Voting with your Heart with Katy Stoll + John Olds

Voting can feel like you're choosing between the lesser of two evils. Tons of people feel stuck between a rock and a hard place (especially this year) when they want to vote for their ideals, but don't feel like their party's candidate will give them what they want. If you're feeling conflicted, Katy Stoll of the Worst Year Ever podcast and John Olds of Gen-Z GOP are here to talk about what you can do about it (even if you're not old enough to vote!).

Alex Aiono's two guests this week may come from different ends of the political spectrum, but this discussion of politics is different. We find common ground between Republicans and Democrats, and find that the frustration over the chosen Presidential candidate turns out to be totally bipartisan. If you're feeling anything other than gung-ho about your candidate, this episode is for you. And remember to cast your vote!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Alex, and even though he's not my
first choice, I'm still voting for Joe Biden and Kamala
Harris in election. Nor will be alright forever nor alright.

(00:27):
So I think you guys can assume that since this
is the second political episode of the podcast, I'm an expert,
I'm a politics expert. Like I I am, I think
I know everything there is to know. Obviously I'm joking, um,
but I really did have a good time and a
very educational time doing the last episode, and I'm just
so happy to be back having in another episode to

(00:47):
talk about politics. And this one's going to be actually
really really important to me. I originally in this election,
and you'll know if you follow me on Twitter, I
was originally a massive supporter. Met the guy, enjoyed it,
donated to his cause, and uh, and that person is
Mayor Pete Pete Bout. I thought that when I scanned

(01:09):
all of the presidential candidates, I I liked him a lot.
I had the opportunity to meet him. I actually sang
for him, which was super fun. So from that day
I had always supported him. I knew it was an
uphill battle supporting somebody not only who was young, UM,
but was also gay and was not really was kind
of the odd one out in the group of the

(01:30):
big rat race that is becoming the president. UM. But
I supported him and I liked him, and I knew
that he wasn't perfect. There were some things that I
wasn't super happy with, but I loved that in the
debates he talked about it and he said that he
had messed up and he wanted to do something about it,
and there was just something about him that made me
feel like he was probably the most understanding of where

(01:52):
we needed to go as a country. None of that
matters because he didn't he dropped out. Uh. He he
did not make the cut and uh and ended up
ultimately um pulling out of the race. And that was
kind of shitty because I didn't really know where to go,
you know, I didn't know who to support after that. UM.
I knew that I knew there were a lot of
definitely knows, you know, like there were there were a

(02:14):
few people that I was like, man, this would really
be cool, and then there was a few people there
were definitely some candidates I was like, no way. I
ended up gravitating towards Elizabeth Warren. Again, I didn't love
some of the policies she had, but it was something
that actually, uh, we talked about in the last episode,
which was that you're never going to find the perfect candidate,

(02:35):
And there was something that always resonated in my head,
and it was something even then that resonated in my
head that's like, look, I don't think she was the
perfect candidate, but compared to everything else, I thought that
she had the um. You know, she was the big
the best match for where I stood again doesn't matter
because she didn't make the cut. And now we're here

(02:55):
and we're here with Um. Realistically, two people who have
the chance to become the president. And it's really hard
because as much as I don't love Biden as the president,
as the head of our country, as the as the
leader of our country, the the commander in chief, there's

(03:18):
no way in hell that I would ever vote for
somebody who you know, openly doesn't denounce racism and doesn't
denounce racial injustice and obviously doesn't support so many things
that in the past I've talked about that I support,
from the lgbt Q plus community to global warming and
climate change. But there's also no way that I'm going

(03:40):
to throw my vote away, because if there's anything we
learned from the last election is that every vote counts.
Including if there's anything that we learned from the last
episode on our podcast, is that every vote counts, and
we're going to continue to understand that as we go
forward with these political episodes. I actually had another conversation,
but or we get into it, I had a conversation

(04:02):
with a good friend of mine that that made me
think about humanity. I guess I was having a conversation
with a friend and this friend doesn't have the same
beliefs as I do, and we stand differently on a
few things, um including who we plan to vote for
this election. And instead of deciding to be mad and

(04:25):
hate this friend and called and say this friends, you
know this, that and the other, I decided to try something.
And that thing that I tried was I asked him.
I said, let's take away the candidates. Let's take away
the parties, Let's take away the name calling and slander,
let's take away the fats, even, let's take away everything,

(04:46):
and let's just say, what does this country look like
in an ideal sense and other than two or three things.
We actually had the exact same thoughts. But I think
the thing that's interesting is that as disappointed as I
am in the Democratic candidate, as disappointed as I may
be in our own country, in our own government, in

(05:08):
many ways, if we strip it all down, are we
really that far off? Are we really that different? So
that got me thinking, when you don't support what your
party is doing, what do you do? No? Welcome back, everybody.
This is Alex Iono here, this is my podcast. It's
called Let's get into It and really, uh, nothing is

(05:30):
off limits. And we proved that last week when we
started talking about politics. You know me, I grew up
in a family that said don't talk about politics and
public but I got to follow my heart and that's
actually what this whole episode is about, is voting with
your heart. I have two amazing guests here. I have
one is an actress, producer and the co host of
the podcast Some More News and Worst Year Ever, the

(05:52):
one and only Katie Stall. How are you, Katie? I'm good.
I'm good. Alex Sorr, I'm I'm doing really really well.
I'm also excited. We have the co founder of gen
z go Op and the co host of the gen
Z go Op podcast, the One and only John Olds. John,
how are you, brother, Well, I'm really really excited about
this topic. Again, I want to restate that this is

(06:13):
by no means a debate. It's really three people who
come from different walks of life with one cohesive idea,
which is you have to get out and vote. You
have to utilize your right to vote. Um And so
we're gonna have some great topics. First, John and I
are going to talk about what gen Z would do
to the political right, and then Katie and I are
going to talk about Bye Bye Bernie. And then lastly,

(06:35):
all three of us are gonna talk about why we
should be voting anyways, which leads me to my first
question that I have for both of you. Usually I
asked my guests and what are you doing to improve
yourself this week? But because we've been having these election
lead up episodes, the question has changed and it has
become why do you vote? It's a loaded question. I've
answered it a bunch of different times, but this one specifically,

(06:56):
I vote because with the news of Brianna Taylor case
and and the outcome of that, with none of the
police officers being charged for the murder itself and one
in one of the police officers only being charged with
endangerment of the neighbors. It really sparked a fire under
me and inspired me even more that I have to
get out there and if I want to make a change,

(07:16):
the best way that we can make a change as
a citizen in the United States is to vote. That
being said, John, do you have an answer for us? Yeah?
So I like your first question, what are you doing
to improve yourself? This week I went back on the
keto diet. No um, so that you would be surprised
that's actually been an answer. Really, Keto is fine anyway.

