Boosting Voter Turnout in Cuyahoga County

The Rabbi, Uni, David Brock, and Juanita Brent discuss voter turnout and civic engagement in Cuyahoga County. They highlight threats to democracy, challenges from redistricting, and barriers like racism and sexism. The group stresses the importance of community involvement, representation, and policy changes to make voting easier. They encourage local engagement through precinct organizing and democratic clubs, emphasizing collective action to protect and strengthen democracy.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Everything must change. On w O b U ninety five
point nine f M. This is the Rapi along with
the Black Unicorn, bringing you today's episode. Or Uni, how
in the world are you sitting over there with my breakfast?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm okay, I'm hungry.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I feel like we're both being taunted right now.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Less over here, but I'm blessed by best and I
cannot ever forget it.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
I'm cool. How about you?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm good. I'm good. Uni. I'm sitting here.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Anticipating this afternoon show. Normally, people, we bring you on
black Thought, black History, we go back into our history
and we do some things that are current. And today
we're changing up as a little bit. We have with
us some special guests. We have the chair of the

(00:57):
Kyahoga County Democratic Party and the vice chair of the
Cayhoka County Democratic Party with us, and we're going to
talk about one one of the things is getting out
of the out the vote UH. Another is you know
the state of UH, Cayhoga County, ah and and and

(01:17):
the political arena. But I wanna start. I'll start this
boat of out union with Jason Stanley erasing history MM
and and on the fly of UH of of a
of the book, He says, the human race finds itself
again under the threat of a rising global fascist movement.

(01:39):
In the United States, democracy is under attack by an
authoritarian movement that has found fertile ground among the country's
conservative political voters. But similar movements have found homes in
the hearts and minds of people all across the globe.
To understand the shape, form, and state of this so

(02:00):
we must go back to extracts lessons from our past,
and we know we have. When we look at history,
we will understand that in many instances, the reality of
how and we're living and the political arena that we
find ourselves in has been fostered, if you will, by

(02:26):
the emasculation of the of the male of the culture.
And maybe we might get to taking a look at that.
But first of all, I want our two guests to
first of all introduce themselves to our listening audience, and
then we'll begin our dialogue. Mister Brock, you're here with

(02:48):
us as the chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Introduce yourself to our listeners.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
Thank you, Reverend. This is as you said. David Brock,
Cleveland Ward sixteen resident and I've been chaired for a
little over three years with your other guests.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
The state representative and a vice chair of the Cuyahoga
County Democratic Party.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
And candidate for Cleveland City Council War one. This is
Wannita O Brant, resident of War one and executive vice
chair of the Democratic Party. I'm wearing a lot of.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Hats, all right, that's wonderful, bro Brock.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I'll share with us, how can we, course enhans encourage
are the registered voters in this county to participate in
the voting process.

Speaker 5 (03:42):
Well, that's a great that's obviously the million dollar question.
And if I'll take any of those, course, encourage whatever
it takes. But I think you're seeing a little bit
of this in urban areas really all over the country.
Saint Louis, Indianapolis, other places, particularly where you no longer

(04:02):
have presidential level investment. Right. We know the Harris campaign
spent almost nothing in Cleveland or Ohio last year, whereas
places like Philadelphia and Detroit are getting a great more focus. However,
I think you know one of the things that we're
doing is last year we targeted particularly to Cleveland Awards,

(04:24):
and one of those was Ward nine, the Conwell's ward,
and that was one of only two wards where Kamala
did better than Biden. So we feel that some of
what we were doing over there worked. We're focusing on four
wards right now that's going to continue on. There's obviously
many layers to this, like you were alluding to. There

(04:45):
is the national layer, which affects things like what you
even discussed, the emasculation of the mail and Cleveland dot
Com their editor their editor. Last we talked about how
it's the county party doing anything is fruitless, foolish. I
think he even said because Democrats need charismatic candidates like

(05:07):
Barack Obama. No, I think that's patently absurd, because otherwise,
why would would just sit around every forty years for
people like Roosevelt or Kennedy or Obama. But I think
we need to get all of our electeds more engaged.
We have to do things like encourage vote by mail
applications in every public building throughout this entire county, because
we know that when Democrats vote by mail that works

(05:31):
well in terms of turnout as well as for our candidates.
We need to do things like reprint and I have
talked about which is look into RTA granting free rides
to the polls on election days. We need to just
get all of our electeds to better understand that this
is a crisis, particularly in the city of Cleveland when

(05:51):
it comes to voter turnout. I know you've talked about
things being public health crises in the past. Racism is
certainly one of them, and I think it's true of voting,
and I think that's something we need to encourage. We
can't necessarily go in all the public schools and say
this is what you need to be teaching hence forth.
But I think that we can continue to reach out
by encouraging our electeds to be far more involved really

(06:12):
than they are representive.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Same question.

Speaker 6 (06:18):
So it has to be an investment from the government
level of how we make sure elections matter. And as
much as people like to run for office, you have
to make investments year round. And it has to be
in a sense of what the chairman said of making
sure that people have rights to the polland locations free
through the RTA, making sure that it feels like a
holiday every day, and letting people know like, hey, this

(06:39):
election is coming up soon upon us. We need to
make some efforts to let people know and remind themselves
because right now people are just are struggling to really
exist and I'm struggling to exist here as Clevelanders, as
people in Kaga Counties, people in Ohio, and voting should
not feel difficult, and that's why it feels it's very difficult.

