The Young Turks - Going Nuclear

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Union leaders are urging a ""reconstruction"" of the Democratic Party after its loss of working-class support. Rep. Ro Khanna reveals the behind the scenes conversations among Democrats post election. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has lowered the threshold for nuclear weapon use following President Biden’s decision to send arms to Ukraine." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Okay, guys, look, we got fascinating news. Do we have more appointments? Yes. Is there a Turkish guy going into the Trump administration? Yes.

We're in a lot of trouble, guys. Like the future of this country, I'm now really starting to question. Well, okay, all right, but nevertheless. Is there a ceasefire between Maga and progressive populace? I don't know, I don't know, we're gonna find out. Okay, shoptyt.com, is there a holiday 10 promo code you could get used to get 10% off? Yes, that one I do know. All right, you know, serious this guys, as always, giant news, is there every day where there is a giant news these days?

Okay, so Ukraine, Russia, starting to go a little nuclear, not day, nobody's launched. Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, okay, but some of the policies have changed. And then we have new appointments, and I'm not kidding, there is a Turkish guy into the going into the Trump administration. And then some of their plans, not so good, not so good. Okay, so a lot to get to Casper. Let's, I want to pop off by giving a voice to some union leaders who have some strong opinions about the direction of the Democratic Party.

Let's get into it. There's been a suggestion that, you know, your party has abandoned the working class voter. What's your response to that? I think it's always about the economy. You have a lot of Ivy League candidates that hire Ivy League Latinos that don't actually come from a working class background. And most Latinos are actually working class. I think a lot of politicians didn't want to hear what was actually happening out there. The reality is what we're selling isn't culturally connecting with.

The whole lot of folks who I genuinely believe were on their side. I think that as a party, we need to redouble our efforts among all working class voters. Well, as you just heard, at least some Democratic strategists are starting to understand that they need to do a little more in appealing to the interests of voters by focusing on economic messaging rather than constantly cry bullying and scolding the electorate. But when push comes to shove, will they actually listen to the union leaders and regular Americans despite telling them, you know, basically telling them desperately to change course? And look, I don't know. We can all guess what's going to happen. But I think this is really interesting because you're starting to see more of an effort,

a concerted effort to push the Democratic Party in a better direction. And some of the individuals involved in this effort are union leaders. And those are the types of people that I want pushing the Democratic Party in the right direction. So just in the past four years, low income and working Americans have actually swung toward Republicans because they feel as though the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class. So take a look at this chart. Let's put this up. In 2020, for instance, Biden won voters in the $50,000 year to $100,000 year income bracket

by a 15 point margin. So he received 57% of the vote, whereas Trump received 42% of this demographic, of these income earners. Now, in 2024, Trump won that same group of voters, 49 to Harris's 47. So Kamala Harris's support among union households this year was still eight points higher than Trump's, but it is a dip from what Biden was enjoying back in 2020. And major unions like the Teamsters, as we all know, declined to endorse a candidate in this presidential election. Typically they endorse the Democratic candidate, but two separate polls that were done of the Teamsters members show that the majority of them actually backed Donald Trump. And so the union leadership just decided to avoid endorsing anyone.

Now, Brent Booker, who's the general president of the Laborer's International Union of North America, spoke at this year's DNC, and he has a lot to say about where the Democratic Party currently is after the election. He argues, quote, I don't think the party has fully embraced and hasn't for decades, really, working class people. We have to deconstruct and reconstruct the Democratic Party if they're going to be the party of working people. Booker thinks Democrats could have performed better with a fiery, a more fiery populist message on the economy and a cooler one on cultural issues that make some of his members feel like Democrats are out of touch elitists. A lot of our members own guns, a lot of our members hunt. So he gives that as an example. But I do think that the combination of, you know, downplaying the economic

messaging and hyper focusing on maximalist, you know, cultural policies or cultural issues really did hurt the Democrats, and that's what he's trying to get at here. He said that when he went to job sites earlier this year, he heard from workers about really serious issues like inflation, immigration, and the squaring, I'm sorry, the squashing, I should say, of the Keystone Pipeline Project, which would have created jobs for his members. And so these are the issues that workers are talking about, the bread and butter issues. And while, you know, there is some conflict, certainly when it comes to things like the Keystone pipeline, you know, the left was firmly against it, you also have to take into consideration

