August 13, 2025 • 40 mins
To The Contrary newsletter author Charlie Sykes examines how Democrats are dropping the ball in opposing Trump. Party Chair of the Texas Democratic Party Kendall Scudder details how they’re fighting back against Greg Abbott’s gerrymander.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And welcome to our five hundredth episode, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well?
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I could because I keep count Yes, we have such.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
A great Joe for you today to the Contrary Newsletter,
author of Charlie Sykes stops by to talk to us
about how Democrats are dropping the ball opposing Trump. Then
we'll talk to party chair of the Texas Democratic Party,
who you will love and who will make you feel
really good, Kendall Scudder, about how they're fighting back against
(00:39):
Greg Abbott's unconstitutional Jerry Mander.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
But first the news.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
So, Mollie, Donald Trump has to avenge his boy big
balls getting nearly carjucked. Now we have fed's walking the
streets of places in DC that never have Eddye crime
and lots of other dumb things. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So has like federalized DC? You know these are all
these powagraphs.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Trump wants to control democratic cities, He wants to intimidate people.
He wants to be the autocrat he dreams of, and
it is dangerous, it is worrying, it is anti democratic
and by the way, it could have all been prevented
were it not for Jill Manchin and Kirsten Cinema who
(01:24):
said no, no, we cannot allow the district to be
a state. So now the District of Columbia has basically
no one representing them except Donald Trump, who was at
war with them. And this is just such a stupid,
unforced error. We knew this was going to happen. Look,
the problem for MARYO Bowser is that she needs all
(01:46):
the money for the year and DC was not put
together in the way it was supposed to. These electives
are like trying to get Trump to not close their states.
I mean, this is just such a desperate and instane moment.
I don't know that there's any great choices here. I
think the good news is that there's no good news.
(02:07):
The good news is that Trump is wildly unpopular and
people can vote him out.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, just a long way. And we have people like
Benny Johnson who saying we have to buldoze whole neighborhoods
of DC and things like this, and his biggest sick
events are just going to keep cheering.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, it's really scary and bad.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Speaking of bad, disturbing, just telling on yourself. Jislen Maxwell
is going to get work release from prison.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, so here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Gilaine Maxwell, sex trafficker, should be in a real prison,
has been moved to a prison camp, is now getting
work release. I'm sorry, but this all happened after Todd
Blanche met with her. I cannot think of more of
a telling on yourself than this, And.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
We should remind the people that Todd Blanche is Pam
Bondi's right hand man, who too, yeah, may even have
more scary, scary, stickophantic tendencies than her.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So we don't know what happened in that meeting, but
we do know that now Golaine is in a better prison,
and now Golaine is in a better situation. And maybe
it's just a coincidence that all of this happened after
she met Todd Blanche.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I mean, certainly possible, but.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It's unlikely because the truth is, none of this is
a coincidence and it's just absolutely really fucking bullshit.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I don't know, Molly, it does seem like a coincidence
that right after he met with her, all these leaks
of things like birthday books, and things like that just
seemed to stop.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That seems like a coincidence to me. Yeah, sure, exactly,
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So I don't know if you heard the horrible news,
but I imagine you did because you're pretending you're not
as online as he used to be. But I know otherwise,
shooting at the CDC by a crazy conspiracy theorist. They
shut up a bunch of windows, and RFK Jr, who's,
you know, the top dog over there. He seemed to
really really just reinforce those bad ideas that get put
(04:15):
into psychopath sets.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, this guy comes into the CDC and says that
the COVID vaccine is making him sick, and he shoots
up the building and people are scared, and they're like,
we are working for a guy who is spreading lies
about what we do, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And that is how we got here. Look.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
RFK Junior has said he wasn't going to do things,
and what he's gone on to do is just, at
every point the worst possible anti vax stuff. Right. He's
lied about vaccines, he's lied about their efficacy, He's done
all of the things that he said he wouldn't do.
And Congress just let him do it. So RFK criticizes
(05:02):
the agency's pandemic response. So basically, people have been doing
bad stuff to the CDC and the people who are
working in it, and instead of protecting the people are
working for him, RFK is basically encouraging them. And this
is such a dereliction of duty and so deeply disgusting. Again,
(05:23):
this is like so many of the things we see
right now, shocking but not surprising.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Speaking of shocking and not surprising, thing, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
By the way, I'm really excited about this next door.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
You know that. I'm like, so he said it just
a short year ago.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
When we were making our documentary on what was the
COmON Project twenty twenty five, I think you and I
would often discuss to let the viewers see behind the curtain.
Is one thing that will lead to the Republican's electoral
route is banning pornography. But don't worry, Senator Mike Lee
is here.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know what's so funny is like, I remember when
we were doing that is that documentary and you were
like banning pornography and I was like no, and You're.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Like yeah, you literally were like I don't believe this
isn't it up like page eight sixty four.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I was like, there's no way they'd banned pornography.
Why that's wildly unpopular. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Not just Marjorie Taylor Greening anymore. It's Mike Lee too.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Mike Lee wants to ban pornography. The law would alter
the Miller test, which.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Was established in nineteen seventy three Miller versus California decision
to determine obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Oh yes, The test defines obscenity as material that appeals
to perient interests judged by the average person, depicting sexual conduct. Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I am very excited for them to ban pornography. That
is going to be great.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know, I'm so pleased that the podcast bros voted
for this guy, because those guys don't like pornography at all.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Oh yeah, they never have porn stars never never never.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, no, they don't. I don't think they believe in it.
So a good job, guys.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Congratulations, You guys will love in America without pornography.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yes, good luck, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Charlie Sykes is the author of the newsletter to the
Contrary and the book How the Right Lost Its.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Mind Welcome to Fast Politics. You'd be as cranky as
you like, Charlie Sykes. You don't want to see that,
you really don't. I love a cranky Charlie Sykes. I'll
take it, man.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so Charlie Sikes talk to me.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It feels like things are not going well. No, things
aren't going well. And part of the problem is what
do we focus on here? Do we focus on the
police state? The mass roots squads? WO focused on Trump's
war on statistical reality? The fact that Donald Trump, the
man who's never read a book on history, is going
to review the Smithsonian Museums. All this displays to make
(07:58):
sure that you know they have his view of Americanism.
I mean, and I'm leaving stuffed found. You know, the
attacks on science, on public health, on the rule of law.
I don't know. You know, how's your day going? I mean,
I think the statistics stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I think we should talk about the Bureau of Labor
statistics because the Wall Street the wocos over at the
Wall Street Journal said, don't make America Argentina up, Please
don't hire a sycophan and what did Donald Trump do?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Oh? He would He went way beyond Sicka Fan. I
mean he hired this Maga chowed from from the Heritage Foundation,
who's economic credentials are, shall we say, a little bit
thin on the ground, and you know, raise the possibility
they won't even be issuing the job statistics anymore. So
whatever your worst case scenario is, I think Trump's shot
(08:48):
past it. And you know what, I'm gonna write my
newsletter about this, and I think my opening line is
going to be the Senate's going to confirm this Chowede,
aren't they. I mean, the Senate's going to go ahead.
They're they're ribbing their hands and Tom Tillison, I don't
know who else is going to fall in line, and
then no vote to confirm him. This is your bls.
This is your bls. Not stupid. It's woke Mass is
(09:08):
it woke Math? I don't know We're going to unwoke everything.
So you know, I said to you, I was a
little bit cranky. You know. Part of it is is
this this problem of prioritizing what you focus on. I
was on a brief program earlier today and they were
talking about the the d n C apparently has plans
to stage rallies all around the country about Jerrymanderprain, which
is fine. I mean, I want to make it very
(09:29):
very clear. I think that Democrats cannot unilaterally disarm. I
think they need to fight fire with fire. However, of
all the issues to choose to have public rallies about,
I don't know. There seems to be a lot of
other things. You know, how about you know, ice arresting
kids outside of schools. You know, how about the troops
on the streets of American cities. You know, how about
what we're talking about with these jobs numbers, how about
the old one vaccines. Look, jerry mandering is a is
(09:53):
a huge issue. But what are people going to do
a whole signs of saying stop the jurymander when we're
about to do counter jerrymandering. I mean, look, you gotta
do what you have to do. But if Democrats are
having rallies, there's a lot of other stuff that should
be having rallies. Why are people not on the streets
about these other things? Yeah, I mean, I don't think
that's wrong. Time is running short, and I think part
(10:14):
of the problem is there's so much stuff that's going
on here. You know, it's sort of easy to sort
of just set your hair on fire and to lose
some perspective. Look, I mean, Trump is deeply unpopular, But
have you seen the numbers for the Democrats lately?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I know.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And this is why I'm cranky, Molly. This is why
I'm a little bit cranky. Is every time you raise
the question why are the Democrats numbers so low? What
do they need to do to improve their image to
the public, we get this massive sort of bubble reaction.
