0:00

My name is Alex, and even though he's not my

0:02

first choice, I'm still voting for Joe

0:04

Biden and Kamala Harris in election.

0:07

Nor will

0:13

be alright forever nor

0:26

alright. So I think you guys can assume that since

0:29

this is the second political episode of the

0:31

podcast, I'm an expert, I'm a politics expert.

0:33

Like I I am, I think I know everything

0:35

there is to know. Obviously I'm

0:38

joking, um, but I really did

0:40

have a good time and a very

0:42

educational time doing the last episode,

0:45

and I'm just so happy to be back having in another

0:47

episode to talk about politics. And this one's

0:49

going to be actually really really important

0:51

to me. I originally in

0:53

this election, and you'll know if you follow me on

0:55

Twitter, I was originally

0:58

a massive supporter. Met

1:00

the guy, enjoyed it, donated

1:02

to his cause, and uh, and that person

1:05

is Mayor Pete Pete Bout. I

1:07

thought that when I scanned

1:09

all of the presidential candidates,

1:12

I I liked him a lot. I had the opportunity

1:14

to meet him. I actually sang for him, which was super

1:16

fun. So from that day I had always

1:18

supported him. I knew it was an uphill battle

1:20

supporting somebody not only who

1:23

was young, UM, but was also gay

1:25

and was not really was kind

1:28

of the odd one out in the group

1:30

of the big rat race that is

1:32

becoming the president. UM. But I

1:35

supported him and I liked him, and I knew that he

1:37

wasn't perfect. There were some things that I wasn't

1:39

super happy with, but I loved that

1:41

in the debates he talked about

1:43

it and he said that he had messed up and he wanted to do

1:45

something about it, and there was just something about him

1:47

that made me feel like he was

1:49

probably the most understanding

1:51

of where we needed to go as a country.

1:54

None of that matters because he didn't he

1:57

dropped out. Uh. He he did not

1:59

make the cut and uh and ended

2:01

up ultimately um pulling out of the

2:03

race. And that was kind of shitty

2:05

because I didn't really know where to go, you know, I didn't know

2:07

who to support after that. UM. I knew

2:10

that I knew there were a lot of definitely

2:12

knows, you know, like there were there were a few

2:14

people that I was like, man, this would really be cool,

2:16

and then there was a few people there were definitely

2:18

some candidates I was like, no way. I

2:21

ended up gravitating towards Elizabeth Warren.

2:24

Again, I didn't love some of the policies

2:26

she had, but it was something that actually, uh,

2:29

we talked about in the last episode, which

2:31

was that you're never going

2:33

to find the perfect candidate, And there was something that always

2:36

resonated in my head, and it was something even then that

2:38

resonated in my head that's like, look, I

2:40

don't think she was the perfect

2:42

candidate, but compared to everything else,

2:44

I thought that she had the um.

2:47

You know, she was the big the best match for

2:49

where I stood again

2:51

doesn't matter because she didn't make the cut. And

2:54

now we're here and we're here with Um.

2:58

Realistically, two people who

3:00

have the chance to become the president. And

3:04

it's really hard because

3:07

as much as I don't love

3:10

Biden as the president, as the head of our

3:12

country, as the as the leader of our

3:15

country, the the commander in chief,

3:18

there's no way in hell that I would ever

3:20

vote for somebody who you

3:22

know, openly doesn't denounce

3:25

racism and doesn't denounce racial

3:27

injustice and obviously

3:30

doesn't support so many things that in the past

3:32

I've talked about that I support, from the lgbt

3:34

Q plus community to global

3:37

warming and climate change. But there's

3:39

also no way that I'm going to throw my vote

3:41

away, because if there's anything we learned from the

3:43

last election is that every vote counts.

3:46

Including if there's anything that we learned from the last

3:48

episode on our podcast, is

3:51

that every vote counts, and we're going to continue

3:53

to understand that as we go forward

3:55

with these political episodes. I

3:58

actually had another conversation, but or we get

4:00

into it, I had a conversation

4:02

with a good friend of mine that that made me think

4:04

about humanity. I guess

4:07

I was having a conversation with a friend and

4:09

this friend doesn't have the same

4:12

beliefs as I do, and we

4:14

stand differently on a few things, um

4:16

including who we plan to vote for this election.

4:20

And instead of deciding

4:22

to be mad

4:24

and hate this friend and called

4:26

and say this friends, you know this, that and the

4:28

other, I decided to try something.

4:31

And that thing that I tried was I

4:34

asked him. I said, let's take

4:36

away the candidates. Let's take away

4:38

the parties, Let's take away the

4:41

name calling and slander, let's take away

4:44

the fats, even, let's take away everything,

4:46

and let's just say, what does this country look like

4:49

in an ideal sense and

4:51

other than two or three things. We actually

4:53

had the exact same thoughts.

4:57

But I think the thing that's interesting is

4:59

that as disappointed as I am in

5:01

the Democratic candidate, as disappointed

5:03

as I may be in our own

5:05

country, in our own government,

5:08

in many ways, if we

5:10

strip it all down, are we really that

5:13

far off? Are we really that different?

5:16

So that got me thinking, when you don't support

5:18

what your party is doing, what do you do?

5:21

No? Welcome

5:24

back, everybody. This is Alex Iono here, this

5:26

is my podcast. It's called Let's get into It and

5:28

really, uh, nothing is off limits.

5:30

And we proved that last week when we started

5:32

talking about politics. You know me, I

5:35

grew up in a family that said don't talk

5:37

about politics and public but I got

5:39

to follow my heart and that's actually what this whole episode

5:41

is about, is voting with your heart. I

5:43

have two amazing guests here.

5:46

I have one is an actress, producer and

5:48

the co host of the podcast Some More

5:50

News and Worst Year Ever, the

5:52

one and only Katie Stall. How

5:54

are you, Katie? I'm good. I'm

5:56

good. Alex Sorr, I'm I'm doing really

5:58

really well. I'm also excited. We have the co

6:00

founder of gen z go Op and

6:02

the co host of the gen Z go Op podcast,

6:05

the One and only John Olds. John, how

6:07

are you, brother, Well, I'm really

6:09

really excited about this topic. Again, I want

6:11

to restate that this is by no means

6:14

a debate. It's really three people

6:16

who come from different walks of life with one

6:19

cohesive idea, which is you have to get

6:21

out and vote. You have to utilize

6:23

your right to vote. Um And so we're

6:25

gonna have some great topics. First, John

6:27

and I are going to talk about what gen Z would do

6:29

to the political right, and then

6:32

Katie and I are going to talk about Bye Bye Bernie.

6:34

And then lastly, all three of us are gonna talk about

6:36

why we should be voting anyways, which

6:38

leads me to my first question that I have for both

6:41

of you. Usually I asked my guests and what are

6:43

you doing to improve yourself this week? But because

6:45

we've been having these election lead

6:47

up episodes, the question has changed and

6:49

it has become why do you vote? It's

6:52

a loaded question. I've answered it a bunch of different

6:54

times, but this one specifically, I vote

6:56

because with the news of

6:59

Brianna Taylor case and and the

7:01

outcome of that, with none of the police

7:03

officers being charged for the murder itself and

7:05

one in one of the police officers only being

7:07

charged with endangerment of the neighbors.

7:10

It really sparked a fire under me and

7:12

inspired me even more that I have to get out

7:14

there and if I want to make a change, the best

7:16

way that we can make a change as a citizen in the United States

7:18

is to vote. That being

7:21

said, John, do you have an answer for us? Yeah?

