This Point in Time Featuring Will Cooper

This Point in Time Featuring Will Cooper

In this episode, friend of the podcast, attorney and author Will Cooper offers his analysis of the recent presidential election. Then I reveal the real culprit behind the loss of the Harris campaign.


00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 Welcome. I'm Eric Fleming, host of A Moment with Eric Fleming, the podcast of our time.
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00:01:02 --> 00:01:07 this moment a movement thanks in advance for supporting the podcast of our time
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00:01:15 --> 00:01:19 the following program is hosted by the nbg podcast network.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:59 Music.
00:02:00 --> 00:02:04 Hello, and welcome to another moment with Eric Fleming. I am your host,
00:02:05 --> 00:02:06 Eric Fleming. And today.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:13 Excuse me, today is the first episode after the election.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:22 And I want to publicly apologize to all my previous guests that in our off conversations
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 asked me how I thought this election was going to go.
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 And I assured them and Vice President Harris was going to win.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:35 I was comforting people. I was, you know, giving positive reasons and just from
00:02:35 --> 00:02:40 my experience in politics why I thought it was going to be a different outcome.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:47 And then just like in 2016, those numbers started coming in and I was like, not again.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:55 So all my guests that, you know who you are, who had these off-air conversations
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 with me about this, I am sorry. I got it wrong.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:06 I just knew that the American people were going to give the vice president a
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 chance to leave. And they did not.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:16 Now, later on, I'll get into some reasons why I think that was.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:24 One of the things I wanted to do was to get somebody else on to kind of give their assessment.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:30 Somebody that I've through my podcasting journey has have trusted for like objective
00:03:30 --> 00:03:34 commentary. So my good friend, Will Cooper, is going to be on the first segment
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 to kind of give his thoughts and all that.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:41 And then the last half of the show would be strictly me.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:49 But I just want to say to well, I'll save that. I'll save that for later.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:57 Just I want y'all to listen to to Will's commentary about it and then listen to what I have to say.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:02 Although you have a right to question my political judgment Because I thought
00:04:02 --> 00:04:08 Vice President Harris was going to win But yeah, let's do that Let's go ahead
00:04:08 --> 00:04:12 and kick this off And as always, we're going to kick it off with a moment of news For Grace G.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:19 Music.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:25 Thanks, Eric. Former President Donald Trump will become the 47th President of
00:04:25 --> 00:04:31 the United States after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:37 Republicans gained control of the U.S. Senate while the final composition of
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 the House remained uncertain due to many uncalled races.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:46 Voters largely supported abortion rights referendums across the United States,
00:04:46 --> 00:04:51 but notable defeats in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota mark the first wins
00:04:51 --> 00:04:56 for anti-abortion advocates since the Supreme Court's 2022 decision.
00:04:56 --> 00:05:01 Two black women will serve simultaneously for the first time in the U.S.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:06 Senate, as Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester, one in Delaware, and Democrat Angela
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 Alsobrooks, one in Maryland.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:14 Voters in Delaware made history by electing Democrat Sarah McBride,
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 who will become the first openly transgender member of Congress.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:23 A former Kentucky police officer is potentially facing Lycan prison after he
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:31 Two Ohio police officers were indicted for reckless homicide in the death of
00:05:31 --> 00:05:35 Frank Tyson, a black man who died after being restrained.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:41 A former Ohio police officer was found guilty of murder for the shooting of Andre Hill.
00:05:41 --> 00:05:46 An unarmed black man during a response to a non-emergency call in December 2020.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:54 And Quincy Jones, a legendary figure in American music, passed away at the age of 91.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:59 I am Grace Gee, and this has been a Moment of News.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:06 Music.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 All right, Grace, thank you for that moment of news.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:16 Of course, one of the headlines was the fact that the 45th president of the
00:06:16 --> 00:06:16 United States, Donald J.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 Trump, is now going to be the 47th president of the United States.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:26 It's the first time this has happened in 132 years that a president will serve
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 non-consecutive terms.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 And again, I'll get into a little more of that. But right now,
00:06:31 --> 00:06:35 I want you to listen to my friend, Will Cooper.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 Will has written a book, How America Works and Why It Doesn't.
00:06:38 --> 00:06:45 And a lot of that was dealing with Donald Trump and the way that he campaigned
00:06:45 --> 00:06:52 and all that. And Will has been an astute observer of American politics for years.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:59 He has written in several publications and he's written a few books.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:06 And so and he's been a guest on this podcast a lot. So this is not the typical
00:07:06 --> 00:07:12 introduction, you know, but it's always good to have friends of the program.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:16 Right. And he is a big friend and supporter of the program.
00:07:18 --> 00:07:22 And of all the people, and there's a lot of good people I could have had,
00:07:23 --> 00:07:28 but I knew that Will has always responded to me at the drop of a hat,
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 and this was one of those drop in the hat moments.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 So ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and privilege to have as a
00:07:34 --> 00:07:38 guest on this podcast, Will Cooper.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:48 We'll see you next time.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:49 Music.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:55 All right. Will Cooper, my friend. How you doing, man? You doing good?
00:07:56 --> 00:08:00 Well, I'm doing okay. It's been quite a week.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:06 All in all, I'm doing well, but as we'll get into on the political front, been better.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:12 Yeah. Yeah. I kind of, kind of the same way.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:16 So let me, let me do what I traditionally do, but I'm going to put a little twist to it.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:25 So the quote is, God spared my life for a reason, to save America at that point in time.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:30 And that was a quote from President-elect Trump during his victory speech.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:36 So if you want to react to the quote in itself, that's fine.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:40 But what point in time are we in, in America?
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Well, it's a great question as always. And Thank you for having me, Eric.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 I love coming on here. I mean, this, I think, like many people,
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 I'm still in processing mode.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:58 I'm still making sense of this and look forward to getting your help with that
00:08:58 --> 00:09:02 because there's a lot to make sense of.
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 I think as far as that quote goes,
00:09:07 --> 00:09:17 it shows how the religious elements of our politics, which are very significant,
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 many millions of people,
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 how closely aligned they are with Trump.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:25 And that's quite a complicated area.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:33 I mean, on the one hand, Trump's behavior and personality in his own life and
00:09:33 --> 00:09:39 while he was president was antithetical to a lot of the ideals of religion.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:49 And at the same time, he was able to get three Supreme Court justices on the
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 court and overturn Roe versus Wade,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:55 which to many folks in that space was an enormous accomplishment.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 So it's a it's a complicated one.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:04 But I think that quote really does show just what a powerful connection Trump
00:10:04 --> 00:10:05 has with that community.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:11 Yeah. And, you know, I don't really give him a lot of benefit of the doubt.
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 And I don't know if there's a lot of people that do.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 You know, but, you know, on my side of the aisle.
00:10:19 --> 00:10:23 But I do think that's a sincere moment for him.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:29 I think he really believes that he's been called to do this.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:37 I don't, you know, there's a point where I always use this movie to distinguish
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 gentlemen as a reference point.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:45 Because Eddie Murphy played this con man who ran for Congress thinking he was
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 going to get a big score out of it.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:51 And then when he got in the position, he realized how important it was.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:57 Now, in Donald Trump's case, I don't think he still understands the importance
00:10:57 --> 00:11:04 of the position, but I think he understands that he has a mission to fulfill. Right.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:09 And in that he feels that he's been ordained.
00:11:09 --> 00:11:14 To carry out that mission, whether it's at the behest of billionaires like Elon
00:11:14 --> 00:11:19 Musk or the evangelical Christian nationalist or whatever.
00:11:19 --> 00:11:23 He feels he's been charged at this time to do that.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:28 You know, you've written books about him. You've kind of studied him a little
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 bit. Is that too much of a reach?
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 I think Trump will say
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 anything in any context to
00:11:38 --> 00:11:42 get help politically number one
00:11:42 --> 00:11:48 and he's not the only politician i would i would say that about he does it any
00:11:48 --> 00:11:53 more open shameless way than most politicians but i don't think there's anything
00:11:53 --> 00:12:00 any line he would draw or anything he wouldn't say if he felt like it was helpful politically.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:06 That's point one. Point two, I don't think he's a big thinker.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:12 I don't think he thinks in broad strokes about having a mission to accomplish
00:12:12 --> 00:12:16 long, coherent, big initiatives.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:21 I think he thinks in short term, transactional sense, I want to win this election.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 I want to increase this poll.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:33 I want to advance this political interest. That doesn't mean he's void of policy ideas and preferences.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:40 I just think the combination of shameless politician and short-term thinking
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 really predominates within Trump.
00:12:43 --> 00:12:48 And my best guess is that's what was predominating behind that statement and
00:12:48 --> 00:12:52 his general approach to the election and governing.