(07:00):
So it has nothing to do with the candidate. You
can add the best person out there. We've seen a
lot of charismatic candidates. Shout out to Phil Robinson, who's
out there, who's the assistant minority leader for at Ohio House.
But we've had a lot of hero charismatic candidates has
been out there. But we have to make investments from
our government to get people out to vote too.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
And I think, actually Reverend to add to that, I
think reprint is right. I think civic Cleveland needs to
be more involved. That includes media, that includes nonprofit, that
includes corporations. I think a lot of those entities do
great work. However, they sort of do something then pat
themselves on the back and go about their way and say, well,

(07:41):
that's the party's fault. And it's also important to remember
probably twenty five or thirty percent of all Clevelanders are
not Democrats. Or Republicans. So but right, so it's also
something that it can't fall just on a political party
or just on myself and Reprint and the four party officers.
I mean, this has to be a buy in you
you know, just you know, lateral bay in throughout this

(08:01):
county and also in the county. This democratic infighting needs
to be diminished amongst Democrats Democrats and reperend calls the
Demo demn violence, and I think that needs to be
minimized definitely.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Do you see this.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Happening here perhaps as it is in other states county states,
that people are voting ethnicity rather than party in as
much as from what I think I understand, I got
correct information. More than ninety percent of black women in
ky Hooga County voted for Kamala. More than eighty percent

(08:46):
of black men in ky Hooga County voted for Kamala.
Yet she only carried the county by three points.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
No, she carried the county by two to one.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
She did. I got improper information there, Okay.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yes, sixty sixty six percent. I think she got an
economy except oh okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
But the question is do you feel that people are
voting more by ethnicity than by party.

Speaker 6 (09:12):
Sexism and racism is happening simultaneously right now. What we
are seeing is a fight for white privilege. And so
I say to anybody who is one of our I
call it. You know, obviously rockets white for those who
can't see them, but you know, being an ally as
an ally in action and showing up in places that
may make you feel uncomfortable. But that's what we people

(09:32):
are fighting against. Is the power is people trying to
keep white privilege in power. And VP Hares was a
symbol for trying to dismantle this white privilege that people
have been betting.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
From from and I think it's been going on for
a long time. Yeah, Ethnic voting, I know, And I
remember my mom telling me that she gets to the
ballot and it's a man versus a woman in a
race where it's not indicated if it's a D or
an R vote for the woman. And we know there
are great ballot names in this county and those names
tend to be of one or two ethnicities. They tend

(10:06):
not to be black. And we know that and that
is something that Reprint and I worked very hard consciously
to fix last year. We increase the number of black
judges on the Quarter Common Police by twenty five percent
in one election. So we've had three black judges elected.
We hope to have a fourth next year, just in
the three years reprint. And I so we understand what

(10:28):
we're taking on there. And I'm an Irish American and
there are a great many Irish people, as you know,
elected in this county. And I'm certainly proud to proud
of my heritage, but nonetheless, to live in a county
that is forty percent not white and only have six
judges and that's an increase of almost double since I

(10:52):
became chair, who are not white representing the county and
the Quarter Common Police is I think embarrassing to a
certain degree.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
You have any questions, Oh, I have so video.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
I'm curious to know how you both feel about the
redistricting of the wards.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
What are your personal feels?

Speaker 6 (11:19):
Everyone looks at me when they ask that question. I
think the whole process is it's very much a mirror
of what we're experiencing at the Statehouse. These maps were
put out very last minute. The public was not able
to give little to know input to what's going on.
And the Democratic Party is the ones receiving the blowback
because for some reason, everyone thinks to Cheer has something

(11:41):
to do with the maps. I've heard that from so
many people where they be like Brock is the reason
why these Cleveland wars are the way they are. We
had nothing to do with it. And I stand by that,
And so we have to respect the process of allowing
people to have actual input. You can't just say we're
gonna have redistricting of the Cleveland wards and people don't
have a process for public input, and that was missed.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
I starts with the fact that we welied to about
the census in twenty twenty one, six weeks before we
get the final numbers. We were totally had three hundred
and seventy nine thousand Clevelanders. Then magically we lost seven
thousand a year after the counting was done. So if
we would have stayed at seventeen, which we should be,
and I think we'll go back to after the next census,
because the city's population, for the first time in my lifetime,

(12:25):
is going up. I think that it was a task
that President Griffin had that I would not want having
to draw those maps. You have to factor in all
kinds of neighborhood things. You have to factor in race,
you have to factor in all kinds of things east west,
you know, and that's very difficult. But reprint is right.

(12:45):
We had nothing whatsoever. We have no We're political actors,
not public ones, so we had nothing to do with
But I think people, you know, are always going to
be disappointed when their neighborhoods are cut up and that happens.
It happened with Interstate seventy one, Interstate ninety that weren't
great heart of Cleveland. So people have it right, I think,

(13:07):
to be upset. So but it was not an easy task.
I will say that for the council president.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Does it feel like a modern day red line being
induced into the city for you all.