7:23

So I like your first question, what are you doing

7:25

to improve yourself? This week I

7:28

went back on the keto diet. No um,

7:31

so that you would be surprised

7:33

that's actually been an answer. Really,

7:36

Keto is fine anyway. So

7:40

why do I vote? The simplest

7:42

answer is, there are so many candidates

7:44

out there, um And we talked

7:46

so much about the presidential race

7:48

and maybe senate races, but there are so

7:50

many different leaders. There are

7:52

so many like service oriented

7:54

people, and I think we do them

7:56

a disservice when we don't vote. When

7:59

we don't, you know, engage

8:01

with them and and get involved

8:03

on the local level, because that's where ultimately

8:06

so much of the change is

8:08

needed that will actually affect our lives.

8:10

So that's why I vote. H I love

8:13

that Katie what do you have to add to that? Actually,

8:16

my answer is is very much in line with John's.

8:19

I vote because it's the first step

8:21

in taking control. And if you're

8:23

feeling powerless, if you're feeling overwhelmed,

8:25

if you're feeling like this is not right,

8:27

that you want to see some actual changes in

8:30

your life, the very first

8:32

step is showing up and doing this and voting

8:34

for the candidates that you think

8:36

reflect what you want to see. And

8:38

I agree with what he's saying about the

8:40

local level. It's I think we'll get

8:42

into this later on when we talk about the election

8:45

more, but it's about so much

8:47

more than the presidential election. The

8:49

vast majority of improvements you're going to see

8:52

in your life are happening at the local

8:54

level. You want to talk about how your

8:56

city is handling climate change,

8:58

that's star with your city

9:01

council representatives, and it's so

9:03

easy to overlook that. It's so easy for

9:05

that to get lost in the shuffle. I mean, partly

9:07

because they don't have as much attention and funding,

9:10

so you know, they slipped through the cracks and

9:12

we show up and we don't know who we're voting for. But if

9:14

we can get engaged on that level, you can start to

9:16

see tangible differences being made in your community.

9:18

I love both of your answers because I think it plays perfectly

9:21

into today's episode, which is Voting

9:23

with your Heart. Katie will talk with you

9:25

in just a bit, but John, it's time for us to go one

9:27

on one. I want to start off. We did

9:29

a little bit of research off of your podcast and

9:31

the gen Z go Op um.

9:34

You've said before you feel politically homeless,

9:36

and I think that that's a great place for us to start.

9:38

I just would love to hear more about you and

9:41

why it is you feel that way and why it is that

9:43

in turn helped you start something

9:45

like gen z go Op. So when

9:48

when we started gen z go Op, we

9:51

basically realized that there were

9:53

two things going on at once and

9:55

we needed a way to kind of harness them together.

9:58

So the first is that Republican

10:00

Party is sort of gone off

10:02

its moorings from where it used to be the

10:04

party of John McCain, the party met Romney,

10:07

and it's no longer that's the party Donald Trump.

10:10

And this concurrently, gen

10:13

Z was disaffected by

10:15

both major parties. You know, most gen Z

10:17

people when they registered to vote they register is

10:19

unenrolled. They don't choose the Republican or

10:21

Democrat. And we said to ourselves,

10:23

you know, there are a lot of issues that

10:26

are important to gen Z, whether it's racial justice,

10:28

whether it's income inequality, whether it's climate

10:31

change, and there's only one party

10:33

that's talking about them. So we

10:35

said, you know what, we need to

10:38

change the course of our party. At the

10:40

same time, harness the apathy

10:43

and the disaffectiveness of

10:45

the gen Z voters and kind of bring

10:47

them into a party that they can be

10:49

proud to be a part of. I

10:51

mean, I think that that's so incredible getting

10:53

gen Z, you know, on this show, and I can't

10:56

say it enough. Go vote. Go if you're

10:58

listening to this podcast right now and you're not registered, vote,

11:00

Literally pause this podcast and go and register.

11:03

Register while you're listening to the podcast. That's cool.

11:05

This election, the Pew Research Centers told us

11:07

twenty four million teams will be voting for the

11:09

first time, making them ten of

11:12

eligible voters. On top of

11:14

the basics, right on top of like you mentioned

11:16

climate change and racial justice.

11:19

Why do you think it's important for gen Z to be

11:21

paying attention to politics so much so that you

11:23

you started a gen z g OP, so

11:26

this answer should start with a little bit of context.

11:29

I come from Massachusetts, which is a very

11:31

dark blue state, and I'm a Republican

11:33

in Massachusetts. So part

11:35

of what we have done

11:38

to help Republicans get elected in Massachusetts

11:41

is instead of using the word conservative, using

11:43

the word competence. You know, Republicans

11:46

need to be about results, not

11:48

necessarily about partisan ideology.

11:52

We've talked on a couple of episodes on our podcast

11:54

about the deficit for example,

11:57

and why America being

11:59

in such bling debt is actually

12:01

super important for young people because it might

12:03

not affect them up front, but it's going to affect them down

12:05

the road if certain entitlement programs

12:08

aren't there. So we need to get our for example,

12:10

are spending under control. But what I

12:12

was talking about earlier about results and

12:14

Republicans being about the party

12:16

of results, like that's where we need to be.

12:19

The environment is not a partisan

12:21

issue, but if you have one

12:24

group that might have

12:26

a plan for it, but it might not be politically

12:28

tenable. But then you have the Republicans

12:30

that have hypothetically they could

12:32

have a plan that actually gets results

12:34

to lower emissions and clean

12:36

the water and clean the air. That's

12:39

what we need to be about. So gen

12:41

Zars, I actually think they do care about a lot

12:43

of things. They care about the issues that I

12:46

mentioned earlier. I don't think there's a sense

12:48

of apathy there, but there's a lack of

12:50

results coming from our leaders

12:52

on those issues, and Republicans

12:55

need to be the ones to provide those results.

12:57

I love that. There's a lot that I in my re search

13:00

of of you and gen z Gop. You know,

13:02

even in an article in Newsweek, you

13:04

and some of the co founders are actually wearing masks.

13:06

Why do you think it's important for you as as

13:08

the people of the party, especially

13:11

the young people of the party, to stick with

13:13

science and speak out about it, even though the party

13:15

doesn't typically stand behind those things.

13:18

So number one, to your point about masks,

13:20

I mean, I know that's become a partisan

13:23

thing, but it's honestly the least you can do.

13:25

Like, I mean, for

13:27

God's sakes, Like I can't believe

13:29

we're still talking about this. It's just so ridiculous,

13:33

Like come on, Like, no one

13:35

likes to wear the mask. It's obviously an inconvenience,

13:38

but I'd rather have things

13:40

be open and wearing a mask than not

13:43

wear a mask and have everything to be closed. But

13:45

okay, climate change and environmental

13:47

issues. You know, everyone

13:49

talks about it like it's some sort of liberal dog

13:52

whistle that you must be some sort of quasi

13:54

communist if you care about the environment,

13:56

which is just such an absurd logical leap,

13:59

right. You know, when I think of cleaning

14:01

up the environment, I think it actually really runs

14:04

quite in line with what

14:07

I would consider traditional Republican and

14:09

conservative ideals.

14:11

You know, think about what's gonna reduce

14:13

emissions At the end of the day, it's

14:15

going to be the use of cleaner energies, and

14:19

whether we like it or not, we will

14:21

get to that renewable energy future

14:23

faster if those

14:25

energy sources are competitive, if

14:28

they're cheap, and if they're efficient, and

14:30

that's going to be driven by the market.

14:32

That's going to be driven by the free market. So

14:35

I don't understand why Republicans

14:37

are so averse to this issue, because solar,

14:41

wind, nuclear, hydropower,

14:43

geothermal energy, all of those are

14:46

huge job creators, and

14:48

we need to equip our workforce

14:50

to actually get those jobs

14:53

and bolster those sectors. But that's

14:55

all the free market that's all capitalism, that's

14:57

creating jobs. Those are all things

15:00

the Republicans up until apparently

15:02

the environment gets involved, they love. And

15:05

we need to really focus on that because

15:08

the next generation of engineers, the

15:10

next generation of workers in

15:12

the energy sector, they're going to be focused

15:15

on renewables. So we need to be making

15:17

sure that the American energy

15:19

sector is a part of the twenty one

15:21

century and has a skilled workforce

15:23

that's ready to go. I think the other thing that's interesting

15:26

is that you know the current lawmakers right

15:28

now, they're not going to see the worst effects of the climate

15:30

change if we continue on the path that we're on. Uh,

15:33

it's more people of our age group. And again

15:35

I'm going to come back to this gen Z group,

15:37

who are going to really have to be dealing with it.

