were hyped up on racial animus and racism and misogyny and toxic masculinity armed and directing them towards the Capitol building.

So tell the truth. Don't think that by doing so, oh, somehow you're impeding on an investigation that we don't even really know is happening outside of what is happening in Georgia. Thank god for a G. Willis, who seems to be

the only person working right now. So what I say when I am angry, when I am filled with rage, which is on a daily so much so that it is exhausting, so much so that I am waking up in tears and going to bed in tears, because if I have to hear about one more shooting of a black person, if I have to hear about one more story of a young girl who was raped and is now have to figure out where they're going to get an abortion, if I have to hear one more of

these things, I'm going to lose my fucking mind, because they're all happening, and they're all happening at the same goddamn time, and this administration still thinks that we are in this twentieth century rational place when we are clearly

not so. Coming up today is my monthly conversation that I have with our friend Reverend Mark Thompson, host of Make It Plain, to talk about as he has spent his life literally in the civil rights movement, marching on the front lines, is back and forth to Washington, DC, what he thinks this moment is calling for, and how this moment is different than what was experienced in the fifties and sixties and seventies and eighties in this country

towards black people and specifically but towards the idea of progression. More specifically, that conversation is coming up next in Beautiful with Doctor Rashid Ricci is one of the latest shows on the TYT network and also the fastest growing news

show in America. On his show, Doctor Ricci plays no games regarding policy, delivering a heavy dose of fact based truth and penetrating analysis on all the top news stories focusing on racism, criminal and social justice, politics, police brutality, Karens, and much more. Listeners can also expect interviews with fascinating guests, political leaders, commentators, and even fiery debates with conservatives on

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. It's no secret that the news is horse hill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's the Bituation Room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Er and

Tini for a lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week, The Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to break down the issues in a way that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on

YouTube and Twitch. Folks, I want to welcome our friend back, host of Make It Plain, our friend, Reverend Mark Thompson, on our monthly conversation with regard to the upcoming midterms, the current cultural climate in this nation, which is to use the word fraught, Mark would be at the understatement of the year. You have been back and forth to Washington, d C. Protesting with regard to a portion protesting with regard to voting rights. Mark, I just want to start

off with the you know, with asking you this. You have been doing this a long time. You have been on the front lines literally marching for your entire professional career. How do you see, if you see it at all, this time different than the decades before. Wow, We're first of all, always good to be with you and the Woka family. It's funny. I was just talking to someone about this earlier today. In the past, we had some

insurmountable victories as well. I mean I came along at a time when we forced Ronald Reagan to sign the King Holliday Bill, where we stopped, when we stopped the nomination of Robert Bourke, when we forced the Congress past sanctions on South Africa and then forced the Congress to override Reagan's veto. That's a power that we had as a movement, as an African American movement, as a civil rights movement, as a human rights movement, as a progressive

or liberal movement. I think the difference now is is that finally America and we all are faced with the reality that the government is practically no longer functional at all. The filibuster has nullified both Houses of Congress, the politicization of the Supreme Court and its appointments. The Supreme Court has become an absolutely partisan body. And the executive branch, I think people are learning for the first time, really without the legislative branch has very little power. There's only

so much a president can do with executive orders. So if the president can do much, if Congress has been nullified, if the Supreme Court is now become a hyperpartisan, right wing white supremacist institution, going back to the days of plessing. If not earlier, then what can be done. There's nothing that can be done unless we replace everyone in office. But it's hard to do that without motivation. And I think that the onus has fallen upon Democrats to give

us some of the nation. They just haven't been very good at it and have not shown a lot of interest in doing it. I think there's a level of intellectualism there. Well. The Democratic Party, franklies run by consultants, and the consultant class is intellectual, and so they're thinking is everybody knows and understands what they know that if people don't get out and vote, it's going to get worse. But people like you and me, Danielle, people who listen

to our shows are not like everyone else. You know, we have a keen interest in this. We follow it. Most people don't. Most people are living their lives trying to make it and they don't know. And all they see is high gas prices, and for black people, all they see is a sister in jail and Russian nothing big done about it. So what does that look like? That looks like nineteen eighty high gas prices, people in jail, hostages in Iran and you've I've learned from that. Jimmy

Carter couldn't turn that around. They might have been a way to do it, but was every avenue exhausted to prevent it? Probably not. And I think that's part of the Democratic Party culture, just kind of you know, well hoped and you know, you know, kind of use I guess the rhythm method, thinking that that's kind of motive they voted rather than actually organizing more. And you know, consultants will say to Biden, well, you don't want to look too radical and you don't want to offend independence.