(07:39):
So why do I vote? The simplest answer is, there
are so many candidates out there, um And we talked
so much about the presidential race and maybe senate races,
but there are so many different leaders. There are so
many like service oriented people, and I think we do
them a disservice when we don't vote. When we don't,

(08:00):
you know, engage with them and and get involved on
the local level, because that's where ultimately so much of
the change is needed that will actually affect our lives.
So that's why I vote. H I love that Katie
what do you have to add to that? Actually, my
answer is is very much in line with John's. I
vote because it's the first step in taking control. And

(08:22):
if you're feeling powerless, if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're
feeling like this is not right, that you want to
see some actual changes in your life, the very first
step is showing up and doing this and voting for
the candidates that you think reflect what you want to see.
And I agree with what he's saying about the local level.
It's I think we'll get into this later on when

(08:44):
we talk about the election more, but it's about so
much more than the presidential election. The vast majority of
improvements you're going to see in your life are happening
at the local level. You want to talk about how
your city is handling climate change, that's star with your
city council representatives, and it's so easy to overlook that.

(09:04):
It's so easy for that to get lost in the shuffle.
I mean, partly because they don't have as much attention
and funding, so you know, they slipped through the cracks
and we show up and we don't know who we're
voting for. But if we can get engaged on that level,
you can start to see tangible differences being made in
your community. I love both of your answers because I
think it plays perfectly into today's episode, which is Voting
with your Heart. Katie will talk with you in just

(09:25):
a bit, but John, it's time for us to go
one on one. I want to start off. We did
a little bit of research off of your podcast and
the gen Z go Op um. You've said before you
feel politically homeless, and I think that that's a great
place for us to start. I just would love to
hear more about you and why it is you feel
that way and why it is that in turn helped
you start something like gen z go Op. So when

(09:48):
when we started gen z go Op, we basically realized
that there were two things going on at once and
we needed a way to kind of harness them together.
So the first is that Republican Party is sort of
gone off its moorings from where it used to be
the party of John McCain, the party met Romney, and
it's no longer that's the party Donald Trump. And this concurrently,

(10:12):
gen Z was disaffected by both major parties. You know,
most gen Z people when they registered to vote they
register is unenrolled. They don't choose the Republican or Democrat.
And we said to ourselves, you know, there are a
lot of issues that are important to gen Z, whether
it's racial justice, whether it's income inequality, whether it's climate change,
and there's only one party that's talking about them. So

(10:35):
we said, you know what, we need to change the
course of our party. At the same time, harness the
apathy and the disaffectiveness of the gen Z voters and
kind of bring them into a party that they can
be proud to be a part of. I mean, I
think that that's so incredible getting gen Z, you know,
on this show, and I can't say it enough. Go vote.

(10:57):
Go if you're listening to this podcast right now and
you're not registered, vote, Literally pause this podcast and go
and register. Register while you're listening to the podcast. That's cool.
This election, the Pew Research Centers told us twenty four
million teams will be voting for the first time, making
them ten of eligible voters. On top of the basics,
right on top of like you mentioned climate change and

(11:18):
racial justice. Why do you think it's important for gen
Z to be paying attention to politics so much so
that you you started a gen z g OP, so
this answer should start with a little bit of context.
I come from Massachusetts, which is a very dark blue state,
and I'm a Republican in Massachusetts. So part of what
we have done to help Republicans get elected in Massachusetts

(11:41):
is instead of using the word conservative, using the word competence.
You know, Republicans need to be about results, not necessarily
about partisan ideology. We've talked on a couple of episodes
on our podcast about the deficit for example, and why
America being in such bling debt is actually super important

(12:02):
for young people because it might not affect them up front,
but it's going to affect them down the road if
certain entitlement programs aren't there. So we need to get
our for example, are spending under control. But what I
was talking about earlier about results and Republicans being about
the party of results, like that's where we need to be.
The environment is not a partisan issue, but if you

(12:23):
have one group that might have a plan for it,
but it might not be politically tenable. But then you
have the Republicans that have hypothetically they could have a
plan that actually gets results to lower emissions and clean
the water and clean the air. That's what we need
to be about. So gen Zars, I actually think they
do care about a lot of things. They care about

(12:45):
the issues that I mentioned earlier. I don't think there's
a sense of apathy there, but there's a lack of
results coming from our leaders on those issues, and Republicans
need to be the ones to provide those results. I
love that. There's a lot that I in my re
search of of you and gen z Gop. You know,
even in an article in Newsweek, you and some of
the co founders are actually wearing masks. Why do you

(13:07):
think it's important for you as as the people of
the party, especially the young people of the party, to
stick with science and speak out about it, even though
the party doesn't typically stand behind those things. So number one,
to your point about masks, I mean, I know that's
become a partisan thing, but it's honestly the least you
can do. Like, I mean, for God's sakes, Like I

(13:29):
can't believe we're still talking about this. It's just so ridiculous,
Like come on, Like, no one likes to wear the mask.
It's obviously an inconvenience, but I'd rather have things be
open and wearing a mask than not wear a mask
and have everything to be closed. But okay, climate change
and environmental issues. You know, everyone talks about it like

(13:50):
it's some sort of liberal dog whistle that you must
be some sort of quasi communist if you care about
the environment, which is just such an absurd logical leap, right.
You know, when I think of cleaning up the environment,
I think it actually really runs quite in line with
what I would consider traditional Republican and conservative ideals. You know,

(14:11):
think about what's gonna reduce emissions At the end of
the day, it's going to be the use of cleaner energies,
and whether we like it or not, we will get
to that renewable energy future faster if those energy sources
are competitive, if they're cheap, and if they're efficient, and
that's going to be driven by the market. That's going