Stop talking about Democrats. We can't talk about democrats, can't
(10:49):
engage in any sort of introspection. Look, folks, if it's
all on the table, we ought to act like. In fact,
it's all on the table. I agree.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I also think that it's we're thinking about, for example,
like what is getting people voters excited?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Like Mandani is getting voters excited.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You may not like it, but he's getting those ones
and twos out there. And I think the question is like,
who are the people who are speaking a voter?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Well, okay, so there are a lot of bright shiny objects. Look, yeah,
mendummi is speaking to voters in New York City. Showed
me one swing congressional district anywhere in the country where
the bright shiny objects could be elected. And I think
this is part of the problem. There are a lot
of really solid Democrats out there who are winning in
purple areas, and yet my guess is that most people
(11:37):
don't know their names. Why are we not talking about,
you know, Abigail Spenberg, or why are we not talking
about the people who've actually won these elections in places
where there are a lot of Trump voters. Instead, there
is this obsession with going with the brighton shiny objects,
who again are doing maybe valuable things, but could not
be elected outside of these very very narrow little confines here.
(12:00):
I see what you're saying. What do you think is
the play for Democrats? Look, I don't give them an advice,
and they don't want advice from me. But I think
the play is how about win elections? How about win elections?
How about do things that are popular? How about figuring
out how to get a majority instead of you scratching
your ideological id. Now for all the people going, well,
(12:20):
you know, shut up about that. No, seriously, the existential
crisis is right on us. In the twenty twenty sixth election,
you know, either Democrats will have a controlling majority or
they will not. So the question is what do they
need to do to win those swing districts and there's
only a handful of them now. I do think I
understand the logic. I think that Democrats need to be
(12:42):
aggressive tit for tat on the redistricting. I mean, this
is crucial. But on the other but also, you know,
let's pay more attention to the people in fact who
won elections in these swing states, so in swing districts,
as opposed to folks that have eighty seven percent Democratic
districts who have like big tech talk followers. I mean, again,
(13:03):
I understand that that can excite people and get people's interests.
But the problem is, and you've seen this in the past.
I know you've lived through this. You know, there's a
problem with the bright shiny objects. They suck up a
lot of money, They divert a lot of money into
unwinnable races or racists that are not competitive. They tend
to dominate the attention in the attention economy, and more importantly,
(13:25):
they tend to then become the face of Democrats, you know,
perhaps misleadingly, but the identity of the party. And the
problem is, I mean, trust me, you're not going to
get a Democratic Socialist of America elected in Michigan or
Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or any of these states that in
fact will determine the future of American politics. Now, New
(13:46):
York City is New York City. What happens in New
York City stays in New York. But don't confuse the
fact that he's a good politician who is charismatic with
an agenda that I have to tell you is basically
a trumpest wet dream to go around the country and say,
look who these Democrats are. No, no, no, the Democrats.
The Democrats who are winning elections are not you know,
(14:08):
are not DSA members.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Trust me, So the affordabilitating argument, those seems like a good.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Wine, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yes, absolutely, And that Spamburger's running on that too.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, and inflation tipped up two aur percent to die right.
One of the mistakes I think a lot of folks
made was to make fun of people who thought that
inflation was a big issue before twenty twenty four, and
a lot of pieces people were talking about you know,
you must be igorant or you haven't seen this chart.
The lived reality for most Americans is that inflation matters
(14:40):
a lot. So, yes, affordability is important. Now does that
mean that you want government run grocery stores? Does that
mean that you want price controls? No, not necessarily right.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I do think when we talk about affordability, though Trump
did say he was going to make things cheap.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Of us, this is what they Democrats need to talk about.
Need to talk about this over and over again, and
they need to turn the tables on Trump, who is
imposing massive taxes on middle class taxpayers. Tariffs are sales taxes.
Sales taxes are by definition regressive, and they're deeply unpopular.
(15:17):
And the polls would suggest that people are getting this
right now. So Democrats need to hammer away on that.
They need to hammer away on the police state, they
need to hammer away on all of this stuff. But affordability,
turn that around, because this was the issue that Donald
Trump wrote Road to Victory on. And I have to
(15:37):
tell you, just go ask somebody who's been at a
grocery store lately whether or our prices have come down.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Trump is mapped at the Goldman Sacks numbers. And again,
this goes back to your idea that democrats made a
huge mistake, and I think they did by saying that
inflation wasn't real when people were feeling it was real.
And this is what Trump is doing though, right where
he's saying those Goldman Sacks numbers are real, y'all when.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Voters are going to feel them firsthand. I mean, I
don't know how you've covered for that. Okay. So this
is a really great point here because there's two things
going on here. Number One, unurse how Donald Trump has
erased the difference between government and the private sector that
he is now dictating to private companies who they should
hire and what they should say. Socialism, right, well, this
is like state capitalism. This is like this is what
(16:23):
if Democrats were doing anything like this, this would be
called socialism. And so for voters who actually kind of
do believe in free markets, you have two things going on.
Number One, he's afraid of the facts. He's afraid of
the statistics. He's covering these up like he's covering up
the Epstein files. I mean, you can you actually can
link these things together. The truth is that Donald Trump
(16:43):
does not want you to know, but going after Goldman
Sachs because of what their economist is saying, Now, if
he's going to go after every economist that says that,
you know, tariffs, their tax isn't bad for the economy,
he's going to have to, you know, push for the
firing of a lot of economists. In fact, he's going
to have to like fire all of the economists, not
just Goldmanzac. But it's going to be interesting to see
(17:05):
whether Goldman Sacks caves in or tells him to go
pound sand.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Say, Goldman Sacks fires it's economists because they don't like
the numbers. It's like with the law firms that caved
for Trump. You don't want those lawyers.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You don't want to be at a bank that doesn't
have good numbers.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
No, you don't. And see, this is the thing is
that in the markets and in the world of Goldman Sacks,
there are reality checks. I mean, there's a lot of
other things that go on. I mean, let's not be
naive about it, but there are reality checks. And if
you're an investor and you want to know what is
the inflation rate, what is the jobless rate, where's the
economy going? You want to have numbers that at least
you can trust. Right, you may not care about the
(17:45):
other guy having reliable numbers, but you want your numbers
to be reliable. And if Goldman Sachs surrenders on this,
basically they're saying, hey, by the way, pay no attention
to what we say about any of these things going forward.
That's bad for business. Yeah, it's bad for everyone. Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It's also this idea that there's this sort of unreality
that Trump can inhabit and the rest of us will
somehow be you know, like there's like inflation is going
to be inflation. I mean this article on the Wall
Street Journal about Argentina talked about that just because they
said the inflation rate was four percent and it was
really twenty five percent.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Ers, Like, you can't fake something like that. It just
exists right, By the way, this is something that's relatively
easy to explain. It's like firing the weather man, you know,
in the middle of a tornado because you don't want
people to know, you know, what's happening or how much
damage has been caused. And yet Donald Trump is doing
that across the board. I mean, they're firing the experts
in public health, they're firing the experts in jobs numbers,
(18:44):
They're finding the experts and I mean, you just name
the field, and so at a certain point people are
going to go, okay, and we trust you know, who
can we trust here? So if Democrats cannot find a
way to point out that, you know what a fraud.
Trump's populist appeal was that he is a president of
the elites for the elites, and that he's covering for
(19:06):
the elites in things like the Epstein story, but that
he's also covering up information that affects people's lives. Now,
by the way, you know, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
not only comes out with these reports on jobs numbers,
they determine what the inflation numbers are for social security,
cost of living increases, and there are real world consequences,
(19:27):
and you cannot mess with some of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I mean, it just strikes me that it's completely crazy.
