IHIP News - The Democrats Need REAL Progressives

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Democrats need to realize that progressivism is the only way to fight Trumpism. PRE-ORDER OUR NEW BOOK and find live tour dates + more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast Follow Us: I've Had It Podcast: @Ivehaditpodcast Jennifer Welch: @mizzwelch Angie "Pumps" Sullivan: @pumpspumpspumps Special thanks to @cnraun for the IHIP Theme SongSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to I Have News. Josh is still subbing in for pumps. Josh, today it has been leaked that President Biden has said that he thinks he regrets dropping out, that he could have beat Trump. And then also there is huge regret within the administration of appointing Merrick Garland, which you and I've talked about exhaustively. But what I do want to talk about is, number one, Joe Biden did a phenomenal job as president. He knows how to govern. He's sharp. He knew how to get bipartisan infrastructure bills through and he relieving the student loan debt, all of these massive accomplishments that he did. However, I think where he erred is not dropping out soon enough. I think that the damage, the right wing media echo chamber combined with Biden's and his administration's inability to take these quick, digestible victory laps like Trump always does.

Even Trump, half the time when he takes a victory lap, he's lying about it, damaged the brand. And it wouldn't matter if it was Kamala or whoever else came in the July before the November race, there was some damage and a stink in the air that the right-wing media echo chamber did, despite how much more accomplished he was than even the full eight years of the two Obama terms. Number one, like who were President Biden's advisors that sat around him during this period of time and observed him and thought that he was competent to run again. Who were those people and what was their rationale? Why didn't other former officials get involved in that process? Is it competent or electable? Because I think we've moved into a different political landscape where Donald Trump isn't competent, but he's electable because he gives

these digestible soundbites, you know, all of this stupid shit that he says that ends up going viral to where you have this low information voter who's trolling TikTok or something. And they hear him say something kind of, you know, bluster kind of badass and like, oh, yeah, I like him. Well, let me let me rephrase it. He was too old. Whether you want to call it incompetent, whether you want to call it unelectable, he was too old. And so my biggest pet peeve has been since the election was how did that escape his closest

advisors who their expertise in this area is to advise the president and to help the Democratic Party elect a new president. How did that go past, Sam? I think you observed President Biden speak a few times. I did a few times. It was obvious that he had aged out of this position. And it was unfortunate because we love him. He was, in our opinion, a fantastic president. This is not a criticism of President Biden or his performance. I think our country was at a pivot in the road to the extent that we had to make our number one priority beating Donald Trump. And so that's the difference in this election versus any other election. That had to be the number one priority. And that wasn't done by Merrick Garland,

as we've discussed previously. And it should have been done when it got down to deciding whether or not Biden should run again. That should have been done. Someone like former President Obama, other elected officials, other prominent figures in the Democratic Party should have intervened and stopped this from happening. That's step one. There are multiple other steps, but I'll turn this back to you. I could go on and on about this. Okay. So now the DNC, they're going to have a new chair and you have the people that are coming out talking about what direction they want to take the DNC. And I saw a chyron on corporate news the other day that one of the people running, it said the Democrats have become out of touch. And this narrative

really, really, really pisses me off because the Republican Party is so out of touch. You have January 6th that happened. You have racism basically at the front of their party platform. They have taken away a woman's right to health care. The Republican Party is so out of touch. And here's what I want to say to Democrats. Lower the bar for yourselves. Lower the bar. Quit trying to like, there's always this desire to get the moderates and the Republicans to like us. Stop it. They're never going to like you. We live in a red state. We could see very clearly that Biden was not going to win. We knew it in 2022. I knew that if he ran, I knew that he would lose. I knew it. You knew it. People in the Beltway get so, they try to be psychic and predict what people in the middle

of America are going to do. And here's what I have to say. Right now, 69% of Americans believe the healthcare system was at least partly responsible for the United Healthcare CEOs murder. 69% of Americans have been dicked over, probably more than that, by the health insurance company, where there's hardly any empathy for this man that was gunned down in Manhattan. You have the majority of the people that want abortion to be legal and safe and private. The majority of people want gay people to have the right to marry and divorce just like the rest of us. Let them have a crack at it.

The majority of people want gun control. The majority of people want gun control. The majority of people hate corporate greed. The majority of people want government to work for them. The majority of people, believe it or not, I don't think are racist. Are the majority of, is the majority of rural America racist? You're goddamn right they are. They absolutely are. But we make progress and the Democrats to say we're out of touch. That just pisses me off. The focus should be on how out of touch MAGA is, how bought and paid for they are, how incompetent this man is. That's the shit that pisses me off. Well, and I think everything that you're talking about is something we've discussed, which relates to the Democratic's messaging. I think what you're saying is the

same thing that we've said before, which is Democrats need to figure out a better way to go to the American people and explain their position and be somewhat unapologetic about it and quit trying to tow these political proper lines. And I think you're 100% right. There are issues, all the issues that you named, whether it's pro-abortion, whether it's gun control laws, whether it's rights for gay people, the majority of the American people support that. Why can't we message that? Why can't we take these issues in a way that resonates with people in conservative or red states and get the consensus of people to agree with us? Because we have those things on our side. And the opposite of that is you have the Republicans wanting to uneducate their base, wanting to strike fear in their base.