00:12:53 --> 00:13:04 All right, so let's get into the election. What do you think Harris did wrong to come up short?
00:13:04 --> 00:13:08 Because not only did she not win the Electoral College, she's the first Democrat
00:13:08 --> 00:13:14 nominee not to win the popular vote since 2004. So it's been 20 years.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:22 What would you assess that she did wrong if you think she did anything wrong?
00:13:22 --> 00:13:28 And I've been thinking a lot about that because it's so easy to try to,
00:13:28 --> 00:13:33 you know, to have these lists of things that the loser did wrong and the winner did right.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:38 It's just hard to know how much weight to put into it. My best sense is I actually
00:13:38 --> 00:13:42 think Joe Biden was a bigger problem than Kamala Harris.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:51 I think staying in the race as long as he did had significant consequences.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:56 Number one, I think it really soured a lot of the American public on the Democratic
00:13:56 --> 00:14:01 Party because it was so obvious he should have been there and yet he was there anyway.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:09 And that's an extremely damaging thing to do to people who are not just loyalists for the party.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:15 Number two, there was no primary. And I don't think that was necessarily illegitimate
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 the way Republicans say.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 I mean, you're allowed to change candidates later if there's a reason.
00:14:21 --> 00:14:25 I don't think it was some coup or anything like that. I thought that criticism was ridiculous.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:31 But what it robbed the party of was an opportunity to put forward different
00:14:31 --> 00:14:35 people to the electric and see which one the people liked the most.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:40 And if there was a full primary, we might have had a different candidate.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:47 Also, what we would have had if Kamala won, which she easily could have through
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 a primary, is a much longer runway.
00:14:51 --> 00:14:56 For people who are very into politics, she was the candidate for long enough for us to know about her.
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 But a lot of the electorate, a lot of the people that go to the polls don't
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 follow politics very closely.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:07 And people, if she had had a longer runway and if she had had an opportunity
00:15:07 --> 00:15:12 for, you know, Trump was campaigning for basically four years.
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 Kamala got three months.
00:15:15 --> 00:15:20 So I actually, as much as I respect a lot of what Biden did throughout his career,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:25 I think his last chapter was very damaging to the party, to the country,
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 and to Kamala's candidacy.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:31 I don't think Kamala actually did a poor job.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:36 I think she played the hand she was given quite well. The last thing I'll say
00:15:36 --> 00:15:44 on this is the Democratic Party has to get on a different side of the immigration debate.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:49 I am a very inclusive person in my life and in my politics.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:53 That's reflected in my ideals about immigration.
00:15:53 --> 00:16:02 But the American public, the voting public, is not okay with the way the border
00:16:02 --> 00:16:07 is being handled, the way it's been handled, and the way Democrats talk about it.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:13 And if the art of politics is to win elections so you get more done than if
00:16:13 --> 00:16:18 you lose elections, the Democrats have to change their perspective on immigration.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:24 And that may have, the immigration topic may have negated everything else I just said.
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 It might have just come down to that, in my view. So those are my thoughts.
00:16:31 --> 00:16:35 Well, see, I don't think she did anything wrong. I think, like you said,
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37 she played the hand she was dealt.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:44 I think for a campaign that was 107 days, she did more than a lot of candidates
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 would have been able to do all the way through.
00:16:46 --> 00:16:51 As a matter of fact, she did more in those 107 days than she did when she ran
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 in 2019 to get on the ballot in 2020.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 And she had been out there for a minute.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:01 I think that, you know,
00:17:01 --> 00:17:07 I don't I would not as somebody that has been out there and run and,
00:17:07 --> 00:17:13 you know, and had to navigate different feuding factions and all this kind of stuff.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:18 I think her and her campaign team did a tremendous job.
00:17:18 --> 00:17:23 What disturbs me is that.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:31 She got, as of right now, she got 69 million votes. That's more than what Hillary Clinton got in 2016.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:37 Donald Trump basically got the same amount of people that he got four years ago.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 So his number didn't really change. Matter of fact, he actually dropped.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 He lost about a million some folks.
00:17:43 --> 00:17:51 So the question becomes, what was it about turnout to me? Why?
00:17:51 --> 00:17:57 Why wasn't a mechanism in place or what was it that made people say,
00:17:57 --> 00:18:00 I'm not going to vote at all? Right.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:08 Because you had one media sphere saying the borders being overrun.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 We're paying too much for gas. We're paying too much for food.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:17 And then you had another media sphere saying democracy is about to end. Right.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:25 Other people that showed up to vote, they voted either based on saving the democracy
00:18:25 --> 00:18:29 or reducing prices or, as you said, dealt with immigration.
00:18:30 --> 00:18:36 I'm trying to figure out with all that sorrow around, what would get people
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 not to even participate?
00:18:38 --> 00:18:43 81 million people voted for Joe Biden, 81 million, more than any other human
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 being in the history of the United States.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:51 And just if everything played equal, you would figure the person who was the
00:18:51 --> 00:18:55 vice president on his ticket would get those voters.
00:18:56 --> 00:19:02 So why do you think that there was a significant drop off like that?
00:19:02 --> 00:19:08 Well, I think that, and I'll do a shameless plug for my book because I'm working
00:19:08 --> 00:19:12 on an updated edition of how America works and why it doesn't.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 And I'm talking about this exact thing.
00:19:15 --> 00:19:20 I think it goes back to, I think it's a variety of things, but I think the single
00:19:20 --> 00:19:27 biggest one, if you remember, it's hard to remember this, but three and a half
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 months ago, Joe Biden was a candidate.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 I agree with everything you said about Kamala.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:37 I actually gained respect for her over this election.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 I thought she and her team did a really, really good job.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:49 But four months ago, the Democratic Party and the candidate was somebody who
00:19:49 --> 00:19:54 displayed repeatedly and then especially in that debate.
00:19:56 --> 00:20:02 A lack of coherence and competence that I think really upset a lot of people.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:09 I think it deeply offended. I mean, Kamala, to her testament to what she did,
00:20:09 --> 00:20:13 a lot of people forgot about that because she did run such a good campaign and
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 she was such a legitimate, good candidate.
00:20:16 --> 00:20:21 But I think when four months ago you had millions of Americans throw up their
00:20:21 --> 00:20:26 hands and say, you're telling me Donald Trump is going to destroy our democracy,
00:20:26 --> 00:20:31 and yet this is your leader, no way.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 I am not buying into that.
00:20:33 --> 00:20:38 And I don't think, I think you can repair trust with some people,
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 but I think a lot of people just said, I'm out.
00:20:41 --> 00:20:45 I'm not going to get on this bandwagon. I'm sorry. You cannot tell me our democracy
00:20:45 --> 00:20:52 is about to end and this be the candidate who, again, I respect Biden's career.
00:20:52 --> 00:20:58 He had 50 years of adding value and some big mistakes for a number of months.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:05 But if I had to point my finger at it, I think just recovering from that was too tall of a burden.
00:21:05 --> 00:21:10 And it just, what you weren't going to get those people to come out.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:16 What does this say about Americans who, I want to read this. This is from...
00:21:18 --> 00:21:24 The Wikipedia article that has been written. This is how they describe the Trump campaign.
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 Says the Trump campaign was noted
00:21:26 --> 00:21:30 for making many false and misleading statements, including the big lie.
00:21:30 --> 00:21:35 The 2020 election was stolen from Trump, engaging in anti-immigrant,
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 immigrant fear mongering and promoting conspiracy theories.
00:21:38 --> 00:21:43 Trump's style and behavior, including his embrace of far right extremism,
00:21:43 --> 00:21:48 was characterized by a variety of scholars as breaking with longstanding U.S.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 Political norms in an unprecedented way.
00:21:51 --> 00:21:57 His speeches were marked by authoritarian and dehumanizing rhetoric toward his political opponents.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:02 His campaign and populist political movement were characterized by several historians
00:22:02 --> 00:22:08 and former Trump administration officials as featuring parallels to fascism.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:13 And then it goes on to say in May 2024, Trump became the first U.S.
00:22:13 --> 00:22:18 President to be convicted of a crime after he's found guilty on multiple counts,
00:22:18 --> 00:22:22 felony counts for falsifying business records related to hush money payments
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 He was previously found liable for sexual abuse.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:35 He was twice. It goes on and on. Right. So if you're a human being reading this
00:22:35 --> 00:22:40 Wikipedia article 40 years from now, and you read that,
00:22:41 --> 00:22:45 and then you see that this guy won the election.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 What does that say about us?
00:22:49 --> 00:22:53 You've touched on the biggest part of the whole equation for me,
00:22:53 --> 00:23:00 and that's that this election was more about the American people than it was about Donald Trump.
