2024 Election Special

Was the election stolen? Yes. Through voter suppression; a criminal lack of institutional support, especially after MAGA stole voting machine data from Georgia; a dominant far-right echo chamber across all media platforms; several Russian operations, including buying MAGA influencers; oligarch consolidation; mainstream media capitulation; and good old fashioned racism, misogyny, and homophobia and transphobia that has long plagued this country. 

Why did so many Democratic Senators in battleground states win when Kamala Harris didn't? One reputable pollster explained to Andrea that it's likely due to Independents voting for Trump then splitting their ballot by voting for the moderate Senators. Kamala Harris may have ran as a centrist, but she was painted as a communist who will give your kids sex change operations at school and raise your taxes. Plus, she's Black.

In this election super special, Andrea and Terrell fact check the blame game running rampant right now and help us stay grounded for the horrors ahead. Thank you to all who joined our post election salon over Zoom. We're meeting every Monday at 4pm ET and recording at least the first 30 minutes for those who cannot be there. Andrea shared her guide on how best to use this time across social media platforms, for those who want to amplify these warnings for others, to help our communities brace for impact:

Twitter: https://x.com/AndreaChalupa/status/1854913386540093776

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@AndreaChalupa/113448400577711156

Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/thread/37796683

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/andreachalupa.bsky.social/post/3lahbf2sfro2r

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@andreachalupa/post/DCHj1PmP5R8

Download Transcript

Kamala Harris (01:00):

To the young people who are watching. It is ... To the young people who are watching, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it's going to be okay on the campaign. I would often say when we fight, we win. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. That doesn't mean we won't win. The important thing is don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place. You have power. You have power, and don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before. You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world, and so to everyone who is watching do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.

Andrea Chalupa (02:40):

Welcome to Gaslit Nations. Here we are election special. It's here. It's happening. We are in the calm before the storm, and that is what Nazis historically call themselves. They call themselves the storm, the accelerationist. They're coming to smash everything, the safety of our drinking water, the safety of our food, which wasn't great under the FDA to begin with. They're rolling back regulations. They're going to cut taxes for the oligarchs, so we are going to have to pay for and on and on it goes, and so we want to just prepare you all that. Right now, we're in the final quiet weeks of normalcy. It may not feel that way because we know what's coming and you can see the anger, especially on women's faces on the street. I can see it on the street here in New York City. When Trump won in 2016, New York City felt like a political 911.

(03:44):

There were marches. There was just shock. There was public art gatherings. People were leaving flyers in the street. This time around, there's this seething nihilism, the seething complacency, the seething sort of grief and just a feeling of we're fucked, and that's it. There's the climate crisis, which is now going to accelerate under Trump who is backed by big oil and on and on it goes. I'm going to stop speaking for a moment. I want my dear friend, Terrell Star to come in because Terrell and I have a lot to say about this, but I also want to acknowledge that he and I are pissed. We're pissed and we're going to let it all out of our system right now for you.

Terrell Starr (04:29):

It's important for us to check on each other's humanity and our personhood. This country, many people in this country, at least with the voting populace, they want fascism, and I know that this is not the way that people are framing it. They don't use these kind of academic, or people would say esoteric terms like fascism or democracy. Understand all that. Ultimately Trump's criminality, his dozens of allegations of sexually assaulting women, his racism over the decades, none of that matters. People are okay with it, and we have to contend with that. That's not a policy conversation. It's not as if Kamala Harris lost to a Jeb Bush or a John McCain or a Mitt Romney or someone who fits the prototypical Republican where you can say they care about the vitality of the party and that they hold on and espouse traditional Republican values. We saw a man who openly and boastfully talks about women in the most sexist ways possible immigrants. Haitians saying that they eat dogs and cats and that wasn't disqualifying for them. I understand there are a wide range of arguments about how out of touch people are. There's an indictment of what Kamala Harris could have done, what Joe Biden could have done. I just don't find that acceptable for the very simple reason that at some point we have to contend with the fact that as imperfect as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden is, are their imperfections so bad that Trump and all of his criminality was not? This was better.

(06:51):

If you say that for all the things that Joe Biden could have done, Trump and his behavior was the better of the evils. If you want to admit that, then say it. I'm not going to engage with anyone about a policy conversation with Kamala Harris because this is not what this is about.