that there are workers who are looking forward to the jobs that those types of projects provide. I think that you can find other infrastructure jobs, you know, that are far better for the economy and for the environment. But nonetheless, like Booker, many labor leaders say the influx of affluent voters and corporate donors into the Democratic Party has actually made them lose touch with the average voter. For instance, they say Democrats refuse to acknowledge the impact of post-COVID inflation from which higher income professionals were more insulated and instead tried to persuade Americans to believe abstract economic metrics over their lived experiences of painful credit card swipes at the grocery store. And I think that's a really

good point as well, guys. When you're talking about how great the GDP is, that's not going to do anything to persuade someone who is really struggling with buying groceries due to inflation. When you're talking about how good the stock market is performing, well, the majority of American workers are not heavily invested in the stock market. So these are things to take into consideration, especially when it comes to economic messaging. Jank. So one of our members wrote in with a really good point. It's our guy from t.com. He said it's kind of sounded like they're faulting the strength of their messaging rather than the contents of the message itself.

Look after workers and politicians get to keep their jobs. So I think that's exactly right. And it leads in perfectly to what I was going to tell you guys. Look, on the one hand, I think Alex Seitzwald here for NBC News, there's a good job of laying out this case and allowing some union leaders to make a good point about how Democrats should reach those workers, right, and those voters. On the other hand, at the end, they really button up what Art Guy was sensing, and the way hadn't read to you guys yet. So way, way, the smartest audience in the world.

So, by the way, t.com to join 20% off today or hit the join button below. But anyway, here's what Alex wrote at the end, or quoted Will Stansell to be more accurate. And that's apparently a progressive policy analyst. Okay, I don't know them. But anyway, that person says if there's one single lesson of the last election and really the last four years is that delivering material benefits of workers will not help you electorally, which basically annihilates the left's entire theory of politics. Is that what you got out of this?

Because I got the exact opposite out of this. So I think that what some of the Democrats and mainstream media are trying to put out there is we already did everything we could for labor and they're still ungrateful and we just had to deliver it in a better message and we had to do it while being culturally right wing. No, no, that's not the right message at all. No, the right message is, wait, did you even bother trying to pass the pro act? So I know what happened to it. So it passed the house easily.

they passed all those things in the House as show bills. They knew they were going to die in the Senate. They didn't even vote in the Senate, died in committee. Did the Democrats fight for the pro act? That's the main union act? No, nothing, right? So I'm not saying they didn't do anything for unions. And Sites Walton has some good examples.

By the way, they bailed out the Teamsters pension funds. That's true super important, right? They had to go down NLRB, Lena Con, et cetera. And we've talked about that endlessly on this show. We always give credit where credit is due. But if you think you delivered for the average guy, and that they're either ungrateful about that or you need to wrap that in a message about guns. But you've done plenty.

No, you missed the entire point of it. No, you have not done plenty. You didn't do a $15 minute. You took it out of the first bill. You took out every measure that helps the average person. Killing the child tax credit, I know, I know. The Republicans made you do it. A mansion made you do it.

Did the Republicans make them do it? I mean, you had Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress. I get that they had a slim majority in the Senate. This is, of course, in the first two years that Biden was in office. But Biden didn't even fight for his own agenda. In fact, Biden was behind the scenes agreeing with what Mansion and Cinema wanted to do in separating out the physical infrastructure from the social infrastructure part of the build-back better agenda. And the whole point, by the way, of keeping those two things coupled together in one bill

was to ensure that the corporate handouts that come along with the physical infrastructure would only pass if, you know, Congress agrees to the social infrastructure. Things like paid family leave or things like extra resources for people who are taking care of their elderly parents or the child tax credit or the $15 an hour minimum wage. All of that stuff was purposely with the green light from Biden, purposely separated from the bill so that part of the bill would die. So like, look, I get that Biden, relatively speaking compared to, you know, previous presidents in the modern era was a little better when it came to labor, a little better.

But workers have been crushed for so long in this country that a little more incrementalism isn't going to be felt, okay? Consumer debt at this moment is at an all time high. People are drowning in debt. People have had to charge their groceries on credit cards because they can't afford to put food on the table. And Democrats think, no, we nailed it. We nailed it. We nailed it. So this is super important dynamic that I want to explain one more time. So before we do that, look, I get that some of these stuff is hard and requires some compromises and we can't get everything we want.

