Good morning, peepsend Welcome to OOKF Daily with me your
girl Danielle Moody recording from the home Bunker. The first, folks, I want to start off today mentioning something that I actually did not really cover in depth last week at all, which is President Biden joining the picket line of the UAW in Michigan and the media's false equivalency that they were running with Donald Trump going to some auto body shop filled with people who were not actual auto workers in an attempt to do what he does really well,
which is take away media attention and create a false equivalency. The fact that a sitting president of the United States stood with union workers and told them that they deserve their fair share after his administration, the Obama administration bailed out right the auto industry, right, our tax dollars bailed those motherfuckers out that now a decade later, they are making record profits and yet fail to pay their workers.
And so what I want to make people aware of is that we are living at a time when workers actually have the power and recognize their power, regardless of the billionaires that are doing interviews and saying things to the effect of, well, we need unemployment to be at fifty percent so that they feel the pain and they
remember who's in charge. Those are words that come out of the mouths of people who think that they are literally masters right, commanding their plantation, and not seeeos who are afforded the lifestyle that they've become accustomed to because of the people that they employ. That this idea of a trickle down has never has never happened, never, not one fucking time. There is no trickle down because when the money goes to the top, guess where it is
forwarded at the fucking top. And then the attitude of those people and their callousness is like let them eat cake. Right, So the fact that Joe Biden would show up and support workers and support unions should show a stark contrast to the Republican Party that is about greed and is about cruelty. That is it. There is no large distinction between oh well, Republicans and Democrats. They do the same thing.
They fucking don't, right, And Donald Trump's fraudulent you know, misstep that was uncovered by the Detroit News just shows you who the Republican Party is. They lie, and they cheat and they steal in order to make you believe that they give a shit, right, and they don't. Everything that they do is like play acting, and so it is important for us to make the distinction that when we see true acts of leadership, like what Joe Biden showed us last week, that those are the things that
we should be holding on to. I don't give a fuck how old Joe Biden is. What matters to me is that he has dedicated his life to public service and that he has exceeded my expectations as being President of the United States during one of our most fractious times that this country has seen in fifty years. And so I don't care if Joe Biden is eighty, because what I do know is that he's not a criminal. What I do know is that he's not cruel. What I do know is that he's not a bigot. What
I do know is that he's not a liar. And those are the qualities that we should be looking for in anyone that is going to lead this country. Everything else is fluff and bullshit. This isn't a horse race that we are watching. We are not betting, because if Trump were to win, or any Republican were to win, the American people and the world loses. The stakes are too high for the kind of bullshit that we are
continuing to see in corporate media. Coming up next, dear friends, my conversation with Chris Scott, who is leading a really important organization which is the Advance the Electorate Pack. And this is what this pack is doing, Political Action Committee. They are working to build a more inclusive democracy by recruiting, training, and electing the next generation of progressive Democratic candidates and operatives.
And the pack's focus, folks, this is why this is interesting, is that their focus is on statewide judicial and legislative races. For too long, I have said on this show and so many others that Democrats focus solely on the presidency, or they focus solely on Congress. And what we have seen over the past years is just how much power the states actually have and how much power the judiciary has.
And so by focusing right the electoral measures on these places, we can ensure right that progress isn't just about who is inside of the White House or who is in the Congress or the Senate, but who is sitting on the bench and who is running for local office in statewide office, because that matters. So coming up next my conversation with Chris Scott. Folks, I am very happy to welcome to Woke a f daily Chris Scott, who is in charge of they head of a new progressive Democratic
pack entitled Advance the Electorate. And Christopher, you are working on what many have talked about and referred to as the new American Majority right and getting the new American majority to have a stake in the shift in our shifting electorate, particularly at a time when we are seeing Republican forces try and rewrite will not try they have rewritten our judiciary that they have essentially tried to overturn free and fair elections. And your pack, this pack is
specifically focused on statewide judicial and legislative races. Give us the reason behind this and just bring us up to speed on what it is folks need to understand about the work that Advanced the Electorate pack is doing well.