Andrea Chalupa (07:07):

Bernie Sanders released a statement saying that the Democratic Party has betrayed workers, and workers did not show up for them. Well, Bernie, what do you have to say to all the black women? Do you expect them to show up for you next time around and save us again from fascism like they did in 2020 and all the years before when we won elections? Thank a black voter because statistically they likely voted for Kamala.

(07:38):

Black men, black women were not the problem here. It was white women. It was white men and it was Latinos. That's who the problem was here. These are people who voted for a strong man. Terrell pointed out months ago on this show, he said, there is a vigor in their hatred. There is a vigor in their hatred. We had enthusiasm for Kamala Harris. Ben Wickler, the state director of Wisconsin, wrote a brilliant thread, which I'll link to in the show notes breaking down how well Wisconsin did compared to other battleground states. They did well in local state elections. Tammy Baldwin went for the Senate. Kamala came close, but Ben Wickler said we saw Obama level enthusiasm in Wisconsin, but the problem is the MA Nazis, he did not use those words, but we all know he wanted to. The MAGA Nazis their enthusiasm out, shun our enthusiasm.

(08:40):

They can't wait to create death camps. They can't wait to drag non brown people off the street. They can't wait to put women in their place. It's dominance. That's what they're after. It's that surge of power. That is what this is about. Some people just have that in them. That is why Hitler was able to rise to power. Some people just have that in them, and yes, some of them are your neighbors. I found out today that my neighbor in Brooklyn voted for Trump. Why? Because Trump is strong. Trump is going to push those world leaders on the global stage around. He's going to stand up to them and he saw Kamala as too soft. Nevermind the fact that countries led by women across Europe are doing really well economically. They have strong defense. Nevermind the facts. We're not dealing with facts. We're dealing with emotions.

(09:41):

We are living still in the horrifying hangover of the greed is good. Reagan revolution, which gave birth to Trump, that gave birth to neoliberalism of the Democrats to sacrifice our lives for the economy. So Bernie in that sense was pointing to that, but you can't get rid of that overnight and the Biden Harris administration made strides including amplifying unions, empowering unions. They're the most pro-union administration since FDR. Okay? We're not going to get rid of the ills of the Reagan revolution in just four years, but Biden Harris made moves in that direction. That's a fact. They did not leave workers behind the infrastructure bill. That legislation upgrading our energy, bringing in a green gold rush of clean energy, those things created jobs and transformed grids in primarily red states. So-called red states. Now we're all one big red state under Trump. This administration did do good things to change people's lives.

(10:45):

It wasn't about that. It was about the misogyny. It was about the racism. Why might that be? Because the Nazis, the far right dominate the airwaves. Sinclair, which is the local news, Fox News, have gobbled up newsrooms of local TV stations across this country installing local news, Fox News. You have on top of that, credible newsrooms that have been consistently shrinking for decades. The far right has dominated radio, traditional radio like what truckers listen to when they're driving across country for decades, they dominate podcasts. If you look at the most popular podcasts, it's all Joe Rogan. It's all Candace Owens. Their numbers are monstrous, millions upon millions every episode of the money that they're raking in broadening the brains of young men, gen Z men, by telling them it is okay to rape a girl doesn't want you, force yourself on her fuck her dehumanizing women and make yourself feel powerful.

(11:49):

We're dealing with an epidemic of deeply insecure men. The way they're handling their insecurities is through force, is through dehumanizing others. It is infantile. I know, and they should have outgrown it by now, and I know that seems simplistic that that's what we're up against, but that is what we are up against. And so the Democrats by contrast have never had an answer for that. How did Kamala Harris lose the election? We can do a montage of the things Terrell and I have said on this show all year. That'll answer that question. We said in our episode, black Republicans, the reason why Byron Donalds went Republican as a black man is because that is the fast track for his career, for his influence, for his money. Meanwhile, Terrell and I are saying, please give to our Patreon, give to our substack. We don't have any institutional support. Guys like Byron, they get institutional support the minute they cross up the picket line.