00:23:00 --> 00:23:06 I think Trump will come and go, but there's something going on in our country,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:12 in our polity, that's going to outlast him that's very serious.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:24 We, as a nation, don't respect our constitutional principles and design the way I thought we did.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:32 We don't have an aversion or a revulsion to the structures of government and
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 the types of leaders that the country
00:23:34 --> 00:23:39 was basically founded to oppose and reject the way I thought we did.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 You know, Trump called millions of human beings vermin.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:50 He tried to overturn the last election openly in plain sight to such an extent
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52 that he was prosecuted for that.
00:23:53 --> 00:23:57 And yet he swept the tables and won a decisive victory.
00:23:57 --> 00:24:02 And so it says more about the country, I think, than it says about anything else.
00:24:02 --> 00:24:06 Does that mean we're forever condemned to be a country that rejects our own principles?
00:24:06 --> 00:24:11 No. I think we can revert to the mean. And I think when Trump's off the scene,
00:24:11 --> 00:24:15 the likelihood of a reversion away from those things is actually quite high.
00:24:16 --> 00:24:22 But it says something very important and concerning about the American people.
00:24:23 --> 00:24:28 So last question, because I know you got to go and I and I got you at the last minute to do this.
00:24:28 --> 00:24:32 And I greatly appreciate you coming on.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 I couldn't think of anybody else that I've interviewed.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:43 And I've talked to about politics and stuff that would would respond with clarity
00:24:43 --> 00:24:44 and not too much emotion.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:49 Both of us kind of feel some kind of way about it. But, you know,
00:24:49 --> 00:24:52 we have to look at these things as analytical as possible.
00:24:52 --> 00:25:01 My last question is, women's rights were on the line in this election, even more so than 2016.
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03 2016, it was a theory.
00:25:05 --> 00:25:11 2024, the wheels are moving. In states where,
00:25:11 --> 00:25:17 in seven of the 10 states where abortion rights were on the ballot,
00:25:17 --> 00:25:21 those measures passed, including states like Montana,
00:25:21 --> 00:25:23 where Harris had no chance of winning.
00:25:23 --> 00:25:26 I mean, John Tester even lost his Senate seat.
00:25:27 --> 00:25:31 But, you know, the right to have an abortion won.
00:25:32 --> 00:25:39 And yet 53%, the same number that voted against a white woman running for president
00:25:39 --> 00:25:45 of the United States, Hillary Clinton, voted against a black Asian woman.
00:25:46 --> 00:25:51 The sitting vice president of the United States, the most powerful woman in
00:25:51 --> 00:25:55 American political history, they voted against her, too.
00:25:57 --> 00:26:01 So we're men. And, you know, you're white. I'm black.
00:26:01 --> 00:26:05 So you might have some insight into white women. I don't know.
00:26:06 --> 00:26:09 No, no, no. I don't. I don't. Not at all.
00:26:10 --> 00:26:19 But I but the key thing to me is everybody that voted most of the time votes
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 when you look at whether it's the black vote, Latina vote, Asian vote,
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 whatever people vote for their self-interest.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:29 Right. And and debates happen in the communities about their best interests.
00:26:29 --> 00:26:40 What is it about women's rights or a woman in charge that would be a turnoff to 53% of white women?
00:26:40 --> 00:26:46 Just an educated guess. Or maybe if you've done some research, I'm kind of confused.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:52 Yeah, it is confusing. I have not researched it in any sort of systematic way.
00:26:53 --> 00:27:00 I think a few things, my sense. I do think abortion is an extremely important issue.
00:27:01 --> 00:27:07 I think it will continue to be. And I think the number of passionate voters
00:27:07 --> 00:27:10 were that central to their vote is enormous.
00:27:11 --> 00:27:16 The problem is they were just outnumbered. They were outnumbered by,
00:27:17 --> 00:27:22 I think the two biggest factors are, again, I think immigration is.
00:27:23 --> 00:27:27 I think there are just enormous number of people who are very concerned about
00:27:27 --> 00:27:30 immigration in sort of a visceral way.
00:27:30 --> 00:27:34 And whether they're right or wrong, and they're often very wrong,
00:27:34 --> 00:27:38 in my opinion, empirically, their vote counts just as much as everybody else's.
00:27:38 --> 00:27:42 And I think the abortion vote was just outnumbered.
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46 It's still huge. It's still powerful. It's still important.
00:27:46 --> 00:27:52 It's still going to resonate into the future. They just got outnumbered, number one.
00:27:53 --> 00:28:01 And I think, number two, the other major, major factor that we haven't talked
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 about today, Eric, is the economy.
00:28:04 --> 00:28:10 Everybody knows the economy is what it's all about with elections. It just is.
00:28:11 --> 00:28:17 And it's not really the economy as much, in a traditional sense,
00:28:17 --> 00:28:22 as much as just people's pocketbooks, right? You know, a growth in the economy
00:28:22 --> 00:28:24 has been better than every other country in the world.
00:28:25 --> 00:28:27 Our resilience has been incredible.
00:28:27 --> 00:28:32 We avoided some of the sustained inflation that people were concerned about.
00:28:32 --> 00:28:38 But for reasons that I think are a mix of external and internal to the Biden
00:28:38 --> 00:28:41 administration, there was really bad inflation.
00:28:41 --> 00:28:45 People would go to the grocery store and pay a lot more, go to the gas station,
00:28:45 --> 00:28:49 pay a lot more. And they'd think about Biden. And then when it came time to
00:28:49 --> 00:28:51 the election, they would think about Paris.
00:28:51 --> 00:28:55 So that was a unfortunate for the Democrats.
00:28:56 --> 00:29:01 It was really unfortunate that there was this constant feeling of the incumbent
00:29:01 --> 00:29:03 cause these higher prices.
00:29:03 --> 00:29:08 So I think those factors make of the abortion change.
00:29:09 --> 00:29:14 Topic seem less important than it really is. I think it's still a huge deal.
00:29:14 --> 00:29:15 I think it will continue to be
00:29:15 --> 00:29:21 a huge deal. I love seeing the states make moves in the right direction.
00:29:22 --> 00:29:26 Very happy about that. One of the silver linings of this election.
00:29:27 --> 00:29:32 So I wouldn't count that out. If the economy had been an even playing, let me put it this way.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:39 The economy is an even playing field and the Democrats are able to get in a
00:29:39 --> 00:29:42 better place with immigration in terms of how perceptions operate,
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 I think abortion could be the decisive factor and the champ, you know,
00:29:47 --> 00:29:51 whoever's the champion on that can, can win in the next election.
00:29:51 --> 00:29:54 So I, I won't throw that. I don't think we should throw the towel in.
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 Not that you were suggesting that, but that's my, that's my,
00:29:57 --> 00:30:02 yeah. Oh no. By any means, we, we, we don't have the luxury of throwing the towel in now.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:07 Well, look, Will, I know you've got to go, but I greatly appreciate you taking the time out.
00:30:07 --> 00:30:13 You say you're updating your book. Tell people about the book again and where they can get it.
00:30:13 --> 00:30:17 Thanks, Eric. And thank you for having me. I love talking about these things.
00:30:18 --> 00:30:22 We've had a nice time talking about lots of different things.
00:30:22 --> 00:30:26 Our first episode some years ago now was so different than what we're talking about now.
00:30:26 --> 00:30:29 And I look forward to continuing that as
00:30:29 --> 00:30:33 the country experiences all these huge changes and that's
00:30:33 --> 00:30:36 going to continue hopefully for the better as far
00:30:36 --> 00:30:39 as the book goes it's how america works and
00:30:39 --> 00:30:46 why it doesn't we're updating it just to have chapter on the 2024 election my
00:30:46 --> 00:30:51 thesis about why the american people you know why polarization is so high i'm
00:30:51 --> 00:30:55 basically just taking that and applying it to the election and that new edition
00:30:55 --> 00:30:57 will be out, you know, in a few months.
00:30:58 --> 00:31:01 You can find it anywhere you buy your books, whether it's online,
00:31:01 --> 00:31:06 Amazon, local bookstores, and there's a nice tribute to you and your show and the acknowledgments.
00:31:07 --> 00:31:12 All right, Will. Well, thanks again, man. I appreciate you. And all right,
00:31:12 --> 00:31:13 guys, we're going to catch y'all on the other side.
00:31:14 --> 00:31:32 Music.
00:31:34 --> 00:31:41 All right. And we are back. So I want to thank Will for coming on on short notice
00:31:41 --> 00:31:50 to give his assessment about what happened on November the 5th, 2024.