15:40

What do you think we can do right now to make our

15:42

voices heard? What do you think we can do to get that

15:44

voice in their heads saying, Hey, you guys might not have

15:46

to deal with it, but we are and we want to

15:48

make some real change. Yeah.

15:50

So number one, you should go to

15:52

gen Z GOP dot organs to

15:55

be a part of our organization. We're

15:59

trying to create this plat form and there are a number

16:01

of organizations just like it on the right and on

16:03

the left where it's

16:05

so incredibly important that

16:07

you get involved with these organizations.

16:10

And you know, this is something that I've

16:12

spent the better part of my summer working on.

16:15

But other people, you know, go to

16:17

like a meeting a week, or spend

16:19

a couple hours on a Friday afternoon before

16:22

you go out with your friends, or go on your Zoom

16:24

happy hour or whatever it is. There

16:26

are so many ways to get involved. Uh,

16:29

and it's not really that hard. The

16:31

second thing I'll say, and I have to give

16:33

credit to my friends on the left

16:36

for doing this. They've created a lot of organizations

16:38

to actually get people to run for office. It

16:40

doesn't have to be the Senate or the House. It

16:43

could be a state legislative seat, it could be a city

16:45

council seat, it could be a selectment race, and

16:47

and those races, as we mentioned earlier,

16:49

are so important and it's a

16:51

way for us to have our voices

16:54

be heard directly. You know, if you have a

16:56

message that you believe in, like you

16:58

should stick your neck out. Basically, what

17:00

I'm trying to say is that for three

17:02

years basically since I

17:05

was so frustrated with what was going on in

17:07

my party, and I said to myself,

17:09

well, I could just scream into the void on Twitter

17:12

or Instagram, or I can vent

17:14

to my my buddies about how

17:17

terrible things in the Republican Party are. But

17:19

at the end of the day, I wasn't doing anything. So that's

17:21

why we started gen z GOP because

17:24

we wanted to stake our claim in this on this So

17:26

you, you and your organization, you guys have actually been

17:28

really really opening open about like you just

17:30

were, about the shortcomings of the current president

17:33

and your party. Um, and you've gotten involved

17:35

with down ballot campaigning. I'm

17:37

not gonna lie. I don't know what that

17:40

is, and I think a lot of my listeners don't

17:42

know what that is. And so I would love for you to tell

17:44

us a little bit more about that. In the importance of down ballet

17:46

campaigning, Well, I personally have

17:49

gotten involved. I think we should make that distinction. So,

17:51

for example, part of being

17:53

home during the quarantine

17:55

and in the COVID crisis, you know,

17:57

I go to school at George Washington University.

18:00

I'm now back in Boston on

18:02

a whim, you know, locked

18:04

in my house. In April, I

18:06

sent a Facebook message to my state

18:08

rep who I had kind of known but

18:11

not super well, and ultimately

18:14

we got connected and he goes, do you

18:16

want to manage my reelection campaign? He's

18:18

my state legislator, and I'm

18:20

sure i'd be honored. And for the last

18:22

six months, five months, I guess, I've

18:25

been running my state representatives reelection

18:27

campaign. And he's a Republican in Massachusetts

18:30

running for re election in a district that's pretty

18:32

competitive, and he

18:35

is kind of an example that there are Republicans

18:37

out there that are talking about issues

18:40

that matter to young people. He's got a great

18:42

environmental record cleaning up the

18:44

river, making sure that the

18:47

water treatment plants upriver aren't

18:49

dumping raw sewage into the river. Yes,

18:51

that's a real thing that happens. So

18:54

what I'm trying to say is to circle back to your

18:56

point about down ballot campaigning. There

18:59

are so many races that never

19:01

make the news that are competitive,

19:04

and it might be in your backyard, and

19:06

it's so important. You know, I got lucky.

19:09

I happened to be politically connected, and

19:11

I had certain privilege in that in that regard

19:13

that I got to manage a campaign. But

19:15

these campaigns are looking for volunteers to go

19:18

door to door, to make phone calls, to write letters

19:20

to the editor, and that's down ballot campaigning.

19:22

That's really cool. I mean, I really like

19:25

again, and I said it in my earlier episodes. I

19:27

didn't grow up super politically

19:29

educated, and so a lot of these things

19:31

are really new to me. And so getting to use this

19:33

podcast not only as a platform for us to spread

19:35

information about this election and about voting,

19:38

but also I get to just like learn new things,

19:40

which is which is really really cool. So

19:43

it seems right now that that the right is

19:45

at a turning point and you have

19:47

Trump supporters and you have Republicans,

19:49

and that's kind of like increasingly becoming

19:51

two different things. What does that say

19:53

to you? How do you feel about that concept? I

19:57

wish I had a better answer for you, because we're

19:59

trying to figure out ourselves. No

20:01

matter what win or lose, the

20:04

Republican Party is going to have to figure

20:06

out where it's going to go after November

20:09

three, and that's the point of our organization.

20:12

We're trying to get our party to

20:15

change its course a little bit, to be

20:18

a party that's going to be competitive in the twenty one

20:20

century because we're increasingly becoming the party

20:22

of old white men. And I

20:24

know that might sound rich coming from me, who

20:26

is a straight white guy, but it's

20:28

important for us to be a part of that debate

20:31

for where we're going because you better believe

20:33

this, the Republican Party has

20:36

and I'm not saying this as an oxymoron, there's

20:38

an intellectual Trumpism

20:41

that's like waiting in the wings. You

20:43

see it with Senator Tom Cotton

20:45

of Arkansas, you see Josh Holly of Missouri.

20:48

These are kind of more populous Republicans.

20:50

They don't really even call themselves conservatives.

20:53

They call themselves market skeptic conservatives,

20:55

and they're very socially conservative.

20:58

And I think that. You know, as a young person,

21:00

I say, I know what people in

21:02

my high school and my university want to hear

21:04

from their leaders, and it's definitely not

21:06

that. So we need to be involved

21:09

with this debate for where the party goes because we're

21:11

loose, We're gonna have that debate. Well, John,

21:13

I really appreciate all of your your your candor

21:16

throughout the whole situation. Uh.

21:18

I love what you're doing with getting gen z involved

21:21

and staying educated and fighting for causes

21:23

that in reality we're going to have

21:26

to deal with as the young people as this ten

21:28

percent of eligible voters. What

21:30

would you tell somebody who just thinks that

21:32

they're too young to get involved? I mean, you

21:34

and I are both. I'm right on the cusp

21:36

of being gen z um, but I'm I'm a

21:38

millennial, but I too feel like,

21:41

man, I'm too young. Like you mentioned this is it

21:43

feels like we aren't being represented

21:45

as clearly as we could be. So sometimes

21:48

it feels like it's not our play. So what would you tell

21:50

to somebody who feels like that it feels like we're

21:52

too young to get involved in politics? Well,

21:55

you're not. Sometimes that's kind

21:57

of that, you know, like part

22:00

of something that I don't know if this is a gen z characteristic

22:03

or just certain people that they construct these

22:05

barriers for themselves, like, oh,

22:07

I can't do this because X, And there's

22:10

literally no justification for that reason

22:12

other than like they've mentally put

22:15

it up in their head. And I think that sometimes it really

22:17

is just that simple. I got involved

22:19

in politics because I had a place Matt

22:22

at my table when I was five,

22:25

and it had all the president's faces on it, and

22:27

I memorized them, and I just kind of

22:29

caught the bug. And I remember going to my library

22:32

when I was a kid and there was this wall

22:34

of books just about current

22:36

events in politics. I don't know why they had it, but

22:38

it was some sort of section in the library.