But I think there's a way to have both. People want to see some strength, psyche something. And you know, I even had people who would never criticize the Democratic president, never criticized your baby, come and say, man, why don't he say something? Why don't he just you know, and it's it's not happening, unfortunate. And those who would think that that type of criticism is anti party or discouraging people from voting, No, Because I'm telling you something else too.

NFL just cut a deal with ice Cube. Ice Cube is being paid to suppress voters. We aren't supressed voters. There's an active movement to suppress voters. Us saying, Biden, speak up more, exhaust everything at your disposal is not

voting suppression. That's to help get the vote out. It's one of the things I'll say, and I think I've said this to you before and to others, even a show of strength, even if he didn't go through with it, to say that he's gonna do what was done during reconstruction and what was done during but eisenhow did Little Rock, Arkansas did de serregate schools. He's going to send federal troops into the South to make sure everybody has the

right to vote exercise. If co Voting Rights Act isn't gone, there's still things that can be enforceable, right because we are in in a seditious moment, We're in an insurrectionist moment, so why not do that? Just like you know, there's been the consideration, as there should be as to whether or not military basis can provide reproductive and abortion services to women beyond what the Supreme Court has done. I mean,

I think everything has to be on the table. Even for that to be discussed out loud by the White House would at least I think give people some reason. Okay, well, you know they're still fighting. We can fight too, there's still something to fight for. We haven't all because I otherwise I think people are going to be demoralized. I mean, and I think to that point that people are all

ready demoralized. I think that you know, what I have been advocating for and getting a tremendous amount of pushback in, is this stand up and say something, Say something other than we find out that Joe Biden is still fucking cutting deals with Mitch McConnell right to put in another forced birth federal judge in Kentucky, and you're hearing rumors about that happening. How does this president still negotiate with Mitch McConnell, who is in the minority, who has shown

himself to be a bad faith actor. When you hear when the people who aren't paying attention all the time, and so they have two clips, mark, they have the clip of the Supreme Court saying women and people with uter says you no longer have bodily autonomy. Boom, that's one clip. Then they got another clip where you hear that the President of the United States is negotiating with the man that stole two Supreme Court seats. Mitch McConnell didn't ask to negotiate with a damned person during the

Obama administration. As a matter of fact, he said, I'm going to make you a one term president and then set it again to Joe Biden. Joe Biden's response to that is negotiation and saying that Mitch McConnell is a rational Republican. So if I'm a person that is not readily paying attention every day because I'm struggling to put gas in my tank and food on my table and medicine in my medicine chest, then how is it that this Democratic Party thinks that they are going to win? Right?

They keep saying, well, we're going to concentrate on kitchen table issues, and I said, well, I said this the other day on MSNBC. There is no other kitchen table issue than the strength of our democracy and then the ability to actually have set people around the kitchen table, because the kitchen table is about economy. And if people are being forced out of the workplace because they're being forced to birth children that they cannot afford and do not want, how is that not a kitchen table issue.

How is not something that you are willing to stand up forcefully, even if it's in words only. But to your point, exhaust every avenue. Yeah, those those are valid points. And again, you know, I think that the structure in the White House is may very well be be failing Joe Biden. Here's an opportunity that I think that they're missing. Though the party in power power, the party in power

always loses in the midterms. The opportunity that I think the consultant class which is running the White House is missing is that Democrats aren't the party in power. Even though Democrats hold the White House and both houses, we're the ones taking all the hits. The power is coming from Republicans controlling the filibuster, with the help of Mansion

in cinema, and from the Supreme Court. So if people are more motivated in the mid terms because they're in the opposition, then you know, it may it may cause some people to put their pride aside. But maybe Democrats need to make it clear in the message. You know, we even though we got the White House, we are the party still in opposition. We're the opposition party because everything is happening over and above us. What Supreme Court did that last week was devastating. They just they flurried