(14:33):
to be driven by the free market. So I don't
understand why Republicans are so averse to this issue, because solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower,
geothermal energy, all of those are huge job creators, and
we need to equip our workforce to actually get those
jobs and bolster those sectors. But that's all the free

(14:55):
market that's all capitalism, that's creating jobs. Those are all
things the Republicans up until apparently the environment gets involved,
they love. And we need to really focus on that
because the next generation of engineers, the next generation of
workers in the energy sector, they're going to be focused
on renewables. So we need to be making sure that

(15:17):
the American energy sector is a part of the twenty
one century and has a skilled workforce that's ready to go.
I think the other thing that's interesting is that you
know the current lawmakers right now, they're not going to
see the worst effects of the climate change if we
continue on the path that we're on. Uh, it's more
people of our age group. And again I'm going to
come back to this gen Z group, who are going

(15:37):
to really have to be dealing with it. What do
you think we can do right now to make our
voices heard? What do you think we can do to
get that voice in their heads saying, Hey, you guys
might not have to deal with it, but we are
and we want to make some real change. Yeah. So
number one, you should go to gen Z GOP dot
organs to be a part of our organization. We're trying

(15:59):
to create this plat form and there are a number
of organizations just like it on the right and on
the left where it's so incredibly important that you get
involved with these organizations. And you know, this is something
that I've spent the better part of my summer working on.
But other people, you know, go to like a meeting
a week, or spend a couple hours on a Friday

(16:21):
afternoon before you go out with your friends, or go
on your Zoom happy hour or whatever it is. There
are so many ways to get involved. Uh, and it's
not really that hard. The second thing I'll say, and
I have to give credit to my friends on the
left for doing this. They've created a lot of organizations
to actually get people to run for office. It doesn't
have to be the Senate or the House. It could

(16:43):
be a state legislative seat, it could be a city
council seat, it could be a selectment race, and and
those races, as we mentioned earlier, are so important and
it's a way for us to have our voices be
heard directly. You know, if you have a message that
you believe in, like you should stick your neck out. Basically,
what I'm trying to say is that for three years

(17:03):
basically since I was so frustrated with what was going
on in my party, and I said to myself, well,
I could just scream into the void on Twitter or Instagram,
or I can vent to my my buddies about how
terrible things in the Republican Party are. But at the
end of the day, I wasn't doing anything. So that's
why we started gen z GOP because we wanted to

(17:24):
stake our claim in this on this So you, you
and your organization, you guys have actually been really really
opening open about like you just were, about the shortcomings
of the current president and your party. Um, and you've
gotten involved with down ballot campaigning. I'm not gonna lie.
I don't know what that is, and I think a
lot of my listeners don't know what that is. And
so I would love for you to tell us a
little bit more about that. In the importance of down

(17:46):
ballet campaigning, Well, I personally have gotten involved. I think
we should make that distinction. So, for example, part of
being home during the quarantine and in the COVID crisis,
you know, I go to school at George Washington University.
I'm now back in Boston on a whim, you know,
locked in my house. In April, I sent a Facebook

(18:08):
message to my state rep who I had kind of
known but not super well, and ultimately we got connected
and he goes, do you want to manage my reelection campaign?
He's my state legislator, and I'm sure i'd be honored.
And for the last six months, five months, I guess,
I've been running my state representatives reelection campaign. And he's

(18:28):
a Republican in Massachusetts running for re election in a
district that's pretty competitive, and he is kind of an
example that there are Republicans out there that are talking
about issues that matter to young people. He's got a
great environmental record cleaning up the river, making sure that
the water treatment plants upriver aren't dumping raw sewage into

(18:51):
the river. Yes, that's a real thing that happens. So
what I'm trying to say is to circle back to
your point about down ballot campaigning. There are so many
races that never make the news that are competitive, and
it might be in your backyard, and it's so important.
You know, I got lucky. I happened to be politically connected,
and I had certain privilege in that in that regard

(19:13):
that I got to manage a campaign. But these campaigns
are looking for volunteers to go door to door, to
make phone calls, to write letters to the editor, and
that's down ballot campaigning. That's really cool. I mean, I
really like again, and I said it in my earlier episodes.
I didn't grow up super politically educated, and so a
lot of these things are really new to me. And
so getting to use this podcast not only as a

(19:34):
platform for us to spread information about this election and
about voting, but also I get to just like learn
new things, which is which is really really cool. So
it seems right now that that the right is at
a turning point and you have Trump supporters and you
have Republicans, and that's kind of like increasingly becoming two
different things. What does that say to you? How do
you feel about that concept? I wish I had a

(19:57):
better answer for you, because we're trying to figure out ourselves.
No matter what win or lose, the Republican Party is
going to have to figure out where it's going to
go after November three, and that's the point of our organization.
We're trying to get our party to change its course
a little bit, to be a party that's going to

(20:18):
be competitive in the twenty one century because we're increasingly
becoming the party of old white men. And I know
that might sound rich coming from me, who is a
straight white guy, but it's important for us to be
a part of that debate for where we're going because
you better believe this, the Republican Party has and I'm
not saying this as an oxymoron, there's an intellectual Trumpism

(20:41):
that's like waiting in the wings. You see it with
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, you see Josh Holly of Missouri.
These are kind of more populous Republicans. They don't really
even call themselves conservatives. They call themselves market skeptic conservatives,
and they're very socially conservative. And I think that. You know,
as a young person, I say, I know what people

(21:02):
in my high school and my university want to hear
from their leaders, and it's definitely not that. So we
need to be involved with this debate for where the
party goes because we're loose, We're gonna have that debate. Well, John,
I really appreciate all of your your your candor throughout
the whole situation. Uh. I love what you're doing with
getting gen z involved and staying educated and fighting for

(21:23):
causes that in reality we're going to have to deal
with as the young people as this ten percent of
eligible voters. What would you tell somebody who just thinks
that they're too young to get involved? I mean, you
and I are both. I'm right on the cusp of
being gen z um, but I'm I'm a millennial, but
I too feel like, man, I'm too young. Like you
mentioned this is it feels like we aren't being represented

(21:45):
as clearly as we could be. So sometimes it feels
like it's not our play. So what would you tell
to somebody who feels like that it feels like we're
too young to get involved in politics? Well, you're not.
Sometimes that's kind of that, you know, like part of
something that I don't know if this is a gen
z characteristic or just certain people that they construct these
barriers for themselves, like, oh, I can't do this because X,