22:41

I remember getting them, taking out a

22:43

couple of books at a time. I'd skim

22:45

them, I'd read parts of them, return them,

22:47

rinse and repeat, and you just kind of catch

22:49

the bug. And then I went to school in Washington got

22:52

involved that way. Politics

22:54

yearns for normal people. I

22:57

think what turns off a lot of people is

22:59

that some of the activists that you might

23:01

hear the loudest voices

23:03

in the room, like when you drill down

23:05

to it, politics is all they have. Part

23:08

of what we're trying to do with gen z GOP. We're

23:11

people that have interests other than politics.

23:13

And I think that people don't recognize

23:15

that it's okay to like sports,

23:17

or to like hiking, or you can be artistic

23:20

and also be into politics. They're not mutually

23:22

exclusive. A lot of people can

23:24

do politics as a hobby. A couple hours

23:26

a week. You make phone calls for your local legislator,

23:30

you write a letter to the editor. These are things

23:32

that don't take a long time. But you also don't

23:34

have to be yelling and screaming and trying

23:36

to make a headline every every five seconds.

23:39

Well, thank you so much, John for coming on

23:41

here and and talking to me about this and educating

23:43

me more about politics. I really appreciate.

23:45

We're gonna take a break and when we come back, I'll be talking

23:48

with Katie about some real, real fun

23:50

and sad moments of the Democratic Party.

23:52

We'll be back. Al

23:55

Right, we are back. This is let's get into it. And

23:57

uh and we're here with Katie Stole and we're

23:59

talking. I don't know, I don't

24:01

know why. I think it's so funny, Katherine that you've made

24:03

this segment by by Bernie and I want you to put

24:05

this in the show. I have to give a shout out to Catherine for

24:08

coming up with a funny asked name for

24:11

this segment. Um, Katie.

24:13

At first, I want to talk about your podcast. You

24:15

you celebrated one year since the launch

24:17

of your political podcast called Worst Year

24:19

Ever, So congratulations. Um.

24:22

Also, do we have

24:24

you to blame for everything that's actually made this year

24:26

worse, like are you and are you predicting?

24:29

I had no idea how

24:32

much weight, uh, the universe

24:34

puts into my words and my time. No. Actually,

24:37

Robert, my co host, Robert

24:39

Evans, was the one that originally pitched

24:41

the title. We all fussed

24:43

with it and landed on that. But I think that the

24:46

blame if anything goes with him. Yeah,

24:48

you guys started, you guys started working, You

24:50

started worst year ever and the world said, hold

24:53

my beer, Like that's really just what that's like?

24:55

What that's what happened? Well, Katie,

24:57

I'm so happy that you're here. And while this section

24:59

isn't all about Bernie, even though Catherine made the

25:01

title by by Bernie Um. He

25:04

stands for the ideals that a lot of more

25:06

progressive voters wanted for this election

25:09

and the drastic countermeasures that a lot of people

25:11

that support him think that we need. Just

25:14

to give people an idea, so that as we dissect

25:17

this this segment, where do you

25:19

fall in that spectrum

25:21

of of progressivism, of

25:24

your progressive ism? I would

25:26

call myself very

25:28

progressive, maybe not as much

25:31

so as my co hosts

25:33

perhaps or other people you

25:36

know that I but that mostly comes

25:38

down to I do

25:40

believe in working that

25:43

we have to work within this system. I'm

25:45

not someone that's like you, voting

25:48

third party is going to be effective. I understand

25:51

that the desire to say, like,

25:53

no, I don't support either of these candidates

25:55

because nothing ever changes, and I want to make a

25:57

stand. But I understand that, but I

25:59

don't think that that's our way forward. I

26:02

was a big Bernie supporter. I was also a big

26:04

Warrant supporter. Slightly

26:08

less progressive, but

26:10

I saw her as somebody that could

26:12

work with people across

26:15

the board, you know, to some

26:17

degree. But I loved her and I

26:19

loved Bernie both because they both

26:21

represented the things that I

26:23

want to see happening in this country and within our

26:25

party. I want to talk about that specifically,

26:28

because as we all know, neither

26:31

of them are the democratic of

26:33

them are the candidate. So before we get I still

26:35

want to talk more about your beliefs and how

26:38

it flows. But I think this would be an interesting time

26:40

for us to start unwrapping how

26:42

you felt when you realized that Biden

26:44

was going to be the candidate, and if Kamala

26:47

made any of that a consolation or

26:50

made it made it feel any better. Um

26:52

um, how did I feel? You

26:55

know, it was the

26:57

first hard blow was when it

26:59

was clear that Warren wasn't going

27:01

to get any traction and I voted for Bernie.

27:04

I did, but that was prior to

27:06

us a Super Tuesday. They were

27:08

both my candidates, and I was going back and forth

27:10

between them. But I really responded

27:12

to Warren, and it felt like a real

27:15

deep grief being misunderstood

27:17

by the world. I eat out that

27:20

there's there's lots of questions about whether

27:23

a woman is a viable candidate

27:25

in our country. In in I

27:29

was happy that Bernie was still in the race,

27:31

so there was some consolation for that I could pivot

27:34

all of my energy to supporting him.

27:37

It was depressing. It was a really

27:39

hard a couple of weeks during

27:41

those primaries, and it was hard

27:43

also because it coincided

27:46

with the beginning of

27:48

the pandemic, so

27:51

it was really difficult for me to wrap

27:53

my mind around, Okay, we're gonna

27:55

support Joe Biden went to me, the answer

27:57

to a global pandemic is the person that

28:00

is promoting Medicare for all, that

28:02

wants to do something about income and equality,

28:05

who is consistently saying the

28:07

things that need to be said and showing up

28:09

in the ways we need our leaders to show up.

28:12

And so that was a really difficult

28:14

period for me. But

28:18

it's not the alternative. You know, a

28:20

lot of people point to saying,

28:23

um, Joe Biden is the most progressive

28:27

Democratic candidate

28:29

we've ever had, and in

28:32

many ways that's true. In many ways that's

28:34

not true because the country keeps growing and

28:36

we keep in generally becoming more progressive.

28:38

So what is your benchmark here?

28:41

But at a very basic level, I

28:43

also could understand,

28:45

after I gave myself just a little bit of space

28:47

from it, I can understand why,

28:49

in this specific moment, uh,

28:52

he seemed like the safe choice for

28:55

a lot of people. And I

28:57

know intellectually that just because

28:59

I leave something with my whole being doesn't

29:02

mean that I'm going to make you believe everything with

29:04

your whole being. And that

29:06

is part of the beauty and flaws

29:10

of this system is that we have to work together.

