The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Stacey Abrams - "Level Up"

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

Voting rights activist and entrepreneur Stacey Abrams discusses her book "Level Up," creating opportunities for people to start small businesses and running again for governor of Georgia. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Stacey Abrams. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me again. I don't even know where to start because every time I see you, I feel like you are doing more and more things. So let's start with the book. Okay.

Level up. Very few people can say that they have run for governor and also is it a three times New York Times bestseller or four? Well forgive I mean it's counting four times four times four times New York Times best I have an advocate. I have an avicist in my in my I love room yeah I love that. Like here's my first question maybe is that as like you do so well writing why why stress yourself with politics? I love writing but I also love and people do better when they have good leadership. People do really well when they have leaders that like them, and so I want to be one of those people who actually likes people and wants to help them from the office of governor. Oh, okay. People feel that.

Level up a book about essentially small businesses and how to grow them and the challenges that you face. You share the fact that you had businesses that failed. Most politicians will always just be like, no, they didn't fail, I pivoted. It's the pivot. It's the pivot. One of the big things you learn about when reading the book is just how many small businesses fail. Now, I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I sometimes wonder if there's this thing, I don't know if it's attached to the American dream, but it feels like everyone is told you have to start your own business. Is there a reason you chose to start your own business and not to just work in a field

that was already, you know, a business that already exists? Oh, I like paychecks. Oh, I like paychecks. I was a pay paycheck and then I began what my mother has called my trajectory of downward economic mobility when I left there and became deputy city attorney for Atlanta. When I decided to run for office though, I couldn't, I didn't feel right staying in my job as a lawyer for the city when I was running for political office. And so I left and I became what I call a reluctant entrepreneur. I had to find a way to pay for my mortgage since I was going to leave my job. And that's when I started my business.

And for a lot of people, starting a small business isn't this Horatio Alger's story. It's not because they all want to be many moguls. It's often circumstance. A mom who needs to take care of her kids, but also needs to make a living. And so, the mission is to say, regardless of to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, tho, their, tho, thi, thi, their, thi, their, thrante, their, their, their, their, their, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, starting, their, starting, their, starting, their, their, starting, their, their, starting, their, their, their, their, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, their, start, their, their, their, start, their, their, their, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, start, kitchen. Right, yeah. It's people who need opportunities. And so my mission is to say, regardless of why you start your small business, here's what you need to know about it, because these are the things no one's going to tell you. Shark Tank is not going to happen for most of us. So here's what we need to do. And that it's going to be difficult. In Georgia right now, 99, 99, 90 percent, 90 percent the business thia, 90 percent thia, 90 percent thia, thiiiii thi th now, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to to to to to to to to to thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thean. thean. thean. tooooooooooo. too. too, too, to tothe businesses in Georgia are small businesses. Wow.

49% of the employees are employed by small businesses. And so if we don't understand small businesses, we're in a lot of trouble. And if we don't do our work to prop them up and to help them as they grow, and more importantly, help them scale, then we're actually hurting the very people we say we want to help in our economy. If you were to become the governor of Georgia, people are screaming as I say that and cheering right now. Well, thank you. If you were to become the governor of Georgia, what are some of the first steps you think,

the governor to take to help small businesses? If you're saying 99% of them are end between the government helping a small business whilst also making a business a business? First thing we need to do is to expand Medicaid in Georgia, which sounds like a completely counterintuitive answer to the question you ask. It does. But Georgia spends billions of dollars in what's called uncompensated care. We pay for people who can't afford health care. Part of that is the fact that we have failed tha the fact the fact tha fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa. that that that that that that that that that that that that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is th. that is th. th. that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thee. thi. thi. thi. the. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th fact that we have failed to take money that belongs to Georgians and reinvested in health care. But Medicaid expansion in Georgia will create 66 or 60,000 new jobs.

When you expand Medicaid, you create small businesses. And it's an infusion of capital that comes from commerce, not from loans. Number two, we should teach young people how to start businesses. Even if they don't ever want to start one of their own, they their business, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to start businesses. Even if they don't ever want to start one of their own, they should know what it looks like. And it makes them better employees. If you understand how business works, then you understand why your boss, who has two employees, cannot pay you what your friend at Coca-Cola makes. Right, right. And so it's creating that lexicon and that understanding. And the third is encouraging financial systems to actually loan money when you have to do that in communities that don't have it. After the Great Recession, black communities in particular lost banks and they never came back.