(22:09):
And there's literally no justification for that reason other than
like they've mentally put it up in their head. And
I think that sometimes it really is just that simple.
I got involved in politics because I had a place
Matt at my table when I was five, and it
had all the president's faces on it, and I memorized them,
and I just kind of caught the bug. And I

(22:30):
remember going to my library when I was a kid
and there was this wall of books just about current
events in politics. I don't know why they had it,
but it was some sort of section in the library.
I remember getting them, taking out a couple of books
at a time. I'd skim them, I'd read parts of them,
return them, rinse and repeat, and you just kind of
catch the bug. And then I went to school in

(22:51):
Washington got involved that way. Politics yearns for normal people.
I think what turns off a lot of people is
that some of the activists that you might hear the
loudest voices in the room, like when you drill down
to it, politics is all they have. Part of what
we're trying to do with gen z GOP. We're people

(23:11):
that have interests other than politics. And I think that
people don't recognize that it's okay to like sports, or
to like hiking, or you can be artistic and also
be into politics. They're not mutually exclusive. A lot of
people can do politics as a hobby. A couple hours
a week. You make phone calls for your local legislator,
you write a letter to the editor. These are things

(23:32):
that don't take a long time. But you also don't
have to be yelling and screaming and trying to make
a headline every every five seconds. Well, thank you so much,
John for coming on here and and talking to me
about this and educating me more about politics. I really appreciate.
We're gonna take a break and when we come back,
I'll be talking with Katie about some real, real fun
and sad moments of the Democratic Party. We'll be back.

(23:54):
Al Right, we are back. This is let's get into it.
And uh and we're here with Katie Stole and we're talking.
I don't know, I don't know why. I think it's
so funny, Katherine that you've made this segment by by
Bernie and I want you to put this in the show.
I have to give a shout out to Catherine for
coming up with a funny asked name for this segment. Um, Katie.
At first, I want to talk about your podcast. You

(24:15):
you celebrated one year since the launch of your political
podcast called Worst Year Ever, So congratulations. Um. Also, do
we have you to blame for everything that's actually made
this year worse, like are you and are you predicting?
I had no idea how much weight, uh, the universe
puts into my words and my time. No. Actually, Robert,

(24:37):
my co host, Robert Evans, was the one that originally
pitched the title. We all fussed with it and landed
on that. But I think that the blame if anything
goes with him. Yeah, you guys started, you guys started working,
You started worst year ever and the world said, hold
my beer, Like that's really just what that's like? What
that's what happened? Well, Katie, I'm so happy that you're here.

(24:58):
And while this section isn't all about Bernie, even though
Catherine made the title by by Bernie Um. He stands
for the ideals that a lot of more progressive voters
wanted for this election and the drastic countermeasures that a
lot of people that support him think that we need.
Just to give people an idea, so that as we
dissect this this segment, where do you fall in that

(25:20):
spectrum of of progressivism, of your progressive ism? I would
call myself very progressive, maybe not as much so as
my co hosts perhaps or other people you know that
I but that mostly comes down to I do believe

(25:41):
in working that we have to work within this system.
I'm not someone that's like you, voting third party is
going to be effective. I understand that the desire to say, like, no,
I don't support either of these candidates because nothing ever changes,
and I want to make a stand. But I understand that,
but I don't think that that's our way forward. I

(26:02):
was a big Bernie supporter. I was also a big
Warrant supporter. Slightly less progressive, but I saw her as
somebody that could work with people across the board, you know,
to some degree. But I loved her and I loved
Bernie both because they both represented the things that I

(26:23):
want to see happening in this country and within our party.
I want to talk about that specifically, because as we
all know, neither of them are the democratic of them
are the candidate. So before we get I still want
to talk more about your beliefs and how it flows.
But I think this would be an interesting time for
us to start unwrapping how you felt when you realized

(26:44):
that Biden was going to be the candidate, and if
Kamala made any of that a consolation or made it
made it feel any better. Um um, how did I feel?
You know, it was the first hard blow was when
it was clear that Warren wasn't going to get any
traction and I voted for Bernie. I did, but that

(27:05):
was prior to us a Super Tuesday. They were both
my candidates, and I was going back and forth between them.
But I really responded to Warren, and it felt like
a real deep grief being misunderstood by the world. I
eat out that there's there's lots of questions about whether
a woman is a viable candidate in our country. In

(27:27):
in I was happy that Bernie was still in the race,
so there was some consolation for that I could pivot
all of my energy to supporting him. It was depressing.
It was a really hard a couple of weeks during
those primaries, and it was hard also because it coincided
with the beginning of the pandemic, so it was really

(27:51):
difficult for me to wrap my mind around, Okay, we're
gonna support Joe Biden went to me, the answer to
a global pandemic is the person that is promoting Medicare
for all, that wants to do something about income and equality,
who is consistently saying the things that need to be
said and showing up in the ways we need our
leaders to show up. And so that was a really

(28:13):
difficult period for me. But it's not the alternative. You know,
a lot of people point to saying, um, Joe Biden
is the most progressive Democratic candidate we've ever had, and
in many ways that's true. In many ways that's not

(28:34):
true because the country keeps growing and we keep in
generally becoming more progressive. So what is your benchmark here?
But at a very basic level, I also could understand,
after I gave myself just a little bit of space
from it, I can understand why, in this specific moment, uh,
he seemed like the safe choice for a lot of people.