29:13

As much as I might think the other guy's wrong, we

29:16

have to we have to work together. So I

29:19

really came back to that, and

29:21

as things have progressed right now,

29:23

I keep coming back to that and thinking,

29:27

yeah, perhaps this is the way

29:29

that it needs to be right now. But you

29:31

know, especially the way our media works

29:34

and twists things and and obvius

29:37

skates things, that the

29:39

person that we have known the longest

29:42

and appeals to the broad

29:45

swath of the voting populace

29:48

might be a better bet for us. The thing that

29:50

that makes me nervous right now that

29:53

everybody seems so disillusioned. The

29:55

other night I saw Bernie

29:57

put out a really great response to I

30:00

believe it was the Brianna Taylor situation

30:03

with the rulings that came into, you know, the charges

30:06

that are not being brought, and

30:08

I thought, what, I still wish that that was the person

30:11

that I was voting for. I'm

30:13

worried that the ground game isn't

30:15

mobilizing enough, that people are feeling

30:18

just so disaffected right now, and

30:20

that we're going to have a repeat of That's

30:23

the thing that's interesting is I feel like I feel

30:25

like we spent the last four years constantly

30:27

talking about how and why Republicans

30:30

have been disillusioned again and again

30:32

and again with Trump. Why

30:34

do you think that now we're here and a

30:36

lot of Democrats feel disillusioned by

30:39

the lesson effective choices

30:41

that the left is made well. I think

30:43

on a basic level, Biden

30:46

isn't inspiring to people in a this

30:48

role way. He's not

30:50

going up there saying, um,

30:53

suggesting a bold response

30:55

to all of the problems,

30:58

you know, And I think that for

31:01

a lot of people it's

31:04

just um, they just feel a

31:06

little deflated right now, you know, and

31:08

exhausted just across the board, exhausted

31:10

by the onslaught. You said also that

31:13

you referred to Biden as the safe choice, and

31:15

I think that that's a very kind I think

31:17

it's a very kind thing to say, honestly, Like I think

31:20

he is that, you know, he's that safe choice.

31:22

He doesn't want to He's trying to ruffle as little feathers

31:24

as he can to try and come in as the

31:26

anti problem. We got

31:29

so many problems though, you know. We have climate change

31:31

on the brink of being irreversible.

31:33

We have racism that's costing lives, a growing

31:35

death toll because of coronavirus. Do

31:37

you think that a candidate like that, who doesn't want

31:39

to ruffle feathers, do you think that they can actually do

31:41

enough in time to make a big difference. I'm

31:45

like, what's what's the I'm still trying to still

31:48

trying to be optimistic about the honest one

31:50

or the hopeful one. I mean, I think, I

31:53

think, I don't. I don't think.

31:55

I don't think that UM coming

31:57

in with a milk toast compromise

32:01

solution is the answer

32:03

to our problems. I think a

32:05

milktoast compromise platform

32:09

probably appeals to more

32:11

people in order to do the

32:14

the first step of getting Donald

32:17

Trump out of office. So I see

32:19

the argument for that. Also,

32:23

we just can't do public compearences right

32:25

now because of the coronavirus. But there

32:27

is also something to be said about, Okay, well, then there's not as

32:29

many gaffs, and that is not a

32:32

position that we want to be in. We

32:34

do not want to be thinking that about our candidate.

32:37

But but but but but

32:39

but but I do think that

32:42

it's better than nothing. I do

32:44

think that it gets us closer

32:47

to where we want to be. I do think

32:49

that we put pressure and

32:52

we continue to be as engaged as we are

32:54

now and say no, your

32:56

climate, this isn't good enough, This response

32:59

to the last unions isn't good enough.

33:02

I don't know how much power, how much traction,

33:04

that actually gives us. I don't know how

33:07

much tangible change that we see from that,

33:09

but I do know that we continue

33:11

to normalize our opinions during

33:14

that time. We continue to point out

33:17

what's wrong, why things aren't working,

33:19

and then we get more power. More of us get involved

33:22

on a local level, more of us start

33:24

doing things, not just because

33:26

Trump is in office, but because we care about

33:28

them, and we see that it's vital, and

33:31

things start to change and we chip away

33:33

at it, and then hopefully the next administration

33:36

is someone that can do a broader, more

33:38

comprehensive approach to things. This is

33:40

not the best answer, it's not my ideal

33:43

situation, but we got to work with

33:45

what we got. That's kind of how

33:47

I see it. That's the thing that's That's the thing that's interesting

33:49

to me is, you know, I just had

33:51

a conversation with John Olds, and

33:53

now we're having our conversation. And while the

33:56

parties are completely in different

33:58

places, right, both parties

34:00

I think are at a bit of a turning point. You know, a

34:02

lot of people don't think somebody

34:04

who is down the center like Biden will do

34:06

enough. Whereas there you know, there are

34:08

a group of Republicans who are at a turning point, saying

34:11

that we've strayed so far away from the Republican

34:13

Party. What are you making out of these

34:15

these splits? Are you thinking that there could be,

34:18

you know, party splits. Do you think that it's

34:20

just an uprising of the new generation

34:22

of Democrats and Republicans? What

34:25

do you take from all that? Yeah?

34:27

I think it. I think there's like ideological

34:30

wars happening in each party,

34:33

and ideally

34:36

we end up in a place where we have not

34:39

a two parties system. The vast

34:41

majority of people that I know do

34:44

not cleanly fit in to

34:46

their party's ideology, and it

34:48

is a shifting of the old guard. There

34:50

are people, you know, John had

34:52

mentioned in his section the Republican

34:54

Party is the party of old white men, a

34:57

lot of old white men, and the Democratic Party

34:59

as well, and that's changing because

35:02

Democrats more closely aligned with the values

35:05

of progressivism. Um,

35:07

but it's not good

35:09

enough for a lot of us. So I

35:12

don't know what the future holds in terms of

35:14

if we can break free of the two

35:16

parties system. It

35:18

will take a long time, involves

35:21

a lot of different tricky things. But I

35:24

do see more and more that

35:26

the progressive faction within the

35:29

Democratic Party is growing

35:32

and and and it comes back to also,

35:34

yes, young people getting involved and

35:37

saying I'm going to get involved, and

35:39

people in general, but young people especially and

35:42

for Trump, for Republicans, I just

35:45

called them all Trump. Um, I

35:47

don't know what happens there.

35:49

You know. I am thrilled

35:51

to see people like John you

35:53

know, representing a different kind

35:56

of Republican youth. But

36:00

there's a lot of people that have drank

36:02

the kool aid, so to speak, and they're all in, and

36:04

they're really dug in. And I'm not

36:06

sure how those things reconcile because of as

36:08

of right now, the people in power are allowing

36:11

this this new ideology to take

36:14

the reins. So I'm not really sure how that

36:16

looks. I do know that Joe

36:18

Biden more closely

36:21

resembles a

36:23

classic Republican than

36:25

Donald Trump does. I want to

36:27

care about moving the needle on the issues that are

36:29

important. I want to start normalizing

36:32

medicare for all. I want to normalize

36:34

the conversation around policing

36:37

and and racism, systemic racism,

36:39

you know, anyway I can ramble about I

36:42

literally was about to say I need you to say that one

36:44

louder for the people in the back, because I

36:46

know personally there are that

36:49

there are some people who need to

36:51

hear that one right there, that

36:53

Biden bodies and bodies

36:56

a Republican more than Donald Trump does. That's insane.

36:58

Uh, You've been such an amazing

37:00

guest. I love having guests

37:03

on who have their own podcasts because it just

37:05

makes my job so easy. Thank you

37:07

so much for coming on. I have one last question.

37:09

I think that this one is very very important because I

37:11

know a lot of people. I a lot of my

37:14

friends even who were so excited

37:16

about Elizabeth Warren, specifically for my

37:18

friends. I had a lot of friends who are very Warren

37:20

meaning um. And then you know yourself,

37:23

like you mentioned, you loved Warren, you loved Bernie,

37:26

you got Biden. You know, I feel like you you

37:28

went to the you went to the vending

37:31

machine and you put in C seven and instead

37:33

of getting your Snickers bar, you ended up getting

37:35

milk duds. And that's where we are.

37:38

No hates anybody who likes milk duds. They

37:40

just they get stuck in your teeth. It's a little

37:42

they do. They can pull out your feelings, but they're delicious.

37:44

They are delicious. Back

37:46

to my question, kids don't have feelings. My

37:49

question is back to my question, um

37:52

for voters who were excited just like you

37:54

about Warren, about Sanders, what

37:58

should they do when Biden is their only choice?