00:31:51 --> 00:31:57 And before I go on. What I didn't do in the opening was acknowledge the fact
00:31:57 --> 00:32:00 that as this episode drops, it'll be Veterans Day.
00:32:01 --> 00:32:11 So I want to offer my thank yous to those who have fought and died for this country.
00:32:11 --> 00:32:16 Memorial Day is primarily a day reserved for those who made the ultimate sacrifice,
00:32:16 --> 00:32:22 but Veterans Day can incorporate everybody that have served in armed forces.
00:32:24 --> 00:32:30 And, you know, always the day before is the anniversary of the United States
00:32:30 --> 00:32:34 Marine Corps, which I had a privilege of serving for six months.
00:32:36 --> 00:32:39 If I haven't told the story, I'll tell it another time.
00:32:41 --> 00:32:45 So, you know, this is a special day for me.
00:32:47 --> 00:32:52 You know, I lost an uncle I never got to meet in one of the early battles of the Vietnam War.
00:32:54 --> 00:33:00 You know, it's just, you know, I have co-workers who are veterans and,
00:33:00 --> 00:33:05 you know, in most of the work that I've done,
00:33:05 --> 00:33:12 whether it's been an elected official or in my work in the private sector,
00:33:12 --> 00:33:15 I've worked with a lot of veterans.
00:33:15 --> 00:33:23 And so I can attest to folks who have given their service to the country and
00:33:23 --> 00:33:24 are continuing to serve.
00:33:25 --> 00:33:29 And in the roles that they're playing.
00:33:29 --> 00:33:32 So I just want to acknowledge that since this is Veterans Day.
00:33:33 --> 00:33:39 And it ties into what we're talking about, because when you take the oath to
00:33:39 --> 00:33:43 go into the military, you take an oath to defend the Constitution.
00:33:45 --> 00:33:49 And one of the provisions of the Constitution is that we elect a president.
00:33:49 --> 00:33:53 And on November 5th, 2024,
00:33:54 --> 00:33:59 the American people elected the 45th president to serve another term as the
00:33:59 --> 00:34:04 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
00:34:05 --> 00:34:08 It was something that I was not anticipating.
00:34:09 --> 00:34:14 And that's the main reason why I want this, the title of this podcast.
00:34:14 --> 00:34:19 I kept wondering, should it be what happened or WTF or whatever?
00:34:19 --> 00:34:25 But it's like it was based off a quote that Donald Trump said in his victory speech.
00:34:25 --> 00:34:30 So I want to the title of this episode is going to be this point in time.
00:34:31 --> 00:34:34 And there's a lot of things to unpack on that.
00:34:35 --> 00:34:40 Because, you know, when you follow social media, the only reason why I'm on
00:34:40 --> 00:34:45 social media really is Facebook to keep up with my high school and college classmates,
00:34:47 --> 00:34:50 LinkedIn to connect with people to get on this podcast.
00:34:52 --> 00:34:59 And really that's it. It's like, you know, the other reason is just to highlight,
00:34:59 --> 00:35:04 you know, pub up the show and get people to listen to the podcast and all that
00:35:04 --> 00:35:06 and just have a presence out there.
00:35:07 --> 00:35:10 But, you know, just like you're on a highway and there's a car wreck,
00:35:11 --> 00:35:14 you kind of turn your head around to see what the car wreck looks like.
00:35:15 --> 00:35:19 And so I read a lot of the stuff that's on social media.
00:35:20 --> 00:35:24 Sometimes I respond to it. It just all depends.
00:35:25 --> 00:35:31 But I usually just read it. So naturally, of course, after what happened,
00:35:32 --> 00:35:39 I started listening to people venting because my algorithm is not giving me Trump supporters.
00:35:39 --> 00:35:49 It's giving me Harris supporters primarily and the anger and the disappointment and the bitterness.
00:35:50 --> 00:35:57 Now, one thing about X is that I do get Trump supporters in my feed on X because
00:35:57 --> 00:36:02 I think the way it's set up is just politics in general and you get all sides. Right.
00:36:04 --> 00:36:09 But, you know, listening to people on TikTok, I'm listening to.
00:36:10 --> 00:36:17 Black women and in some cases, black men saying. Don't call me a person of color anymore.
00:36:19 --> 00:36:22 Don't ask us for our help anymore.
00:36:24 --> 00:36:28 White women can never be trusted anymore. You know, I'm hearing all that.
00:36:29 --> 00:36:32 The few Trump supporters I'm hearing is, you know,
00:36:33 --> 00:36:37 there's some arrogance, but they were the ones who were coy about their Trump
00:36:37 --> 00:36:43 support, but they were very much not against, not for Vice President Harris,
00:36:43 --> 00:36:49 you know, saying, well, y'all, you know, trying to make this woman black and she wasn't black.
00:36:49 --> 00:36:55 And, you know, what y'all going to do? And, you know, and all that stuff,
00:36:55 --> 00:37:01 not anything sounding like they're going to hold, especially those folks that
00:37:01 --> 00:37:02 are pushing reparations.
00:37:03 --> 00:37:05 I think they already know they're not going to get anywhere with Trump,
00:37:06 --> 00:37:09 but they weren't feeling Harris. Right.
00:37:10 --> 00:37:13 So, you know, some of them voted for Green Party candidates.
00:37:13 --> 00:37:16 And then I've heard some folks being upset about that and saying,
00:37:16 --> 00:37:22 oh, well, you know, you voted for Jill Stein. that cost us the election and all this stuff.
00:37:23 --> 00:37:27 So this is what I want to say to people. You do you.
00:37:28 --> 00:37:35 You do what you feel is best for you to carry forth and make this country better.
00:37:35 --> 00:37:42 If you think that isolating yourself from other causes that might be worthy
00:37:42 --> 00:37:48 based on this vote, I'm not here to tell you not to do it.
00:37:49 --> 00:37:50 You do what you want to do.
00:37:52 --> 00:37:58 I don't know if that's going to be productive, but I'm not going to admonish you for that.
00:37:58 --> 00:38:03 If you're a black woman and you feel in some kind of way, I get it.
00:38:03 --> 00:38:11 You know, all of us in the black community came from a black woman. All of us.
00:38:12 --> 00:38:22 So my mom was an AK. So to see the nation reject somebody that was a sorer of my mother hurts.
00:38:24 --> 00:38:29 Somebody that went to an HBCU like my mother and I did hurts.
00:38:29 --> 00:38:39 And it, whether it was intentional or not, it sends a message about what you think our value is.
00:38:39 --> 00:38:45 And if you think that's unwarranted to feel that way, then it's apparent that
00:38:45 --> 00:38:50 you've never walked in our shoes, that you've never lived our experience.
00:38:51 --> 00:38:57 So, you know, if you're out of touch with that, I can't help you.
00:38:58 --> 00:39:05 But I do want you to understand that our feelings are valid and they should be respected.
00:39:06 --> 00:39:13 And if you don't respect them, then be ready for the response. Right.
00:39:14 --> 00:39:17 But let's get let's get into it a little more.
00:39:17 --> 00:39:25 So when you look at numbers, overall, the vice president got 53% of the female
00:39:25 --> 00:39:30 vote overall, and Donald Trump got 45%.
00:39:32 --> 00:39:39 That is an incredible number considering two things that Donald Trump did,
00:39:40 --> 00:39:42 one when he was president and one when he wasn't.
00:39:44 --> 00:39:49 Anybody that's been accused of a sexual assault would probably not even get
00:39:49 --> 00:39:53 the time of day to get a job, let alone to be president of the United States. But here we are.
00:39:54 --> 00:40:03 Somebody who took away the rights of a group would probably not get negative,
00:40:04 --> 00:40:06 would get negligible support.
00:40:06 --> 00:40:09 Right. Anywhere from 20 percent on down.
00:40:09 --> 00:40:15 But not in the case of Donald Trump. And I find it interesting that in states
00:40:15 --> 00:40:20 where Donald Trump won big and the Republican nominee won big,
00:40:21 --> 00:40:26 that when it came to abortion rights, that won big, too.
00:40:27 --> 00:40:32 Montana is the classic example. John Tester, who grew up in Montana,
00:40:32 --> 00:40:37 who basically lost three fingers on his hand farming in Montana.
00:40:39 --> 00:40:42 Had served to stay where it was the last Democrat standing in Montana.
00:40:43 --> 00:40:47 He didn't do like Manchin and not run. He put himself out there one more game.
00:40:48 --> 00:40:53 And he got beat by a guy who bought a ranch because he had that kind of money,
00:40:54 --> 00:40:58 and registered to vote in Montana. He beat him to serve in the U.S. Senate.