(28:56):
And I know intellectually that just because I leave something
with my whole being doesn't mean that I'm going to
make you believe everything with your whole being. And that
is part of the beauty and flaws of this system
is that we have to work together. As much as
I might think the other guy's wrong, we have to
we have to work together. So I really came back

(29:19):
to that, and as things have progressed right now, I
keep coming back to that and thinking, yeah, perhaps this
is the way that it needs to be right now.
But you know, especially the way our media works and
twists things and and obvius skates things, that the person
that we have known the longest and appeals to the

(29:44):
broad swath of the voting populace might be a better
bet for us. The thing that that makes me nervous
right now that everybody seems so disillusioned. The other night
I saw Bernie put out a really great response to
I believe it was the Brianna Taylor situation with the
rulings that came into, you know, the charges that are

(30:06):
not being brought, and I thought, what, I still wish
that that was the person that I was voting for.
I'm worried that the ground game isn't mobilizing enough, that
people are feeling just so disaffected right now, and that
we're going to have a repeat of That's the thing
that's interesting is I feel like I feel like we
spent the last four years constantly talking about how and

(30:29):
why Republicans have been disillusioned again and again and again
with Trump. Why do you think that now we're here
and a lot of Democrats feel disillusioned by the lesson
effective choices that the left is made well. I think
on a basic level, Biden isn't inspiring to people in
a this role way. He's not going up there saying, um,

(30:53):
suggesting a bold response to all of the problems, you know,
And I think that for a lot of people it's
just um, they just feel a little deflated right now,
you know, and exhausted just across the board, exhausted by
the onslaught. You said also that you referred to Biden

(31:14):
as the safe choice, and I think that that's a
very kind I think it's a very kind thing to say, honestly,
Like I think he is that, you know, he's that
safe choice. He doesn't want to He's trying to ruffle
as little feathers as he can to try and come
in as the anti problem. We got so many problems though,
you know. We have climate change on the brink of
being irreversible. We have racism that's costing lives, a growing

(31:35):
death toll because of coronavirus. Do you think that a
candidate like that, who doesn't want to ruffle feathers, do
you think that they can actually do enough in time
to make a big difference. I'm like, what's what's the
I'm still trying to still trying to be optimistic about
the honest one or the hopeful one. I mean, I think,
I think, I don't. I don't think. I don't think

(31:56):
that UM coming in with a milk toast compromise solution
is the answer to our problems. I think a milktoast
compromise platform probably appeals to more people in order to
do the the first step of getting Donald Trump out

(32:17):
of office. So I see the argument for that. Also,
we just can't do public compearences right now because of
the coronavirus. But there is also something to be said about, Okay, well,
then there's not as many gaffs, and that is not
a position that we want to be in. We do
not want to be thinking that about our candidate. But

(32:38):
but but but but but but I do think that
it's better than nothing. I do think that it gets
us closer to where we want to be. I do
think that we put pressure and we continue to be
as engaged as we are now and say no, your climate,
this isn't good enough, This response to the last unions

(33:00):
isn't good enough. I don't know how much power, how
much traction, that actually gives us. I don't know how
much tangible change that we see from that, but I
do know that we continue to normalize our opinions during
that time. We continue to point out what's wrong, why
things aren't working, and then we get more power. More

(33:21):
of us get involved on a local level, more of
us start doing things, not just because Trump is in office,
but because we care about them, and we see that
it's vital, and things start to change and we chip
away at it, and then hopefully the next administration is
someone that can do a broader, more comprehensive approach to things.
This is not the best answer, it's not my ideal situation,

(33:44):
but we got to work with what we got. That's
kind of how I see it. That's the thing that's
That's the thing that's interesting to me is, you know,
I just had a conversation with John Olds, and now
we're having our conversation. And while the parties are completely
in different places, right, both parties I think are at
a bit of a turning point. You know, a lot
of people don't think somebody who is down the center

(34:05):
like Biden will do enough. Whereas there you know, there
are a group of Republicans who are at a turning point,
saying that we've strayed so far away from the Republican Party.
What are you making out of these these splits? Are
you thinking that there could be, you know, party splits.
Do you think that it's just an uprising of the
new generation of Democrats and Republicans? What do you take
from all that? Yeah? I think it. I think there's

(34:29):
like ideological wars happening in each party, and ideally we
end up in a place where we have not a
two parties system. The vast majority of people that I
know do not cleanly fit in to their party's ideology,
and it is a shifting of the old guard. There

(34:50):
are people, you know, John had mentioned in his section
the Republican Party is the party of old white men,
a lot of old white men, and the Democratic Party
as well, and that's changing because Democrats more closely aligned
with the values of progressivism. Um, but it's not good
enough for a lot of us. So I don't know

(35:12):
what the future holds in terms of if we can
break free of the two parties system. It will take
a long time, involves a lot of different tricky things.
But I do see more and more that the progressive
faction within the Democratic Party is growing and and and

(35:33):
it comes back to also, yes, young people getting involved
and saying I'm going to get involved, and people in general,
but young people especially and for Trump, for Republicans, I
just called them all Trump. Um, I don't know what
happens there. You know. I am thrilled to see people
like John you know, representing a different kind of Republican youth.

(35:58):
But there's a lot of people that have drank the
kool aid, so to speak, and they're all in, and
they're really dug in. And I'm not sure how those
things reconcile because of as of right now, the people
in power are allowing this this new ideology to take
the reins. So I'm not really sure how that looks.
I do know that Joe Biden more closely resembles a

(36:23):
classic Republican than Donald Trump does. I want to care
about moving the needle on the issues that are important.
I want to start normalizing medicare for all. I want
to normalize the conversation around policing and and racism, systemic racism,
you know, anyway I can ramble about I literally was
about to say I need you to say that one

(36:44):
louder for the people in the back, because I know
personally there are that there are some people who need
to hear that one right there, that Biden bodies and
bodies a Republican more than Donald Trump does. That's insane. Uh,
You've been such an amazing guest. I love having guests
on who have their own podcasts because it just makes

(37:05):
my job so easy. Thank you so much for coming on.
I have one last question. I think that this one
is very very important because I know a lot of people.
I a lot of my friends even who were so
excited about Elizabeth Warren, specifically for my friends. I had
a lot of friends who are very Warren meaning um.
And then you know yourself, like you mentioned, you loved Warren,
you loved Bernie, you got Biden. You know, I feel

(37:28):
like you you went to the you went to the
vending machine and you put in C seven and instead
of getting your Snickers bar, you ended up getting milk duds.
And that's where we are. No hates anybody who likes
milk duds. They just they get stuck in your teeth.
It's a little they do. They can pull out your feelings,
but they're delicious. They are delicious. Back to my question,
kids don't have feelings. My question is back to my question,

(37:52):
um for voters who were excited just like you about Warren,
about Sanders, what should they do when Biden is their
only choice? They should vote for him. It's tough. I
I understand if you're I I intellectually I get it
if you're like, I'm not voting for somebody a lesser
of two evils, or a lot of people don't see
him as a lesser of two evils looking at his

