State of Rage

the administration as opposed to telling people the truth. And you know, here's the thing that I feel right now about blind cheerleading. No one is stupid. It's not helpful. What is helpful or clear steps and clear action. What is helpful is getting people into a state of rage that, frankly, they should have been in in twenty fifteen when Donald Trump descended down the fucking escalators and into our lives

and into the center of ruining our democracy. And here's the thing is that I listen to people on every day social media, people out in the streets. You listen to all of you who DM me and comments, and I am not the only one who is outraged. I am not the only one who is beside themselves right with the inaction that this administration has been showing. And here's the thing. I understand that the steps that need

to be taken, they're not easy. That the steps that need to be taken can be pushed back in court. The thing that people need more than ever right now, as they are losing faith, as they believe that they literally are being pushed up against a corner, is that

somebody is fighting for them. That even if it is that the Biden administration unleashes all of its top speakers, including the Vice President of the United States, puts out all of its spokespeople, and they start attacking the Republican Party, they start connecting the dots about why women and people with uteruses in this country are now up against the clock in terms of whether or not they're going to be able to maintain their bodily autonomy if they live

in a blue state or how long they have in the red states. Right that they need to come out and say, you know, the reason why we have inflation is because of what Trump did when he was in office. Do you know the reason why that you now if you were living in a state that was actually providing free COVID tests, that you are no longer going to be able to act because the Republicans did not come

forward and support a COVID relief package. Do you know why more people in America are going to get sick in the coming weeks as we are learning more and more about BA four and BA five, the next iteration, the fourth wave of COVID nineteen oh, because Republicans told twenty five percent of the population that COVID is a hoax. They don't need to wear a mask. Oh, it's their body and their choice when there's a deadly virus that

they can spread to their community. But when I'm making a choice about my bodily autonomy and when and if and how I want to start a family, all of a sudden, that's the government's decision. And call out the fucking hypocrisy. I think that the Democratic Party underestimates quite often how important telling the truth and hammering Republicans are. Instead, they want to compromise. Instead, they want to see what

can we come to the table on. And I'm just like, what is it that you need to see that you haven't seen already? About Republicans. What is it that you need to hear that you haven't heard so far in the last six hearings of the one six House Commission, hearings that we have been privy to that have told us that it wasn't just a handful of people in the Trump administration, that it was essentially every single Republican in the House right that was working overtime to overthrow

a free and fair election. That they were working in coordination with white supremacist groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, and using white supremacist groups as their security. How much more information do you need because I haven't heard not one Republican in leadership, either Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy come out strongly against the Proud Boys and

the Oathkeepers as so far as I know. When it was brought up to list this groups, these groups as white supremacist groups as terrorist organizations, they backed away from that, Which leads me to this thought that I have been having for a while. You know that the United States

has no distinction for domestic terrorism. They never have because apparently, in the eyes of the United States, the only people that are terrorists are black and brown people that are foreign, right, it is not the homegrown terrorists that they have been nurturing through their through Fox News, through public education system, through the Trump administration, through the Bush years, through Reaganism, like that we have in this country. We've just after

one hundred years, recognized the Tulsa massacre. It took a century to do so. That was an rabid white mob that murdered three hundred black people and destroyed an entire town. And that's just one of the many that you will never learn about and hear about because our public education system and history is not set up that way to

actually educate the public. What we are learning right over this pushback with CRT among other things that has happened, By the way, just a reminder that critical race theory is not something that is taught in K through twelve schools. But I digress. What we are learning is what a tool the public education system has been for the sustainability

of white supremacy. Because when you are only teaching history and civics through the eyes of white cis header own Christian men, you are only going to get their point of view. And do you think that they're going to showcase themselves in a negative light. Do you think that the white manufacturers of these textbooks, right, and curriculum are going to showcase themselves in the wrong light. No, You get bills that came out of Florida, like Descantis's White

Discomfort Bill. You get bills that come out of Texas and Alabama and Mississippi, right, all of it to protect white people from the truth, because you see, the reality is that black and brown people, bipoc people, black indigenous people of color across this nation have always had to educate their own young because the public education system was not designed for us, right, It was designed for white

people and their preservation and their celebration of self. And so when you know that, then you have to ensure that your own kin will understand that the world is not safe for them, that this country is not safe for them, that there is rabbit anti blackness, that there is rabbit anti immigrant, anti indigenous people. Right. I was watching a video the other day on TikTok and it was by a Native American man, and he was talking about out all of these bills that are coming into

play in places like Arizona. Not bills, but actual laws that were overrun by the Supreme Court and this last session that would take away the rights again, right of Native American people, who, as this video was proclaiming, have only had rights for the last fifty years. So it isn't just black people that they are coming for. It's everyone who does not fit into the white supremacist ideology.