(12:51):

The minute they betray their race, the minute they betray their wives endangering their lives, they get amplified. They get institutional support, they get money put in their pocket, they get placed into power. Meanwhile, Democrats, including brilliant researchers on the front lines of ringing the alarm of the Kremlin's aggression are begging, begging for survival, begging for scraps, doing DoorDash to survive because we don't have the Democratic party having our back. Like the institutions of the far right have their people's back. They have so much money, so many resources. Ka Kamala raised a billion dollars, a billion dollars in days. Where did that money go? Why aren't they raising up all of these bright stars and creating an overwhelming network on the airwaves? So we can counter all this. Instead, Terrell and I, it's us. It's us setting up microphones and talking to you directly. It's a little us against global fascism. So no wonder we're losing because the bad guys have all the resources and the good guys have to stick their necks out without any support and protection from the institutions that continue to abandon us.

Terrell Starr (14:04):

So to add on to what you're saying, Andrea with Byron Donald, is that one thing that he and other black men like him do part of their the type keep in mind that he could never really have the position that he has with the Republican party and the Democratic Party for the very simple reason that the qualification to elevate within democratic circles is higher at a basic level. So if I wanted to have some type of status as a black man, I would get a lot more currency. If I wanted to be a Republican, I won't do that because no matter how much you pay me, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Byron Donalds has no scruples. Byron Donalds was married to a black woman in his first marriage. He left his black wife for his white wife. Now, of course, none of us are advocating against interracial marriage.

(15:05):

The point of it is that the black men in the Republican party go round to black barbershops and talking about preserving the black family. Why is this important? Because it's a part of their disinformation machine. Byron Donalds talks about that whole anti abortion perspective on this idea that we preserve life, which is a wider Republican talking point where Byron Donalds and other black men like him in Congress are useful, is that they are a black face on this white supremacist talking point about preserving the family under this guise of stripping women of their right to choose. They talk about preserving the black family, and here's the kicker. Neither of these men has a black wife. Okay? So just imagine this, right? Let me put this to perspective, right? I live in Ukraine. There's a strong possibility that at the end of the day, Andrea is going to come to my wedding and she's going to meet my wife who's going to be named Elena because she might be Ukrainian, which are the odds, right?

(16:13):

Fine. Just imagine me with my Ukrainian wife going around from barbershop to barbershop talking about the black family. Simply put, if I wanted to have a black family, I have a black wife. Why is this important? Why am I telling you this? When you talk about the money and you talk about the incentivizing of people like him, that irony doesn't mean anything because Byron is bought and paid for to be a black face, to go to black people to say that these people who are talking about abortion are trying to cut down on the number of black people who are born into this country. And so if you care about black people, you should care about the family. Therefore, you should care about not supporting people who supports women's rights to choose. Because if you support abortion, that means that you don't want more black people who are born into this world, even though they themselves are not creating fully born 100% black people with black wives.

(17:13):

I'm saying this not because I'm against interracial marriage. Listen, I literally said that because of my travel, I might very well marry somebody from Eastern Europe. It's not about that. It's about these people who appeal to other conservative white people for the simple fact that there are blackface who are spraying these white supremacist talking points. And so it goes to this larger conversation about how much conservatives invest in people like Donald's, millions upon millions of dollars into this disinformation ecosystem, and they are highly effective at it. And so this is a lot deeper than any of us can imagine. I'm so happy that we're focusing on this and that we're not talking about policy because this election has nothing to do with that.

Andrea Chalupa (18:01):

It's the white supremacy that is what built America, and that is what has driven American history. And any successes we have are non-white people putting predominantly women, putting their very lives on the line to build progress. We betrayed generations of those ancestors.

Terrell Starr (18:20):

And the thing about multicultural democracies, and the thing about Byron Donalds is that throughout history, there have always been a Brian Donalds in the world. It was another slave that snitched on Nat Turner.

Andrea Chalupa (18:31):

Viktor Yanukovych is Ukrainian,

Terrell Starr (18:34):

Exactly. So this whole thing about being a sellout, it goes across all racial and nationalistic grounds, right? So we really need to confront the fact that there's a large swath of the American electorate that has no problem with a man who has been credibly accused of rape on numerous occasions as being president, and it goes across racial lines. When I was covering Stacey Abrams in 2018, I was covering how black people were responding to our candidacy. I was in Albany, Georgia, and I featured a black-owned business. And these people were saying that economically they benefited from Trump, but they said morally they could never support him because of how he treats other people. And so it was interesting looking at this black couple who owned this very successful fish restaurant, and they were saying that coming from this history of Jim Crow, it doesn't matter how much money from a tax break perspective that I benefit from Trump, the way that he talks about people with disabilities, the way that he talks about women, the way that he talks about other ethnic groups, there is not enough money that you can put into my pocket that can buy my vote for the way he treats people.