(38:13):
track record, And I get that. That's hard. That's a
hard thing to reconcile. And I hate to say it's
better than nothing. But if you believe, if you believe
so firmly in all of these these issues that drove
you to support them in the first place, you have
we have to make peace with the fact that we're
not going to be getting any closer to any of
that with another four years of Trump. In fact, we're

(38:36):
going to regress. We're gonna be even more dug in,
We're gonna be even more we're gonna be even farther
away from the truth from addressing climate change. It's not
too late. We can do stuff, but it's got to
happen immediately. So if you believe in all of these things,
not voting isn't the answer. It's voting and not giving

(38:58):
up once your vote is cast. It's not going back
to Obama era politics where we just assume the guy's
got things on lock and has things under control. As
much as as as good of a president as Vamba was,
lots of shady stuff happened under him as well. You
know a lot of people don't know that kids started
being detained under him. It was different. The policy expanded

(39:22):
under Trump and has become far less humane, but the
original things started then, for example, drone strikes. And I
understand that there's a lot of pressures on a president
that I do not I can't conceptualize. But I'm just
saying we didn't know that because we weren't paying attention,
and that era has to be gone. We do not
survive as a species. And I do not mean to

(39:43):
be alarmist, but we don't survive or as a country.
By going back to that, as as appealing as at
night sound, there will be balance, but we need people
to triage the current wound and then continue to do
rehabilitation and not just check out, is I guess is
my my pitch to everybody. I think accountability at this

(40:04):
point is the only way that we can continue progressing.
And that I wanted to just say that popped into
my head right now real quick. If you're not pumped
about Biden, there are lots of people you can get
pumped about. We've mentioned local downballot races. If you're in
Los Angeles, for example, Nititia Rahman, an amazing progressive candidate

(40:26):
and on a city council level, can do actual change
that you see in your life. In the next several years.
You can see those things actually happening if we get
some people like that elected. And there are people all
over the country that are running. And so if you
need something to get fired up about, another reason to
go to the polls on election day, it's to go
to the polls and supported them and then also vote

(40:47):
for Joe Biden while you're there, and while you're there,
while you're there to take on the old mark for
Mr Biden. Katie, thank you so much for your views,
really with you and John, and I'm so excited for
this next segment because I know that something rate we're
gonna be talking about some great stuff. But I'm really
grateful that both of you guys came on, especially you
and your story. You know, when you're at this lesser

(41:07):
of two evil situation, where do you stand? Where should
you stand? How should you act? So thank you for
giving some clarity on that. We're gonna be taking a
quick break. When we come back. We're having our big
round table talking about why you should vote and why
you should vote with your heart. Don't go anywhere. Al Right,
we are back. This is let's get into it. I
got Katie Stolen, John Olds here with me, and we're

(41:30):
talking about why it's so important to vote, not only vote,
but vote with your heart. But before we get into
the heart part, we've spent the last two segments talking
about why each party has disappointed huge swaths of their supporters.
But all of that being said, it's still incredibly vital
to vote, and as we learned in our last episode,
every vote does count. We've all heard the never ending
list of excuses why people refuse to vote, whether it's

(41:52):
we're confined to a two party system and it doesn't work,
so why should we vote. I don't like my candidates,
so many people vote mine doesn't make a difference. Even people,
especially in California, talking about, oh, well, we already know
who's going to get elected, you know, out here, so
it's not that important to vote. What would you say
to somebody who's still, even with everything that's happened in
our country for the last four years, still is saying

(42:14):
they don't want to vote, they don't plan on voting.
I would say that nothing changes until you take that
initiative for yourself, and that it can be easy to
feel like it doesn't matter. You mentioned California, but as
you know, John and I both have spoken about it's
about way more than just the presidential election. It's about
all of the other candidates that need us to show up,

(42:37):
and we talk about being disaffected, and nothing ever changes.
You know why, because people don't vote. The vast majority
of citizens do not vote. They are tired of the
status quo. They're tired of the system. We don't have.

(42:58):
We don't have election day a holiday, so a lot
of people have to choose between making a livelihood or
showing up to do their civic duty, you know, childcare,
they're all sorts of different things. But that changes when
we show up in numbers, and also just this whole
idea that your vote doesn't matter. You can look at

(43:19):
so many elections, especially like midterm races. Let's say where
these races are called with a matter of like a
hundred votes, it literally is imperative that you show up
and exercise You're right, it can make all the difference.
And and I mentioned control. Well, I don't know about you, guys,
but I feel just so overwhelmed and inundated. And the

(43:44):
one thing that's a through line is that I get
to show up and officially say I stand for this,
and that means something. I know a lot of your
listeners are younger, and you know, you talked about why
young people might not want to get involved, and I
get it. When you're younger, you don't quite have the
same perspective. That's not a dis It's like you've got

(44:04):
a whole bunch of other amazing qualities, but sometimes you
don't realize the importance of a single action, you know.
And I know so many people in my peer group
I'm a little bit older than you, just a little bit,
who have deep regrets for not getting involved sooner, when
they had the energy, when they had more time at
their disposal. Uh, you know, less bogged down by family

(44:28):
obligations and crazy work days. So this is the time
to show up and learn these lessons. It's a great answer, John,
Do you have anything that you want to add to that?
So do you ever remember I don't know if they
do this or where you live, but your energy bill
and they kind of audit your energy use and they
compare it to the energy uses of like your five neighbors,

(44:52):
and you either get a smiley face or a frowny face,
or like, oh, you know you're showering for too long,
use less heat. I'm of the opinion that if we
did that for voting, we would get far more people
to turn out because think of it this way. If
I know my neighbors are voicing their opinions and I

(45:13):
either agree with them or disagree with them, no matter
what I would say, well damn I should probably voice
my opinion too. So that's number one. As Katie mentioned,
there are barriers to voting and that that's a separate discussion.
But I think saying I don't want to vote and
I can't vote are very different things. So do the
people who say I don't want to vote? There are

(45:33):
quantifiable results from your apathy. You know, there are so
many candidates out there right now on both sides of
the aisle that one person wants to divide, one person
wants to bring people together, one person wants to get results,
and the person wants to disagreement to the void. And
I think that by not voting, we don't choose the
person that wants to get results. We're in a time

