August 12, 2024 • 20 mins
This episode we're getting deep into the current elections. What are my thoughts on VP Harris? Why do I care more about local races? How does project 2025 tie into all of this? You gotta listen to find out.
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For more content follow me on socials @Thelawaccordingtoamber
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-law-according-to-amber--4167414/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name The Law according to Amber.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What's up, y'all?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome to another episode of the Law according to Amber.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I felt like, one, I really wanted to wait out
to see what was gonna happen with the VP pick
before recording anything talking about national politics. But I also
wanted to make sure I gave y'all an update about
all the great things that we've been doing locally, because
that's super important too. So one start with the comma
(01:01):
or discourse. So the one thing I keep saying, especially
talking about her history as a prosecutor, how awful she
was in California, the impact that she had on people.
And I think that's one thing that was important for
me to hear is from people who actually lived in
California at the time and the impact that she had
(01:22):
on them.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And even though I know so many.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
People have talked about the programs that she had and
the number of people that went to jail being different.
I think what actually counts here is the impact that's
felt by people who lived there at the time, and
I don't think that that should be ignored. But I
also don't think that that should be used as the
sole reason to not support her, because I think that realistically,
(01:47):
what do we think attorney generals or prosecutors do. They
are police, So they put people in jail, they charged
them with things like that's that's what their jobs are,
which is why I also really ruggle with the terms
like progressive DA or progressive prosecutor because I don't really
think that that's the correct terminology personally.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But that's just me.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I've seen a lot of discourse about that, and and
my response is always the same, is that she was
doing exactly the position she ran for offices to do,
Like she ran his district attorney, she won that election,
she ran to be the attorney general, like she was
doing the things that she ran to do with those positions,
And regardless of my personal stance of abolition and not
(02:34):
believing in that, what I didn't expect her to do
was is not put people in jail like I figured
she would be doing the job she ran for, and
I think that we should just be realistic with ourselves
in recognizing that, because that's what you know, attorney generals do.
I do think that the VP pick was a good choice.
(03:00):
I really like Tim Wants. I think that he's done
amazing things as governor of Minnesota. More specifically, though, I
think that the Minnesota Say legislature has done amazing things
and passing bills that were effective for Minnesota, like making
sure that all school lunches are free, giving folks access
to free ministroal products, making sure that folks feel support
(03:24):
around reproductive justice. Like that's actually stuff that the state
legislature passed and he just signed as governor. But I mean,
I'm still glad he signed it because he could be
like you know, other governors and detail things that they
didn't like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you know, I am grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I do think that he is your regular, regular white guy,
and that's what we would want from like a VP
pick for a black women, because I think that the
immediate draw is we need someone to like they need
They needed a VP pick that would pair well with
(04:05):
Kamala as a black woman, and I think that he did.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
He does that because he's very.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Plain and basic, and when you have someone that's like
Kamala is very much not so you have to balance
that out. So yeah, I think that I've seen think piece,
I have to think peace about her running. That's been
super interesting. More so especially around like younger voters and
(04:33):
like folks who like more black liberations type people who
are the ones that I'm you know, mostly friends with.
Is just a lot of discourse around the genocide just
happening in Palestine and what is the job of a president?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
You know, what do we expect?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Because I've seen a lot of people saying, you know,
we can push her left or push her this way.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I don't think that's true.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I do agree with my like movement friends, like she's
gonna do the exact same thing Biden has been doing,
which is the exact same thing that that Obama what
did and Trump did, like the same type of war
practices and stuff like that. Like she's not gonna really
straight from that, And I think that expecting her to
isn't realistic because that's what presidents do, like they're the
(05:14):
commander in chief, and that's what we've seen them do.
Even y'all fave Barack Obama was still killing kids a Syria.
He was still you know, invading other countries. He was
still doing all of that stuff because that's what the
US does as a colonialist society and a country. We
like to go in and take over things in other places.