Speaker 6 (13:19):
I wouldn't say red lining that. Yeah, I wouldn't say
red lining. I just think the process of how the
maps were shown to the public and the time that
people could get a public input was just very limited
towards that. It's not easy because to go from seventeen wars,
because it's also the politics of it, the same seventeen
people that are there as council people. The council president

(13:40):
had to ensure that is he going to be re
elected as a council president, who is he going to cut?
So that's not an easy decision at all either. So
all those different factors, I'm thinking to myself, like, I
wouldn't want to be in his shoes when he's making
those decisions either.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
I didn't think red lining before I did this. I
was a history professor of twentieth century America. A lot
of this, including this book that the Reverend's talking about
I'm quite familiar with. I think red lining was more
subtle and more pervasive, if even though those words may
not they seem to clash. I think everyone had a

(14:15):
role in redlining, except for the residents who were in
fact red lined, of course, because they didn't have any
power or political power for the most part at that point.
So in that sense, I don't think I mean, you know,
red lining involved banks and corporations and neighborhood groups right
sticking it to other groups and things like that, So
I don't think it was that. And again I know

(14:35):
that part of the problem was because we had a
primary in May this year, which we should not have had,
quite frankly, because the only thing we voted on was
a bomb is uear for the state, which by the way,
cost US Comedy two and a half million dollars to
do that election. That forced Council President Griffin to get
the maps done even quicker. And I think that that

(14:57):
is some explanation for it. I know I've talked to
him about.

Speaker 7 (15:02):
Thank you, Oh okay, cool, So I kind of want
to stay here. And as when you say you feel
like the people didn't have an opportunity to well, not
even feel that's factual.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
They didn't have an opportunity to put in any type
of opinion on what it is that they would like
to see what the maps.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Is that something.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Democracy speaking, that should have been done or do you
all kind of feel like it was a lot, like
you said, for this map to be redrawn out for
one person, then when you have to take into account.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Thousands of people's opinions, it can get a little strenuous.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
So I'm hearing conflicting opinions when it comes to that,
and I just want to make sure I in the
audience understands exactly.

Speaker 6 (15:56):
I'll start off with this disclaimer for those who are
at home and who don't know how to government work.
The Democratic Party has nothing to do with the redistrict
of the wards, the congressional district, the state house districts.
I'll just start off with that. And so even though
people may come to the chair of myself for advice
or guidance, but whoever the elected officials, they get to
go behind the rooms and decide that. And they get

(16:18):
to decide if so soon is gonna be run against
so and so, or if this line is gonna be
this line. But we normally find out on the back end,
not on the front end of things. And so we
still represent them. We still have to work with all
of these Democrats because it's nothing but Democrats on Cleveland
City Council. So these are all of our candids. At
one time or another, we've endorsed, we support it, we've
lifted up. And so I know people tend to bring

(16:39):
the questions to us, but we're not the ones you
need to be asking the questions to. It needs to
be to the city council members.

Speaker 5 (16:46):
Sure, yeah, short answers. Of course, you would always want
more as much as democratics small d and put as possible.
But I think again, there were the be a great
question I think for the council president, and I think
the Board of Elections did have forums on these sort
of after the fact, but in terms of just drawing,
it's also difficult. What do you do put out a
poll to all Clevelanders, wait for responses? You know who

(17:08):
you're not getting results from. Right, is going to be
the same socioeconomic strata that isn't voting as well, right,
poor residents. So how do you go get an equal
number of comments from them? So very difficult process. I
don't take people understand how difficult that process.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
And there were community meetings that they had, but they
didn't have any maps. It's the same thing that's going
on with the Republicans right now at the Statehouse. They're
having They had a redistrict and commissioned meeting today, but
there was no maps that went along with the meetings
where hundreds of people showed up for it. That's the
same thing. I went to two of the meetings the
Cleveland City Council did and there was no maps. I
was too, just a person who was deering the crowd.

(17:44):
So people are just looking for process, that's it.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
And we're both we're both Clevelanders.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Both I'm the og in the room. And I go
back to when there were thirty one war.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Oh yeah, all right, thirty one people, all right, So
to come down now to fifteen because of populationships, am
I correct In? The city charter states that there must
be about twenty five thousand people in each war, and therefore,
when the census has developed, then the population.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Of the wards determined.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
That wards have to be cut up, so there will
be twenty five thousand people in each ward.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
Am I corrected, Well, it only drops when we go,
drop by fifty thousand. So that's why we didn't go,
because we need an odd number of council seats for
voting purposes, So we couldn't go from say seventeen to sixteen,
which probably numerically is what we should have done, but
you can't have an even okay, right, But yes, it's
technically there's supposed to be about twenty five thousand. And

(18:41):
then again, for the third year in a row, Cleveland's
population has gone up this year, and so the trend
is moving in the right direction. So in five years, reverend,
we're going to be doing this again.

Speaker 8 (18:50):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
So people are moving from Palmer West Lake Strongville back
into the urban city.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
I think a lot of them are from out of town,
and because the county for the first time in a while,
our population went up this past year. It had gone down.
Cleveland has gone up for three years in real counties
went up this year and that was solely due to immigration.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh yeah, so we're gone.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
We're down seventeen, well from seventeen to fifteen wards. And
when you look at the map, it's as special.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
It is something special.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
But I'm curious to know in relation to not only
the lake front but the airport, and what is being
reconstructed at both places Broke.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Front of Hopkins Airport.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Hopkins Airport, but Burke as well.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Are we talking about.

Speaker 6 (19:46):
I'm sorry, we don't know if we'll have one or not.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
So let's talk about that.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
Let's talk about what's on the table, what may or
may not happen, and what the people can do to
let their voice not only be known on what it
is they want to see happen in these areas and
who should get this money, and how people can go
about getting this money. If they want parts, if they
want you know, their construction company on it, if they

(20:12):
want their business in this new airport or on the
lake front, how can they get involved because these decisions
keep coming out and we just keep seeing new memos
on what is being done in the city, but no
one knows how to get involved into these opinions, into
these changes.