So let's talk for a minute about we have this
DC federal whatever police state thing. What do you make
of this besides the fact that it's obviously quite bad
and not at all good.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, there are two things. You know, some all have
an unpopular opinion coming in a moment, But I think
that people ought to have no illusions about the fact
that this is a test run for what he might
do in cities all across America. And this is one
of Donald Trump's wet dreams is to have American soldiers
on the streets of cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago,
(20:10):
and New York. So this is I think the beginning
of something that's going to be much bigger. Given the
fact that we're also going to have ten thousand more
Ice agents, where are they going to go and what
are they going to do? So that's number one, it's
very very dangerous. And I think I said this yesterday
on MSNBC. Yes, this is a distraction from the Epstein files,
but sometimes the distraction can be substanti in and what's
(20:32):
happening right now, you know, has broken the glass in
a lot of ways. Now, the question is is he
going to normalize this? Are Americans going to accept a
police state in the nation's capital. Will they accept a
police state in New York and Baltimore, Chicago and Los
Angeles as well, Because then we've crossed into really uncharted territory,
at least in our lifetime. The second point is that
(20:53):
obviously he's done this based on this bogus again, using
bullshit numbers of crime. You know, crime was upcrime is
a problem in DC, but it is down sharply. So
his rationale for doing this is based on false numbers.
But having said that, one of the traps that Democrats
need not to fall into is don't pretend crime in
(21:15):
public safety are not a real issue. Don't make the
same mistake. Don't say that it's a non existent crisis.
Say look, we also want to fight crime, we also
want public safety, but this is not the way to
do it. This is not the way by bringing armed soldiers,
you know, into your community. Let's figure out a way
to solve this. So again, there that has to be
(21:37):
the balance. Acknowledge the problem exists, make a credible case
that you can also solve these problems in ways that
do not crush and trample the constitution. Because the complete
denial issue is not going to work on crime anymore
than to work on inflation. So that's my cautionary note,
and perhaps the unpopular opinion that you know, crime in Washington,
(21:58):
DC is a problem, is a problem. They're getting a
handle on it, but let's not pretend it does not exist. Right,
that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Charlie Sikes will you come back sometime soon, any time.
Kendall Scudder is the chair of the Democratic Party of Texas.
Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Kendall. Hey, I'm just tickled to be here. Thanks for
having me on. We're delighted to have you.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So explain to us what you do, what your Texas
job is.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Tell us your job, Well, my volunteer job.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
By the way, right, the whole State Assembly is volunteer, right, So.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
The state Assembly, they get paid about six hundred bucks
a month. And I'm the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party,
so I'm the only statewide elected Democrat in Texas, and
I have zero Republican constituents, and I am not a
part of the legislature, but I am one hundred percent volunteer.
So my job is to run kind of the party
(22:56):
strategy of how the state Texas Democratic Party functions and
it's elections, and then also to work with our legislators
and try to get good stuff done for people in
really tough situations that were presented with here to.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Say, can you explain how often you meet and what
it looks like and what is happening right now?
Speaker 5 (23:14):
To understand what's happening, you have to understand how Texas
was founded. It was founded by a bunch of people
that hated the government, and they wrote our constitution and
everything to try to limit the ability of the government
to function. They wanted there to be near unanimous decisions
in order for things to get done, and it's why
Democrats in Texas have had so much success at blocking things.
(23:35):
So as a result, our legislature only meets for six
months every two years, so they meet from January to
the end of May, so Bob, but it's about Sometimes
it goes into Jude for about five months and so
they just finished that. They do it in odd years,
and then the governor has the ability to call special sessions,
and those special sessions are not allowed to go longer
(23:57):
than thirty days. So if you hit thirty days, it's
over and they have to call a new special session.
Everything that you worked on in the first session is
debt and you have to start a back over from scratch.
And so what we're seeing right now is that the
Democrats are utilizing a tool that's also written in our
constitution of a quorum break.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Wait just stop for one second, I want you to
So Abbott calls a special session Governor Abbott calls a
special session. He says it's going to be about flood relief,
but you show up and it turns out, so tuck
us through that.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
On July fourth, there was a gigantic flood in Texas,
killed one hundred and thirty seven people, predominantly children. Who
was a terrible situation. And so they called a special
session to address flood reliefs. And the governor has the
sole ability to put what we do in those special
sessions on the dockin, and so showing up, thinking we're
doing flood relief, he adds drawing political districts, redrawing our
(24:53):
maps to this special session. So Democrats participate in this
special session for two weeks. But in that two week period,
there has been one hearing on flood relief and eight
on redrawing political districts. And in that redrawing, it would
mean that it would take a black Texan five votes
to equate the vote of one white Texan. It would
(25:15):
take a Hispanic Texan three votes to equate the voting
power of one white Texan.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And so we're not going to participate in it, and
we left.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And also, more importantly, the first map, the twenty twenty
one map is in court because it is.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Such a bad map for diversity. Is that right?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Well, even beyond that, you're correct, it's still in court.
So the Voting Rights Act was passed sixty years ago.
Every single time that maps that have been drawn in
Texas since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the
state has been found guilty in courts.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Of violating the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
So one hundred percent of the maps that the state
has ever drawn have been in violation of Rachel Jan
jerrymanderin laws. And so we're still fighting the last where
it looks like a court's about to come back and
rule that they violate.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
In racial cherry majory lolots.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I would love it if you could talk to us
about what the Texas breakdown is because we think of
it as a red state, and that is largely because
you have such low voter engagement.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But talk us.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Through what the state looks like and also just sort
of the percentage. Trump says he won that state by
a lot, but he actually did right.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
So in Texas, we are a majority minority state. White
folks are not even the plurality. Hispanic folks are the
plurality in Texas. So when you think of a Texan,
a lot of people think of me, some guy with
a thick accent, usually wears big hats, a belt buckle,
walks around saying Howdie, partner. That's not the average Texan.
The average Texans is actually a forty year old Latita.
And so the maps have just been drawn by those
(26:48):
white guy caricatures that you're talking about, and they have
drawn them in a way to favor themselves over others.
And Texas also is one of the lowest turnout states
in the country. There are literally county and precincts of
the state of Texas in a presidential year where the
turnout did not go over thirteen percent. And so you're
talking largely about heavily Hispanic communities where let's just call
(27:12):
it what it is, Democrats haven't done a good job
reaching out and doing the work they're supposed to do there.
And if you're not communicating with people and you're not
throwing down for them, they're not going to show up
for yet. And so I got elected as the chairman
back on March twenty ninth, and one of only a
handful of millennials leading the state Party right now, and
I've made a promise that we're throwing down and we're
(27:33):
going to show our base that we're worth showing up
and voting for. Because in this most recent election, one
point one million Democrats that voted in twenty twenty stayed
home in twenty twenty four. It's not like we don't
have the numbers to do it. It's that our base
just doesn't feel the confidence in showing up and voting
for us, or don't feel like we're worth.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It, and we have to That's on us. We need
to do right, make it better.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
One of the things that we spend a lot of
time talking about here is like what breaks through? So
like Harris had all this money but was unable.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
To break through.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Do you think all of these people leaving the state
has broken through? Do you think like I was on
a panel and this more conservative pundit was saying, well,
they have to serve their constituents, But do constituents understand
that them leaving the state is actually serving them?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
So talk us through what it looks like on the ground.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, I mean, I would make an argument that these
Democrats that have broken KR are serving their constituents Gina Hennahosa,
State Representative Hinnahosa out of Austin. She reported that they've
had seven hundred people reach out to her office and
six of them have told her that they want her
to come back, so she's doing the work of her constituents. Also,
(28:51):
they still have their offices operating, and so when they
were served to be removed from office by Greg Abbott,
they were served to their offices because their offices have.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Not been abandoned. They're still doing.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
The constituency services. So I do think it's breaking through.
I've seen some polling that has happened since this has
gone into effect, and a majority of Texans believe that
the state government should be doing the work of the
flood victims and flood mitigation and not drawing political districts.
It's our responsibility as Democrats to make sure they see
who is bringing up these political districts and who's trying
(29:26):
to do the work of the people in the state.
And I think that this is a winning point for us.
I genuinely do, because Texans, really we don't like authority
very much. We have a reputation for that, and I
think that Texans seeing these democrats standing up and finding
back throwing down against folks that are refusing to help Texans.
I think it serves our brand in this state really well,
(29:47):
and we have a lot of brand repairing to do.
Last point I want to make on a quorum break
is that this is constitutionally protected. They rode it in
the state constitution that you could do a quorum break
because they didn't want the minority to ever be you know,
ruled over by a majority in an authoritarian way. Because
again the framers of Texas didn't like the government. And
so it takes two thirds to get a quorum in Texas,
(30:10):
whereas in other states it largely takes fifty percent. And
so if you've got a problem with the quora break,
don't take it up with me. Take it up with
Sam Houston, the father of Texas, because he's the one
who wrote it about me.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
So tell me what you think happens now, because this
special session ends on August nineteenth, tell me what the
play is now.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
I think I can go a couple of different ways.
