Transcript: “We Can Prevail” over Trump By Building a Broad Coalition

Transcript: “We Can Prevail” over Trump By Building a Broad Coalition



Mitchell: No, no. In most urban areas you have to pretty wealthy to live the lifestyle that most people think of as the regular middle-class lifestyle. So even people in New York City and other urban areas that are making six digits are having to make really hard choices in order to afford the city. And when you think about how cities need to run properly, your average EMT, your average nurse, your average school teacher, your average person who’s leaving college is part of the affordability crisis. Your average sanitation worker is part of the affordability crisis as well as people who you might think of as being part of the traditional industrial working class, which is less and less a reality, unfortunately, in this country. And so when we talk about working class, we’re talking about a wide spectrum of people—from your barista to your EMT to people who might have multiple degrees but are really struggling to folks who might actually work at a university, who have all types of degrees. If you talk to your average adjunct professor, they are struggling. And so it’s a very, very diverse, broad set of people, which is why we’ve done a lot of research to understand the working class to build a movement that represents the nuances and the diversity of that working class.

Bacon: There’s a great report WFP did on the working class, and I’ll post it publicly to make sure people see it because it was really good and taught me some things too. Last question: I was making fun of people—there was a memo sent out by one of these firms basically defending the idea to call the National Guard—calling the National Guard being in D.C. a distraction or a tactic or a stunt and downplaying it. But I’ve got to admit, my friend Senator Warren, who I love, used the term “diversion” to talk about Lisa Cook last night. I assume there’s some strategy here, but I do not feel like we’re living in a world of distractions and stunts and diversions. I feel like a Black woman who was the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve and who also was representing an independent agency got pushed out and maybe fired—it feels like a very important thing to me. Not a diversion, not a distraction, not a stunt. The National Guard being in D.C., not a diversion, not a stunt. I’m bothered by this language, but maybe I’m missing something. So help me understand ’cause you are reading these poll, you do politics in a way that I don’t.

Mitchell: I think I could synthesize it. I think in a world where Donald Trump was a popular president that had popular policies, he would not have to resort so blatantly to authoritarian means. At a very clear point, he has chosen—and I want to connect what’s happening in D.C. with what happened in Texas—to give up traditional politics. He understands that he is not a popular president, that his policies aren’t popular, and that he has gained the allegiance of his base and of the Republican base. If you look at polls, he’s deeply, deeply underwater with Democrats and independents. And he has soddenly the same numbers with Republicans. And I think based on that reality, he’s wholly pivoting away from democratic politics to authoritarian politics.





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Kim Browne

As an editor at Glamour Canada, I specialize in exploring Lifestyle success stories. My passion lies in delivering impactful content that resonates with readers and sparks meaningful conversations.

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