And you have that coming at you from the Supreme Court, you have that coming at you from Republican legislatures, you have that coming out from the entirety of the Republican Party.

So my question then is if Democrats can't do anything legislatively, if apparently the presidency is the weakest and the executive branch is the weakest branch of all of the three co equal branches of government, then the very least that you can do is begin a media campaign and education campaign that gets people riled up, that begins to start with connecting all of these dots instead of focusing on

siloed issues. As the Republicans throw everything that they can at the wall because they're getting their wish list right, they're check in boxes. Right now, you have the Pennsylvania legislature in both the House and the state Senate that are about to amend their constitution in order to make it certain that people with uteruss in that state will

never be able to access an abortion. Now, all of the laws that they have been trying to push the Democratic governor there has been vetoing, but they can't veto a constitutional change, right. So now this is going out to the people of Pennsylvania. But you combine that with voter suppression and maybe not, it's a motherfucking toss up, right. So what Republicans are letting us know is that it

isn't just about their own states and states rights. It is a national agenda and they are going to see that through regardless of whether or not they take back the White House. Because what we are seeing over the past year plus, right that Biden has been in office, so let's call it the last eighteen months, what we are seeing is that you don't need the White House, you don't need the majority in the House and the

Senate in order to be destructive. So how is it that Republicans have always known this and Democrats have always told their voters that, oh, we need the White House, And now the White House comes out and says, no, we need you to give us two more senators. That is my frustration. It's my frustration because I'm like, are we learning from this moment right now? Because frankly, we're not getting another bide at the apple. We all know that.

And I keep saying it, and I keep using the same phrase because I still believe that there is a large swath at the population on top of these old school legislatures who are legislatures from another fucking time who believe that, oh, we'll lose this election in mid terms because that's always the way, but we'll get them again.

In twenty twenty four. There are multiple stories, multiple headline stories in major papers that are talking about how disgruntled and disheartened Democrats are with this administration that is not voting well for turnout. Now, we can hope and pray as we see numbers begin to shift that the Republican Party, the cult that they are, have finally overreached right, that they've gone a step too far in their quest for

this crysto fascist, fundamentalist new world of America. That you can only push people so far before they begin to push back and burn shit down. I mean, that's just facts. That's not me advocating for violence in any which way. But I'm saying for a country who has been the barometer for what human rights, civil rights, and democracy look like around the world, and the rest of the world is seeing us have our rights rolled back, one Supreme

Court decision at a time. There is only so much that the people are going to take before real action in the streets is taken. Because we've seen it over and over and over again. The Republican Party has been waging a silent civil war for over a decade. It began with the Tea Party. It began with Mitch McConnell saying that Barack Obama was going to be made a one term president. It began with the questioning the legitimacy

and the birthright of our nation's first black president. All of this that we are experiencing right now is the white lash to the audacity of a black person to

ascend to the highest office in this country. Now, while we were all busy celebrating and turning the White House rainbow in celebration of getting marriage equality, passing getting healthcare, and getting all of these big things done in those eight years, we were also never thinking, in our lives mean either that everything could be rolled back in just a couple of years, and I mean everything, like every rite that had been gained over nearly six fifty to

sixty years would be done, and that the Supreme Court would come out by virtue of Clarence Thomas's concurrent opinion, where he would state in no unequivocal terms that every case, every landmark case, every case that had been precedent that had been about codifying our privacy as citizens of this free nation is up for graps. So the Republicans are telling you, oh, if we can overturn abortion, then we are absolutely going to come for birth control. We are

absolutely going to come for same sex marriage. We are absolutely going to come for gay sex and once again criminalize the very existence of LGBTQ people in this country. And if you think that they're going to stop there, they are not. And So if this administration, if there are no real concrete steps that can be taken, the one step that they can take is alerting the American

people to the evil that the Republican Party is. Is alerting the American people to point the finger at the reason why you are waking up every day not sure if you are dealing with anxiety depression, fear, what have you? That if there is no other issue right, if abortion is the issue that is just so you know, polarizing.