What Republicans are trying to do is see if they
can get the federal government to come in with the FBI,
start putting legislators in handcuffs of Hollando beyond to Austin.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
They didn't do anything illegal.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They've done nothing illegal. They violated no federal laws. It's ridiculous.
All they can do is probably try to intimidate some legislators.
So what I foresee if I if I were a
pundit making a gamble here, I'd say, they're going to
run out this special session and then Greg Abbott's going
to call another special session, and Democrats at that point
have to make a decision. Are we going to come back?
I can participate in on a special session? Are we
(31:01):
going to stay out? I would say, if it were
up to me, if they're putting redistricting on it, or
say it out. If you want to do the work
of the people at Texas, make that the only thing
on the agenda. It's the only thing that matters right now.
We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the
people of Texas. And so I would say that Democrats
should stay out as long as it takes.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, I mean, how long can this keep going?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
There's some debate about that, and the Secretary of State
isn't giving people definitive answers because they're trying to do
work on behalf of Donald Trump here. I think there's
a pretty solid legal argument that once you get through
filing here, filing for offices, those maps should be set.
But there has been precedents in the past where they
have delayed the primary from happening so that they can
(31:44):
do these redistricting redraws on maps because of court cases.
So I would think that if the Democrats could hold
firm through filing, we should be fine.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
When is filing.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Filing opens in November and closes at the beginning of Discember.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
So pretty soon, pretty soon.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
If you don't have families at home, jobs waiting for
you finds every day. But in the grand scheme of things,
you know, my granddaddy had to fight in the Vietnamese jungle.
His daddy fought on the beaches of Normandy, and I
think it's a very small price to have to pay
for democracy.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
That's how we view it.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Yeah, you don't have to agree with this, but you know,
if I have to sell my house, I'm willing to
do it because I love this country. And we'll find
a way to pay for it and make it happen.
Because this is the fight.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
And people want you to do what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Right, especially people in Texas. I mean, these constituents of
these members are making it very clear that they want
them to do this, and these members are ready to
do it. They signed up for a job that's basically
volunteer already, and so for them to have to be
away from their jobs, they already have arrangements to have
another job because they have to do that with the legislature.
(32:51):
So it puts them kind of in a unique position
to be able to kind of work remotely or whatever
they need to do. So it still becomes a monetary problem.
But I have confidence that, you know, people who love
this country around the country are going to come in
and support and do everything they can to make sure
that we're holding the line.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Here because these five seeds really are I mean, Trump
really wants this to be that he cannot lose the.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
House, right and Republicans already have a twenty six seat
jerrymandering advantage in Congress, right, So the way they're doing
this now, he's just trying to avoid accountability. But it
is not a coincidence that in this redraw, every single
black member of Congress from Texas has either been drawn
out of their district or has been put in a
(33:35):
heavily Republican district that doesn't just happen on accident, and
so you can't even make an argument. But this isn't
a racial gerrymander. It is so blatantly a racial gerrymander.
They're just trying to run it through Republican courts so
that when it's done here, they can take it to
other states and say, look it, they did it in Texas,
you can do it here too, and just get rid
of all minority representation, make Congress wider than it was
(33:58):
pre reconstruction.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
And that's the goal here is some kind of reconstruction.
Tell us what you think about what Newsome did where
he said, you know, we're going to take five if
you take five. I mean, do you think that speaks
to Abbot or do you think that Abbot is so
on the Trump train it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
I don't know that it speaks to Abbot, but I
do think it speaks to the Republican institution as a whole.
Who may say, you know, maybe we won't push this
as hard as we were going to, but I'll say,
maybe this makes me some far lefty.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
I'm not happy because I think that they need to
go harder. I'm sick and tired of Democrats always playing defense.
We put us in a situation where we're holding the ball,
so run with it. And instead they're saying we're going
to respond to Texas. Don't respond to Texas. Draw every
single district you possibly can, because the only way you
get non part of the redistricting committees on a federal
(34:50):
level is to bring Republican lawmakers to heal.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Right, Kendall, such a good point, far lefty Kendall from
I know. One of the things I'm struck by is
in Nebraska's first district, they try to take away that
one vote, that one electoral vote. I just wonder if
there is a real blowback when these Republicans try to
take away representation.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Well, the big blowback is you can't jerrymander the state lines.
And I have a whole litany of statewide races that
are coming up next year in a state that if
you look at a tenure trajectory, Texas is trended in
the right direction. I know we took a step back
in the last election, but we're still trending the right
way and so they can't jerrymander the state lines. But
I do want to make a point here. It's really
(35:37):
easy for us looking at this as just a numbers
game and saying take a seat, leave a seat, whatever
you can do here. This has real repercussions for people's
ability just to use the government when they need it.
So use Austin as an example. In Austin, now they
draw North Austin all the way in with Midland and Odessa,
which is three hours away. So if somebody in North
(35:58):
Austin needs to go get a passport, or if they're
having issues with some of their federal documents, they now
have to go to talk to someone in Midland Odessa
to get help with that. South Austin they have tied
it in with East Texas out almost to Living Step,
which if you're not familiar with Texas, that's closer to
Louisiana and it is Austin. So there's just some real
(36:20):
off repercussions of just regular people trying to get service
from the government. It's not all red and blue. At
some point, it's like what does government look like? And
now you have to drive three hours to see your
congress person if you need help How is that helpful
to anybody?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Their goal is to make it so the government doesn't
work for anyone, that's right, and tax cuts for billionaires.
One of the questions I wanted to ask you is
I have interviewed just a ton of people about Texas,
including James tell Rico, you know, everybody, and it seems
to me is that you guys have this crazy oil
(36:55):
money that is fucking everything up.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
So last year Paxton is.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
A flander, respect man, but his wife, she also serves
in this state house. She wants a divorce. Now there's
all sorts of stuff there. Paxton is also primary in
John Cornyn. The polling seems to say that he has
a pretty good shot. This is all being bankrolled the
Paxton impeachment. Everyone who is going to vote to impeach
(37:25):
and I think there were quite a few talk us
through the Paxston impeachment and where big crazy oil money
comes into play.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Everybody always asks me this when we start talking about Texas,
like what's going on there? Why can't y'all seem to
get it over the edge. Here we have sixty six
billionaires in the state. Okay, largely they're often West Texas,
where there's tons of oil, and they're dumping piles and
piles of money into the state, a state that has
twenty media markets. So not only are we uniquely large,
(37:55):
not only are we uniquely populated, it's uniquely expensive to
peak here because there's so many media markets here to
be able to compete yet, and so when they're dropping
piles of cash, Abbott just dropped a million dollars worth
of ads, like it was method against our members when
they vacated. And it's because of these guys in West
Texas who they're not just rich guys, they're Christian nationalists
(38:17):
who go to churches where women aren't allowed to sit
on the front pews, and like their perception of the
world is one hundred years ago, and they're trying to
get our public schools and our entire public society back
to that. And that's kind of what we're raging and
fighting against. But it's just endless amounts of money and resources.
So when people try to help the state of Texas,
(38:38):
they'll give money to personalities like whoever's at the top.
We have some great candidates, some great talent here, but
what they never resource or our institutions that are here permanently.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
And are here to fight.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
And so as the chair of the Texas Democratic Party,
I try to direct everybody to Texas Democrats dot Org,
where we're actually trying to build this apparatus that can
compete and fight.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
But I mean, there's just ungodly amounts of money here
that we're waging war gets and the fact that we're
making progress it gets all of that is a testament
to how scrappy all our activists on the ground. Dog Kendall,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I would invite you back, but I hope that you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Don't have to come back. Oh maybe you will. Well,
I'd love to come hang out y'all. Are you're just
a who? And thank you so much for having me
on And I appreciate it no more perfectly. Jesse Cannon Welly.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Just earlier we were talking about Senator Mike Lee from Utah,
and over in Utah, there's some fuckery going on with
trans people. I'm real shocked to hear it.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Their own study found the gender firm and care benefits
chance youth. Will they lift the treatment ban, Oh, call
on me, Call on me. No, they won't because they suck.
By the way, can we also talk about the fact
that they want to overturn Overfeld. Yeah, I mean it
is like we are going back to the nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Team. It's Gilded Age all the way down.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Look, these fuckers want to take us back to the past.