38:01

They should vote for him. It's tough. I

38:03

I understand if you're I I intellectually

38:06

I get it if you're like, I'm not voting for

38:08

somebody a lesser of two evils, or

38:10

a lot of people don't see him as a lesser of two

38:12

evils looking at his track record, And I get

38:14

that. That's hard. That's a hard

38:17

thing to reconcile. And I hate to say it's

38:19

better than nothing. But if you believe,

38:21

if you believe so firmly

38:23

in all of these these issues

38:26

that drove you to support them in the first place,

38:28

you have we have to make peace with

38:30

the fact that we're not going to be getting any closer to

38:32

any of that with another four years of Trump.

38:35

In fact, we're going to regress. We're

38:37

gonna be even more dug in, We're gonna be even

38:39

more we're gonna be even farther

38:42

away from the truth from addressing

38:44

climate change. It's not too

38:46

late. We can do stuff, but it's

38:49

got to happen immediately. So if you

38:51

believe in all of these things, not

38:54

voting isn't the answer. It's

38:57

voting and not giving up once your

38:59

vote is cast. It's not going back

39:01

to Obama era politics where

39:03

we just assume the guy's got things on lock and

39:05

has things under control. As much

39:08

as as as good of a president as Vamba

39:10

was, lots of shady stuff happened under

39:12

him as well. You know a

39:14

lot of people don't know that kids

39:16

started being detained under

39:19

him. It was different. The policy

39:21

expanded under Trump and has become

39:23

far less humane, but the original things

39:25

started then, for example, drone strikes.

39:28

And I understand that there's a lot of pressures

39:30

on a president that I do not I can't

39:32

conceptualize. But

39:34

I'm just saying we didn't know that because

39:36

we weren't paying attention, and

39:39

that era has to be gone. We

39:41

do not survive as a species. And I do not

39:43

mean to be alarmist, but we don't survive

39:45

or as a country. By

39:47

going back to that, as as appealing as at

39:50

night sound, there will be balance, but

39:52

we need people to triage the current

39:54

wound and then

39:56

continue to do rehabilitation

39:58

and not just check out, is I guess is

40:00

my my pitch to everybody.

40:03

I think accountability at this point is the

40:05

only way that we can continue

40:07

progressing. And that

40:10

I wanted to just say that popped into my head

40:12

right now real quick. If

40:15

you're not pumped about Biden, there

40:17

are lots of people you can get pumped about. We've

40:19

mentioned local downballot races. If

40:21

you're in Los Angeles, for example, Nititia Rahman,

40:24

an amazing progressive candidate and on a

40:26

city council level, can do actual

40:29

change that you see in your life. In

40:32

the next several years. You can see those

40:34

things actually happening if we get some people like that elected.

40:36

And there are people all over the country that are running.

40:38

And so if you need something to get fired up

40:41

about, another reason to go to the polls

40:43

on election day, it's to go to the polls

40:45

and supported them and then also vote for Joe

40:47

Biden while you're there, and while you're

40:49

there, while you're there to take on the old mark for

40:51

Mr Biden. Katie, thank you so much

40:54

for your views, really with

40:56

you and John, and I'm so excited for this next

40:58

segment because I know that something rate we're gonna

41:00

be talking about some great stuff. But I'm really

41:03

grateful that both of you guys came on, especially

41:05

you and your story. You know, when you're at

41:07

this lesser of two evil situation, where

41:10

do you stand? Where should you stand?

41:12

How should you act? So thank you

41:14

for giving some clarity on that. We're gonna be taking a quick

41:16

break. When we come back. We're having our big round table

41:18

talking about why you should vote

41:20

and why you should vote with your heart.

41:23

Don't go anywhere. Al

41:25

Right, we are back. This is let's get into it.

41:27

I got Katie Stolen, John Olds here with

41:29

me, and we're talking about why it's so important to vote,

41:31

not only vote, but vote with your heart. But

41:34

before we get into the heart part, we've spent the

41:36

last two segments talking about why each party has

41:38

disappointed huge swaths of their supporters.

41:41

But all of that being said, it's still incredibly

41:43

vital to vote, and as we learned in our last episode,

41:46

every vote does count. We've all

41:48

heard the never ending list of excuses

41:50

why people refuse to vote, whether it's we're

41:52

confined to a two party system and it doesn't

41:55

work, so why should we vote. I don't like my candidates,

41:57

so many people vote mine doesn't make a difference.

42:00

Even people, especially in California, talking

42:02

about, oh, well, we already know who's going to get

42:04

elected, you know, out here, so it's not

42:06

that important to vote. What would you say to somebody

42:08

who's still, even with everything that's happened

42:11

in our country for the last four years,

42:13

still is saying they don't want to vote, they

42:15

don't plan on voting. I would

42:17

say that nothing changes until you take

42:20

that initiative for yourself, and

42:22

that it can be easy to feel

42:25

like it doesn't matter. You mentioned California,

42:27

but as you know, John and I both

42:29

have spoken about it's about way more than

42:31

just the presidential election. It's about

42:34

all of the other candidates that need us

42:36

to show up, and we

42:38

talk about being disaffected,

42:41

and nothing ever changes. You

42:43

know why, because people don't vote.

42:46

The vast majority of citizens

42:49

do not vote. They

42:52

are tired of the status

42:55

quo. They're tired of the system. We don't

42:57

have. We don't have election

42:59

day a holiday, so a lot of people have

43:01

to choose between making a livelihood

43:04

or showing up to do their civic duty,

43:07

you know, childcare, they're all sorts of

43:09

different things. But that

43:11

changes when we show up in numbers,

43:14

and also just this whole

43:16

idea that your vote doesn't matter. You

43:19

can look at so many elections, especially

43:21

like midterm races. Let's say

43:24

where these races are called with

43:26

a matter of like a hundred votes, it

43:28

literally is imperative that

43:31

you show up and exercise You're right,

43:33

it can make all the difference. And

43:35

and I mentioned control. Well, I

43:37

don't know about you, guys, but I

43:39

feel just so

43:42

overwhelmed and inundated. And

43:44

the one thing that's a through line is

43:46

that I get to show up and officially

43:49

say I stand for this,

43:52

and that means something. I know a

43:54

lot of your listeners are younger, and

43:56

you know, you talked about why young people might

43:58

not want to get involved, and I get it. When you're younger,

44:00

you don't quite have the same perspective. That's not

44:02

a dis It's like you've got a whole

44:05

bunch of other amazing qualities, but sometimes

44:07

you don't realize the importance

44:09

of a single action, you know. And

44:12

I know so many people in my peer group I'm

44:14

a little bit older than you, just a little bit,

44:16

who have deep regrets for not

44:19

getting involved sooner, when they had

44:21

the energy, when they had more

44:23

time at their disposal. Uh,

44:26

you know, less bogged down by family obligations

44:29

and crazy work days. So

44:31

this is the time to show up and learn these lessons.

44:35

It's a great answer, John, Do you have anything that you

44:37

want to add to that? So do you ever remember

44:40

I don't know if they do this or where you live,

44:42

but your energy bill and

44:45

they kind of audit your energy use

44:47

and they compare it to the energy

44:50

uses of like your five neighbors, and

44:52

you either get a smiley face or a frowny face,

44:55

or like, oh, you know you're

44:57

showering for too long, use less heat.

45:00

I'm of the opinion that if

45:02

we did that for voting, we would get

45:04

far more people to turn out because

45:07

think of it this way. If I

45:09

know my neighbors are

45:11

voicing their opinions and I either

45:13

agree with them or disagree with them, no matter

45:15

what I would say, well damn

45:17

I should probably voice my opinion

45:19

too. So that's number one. As Katie

45:22

mentioned, there are barriers to voting and that that's

45:24

a separate discussion. But I

45:26

think saying I don't want to vote

45:28

and I can't vote are very different things.

45:30

So do the people who say I don't want to vote? There

45:33

are quantifiable results

45:36

from your apathy. You know, there

45:38

are so many candidates out there right now on

45:40

both sides of the aisle that one

45:43

person wants to divide, one person wants

45:45

to bring people together, one person wants to get results,

45:47

and the person wants to disagreement to the void. And

45:50

I think that by not voting, we

45:52

don't choose the person that wants to get results.