00:40:59 --> 00:41:04 And then Donald Trump won huge. But when you ask those women,
00:41:04 --> 00:41:13 Do you want to have the right to an abortion embedded in the Constitution in the state of Montana?
00:41:14 --> 00:41:16 The majority of the people said yes.
00:41:17 --> 00:41:23 And I'm not looking at any numbers. I'm sure it was an incredible amount of
00:41:23 --> 00:41:29 women that voted for that in Montana because Montana is primarily white.
00:41:30 --> 00:41:34 Very negligible black population compared to any other states in the union.
00:41:35 --> 00:41:37 So what was it about,
00:41:39 --> 00:41:45 Harris, that you didn't want a woman who championed that cause,
00:41:45 --> 00:41:47 who basically ran on that issue.
00:41:48 --> 00:41:52 Why would you not give her the opportunity to be the president to make sure
00:41:52 --> 00:41:56 that your state and other states had those rights protected?
00:41:57 --> 00:41:59 I'll put a pin in that and come back.
00:42:01 --> 00:42:05 So there was this thing about black men.
00:42:06 --> 00:42:11 There was this big concern that, oh, black men are not going to vote for Kamala Harris.
00:42:12 --> 00:42:15 There were people on social media like saying, yeah, that's over with.
00:42:15 --> 00:42:17 We're not doing that no more.
00:42:18 --> 00:42:19 Yada, yada, this, that, and the other.
00:42:20 --> 00:42:23 78% of black men voted for Kamala Harris.
00:42:24 --> 00:42:32 Now, I kind of knew because I've had great Republican guests on like Coach Killings
00:42:32 --> 00:42:38 and others who have been working to get black men to start thinking about the
00:42:38 --> 00:42:39 Republican Party, right?
00:42:39 --> 00:42:44 And, you know, I've had black friends who are Republicans.
00:42:45 --> 00:42:50 So there's always going to be, now they're a little different breed than the
00:42:50 --> 00:42:54 current group, but I know there's one guy, he's been, I mean,
00:42:54 --> 00:42:59 he voted for Edward Brooke in Massachusetts. So he was, he'd been a Republican all his life, right?
00:43:00 --> 00:43:05 But it was a different vibe kind of Republican and more in a black and tan tradition and all that.
00:43:05 --> 00:43:10 And I'm not going to get into all the history, but there's there's always going to be a pocket.
00:43:11 --> 00:43:15 But the way Donald Trump was talking and the way that his campaign staff was
00:43:15 --> 00:43:19 talking, the way that these folks on social media like Candace Owens and Charlie
00:43:19 --> 00:43:23 Kirk and all these other people was like, it's just going to be this wave of black men.
00:43:23 --> 00:43:27 It's just going to say no to the Democratic Party. It's a wrap.
00:43:28 --> 00:43:34 78% of the black men Voted for Kamala Harris Sounds about right,
00:43:35 --> 00:43:39 92% Of black women Voted for Kamala Harris,
00:43:40 --> 00:43:47 Not surprising at all Right So when you look at the overall numbers Right That
00:43:47 --> 00:43:53 means that Kamala Harris got 85% of the black vote That showed up 85,
00:43:54 --> 00:43:56 Donald Trump only got 13 you.
00:43:58 --> 00:44:01 So. Black vote was not the problem.
00:44:02 --> 00:44:06 So whatever myth you want to put out there and say, oh, well,
00:44:06 --> 00:44:09 black men abandoned her and blah, blah, and this, that and all.
00:44:09 --> 00:44:14 But, you know, outside of the people that are on social media and outside of
00:44:14 --> 00:44:18 those people like Byron Donalds and all those who are Republicans and elected
00:44:18 --> 00:44:21 officials, yeah, it wasn't much changed. there.
00:44:21 --> 00:44:24 It was the same role.
00:44:25 --> 00:44:27 85%, that's normal.
00:44:27 --> 00:44:35 Anywhere from 80% to 95% nationwide is normal, or even in states.
00:44:36 --> 00:44:40 That's kind of an understood figure. When you run for a statewide office or
00:44:40 --> 00:44:45 a national office, that's what you factor in, that you got to get at least eight
00:44:45 --> 00:44:48 out of 10 black voters to support you.
00:44:48 --> 00:44:54 That's just math. That's just how we do things in politics because it's all about numbers.
00:44:55 --> 00:45:00 So there was no disappointment there. There was no surprise.
00:45:01 --> 00:45:07 Well, there was one slight surprise. In white male votes, Donald Trump actually lost some.
00:45:08 --> 00:45:10 It was only 1%, but he lost some white men.
00:45:12 --> 00:45:19 He got 60%. So it was a slight drop off, right?
00:45:20 --> 00:45:29 Harris got 37. So we don't know if she picked up that 1% or that 1% didn't show up.
00:45:30 --> 00:45:34 But he had a slight drop. White women.
00:45:35 --> 00:45:44 As in 2020, as in 2016, the majority of white women voted for Donald Trump.
00:45:45 --> 00:45:48 2016 you can understand 2020
00:45:48 --> 00:45:55 there were some questions they actually got a little more white women vote but
00:45:55 --> 00:46:02 this election should have been very very clear right you were seeing the effects
00:46:02 --> 00:46:07 of the Dobbs decision you had a female the highest,
00:46:08 --> 00:46:13 elected female in the history of the United States the vice president of the
00:46:13 --> 00:46:15 United States was running for president.
00:46:15 --> 00:46:19 He was the Secretary of State, not a U.S.
00:46:19 --> 00:46:23 Senator, not a former governor, the Vice President of the United States who
00:46:23 --> 00:46:28 made history at one point because in the line of succession,
00:46:28 --> 00:46:32 you had Joe Biden, then you had Kamala Harris, and then you had Nancy Pelosi.
00:46:33 --> 00:46:39 So in that era, we saw that. And the majority of white women still voted.
00:46:41 --> 00:46:44 Donald Trump. Now, I said I was
00:46:44 --> 00:46:47 going to put a pin on it. Let me come back to it. Let me get into this.
00:46:48 --> 00:46:54 For those of y'all who don't think that, and I respect Will's opinion about
00:46:54 --> 00:47:01 immigration, and that probably played a part in it, and the economy played a part in it, but.
00:47:02 --> 00:47:05 Don't think that women can't be sexist.
00:47:06 --> 00:47:11 I remember, I've watched, I've watched a lot of documentaries. I watch a lot of shows.
00:47:12 --> 00:47:17 And I've seen women say, regardless of what ethnicity they are,
00:47:17 --> 00:47:20 it's like women's place is not in these leadership positions.
00:47:21 --> 00:47:26 They don't want women being the manager of a store.
00:47:26 --> 00:47:32 They don't want women being the CEO of a corporation, even though we got all
00:47:32 --> 00:47:34 these white women that have businesses.
00:47:35 --> 00:47:40 So when it comes to being the leader of the nation, there are some women that
00:47:40 --> 00:47:41 just don't buy into that.
00:47:42 --> 00:47:46 Doesn't matter about race because they rejected Hillary Clinton.
00:47:47 --> 00:47:49 They don't want to see a woman in that position.
00:47:50 --> 00:47:52 I don't know if it's a socialization.
00:47:53 --> 00:47:59 What the deal is, but it's totally illogical to me, especially at this particular
00:47:59 --> 00:48:01 point in time in history. Right.
00:48:02 --> 00:48:08 Because we literally are seeing women dying. We saw women die during covid.
00:48:09 --> 00:48:15 Now we're seeing women die because of abortion bans. But that wasn't enough.
00:48:16 --> 00:48:22 So outside of, you know, it's very easy to say, well, it's racist,
00:48:22 --> 00:48:23 but they rejected Hillary Clinton.
00:48:25 --> 00:48:29 So misogyny obviously is gender neutral.
00:48:31 --> 00:48:38 And I don't know if we're ever going to be at a point in this country because
00:48:38 --> 00:48:41 these women have children, right?
00:48:41 --> 00:48:45 And these women, especially the ones that homeschool their children,
00:48:45 --> 00:48:49 are the ones that, you know, have a major influence in their child's life.
00:48:50 --> 00:48:54 So if this is the mindset they have, they're going to pass that down.
00:48:55 --> 00:49:00 See, the biggest educator, the most basic unit in a society is the family, right?
00:49:01 --> 00:49:05 Where you get most of your education from, that's where you learn your language that you speak.
00:49:05 --> 00:49:11 That's where you learn behavior. That's where you learn custom, culture.
00:49:11 --> 00:49:12 It's in that family unit.
00:49:14 --> 00:49:20 So if you're raised in a culture where women are not considered leaders,
00:49:20 --> 00:49:23 that's the way you're going to think.
