Pod Save America - The Wilderness, Season 2 (coming January 13, 2020)

Episode Date: January 12, 2020

Jon Favreau looks for the path to victory in 2020 by talking to voters, strategists, organizers, and candidates in the battleground states that will decide the election.Subscribe to The Wilderness:Apple Podcasts: apple.co/thewildernessOther Podcast Platforms: crooked.com/thewilderness

Hey, Pod Save America listeners, it's Jon Favreau. You may have heard that my show, The Wilderness, is back on Monday, January 13th. In Season 2, I look for the path to victory in 2020 by talking to voters, strategists, organizers, and candidates in the battleground states that will decide the election. If you're hearing this, you're about to listen to the trailer. Subscribe to The Wilderness at cricket.com slash the wilderness or wherever you listen to podcasts. cricket.com slash the wilderness or wherever you listen to podcasts. What we did in 2016, the election, we call it with a capital E, it's never been done before, and we're going to do it, I think, again in 2020, and the numbers are going to be even bigger. Donald Trump getting a second term isn't merely doubling the damage.

I think it's compounding. If he has four years and he doesn't have to face the voters, I think there is no bottom. I think the damage there will echo through not just another decade or two. It could echo through generations. So this isn't simply another election. Well, this is it. 2020. A year that will end with what just might be the most important election of America's lifetime. The last time we talked, 2020 seemed really far in the future.

Here we are, and I feel like all I see is trees everywhere. Like, we are still in the wilderness a little bit. Not that there aren't pathways out. It's just that there's no obvious pathway out. Welcome back to the wilderness. I'm your host, Jon Favreau. In this season, we'll look for the path to victory in 2020 by visiting some of the most important battlegrounds of the election

and talk to the strategists, organizers, and voters who'll decide the outcome. From the swing states of the Northeast... People in the collar counties of Pennsylvania really care about what we are for and not who we are against. To the suburbs of the Southwest. Growing up here, I do think it's much more diverse. I think it's changing. I also think, you know, there's a Trump effect where

even people who have been lifelong Republicans here think that it's gone too far and that's too extreme. From southeastern battlegrounds like Georgia and Florida. Georgia has the youngest population of a battleground state. We have the highest percentage of African-Americans of a battleground state. And we've proven that both communities will turn out. To the heartland of the American Midwest. There is a group of Ohioans that might be more conservative than I am on guns or on choice or on marriage equality and gay rights generally, but they'll listen to a strong economic message. And while we can't make any predictions,

the one thing we know is that nothing about this election will be easy. 2020 feels to me like the battle of the bulge between what America has been and what it is becoming. And I think it is pretty safe to assume that Trump will get every last ounce of blood out of his coalition of restoration. It's a less decided question whether the coalition of transformation turns out in equal force. Somehow, if we can find a way to keep this big, unruly party inspired, energized, and unified, we might just be okay. There's nothing we can't do. But if we're divided, we will stand alone. And that's not who we are

at our best. America is a young nation. We have been tested time and time again and we have always overcome. And we've done so by coming together across lines of race

and origin and language. And we can do that again. So come join us in the wilderness, where the only way out is together. Subscribe to The Wilderness from Crooked Media wherever you get your podcasts.