We always knew this was what the game plan was,
and here we are, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, I mean, everybody's going to really really enjoy when
that same sex marriage gets made illegal again and see
what they wrought.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
Yeah, that's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune
in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the
best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos.
If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a
friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And welcome to our five hundredth episode, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Can you believe it?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well?
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I could because I keep count Yes, we have such.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
A great Joe for you today to the Contrary Newsletter,
author of Charlie Sykes stops by to talk to us
about how Democrats are dropping the ball opposing Trump. Then
we'll talk to party chair of the Texas Democratic Party,
who you will love and who will make you feel
really good, Kendall Scudder, about how they're fighting back against
(00:39):
Greg Abbott's unconstitutional Jerry Mander.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
But first the news.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
So, Mollie, Donald Trump has to avenge his boy big
balls getting nearly carjucked. Now we have fed's walking the
streets of places in DC that never have Eddye crime
and lots of other dumb things. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So has like federalized DC? You know these are all
these powagraphs.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Trump wants to control democratic cities, He wants to intimidate people.
He wants to be the autocrat he dreams of, and
it is dangerous, it is worrying, it is anti democratic
and by the way, it could have all been prevented
were it not for Jill Manchin and Kirsten Cinema who
(01:24):
said no, no, we cannot allow the district to be
a state. So now the District of Columbia has basically
no one representing them except Donald Trump, who was at
war with them. And this is just such a stupid,
unforced error. We knew this was going to happen. Look,
the problem for MARYO Bowser is that she needs all
(01:46):
the money for the year and DC was not put
together in the way it was supposed to. These electives
are like trying to get Trump to not close their states.
I mean, this is just such a desperate and instane moment.
I don't know that there's any great choices here. I
think the good news is that there's no good news.
(02:07):
The good news is that Trump is wildly unpopular and
people can vote him out.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, just a long way. And we have people like
Benny Johnson who saying we have to buldoze whole neighborhoods
of DC and things like this, and his biggest sick
events are just going to keep cheering.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, it's really scary and bad.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Speaking of bad, disturbing, just telling on yourself. Jislen Maxwell
is going to get work release from prison.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, so here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Gilaine Maxwell, sex trafficker, should be in a real prison,
has been moved to a prison camp, is now getting
work release. I'm sorry, but this all happened after Todd
Blanche met with her. I cannot think of more of
a telling on yourself than this, And.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
We should remind the people that Todd Blanche is Pam
Bondi's right hand man, who too, yeah, may even have
more scary, scary, stickophantic tendencies than her.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So we don't know what happened in that meeting, but
we do know that now Golaine is in a better prison,
and now Golaine is in a better situation. And maybe
it's just a coincidence that all of this happened after
she met Todd Blanche.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I mean, certainly possible, but.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It's unlikely because the truth is, none of this is
a coincidence and it's just absolutely really fucking bullshit.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I don't know, Molly, it does seem like a coincidence
that right after he met with her, all these leaks
of things like birthday books, and things like that just
seemed to stop.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That seems like a coincidence to me. Yeah, sure, exactly,
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So I don't know if you heard the horrible news,
but I imagine you did because you're pretending you're not
as online as he used to be. But I know otherwise,
shooting at the CDC by a crazy conspiracy theorist. They
shut up a bunch of windows, and RFK Jr, who's,
you know, the top dog over there. He seemed to
really really just reinforce those bad ideas that get put
(04:15):
into psychopath sets.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, this guy comes into the CDC and says that
the COVID vaccine is making him sick, and he shoots
up the building and people are scared, and they're like,
we are working for a guy who is spreading lies
about what we do, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And that is how we got here. Look.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
RFK Junior has said he wasn't going to do things,
and what he's gone on to do is just, at
every point the worst possible anti vax stuff. Right. He's
lied about vaccines, he's lied about their efficacy, He's done
all of the things that he said he wouldn't do.
And Congress just let him do it. So RFK criticizes
(05:02):
the agency's pandemic response. So basically, people have been doing
bad stuff to the CDC and the people who are
working in it, and instead of protecting the people are
working for him, RFK is basically encouraging them. And this
is such a dereliction of duty and so deeply disgusting. Again,
(05:23):
this is like so many of the things we see
right now, shocking but not surprising.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Speaking of shocking and not surprising, thing, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
By the way, I'm really excited about this next door.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
You know that. I'm like, so he said it just
a short year ago.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
When we were making our documentary on what was the
COmON Project twenty twenty five, I think you and I
would often discuss to let the viewers see behind the curtain.
Is one thing that will lead to the Republican's electoral
route is banning pornography. But don't worry, Senator Mike Lee
is here.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know what's so funny is like, I remember when
we were doing that is that documentary and you were
like banning pornography and I was like no, and You're.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Like yeah, you literally were like I don't believe this
isn't it up like page eight sixty four.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I was like, there's no way they'd banned pornography.
Why that's wildly unpopular. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Not just Marjorie Taylor Greening anymore. It's Mike Lee too.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Mike Lee wants to ban pornography. The law would alter
the Miller test, which.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Was established in nineteen seventy three Miller versus California decision
to determine obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Oh yes, The test defines obscenity as material that appeals
to perient interests judged by the average person, depicting sexual conduct. Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I am very excited for them to ban pornography. That
is going to be great.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know, I'm so pleased that the podcast bros voted
for this guy, because those guys don't like pornography at all.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Oh yeah, they never have porn stars never never never.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, no, they don't. I don't think they believe in it.
So a good job, guys.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Congratulations, You guys will love in America without pornography.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yes, good luck, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Charlie Sykes is the author of the newsletter to the
Contrary and the book How the Right Lost Its.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Mind Welcome to Fast Politics. You'd be as cranky as
you like, Charlie Sykes. You don't want to see that,
you really don't. I love a cranky Charlie Sykes. I'll
take it, man.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so Charlie Sikes talk to me.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It feels like things are not going well. No, things
aren't going well. And part of the problem is what
do we focus on here? Do we focus on the
police state? The mass roots squads? WO focused on Trump's
war on statistical reality? The fact that Donald Trump, the
man who's never read a book on history, is going
to review the Smithsonian Museums. All this displays to make
(07:58):
sure that you know they have his view of Americanism.
I mean, and I'm leaving stuffed found. You know, the
attacks on science, on public health, on the rule of law.
I don't know. You know, how's your day going? I mean,
I think the statistics stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I think we should talk about the Bureau of Labor
statistics because the Wall Street the wocos over at the
Wall Street Journal said, don't make America Argentina up, Please
don't hire a sycophan and what did Donald Trump do?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Oh? He would He went way beyond Sicka Fan. I
mean he hired this Maga chowed from from the Heritage Foundation,
who's economic credentials are, shall we say, a little bit
thin on the ground, and you know, raise the possibility
they won't even be issuing the job statistics anymore. So
whatever your worst case scenario is, I think Trump's shot
(08:48):
past it. And you know what, I'm gonna write my
newsletter about this, and I think my opening line is
going to be the Senate's going to confirm this Chowede,
aren't they. I mean, the Senate's going to go ahead.
They're they're ribbing their hands and Tom Tillison, I don't
know who else is going to fall in line, and
then no vote to confirm him. This is your bls.
This is your bls. Not stupid. It's woke Mass is
(09:08):
it woke Math? I don't know We're going to unwoke everything.
So you know, I said to you, I was a
little bit cranky. You know. Part of it is is
this this problem of prioritizing what you focus on. I
was on a brief program earlier today and they were
talking about the the d n C apparently has plans
to stage rallies all around the country about Jerrymanderprain, which
is fine. I mean, I want to make it very
(09:29):
very clear. I think that Democrats cannot unilaterally disarm. I
think they need to fight fire with fire. However, of
all the issues to choose to have public rallies about,
I don't know. There seems to be a lot of
other things. You know, how about you know, ice arresting
kids outside of schools. You know, how about the troops
on the streets of American cities. You know, how about
what we're talking about with these jobs numbers, how about
the old one vaccines. Look, jerry mandering is a is
(09:53):
a huge issue. But what are people going to do
a whole signs of saying stop the jurymander when we're
about to do counter jerrymandering. I mean, look, you gotta
do what you have to do. But if Democrats are
having rallies, there's a lot of other stuff that should
be having rallies. Why are people not on the streets
about these other things? Yeah, I mean, I don't think
that's wrong. Time is running short, and I think part
(10:14):
of the problem is there's so much stuff that's going
on here. You know, it's sort of easy to sort
of just set your hair on fire and to lose
some perspective. Look, I mean, Trump is deeply unpopular, But
have you seen the numbers for the Democrats lately?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I know.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And this is why I'm cranky, Molly. This is why
I'm a little bit cranky. Is every time you raise
the question why are the Democrats numbers so low? What
do they need to do to improve their image to
the public, we get this massive sort of bubble reaction.