45:54

We're in a time of crisis. This is a pandemic and

45:56

an economic crisis, and you're gonna

45:59

stay home when we're choosing the people

46:01

who are going to deal with that. Like, that's

46:03

a problem.

46:05

Yeah, And I think. You know, my

46:09

nephew is eighteen and I'm

46:11

having a hard time convincing him to vote. You

46:13

know, he's pretty dug in in the fact that it doesn't

46:15

make a difference, that

46:18

it doesn't even matter which party you

46:20

know who it is, that they're

46:23

all politicians. And I get that.

46:25

I get that feeling. But

46:27

the first step is still to

46:29

show up and vote and to move

46:32

the needle in the direction that you want.

46:34

The second step is to get involved.

46:36

As you mentioned earlier, John, you can get involved.

46:38

You can show up to your city council, you can run for city

46:41

council. You would be surprised at

46:43

how much easier it is to gain

46:45

entry to this private club. And

46:47

you know what happens. Then you get

46:49

to actually enact change. We

46:52

don't get to move on past this

46:55

point through apathy. We

46:57

get to move forward by

46:59

by stay ending up and doing something,

47:01

physically doing something. And that is not possible

47:03

for everybody. Not everybody can

47:06

run for office. But you can be involved.

47:08

You can support the people, You can pay attention

47:10

and you can see who reflects your values. You

47:13

can do mutual aid, you can get involved in different

47:15

grassroots organizations, and all

47:17

of that is about being politically

47:19

active, and all of that is about changing your

47:21

future. And your future is the most

47:23

important one because you're going to be here the longest. You

47:26

know, we're still here, but

47:28

like you're gonna have to carry the torch.

47:31

I at this point, if you're

47:33

listening to this podcast, you haven't been convinced to vote yet.

47:35

I don't know what else we can say it we

47:37

got to We got two people just ripping you

47:39

up, so please again. I

47:44

mean, I I know that we all learn

47:46

our lessons in the time that we learned them. But one

47:48

thing that I hope this intense time

47:51

of social economic upheaval

47:53

can can show you is that the

47:56

impossible is absolutely possible,

47:59

and it is happening.

48:02

It doesn't go away by ignoring it. So

48:05

so now that we've hopefully convinced

48:07

everybody listening this to vote or

48:09

to register to vote, UM, I want to talk

48:12

about the part about voting with your heart. UM.

48:14

I think it's important to note that an enthusiastic

48:16

vote counts just as much as an unenthusiastic

48:19

vote. And so I have a question for both

48:21

of you guys who, throughout this podcast we've

48:23

seen have shown frustrations

48:25

with your own parties. Should you

48:28

vote with your party even if you can't stomach the

48:30

candidate that you're saddled with? Do you think that there's a

48:32

better alternative? What are your thoughts here, John,

48:34

Well, that's pretty subjective, Like

48:37

I don't know. I I feel like you can dislike

48:40

a candidate and still vote for them, but it depends

48:43

on the level of dislike that in distaste

48:45

that you have for that candidate. I don't

48:47

know. I don't vote the party

48:50

I like to, you know, think about

48:52

who I'm going to vote for. I mean,

48:54

full disclosure. I've I've actually voted for one Democrat

48:56

in my life. I'm not going to say who, but I

48:58

voted for one scary but

49:02

I didn't like the Republican running and so

49:05

I cast my ball for the other person. That

49:07

aside, you gotta evaluate

49:10

the candidates on their merits, and

49:12

you know, sometimes you might have a personal disagreement.

49:15

I also, this is going to be a terrible

49:18

answer because I'm in a tough spot. No,

49:20

not if you if

49:22

you feel like you're in a tough spot, you gotta do with

49:24

it. I think you gotta evaluate the person on their merits,

49:28

and if the personal distaste for that

49:30

person outweighs how

49:32

much you like their policies, and you know it's a

49:34

gut feeling, you know that

49:36

you just can't do it, that you can't

49:38

stomach a vote for that person, then

49:40

you gotta either leave it blank

49:43

or vote for the other guy, or I don't know, it depends.

49:46

Yeah, that's ticky. I think that the question,

49:49

it absolutely is very subjective. It depends

49:52

on the situation, but it's it's

49:55

for me. There's like a hierarchy of stuff like,

49:57

Okay, what are their policies, what

49:59

are they promoting them?

50:02

On a personal level, what's at

50:04

stake if I choose not to vote,

50:06

So what's the other option, the alternative what

50:08

happens if I don't support this

50:10

person and the other guy wins?

50:13

And all of that has to inform like, I can't sit

50:15

here and tell you absolutely

50:17

should only vote for Democrats versus

50:19

Republicans, because I don't think

50:22

that that is that's

50:25

not sincere and honest. It's it's pretending

50:28

that Democrats are infallible or that our

50:30

guy. It's it's very hyperpartisan.

50:33

However, right now things are hyperpartisan.

50:36

I look at that, and

50:39

look, Hillary Clinton not an

50:41

ideal candidate in any capacity.

50:43

I get that. I was befuddled,

50:45

And this is no, I don't need to know how you voted

50:48

John In or your family

50:50

or anything like that. But I

50:53

was very confused on a personal level

50:56

for people that I know and love that

50:58

are conservative who didn't

51:01

seem to care that he has

51:03

a long track record of

51:06

very valid sexual assault claims.

51:09

And it hurt me in my core

51:12

that political differences aside

51:15

that my my childhood best friend who

51:17

has little girls, that

51:19

that didn't bother them. And that's a perfect

51:21

example of the kind of thing

51:23

that you should sit down and really consider, like what are

51:25

your values here? But then

51:28

there's also the whole thing of like

51:30

like, look at the other side, what's at stake?

51:32

And it's a really, really tough position

51:35

to be in, and it is definitely a

51:37

burden that we have to carry. But again

51:39

it all comes back to if you don't

51:41

like the options, we start getting

51:44

involved now so that in the future we

51:46

have better options. But the answer

51:48

in the moment isn't to just say burn

51:51

the whole system down. I

51:53

think, um, I want to change the tone

51:55

a little bit because I want to end on a very

51:57

positive note, because I really do think I'm

52:00

gonna lie when I when we first started talking

52:02

about having a Republican and a Democrat and

52:04

me on a podcast, I got a little nervous

52:06

that we would end up it would end up in

52:08

a fiery debate. But what I love the most is

52:10

that the both of you would have found

52:12

such great common ground. And I think

52:14

that there are some some areas

52:16

in which Democrats and Republicans

52:19

at at their heart, Like you both have said, it's a there's

52:21

a difference between what the

52:23

party says and does from the top and how

52:26

you kind of act and feel with your

52:28

heart. How can we continue to build

52:30

on that? How can we continue to build on finding

52:32

common ground? I personally think that that's

52:34

the only way that we can start kind

52:36

of joining together is by not doing

52:39

us versus them type of situation, but really

52:41

seeking to understand each other. Granted

52:44

the very clear things like racial

52:46

justice and gender equality and

52:48

all of the equality bits we need to all

52:51

agree on specifically, But outside

52:53

of that, how do you guys both feel, and this is the last

52:55

question before we close out, how do you guys both

52:57

feel we can continue building on that common ground

52:59

and really start searching for a little bit more

53:01

of a better relationship.

53:04

I'd say, well, so I can

53:07

kind of give you an answer. Well, first

53:09

of all, I don't bite believe the

53:14

big bad Republican is here. It

53:16

goes back to my comment that I made

53:18

earlier. And I don't

53:20

mean to be like off color or inarticulate

53:22

about this, but when normal

53:24

people talk about politics, it

53:27

is like de facto civil

53:30

See, here's the problem. Our political system

53:33

rewards people that throw rocks

53:35

and yell and scream, and

53:38

if you want to get anything done, you have to

53:41

go to the people that have the power

53:43

to make the change or you try to become

53:45

the people with the power, and

53:48

people in power do not respond to yelling and screaming.