Speaker 6 (20:28):
Well, the mayor, the Mayor bib put it out very
clearly that he was gonna be the one deciding on
where I guess that was a twenty or twenty five
million dollars was gonna be spent. He directly said it
was gonna be coming through him. It was not going
through directly through the city council member. So if people
want to be part of the system, they need to
contact the mayor's office. And that was a Hymn decision,
not a democratic party.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Does that have anything to do with the opportunity comes
the opportunity zoned?

Speaker 6 (20:53):
Then the mayor just said, if you want to get
the money, that's coming direct through him, and that's all
he's put out there. At this point, I think we're
all learning how these decisions are going to be made
when the money's actually going to be coming. We're just
hoping that the Haslams are good partners and actually come
through with the money by what is it December.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
Well, December first is the first twenty five million. Yeah,
and that's of course council has to vote on all this.
That the key if you want to get involved, The
first thing you have to do, literally is vote, because
in Columbus, in Washington, d C, In Cleveland County Council,
wherever it may be, they make decisions based on who votes.
So if people aren't voting in particular areas, the people

(21:38):
in power will almost inherently say, you know, I'll work
over here, right right right, I'll go work over here instead.
And I think that that's something that some of the
council members have bemoaned rightfully. So that's the first way
you can do is by voting, because the trickle impact
of voting can be massive. Then I would say, reach

(22:00):
out to your council person, reach out to your council person,
reach out to your councilor just over and over. That's
what you're supposed to do. And you can certainly always
feel free to reach out to me or reprint if
you need help with a certain person or issue, if
that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Just individually, Representative Brent, there's some things going on in
War one that's part of your district as termed in
terms of state, rep would you care to share with
our listeners, you know how you're viewing and observing and
how you're involved in that process.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Well, Cleveland City, Cleveland War one has been that's been
my home forever. And what's happening right now is that
we have seen a community that was based off of homeowners,
union members, teachers, professionals who all came to this community
living in these colonial homes. Now we are stunningly see

(22:57):
this decline within our community, decline of interests, of businesses
staying there. They might come there, but then they're leaving,
infrastructure not being taken care of, just a lot of
different things. That's part of the reasons why I decided
to run for Cleveland City Council, because we got to
make sure there's a connection between all levels of government,
between what's going on with the municipal government, county, state,

(23:18):
and federal We all got to work together for the
issues of the better quality of people.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Okay, as a county chair, how you view what's going
on on the southeast side so well, I agree.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
With with obviously with what Represends saying. Twenty thirty years ago,
Cleveland Ward one was held up as a beacon of
America's black middle class right, and a lot of those
people have moved out. There are still a great many
houses in that ward which are really first rate. Before
I was doing this, I was a work for a
nonprofit housing agency in Cleveland Heights, so I did do

(23:52):
a lot of working on the southeast side. But she's right.
I mean you see sort of a lack of hope,
a lack of investment. And again we've seen, not coincidentally,
voter turnout in that ward in particular, which was for
a long time number two in the whole city has fallen.
I think it was number seven last year. So there
is a correlation.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Mooney, you.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
When you say there's a correlation, can you eleporate it on?

Speaker 6 (24:19):
The people are looking for hope like people, and when
people don't feel like there's hope, they don't have a
reason to show up. Government is not encouraging people to
go out and go vote. I'm gonna use this for
example over in Europe and I was over in Germany,
and they make it a point to make holidays, not holidays,
but the day of election a full holiday, and.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Like people off of work, they should be here.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
You got a day off for half a day off
from your job.

Speaker 8 (24:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
I do remember my mom having half days when I
was young, Yes, and I used to go to work
with her a lot.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
And people feel the sense of don't feel the sense
of hope when you don't think that project is going
to come to your community. There's no sit down restaurant,
there's no coffee shop, there's not an investment into helping
people stay in their homes and see it pacifically in
your neighborhood. But in the other part of Cleveland there
is an investment that's going on simultaneously. So people are
getting tired of being tired. So it turns into how

(25:09):
people vote because people are moving to the community, and
they'd be like, well, it's a bating switch. We came
here for one thing, but that's not what's happening.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Or that frustration when rules and laws change and no
one knows and you go down to the actual office
downtown to vote, not realizing, hey, this is the.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Day of election. You can't do that down here anymore.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
You have to go to wherever your precinct is and vote,
and then you know what, I'm just going.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Back to work.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
I'm not voting.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
I'm just not going to vote and so these microaggression
of voter suppressions that occur here in Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Can we talk up a little bit about that before
we go, please?

Speaker 5 (25:48):
Sure. I think munch of that stems from the state
of Ohio. It's from the Republicans in the state House
and the Republican governors. For example, we have a population
at one point two five million in this county. We
have one dropbox for our ballots. Vinton County, population twelve
five hundred also has one drop box, so we have

(26:10):
the same number as the smallest smallest county in the state. Also,
I think twenty eight states have twenty six states have
same day registration. Nothing statistically improves turnout amongst Black voters
and Latino voters like same day voter registration where you
register and vote at the same time. Ohio does not
allow that pre registration where sixteen and seventeen year olds

(26:32):
can declare on their eighteenth birthday they're going to be
a voter. I think twenty three states have that. We
do not. We have a thirty day period before the
election when registration ends. So those thirty days when people
are talking about the upcoming election, if you weren't registered,
your sol right, and all of the stems from the state.

(26:53):
And if I could change anything, it wouldn't be the
Gerrymander districts. It would be the making it easier to vote,
just purely making it easier to vote for everyone. But
hasn't happened in the state. Obviously, no state makes it
harder to vote. A few make it just as hard
as Ohio, but no state makes it harder.