Because that's the number one thing that mainstream media and establishment Democrats will throw at you. Like, oh, you guys just want everything, okay? Which is going to be the main point that I'm going to make in a second here, that that's not the case. Like Keystone Excel pipeline, I don't want that pipeline built. That's very damaging to the environment, to climate change issues, etc. But as Anna pointed out, like, is there a way we can do a compromise on that where that's not built, but we provide something else for labor, right? So instead of just going, okay, these are our policies and that's it. And by the way, these are

our policies and we're not going to pass 90% of them. And we're going to blame the Republicans, as the filibuster and the parliamentarian, because we've got nonstop excuses, right? So that goes to the main point. Democrats like Obama and Biden deliver about 5 to 10% of their agenda. But for people that are in mainstream media and in Washington, and certainly establishment Democrats, they think my life was great already. And these amazing heroes gave me extra 10% positive change. Oh my God, these guys are FDR 2.0.

Legends, they passed 10% of their agenda, who could possibly do any better, right? No. But hold on, but for the average person, they need 50 to 100% change. When is it gonna get through your head? 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. $400 knocks out 40% of Americans, a $400 problem. Not everyone is your rich friends. When is it gonna get through your head?

No, never. These guys still gonna write articles about, oh, there's a message. problem and we just have to tell them we love guns too. No, that's not it at all. This is pathetic change. They never deliver it off. Yeah, and so again, credit where credit is due, Biden did do some good things. But is it felt in the majority of households, a majority of working families, are they feeling

the significant improvement? And when you consider what inflation did to their personal finances, that incrementalism wasn't felt. So that's the issue here. And it didn't help that, you know, Biden was unable to even go out there and message effectively about what he accomplished. And then Kamala Harris, she doesn't have the age issue, obviously, but she had a public speaking issue. So she couldn't message about the accomplishments within the Biden administration. So it was a complete, another disaster beginning to end, you know, starting with Biden's unwillingness to even drop out of the race or avoid running for reelection in the first place.

But look, I just think right now, the Democratic Party has become so detached from ordinary Americans because of the corporate donors, because it's the party of the hyper-educated, the elite, yes. And you're so right. When you have stability in your personal finances and you're not worried about being able to afford groceries, I could totally understand why you would look at the rest of the elector and think, like, what are they complaining about? But you have to get yourself out of your own specific bubble and consider how other people are living. Other people are not living

like you. And so if they're struggling, they're going to retaliate against the incumbent party. And right now, that's the Democrats. So on messaging, of course they suck at messaging, but that's not an elixir. They, I mean, because in their mind, they think, oh, that's okay, we'll just get a better corporate robot. Like, the problem was Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. we're a little, we're malfunctioning. But if we bring in, you know, corporate robot 2.0, Pete Buttigieg or Gavin Newsom, they looked apart and they will speak in ways that will trick the American people into thinking that they're for the average.

No, no, you're missing point, you're missing. And guys, how do you know who's right, right? Because the mainstream media says we're gods, we're objective, we're obviously speak for America, right? And we're just a poor little us, we're just an online show, what would we know, okay? Here we are among the masses, of course the masses know nothing. right? So well, let's figure out who was right and who was wrong. What did we tell you guys? We told you, for example, after Sean O'Brien's speech at the RNC, that's the head of the Teamsters,

we said that's the best speech we've seen at a convention in a long time. He's talking a populist message about helping the average guy. Now, I don't believe that the Republicans are actually going to do that, but the fact that the Democrats rejected that speech and made him go to the Republican convention tells you all you need to know about the Democrats and that they're not effectively messaging, but they also don't believe the substance of it. Meanwhile, the corporate Democrats told you, oh, no, no, no, these voters are ungrateful. Joe Biden has already done everything for them. He's the greatest labor president ever. Okay, fine. I mean, they sound like Trump. Best neighbor president said FDR, et cetera. And then we said, look, I don't, we don't

think it's enough change. We don't think they're going to feel it. And we think that you're going to lose that portion of the vote. And they told us, oh, no, no, no, you're only helping Republicans. No way, we're going to get that vote. You guys don't know anything. So who was right and who was wrong? Okay, so let's actually hear from a Latino voter in Texas who actually voted for Democrats down ballot, but didn't vote for the Democrat at the top of the ticket.

Let's watch. In 2016, I registered a vote to contribute to the Bernie Sanders campaign as a Democrat. I was a member of Democratic Socialist of America. I was a Bernie victory captain. When he lost, I did vote for Donald Trump. I did the same thing in 2020 because I knew that the Republican Party had a home for me. I am a proud Latino, both American and Mexican citizen.