(05:35):
And that's not stopped like ever. So when it comes
to Kamala running for president, I expect her to do
the same exact things that and real the president has done.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And if she doesn't, you know, I'll be shocked.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I'll be like, oh wow, look at her switching it up.
But as of now, I mean, I just feel like
she's gonna pretty much do the same thing. And like
I told other people, I think that she's gonna win.
Like seeing the majority of support she's getting, I'm pretty
sure she's gonna win.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I was pretty sure she was.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Gonna win after Joe Biden dropped out because people do
want a different pick. They wanted someone younger, and she's
fifty nine and Tim Watsa's like sixty one or two
or something. I think they wanted younger people, and that's
what you're getting with this pick. I also think that
younger voters really wanted someone more diverse. They wanted a
black woman or a woman, someone that was not Joe Biden.
(06:32):
So I think that that's what everybody got with Kamala
as a pick. What I do think we should be
switching our focus to, though, is what's happening within Congress
and within state legislatures, because every congressional seat is up,
and as folks like to mention over and over again,
there's not a lot we can do if we don't
actually maintain the congressional seats and flip a few of
(06:56):
the House seats and maintain the Senate because right now,
the Republicans have more members in the House until they
have a majority right now, and that's really hindering a
lot of the things that folks have been trying to
do in Congress around legislation because we just don't have
the power. And so I really feel like that's what
we should be focusing on. And I know there has
been some focus on it, but I think that there's
(07:18):
such a big push around Kamala and so much excitement
around her, that people aren't focusing on the down ballot
races like we should here in Tennessee especially. You know,
I'm paying a lot of attention to our state house races,
our local school board races just finished, and then we
have on the November ballot will be like the general
(07:40):
elections for state house races, and those are really important
because a lot of stuff that's happening, especially around Project
twenty twenty five. I know a lot of people have
been really pushing a lot of fear mongering around Project
twen twenty five, but I think it's important that we
make the correlation between Project twenty twenty five, the things
that have been happening within that, our current elections happening
(08:04):
right now, and the makeup of different state legislatures and Congress.
Project twenty twenty five is not new. It's been happening
for quite some time. And a really good example of
that is what we've seen happen in school boards. The
way that Moms for Liberty has started these campaigns to
get books banned. People have run for school boards and
(08:25):
completely flipped school boards to be very conservative so they can,
you know, get away with doing book bands. All of
that is leading up to the different things in Project
twenty twenty five. It's just taking little bits and pieces
and that's been happening for years now, which is why
I keep saying your local elections are extremely important because
they're taking little bitty objectives out of Project twenty twenty
(08:48):
five and working on them bit by bit by bit,
and they're over time making that happen and achieving what
they want. And I said this before, Republicans and conservative
folks are extremely well organized, and if we were as
well organized as them, we'd be in a totally different
space because they are so well organized and so well sourced,
(09:10):
so well resourced, and you can see it in these
type of moves that are making around like school boards.
So when you think about that, we think about your
local school board, how the makeup has changed or not changed,
what books have been banned or not banned. And in Tennessee,
that's happened a lot. We've had a lot of book bands.
(09:31):
We've also had professors being told they can't teach devisive concepts,
and even just this last session that passed another bill
of related to deviceive concepts while that already had passed,
which said that students could not report professors if they
felt like they were offended by something they taught, which
is insane, but all of that, it's also in Project
(09:52):
sween and twenty five in different spaces. So that's why
I think it's really important that we don't just say
we need to vote because we don't want Project swen
twenty five to happen, and we need to say we
need to pay attention to local elections, statewide elections, and
national elections because the progress we're seeing made with Project
tween twenty five over the last I would say four
to six years is because of the things that have
(10:14):
been happening in local elections. And then big picture, yes,
we also don't want Trump to get in office because
then a lot of things in Project twenty twenty five
can come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
A lot easier.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
But also he doesn't have to be in office for
some of those things to happen. Because if we don't
maintain Congress, if we lose a majority in the House,
well we don't have majority now. But if we aren't
able to gain a majority in the House and we
lose the Senate as a majority, we're fucked. And because
everybody keeps focusing on the presidency, they're not thinking about
these things like down ballot and the impact. You can
(10:49):
make another great example, which is what I'm really really
proud of is the work that we've done here locally
around budgets. I don't know what's been happening in other states,
but in Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis had major budget allocations
around moral budget asks that we made to our government,
that we petitioned for, that we supported, that we came
(11:11):
and made public comment about. My homies from Nashville Black
Assembly put together an entire plan that was led by
the youth there in Nashville and North Nashville specifically to
talk about what they needed, what are their needs, how
they want their community to be resourced, how that can
help to lower crime or help with gun violence there.