How about this, how about you are no longer safe anywhere, and that a majority of the country, just like a majority of the country that believes that people should have bodily autonomy, also believe that you should be able to leave your house with your family or on your own and not fear for your life and wonder whether or not this trip to the grocery store, this trip to church, this trip to the synagogue and the mosque, this trip to the park, to the parade, to your main street

is going to be your last. That if I were running the communications for the Democratic Party and for this White House, you wouldn't be able to look away from your phone from the television because I would start running ads and running a fucking campaign outright that equates the violence that we are seeing in our streets with the

Republican Party. And I would begin to showcase, oh, you know, so and so who voted against being able to have an actual, real bipartisan gun legislation with teeth that would also take off assault rifles from the streets. Here they are along with how much they take from the NRA right, like, if you can do nothing that is going to keep us safe, then educate the people, because education at this

point is power, and we know repetition works. Why Because the Republicans have been repeating the same fucking lie since twenty twenty about the election being stolen from Donald Trump, and the numbers of Republicans who believe that lie are going up. It's no secret that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini 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. 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

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They repeated the same lie about COVID nineteen being a hoax, which is why we only have close to seventy percent of the population that has been vaccinated, because there'll be twenty five to thirty percent that will never be vaccinated because they believe the lie about COVID nineteen. And as we get ready to prepare for yet a fourth wave right, we know that these new variants are once again worse

than the last set of variants. So if you are not hammering in who is responsible for where we are right now, then all people are going to think is that I voted and my vote didn't matter. I voted, and honestly, my life is worse off now than it was a year ago. And there are way too many fucking people that are saying that right now, because take a look, we are starting to see, thank god, gas prices go down right gas in some places was that damn near six dollars a gallon? So who are they

blaming for that? They're gonna blame Joe Biden. Why because Joe Biden ain't giving them somebody else to blame for it. This is a pr game as much as it is a real life game. Because if you are not talking and your opponent is doing all of the talking, and they got all of the lies and all of the gas light on their side, but you are armed with the truth, but you don't utilize, you don't weaponize that truth in a way that goes hard, then what the

fuck are you doing? And this is what I continue to say, and people are coming from me from every fucking Engle talking about it. Don't come after Kamala, and don't come after Joe Biden, and don't do this and don't do that. Well, bitch, I tell the fucking truth. That's who the fuck I am. I am somebody that is not going to mince words because, guess what, no organization and no administration fucking owns me. So that's why I say it like it is because again, setting up

abortion clinics on federal lands really difficult. Right going after and declaring essentially a guess a public health emergency is also really difficult because they're should be a public health emergency and this administration said, oh, well, they've toyed with that idea, but they don't want it to go through the courts, right, because this Supreme Court, of course, is going to take away all of their rights the same

way that they just did with the EPA. The EPA was gutted during the Trump administration, and now the Supreme Court took away their ability to regulate emissions. So everything from abortion to climate change to voting rights and coming up coming up in the next session, right, is another case that is going to essentially make it so states once again get to make the decision about a national election.

So what the fuck do you think that people in the battleground states that are run by Republican governors going to do you think that they're going to let their constituents voices be heard? I don't fucking think so. So everything is on the table. We are literally moving to a situation where we got nothing else to lose, right that if we do not fight, and if you can only use words and fucking pull out charts and info

like I want the Biden administration to get everybody. I want them to get the people who are the top fucking messengers who are not afraid to tell the truth. I want them to get the people at Facebook, the people at TikTok, the people at Twitter, blanket fucking social media, blanket the airwaves. Right call in the big guns, because we're not getting another shot. So if you are not at a place where you are ready to leave it all on the fucking floor, then again, what are you doing?

And that's the question that people keep asking themselves, and while Republicans funny enough, because he was another a funny thing that I saw recently where people are like, you know, what's crazy is that you have Republicans right now literally getting their wish lists presented to them every single week. They're wish lists of things that they have always wanted

to eliminate and put women back in shackles. Put damn sure, put black people back in shackles, right, put everybody back in their place so they can stay at the place that they believe which is at the top, that they believe that they are owed. Right, that they are getting angrier, so they're winning, but they're also getting crazier. Right. They are running ads, political ads in places where Republican candidates are using their opponents as target practice, the pictures of them,

that they are advocating for violence. I mean, did you hear that Representative Les Goo who got on the floor of the House talking about if the only way to keep her grandchildren safe would be to shoot them, she would because that's how much she believes in the Second Amendment, that she would shoot her own grandkids. That literally came