Speaker 6 (27:11):
As a state representative, I've co sponsored this build with
Brian Rose Sweeney, who's another state rep. To make the
election day as a holiday and so people can be
able to get the day off. That is a struggle
when people are trying to deal with child care, schools,
schools are open on that day, so people are just
dealing with life, and so we need to make voting easier.
And that's what other countries have perfected, and that's why

(27:32):
they have higher numbers of people voting. When you look
at other countries similar to the United States with America.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
And I'm seeing Dusky, for instance, does make it a
holiday election day, and I think that our city or
our county should really look into doing the same because
it will increase turnout and no one lays on their
deathbeds saying boy, I wish ever they had more days
at work, right, That's one of the things in America.
I think that no country has more people working, and

(27:59):
it an't given time in this country. And I'm not
sure what the great benefit is.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Would you like to we.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Know historically, historically that that it has been made very difficult.
For instance, I think we can go back to one
of the questions to qualify for a person of African
origin to be able to vote was how many bubbles
in a bar of soap?

Speaker 2 (28:22):
That that kind of situation.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
So I think what we're seeing is a more sophisticated
way of controlling votes m especially in our community, or
discouraging people to vote.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I I you know, I was.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Involved in in something a couple of years ago when
a group of us came down to the Board of
Elections to relieve from some of the people who are
in line to vote, and we brought them water and
all men we came out and were threatened with arrest

(28:58):
just to give somebody a of water who was in line.
These kinds of things intimidate, frustrate, uh and deter many
people from wanting to be involved in in the process. Historically,
you know, this country has, as representative Brent has stated,

(29:26):
has position positioned itself to stay in the position of
supremacy and privilege by any means necessary.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Mm uh.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
And so how do we my question to our listeners
and to you, how do we come together and begin
to counteract, not as reactionaries, all right, but as proactive
people come up with a plan, a system and organ
and organizations to counter these kind of movement because we

(30:02):
know the adversary is working twenty four hours a day
to stay in the position that they're in and beyond ba. Yes,
based on the projection of of UH declining declining population
of the other ethnicity, and it's projected by the at
this at this date, the twenty first of October, of

(30:26):
the ethnicity in this country, the dominant of ethnicity is
only not in this country, but globally it's only seven percent,
right alright, and by the end of the century it
will only be two percent. We see the decline UH
in this country also, those numbers are being impacted. And
so how do we take and keep ourselves in the

(30:48):
position UH to be able to not again not react,
but be proactive and and and and.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Preserving the kinds of grounds that we have our gained.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
And also we must understand that erroneously there are people
who believe that the United States Supreme Court is untouchable,
but they can be impeached, yes, all right, and so
that needs to be a process to that needs to
be approached and addressed and or considered. All right, if

(31:23):
the Supreme Court of the United States continue on the
path that it's on, if I'm making sense, and.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
We don't have to have nine we didn't have more
or less?

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yes, yes, And can we talk about that path a
little bit for those in the listening audience that may
not understand exactly what you're referring to, Rabbi.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
The path that did just go ahead?

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Well, the United States Supreme Court has their justices and
to some degree they cannot be uh intimidated, should not
be intimidated, all right, or cohersed.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
They should be there not to make law. They're not legislators,
all right.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
They are to determine whether legislation is constitutional or not.

Speaker 8 (32:09):
All right.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
However, they're assuming some powers that I don't feel that
they should be or they have, and so therefore they can't.
There's a process that that's available to the people, government
of the people, for the people, and by the people,
all right, that can be instituted by the people to

(32:31):
impeach those individuals on the on the Supreme Court who.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Are not.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Operating in a manner that's protective of the Constitution and
the people of the United States.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
If I'm making if I'm making sense, okay, And is.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Impeachment of say, the president, something that the people themselves
can do or is that something that they have to
go through the Supreme Court to do?

Speaker 2 (32:57):
We must we must remember again, and as we said
this morning, that.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Elected officials are servants of and representatives of the people.
Do not live in a real democracy. We live in
a republic where we select people to represent us and
serve us.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yet they derive their power from the people, all right.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
And therefore, if I elect you, elect you as a
elected official. And I don't give hire to use the gardener,
all right, And I don't give you instructions on how
the landscape my property. You're free to do whoever you
want to do. So as an elected official, all right.
It is incumbent upon the people who elect that official

(33:43):
to make sure they have marching orders that if not,
they're not official is free to do whatever they their
conscience or their vision is, whoever it represents the people
fairly or not. And so as a people, we must
be in age to contact our elected officials and let

(34:04):
them know where we stand. And I believe I'm from
I may be wrong, but I believe it begins with
the precinct committee person, all right.

Speaker 8 (34:12):
That when you and your.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Little precinct get with your precinct committee person, all right,
and then then that precinct committeement knows what that precinct
demands all right or expects. Then that precinct committee person
can go to the ward leader. When you have a
hypothetically ward one, you got five wards, just hypothetically those

(34:36):
five precinct committement and go to the ward leaders say this.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Is what our expectations are.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Now the ward leader and the precinct committement can go
to the councilman and said, this is what we expect
from you as our representative and our servant. Now you
have you have real engagement, you're a real stakeholder. And
if that a councilman now does not represent you, you

(35:03):
have the privilege and responsibility to impeach. You can impeach
your council person all right, and or sensor okay, which
has happened here recently. And so when we understand the
process and how it works and then make it work