00:49:23 --> 00:49:29 Unless you've been otherwise exposed or you yourself have been given opportunity
00:49:29 --> 00:49:35 to either lead if you're a woman or if you are a man and have women lead you,
00:49:35 --> 00:49:37 like if you serve in the military, for example,
00:49:38 --> 00:49:41 right? Or in law enforcement.
00:49:42 --> 00:49:47 But, you know, it's hard for a woman to get elected sheriff in this country.
00:49:47 --> 00:49:52 So it's not surprising, even though we've had women chief of police appointed,
00:49:53 --> 00:49:58 If you run for sheriff, it's very, very rare you can get a female sheriff elected.
00:49:59 --> 00:50:05 So maybe it was asking a bit much. But then we look at the country to ourself.
00:50:05 --> 00:50:10 And while Kamala Harris was being defeated, the president of Mexico,
00:50:11 --> 00:50:13 female, was getting sworn in.
00:50:14 --> 00:50:20 She was even looking forward to having a meeting, the new president,
00:50:20 --> 00:50:23 Kamala Harris. I'm very excited about the probability.
00:50:25 --> 00:50:30 Now she has to focus in on Donald Trump, which she already kind of had a dossier
00:50:30 --> 00:50:32 on, but that's a whole other conversation for another day.
00:50:32 --> 00:50:37 So I don't know what it will take. I don't know if there's anything that will happen.
00:50:38 --> 00:50:40 I don't know if it will be in my lifetime.
00:50:41 --> 00:50:46 But I cannot conceive a group of people. I don't understand a group of people
00:50:46 --> 00:50:48 that vote against their self-interest.
00:50:49 --> 00:50:56 And you can say, well, my self-interest is the groceries or my self-interest is the border.
00:50:57 --> 00:51:00 If you are dead, your interests do not matter.
00:51:01 --> 00:51:06 Let me say that again. If you are dead, your interest does not matter.
00:51:07 --> 00:51:11 Those nine months that you are bringing another life into the world is your
00:51:11 --> 00:51:13 most vulnerable moment.
00:51:15 --> 00:51:20 Millions of things. And maybe I'm exaggerating, but millions of things could go wrong.
00:51:21 --> 00:51:24 That's why it's called the miracle of life.
00:51:25 --> 00:51:31 Even though there are 8 billion people on this planet, those are 8 billion miracles.
00:51:31 --> 00:51:36 In the United States, what, 20, 30, 40 miracles happen today?
00:51:37 --> 00:51:41 I will never understand how people vote against their self-interest.
00:51:42 --> 00:51:47 There's not much political analysis I can give to. I just don't understand how
00:51:47 --> 00:51:48 people vote against their self-interest.
00:51:49 --> 00:51:52 In the Latino community, you make that same argument.
00:51:53 --> 00:51:59 Latino women voted for Vice President Harris, but not Latino men.
00:51:59 --> 00:52:06 Vice President Harris got 60% of Latino women and only 43% of Latino men.
00:52:07 --> 00:52:12 And there are some folks that are coming on the talk shows that are saying that
00:52:12 --> 00:52:14 it's a misogynistic culture.
00:52:16 --> 00:52:19 And people are stuck in their ways and all that stuff.
00:52:20 --> 00:52:24 Again, I don't understand how you vote against your self-interest.
00:52:25 --> 00:52:30 People in a Latin American country have voted for a woman to be president.
00:52:32 --> 00:52:40 So I think people in Mexico are more cultural because they're still living in
00:52:40 --> 00:52:45 their country as opposed to those who are trying to deal with an American culture
00:52:45 --> 00:52:48 and maintain their heritage,
00:52:48 --> 00:52:51 regardless of what Latin American country they come from.
00:52:51 --> 00:52:57 There are representatives of different Latin American groups in elected positions
00:52:57 --> 00:53:04 throughout the nation, whether it's local government or state government or in Congress.
00:53:06 --> 00:53:07 I mean, a Republican woman.
00:53:09 --> 00:53:16 Got elected, reelected to Congress in the same state that didn't want a woman to be president.
00:53:18 --> 00:53:22 Now, there was a woman running for U.S. Senate in Florida, and she didn't win.
00:53:22 --> 00:53:28 But I'm just saying, you know, party lines more so than misogyny.
00:53:29 --> 00:53:32 And there's a history behind that.
00:53:32 --> 00:53:37 And there's been a concerted effort more so than what the Democrats have done.
00:53:37 --> 00:53:41 The GOP has had a concerted effort ever since George, Jeb Bush's son,
00:53:42 --> 00:53:48 got involved in forcing the Republican Party to emphasize on the Latino vote.
00:53:48 --> 00:53:53 Anna Navarro, who was a big supporter of Harris, she was one of those people
00:53:53 --> 00:53:56 convincing Latinos to vote Republican at one point in her life, right?
00:53:57 --> 00:54:03 So that stuck. And so a lot of those Latino men have been voting Republican for a long time.
00:54:04 --> 00:54:11 It's very easy to say they're misogynistic, but the reality is there's a history behind that.
00:54:11 --> 00:54:18 And when you look at the overall numbers, Vice President Harris got 52% of Latino vote.
00:54:19 --> 00:54:24 Now, again, that was buoyed by women, but she got the majority up.
00:54:26 --> 00:54:31 So I'm sitting up here trying to break down stuff because I want to get to this conclusion.
00:54:32 --> 00:54:37 Oh, the one thing I do want to say, because I try to keep it in 30 minutes,
00:54:37 --> 00:54:37 but it's not going to happen.
00:54:38 --> 00:54:45 So let me break this down to all those folks who are mad because of Jill Stein voters.
00:54:45 --> 00:54:48 Right. It was one, I think, Dearborn.
00:54:49 --> 00:54:53 Where Jill Stein got more votes than Kamala Harris and all that.
00:54:54 --> 00:54:57 That was a very committed outlier.
00:54:58 --> 00:55:04 Right Because they were trying to say Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar In Minnesota
00:55:04 --> 00:55:12 outperformed Harris as far as Democratic votes And all that or Tim Walz even In Minnesota and Yeah,
00:55:13 --> 00:55:17 But Jill Stein Didn't even get a million votes,
00:55:18 --> 00:55:21 Nationwide You know you put her and Dr.
00:55:21 --> 00:55:26 West numbers together And then throwing Chase Oliver The Libertarian candidate
00:55:26 --> 00:55:34 We got about 1.8 million, but that wasn't the number. And I'll get to the number in a minute.
00:55:34 --> 00:55:39 That wasn't the number that concerned me. So that was a typical response,
00:55:40 --> 00:55:46 a typical election where the candidates that are not Democrat or Republican,
00:55:46 --> 00:55:48 it's the independent vote.
00:55:49 --> 00:55:57 So regardless of how you feel and all that kind of stuff, I really want the
00:55:57 --> 00:56:03 people who, on either side of the Palestinian-Israeli issue,
00:56:03 --> 00:56:07 the war on Gaza and all that.
00:56:09 --> 00:56:14 Which I want to do, but I'm just going to tell you as having had the privilege
00:56:14 --> 00:56:20 of having a platform and maybe nobody else will come on. But I must say this.
00:56:20 --> 00:56:26 I know that the Palestinian supporters I've had on and the Israeli supporters
00:56:26 --> 00:56:30 I had on, there's no compromising with either one of them.
00:56:30 --> 00:56:33 These are people who are passionate about what they believe.
00:56:36 --> 00:56:44 And when you interject that in American politics, there's a no-win solution for that.
00:56:44 --> 00:56:50 There's no way you're going to tell me that Vice President Harris is more genocidal than Donald Trump.
00:56:51 --> 00:56:54 Can't make that argument. You can't make that argument that Donald Trump is
00:56:54 --> 00:56:59 more genocidal than Vice President Harris. You can't make that argument because the U.S.
00:56:59 --> 00:57:01 Position has always been to support Israel.
00:57:01 --> 00:57:05 Whether you agree with that or not, that's the public policy position that the
00:57:05 --> 00:57:08 United States has taken ever since 1948.
00:57:08 --> 00:57:15 The only thing we can do as a country is to encourage Israelis or encourage
00:57:15 --> 00:57:18 the Palestinians even to tone it down.
00:57:18 --> 00:57:22 And we'll sit there at the negotiating table and help you negotiate whatever
00:57:22 --> 00:57:24 conflict you got going on.
00:57:24 --> 00:57:29 But if you don't agree to sit on the table, then we can do your best interest
00:57:29 --> 00:57:35 would be to vote for the person that you think can achieve a piece.
00:57:35 --> 00:57:40 If you vote against that or you vote, you don't vote at all.
00:57:40 --> 00:57:42 That doesn't help your argument.