on the public miranda, state gun laws, the EPA. No, you're not in power. We are not in power, and so we should act like that rather than act as if, well, because Joe Biden's a president, we're in power, we might lose some of the midterms. That's not right being in power. It's not just what's on paper, but what's real. And some of those conversations I've been having on my show really ought to go to that mobilizing people understand. You know, folks, we I know what this looks like, but it really

ain't what it seems to be. And how do you expect? But I think that that is such that is such a valid point mark and one that I will say that I have not been thinking about because they may have quote unquote Democrats may have control of these chambers,

but they actually do not have the power. But if by perception, we have always been told, right, we've always been told that you need to vote because the president is the leader of the free world, that the president is the one that can do this, that and the other thing. And then we're remembering what Donald Trump was able to do right, and we say, well, wait a minute, why did he have such outsized power in that same position? And yet we have a democratic president now that's saying, oh,

I don't have any power. Don't remember Donald Trump ever saying that. I don't remember when Mitch McConnell, now being in the minority, has said that. So how do we message that to people to understand the difference between power

and control? That's what I'm hearing you say, Well, I think we just have to speak directly as to what the facts are that we suffered a tremendous setback when Donald Trump was elected president, and now we actually have one a Senate with a rule, a Senate that supported him fully implementing a rule that prevents the Democrats from governing or really preventing Congress from functioning, and a Supreme Court appointed by someone who choked out one of his

Secret Service agents encourage people with arms to storm the Capitol. That's the mentality, and I think people need to under I think the January six Committee is doing a good job. They brought in the right consultants all right in terms of how to do it, and they didn't try to do it all in one week. This is gonna be spread out, you know, and you kind of need that because it takes people a minute to take it all in.

It's probably gonna take another week or so more. That's why they pushed the other one to next week for people to recover from Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony. You know, Danielle, in the movies, when somebody's driving, you grabbed the stairwheel, they normally calls us the car to wreck. They should just let the car rick grab him to a treat or something, or they should have let him gone up there.

They're trying to save his Like if he had gone up there with them people with them guys, they would have been a cross fire and he probably might have been shot. So now I think that I think that in all the reason why they didn't let him go up there is because there's save in their own asses. That's why you have uh sipolone getting ready to testify,

uh this that the testimony is happening. I think it's happening uh this week and then we have the hearing next week, so we'll hear what it is that he said. And why is he testifying? Because Cassidy dropped more bombs than I think that we have seen as of yet come out of this administration. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I don't think it was so much. I know that their job is to protect the physical body of the president and protect like the White House, But they were protecting their own asses when they didn't allow that man to go there, because, as he said, they're not here to hurt me, which was just I mean, the President of the United States saying that let him in. They're not here. They didn't bring guns to kill me, right, is an admission that they here to kill somebody, to

hurt somebody. They're just not here to harm me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I just I literally, man, I mean the secret. I mean, once you've done your job and said you can't go up here and he overrules, just let him go, y'all, don't go. Don't I'm not going. I got COVID, I'm out you topyboy, yourself a knock yourself out, um and so uh. And you know he would have. He probably would enjoy going down to blaze of glory, be a

martyrn all that. But but the thing is, I think that there has to be more of a motivating message. I think that those who normally are mobilizing and organizing too in a normal election year to get voters out are a little bit stymy because they don't get it. I think they even underestimated this whole Brittney Grinder's name, I mean, that's that's gaining more momentum. Yeah, what is the black elector it's supposed to think you can't do nothing.

You you can't do anything anywhere, And it takes it's a lot of pride for a president to mean, you know, no no, I really can't do that. Donald Trump messed it up so much and the way they got these things red God can't do anything. But even that mark, even that would be a better message than what is coming out right now, because once again he would be able to they would be able to transfer the blame

on where the blame should actually be. Our economy is so fucked up because of these three things that the

former president did. Our country is strife with bullets and you're fearing for your life in public spaces because of the three Supreme Court justices that the last president and the Republican Party were able to jam through That's what I'm talking about in terms of you take these tragic moments that we are having Jalen Walker, right being shot sixty goddamn times, but a silent the mass murderer being taken alive, alive so much so we're getting a medical