And so when the PPP loans came out, a good intention of government, the money went to places that were not willing to lend to the very communities that needed. And as governor, I would pay attention to that. I would say we need to use these black-owned banks or these these these their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, the their, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, their, their, their, te. te. te. P. P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P. we need to use these black-owned banks or these Latino-owned banks, these community banks, we need to use those as depositories. So when money comes the next time, there's someone in the community who's ready to loan it. Let's talk about politics. Yes. Which is everything in America all that has become, I mean, one of the lightning rods of American politics, Georgia. What's interesting about this race is the fact that Governor Kemp has put into place multiple restrictions on how people can vote, when people can vote. He's reduced the availability of voting for people.

Republicans will argue the same thing. They will say, no, all we're trying to do is shore up the vote, even though we agree. There has been no widespread voter fraud. How do you begin tackling an issue like this where a you're running so you you want to make it better for yourself slash fair for everybody but how do you how do you how do you find that balance of saying to people listen I'm trying to do this this for everybody and I know that I hope I will benefit but you get I'm saying there's that paradox of the messaging that you're trying to get out? I reject the paradox. Voting, the process of voting is nonpartisan. Everyone should have access to the ability to vote. It should be easy to vote.

It should be accessible. There should be a freedom to vote. Any impediment to that is wrong. That's full stop. I don't care who you vote for. When I'm focusing on the voting system, my focus should never be on who you cast your ballot for. Voting itself, the process is nonpartisan. Now when you get in there, I'm going to do everything in my power to convince you I'm the person to pick. Right. But the fight for the right stronger nation when we allow people to participate.

And if we ever doubted that, the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine, President Zelensky said, and I'm going to paraphrase him probably poorly, he said, this isn't a war on Ukraine, this war on democracy in Ukraine. When we allow democracy to be overtaken by those who want to choose who can be heard and those choices are not based on anything other than animus or inconvenience, then that is wrong. My mission is to make certain that everyone can cast the ballot. My mission is to make certain that everyone can cast the ballot, even people who don't like me, especially those folks. They should be able to go and castthat more people who like me show up, but that's campaigning, that's not voting rights. Yeah.

Before I let you go, I have to talk to you about the mask. Yes. Because I mean, I was on social media and then I see the picture with the mask, then the picture gets deleted. This is what I found interesting, and maybe you'll correct me wrong. It feels like with politicians, you have like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, to, I, to, I, I, I, I, to, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I have, I have, I have, I have, I have to, to, to, to to to to to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to, I have to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to talk, I have to talk, I have to talk, I have to talk, I have to talk, I have to to to talk, I have to to to to to to to to the the ma, I have ta, I have ta.a.a.a.a.a. too, I have to to to to to to to to to to to team around you. Everyone's trying to figure out how to solve a crisis or fix a problem. People say ridiculous things, like God say, it was like, I hold my breath when I take the picture. I, and it creates this weird, it creates a situation where people feel like leaders

aren't following the rules, or people, you know, are punished differently from leaders, Why did you say, yeah, I messed up and that's that? And going forward, do you think you'd be able to maintain that without at the same time letting your enemies use that as your, you know, like, don't vote for Stacey Abrams, she messes up. My responsibility, in that instance, if I created any appearance that I did not take children's lives seriously, that's a mistake. But your job fundamentally is to acknowledge when you make a mistake and try to make it right.

We have this narrative that we have invincible leaders. That's just not true. What we have are humans who want to do a job. And we have to hold them accountable for the job they do. But we have to have grace when they make mistakes and trust that their intentions thii. that their intentions were right, but you can't trust someone's intentions if they never tell you what they were. Saying I'm sorry, saying I made a mistake is about being honest about your intention. I intended to do something, I did not quite do it.

So let me tell you about the gap and let me tell you how I'm going to make it better the time I ned. I need to remember that for the next the next the next the next to pivot. That's what I'm going to do. All I think of when I read this as level up. It's the first like book I can dance to when I just read the title, level up, level up, level up, level up. Stacey Abrams, thank you for taking the time. Thank you for joining us on the show. Thank you for having me. Stacey Abrams and Laura Hodgson's book level. Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.