00:57:43 --> 00:57:48 And for those folks who didn't vote for Harris because they didn't like how
00:57:48 --> 00:57:50 Joe Biden handled the situation.
00:57:50 --> 00:57:54 OK, but just understand that didn't help.
00:57:55 --> 00:58:00 But the other choice that was available to you is not going to help,
00:58:00 --> 00:58:04 because even if you voted for a Jill Stein or a Cornel West or somebody else.
00:58:06 --> 00:58:12 See, the key in that strategy is this, and I hope that they will take it to heed.
00:58:13 --> 00:58:19 If you are going to mount a presidential campaign of significance,
00:58:19 --> 00:58:27 if you are serious about a third alternative, then I need you to run people outside of president.
00:58:28 --> 00:58:32 I need you to run somebody for governor. I need you to run somebody for secretary of state.
00:58:32 --> 00:58:37 I need you to run for somebody, lieutenant governor. I need you to run for the state houses.
00:58:37 --> 00:58:41 I need you to run for the state senates. I need you to run for county commissioner.
00:58:41 --> 00:58:44 I need you to run for the city council and mayor of these cities.
00:58:46 --> 00:58:52 The only way you're going to build up a consensus to alter a third alternative
00:58:52 --> 00:58:55 in this nation is that you've got to compete at every level.
00:58:55 --> 00:59:02 It's always been an argument of mine that the Democratic Party should compete in all 50 states. Right.
00:59:02 --> 00:59:08 That's always been the internal argument with me. But with the Green Party or
00:59:08 --> 00:59:11 with Cornel West Party or whoever else,
00:59:12 --> 00:59:17 you got to run a campaign, not only in every 50 state, but every village,
00:59:17 --> 00:59:20 every hamlet, every city, every county.
00:59:21 --> 00:59:26 You got to run somebody because you've got to build up a pool of people.
00:59:26 --> 00:59:32 So when you actually have a convention or you actually have a primary and then
00:59:32 --> 00:59:36 you can choose a candidate that can get enough support to get up on the stage
00:59:36 --> 00:59:38 and offer an alternative.
00:59:38 --> 00:59:42 If you choose not to do that, I don't care if your issue is about black folks.
00:59:42 --> 00:59:45 I don't care if your issue is about Palestine. I don't care if your issue is
00:59:45 --> 00:59:48 about clean air and climate change.
00:59:48 --> 00:59:53 If you want to have a viable third option, one where people can say,
00:59:54 --> 00:59:58 oh, OK, we don't have to choose between the elephant or the donkey.
00:59:59 --> 01:00:02 Then you got to do the work. You can't just show up every four years.
01:00:03 --> 01:00:07 You can't offer yourself as a protest vote. Right.
01:00:08 --> 01:00:13 Because I don't want to be scapegoated as one candidate loses because I showed up.
01:00:14 --> 01:00:19 I want to be the candidate that beats both of them and gets to serve in the position.
01:00:19 --> 01:00:22 And I have some people in Congress with me to get some stuff done.
01:00:23 --> 01:00:26 That's what serious people should do.
01:00:28 --> 01:00:34 So for those of y'all who are getting on black spaces on social media and trying
01:00:34 --> 01:00:37 to blame Vice President Harris.
01:00:39 --> 01:00:44 For her own demise by not supporting your cause. And you've been warned.
01:00:44 --> 01:00:47 People are just going to tell you where you can go and how to get there.
01:00:48 --> 01:00:51 I think if you've accomplished your goal,
01:00:51 --> 01:00:58 which it seems like you did, then now I need you to have rallies and have protests
01:00:58 --> 01:01:02 and have meetings to figure out how you're going to get the Trump administration
01:01:02 --> 01:01:06 to do what you want them to do, because they're in. Right?
01:01:07 --> 01:01:10 So the other number I want to talk about real quick, and I don't know if I can
01:01:10 --> 01:01:14 do it real quick, but the most important number.
01:01:16 --> 01:01:20 Sixty nine million. That's the most important.
01:01:20 --> 01:01:24 Sixty nine million. That's how many people voted for Vice President Harris to
01:01:24 --> 01:01:27 be president of the United States. Sixty nine million.
01:01:28 --> 01:01:34 Donald Trump, as of this recording, has basically seventy three and a half.
01:01:35 --> 01:01:40 Which is less than what he had four years ago. In a losing effort.
01:01:41 --> 01:01:44 He had 70. He actually had seventy four million people.
01:01:45 --> 01:01:49 So basically, what it looks like is that all his folks came back.
01:01:50 --> 01:01:55 All his folks showed up. Which if you listen to experts and all that stuff,
01:01:55 --> 01:02:01 when people say it's a tight election, turnout is the key. All his folks show back up.
01:02:02 --> 01:02:05 We're looking at a drop off of only a half million people. All his folks showed
01:02:05 --> 01:02:08 up from four years ago. All of them.
01:02:09 --> 01:02:12 He didn't really get anything new. He didn't get really anything.
01:02:13 --> 01:02:16 I mean, you can say, well, he grew here and he grew there, blah,
01:02:16 --> 01:02:20 blah. Basically, the same people that voted for him last time voted for him again.
01:02:20 --> 01:02:25 The difference was Vice President Harris got 69 million.
01:02:25 --> 01:02:32 The guy who picked her to be vice president when he ran four years ago, he got 81.
01:02:33 --> 01:02:42 He got 81. won. So that means that 12 million people who voted for Joe Biden
01:02:42 --> 01:02:46 didn't come back and vote for Vice President Harris.
01:02:47 --> 01:02:49 12 million.
01:02:50 --> 01:02:53 12 million people tuned out.
01:02:54 --> 01:02:58 Now, whatever your reason was, it was not a good one.
01:02:59 --> 01:03:05 Not just because the candidate I supported lost. is because you've been exposed.
01:03:06 --> 01:03:08 12 million people.
01:03:10 --> 01:03:16 Any sense. This election was projected to be the biggest election of all time
01:03:16 --> 01:03:22 because they figured if 150 million people voted four years ago,
01:03:23 --> 01:03:26 that more people would be engaged this go-around.
01:03:26 --> 01:03:28 It actually was less.
01:03:29 --> 01:03:32 We didn't lose 12 million people to COVID.
01:03:33 --> 01:03:39 Jill Stein, Chase Oliver, Cornel West did not generate 12 million votes.
01:03:40 --> 01:03:45 Y'all didn't show up. And I don't care if you don't agree with it.
01:03:45 --> 01:03:49 I don't care if you don't feel what I'm saying. That's some bullshit.
01:03:50 --> 01:03:57 This is Veterans Day we're talking about. These people fought in wars to make
01:03:57 --> 01:04:01 sure not only our country had the right, but other nations around the world
01:04:01 --> 01:04:04 had the right to choose their leaders.
01:04:05 --> 01:04:10 You'll get up here and take the day off for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday,
01:04:10 --> 01:04:15 which now, ironically, Donald Trump is going to be sworn in on holiday.
01:04:16 --> 01:04:23 And you didn't show up to vote. People literally died, whether it was overseas
01:04:23 --> 01:04:25 or in Birmingham, Alabama.
01:04:26 --> 01:04:30 People literally died for you to vote.
01:04:31 --> 01:04:36 And if 12 million people don't vote for president, then y'all aren't going to show up for the mayor.
01:04:37 --> 01:04:39 Y'all aren't going to show up for the city council. Y'all aren't going to show
01:04:39 --> 01:04:44 up for governor in your respective states. Y'all aren't going to do that. And that's terrible.
01:04:45 --> 01:04:51 Derek's no excuse for that. It's my right to not exercise my right to vote.
01:04:51 --> 01:04:52 Yeah, but it's still stupid.
01:04:54 --> 01:04:59 Because everything that happens in your life is connected to politics.
01:04:59 --> 01:05:02 The city of Jackson is about to be in another crisis.
01:05:03 --> 01:05:07 They're going to have to sit there and figure out if they're going to have special elections or not.
01:05:07 --> 01:05:11 They've already just had one special election for a council person going to jail.
01:05:12 --> 01:05:15 Now there's a mayor involved. There's a DA involved. There's another council
01:05:15 --> 01:05:17 person involved. That's a real talk.
01:05:19 --> 01:05:22 And Jackson are like, well, I ain't going to vote, see what they do, blah, blah. No.
01:05:22 --> 01:05:29 If you vote, maybe people that will not get in trouble with the law,
01:05:29 --> 01:05:32 and I'm not saying any of these people did because I know a lot of these people.
01:05:32 --> 01:05:33 I know all of them actually.
01:05:34 --> 01:05:37 They're innocent until proven guilty. I got it.