examination and we're wondering about who raised him, right, But Jaylen Walker's family is trying to figure out how we can't have an open casket because his body is no longer in its fault, in its form. So it's just like, where is the reaction that meets the moment of greed? Like he wanted to be the comforter in chief, right in order to comfort people. You're a reverend, don't you have to be able to share in their pain and articulate it in a way that allows them to feel

seen and hurt. Yeah, I think so, But he's I mean, but Joe Ban's not a reverend. Truthfully, I think that they've got to find some way to communicate and mobilize people. I believe that, you know, they've also painted themselves into a corner by marginalizing, marginalizing the vice president, So you know, it's almost a day laying the dollars short to to trot her out. Now, that's what they're going to do, and they better figure something out. And there are those

even in Congress who are having the same conversation we're having. There. There is a a messaging problem, and I think the vice the White House is getting is to engage as softly and as little as possible. But that may not be the way to go. And I don't know that it's the January six hearings alone are what is going to mobilize people to the polls that that's going to just be able to do it. Some of these other things have got to happen. Now, I will say this,

there is an onus that falls. So there are two demographics that decide elections these days, the black electorate led by black women, and the other demographic is suburban, college educated white women. What are they going to do? So here's the thing, the real problem, the reason we're in this fix is because of them. He voted for Donald Trump. Nobody really believed like Susan Collins and yeah, going to

get there, that's what she said. And they believe in what you're like, my Susan Collins impersonal Um, So what you're gonna do. Now, this shouldn't even be a question. If we do what we do as an electorate and turn out, and suburban college gets educated white women do what they need to do and turn out, this is

not a problem. But it really boils down as to how much that's ladder demographics, suburban college educated white whether they're gonna do what they're supposed to do, whether they're going to stand up for their own bodily autonomy or just give in. We will definitely find out what this country is made up. And and the White House may just be betting on that. There people might be saying, you know what, you can't do nothing anyway, just sit down,

be quiet, let's just see what happens. I think that's a dangerous gamble. But to some extent, we're going to find out what America is really really made We did we saved the country and right women from Royal Moore. We tried to save the country as a black electorate, black women in particular from Donald Trump. And so now it really boils down to what they're gonna do. And

that ball is in is in white women's court. I mean, you know, if the ball is in white women's court, then I think that I should dust off my passport because historically speaking, uh, they will always vote and I'm particularly I'm talking about white sis, Hetero Christian suburban women will vote how they have always voted, which is alongside their Republican husbands and partners. And they got it right in twenty twenty. So they don't always do that, I mean,

and they increased their voting for Donald Trump. You know, I just I don't. I will always trust black women to do what black women have done since the beginning of the beginning of time, which is show up if we are put placing a gamble, which we are, which we often do, because this is who both parties court. Is that of the empathy and the rage and urgency of white women. Well you know that usually lasts probably about as long as a summer vacation here in America,

and then they move on to something else. And so without the continued messaging and beating of that drum of the place of urgency and the compounded crises that we are in and who is actually to blame for where we are right now, and then why it is that we need your vote, Because that was the thing that Alexandriro Cassio Cortez had said representative she said, we need to tell people why they are voting for us, not just to vote for us right, and what numbers we

need and not just to show up in mass And I think that those details are often left behind. But Mark, as always, I appreciate your time, your energy, the work that you continue to do going to Washington on a regular basis, working with Reverend Barber and others in order to lift up our voices. I can't thank you enough. And we will pick this up next month and see exactly where where we land and where we are. Hey man, thank you, Daniel. Always a pleasure to be with you.

God bless you. Appreciate you. Hey there, I want to tell you about another podcast I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Gohler, the president of Emerge BGG, is the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. Join a Shanty this season as she talks to an incredible women of color who are changing the face of politics and tackling some of the most important issues facing the United States, from reproductive

justice to voting rights to climate change, and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. That is it for me today, Dear friends, on this woke a f let me say that I wish for you all a RESTful weekend. Please unplug, please disconnect, Please find some joy. Please stand in the sun, put your feet in the grass,

take in the air. Spend time with people who fill your heart, so that you are able to continue fighting, so that you're able to continue sharing, so that you're able to continue in conversation, because it's needed now more than ever. As always, dear friends, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.