53:51

People want to have a dialogue. People

53:54

like if you were to talk to your neighbor about

53:56

a political issue, you probably wouldn't scream

53:58

and yell at them and speak and say ound bites.

54:00

You probably ask questions, why do you think

54:03

that if we talk about politics

54:05

like normal people. Yeah,

54:09

you know, I have a slightly

54:11

different the yelling and

54:13

the showing up in the voice of your opinion. I

54:15

think that there is definitely, um, a

54:17

time and a place for that when when things

54:19

are intense. You know, I believe in the power of protests.

54:22

I think that a lot of stuff is getting skewed

54:24

right now and it's a bit out

54:26

of control everything. We don't need to get

54:28

into that about the efficacy of protests

54:31

right now, but I believe in them

54:33

deeply. But I do subscribe

54:36

to that myself. And it's hard right now when everybody

54:38

is just so amped up to the you

54:41

know, they're at full throttle one. We're

54:44

we're so busy saying our opinion that we're not listening.

54:47

Um. When I've done I've done a lot of campaigning

54:49

for people or you know, volunteering, showing up,

54:51

knocking on doorsteps, and it comes down to that. It comes

54:53

down to saying like okay, well, uh,

54:56

how about this specific issue and having a general conversation,

54:58

and that's how you find common ground. Um. I said

55:01

this on a break to John, but I really respect

55:03

hearing him talk about where where

55:06

he's coming from and what he's doing because

55:09

you know, so much of my exposure to

55:12

you know, young uh Republicans

55:15

has been a bit of more of the Trumpett brand

55:17

where it's it's it's you know, there

55:20

is a faction of people that are manipulating truth

55:23

to serve their own narratives.

55:25

And right now we have a disagreement

55:28

across the board about what truth is and

55:31

and we're all so dug in.

55:33

But if we can come together and have actual conversations,

55:36

like you were saying, you start to see the through

55:38

lines. You see where we agree and

55:40

you see where we disagree, and we can learn from each

55:42

other. You know, I'm not always

55:44

right about everything, But there's

55:47

a lot of stuff that's trial and error. A lot of stuff

55:49

is us saying like we haven't tried this,

55:52

let's try this. You know,

55:54

we've tried this system. We haven't and there

55:56

might be mistakes that are made. But if we've come

55:58

together and we act actually learn

56:00

how to listen to each other and learn from each

56:03

other, that's a vastly

56:05

different political landscape,

56:07

if I may. Um. So, I

56:10

just want to be clear. When I talk about yelling

56:12

and screaming, I mean

56:14

it in a sense that anger

56:17

is not a bad emotion. In fact, some

56:19

of the most just and

56:21

productive things that

56:23

we can do in the world are born out of anger,

56:26

right, So I'm not saying that necessarily.

56:28

What I'm saying is that yelling for,

56:31

you know, to be self aggrandizing to

56:33

yourself rather than a cause

56:35

that you believe in. Like, there are a lot of people

56:38

grifting, yeah, you know, profiting

56:41

off of me. We've

56:43

got them on the left and the right. Oh,

56:45

believe me, I'm well aware. And

56:47

and and it's such a problem.

56:50

So that's the kind of yelling and rancor that

56:52

I'm against. I'm not necessarily, not

56:54

necessarily against. And I didn't

56:56

think that you said that, but that was just where my mind

56:58

went, and just in case, and but he was thinking

57:01

that, Like I'm I'm an advocate of

57:03

protests, but I also think that

57:05

there is a respectful way to have a conversation.

57:08

And sometimes sometimes that's hard, especially

57:10

when people aren't coming to the to this stage

57:13

with a good faith argument, when they're not actually

57:15

listening to the words you're saying, or they're

57:18

drawing on the facts, and we are all both

57:20

sides have people that are guilty of it, and

57:23

I try to bring that to my work. But and this is what

57:25

we're trying to talk about that you mentioned.

57:28

We don't have a common set of facts, Like we're

57:30

squabbling over what is the truth, Like,

57:33

Okay, you have climate change, we have

57:36

X amount of emissions, it is a measurable

57:38

thing. We're going to say that that's

57:40

not real. I can I

57:42

can say I think that we should have market

57:44

based climate solutions, and that

57:47

I think nuclear energy is a good thing, and

57:49

that the regulatory environment shouldn't

57:52

be so complex for people. And

57:54

you might disagree with that. If

57:56

we're discussing what is

57:58

real, having that common

58:01

set of facts is something that we're trying to bring

58:03

to the table that you know, we can

58:05

disagree about things, but we at least

58:07

have to be talking in the same universe. So

58:10

I would literally listen, I could listen

58:12

to you guys talk back and forth because it is, like you

58:15

said, very very calm. It's a regular

58:17

conversation with your neighbors. Unfortunately, we're

58:19

running out of time. Um and before

58:21

we end, I want to give you guys, because both of

58:23

you have such strong voices and so I

58:25

want you both to do some shameless promo.

58:28

John, I want you to to promo everything

58:30

you can places that people can find

58:32

you and listen to you more if if they

58:35

if they're really feeling the gen z

58:37

go op vibes. Yeah, the gen

58:39

z Gop podcast we do three

58:41

episodes a month. You can find us

58:43

on Twitter at gen z gop

58:46

pod or gen z gop org

58:49

the pod. The pot account is just

58:51

for our podcast. For on Spotify, SoundCloud,

58:54

Apple Podcast. You can go to gen

58:56

z gop dot org and

58:58

sign up to you either become

59:01

a member or you can submit a resume

59:03

to become a part of our team. We're

59:05

looking for new and excited

59:08

voices to come to our movement.

59:10

And then also I'll plug my own personal Twitter

59:13

for some hot take, current events and

59:15

Boston sports. It's at

59:17

John olds m A love it.

59:19

I love it well, John, Thank you so much for coming

59:21

on. Thank you for sharing your voice in your opinion

59:23

and and I really appreciate it. All Right, Katie,

59:26

where can everybody find you? Oh?

59:28

You can find me in a variety of places.

59:30

I'm also on Twitter at Katie Stole.

59:33

I co host Worst

59:36

Year Ever, which is a podcast

59:38

with I Heart Radio as well with

59:40

Robert Evans from Behind the Bastards

59:43

and Cody Johnston that

59:45

was originally supposed to be all election related,

59:48

but you know, things have changed

59:50

since we launched that podcast, and so

59:53

you know we're we're talking about ah a

59:55

lot, a wide a wide range of topics.

59:58

Oh, we keep been interesting. We could get interesting guests.

1:00:01

Uh. You also can check out my other podcast,

1:00:03

Even More News, that I co host with Cody

1:00:05

Johnston that is a companion to

1:00:08

our YouTube channel Some

1:00:10

More News, Uh, and it's a

1:00:12

lot of deep dives looks

1:00:14

at honestly

1:00:16

all the stuff that you would expect us to be covering,

1:00:19

and we do. Our videos range from

1:00:22

twenty minutes to an hour. Some of

1:00:24

them are long, but you know you've got time to kill

1:00:26

right now. Nice. Well, you guys know

1:00:29

you can always find me at alex Iono on

1:00:31

all platforms. That's the best part about

1:00:33

having a weird last name, it's a I O n

1:00:35

Oh. Please make sure you rate

1:00:38

and subscribe to this podcast. That is how

1:00:40

we grow and I thank you so

1:00:42

much for coming through today. We'll talk to you guys

1:00:44

next week and until then, peace. We

1:00:54

really want you to get the help you need, so if you

1:00:56

need help, please seek independent advice from

1:00:58

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1:01:01

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely

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1:01:25

Who if That's a Doozy