Stop talking about Democrats. We can't talk about democrats, can't
(10:49):
engage in any sort of introspection. Look, folks, if it's
all on the table, we ought to act like. In fact,
it's all on the table. I agree.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I also think that it's we're thinking about, for example,
like what is getting people voters excited?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Like Mandani is getting voters excited.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You may not like it, but he's getting those ones
and twos out there. And I think the question is like,
who are the people who are speaking a voter?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Well, okay, so there are a lot of bright shiny objects. Look, yeah,
mendummi is speaking to voters in New York City. Showed
me one swing congressional district anywhere in the country where
the bright shiny objects could be elected. And I think
this is part of the problem. There are a lot
of really solid Democrats out there who are winning in
purple areas, and yet my guess is that most people
(11:37):
don't know their names. Why are we not talking about,
you know, Abigail Spenberg, or why are we not talking
about the people who've actually won these elections in places
where there are a lot of Trump voters. Instead, there
is this obsession with going with the brighton shiny objects,
who again are doing maybe valuable things, but could not
be elected outside of these very very narrow little confines here.
(12:00):
I see what you're saying. What do you think is
the play for Democrats? Look, I don't give them an advice,
and they don't want advice from me. But I think
the play is how about win elections? How about win elections?
How about do things that are popular? How about figuring
out how to get a majority instead of you scratching
your ideological id. Now for all the people going, well,
(12:20):
you know, shut up about that. No, seriously, the existential
crisis is right on us. In the twenty twenty sixth election,
you know, either Democrats will have a controlling majority or
they will not. So the question is what do they
need to do to win those swing districts and there's
only a handful of them now. I do think I
understand the logic. I think that Democrats need to be
(12:42):
aggressive tit for tat on the redistricting. I mean, this
is crucial. But on the other but also, you know,
let's pay more attention to the people in fact who
won elections in these swing states, so in swing districts,
as opposed to folks that have eighty seven percent Democratic
districts who have like big tech talk followers. I mean, again,
(13:03):
I understand that that can excite people and get people's interests.
But the problem is, and you've seen this in the past.
I know you've lived through this. You know, there's a
problem with the bright shiny objects. They suck up a
lot of money, They divert a lot of money into
unwinnable races or racists that are not competitive. They tend
to dominate the attention in the attention economy, and more importantly,
(13:25):
they tend to then become the face of Democrats, you know,
perhaps misleadingly, but the identity of the party. And the
problem is, I mean, trust me, you're not going to
get a Democratic Socialist of America elected in Michigan or
Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or any of these states that in
fact will determine the future of American politics. Now, New
(13:46):
York City is New York City. What happens in New
York City stays in New York. But don't confuse the
fact that he's a good politician who is charismatic with
an agenda that I have to tell you is basically
a trumpest wet dream to go around the country and say,
look who these Democrats are. No, no, no, the Democrats.
The Democrats who are winning elections are not you know,
(14:08):
are not DSA members.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Trust me, So the affordabilitating argument, those seems like a good.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Wine, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yes, absolutely, And that Spamburger's running on that too.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, and inflation tipped up two aur percent to die right.
One of the mistakes I think a lot of folks
made was to make fun of people who thought that
inflation was a big issue before twenty twenty four, and
a lot of pieces people were talking about you know,
you must be igorant or you haven't seen this chart.
The lived reality for most Americans is that inflation matters
(14:40):
a lot. So, yes, affordability is important. Now does that
mean that you want government run grocery stores? Does that
mean that you want price controls? No, not necessarily right.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I do think when we talk about affordability, though Trump
did say he was going to make things cheap.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Of us, this is what they Democrats need to talk about.
Need to talk about this over and over again, and
they need to turn the tables on Trump, who is
imposing massive taxes on middle class taxpayers. Tariffs are sales taxes.
Sales taxes are by definition regressive, and they're deeply unpopular.
(15:17):
And the polls would suggest that people are getting this
right now. So Democrats need to hammer away on that.
They need to hammer away on the police state, they
need to hammer away on all of this stuff. But affordability,
turn that around, because this was the issue that Donald
Trump wrote Road to Victory on. And I have to
(15:37):
tell you, just go ask somebody who's been at a
grocery store lately whether or our prices have come down.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Trump is mapped at the Goldman Sacks numbers. And again,
this goes back to your idea that democrats made a
huge mistake, and I think they did by saying that
inflation wasn't real when people were feeling it was real.
And this is what Trump is doing though, right where
he's saying those Goldman Sacks numbers are real, y'all when.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Voters are going to feel them firsthand. I mean, I
don't know how you've covered for that. Okay. So this
is a really great point here because there's two things
going on here. Number One, unurse how Donald Trump has
erased the difference between government and the private sector that
he is now dictating to private companies who they should
hire and what they should say. Socialism, right, well, this
is like state capitalism. This is like this is what
(16:23):
if Democrats were doing anything like this, this would be
called socialism. And so for voters who actually kind of
do believe in free markets, you have two things going on.
Number One, he's afraid of the facts. He's afraid of
the statistics. He's covering these up like he's covering up
the Epstein files. I mean, you can you actually can
link these things together. The truth is that Donald Trump
(16:43):
does not want you to know, but going after Goldman
Sachs because of what their economist is saying, Now, if
he's going to go after every economist that says that,
you know, tariffs, their tax isn't bad for the economy,
he's going to have to, you know, push for the
firing of a lot of economists. In fact, he's going
to have to like fire all of the economists, not
just Goldmanzac. But it's going to be interesting to see
(17:05):
whether Goldman Sacks caves in or tells him to go
pound sand.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Say, Goldman Sacks fires it's economists because they don't like
the numbers. It's like with the law firms that caved
for Trump. You don't want those lawyers.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You don't want to be at a bank that doesn't
have good numbers.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
No, you don't. And see, this is the thing is
that in the markets and in the world of Goldman Sacks,
there are reality checks. I mean, there's a lot of
other things that go on. I mean, let's not be
naive about it, but there are reality checks. And if
you're an investor and you want to know what is
the inflation rate, what is the jobless rate, where's the
economy going? You want to have numbers that at least
you can trust. Right, you may not care about the
(17:45):
other guy having reliable numbers, but you want your numbers
to be reliable. And if Goldman Sachs surrenders on this,
basically they're saying, hey, by the way, pay no attention
to what we say about any of these things going forward.
That's bad for business. Yeah, it's bad for everyone. Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It's also this idea that there's this sort of unreality
that Trump can inhabit and the rest of us will
somehow be you know, like there's like inflation is going
to be inflation. I mean this article on the Wall
Street Journal about Argentina talked about that just because they
said the inflation rate was four percent and it was
really twenty five percent.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Ers, Like, you can't fake something like that. It just
exists right, By the way, this is something that's relatively
easy to explain. It's like firing the weather man, you know,
in the middle of a tornado because you don't want
people to know, you know, what's happening or how much
damage has been caused. And yet Donald Trump is doing
that across the board. I mean, they're firing the experts
in public health, they're firing the experts in jobs numbers,
(18:44):
They're finding the experts and I mean, you just name
the field, and so at a certain point people are
going to go, okay, and we trust you know, who
can we trust here? So if Democrats cannot find a
way to point out that, you know what a fraud.
Trump's populist appeal was that he is a president of
the elites for the elites, and that he's covering for
(19:06):
the elites in things like the Epstein story, but that
he's also covering up information that affects people's lives. Now,
by the way, you know, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
not only comes out with these reports on jobs numbers,
they determine what the inflation numbers are for social security,
cost of living increases, and there are real world consequences,
(19:27):
and you cannot mess with some of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I mean, it just strikes me that it's completely crazy.