(11:33):
And they took those specific asks and put them in
a budget ask and then presented that to their city
council and then their city council. One of the members,
the Leiceh reporter Field love her, Love Her down. She
wrote a resolution to fund it by a million dollars.
And then here in Memphis, same thing. We had some
very specific moral budget ask especially around youth mental health resourcing,
(11:56):
and we were able to get a million dollars as well.
I don't know any other city in Tennessee or just
cities in general who have had big policy wins like that,
And a lot of that is because of the local
makeup of the government being able to us, having relationships
with those elected officials, being able to petition and lobby
them efficiently, making sure that we're able to present the
(12:20):
things that we're asking for and presenting it well with
data and resources and direct lived experience from people like
them come in to give their public comment.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
All of that was made.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Possible through organizing and elections. Because I don't believe it's one,
and I think it's both. I think electoral organizing. I'll
give credit to Jamal Campbell Gooch, who's also in Nashville
for this one. He talked today about on Instagram about
how you know electoral organizing isn't just elections, and I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Completely because a lot of the.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Actual organizing I do is more policy or electoral center.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But it has nothing to do with an election.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It's about what we're actually trying to push for, what
we're trying to actually pass like policy wise, and a
lot of that happens in your very low grades of government,
your city council, your county commission, like not your state
wide governments. Locally, making local asks is really where we're
seeing the most change, which is why I be on
(13:19):
y'all ass about local elections because I see the most
monumental change at that level, the lower local level. I
mean state wide, sure a little bit, but mostly it's
local politics. And I think what makes it so much
easier is how you're able to do base building organizing
for those type of things that are a little bit
(13:39):
easier because you're able to make more personal touches, like
through people having them come to meetings, having them contact
their representatives who are most likely actually reading their emails
versus like your congress member who we know isn't necessarily
reading his email one of his staff members is, and
stuff like that, and I do think that that matters.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So just lining everything up here.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Because I really want to talk about this, because all
I'm hearing is, you know, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala. You know,
we got to go for the president. But I'm not
hearing enough of a congress all them seasons up. And
you know, locally, we got some real important state house
elections pop it off or in some places in Tennessee.
(14:23):
Also we have some like really small local races like
in Arlington and Millions and stuff like that. But still
a lot of those are very hyper local things that
people just don't think about.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
They're just like, yeah, you know, it's whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Prime example of that these school board elections we just had.
There are three hundred thousand registered voters in the city
of Memphis, and the school board elections about in the
three different no, it's four different races, about at the most,
five thousand people voted in one race for two of them,
(14:58):
only about twenty five hundred voted. And that's for the
entire city, a city that has three hundred thousand registered voters.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So when I.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Say, like, people, one, niggas ain't voting, but two, I'm
not sure people understand the significance of some of it,
which is why I'm doing this episode. But also we
really do have to like step it up, because letting
two thousand people make the choice for a city that
(15:27):
has three hundred thousand registered voters is insane and it's
hello concerning to me. But also like I'm seeing a
lot of people who don't really put much effort into
actually engaging voters though, and I think that's one of
the biggest issues too, Like we have all these registered
voters who are not regularly engaged. We see folks who
(15:49):
are like, oh, let's go registered voters, but like, what
about the people who are already registered?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
How are we engaging them?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Which is one of the main things that I do
in my organizing work, is actually engaging folks who are
already registered, like making should they understand what are we
voting for? What seats are voting for? What positions? What
are those positions? Do? Like they're really important and I
want to know that, but like, no one's providing me
that info. I actually spoke on a panel a few
(16:15):
weeks ago and one of the schools here, and a
lot of the students were asking specifically. They were like,
you know, we didn't know any of this information about
the election. We didn't know there was an election going on,
We didn't know any any of this, Like how could
we find more information? I was telling them, you know,
places to find more info, but I was also telling
them to take some take some agency in this situation,
(16:36):
take some accountability, and like take control of the situation yourself.
