00:00ICE is not about immigration.
00:02ICE is about normalizing paramilitary force on our streets.
00:06And when you connect the dots about what they're saying about the election
00:09and how they're using ICE,
00:12you know, look, we're going to have to be watching in those next 52 days.
00:15So our job is both to show and to narrate how it is
00:20that they're trying to take on free and fair elections in the first place,
00:23and then to use this next election to say this is what protections we need.
00:28But I also want to talk about the other ways that they're coming for democracy.
00:31It's not just your ability to raise your voice.
00:33It's the ability of the democracy to represent you in the first place.
00:36Like the idea of the Electoral College, let's be clear, it benefits here in Michigan.
00:40We get a lot of attention because of Electoral College.
00:42But it's anti-democratic.
00:44You think about gerrymandering and the way that we don't have an objective approach
00:48to making sure that communities get the representation they need
00:51because of packing and cracking.
00:52The fact that we have not passed comprehensive anti-gerrymandering legislation
00:57is itself a problem.
00:58And then I'll point to the filibuster in the Senate.
01:02Do you know what the filibuster's principal use was?
01:06Segregation.
01:07It was used most principally to defend against the passing of civil rights and voting rights.
01:13And it continues to get used in ways that are anti-democratic and against the will of the people.
01:19The Supreme Court.
01:21Right?
01:22The idea that we've got these non-elected nine folk who get to, you know, abuse our system
01:29and that we're not thinking about actually reforming it so it actually fits the moment of the time.
01:35That's a problem.
01:36And then the point that I always talk about is money out of politics.
01:40If you spend $70 million lying on somebody and you think that that's somehow democratic,
01:45I'm so sorry.
01:46I think we've got different ideas of what democracy is supposed to be like.
01:48That's true.
01:49And the way that these corporations use the money system in politics is to make it so that
01:55no matter what side wins, they win.
01:57No matter which side wins, if they're taking DTE money, DTE wins.
02:01And we're all out here being like, how come our rates are up so high?
02:03How come every time the wind blows, we leave power in five days?
02:07Because DTE always wins.
02:09Blue Cross always wins.
02:10They always win.
02:12And they use the system to do it.
02:13And so we've got to be able to stand up against that as well.
02:16So it is passing John Lewis, but it's also understanding all the ways that they've gained
02:21our democratic system and our process to take rights away from us around representation
02:26and around making democracy work.
02:28I'll finish here.
02:29Often we're asking, why don't young people show up and vote?
02:32Don't they understand that people died for this?
02:35The hard part about it is, I'm going to say this, all right?
02:39Young people understand the value of their time.
02:41They're not going to be young forever.
02:43And if their voting doesn't feel like it's going to change the outcome,
02:52sometimes they're just acting rationally.
02:55Now we could tell them, Bob, they're going to come for all these other things.
02:57The other thing about being young is that you don't appreciate how much worse it could get.
03:00That's right.
03:01But I think that it's important for us to understand that sometimes they're actually behaving rationally.
03:08If you know that the big things that touch your life aren't going to change based on whether or not
03:12you voted, you stop voting.
03:14So we've got to make sure that elections have consequences in delivering policy that you voted for.
03:19And so if your elected officials are going to show up and not be fighting on the things, you know
03:23how politicians get, right?
03:25They don't say the usual thing.
03:27They're not as willing to keep talking because they're hiding from their positions.
03:31I don't hide from my positions.
03:33And it's partly why, when you look at the vote that we got, disproportionately we won because young people showed
03:39up.
03:40Young people decided, they're like, that guy for whatever it is, I'm going to agree with him on most things
03:45but not other things.
03:46He at least is willing to tell me, I know he's not lying to me.
03:49And that's worth something in our democracy.
03:53Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
03:58Download the One India app now.
03:59Download the One India app now.
Comments