So let's talk for a minute about we have this
DC federal whatever police state thing. What do you make
of this besides the fact that it's obviously quite bad
and not at all good.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, there are two things. You know, some all have
an unpopular opinion coming in a moment, But I think
that people ought to have no illusions about the fact
that this is a test run for what he might
do in cities all across America. And this is one
of Donald Trump's wet dreams is to have American soldiers
on the streets of cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago,
(20:10):
and New York. So this is I think the beginning
of something that's going to be much bigger. Given the
fact that we're also going to have ten thousand more
Ice agents, where are they going to go and what
are they going to do? So that's number one, it's
very very dangerous. And I think I said this yesterday
on MSNBC. Yes, this is a distraction from the Epstein files,
but sometimes the distraction can be substanti in and what's
(20:32):
happening right now, you know, has broken the glass in
a lot of ways. Now, the question is is he
going to normalize this? Are Americans going to accept a
police state in the nation's capital. Will they accept a
police state in New York and Baltimore, Chicago and Los
Angeles as well, Because then we've crossed into really uncharted territory,
at least in our lifetime. The second point is that
(20:53):
obviously he's done this based on this bogus again, using
bullshit numbers of crime. You know, crime was upcrime is
a problem in DC, but it is down sharply. So
his rationale for doing this is based on false numbers.
But having said that, one of the traps that Democrats
need not to fall into is don't pretend crime in
(21:15):
public safety are not a real issue. Don't make the
same mistake. Don't say that it's a non existent crisis.
Say look, we also want to fight crime, we also
want public safety, but this is not the way to
do it. This is not the way by bringing armed soldiers,
you know, into your community. Let's figure out a way
to solve this. So again, there that has to be
(21:37):
the balance. Acknowledge the problem exists, make a credible case
that you can also solve these problems in ways that
do not crush and trample the constitution. Because the complete
denial issue is not going to work on crime anymore
than to work on inflation. So that's my cautionary note,
and perhaps the unpopular opinion that you know, crime in Washington,
(21:58):
DC is a problem, is a problem. They're getting a
handle on it, but let's not pretend it does not exist. Right,
that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Charlie Sikes will you come back sometime soon, any time.
Kendall Scudder is the chair of the Democratic Party of Texas.
Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Kendall. Hey, I'm just tickled to be here. Thanks for
having me on. We're delighted to have you.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So explain to us what you do, what your Texas
job is.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Tell us your job, Well, my volunteer job.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
By the way, right, the whole State Assembly is volunteer, right, So.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
The state Assembly, they get paid about six hundred bucks
a month. And I'm the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party,
so I'm the only statewide elected Democrat in Texas, and
I have zero Republican constituents, and I am not a
part of the legislature, but I am one hundred percent volunteer.
So my job is to run kind of the party
(22:56):
strategy of how the state Texas Democratic Party functions and
it's elections, and then also to work with our legislators
and try to get good stuff done for people in
really tough situations that were presented with here to.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Say, can you explain how often you meet and what
it looks like and what is happening right now?
Speaker 5 (23:14):
To understand what's happening, you have to understand how Texas
was founded. It was founded by a bunch of people
that hated the government, and they wrote our constitution and
everything to try to limit the ability of the government
to function. They wanted there to be near unanimous decisions
in order for things to get done, and it's why
Democrats in Texas have had so much success at blocking things.
(23:35):
So as a result, our legislature only meets for six
months every two years, so they meet from January to
the end of May, so Bob, but it's about Sometimes
it goes into Jude for about five months and so
they just finished that. They do it in odd years,
and then the governor has the ability to call special sessions,
and those special sessions are not allowed to go longer
(23:57):
than thirty days. So if you hit thirty days, it's
over and they have to call a new special session.
Everything that you worked on in the first session is
debt and you have to start a back over from scratch.
And so what we're seeing right now is that the
Democrats are utilizing a tool that's also written in our
constitution of a quorum break.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Wait just stop for one second, I want you to
So Abbott calls a special session Governor Abbott calls a
special session. He says it's going to be about flood relief,
but you show up and it turns out, so tuck
us through that.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
On July fourth, there was a gigantic flood in Texas,
killed one hundred and thirty seven people, predominantly children. Who
was a terrible situation. And so they called a special
session to address flood reliefs. And the governor has the
sole ability to put what we do in those special
sessions on the dockin, and so showing up, thinking we're
doing flood relief, he adds drawing political districts, redrawing our
(24:53):
maps to this special session. So Democrats participate in this
special session for two weeks. But in that two week period,
there has been one hearing on flood relief and eight
on redrawing political districts. And in that redrawing, it would
mean that it would take a black Texan five votes
to equate the vote of one white Texan. It would
(25:15):
take a Hispanic Texan three votes to equate the voting
power of one white Texan.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And so we're not going to participate in it, and
we left.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And also, more importantly, the first map, the twenty twenty
one map is in court because it is.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Such a bad map for diversity. Is that right?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Well, even beyond that, you're correct, it's still in court.
So the Voting Rights Act was passed sixty years ago.
Every single time that maps that have been drawn in
Texas since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the
state has been found guilty in courts.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Of violating the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
So one hundred percent of the maps that the state
has ever drawn have been in violation of Rachel Jan
jerrymanderin laws. And so we're still fighting the last where
it looks like a court's about to come back and
rule that they violate.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
In racial cherry majory lolots.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I would love it if you could talk to us
about what the Texas breakdown is because we think of
it as a red state, and that is largely because
you have such low voter engagement.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But talk us.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Through what the state looks like and also just sort
of the percentage. Trump says he won that state by
a lot, but he actually did right.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
So in Texas, we are a majority minority state. White
folks are not even the plurality. Hispanic folks are the
plurality in Texas. So when you think of a Texan,
a lot of people think of me, some guy with
a thick accent, usually wears big hats, a belt buckle,
walks around saying Howdie, partner. That's not the average Texan.
The average Texans is actually a forty year old Latita.
And so the maps have just been drawn by those
(26:48):
white guy caricatures that you're talking about, and they have
drawn them in a way to favor themselves over others.
And Texas also is one of the lowest turnout states
in the country. There are literally county and precincts of
the state of Texas in a presidential year where the
turnout did not go over thirteen percent. And so you're
talking largely about heavily Hispanic communities where let's just call
(27:12):
it what it is, Democrats haven't done a good job
reaching out and doing the work they're supposed to do there.
And if you're not communicating with people and you're not
throwing down for them, they're not going to show up
for yet. And so I got elected as the chairman
back on March twenty ninth, and one of only a
handful of millennials leading the state Party right now, and
I've made a promise that we're throwing down and we're
(27:33):
going to show our base that we're worth showing up
and voting for. Because in this most recent election, one
point one million Democrats that voted in twenty twenty stayed
home in twenty twenty four. It's not like we don't
have the numbers to do it. It's that our base
just doesn't feel the confidence in showing up and voting
for us, or don't feel like we're worth.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It, and we have to That's on us. We need
to do right, make it better.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
One of the things that we spend a lot of
time talking about here is like what breaks through? So
like Harris had all this money but was unable.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
To break through.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Do you think all of these people leaving the state
has broken through? Do you think like I was on
a panel and this more conservative pundit was saying, well,
they have to serve their constituents, But do constituents understand
that them leaving the state is actually serving them?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
So talk us through what it looks like on the ground.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, I mean, I would make an argument that these
Democrats that have broken KR are serving their constituents Gina Hennahosa,
State Representative Hinnahosa out of Austin. She reported that they've
had seven hundred people reach out to her office and
six of them have told her that they want her
to come back, so she's doing the work of her constituents. Also,
(28:51):
they still have their offices operating, and so when they
were served to be removed from office by Greg Abbott,
they were served to their offices because their offices have.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Not been abandoned. They're still doing.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
The constituency services. So I do think it's breaking through.
I've seen some polling that has happened since this has
gone into effect, and a majority of Texans believe that
the state government should be doing the work of the
flood victims and flood mitigation and not drawing political districts.
It's our responsibility as Democrats to make sure they see
who is bringing up these political districts and who's trying
(29:26):
to do the work of the people in the state.
And I think that this is a winning point for us.
I genuinely do, because Texans, really we don't like authority
very much. We have a reputation for that, and I
think that Texans seeing these democrats standing up and finding
back throwing down against folks that are refusing to help Texans.
I think it serves our brand in this state really well,
(29:47):
and we have a lot of brand repairing to do.
Last point I want to make on a quorum break
is that this is constitutionally protected. They rode it in
the state constitution that you could do a quorum break
because they didn't want the minority to ever be you know,
ruled over by a majority in an authoritarian way. Because
again the framers of Texas didn't like the government. And
so it takes two thirds to get a quorum in Texas,
(30:10):
whereas in other states it largely takes fifty percent. And
so if you've got a problem with the quora break,
don't take it up with me. Take it up with
Sam Houston, the father of Texas, because he's the one
who wrote it about me.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
So tell me what you think happens now, because this
special session ends on August nineteenth, tell me what the
play is now.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
I think I can go a couple of different ways.