(19:58):

And here's the lesson. There are plenty of minority groups, whether they're Latino, whether they are black, whether they're Asian, whether they're Arab, who don't give a fuck about other people. And I think that if we can learn one lesson from this is that when we see Donald Trump make gains with people in certain states, especially with black people, at least Republicans from the daily that we see, Trump only gained 1% of black men, for example, just 1% from 2020. But overall, he did make gains at a state level with black people, with minority groups. What we're learning is that just because a person is a minority, it doesn't necessarily mean that they give a fuck about other people. We have to also interrogate these people as well in that the lesson is black people, Latino men, many of whom are white themselves. And that's another caveat that we have to consider Arabs other ethnic groups.

(21:01):

They could be just as racist and sexist as any white man that we know. And Byron Donalds is exhibit A of that. And so if we really moving forward how we can come together, we need to lean into our community. As much as Trump has leaned into his, I do not have any interest in converting. Anybody who ignores or doesn't care about is sexism. I'll take the stragglers who see the light of day. But what we see in these numbers, we don't see the same turnout numbers as we saw in 2020. I want to recruit and activate people who are in our camp then those who have already made their decision. And I think the problem with Bernie's statement is that he is completely unwilling to accept the fact that there's a large swath of the working class who don't care about racism and that there's no amount of economic anxiety that you can tap into that will change their minds because their choices were not based on that.

(22:03):

This shows us who America is with Trump's presidency, and I think that we will be better served if we just accept it for what it is. Accepting it for what it is doesn't mean that we don't take action or that we can't move in ways, at least from a Gaslit Nation perspective of matching or competing with this ecosystem that speaks to their base. A media reporter, Max Tani at Semafor, he pointed this out that a day or so ago last night, Americans voted for four more years of Trump. Now, here's what he said. Over 5 million people watched Candace Owens, comedian Dave Smith and former gangster Sammy the Bull and a little pump and a few other guys break down their electoral results on Patrick Bet-David's YouTube livestream. They got over 5 million people, Patrick Bet-David. One thing that Republicans do really well is that they don't discriminate when it goes to who they talk to. Donald Trump will talk to pretty much anyone who supports him. If you ask a Democrat for example, it's like they look down on podcasters, they'll go on the view, they'll go et cetera. Kamala Harris spoke to podcasters, but she spoke to particular types of podcasters. Democrats need to be a lot more liberal in the types of media ecosystems that they penetrate. They need to come on our podcast, okay? That's what they need to do.

Andrea Chalupa (23:31):

We were trying to get Jamie Raskin for months to rally our listeners to talk about the fight for democracy. What Congress is doing, they need to know what you guys are doing. And his scheduler was dicking us around for months. We're doing their job of national security. We're doing their job of informing Americans why Ukraine matters in this fight. And they're ashamed of us. We're kept in the attic. They don't touch us because God forbid, we're not a cult. The only podcasts they will go on are the basic white women who don't upset anybody and speak in a spa weekend tone, voice, very soothing, very reassuring, and only points out all the happy things. They go on the podcasts that are serving up happy pills where you and I are like, we're going to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. We're going to stare the dark abyss in the face.

(24:20):

That's the only way we're going to protect ourselves and get better. And here we are. I want to repeat again. We could do a montage of the conversations we had this year, and I'll tell you exactly why we got this result. We fought against it regardless. We put it all out on the field. And I want to acknowledge the economy is shit. We should not have a gig economy. It is breaking people's backs, separating families, juggling all these jobs, and you still can't afford a house. There is a housing crisis. There are real financial stressors. People are scrambling for a seat on the Titanic lifeboats. And so Byron Donalds, those types are getting in with the first class passengers so they can survive. I understand that. I acknowledge that. But a lot of people who are hurting financially still could not bring themselves to vote for the open fascist, for the rapist, for the predator, for the traitor, for the Russian tool, okay?