I think, for one, and thank you for having me on today, Danielle. I think for one, when me and Christine created a pack, it was with the idea of a lot of the work that needs to be done to defend our depocrasy starts.
At the state level. In the first place, I think when you look at what.
Republicans have gone and done and always been ahead of the curve with us, it's with those judicial races, which is how they've now stacked the Supreme Court because they intentionally focused on building and bench. And then when you look at the state legislatures, you look at you know,
where abortion rights, where voting rights are getting attacked. They're getting attacked in state legislatures, which is something that typically a lot of packs focus on just the congressional and as Democrats, we get decimated sometimes, especially in the South, when it comes to those state legislative races. And so both me and Christine have an extensive experience and winning
those type of races. But they're also the races that we know are going to be the most important if we're actually going to be able to progress our democracy the way that America should be progressing at this point in its history.
You know now, for we know that for decades, right the Republican Party has understood the importance of the judiciary. Just you know, this week there is reporting once again out of Politico about uh my favorite evil villain, UH Leonard Leo uh and the federal and the Federalist Society UH and his work with Supreme Court Justice's wife Ginny Thomas, Clarence Thomas's wife UH in order to essentially turn America into their Christo fascist Disneyland. This is what I refer
to it as. And so the means that they have right, the Federalist Society is backed by billions of dollars. They have billion dollar benefactors, multiple Harlan Crowe being only one of them, my other favorite super villain on the on the right, only one of them. Talk to me about the kind of resources that your initiative and this initiative in general to try and come back, because this is
not just a informational campaign. You're talking about working against multi billion dollar machines that have been in place for decades.
Well, again, we were very intentional in how we even formed this pack in the first place. So we are a hybrid pack, which means immediately out the gate, we can.
Both endorse and we can play with our superpack as well.
When you talk about judicial and legislative races oftentime, Republicans have enormous superpacks to.
Fund these races.
Oftentimes Democrats do not invest the same I think every now and then you get a race like we had in Wisconsin.
Are weer this here?
But oftentimes that's not the case. Then when you talk about if it's a candidate of color that is running for one of these races, how much less money is invested to them, even on the hearts side of what their campaign can receive directly, it's just it's outrageous, but it's not surprising at this point. So again, for us, we have to be very intentional. We want to be authentic.
We want to create something that feels and looks different than politics as usual, because you know, the run and the male line and the Democratic Party is oftentimes you want to engage black and brown and young voters two three months out from the election when you need to vote.
But this work.
If you really want to change the trajectory that we're going, you have to do that work all year round, and you have to invest not just in the voters, but be willing to invest in the candidates that look like the base of your party.
What do you think is the biggest misconception that voters have about the judiciary, about what it is that they need to under stand and where their power lies. Right, Because you know. Again, I take case in point as to what is happening in Florida right with the governor's ability to just up and move a district attorney because he doesn't like them because they are a Democrat, a
duly elected district attorney. You see that with the changes that were made in the Georgia Legislator, with a bill that was just signed by Governor Brian Kemp that also gave Republicans the ability in their supermajority to remove a district attorney. Now he has come out and said that, oh, this isn't about Fani and we're not going to remove her because of the case against Donald Trump and his
eighteen other co defendants in the Rico case there. But talk to me about the misconception that voters have in terms of their power, and then how you can use the cases that I've just mentioned, these issues that I've just mentioned that people are now starting to connect the dots like, wait a minute, I voted for this person and now they can be boots it out and I got no say it though, and there's no recourse. So speak on that.
Well, I want to start with I'm not sure if I.