01:05:38 --> 01:05:44 I'm not trying to condemn anybody, but I am saying that if you participate in the process.
01:05:45 --> 01:05:47 I'm a classic example. Let me break it down to you.
01:05:48 --> 01:05:52 More people voted for me in the
01:05:52 --> 01:05:58 election I lost for a state representative than voted for me to get in.
01:05:59 --> 01:06:05 Let me say that again. More people voted for me in the election I lost after
01:06:05 --> 01:06:12 serving nine years in the state legislature, then voted for me to get the job in the first place.
01:06:13 --> 01:06:22 That's what folks can do. If you decide that you want to change things, you have to vote.
01:06:22 --> 01:06:26 I thought I was doing a good job. The majority of people in my district said,
01:06:26 --> 01:06:30 no, we want to go in a different direction. You've had it for nine years. Okay.
01:06:31 --> 01:06:38 And you move on. I got more votes than any other black man in the history of
01:06:38 --> 01:06:40 the state of Mississippi in 2008.
01:06:42 --> 01:06:45 I got nearly 500 votes statewide.
01:06:46 --> 01:06:50 My opponent got more votes than he ever got in his life.
01:06:50 --> 01:06:57 He got 700 votes. Never had gotten it. He had been in Congress since 1979.
01:06:58 --> 01:07:06 People show up. Things change. or they stay the same, but it makes an incredible difference.
01:07:06 --> 01:07:10 If the normal turnout for him had come out, I would have been a US senator.
01:07:11 --> 01:07:15 But people showed up to vote because they felt they wanted to keep them in that position.
01:07:17 --> 01:07:22 And nearly a million Mississippians said, you know what? We want something different.
01:07:24 --> 01:07:28 Black people. And there were vote left on the table.
01:07:28 --> 01:07:32 Then there were people that didn't vote. Gary Chambers in Louisiana.
01:07:33 --> 01:07:40 If all the black, well, let's not say all. Let's just say if he had a 70% turnout,
01:07:40 --> 01:07:45 that election might have been too close to call when he ran for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.
01:07:45 --> 01:07:48 Same way with Dr. Jones in Arkansas when he ran for governor.
01:07:48 --> 01:07:53 Sarah Huckabee Sanders There's wouldn't be the Arkansas is almost 20 percent black.
01:07:53 --> 01:07:58 It would have been a lot closer. And I'm just focusing on black folks because
01:07:58 --> 01:08:00 there's a lot of white folks that took a walk.
01:08:01 --> 01:08:04 This election. Whatever is.
01:08:05 --> 01:08:10 The easiest thing you can do. There were people in line in Arizona for hours.
01:08:11 --> 01:08:16 Why? Because they had to vote on five pages worth of stuff.
01:08:16 --> 01:08:18 Not only elected officials, but the referendums. referendums,
01:08:18 --> 01:08:20 and they stood in that line.
01:08:20 --> 01:08:26 And you couldn't? If you lived in the state of Georgia, you could have been out in five minutes.
01:08:27 --> 01:08:31 Five. And they had three items as referendums.
01:08:32 --> 01:08:40 Five. This is a political show. So if you don't vote, I'm not going to reward you.
01:08:40 --> 01:08:44 I'm going to chastise you. I'm going to tell you where you can go and how to get there.
01:08:45 --> 01:08:49 Because politics plays a major role in your life. And if you don't believe it,
01:08:49 --> 01:08:52 just watch what happens over these next four years.
01:08:53 --> 01:08:57 If you didn't like what happened during the Biden administration, oh, my God.
01:08:58 --> 01:09:01 Now, the people of either side are going to have their opinions one way or the
01:09:01 --> 01:09:06 other, but you have no side because you didn't vote. And that was the killer.
01:09:07 --> 01:09:14 Now, if you didn't vote because, you know, like the man that was running and
01:09:14 --> 01:09:18 you sure weren't going to vote for a woman, That's an issue you have to deal
01:09:18 --> 01:09:22 with If you didn't vote because I don't like U.S.
01:09:22 --> 01:09:26 Policy in Israel Or Ukraine or whatever You not voting didn't help that,
01:09:27 --> 01:09:30 You didn't have a say so in the president You didn't have a say so in the vice
01:09:30 --> 01:09:34 president You didn't have a say so in the members of Congress None of that In
01:09:34 --> 01:09:38 some states you didn't even have a say so in your governor Because you didn't vote,
01:09:39 --> 01:09:45 And all I ask you to do I don't want you To necessarily vote for the person
01:09:45 --> 01:09:47 I'm going to vote for But I need you to vote.
01:09:48 --> 01:09:53 It doesn't make any sense for more people to vote for who the next American
01:09:53 --> 01:09:58 idol is than to vote for who the president of the United States is going to be. Never.
01:10:00 --> 01:10:04 On the phone in the middle of the Super Bowl and vote for who the MVP is,
01:10:04 --> 01:10:09 you can get off your butt and go to a polling place and vote for who your president's
01:10:09 --> 01:10:11 going to be. Period. End of discussion.
01:10:12 --> 01:10:16 That is who I'm really, really mad at. Kamala Harris did the best she could
01:10:16 --> 01:10:20 do. Donald Trump did exactly what he was going to do.
01:10:20 --> 01:10:25 He did exactly what he was going to do. He got his folks to come back.
01:10:26 --> 01:10:28 He stayed on his formula.
01:10:30 --> 01:10:33 Wikipedia can call it fascism, authoritarianism, and all that.
01:10:33 --> 01:10:37 I'm not here to disagree with them at all, but it's brand for him.
01:10:38 --> 01:10:41 He kept saying, make America great again. And the same amount of people that
01:10:41 --> 01:10:44 voted for him four years ago showed back up.
01:10:44 --> 01:10:48 The people that voted for Joe Biden did not. So that's on you.
01:10:49 --> 01:10:53 If you happen to be a white man or a black man or a Latino man or a Latino woman
01:10:53 --> 01:10:57 or an Asian man or an Asian woman or a Latino,
01:10:57 --> 01:11:04 I mean, a black woman or a white woman didn't vote. It didn't matter.
01:11:05 --> 01:11:12 Elections have consequences. And those who don't participate in elections face
01:11:12 --> 01:11:17 those consequences just as equally as those who do.
01:11:18 --> 01:11:26 So my advice to you going forward is to take advantage of that right you have
01:11:26 --> 01:11:33 and vote because you could get a situation where if you don't use it,
01:11:34 --> 01:11:36 you could lose it. That's not hyperbole.
01:11:37 --> 01:11:40 That's the state of where we are right now.
01:11:41 --> 01:11:47 So I would strongly encourage you all from this point forward to vote.
01:11:47 --> 01:11:51 That's all I got time for right now.
01:11:54 --> 01:11:57 But that's the most frustrating thing to me. I think, you know,
01:11:57 --> 01:12:00 we're going to go through this period.
01:12:00 --> 01:12:06 People are trying to assess good friends that are political scientists that
01:12:06 --> 01:12:08 are going to try to parse and figure out.
01:12:09 --> 01:12:14 Was it the economy? Was it immigration? Was it sexism? Was it racism?
01:12:16 --> 01:12:20 And to be honest, there will be probably valid points on all those.
01:12:21 --> 01:12:25 But to me, the most unforgivable thing in a democracy,
01:12:26 --> 01:12:33 especially when that very privilege is on the line, that very right is on the
01:12:33 --> 01:12:36 line, is when people don't use it.
01:12:37 --> 01:12:44 Because there are some folks that were praying that you didn't vote and you
01:12:44 --> 01:12:45 fulfilled their prayers.
01:12:46 --> 01:12:53 So, you know, I don't know if this will reach any of those people.
01:12:53 --> 01:12:59 Probably not, because most of the people who listen to this program vote one way or the other.
01:12:59 --> 01:13:06 But I do want people to understand that that was the reason why the Vice President
01:13:06 --> 01:13:08 of the United States didn't get promoted.
01:13:09 --> 01:13:12 It wasn't pro-Palestinian folks.
01:13:13 --> 01:13:18 It wasn't black men. It wasn't Latino men. It wasn't even white women.
01:13:19 --> 01:13:24 It was those human beings who didn't vote, plain and simple.
01:13:26 --> 01:13:31 But we'll do our part in this podcast to try to convince y'all that you need to do that.
01:13:32 --> 01:13:37 And we'll make a concerted effort to get you engaged one way to the other,
01:13:37 --> 01:13:42 along with my other fellow podcasters that deal in news and politics.
01:13:43 --> 01:13:44 And we'll see if we can do better.
01:13:45 --> 01:13:48 Thank you all for listening. Until next time.
01:13:49 --> 01:14:36 Music.