(25:12):

So don't give it to me that it's about the economy when it's also primarily the sexism and the racism, because that is what has been polluting America's history for generations. This is just the latest horror chapter of it, and it sucks that we're living through it. But here we are. And I want to talk about the blame game because you have the Chuck Todd industrial complex. You have Brett Stevens in the New York Times, you have Joe Scarborough and Morning Joe blaming progressives, blaming identity politics. Why aren't you taking any responsibility for your hero, Reagan? And what the Reagan revolution has unleashed in this greed is good culture that gave rise to Donald Trump's brand of greed is good culture. That is what Donald Trump stands for. It's about lawlessness, it's about corruption, it's about stealing. It is about greed is good. Donald Trump is the Frankenstein monster of the Reagan Revolution, okay?

(26:07):

So you're not taking any responsibility for that. And again, to the conservatives out there, to the Republicans out there, you're not taking any responsibility for your Supreme Court for George W. Bush War criminal who belongs in the Hague, and yet it is his Supreme Court picks that ushered in Citizens United, which made our elections go to the highest bidder, which wastes so much money and just waging these wars every election season, throwing money into this black hole instead of building critical infrastructure, including in competing with far right podcasts out there. So I don't see you taking responsibility for that either. So to all the Republicans out there, you yelling at us for identity politics, where do you think identity politics came from? Trump, who's running ads scapegoating trans people, scapegoating gay people. Okay, so of course we have to speak out and say Trans lives matter. Gay lives matter because they're literally launching a genocide against them, putting a law fair target on them, right?

(27:09):

Project 2025 is going to ban the existence of trans people now, and they're going to force states no matter, blue states are red to do that. So of course, we're trying to save lives right now by saying trans people exist. Let them live in peace. We did not choose identity politics. Identity politics was forced on us by far, right? Scapegoating so they can consolidate their base of bigots. That's what happened. And so I'm seeing a lot of this blame game go on right now. People are cannibalizing each other and no one's going to learn a damn thing. And guess what? It's going to get worse when January rolls around and reality starts staring people in the face. It's going to be years of stress, years of blaming each other and no one learning a damn thing. So Terrell and I had a conversation this morning.

(27:58):

We committed like we always do, is we have been all year to Gaslit Nation being a community. We're all about community. You are safe here. You can grieve with us, you can vent with us. You can share best practices to survive and thrive in these times with us. Rell and I are here for each other. We've known each other for 10 years. We are both Ukrainian through and through in our hearts, in our souls. And the democracy of Ukraine matters to us on a very deep level as it does here at home in the United States where our friends and family are. So you can be family with us getting through these times. That is what we're committed to. And the other thing I want to share, the other side had a lot of stupid people, a lot of stupid people who just fucked around and are going to find out they voted for Trump, and now Trump is going to slaughter them.

(28:46):

Those Latinos are going to face a Gestapo that is so fetishizing, rounding them all up and forcing them into death camps. They're salivating at this opportunity, and my prediction is they're going to start in blue states. Why? Because they want to terrorize us into submission. That's where they're going to go first. So get ready for that. America. A lot of people showed how stupid they are by voting for this, by voting for annihilation. But I also want to turn it around on the left because the left has a lot of stupid people too. And what did those stupid people do? They said to you, both parties are the same. They said to you, voting doesn't matter. They said to you, if you vote for Kamala Harris, you're voting for genocide. They deliberately try to depress your vote. And you might say no, but it is Kamala Harris's fault.

(29:36):

No, it is Biden's fault. They should stop arming Israel. That's one issue we've talked about on the show many times, and we've had experts on to talk about it, and we're going to have experts coming on the show soon to talk about Israel and Palestine. But to you, morons out there, who abused your communities, who abused your following by telling them, vote for Jill Stein telling them both parties are the same, depressing the vote. Are you happy with what we're now all going to be living under, including you and your children? And some of you, like Gigi Hadid's family are extremely wealthy and they could hide in their wealth. They could hide in their light skin, they could hide in their privilege, but the rest of us have to live with that shit now, including my friends and family in Ukraine who are going to be living with the worst of it.

(30:20):

We have idiots on the left too. Choose your circle carefully. Choose who you build with carefully choose your family carefully screen everyone by asking them, who did you vote for in 2024? How did you get out the vote in 2024? What did you do? How did you leverage your influence in 2024 to stop Trump? Tell me what you did. Screen those people out. Anybody who abused their power by trying to convince you that there's no difference between the Democrats and Republicans. Oh, we're about to feel that difference to the core in our homes. We're about to feel that difference. Anybody who preached nonsense at you, those are our idiots. Those are our Latino Trump voters, and they don't deserve any influence. Mute them, block them. Do not buy their books. They are grifters. Silence those people. Ignore them. They are responsible for this moment, just like those Trump voters, and they're going to blame everybody but themselves. And it might be some people you're really surprised by, but take stock of who they are now because those people have no morals and they have blood on their hands. They are just as bad as those committing genocide because this new phase of genocide is just getting started.