Would even call it a misconception as to I think a lot of people just aren't educating and they're not knowledgeable about it. I think for years in our politics and intentionally done course, especially from a Republican, we like to see electorate overall, our Republicans like to see an uneducated electorate. And so if you don't even know how that position could possibly impact you until it's too late,
you can't really do anything to stop it. And so in the case of judicial races, I don't think people were really paying attention. You know, everybody knows the Supreme Court, but when you really start looking again over the last two years and people are waking up to see, oh my god, my rights are being taken away. And you know, I thought my congress member fought for this, and I thought this as a congressional bill. Why is the state
able to rekill this right? Or why can the court say that we're not going to enforce the fact that we should have fair districts in the state. I mean, you look at Ohio and North Carolina right now, what Republicans have done there with redistrict and essentially telling the court, hey,
we're not actually going to redraw these maps. And why because both of those states have court seats that are up in twenty twenty four that they're hoping to win, so then they don't actually have to do the thing that they're constitutionally bound to do.
I mean, you know, like one, Christopher, you do in the Lord's work here right, like because you know it is it is you right inside of this organization trying to work inside of the rule of law right and prepare and educate a constituency that has been purposefully lied to right and made to feel powerless. Yes at a time when their power and their vote is more important than ever. And so it's like, just speak, you speak to us about the the I guess the weight of
what it is that you're combating against. Because the people, the opposition that we're talking about, they're pressing our constitution right to its breaking point. And it's it's kind of hard to continue to be on the up and up and follow the rules when the other side is like, what rules are you referring to?
Well, I think, for one, from the outset me and Christine, this has really been our lifeblood work and our careers up to this point. I think from all the work she's done and electoral politics dedicated towards the Latino community. My history working unapologetically for black organizations and younger organizations. I think you have to be very intentional. You have to be very sturdy at this time. And it's the thing of when we created this is for the fact
that this work always needs to be done. But oftentimes when it comes to funding this work, this is the first thing that gets cut from any type of national pack. It's the first thing that often gets underfunded at a state party as well. And so for us, we know it's a huge task, but also somebody still has.
To do it. We are not getting a better place.
We see Republicans more progressively after black men, after Latino men. We have to And I keep saying the word intentional, but I cannot stress enough. I think Democrats too often aren't intentional with our work. And I think particularly for progressive especially in the grassroots.
We've always been very intentional on how we plan.
I think it goes back to even old bombing campaign days when you saw how organizing revolutionized politics.
So definitely immense, right, but it has to be done.
And it's everything that I've given up in my career up to this point in the first place, do.
You think you know that people are more conscious to and woke to the ways that this Republican Party is trying to dissuade their power and trying to abuse the
judicial system. Because I asked this because you know, we just a couple of what is it last month celebrated or acknowledged the sixty year anniversary of the March on Washington, Right, And we know that if you're really truly thinking about what it means to live inside of a democratic society, America has only been a democracy for the last sixty years, right, Like that, that's very real. We don't say that enough. Right, the mainstream definitely doesn't say it. He talks to, Oh,
America's been this great democracy. We're about to celebrate two hundred and fifty years. And I'm like, first of all, we may not make it. And second, the two hundred and fifty years for who? And so when we think about the last sixty years and really understand that it was not just the vote that got you know, Black Americans their rights as citizens of this country, that it was the judiciary system. When we're looking at the integration of schools, when we're looking at the voting Rights Bill.
When we're looking at all of these things, it went through the courts, Republicans knew that. So in your opinion, right, like, if Republicans knew that, oh my goodness, the judiciaries actually working equitably right in terms of hearing these cases and changing changing America suit by suit over the last sixty years.
What would in Democrats have then doubled down sixty years ago, Christopher and been like, voting alone in presidential elections in off cycle elections is not what is bringing America to a more just place?
Well, I think it starts with again, Republicans plan long term. Democrats oftentimes in the past sixty years planned short term. We plan for the presidential We don't do a good job of Advessican in the midterm or even in the more local year.
That makes a difference when you're talking about voters, when or.
Not they're walking, they're paying attention to what the Republican Party.
Is doing right now?