If you're saying you're not getting this information, why isn't
you know? The school that I go to telling this
information because the school is the one who was putting
on the event. I was like, you need to tell
your school to just post the information for you, Like,
if you ask for it, I'm pretty sure they would
(16:56):
do it. I've seen a lot of schools do where
they would, you know, print out the election calendar, prey
out a sample ballot. So you need to take some
agency here and some accountability and ask for what you're needing.
And their main concern was like, you know, we didn't
know these elections were happening.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
No one told us. And I was like, I get that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And also you need to tell them people to give
you the information that you need, and also tell them
make sure they understand their job and the school.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You know that if you're at work.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
During the election day on election day, if you didn't
early vote, and you have up to three hours to
leave and go vote. And a lot of them were
like shocked about that, and I was like, yeah, like
there are laws that protect you in that way. And actually,
when you're asking them to post ustample ballot up, you
should tell them to post those rules too, because if
we want to engage the electorate, if we want folks
who are registered to actually vote, we have to provide
(17:44):
them all the information, and a lot of places aren't
doing that, and so I really would like more places
to do that, like these public entities who have employees
or students, like let them know it's an election coming up.
It does no harm to anyone to just tell them
an election is happening and post a sample ballance people
(18:04):
have the information.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It literally does nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But I also think it's a two way street, right,
Like we should be providing that information for people, and
also people need to ask the questions if they have them, Like,
get your questions answered, be prepared to go vote, like
make some shake, Like we need y'all to be out
here making these choices about stuff because it's really important
(18:29):
locally that we can keep going with the progress that
we currently have, which I mean, as far as I'm concerned,
like from what I'm seeing, we're going in the right direction.
I'm actually really excited about what's happening here locally in
Memphis and in Nashville, especially around the budget, the major
budget wins that you got, and how we're going to
be able to take that money and transform the lives
(18:49):
of youth here and give them the programs they've been
asking for, because it's really just that simple. Just listen
to them and give them what they're asking for, and
we're making that happen and it's really exciting. So to conclude,
I really appreciate you y'all listening to another episode. I
really hope that y'all were able to see the connections
made here around Project twenty twenty five, the progress that's
(19:13):
been going on with it, how your local elections are connected,
and why they matter, the reasons why we should be
making sure that we take agency as voters, as people
who live here and getting the information that we need.
And then also you know, take your cousins and your friends,
and then with you too, because you know, voting is
a team sports. I've heard someone say before, and I
(19:37):
think the more engaged people are also the more accountable
they'll feel. Right Like, if I go when I vote
for someone and they get in office, I definitely feel
accountable to like making sure that the things they promise
me actually happen.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And I do that all the time. I make sure that,
like I screenshot.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Somebody's like policy platform on their website and I hold
them accountable to it. I go speak at the medias,
and I call them out if they're doing something I
was supposed to be doing, or if they're making promises
or they made promises about something and they're not following
through and they're making excuses. Nobody is above critique, like
at all. And I think that when we as voters
(20:16):
also have that experience, like when you not only go
vote for somebody, but they win and you hold them accountable,
it's like a full circle thing that you're doing here.