(45:55):
of crisis. This is a pandemic and an economic crisis,
and you're gonna stay home when we're choosing the people
who are going to deal with that. Like, that's a problem. Yeah,
And I think. You know, my nephew is eighteen and
I'm having a hard time convincing him to vote. You know,
he's pretty dug in in the fact that it doesn't

(46:15):
make a difference, that it doesn't even matter which party
you know who it is, that they're all politicians. And
I get that. I get that feeling. But the first
step is still to show up and vote and to
move the needle in the direction that you want. The
second step is to get involved. As you mentioned earlier, John,

(46:37):
you can get involved. You can show up to your
city council, you can run for city council. You would
be surprised at how much easier it is to gain
entry to this private club. And you know what happens.
Then you get to actually enact change. We don't get
to move on past this point through apathy. We get
to move forward by by stay ending up and doing something,

(47:01):
physically doing something. And that is not possible for everybody.
Not everybody can run for office. But you can be involved.
You can support the people, You can pay attention and
you can see who reflects your values. You can do
mutual aid, you can get involved in different grassroots organizations,
and all of that is about being politically active, and
all of that is about changing your future. And your

(47:22):
future is the most important one because you're going to
be here the longest. You know, we're still here, but
like you're gonna have to carry the torch. I at
this point, if you're listening to this podcast, you haven't
been convinced to vote yet. I don't know what else
we can say it we got to We got two
people just ripping you up, so please again. I mean,

(47:44):
I I know that we all learn our lessons in
the time that we learned them. But one thing that
I hope this intense time of social economic upheaval can
can show you is that the impossible is absolutely possible,
and it is happening. It doesn't go away by ignoring it.

(48:05):
So so now that we've hopefully convinced everybody listening this
to vote or to register to vote, UM, I want
to talk about the part about voting with your heart. UM.
I think it's important to note that an enthusiastic vote
counts just as much as an unenthusiastic vote. And so
I have a question for both of you guys who,
throughout this podcast we've seen have shown frustrations with your

(48:26):
own parties. Should you vote with your party even if
you can't stomach the candidate that you're saddled with? Do
you think that there's a better alternative? What are your
thoughts here, John, Well, that's pretty subjective, Like I don't know.
I I feel like you can dislike a candidate and
still vote for them, but it depends on the level
of dislike that in distaste that you have for that candidate.

(48:47):
I don't know. I don't vote the party I like to,
you know, think about who I'm going to vote for.
I mean, full disclosure. I've I've actually voted for one
Democrat in my life. I'm not going to say who,
but I voted for one scary but I didn't like
the Republican running and so I cast my ball for
the other person. That aside, you gotta evaluate the candidates

(49:10):
on their merits, and you know, sometimes you might have
a personal disagreement. I also, this is going to be
a terrible answer because I'm in a tough spot. No,
not if you if you feel like you're in a
tough spot, you gotta do with it. I think you
gotta evaluate the person on their merits, and if the
personal distaste for that person outweighs how much you like

(49:33):
their policies, and you know it's a gut feeling, you
know that you just can't do it, that you can't
stomach a vote for that person, then you gotta either
leave it blank or vote for the other guy, or
I don't know, it depends. Yeah, that's ticky. I think
that the question, it absolutely is very subjective. It depends
on the situation, but it's it's for me. There's like

(49:55):
a hierarchy of stuff like, Okay, what are their policies,
what are they promoting them? On a personal level, what's
at stake if I choose not to vote, So what's
the other option, the alternative what happens if I don't
support this person and the other guy wins? And all
of that has to inform like, I can't sit here
and tell you absolutely should only vote for Democrats versus Republicans,

(50:20):
because I don't think that that is that's not sincere
and honest. It's it's pretending that Democrats are infallible or
that our guy. It's it's very hyperpartisan. However, right now
things are hyperpartisan. I look at that, and look, Hillary
Clinton not an ideal candidate in any capacity. I get that.

(50:44):
I was befuddled, And this is no, I don't need
to know how you voted John In or your family
or anything like that. But I was very confused on
a personal level for people that I know and love
that are conservative who didn't seem to care that he
has a long track record of very valid sexual assault claims.

(51:09):
And it hurt me in my core that political differences
aside that my my childhood best friend who has little girls,
that that didn't bother them. And that's a perfect example
of the kind of thing that you should sit down
and really consider, like what are your values here? But
then there's also the whole thing of like like, look

(51:30):
at the other side, what's at stake? And it's a really,
really tough position to be in, and it is definitely
a burden that we have to carry. But again it
all comes back to if you don't like the options,
we start getting involved now so that in the future
we have better options. But the answer in the moment
isn't to just say burn the whole system down. I think, um,

(51:54):
I want to change the tone a little bit because
I want to end on a very positive note, because
I really do think I'm gonna lie when I when
we first started talking about having a Republican and a
Democrat and me on a podcast, I got a little
nervous that we would end up it would end up
in a fiery debate. But what I love the most
is that the both of you would have found such
great common ground. And I think that there are some

(52:16):
some areas in which Democrats and Republicans at at their heart,
Like you both have said, it's a there's a difference
between what the party says and does from the top
and how you kind of act and feel with your heart.
How can we continue to build on that? How can
we continue to build on finding common ground? I personally
think that that's the only way that we can start

(52:36):
kind of joining together is by not doing us versus
them type of situation, but really seeking to understand each other.
Granted the very clear things like racial justice and gender
equality and all of the equality bits we need to
all agree on specifically, But outside of that, how do
you guys both feel, and this is the last question
before we close out, how do you guys both feel

(52:57):
we can continue building on that common ground and really
start searching for a little bit more of a better relationship.
I'd say, well, so I can kind of give you
an answer. Well, first of all, I don't bite believe
the big bad Republican is here. It goes back to
my comment that I made earlier. And I don't mean

(53:20):
to be like off color or inarticulate about this, but
when normal people talk about politics, it is like de
facto civil See, here's the problem. Our political system rewards
people that throw rocks and yell and scream, and if
you want to get anything done, you have to go