Terrell Starr (31:41):

Listen, all of that, when you talk about identity politics, Andrea isn't the southern strategy by Nixon identity politics. Let's just be clear. We didn't start this identity politics crap. White people on a political level have always engaged in identity politics. Since reconstruction, white people have engaged in identity politics. We have responded to it, not because it's a political strategy, but because of our survival. They have a lot of energy when it comes to black people. When we talk about race, if it were up to people of color, we wouldn't do it. What's really ironic about these arguments about identity politics and people talking about blame games, the way that I was raised as a black person, it means that we have to be just as good to get half of what white people have. And so quite frankly, we have been taught to double down on our qualifications.

(32:43):

We have been taught to not use our race as an excuse, but however, because this way this country is constructed, we have no choice but to preserve our identity because this country judges us precisely on that. So when people talk about Kamala Harris running on reproductive rights and running on democracy, those are not bad things to run off of because that's what preserves our existence. So this notion that it was a bad campaign strategy, I find it to be utterly ridiculous. And none of this is a defense of me having some type of love affair with who Kamala Kamala Harris is as a candidate. It has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is pragmatism at play. And so when we think about identity politics, the person who uses identity politics to their advantage more so than any ethnic minority ever could is Donald. Donald J. Trump.

(33:43):

Donald J. Trump is the master of identity politics because he operates on hate and grievance and resentment, and on this notion that whiteness is being devalued this whole election cycle. And his success is based on identity politics, which is why I think with Bernie's statement about the working class, he can take that statement and fuck himself with it. Because what's really interesting is that he had two opportunities to prove why his way of thinking is better than anyone else's. When Barack Hussein Obama ran in 2008, he ran as a black man who contrary to what a lot of progressives on social media would like tell you, he was not an inside person. In fact, a lot of people would argue that the reason why the Democratic party lacks a lot of infrastructure was because he did not operate within the traditional structures of the Democratic Party. John Lewis, all of the top level people, regardless of race, were backing Hillary Clinton. And you have this skinny black man with his funny name came in and he turned it on his head and defeated the Hillary machine. So I have no patience for any white man to tell me that the Democratic party was against him when this black man with none of the privileges that this white man from Vermont had came in and defeated the Hillary Clinton machine, Bernie could fuck himself twice.

Andrea Chalupa (35:12):

We're acknowledging that yes, we have an income inequality crisis, but Bernie, he's ignoring race. Just like in 2016, it wasn't just the DNC and Hillary Clinton that lost Bernie the election in 2016, the primary, he was ignoring race. Black people didn't feel seen by Bernie Sanders and his bros, the Bernie Bros, and therefore they didn't feel safe. If people from vulnerable groups don't feel seen by you, they feel safe. It all comes down to safety. I want to emphasize that because I don't want you to think why are we bashing Bernie? We're dealing it out to a bunch of people right now.

Terrell Starr (35:46):

And here's the thing. I covered Bernie, and I've interviewed him on a number of occasions, right? I'm talking about what I know and based on my actual experience covering his campaign. It's interesting that for Bernie Sanders, his strategy and his approach did not focus on race, and he lost. Yet Trump, when we look at data points about the white working class overwhelmingly supported him, think about the black people who are working class who did not. Bernie has no answer about why that is. He has zero answers for it. And the reason why people don't want to talk about race and really say, Hey, a lot of people ignore Trump's racism is sexism, is that we think that we are turning them off. My whole response to that is these people in their choice made it perfectly clear that they're okay with Trump's sexism, his racism, and his xenophobia.

(36:35):

I find it prudent and totally appropriate to ask them why that is. And that goes to black people, Latinos, white people, women, whomever. This multicultural democracy is vulnerable. His victory is not surprising. Donald Ronald Reagan ran off the welfare queen. Identity politics isn't welfare queen, identity politics, Billy Horton, that's identity politics. The people who perpetrate identity politics or white Republicans. This is not surprising. And what would not be surprising is that in 2028, we have a complete shift, and you have somebody like Pete Buttigieg, who's gay, who's the master at talking to white people. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if he ran for president and miraculously won somehow because America is fickle, because the democracy is fickle, and it's fickle because it really depends on how you can get white people, white working class people to feel about their whiteness and race.