And it's like a broken record, but they're simply more effective at messaging. They do have Fox News, a propaganda machine on their behalf. We don't. I agree with you. It's not that the Democrats are out of touch or that they're moving too far from their base or that they're doing anything like that. It's that we don't know how to take these issues and make them resonate in small towns or in rural parts of the country, in red parts of the country. And we don't have the right people to give those messages either. I think there is this unspoken truth in America where there's always this deference given to the white supremacist patriarchal structure. And whether it's the right who totally panders to that and leans into it

full force, or the left that wants to say, look at Liz Cheney, look at the moderate that we have trotted out. Liz Cheney fed Obama birtherism rumors. She perpetuated the lie that babies are executed after they're born in what's called a post-birth abortion, which does not happen, which is murder. And there's this desire to get these people to want to be on our side. And that has to stop. It is a deference to the structures that our country was built upon. And the demographic of the United States is massively changed. And that diversity is our strength. And you've spoken about this on here before. Democrats need to have conviction. It needs to say, yes, I'm for diversity and for DEI training because I'm not a racist asshole.

And if you don't like that, then go vote with MAGA. And that's the soundbite. And that's the end of it. Yes, I'm for a woman's right to choose because I don't want people regulating men's penises or anything else because this is a free country and I'm not getting in the uteruses of women. Only a doctor should do that. And if you don't like that, go vote with MAGA. On top of that, you line up every conservative name that's been associated with paying for

or having someone who's had an abortion. You go after all the hypocrisy and this stuff. And you do it directly. You go right at people. It's like when 1-6 happened, the first 10 days of President Biden taking office, you say, I'm going to charge every motherfucker that was associated with that. I'm going to do it as fast as I can. And these are the reasons why. And if you don't like that tough shit, I'm strong on crime. I'm strong on people trying to commit violent acts on our state, on our, on our federal Capitol. People don't like that tough shit.

We don't ever take those kind of positions. We like to, you know, when he appointed Merrick Garland, we wanted to sit back and make sure, and I know we've talked about that ad nauseum, but we try, like you said, to toe these lines. We try to be politically correct instead of just having conviction, whether it's about a trans kid who's being bullied at school, whether it's about protecting a woman's right to choose, whether it's protecting law enforcement or gun control violence, whatever it is, have some conviction and balls when you say it. And then when you say it, also point out the hypocrisy of the other side and basically tell them, fuck you. You don't agree with this. Bring it.

Because we're not backing down on these issues. And we don't seem to have anyone that has that kind of conviction or that can resonate with people when they say things like that. It's appealing. People respect it. I agree. I think that Biden should have said Donald Trump and everyone surrounding him say that they back the blue, yet all of these cops got beaten up and

some of them killed on January 6th. So we are the people who actually back the blue and we're going to prosecute every single person and lock them up. And if you don't like it, go hang out with the racist. We support children being able to go to school safely without getting shot up. And Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and all these people say they're pro-life, but they don't give a shit about people once they're born. And if you don't like that, go vote with those hypocrites. And they need to say it over and over. The Democrats need to grow some fangs. Quit trying to get the moderates to like you. When you take every single issue as a single issue thing. We live in Oklahoma.

People voted here to legalize medical marijuana. I almost fell over and died because it is such a progressive issue. But when you take these issues away from a face, away from a political party and put them up to the people to vote on, the people vote center left or left. The Democrats need to own these issues. Don't say that we've lost, we're out of touch or we're not relatable anymore. Every single issue people relate to, you need to package them better in mean, fuck you, soundbites.

And be able to have conversations with people about a lot of this stuff. Like, you know, in a lot of rural parts of our state, it's still somewhat acceptable for white kids and people to use the N-word. I've learned that. And talk about that. Talk about, hey, what is it about these kids and or the way they're being brought up in small rural towns that empowers you to be able to say shit like that? What is that able to say shit like that. What is that? Let's talk about that. Why do you do that? And tie it back to in rural America, they're super religious and said,

do you get that from your faith? Are you able to call a young black kid the N-word because you think that's what Jesus would want you to do? Like, what is this disconnect? Because it is, you and I have found out that, you know, we know some people that have just recently transferred to rural schools and these kids are getting called the N-word. And I think a lot of this has been, it's always been there, but it's been exacerbated and emboldened by Trump winning again. So these kids are unhinged and the racism is trickling down from their parents. And I think what, as a, as a leader though, as someone in the democratic party, I think my point is that you take issues like that head on and regime, MAGA? Is it about fear of not understanding certain people?

Is it about being uneducated? Let's talk about it. Let's get it on. Instead of, what you don't want to do is intellectualize it. What you don't want to do is give a bunch of stats. Have someone that talks about this shit with them. And so you don't get to do that. And everybody would agree, whether it's a trans kid or a gay kid or African-American kid, you don't get to have a kid go to school every day and be bullied to the point that they want

to commit suicide. And every parent is going to have a child that is relatable to that in some form or fashion. You don't get to do that shit. And if you think that you do, then you're wrong. Let's discuss it. Let's talk about it. I completely agree. I think the Democrats have an opportunity here to the hypocrisy is already out there. It is so easy to point out, quit saying we're not relatable. Do not make what MAGA has done relatable. Don't make that the bar. Democrats, lower the bar for yourselves. It's very simple. We stand for justice. We stand for freedom. We stand for a strong United States where people have civil liberties, where we are trying to eradicate racism, and they don't. And keep it simple. But it'll be interesting to see as we elect a new

chairman for the DNC. And I hope that the Democrats go strong, far left, because I think that people are craving somebody with convictions and some things. Okay, we'll see you guys later.