So I hope that this has given y'all some info
around like the connections of products twenty twenty five, how
I'm feeling about the presidential race, and most importantly, how
I actually feel about Congress and local elections and my
(20:40):
push for folks to go and vote in those. And yeah,
I'll see y'all next episode. As always, you can follow
me on Facebook and Instagram the same name.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
The law according to Amber
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name The Law according to Amber.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What's up, y'all?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome to another episode of the Law according to Amber.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I felt like, one, I really wanted to wait out
to see what was gonna happen with the VP pick
before recording anything talking about national politics. But I also
wanted to make sure I gave y'all an update about
all the great things that we've been doing locally, because
that's super important too. So one start with the comma
(01:01):
or discourse. So the one thing I keep saying, especially
talking about her history as a prosecutor, how awful she
was in California, the impact that she had on people.
And I think that's one thing that was important for
me to hear is from people who actually lived in
California at the time and the impact that she had
(01:22):
on them.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And even though I know so many.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
People have talked about the programs that she had and
the number of people that went to jail being different.
I think what actually counts here is the impact that's
felt by people who lived there at the time, and
I don't think that that should be ignored. But I
also don't think that that should be used as the
sole reason to not support her, because I think that realistically,
(01:47):
what do we think attorney generals or prosecutors do. They
are police, So they put people in jail, they charged
them with things like that's that's what their jobs are,
which is why I also really ruggle with the terms
like progressive DA or progressive prosecutor because I don't really
think that that's the correct terminology personally.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But that's just me.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I've seen a lot of discourse about that, and and
my response is always the same, is that she was
doing exactly the position she ran for offices to do,
Like she ran his district attorney, she won that election,
she ran to be the attorney general, like she was
doing the things that she ran to do with those positions,
And regardless of my personal stance of abolition and not
(02:34):
believing in that, what I didn't expect her to do
was is not put people in jail like I figured
she would be doing the job she ran for, and
I think that we should just be realistic with ourselves
in recognizing that, because that's what you know, attorney generals do.
I do think that the VP pick was a good choice.
(03:00):
I really like Tim Wants. I think that he's done
amazing things as governor of Minnesota. More specifically, though, I
think that the Minnesota Say legislature has done amazing things
and passing bills that were effective for Minnesota, like making
sure that all school lunches are free, giving folks access
to free ministroal products, making sure that folks feel support
(03:24):
around reproductive justice. Like that's actually stuff that the state
legislature passed and he just signed as governor. But I mean,
I'm still glad he signed it because he could be
like you know, other governors and detail things that they
didn't like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you know, I am grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I do think that he is your regular, regular white guy,
and that's what we would want from like a VP
pick for a black women, because I think that the
immediate draw is we need someone to like they need
They needed a VP pick that would pair well with
(04:05):
Kamala as a black woman, and I think that he did.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
He does that because he's very.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Plain and basic, and when you have someone that's like
Kamala is very much not so you have to balance
that out. So yeah, I think that I've seen think piece,
I have to think peace about her running. That's been
super interesting. More so especially around like younger voters and
(04:33):
like folks who like more black liberations type people who
are the ones that I'm you know, mostly friends with.
Is just a lot of discourse around the genocide just
happening in Palestine and what is the job of a president?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
You know, what do we expect?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Because I've seen a lot of people saying, you know,
we can push her left or push her this way.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I don't think that's true.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I do agree with my like movement friends, like she's
gonna do the exact same thing Biden has been doing,
which is the exact same thing that that Obama what
did and Trump did, like the same type of war
practices and stuff like that. Like she's not gonna really
straight from that, And I think that expecting her to
isn't realistic because that's what presidents do, like they're the
(05:14):
commander in chief, and that's what we've seen them do.
Even y'all fave Barack Obama was still killing kids a Syria.
He was still you know, invading other countries. He was
still doing all of that stuff because that's what the
US does as a colonialist society and a country. We
like to go in and take over things in other places.
(05:35):
And that's not stopped like ever. So when it comes
to Kamala running for president, I expect her to do
the same exact things that and real the president has done.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And if she doesn't, you know, I'll be shocked.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I'll be like, oh wow, look at her switching it up.