(35:24):
for us, our voices can be heard. And I think
what normally happens is that people do not engage at
the beginning level, at the primary or basic level, and
therefore they become frustrated.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
Under our chair Chairman Brock, We've been having numerous trainings
for our precing people, and it's just getting people engage
with the process of not just running. Because all you
need is five signatures. I would just say you need
you could be a precing person, to be a five
signatures with people in your precing, you too could be
a precing person.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
You see it in me, I do.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
She's a born price, I know.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
And so we need to get people us as a
Democratic party, we are in the process of always making
sure we educate people on all those different levels. And
you know, I live in a war right now where
we don't have an active Democratic club and we have
a ward leader who does not engage with our precing people.
So it becomes like a domino effect and the war
person just happens to be the council person. So it's

(36:21):
just a domino effect. So but if you don't have
the training, which we do have, and if people aren't
saying to the preesing people, we need you to go
tell people it's time to vote. Because literally the only
job of the preesing people is to tell people that
it's time to go vote, how to vote, and who
the Democratic Parties is supporting. But the responsibility of the

(36:42):
ward person in this particular time, if they're not doing
it becomes a domino effect of accountability from all of us.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Because we've i think established fifteen or sixteen new DEM
clubs and carcassistance they've started. They are very much complimentary
to the precinc committee system. The DEM club performs a
lot of the same functions, which is you meet monthly
or every other month or quarterly or whatever it is.
You have events, you canvas, you reach out to voters,
and we've got so many active DEM clubs now, but

(37:11):
we still have holes where they are not active Democratic clubs,
and those are essential. They're like I've always had the
life blood of the Democratic Party.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
YOUNI, thank you.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
I appreciate that they're going to get you a pull
you a petition so you can be a precing person too.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
What's the responsibilities?

Speaker 6 (37:29):
Just tell people when it's time to vote.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
And I believe also to caucus with them to find
out what they what they do they expect in their precinct,
what do they expect in the awards? Okay, I think
that's incumbent. If we can find a common ground, you
know my favorite saying, you know, okay, you eat catfish,
I ea chitlings, you know? And what we find what

(37:55):
that common ground is, so that we can beat close
to being of one voice, because there are some all
sophisticated games being played. If we remember, go back in
our history in the South after the Emancipation Proclamation, after

(38:16):
people of African origin outnumbered Europeans. All right, yet the
Europeans control the voting process, right, so we understand how
how the games are being played? Again, what is our plan?
What is our system? What is our organization other than

(38:38):
some of the giant organizations, all right? That we depend
on Urban League and WACP, et cetera.

Speaker 6 (38:45):
Okay, and that's why everybody has to be bought in.
It's easy to throw jabs at the Democratic Party. And
I know from these different newspapers, some other blogs. They
love putting the responsibility just on us, but we have
to work like a fist and not just a bunch
of fingers to make this happen. It's not just going
to happen with the Democratic Party. It's going to happen
with our nonprofits. Is going to definitely have to be

(39:07):
in buy in from the government intencies when it's time
for the census. The government entities do have to make
sure they're putting money in their budgets towards that. They
may have to make sure they are passing legislation to
make sure that people have access to voting. But it's
all of us issue, not just a Democratic Party, because
our goal is to get the people we have of
interests elected. We want to get voter turnout, but that's

(39:29):
our goal, is to get our mission across. But we
all have to work together like a fist and not
a bunch of fingers. And the fingers are not all
coming together. Make that fists.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
I agree with you and along with that UNI and
represent as a brand and chairman a BROP. We have
to move as a people to develop a new narrative
that is ours yes, all right and then take control

(39:58):
of that narrative. We can communicate in the way that
we want to make sure that our message will get
to the people that it needs to get to so
they can better be empowered, rather than listening to some
of the other kinds of narratives that are being a spouse.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Yeah. No, I think that's a good idea. I mean, again,
where do you start on something like that? But I
think that that is a very good point. Something like that.
We could have something where we define what a democrat is,
or we have some sort of mission statement or statements
that say this is what the Democrats in this county
believe in. And it doesn't have to be completely unanimous,

(40:37):
but there are certain things and you know, just getting
back to something Reverend Goolds thing was referencing, is if
you think about the fact that the people ICE is
rounding up, none of them are white. None of them
are white, and that's not.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
The immigration movement is against the southern border, and there
are no whites from you know, legally from.

Speaker 8 (40:58):
Canada, yeah, or Rhode Island or wherever maybe across the sea.
I mean, I have it, so, you know, right, imagine
if ICE was rounding up thousands of white Protestants in
this country. There'll be a rebellion, yes, right or and
none of the people that are running up are white Protestants.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
It's a fact.

Speaker 6 (41:18):
That's why I say we are fighting not about partisanship.
We are fighting about, you know, white privilege. This is
what we're fighting for. People are trying to maintain your
white privilege. And I need white people to be allies
and action, not just in words.

Speaker 5 (41:32):
I mean, think about the Donald Trump and the owner
of the Browns. Both inherited all their money from their fathers.
People underneath them have both on a prison because of
their behavior, and yet their hands are out at all
times asking for more, whereas the person in ward five,
in ward two, in ward nine, their hands aren't out
for very much. They want to one day be able
to buy a home, They want a good job, they
want to raise their family. They maybe want to go

(41:54):
on vacation. Meanwhile, we're giving a billion dollars to an
NFL team owner of public money right out of someone
who sits there and says, I'd like to go vote.
But this is ridiculous, right, So it's something that we
have to counter lage.