Andrea Chalupa (37:36):

But it's also because we have a weakened public school system. College is increasingly unaffordable. And then on top of that, we have a media environment that is polluted with propaganda.

Terrell Starr (37:48):

All of that is absolutely true.

Andrea Chalupa (37:50):

Democracy doesn't work without education and a robust, well-funded, widespread, credible free press, which we don't have anymore.

Terrell Starr (37:59):

You're absolutely correct about that. When you're talking about press, keep in mind that when you have people like Donald Trump that goes on, media goes on podcasts, and he talks to different types of people, it's an investment, right? And so when Donald Trump, or you have some Republican when you have these podcasts, and they don't have to be the biggest in the world, they're investing in an ecosystem. So let's just say the podcast may bring in, let's just say 30,000 downloads per episode, whatever the case may be. It doesn't have to be Joe Rogan level because what Republicans understand is that they're investing in an ecosystem that will get bigger because of their presence. Democrats do not do that. You have to be of a particular level, a particular class in order for them to invest in you. Republicans invest everywhere because they see the bigger picture.

(38:56):

Democrats do not do that. It really requires us to not only challenge Republicans, but to challenge Democrats on where they put their investments. And so I think that we really need to confront who we are as a country. This loss that Kamala Harris took is not an indictment of her. I think it's an indictment of America because if the reason why people are focusing on Kamala, because she's the easy scapegoat, it's easy to attack her, and we can have critiques about her. What people don't want to do is deal with the sexism that they chose to ignore the racism, the xenophobia that they don't give a shit about, because you're afraid that you're alienating your base. Well, here's the thing. Are they really your base? And that requires you to do a particular type of organizing to reach out to new people who may be your base, but they may not be engaged.

(39:55):

We don't like confrontation a lot of us. But on this podcast, on this episode, we have to confront America. That's what we're doing. This is an indictment on this country. And you notice that throughout this whole podcast episode, we have not critiqued Kaa, not because we don't have critiques of her, because we do. The critique is standing up against Donald Trump. There should be no question. There should be none at all. But yet most of the American public by popular vote, by the way, chose and I will continue to repeat. A man who has been credibly accused of sexual assault, a man who in civil court, in a civil court ruling in New York, was found liable of rape by a court ruling in a civil case, a man who has consistently said racist and xenophobic things in the people who voted for him, don't give a fuck.

(40:48):

That is a far more useful interrogation than to talk about Kamala Harris' policies, which in my view, she did a fine job of articulating, but it shouldn't be an issue or that's not a topic of discussion for the very simple reason that the person that she was campaigning against is so much worse. And we need to really, if you're listening, go to the Patreon and continue to invest in Gaslit Nation because we need subscriber based subscriptions to go up because the types of community conversations that we need to have. We need to go into the community, right? We need to go to the public libraries. You need to go to Latino owned businesses like create public events where we're talking to the comment person going offline and community in these analog spaces so that people feel like they have a space not only online to engage, but offline as well.

(41:41):

Just as these conservatives are using their millions upon millions of dollars to speak to people, we need to use our subscription based dollars to do the same. And I'm not deterred by the fact that they have millions of dollars. I come from a tradition where we made a way out of no way. Then the Ukrainian heritage and Ukrainian tradition, your ancestors did the same. Andrea made a way out of no way in America. We were fighting white supremacy. Your people were fighting Russian supremacy. We all come from this shared heritage. And the best way that Ukrainians have fought the way that black people have fought is that we spoke the truth and we had uncomfortable conversations with ourselves to build community. And I think the most beautiful thing that the two of us have done with this podcast, but also most importantly with our relationship, is that I feel like when I come to your home and I cook and things we build and we have dialogue with each other, and I feel like I can come and talk to you about anything, and I love you because of that, in the end of this world, there are a list of people who, if God forbid, we had to be isolated and we needed to create our small communities, you would have to be in it.