But as of now, I mean, I just feel like
she's gonna pretty much do the same thing. And like
I told other people, I think that she's gonna win.
Like seeing the majority of support she's getting, I'm pretty
sure she's gonna win.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I was pretty sure she was.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Gonna win after Joe Biden dropped out because people do
want a different pick. They wanted someone younger, and she's
fifty nine and Tim Watsa's like sixty one or two
or something. I think they wanted younger people, and that's
what you're getting with this pick. I also think that
younger voters really wanted someone more diverse. They wanted a
black woman or a woman, someone that was not Joe Biden.
(06:32):
So I think that that's what everybody got with Kamala
as a pick. What I do think we should be
switching our focus to, though, is what's happening within Congress
and within state legislatures, because every congressional seat is up,
and as folks like to mention over and over again,
there's not a lot we can do if we don't
actually maintain the congressional seats and flip a few of
(06:56):
the House seats and maintain the Senate because right now,
the Republicans have more members in the House until they
have a majority right now, and that's really hindering a
lot of the things that folks have been trying to
do in Congress around legislation because we just don't have
the power. And so I really feel like that's what
we should be focusing on. And I know there has
been some focus on it, but I think that there's
(07:18):
such a big push around Kamala and so much excitement
around her, that people aren't focusing on the down ballot
races like we should here in Tennessee especially. You know,
I'm paying a lot of attention to our state house races,
our local school board races just finished, and then we
have on the November ballot will be like the general
(07:40):
elections for state house races, and those are really important
because a lot of stuff that's happening, especially around Project
twenty twenty five. I know a lot of people have
been really pushing a lot of fear mongering around Project
twen twenty five, but I think it's important that we
make the correlation between Project twenty twenty five, the things
that have been happening within that, our current elections happening
(08:04):
right now, and the makeup of different state legislatures and Congress.
Project twenty twenty five is not new. It's been happening
for quite some time. And a really good example of
that is what we've seen happen in school boards. The
way that Moms for Liberty has started these campaigns to
get books banned. People have run for school boards and
(08:25):
completely flipped school boards to be very conservative so they can,
you know, get away with doing book bands. All of
that is leading up to the different things in Project
twenty twenty five. It's just taking little bits and pieces
and that's been happening for years now, which is why
I keep saying your local elections are extremely important because
they're taking little bitty objectives out of Project twenty twenty
(08:48):
five and working on them bit by bit by bit,
and they're over time making that happen and achieving what
they want. And I said this before, Republicans and conservative
folks are extremely well organized, and if we were as
well organized as them, we'd be in a totally different
space because they are so well organized and so well sourced,
(09:10):
so well resourced, and you can see it in these
type of moves that are making around like school boards.
So when you think about that, we think about your
local school board, how the makeup has changed or not changed,
what books have been banned or not banned. And in Tennessee,
that's happened a lot. We've had a lot of book bands.
(09:31):
We've also had professors being told they can't teach devisive concepts,
and even just this last session that passed another bill
of related to deviceive concepts while that already had passed,
which said that students could not report professors if they
felt like they were offended by something they taught, which
is insane, but all of that, it's also in Project
(09:52):
sween and twenty five in different spaces. So that's why
I think it's really important that we don't just say
we need to vote because we don't want Project swen
twenty five to happen, and we need to say we
need to pay attention to local elections, statewide elections, and
national elections because the progress we're seeing made with Project
tween twenty five over the last I would say four
to six years is because of the things that have
(10:14):
been happening in local elections. And then big picture, yes,
we also don't want Trump to get in office because
then a lot of things in Project twenty twenty five
can come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
A lot easier.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
But also he doesn't have to be in office for
some of those things to happen. Because if we don't
maintain Congress, if we lose a majority in the House,
well we don't have majority now. But if we aren't
able to gain a majority in the House and we
lose the Senate as a majority, we're fucked. And because
everybody keeps focusing on the presidency, they're not thinking about
these things like down ballot and the impact. You can
(10:49):
make another great example, which is what I'm really really
proud of is the work that we've done here locally
around budgets. I don't know what's been happening in other states,
but in Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis had major budget allocations
around moral budget asks that we made to our government,
that we petitioned for, that we supported, that we came
(11:11):
and made public comment about. My homies from Nashville Black
Assembly put together an entire plan that was led by
the youth there in Nashville and North Nashville specifically to
talk about what they needed, what are their needs, how
they want their community to be resourced, how that can
help to lower crime or help with gun violence there.