Speaker 6 (42:07):
You have to look at allegislative fixes for a lot
of these things. If we want folks to come out
and vote, there has to be allegrative fixed to do this.
Cities can illuciate their ways into getting more people to
come out to vote. It's not just about who's on
the ballot, because every ballot, every time somebody gets to
a chance to vote, is always important. So we can't
just say, like this is election is the most important
elect You know, every election you are paying taxes, you

(42:30):
are existing, you are breathing, is because somebody who's elected
gets to make those decisions if you get to exist
in that space, in that.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
Space, and these are spaces that we should want to
exercise our control in because it affects our.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Daily lives people, and the power is with us. So like,
why are we not.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
One of the way I want to I'm suggesting is
a vular reform. Okay, let me share this with you.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
You divide a state into grids.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
You have.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
You have two Ohio has two federal US.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Senators, All right, then one would be Republican, one would
be Democrat all the time. All right, how many House
of Representatives from the Congress of fifteen?

Speaker 2 (43:27):
All right?

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Then we cut it to fourteen, all right, seven Republicans,
seven Democrats. All right, you would go across each state
almost you know, the same way. You have four hundred,
four hundred and twenty one people in the House for

(43:49):
thirty five, then half of that would be Republicans, half
of that would be Democrats, and the.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
The Speaker of the House would be.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Whatever party the president wins, all right, because he would
succeed the president, you know, the succession, So you wouldn't
want the speak of the House to be opposite of
who's occupying of the White House.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
The same thing with the Senate. Every state, the fifty states,
and you're uh, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, territories.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Territories, and they would have okay, you come out with this,
you know, it would be an equal amount. And the
President of the Senate then would be if it was
the Speaker of the House was a Democrat, then the
President of the Senate would be a Republican. That brings
some kind of balance almost.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
Well, you could also do that balance by redoing the
US Senate. Yes, because you've got Wyoming has the same
number of senators as California, and there's a on Wyoming
residents and fifteen million California residents and that's kind of absurd.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Uh yeah, what But in terms of the balance though,
you know, across fifty states, every state would have the
same about regardless of population, you have the same representation.

Speaker 5 (45:19):
In theory, we do Senate down too, and that's not
It hasn't worked.

Speaker 6 (45:23):
Okay in theory, people would love for us to all
be kumbayai with us, but even in Ohio, it's like
seven different states inside of Ohio and everyone. I have
a colleague who when I first came to the state
House who said they had never worked or been around
black people. So imagine going to his neckativeoods, which is
a The DPI is like five percent the Democratic percentage index,

(45:44):
and they had to be represented by a Democrat just
because of this whole thing of fairness. But things become
fairness to who. So are we being more obligated to
be loyal to partisanship than are we trying to be
loyal to what representation looks like for the people. So
that's why I said, like, what's going on right now
is more than just the partnership of things. It's about
how can we make sure the quality of life of

(46:06):
everyone is is occurring and right now, regardless how you
look at it, It's not about the partnership. It's about
the quality of life of people in this country.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Well, when you have one ethnicity controlling the legal law
to overturn or circumvent natural or divine law, y, you
gonna always have that iniquity.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
And that's why even some of the support that has
come for some of these heinous bills is been by
the partisan support. Yes, so we know things are just
more than just partisanship, is I. I it's about how
people look at this world and how they look at
this country's it's everything goes back to race.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
You need we have about ten minutes left.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
You uh wanna get your uh your uh last question
in uh sure, I wanna know.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Did you both take part in the No Kings? Probably
this past weekend.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
We were both at Strongsville at the event down on Strongwild,
which had a about probably close to two thousand and
then we I was l eating a sort of door
to door effort in Cleveland. War two, which I thought
was more important. Didn't go into the one downtown, so
I didn't go to that when I went to that
one previously. But any chance we get to go to
the doors. We especially in.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Cleveland, we take for your your door to door outreach.
What were you informing these people behind these doors?

Speaker 5 (47:20):
We're giving them right now a flyer that talks about
the importance of voting, costs, immigration, your voice, you know
your voice will be heard exactly I said, I can
bring I haven't won in the Carls to And then
we were given each house to vote by mail request
forms and one envelope and this was in a bag.
And then this weekend we got people going up today

(47:41):
actually my award in Cleveland War thirteen New War thirteen.
And then next week we start putting out the sample
ballot in the city of Cleveland, which has the endorsed
Democrats in Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
For those that would like to volunteer with these efforts,
can they reach you.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
C U I d em dot com. We have a
pop up on there right now. Well, we're going to
change the link fresh today because we're taking every week,
we're essentially doing something different in different areas, but we
are focused on essentially for Cleveland wards and that's going
to continue well into next year, both on the phone,
via text, at the doors. But the energy was good

(48:19):
at the No Kings thing. I think the reality of
those is those aren't the people we need to reach
to get off the couch and to vote. They're either
already voting the way we are or they're not going
to vote period. I mean, there are some people who
go to those who are you know, but not gonna vote.
But we need we need to get to other people.
And the mother working two jobs doesn't have the luxury

(48:42):
of going to a No King's rally, or someone wants
to take a bus from Union miles to go to
the free stamp may think I'm not doing a forty
minute roll just to go. I mean, right, And.

Speaker 6 (48:54):
If you can come to the No King's rally, you
can come knock on doors, you can make some phone call.
Doesn't mean you have disposable time and probably some disposable income.
So we need you in not just to come to
the rallies, but to do some of do the work.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
Yeah, we get a lot of great quote great ideas.
Every day. You just got broc All you got to
do is get turned out up in Cleveland. No kidding
that race hadn't encouraged to me, right, But we do.
And even in bad ideas, there's always a germ, and
so we do. We did these county council forms, call

(49:29):
them future forms in each county council district earlier this year.
We also want to highlight the role of county council.
It's still relatively new. Not everyone knows what it does
or who the county council person is. So we want
people to have touches with all the branches. One need to.
Brent is great at her town halls, which she does
as a state Rep. I know Phil Robinson was doing them.