How many voters really can even afford to take a right from their everyday life to worry about whether or not this impacts them. And so when we're talking about how we're trying to change the trajectory of how people vote and how they engage overall.
After that they've.
Been intentionally marginalized and systematically removed over time. That takes a lot of money, That takes a lot of resources to one rebuild that trust for people to have faith in the political system in itself. And then it takes authenticity, and then that means coming around when it's not just election time, that means you know, if we're looking at the presidential I got to applaud VP heras that she's doing this college tour right now. That's what the administration
should be doing more of. Oftentimes, when Democrats lose, it's not because they haven't done anything at all, it's that we haven't messaged to our base what we've actually done. Republicans always do that well. I think when we do that well, we get results like Michigan and Pennsylvania in last year's midterm. When we don't, we get Virginia in twenty twenty one. That's literally how clearly it looks at this point, and our politics are just getting more and
more polarized. There's not decorum, especially on the other side anymore. And you know, we're really in the fight for our lives, and it's not just going to be this cycle. I think we're going to have a couple more cycles where we're really battling out this ideology of whether or not we're going to make this constitution actually look and represent everybody who it should represent.
What do you hear from candidates right from folks that you are endorsing about their desires in this time to
kind of enter into this really dangerous political environment. Because let's be clear, you know, uh it was it was a couple of weeks ago on MSNBC and I forgive me because I can't remember the name of the judge who lost her son, right, Her son was murdered by a man that came looking for her, and she warned on the show that, like this is just the beginning, right that the way that we've just been notified that Fanie willis her entire family and staff have been docked
by a Russian intel site and there's no way for the Justice Department to bring that information down her private information, and so it is becoming increasingly more dangerous to enter into this field. So what are you hearing from folks that are showing the courage and the temerity to continue to run.
They want support, and they want support early. They want to feel like they have a community. I think when you talk about why we focus on the type of candidates that we focus on, both me and Christine have seen through our years that candidates having a cohort of other candidates running in races like them, it does help them feel better. They're able to share ideas, They're able to share a strategy. I think about particularly DA races,
and I've worked for a couple in my career. Those are probably some of the most vicious.
Races I've ever seen, where they.
Get really personal nasty, even in democratic primary, particularly against candidates of color and women of color when they're running for seats, and so if we're asking them to be vigilant and stand and keep running for.
These seats because the community meets to.
See more of unapologetic into candidates running, and we also have to be prepared to support them early and often throughout the entire process and make sure that they know that they're not going at it.
A long well. My last a question for you is how do you well, it's a two parter one, how do you stay hopeful during this time? During you know, the launch of this really important pack. And then two, please tell people who are listening how they can get involved, because that is a question that I get asked all the time. What can I do? So I want to give you the opportunity to speak on that.
Well, for me, everything starts with my faith.
I'm a firm believer that keeps me grande even when times are rough out here. But also again, the work has to be done, and I would rather be the one handling it than leave it up to chance. That's how I was raised. You know, you want and you hope for support, but also you have to be prepared to carry it away until extra support comes along or
it doesn't come at all. And so it's bigger than me, and that makes it a lot easier to do this work when you can always keep in mind that it's bigger than you and you're doing it for the right reasons. For anybody that wants to support and help this work, they can go to www dot eight ataction dot org. You can sign up to get involved and whether or
not you want to sign up for volunteer opportunities. But of course, early on, being a progressive org, we largely rely on grassroots support as well, So we definitely those five to twenty five dollars donations really make a difference early on, especially being a business founded by two people of color, when I don't have to explain that oftentimes we have to do two and three times over and know every the writing is on the wall for this work, we.
Still have to prove ourselves even more even with the record that we have.
Well, Christopher, I appreciate you making the time for wok F and for the work that you're doing, and I hope that you will come back and join us again. Folks, a organization is advance the electorate pack and do do absolutely check it out and lend your support any way that you can appreciate you. That is it for me today, dear friends on wok F as always power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.