(11:33):
And they took those specific asks and put them in
a budget ask and then presented that to their city
council and then their city council. One of the members,
the Leiceh reporter Field love her, Love Her down. She
wrote a resolution to fund it by a million dollars.
And then here in Memphis, same thing. We had some
very specific moral budget ask especially around youth mental health resourcing,
(11:56):
and we were able to get a million dollars as well.
I don't know any other city in Tennessee or just
cities in general who have had big policy wins like that,
And a lot of that is because of the local
makeup of the government being able to us, having relationships
with those elected officials, being able to petition and lobby
them efficiently, making sure that we're able to present the
(12:20):
things that we're asking for and presenting it well with
data and resources and direct lived experience from people like
them come in to give their public comment.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
All of that was made.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Possible through organizing and elections. Because I don't believe it's one,
and I think it's both. I think electoral organizing. I'll
give credit to Jamal Campbell Gooch, who's also in Nashville
for this one. He talked today about on Instagram about
how you know electoral organizing isn't just elections, and I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Completely because a lot of the.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Actual organizing I do is more policy or electoral center.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But it has nothing to do with an election.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It's about what we're actually trying to push for, what
we're trying to actually pass like policy wise, and a
lot of that happens in your very low grades of government,
your city council, your county commission, like not your state
wide governments. Locally, making local asks is really where we're
seeing the most change, which is why I be on
(13:19):
y'all ass about local elections because I see the most
monumental change at that level, the lower local level. I
mean state wide, sure a little bit, but mostly it's
local politics. And I think what makes it so much
easier is how you're able to do base building organizing
for those type of things that are a little bit
(13:39):
easier because you're able to make more personal touches, like
through people having them come to meetings, having them contact
their representatives who are most likely actually reading their emails
versus like your congress member who we know isn't necessarily
reading his email one of his staff members is, and
stuff like that, and I do think that that matters.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So just lining everything up here.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Because I really want to talk about this, because all
I'm hearing is, you know, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala. You know,
we got to go for the president. But I'm not
hearing enough of a congress all them seasons up. And
you know, locally, we got some real important state house
elections pop it off or in some places in Tennessee.
(14:23):
Also we have some like really small local races like
in Arlington and Millions and stuff like that. But still
a lot of those are very hyper local things that
people just don't think about.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
They're just like, yeah, you know, it's whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Prime example of that these school board elections we just had.
There are three hundred thousand registered voters in the city
of Memphis, and the school board elections about in the
three different no, it's four different races, about at the most,
five thousand people voted in one race for two of them,
(14:58):
only about twenty five hundred voted. And that's for the
entire city, a city that has three hundred thousand registered voters.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So when I.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Say, like, people, one, niggas ain't voting, but two, I'm
not sure people understand the significance of some of it,
which is why I'm doing this episode. But also we
really do have to like step it up, because letting
two thousand people make the choice for a city that
(15:27):
has three hundred thousand registered voters is insane and it's
hello concerning to me. But also like I'm seeing a
lot of people who don't really put much effort into
actually engaging voters though, and I think that's one of
the biggest issues too, Like we have all these registered
voters who are not regularly engaged. We see folks who
(15:49):
are like, oh, let's go registered voters, but like, what
about the people who are already registered?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
How are we engaging them?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Which is one of the main things that I do
in my organizing work, is actually engaging folks who are
already registered, like making should they understand what are we
voting for? What seats are voting for? What positions? What
are those positions? Do? Like they're really important and I
want to know that, but like, no one's providing me
that info. I actually spoke on a panel a few
(16:15):
weeks ago and one of the schools here, and a
lot of the students were asking specifically. They were like,
you know, we didn't know any of this information about
the election. We didn't know there was an election going on,
We didn't know any any of this, Like how could
we find more information? I was telling them, you know,
places to find more info, but I was also telling
them to take some take some agency in this situation,
(16:36):
take some accountability, and like take control of the situation yourself.