(49:50):
I think Rep. Sindenberg was doing some of them. My
Rep Right Tweeny does things like that. So every elected
I just encourage them to hold more public forms. Even
if you only get eight people come of the first one,
do it two months later. Maybe you'll have fifteen, maybe
you'll have twenty. And you're hearing good and bad, right,
because it's important for me to hear criticism just as

(50:11):
much as it is praise, if not more important actually
to hear criticism.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Thank you, Representative whom I've known for.

Speaker 6 (50:20):
Four don't be putting age saying you've been knowing me.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
In my whole life, sixty year life.

Speaker 6 (50:27):
Was my first boss.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, Okay, we go back, We go back, way back,
since she's a little girl when we first met.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
What are your closing remarks?

Speaker 6 (50:39):
Democracy is for everyone. It's something we have to fight
for every day. Don't look back at what happened in
the civil rights movement or other movements in the past.
I think that voting is going to naturally just come easy.
We are still fighting for the right to be able
to register. We're still fighting for the right to be
able to be able to have absenty voting, which they
are trying to take away. And no one's coming to

(51:00):
save us. We have to save ourselves. And the Democratic
Party is just a tool of many tools that can
be used. But it's just a tool. It's not everything.
But come join us. If you really want to fight
with the good guys, come join the Icaga County Democratic Party.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yep, you know me.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
I have more questions. I just know what more. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I just got one worry for now.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
For those who may have heard this program today and say,
you know what, I'm gonna get more active the next election.
For those in Cleveland, because you know, on iHeart rule
fight now, you know. But for those in Cleveland, what
should they be looking out for? What should they be
educating themselves on? And yes, you should be registering right
now to make sure you are involved in the next

(51:48):
one because these rules are were definitely trying to change them,
but they're not changed yet.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
Yeah, and they probably won't change easily or or necessarily
anytime soon. But like I said, the democratic clubs that
exist in so many of these communities, and especially in Cleveland.
I'm not every ward in Cleveland has well in the taxi,
but most do. You can join there. That's your first
on ramp you can help with. You may think to yourself,
I'm not really good at knocking on doors. I'm scared. Well,

(52:14):
here's something else you can do. We're going to phone
bank and just remind Cleveland as we're starting this next
week for seven straight days reminding people to vote. We
have we're trying to to implement a texting program which
is user friendly. Right now, it's very difficult to take
our data without going through a third party, so it's
kind of tough. But we're going to continue to hammer
at Cleveland voters about the importance of voting for the

(52:37):
next as long as I'm chair, and then certainly for
the next eight months through the May primary, so they
can go to our website. We also list all the
DEM clubs right on the website. They can call us
six two one six sixty five zero. They can email
me d Brock at kidem dot com or j Brent
at giddem dot com if she's willing. She doesn't always answer.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
Whatever my email, I missed you.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
I thank you voters wearing this hero black thought.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
What one of the things. How can we increase voter
registration in a city where fifty five percent of the
adults so functionally illiterate, and in some wards as much
as ninety five percent. So if I can't read.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Read a registration form or read a ballot, why should
I register the vote? So this is documented case Western Reserve,
March twenty first, twenty twenty one. The information is there.
Can we speak to that Vegico.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
We need and I'm gonna call everybody out. We need
our elected officials to fund program such as Seeds of Literacy,
which is right here on kinsmen. They do such a
great job of making sure people get their ggd's high
school diplomas, and they are out here begging money every
day for them to just exist and to continue on.
Even during the pandemic, they were working to used to

(54:01):
literacy rate within our city. So as Rock and I
are working with our elected officials, we need to close
upon them fund these programs if you're really concerned about
illiteracy within Cleveland.

Speaker 5 (54:13):
And twenty seven percent of millennials who don't vote. The
reason they give for not voting they don't know how.
And that's true because if you ask the average person
win or the winner or elections, normally, only about seventy
percent are going to say November right. So we cannot
take for granted that voting is something that is easy
or something that we've always done, because many many people

(54:35):
have not and we cannot shame them for that. We
need to be there to help them with the helping him.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Absolutely, I definitely was one of those young folks. The
first time I got to vote, I was eighteen. It
was for Obama and I was very very grateful to,
you know, have that be my first time voting, going
into a booth. But after that, I didn't know what
to do.

Speaker 5 (54:58):
I didn't know what I just do.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
I voted for, but when it came to like our
local primaries and things of that nature.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
I had zero ideas, So I completely agree with you.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
Yeah yeah, yeah. And we need our candidates to try
to reach out to get more people involved. Just volunteer
one day for a candidate, you know, give that candidate
ten bucks, make phone calls, whatever it is. That's how
you get involved, and you've done your civic duty. If
every Clevelander did want out candidate, no comment, no comment.

(55:30):
I'm not a candidate. This message is not approved.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Okay, we folks, you have been listening to the brocken
Bridge show Black Fault.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Well, thank you for coming and joining us today and
sharing with us some of your insights.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Uh and the information.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
On how the Democratic Party of Kuyahoga County operates. We
appreciate you, thank you. We must have you back. We
must do this as okay, and so until next time
you have been listening to black Thought. Everything was changed
to inform, to inspire into impact. I will drink from

(56:18):
my part of the river and no one shall keep
me from it until next time. This is a Rabbi
and the Black Unicorn Saint Shalom Hubbab.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
This is w OVU Studios