What Republicans are trying to do is see if they
can get the federal government to come in with the FBI,
start putting legislators in handcuffs of Hollando beyond to Austin.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
They didn't do anything illegal.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They've done nothing illegal. They violated no federal laws. It's ridiculous.
All they can do is probably try to intimidate some legislators.
So what I foresee if I if I were a
pundit making a gamble here, I'd say, they're going to
run out this special session and then Greg Abbott's going
to call another special session, and Democrats at that point
have to make a decision. Are we going to come back?
I can participate in on a special session? Are we
(31:01):
going to stay out? I would say, if it were
up to me, if they're putting redistricting on it, or
say it out. If you want to do the work
of the people at Texas, make that the only thing
on the agenda. It's the only thing that matters right now.
We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the
people of Texas. And so I would say that Democrats
should stay out as long as it takes.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, I mean, how long can this keep going?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
There's some debate about that, and the Secretary of State
isn't giving people definitive answers because they're trying to do
work on behalf of Donald Trump here. I think there's
a pretty solid legal argument that once you get through
filing here, filing for offices, those maps should be set.
But there has been precedents in the past where they
have delayed the primary from happening so that they can
(31:44):
do these redistricting redraws on maps because of court cases.
So I would think that if the Democrats could hold
firm through filing, we should be fine.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
When is filing.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Filing opens in November and closes at the beginning of Discember.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
So pretty soon, pretty soon.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
If you don't have families at home, jobs waiting for
you finds every day. But in the grand scheme of things,
you know, my granddaddy had to fight in the Vietnamese jungle.
His daddy fought on the beaches of Normandy, and I
think it's a very small price to have to pay
for democracy.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
That's how we view it.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Yeah, you don't have to agree with this, but you know,
if I have to sell my house, I'm willing to
do it because I love this country. And we'll find
a way to pay for it and make it happen.
Because this is the fight.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
And people want you to do what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Right, especially people in Texas. I mean, these constituents of
these members are making it very clear that they want
them to do this, and these members are ready to
do it. They signed up for a job that's basically
volunteer already, and so for them to have to be
away from their jobs, they already have arrangements to have
another job because they have to do that with the legislature.
(32:51):
So it puts them kind of in a unique position
to be able to kind of work remotely or whatever
they need to do. So it still becomes a monetary problem.
But I have confidence that, you know, people who love
this country around the country are going to come in
and support and do everything they can to make sure
that we're holding the line.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Here because these five seeds really are I mean, Trump
really wants this to be that he cannot lose the.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
House, right and Republicans already have a twenty six seat
jerrymandering advantage in Congress, right, So the way they're doing
this now, he's just trying to avoid accountability. But it
is not a coincidence that in this redraw, every single
black member of Congress from Texas has either been drawn
out of their district or has been put in a
(33:35):
heavily Republican district that doesn't just happen on accident, and
so you can't even make an argument. But this isn't
a racial gerrymander. It is so blatantly a racial gerrymander.
They're just trying to run it through Republican courts so
that when it's done here, they can take it to
other states and say, look it, they did it in Texas,
you can do it here too, and just get rid
of all minority representation, make Congress wider than it was
(33:58):
pre reconstruction.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
And that's the goal here is some kind of reconstruction.
Tell us what you think about what Newsome did where
he said, you know, we're going to take five if
you take five. I mean, do you think that speaks
to Abbot or do you think that Abbot is so
on the Trump train it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
I don't know that it speaks to Abbot, but I
do think it speaks to the Republican institution as a whole.
Who may say, you know, maybe we won't push this
as hard as we were going to, but I'll say,
maybe this makes me some far lefty.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
I'm not happy because I think that they need to
go harder. I'm sick and tired of Democrats always playing defense.
We put us in a situation where we're holding the ball,
so run with it. And instead they're saying we're going
to respond to Texas. Don't respond to Texas. Draw every
single district you possibly can, because the only way you
get non part of the redistricting committees on a federal
(34:50):
level is to bring Republican lawmakers to heal.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Right, Kendall, such a good point, far lefty Kendall from
I know. One of the things I'm struck by is
in Nebraska's first district, they try to take away that
one vote, that one electoral vote. I just wonder if
there is a real blowback when these Republicans try to
take away representation.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Well, the big blowback is you can't jerrymander the state lines.
And I have a whole litany of statewide races that
are coming up next year in a state that if
you look at a tenure trajectory, Texas is trended in
the right direction. I know we took a step back
in the last election, but we're still trending the right
way and so they can't jerrymander the state lines. But
I do want to make a point here. It's really
(35:37):
easy for us looking at this as just a numbers
game and saying take a seat, leave a seat, whatever
you can do here. This has real repercussions for people's
ability just to use the government when they need it.
So use Austin as an example. In Austin, now they
draw North Austin all the way in with Midland and Odessa,
which is three hours away. So if somebody in North
(35:58):
Austin needs to go get a passport, or if they're
having issues with some of their federal documents, they now
have to go to talk to someone in Midland Odessa
to get help with that. South Austin they have tied
it in with East Texas out almost to Living Step,
which if you're not familiar with Texas, that's closer to
Louisiana and it is Austin. So there's just some real
(36:20):
off repercussions of just regular people trying to get service
from the government. It's not all red and blue. At
some point, it's like what does government look like? And
now you have to drive three hours to see your
congress person if you need help How is that helpful
to anybody?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Their goal is to make it so the government doesn't
work for anyone, that's right, and tax cuts for billionaires.
One of the questions I wanted to ask you is
I have interviewed just a ton of people about Texas,
including James tell Rico, you know, everybody, and it seems
to me is that you guys have this crazy oil
(36:55):
money that is fucking everything up.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
So last year Paxton is.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
A flander, respect man, but his wife, she also serves
in this state house. She wants a divorce. Now there's
all sorts of stuff there. Paxton is also primary in
John Cornyn. The polling seems to say that he has
a pretty good shot. This is all being bankrolled the
Paxton impeachment. Everyone who is going to vote to impeach
(37:25):
and I think there were quite a few talk us
through the Paxston impeachment and where big crazy oil money
comes into play.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Everybody always asks me this when we start talking about Texas,
like what's going on there? Why can't y'all seem to
get it over the edge. Here we have sixty six
billionaires in the state. Okay, largely they're often West Texas,
where there's tons of oil, and they're dumping piles and
piles of money into the state, a state that has
twenty media markets. So not only are we uniquely large,
(37:55):
not only are we uniquely populated, it's uniquely expensive to
peak here because there's so many media markets here to
be able to compete yet, and so when they're dropping
piles of cash, Abbott just dropped a million dollars worth
of ads, like it was method against our members when
they vacated. And it's because of these guys in West
Texas who they're not just rich guys, they're Christian nationalists
(38:17):
who go to churches where women aren't allowed to sit
on the front pews, and like their perception of the
world is one hundred years ago, and they're trying to
get our public schools and our entire public society back
to that. And that's kind of what we're raging and
fighting against. But it's just endless amounts of money and resources.
So when people try to help the state of Texas,
(38:38):
they'll give money to personalities like whoever's at the top.
We have some great candidates, some great talent here, but
what they never resource or our institutions that are here permanently.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
And are here to fight.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
And so as the chair of the Texas Democratic Party,
I try to direct everybody to Texas Democrats dot Org,
where we're actually trying to build this apparatus that can
compete and fight.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
But I mean, there's just ungodly amounts of money here
that we're waging war gets and the fact that we're
making progress it gets all of that is a testament
to how scrappy all our activists on the ground. Dog Kendall,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I would invite you back, but I hope that you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Don't have to come back. Oh maybe you will. Well,
I'd love to come hang out y'all. Are you're just
a who? And thank you so much for having me
on And I appreciate it no more perfectly. Jesse Cannon Welly.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Just earlier we were talking about Senator Mike Lee from Utah,
and over in Utah, there's some fuckery going on with
trans people. I'm real shocked to hear it.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Their own study found the gender firm and care benefits
chance youth. Will they lift the treatment ban, Oh, call
on me, Call on me. No, they won't because they suck.
By the way, can we also talk about the fact
that they want to overturn Overfeld. Yeah, I mean it
is like we are going back to the nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Team. It's Gilded Age all the way down.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Look, these fuckers want to take us back to the past.
We always knew this was what the game plan was,
and here we are, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, I mean, everybody's going to really really enjoy when
that same sex marriage gets made illegal again and see
what they wrought.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
Yeah, that's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune
in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the
best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos.
If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a
friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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