If you're saying you're not getting this information, why isn't
you know? The school that I go to telling this
information because the school is the one who was putting
on the event. I was like, you need to tell
your school to just post the information for you, Like,
if you ask for it, I'm pretty sure they would
(16:56):
do it. I've seen a lot of schools do where
they would, you know, print out the election calendar, prey
out a sample ballot. So you need to take some
agency here and some accountability and ask for what you're needing.
And their main concern was like, you know, we didn't
know these elections were happening.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
No one told us. And I was like, I get that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And also you need to tell them people to give
you the information that you need, and also tell them
make sure they understand their job and the school.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You know that if you're at work.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
During the election day on election day, if you didn't
early vote, and you have up to three hours to
leave and go vote. And a lot of them were
like shocked about that, and I was like, yeah, like
there are laws that protect you in that way. And actually,
when you're asking them to post ustample ballot up, you
should tell them to post those rules too, because if
we want to engage the electorate, if we want folks
who are registered to actually vote, we have to provide
(17:44):
them all the information, and a lot of places aren't
doing that, and so I really would like more places
to do that, like these public entities who have employees
or students, like let them know it's an election coming up.
It does no harm to anyone to just tell them
an election is happening and post a sample ballance people
(18:04):
have the information.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It literally does nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But I also think it's a two way street, right,
Like we should be providing that information for people, and
also people need to ask the questions if they have them, Like,
get your questions answered, be prepared to go vote, like
make some shake, Like we need y'all to be out
here making these choices about stuff because it's really important
(18:29):
locally that we can keep going with the progress that
we currently have, which I mean, as far as I'm concerned,
like from what I'm seeing, we're going in the right direction.
I'm actually really excited about what's happening here locally in
Memphis and in Nashville, especially around the budget, the major
budget wins that you got, and how we're going to
be able to take that money and transform the lives
(18:49):
of youth here and give them the programs they've been
asking for, because it's really just that simple. Just listen
to them and give them what they're asking for, and
we're making that happen and it's really exciting. So to conclude,
I really appreciate you y'all listening to another episode. I
really hope that y'all were able to see the connections
made here around Project twenty twenty five, the progress that's
(19:13):
been going on with it, how your local elections are connected,
and why they matter, the reasons why we should be
making sure that we take agency as voters, as people
who live here and getting the information that we need.
And then also you know, take your cousins and your friends,
and then with you too, because you know, voting is
a team sports. I've heard someone say before, and I
(19:37):
think the more engaged people are also the more accountable
they'll feel. Right Like, if I go when I vote
for someone and they get in office, I definitely feel
accountable to like making sure that the things they promise
me actually happen.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And I do that all the time. I make sure that,
like I screenshot.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Somebody's like policy platform on their website and I hold
them accountable to it. I go speak at the medias,
and I call them out if they're doing something I
was supposed to be doing, or if they're making promises
or they made promises about something and they're not following
through and they're making excuses. Nobody is above critique, like
at all. And I think that when we as voters
(20:16):
also have that experience, like when you not only go
vote for somebody, but they win and you hold them accountable,
it's like a full circle thing that you're doing here.
So I hope that this has given y'all some info
around like the connections of products twenty twenty five, how
I'm feeling about the presidential race, and most importantly, how
I actually feel about Congress and local elections and my
(20:40):
push for folks to go and vote in those. And yeah,
I'll see y'all next episode. As always, you can follow
me on Facebook and Instagram the same name.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
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