(53:41):
to the people that have the power to make the
change or you try to become the people with the power,
and people in power do not respond to yelling and screaming.
People want to have a dialogue. People like if you
were to talk to your neighbor about a political issue,
you probably wouldn't scream and yell at them and speak
and say ound bites. You probably ask questions, why do

(54:02):
you think that if we talk about politics like normal people. Yeah,
you know, I have a slightly different the yelling and
the showing up in the voice of your opinion. I
think that there is definitely, um, a time and a
place for that when when things are intense. You know,
I believe in the power of protests. I think that

(54:23):
a lot of stuff is getting skewed right now and
it's a bit out of control everything. We don't need
to get into that about the efficacy of protests right now,
but I believe in them deeply. But I do subscribe
to that myself. And it's hard right now when everybody
is just so amped up to the you know, they're
at full throttle one. We're we're so busy saying our

(54:45):
opinion that we're not listening. Um. When I've done I've
done a lot of campaigning for people or you know, volunteering,
showing up, knocking on doorsteps, and it comes down to that.
It comes down to saying like okay, well, uh, how
about this specific issue and having a general conversation, and
that's how you find common ground. Um. I said this
on a break to John, but I really respect hearing
him talk about where where he's coming from and what

(55:07):
he's doing because you know, so much of my exposure
to you know, young uh Republicans has been a bit
of more of the Trumpett brand where it's it's it's
you know, there is a faction of people that are
manipulating truth to serve their own narratives. And right now
we have a disagreement across the board about what truth

(55:29):
is and and we're all so dug in. But if
we can come together and have actual conversations, like you
were saying, you start to see the through lines. You
see where we agree and you see where we disagree,
and we can learn from each other. You know, I'm
not always right about everything, But there's a lot of
stuff that's trial and error. A lot of stuff is

(55:49):
us saying like we haven't tried this, let's try this.
You know, we've tried this system. We haven't and there
might be mistakes that are made. But if we've come
together and we act actually learn how to listen to
each other and learn from each other, that's a vastly
different political landscape, if I may. Um. So, I just

(56:10):
want to be clear. When I talk about yelling and screaming,
I mean it in a sense that anger is not
a bad emotion. In fact, some of the most just
and productive things that we can do in the world
are born out of anger, right, So I'm not saying
that necessarily. What I'm saying is that yelling for, you know,

(56:31):
to be self aggrandizing to yourself rather than a cause
that you believe in. Like, there are a lot of
people grifting, yeah, you know, profiting off of me. We've
got them on the left and the right. Oh, believe me,
I'm well aware. And and and it's such a problem.
So that's the kind of yelling and rancor that I'm against.

(56:52):
I'm not necessarily, not necessarily against. And I didn't think
that you said that, but that was just where my
mind went, and just in case, and but he was
thinking that, Like I'm I'm an advocate of protests, but
I also think that there is a respectful way to
have a conversation. And sometimes sometimes that's hard, especially when
people aren't coming to the to this stage with a

(57:13):
good faith argument, when they're not actually listening to the
words you're saying, or they're drawing on the facts, and
we are all both sides have people that are guilty
of it, and I try to bring that to my work.
But and this is what we're trying to talk about
that you mentioned. We don't have a common set of facts,
Like we're squabbling over what is the truth, Like, Okay,

(57:34):
you have climate change, we have X amount of emissions,
it is a measurable thing. We're going to say that
that's not real. I can I can say I think
that we should have market based climate solutions, and that
I think nuclear energy is a good thing, and that
the regulatory environment shouldn't be so complex for people. And

(57:54):
you might disagree with that. If we're discussing what is real,
having that common set of facts is something that we're
trying to bring to the table that you know, we
can disagree about things, but we at least have to
be talking in the same universe. So I would literally listen,
I could listen to you guys talk back and forth
because it is, like you said, very very calm. It's

(58:16):
a regular conversation with your neighbors. Unfortunately, we're running out
of time. Um and before we end, I want to
give you guys, because both of you have such strong
voices and so I want you both to do some
shameless promo. John, I want you to to promo everything
you can places that people can find you and listen
to you more if if they if they're really feeling
the gen z go op vibes. Yeah, the gen z

(58:39):
Gop podcast we do three episodes a month. You can
find us on Twitter at gen z gop pod or
gen z gop org the pod. The pot account is
just for our podcast. For on Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcast.
You can go to gen z gop dot org and
sign up to you either become a member or you

(59:02):
can submit a resume to become a part of our team.
We're looking for new and excited voices to come to
our movement. And then also I'll plug my own personal
Twitter for some hot take, current events and Boston sports.
It's at John olds m A love it. I love
it well, John, Thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you for sharing your voice in your opinion and

(59:24):
and I really appreciate it. All Right, Katie, where can
everybody find you? Oh? You can find me in a
variety of places. I'm also on Twitter at Katie Stole.
I co host Worst Year Ever, which is a podcast
with I Heart Radio as well with Robert Evans from
Behind the Bastards and Cody Johnston that was originally supposed

(59:46):
to be all election related, but you know, things have
changed since we launched that podcast, and so you know
we're we're talking about ah a lot, a wide a
wide range of topics. Oh, we keep been interesting. We
could get interesting guests. Uh. You also can check out
my other podcast, Even More News, that I co host
with Cody Johnston that is a companion to our YouTube

(01:00:09):
channel Some More News, Uh, and it's a lot of
deep dives looks at honestly all the stuff that you
would expect us to be covering, and we do. Our
videos range from twenty minutes to an hour. Some of
them are long, but you know you've got time to
kill right now. Nice. Well, you guys know you can

(01:00:29):
always find me at alex Iono on all platforms. That's
the best part about having a weird last name, it's
a I O n Oh. Please make sure you rate
and subscribe to this podcast. That is how we grow
and I thank you so much for coming through today.
We'll talk to you guys next week and until then, peace.

(01:00:54):
We really want you to get the help you need,
so if you need help, please seek independent advice from
a competent healthcare or meant a health professional. The views
and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of
the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast, and
do not represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees.
This podcast should not be used as medical advice, mental
health advice, counseling, or therapy. Listening to the podcast does

(01:01:14):
not established doctor patient relationship with hosts or guests of ALEXIONO,
Let's Get Into It or I Heeartmedia. No guarantee is
given regarding the accuracy of any statements or opinions made
on this podcast. Who if That's a Doozy