The Democratic Party has a problem with young men, specifically men of color. After the elections, they forget us. They're looking at the economy. They want to have a house. They want to be able to afford things. I just want to have a family. How can I do that when the Democratic Party is not focusing on the economy and making

sure I have the ability to take care of my family? The Democrats are seeing Latinos as you follow me because I'm telling you to, and they're not going to fall for that anymore. And look, you might hear what this voter has to say. You might disagree with him and, you know, take a look at that. the Trump administration, his first term, was he really friendly to workers? You know, look at the, you know, billionaires he's associating himself with. And his upcoming administration, is he really going to look out for workers?

So I hear you if you're in disagreement with this gentleman about, you know, where Trump stands on some of these issues. However, Trump talked about the economy incessantly during his campaign. So, again, the campaign is different from the actual policies. would implement. So we're talking about what he presented himself as and what he appeared to care the most about. And when you listen to his rally speeches, you got the sense just based on what he was saying

that he was far more concerned with American workers than anything that you heard from Kamala Harris on the campaign trail. So are the Republicans going to deliver for these, you know, for the average guy and for these disaffected voters? No, I'd be shocked if they did. I think that they're going to do another round of tax cuts, more corporate deregulation. And it's not like they're going to pass the pro act. They're not going to pass it either.

Of course not, right? And they vote against all of these things at all times. So if you're a right-wing populist and you think the Republican Party's on your side, you've got a very rude awakening coming to you in the next four years, even if you didn't notice in the last four, and apparently you didn't, okay? Now, having said that, in terms of the elections, as Anna's pointing out, so instead of inviting this guy in and the Democratic Party saying, hey, listen, brother, I feel your pain. And what I want to do is I want to get you a better job. I want you to get higher wages,

et cetera. They said, you owe us. You owe us your vote because you're Latino. And if you don't vote for us, we're going to accuse you of being racist against your own people and sexist too. How'd that work out for you? Is that a brilliant strategy? It just makes people angry. Yeah. It pushes people away. And that's so look, I just, every time I Turn on social media again today just accidentally run into a video and is someone saying listen here, white men. Okay, all right, here we go. Like, okay, so like the minute. It's my favorite analysis, right?

It's my favorite analysis when they break down the demographic to figure out, okay, which race had the highest percentage of people who voted for Trump and now let's demonize them. They blame them. And literally what happened on Pierce Morgan yesterday, I was on there in the morning. And they were having a discussion and debate about which demographic group they should blame. So not peers, but the other Democrats on there. They're like, okay, black men and Latino men. And then they were later, they were like, no, well, look, black men less guilty. Latino men, more of the problem.

Literally, that was the conversation. No, the Democratic Party is the problem. Not their voters. How could people be this short-sighted, this myopic? It's unbelievable to me. Well, luckily, we have a member from the Democratic Party joining us in the next segment. Congressman Rokana will join us to help reflect on the outcome of the election, the future of the Democratic Party, and more. So stick around.

We have that coming up. And much, much more. Don't miss it. All right, back on TYT, Janganana with you guys. Also Patrick Romano and Mariposa, who are American heroes, who hit the join button below, became TYT members, helped power this awesome network filled with truth. And we will later get to apparently my controversial dealings with Elon Musk, controversy. We'll explain a little bit later in the program.

All right, first we got a great guest for you guys. All right, well, here at TYT, as you guys all know, Jenk and I have had some strong opinions in regard to the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. But what do members of the Democratic Party really think? Well, luckily here to talk to us about that very issue is Congressman Roe Kana, someone who is always willing to come on the show, always willing to take some tough questions. So Congressman Kana, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I'd love to talk about Elon Musk's tweets back and forth with me and Jack,

but we could talk about the party, of course, as well. I can't believe you guys are even tweeting at him. I mean, we should be in our hermetically sealed bubbles where we don't ever talk to anyone we disagree with on anything. Anyway, that worked out so great for Democrats recently. All right, so let me just start off with a simple question, because it is something I've been thinking a lot about Congressman Kana. Who is the leader of the Democratic Party? We don't have one right now, and that's not a bad thing.

I think it's a good thing that in some ways the establishment has totally been defeated in terms of the people who had a stranglehold or that powers a position. And I think it's wide open, and there's a lot of great talent of young people in our party, and this is an opportunity for a whole new generation to rise. But the reality is we don't have a clear leader of the party. I like that you're taking a glass half full approach to this. But the reason why I ask is because I don't know what the Democratic Party stands for. I really don't. I'm going to answer in one sentence. We stand for tackling inequality in a modern economy.

The reality is you have districts like mine that have $12 trillion of wealth that's gone in the hands of a few. You've got people and places who have been left out. And our entire mission should be to tackle that fundamental inequality in America. So Congressman Kona.