out of her fucking mouth. They are getting so wild, They are getting so wild and so dangerous, and so I'm like, if you were not calling that out, if you are just seeking to ignore it and you think that that is going to stop them, will folks, then no one is fucking paying attention. Things are getting worse, right, these people. This is what I find so fucking rich

right now too. So last week Brett Kavanaugh found himself at Morton Steakhouse in DC, and while he was dining, apparently waiting on his soufflet or whatever the fuck he was going to get for dessert, over a hundred protesters showed up at the restaurant and he ran out the back door because he's a fucking punk, right, And you have Republicans talking about civility and how people should not be protesting. He has a right to eat, And I'm like, you don't have a right to do shit, because you see,

your decisions have turned this country upside down. So if you think that you're going to be able to dine or exist in peace, you have another fucking thing coming. So when I say that people need to be as motherfucking disruptive as possible, that's the hot shit that I'm talking about. Like, why should Brett Cavanaugh and the Thomases be able to exist in their peace right? Why should they be able to go about their normal day to

day behavior. They should feel just as uneasy and unwell as they have caused for the of the fucking nation. So I think that it's rich that Republicans are talking about somebody's decorum when their constituents are the ones that have murdered and bombed abortion clinics. What right? The ones that stand outside, the ones that target women and people with uterus is the ones that literally are targeting trans

kids across this country and criminalizing queer people. Oh but we should allow Brett Kavanaugh to finish his fucking meal. That's sexual predator rapist. Yeah, I don't think so. If that is the least that we can do, then I

want all of these motherfuckers to be uncomfortable. I don't want them to walk through an airport to a restaurant, walk down the fucking streets, right because guess what, Unlike lady miss Ruby right from Georgia, who Donald Trump made a target of her and her daughter Shay who now we'll never touch an election in Georgia again, our damn near getting run out of the state. You see, these people can't afford protection, they can't afford security, and none

is being provided to them. So if they have to live their lives in fear, I'm confused about why the people that are causing damage are supposed to be left with a world of ease. That's not how this works. If you decide to declare war on more than half of the country, you better knuckle up right. That's where I am, you see, because they are showing their hand. And this is why none of us should be walking

around unprepared. We know what's coming. So if you have the resources to be able to fund local abortion clinics so that women and people with uteruses can at least, at the very least be able to access medical abortions right, be able to access abortion pills, then do so. Fund that. If you are able to organize protests right on a

regular fucking basis, do that. Organize, get people registered to vote, ensure that people who thought they were on the roles in the last election actually remained there, because we know what Republicans do in between these elections. They just purge people. And we know that they particularly do it in states where you think, oh, I'm good, I voted in twenty twenty, so I must be good to vote in twenty twenty two. No, you should be seeking out that ship now because nobody

has same day registration. I'm just I find myself in such a place of extreme anger and also extreme numbness because every week I feel like we are just guarding ourselves, like in the fetal position, hoping that we don't take in another major hit. And what we want is for this administration and the Democratic establishment to be the one that is standing before us blocking those hits. And if you can't block it with actual action, then I want

you to block it with words. I want you to come with the fucking fire right, I want you to elevate. Then those voices like AOC like Elizabeth Warren right, who are coming up with their plans and people will say, well, their plans won't work, then something's got to give people at least let us try, because if we try and fail, that is so much better than not trying at all. It gives people that are literally grasping for straws something

to hold onto. And that's the thing that I don't feel like the establishment understands, is that you have to give people something because unlike the Republican cult, it isn't just the negation of the thing that gets Democrats to the polls. That's something that we know, right, people go to the polls, Democrats, Progressives, they go to the polls because they are hopeful about the change that will incur

once they've been able to cast their ballot. But if you are basically saying that, well, there's nothing that we can really do, then what you were saying to people is that their vote is not enough. And if my vote is not enough, then why am I troubling myself in the first place. That's the line of thinking that needs to be readily disrupted. So if all you can do is fire with fire, then do that. Because frankly, dear friends, doing nothing shouldn't be a fucking option right now.

It should never be, particularly when the Republican cult has declared war. Hey I'm David Plots of slates Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all the noise and the news. Each week, on the Gapfest, John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, and tell you what issues really matter. We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree, but we always deliver thoughtful debate

and we always have a good time. So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest new episodes every Thursday. 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 fuck.