(42:54):

Because I can't see myself existing in this world without you being in my life. And a lot of this is that we've done the personal and a personal relationship work to really understand each other's communities, and we see the unity in that. And I don't think that's a bad thing to run off of, because we understand that this is who we are, and this is what we have. And we have devoted ourselves to building this multicultural community because we understand that we are stronger together. And I think that that is a message worth going on because Trump is operating off of isolationism, and that's their message, but it's not ours. And if we win on that, we win on that. If we lose on that, then fuck it. We losing on it because I refuse to accept the isolationism that's predicated on I'm going to make money.

(43:46):

Fuck everybody else. That's not who we are. And Kamala Harris, she made it clear that that's not who she is. I think that's a damn good message she lost. We're going to run again, and we're going to find the right person, advocate for the right candidate, and run off that message until we get it right and get more of our people to get more of theirs. I don't want their values, Andrea. I don't want to be in a situation where I just take the Bernie rope and focus on economics and not give a fuck about my fellow human beings. I don't want to do that. I don't because I can't exist that way. So when Kamala talks about transgender rights, when she talks about the woman's right to choose, I'd rather die on that. That's why I'm here out down that hill, rise up from them dead and try again.

Andrea Chalupa (44:39):

I'm going to close on this. This may have been our last election ever, and we lost because of a number of things. Did they steal it? Yes. We did two episodes on Gaslit Nation that there was open warfare voter suppression in Georgia. Did they hack it and change the results? We know for a fact from the Fannie Willis case in Georgia that MAGA had the software, the information on how these voting machines work. So sure, maybe that happened. Our institutions, the DOJ, the FBI, Homeland Security did nothing about that. Okay? I was messaging with Jenny Cohen on election night. Does any of this look stolen to you? And she's like, we'll never know because our institutions failed us. But then on top of that, you have good old fashioned voter ID laws that suppressed the vote. You had this far right media propaganda machine all the way from the local level to podcast world.

(45:27):

You had so many contributing factors. And then, yeah, you had inflation and the global headwinds of incumbents having a really hard time in elections all over the world. And so that's what she was up against on top of sexism and racism. And Trump knew how to, as he always does, hog the spotlight. And that's what we're going to have for the indefinite future, because I don't believe we're going to have another election again on the federal level for president. If we do, it's going to be like, what just happened in the country of Georgia? What just happened in Venezuela? We'll win. We know we will win. But whether he actually leaves office, I don't see that happening unless he passes away and then JD Vance or Ivanka takes his place, our discussion continues, and you can get access to that by signing up at the truth teller level or higher on Patreon.

(46:17):

Gasoline Nation Host come as you are political salons every Monday at 4:00 PM Eastern can't make it live. Recordings are available to our community on Patreon. Our salons are your space to vent, ask questions, and connect with other listeners who also really, really hate Nazis to help Ukraine with urgently needed humanitarian aid. Join me in donating to Roso for ukraine@romfreeukraine.org to help refugees in conflict zones donate to Doctors Without borders@doctorswithoutborders.org. And if you want to help critically endangered orangutans already under pressure from the palm oil industry, donate to The Orangutan project@theorangutanproject.org. Gaslit Nation is produced by Andrea Chalupa. Our editing wizard is Nicholas Torres and our associate producers Carlin Daigle. If you like what we do, leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more listeners and check at our Patreon. It keeps us going. Original music and Gaslit Nation is produced by David Whitehead, Martin Berg, Nick Farr, Damien Ariaga, and Carlin dle.

(47:22):

Our logo design was donated to us by Hamish Smite of the New York based Firm order. Thank you so much. Hamish Gaslit Nation would like to thank our supporters at the producer level on Patreon and Higher Ice Bear is defiant. Sidney Davies, work For Better Prep For Trouble. Lily Wachowski. John Schoenthal. Larry Gusan, Dee Scott, Ann Bertino, David East, Joseph Mara Jr. Sean Berg, Kristen Custer, Kevin Gannon, Sandra Collins, Katie Ma, James D. Leonard. Leo Chalupa. Carol Goad. Marcus j Trent, Joe Darcy, Ann Marshall. DL Sing Field, Nicole Spear. Abby Road. Jans Stri. Rasmussen. Mark. Mark, Sarah Gray, Diana Gallagher Campbell, Abby Zavos, Tanya Chalupa. Thank you to everyone who supports the show. We could not make Gaslit Nation without you.