 Hello, everyone, and on behalf of the Arlington Democratic Council Committee, welcome to our first ever and first of three strengthening democracy forum. Tonight, we'll be examining both the obstacles and the opportunities that confront our democracy and the Democratic Party on a national level. My name is Stephanie Swanson, and I am the co-chair of the ADTC, along with my partner, Amy Coolidge, who I could not live without, to be quite honest. Richard McElroy serves as our treasurer, and he is fearlessly and frantically letting us all in. So thank you for that, Richard. Kim Haas is our secretary, and Adam McNeil and Jennifer Latowski serve as our affirmative action and outreach officers, rounding out our leadership team. The committee we serve on the Arlington Democratic Council Committee has a number of important goals. Those include fostering and advancing the ideals and aims of the Democratic Party, building and strengthening the Democratic Party in Massachusetts and specifically right here in Arlington, and to organize and work for the election and appointment of members of the Democratic Party at the district, county, state, local, and national levels. All of these aims are in part what bring us here tonight. A little bit more about the committee itself. We meet monthly, virtually for the time being, and all are welcome. Our next meeting is June 7th at 7 PM. So please join us if you're interested. More info can be found on our website, which is on the slide you see now, our Facebook page, and our Twitter handle as well. And don't hesitate to contact us on any of those platforms at any point, either now or in the future. I want to take a minute to recognize all of the volunteers and committee members who dedicated countless hours, and I mean countless hours, to make this a reality. You can see from the list of names here the individuals involved in the planning of this event that we are an active and engaged group. But we want to have as many others join us in our efforts to advance these Democratic values and issues as possible. So if you haven't already, again, please join us. We also want to say a big thank you to Danielle Lacker for her creative work and her design contributions, as you guys will see throughout the evening on our screen. Now on to the main event. This work we do tonight and beyond is crucial. And at a time when there are powerful forces intent on undermining our Democratic institutions and impinging upon our right to vote, gather, and protest. Following a narrow Democratic victory against Trump in the 2020 presidential election and the horrific events of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, coupled with a raging climate crisis, a crippling pandemic, and voter rights consistently in jeopardy, all while racial justice and equality sit at the forefront of our minds, we here at the ADTC, along with our partners, are committed to collaboration and action when it comes to confronting injustices and pursuing equity and equality for all. One of the ways we do that is through our democracy, which brings us here tonight. Tonight is the first of three forums and we'll focus on the national state of democracy with a particular focus on the 2022 midterm. Our state forum, which is on June 3rd, will explore why it's historically been so hard to elect a Democratic governor, present company notwithstanding, and what it will take to win next year. Join us again at 7pm on June 3rd to hear from political strategists, Wilnellia Rivera and Leslie Braxton-Campbell, president of the Young Dems of Massachusetts on the topic. Finally on June 17th, our third and final forum will zero in on local party politics and political organizing. It'll feature our indomitable Senator Cindy Friedman and Zane Crute from the Mystic Valley NAACP. So thank you. Before we begin, we're agreeing to our guidelines. As you enter the event, you saw our code of conduct. And just to remind everyone, we are recording this forum and we will share it publicly so that it's available afterwards. Finally, before we begin, I wanna recognize the elected officials here tonight. I think right now it is Senator Cindy Friedman, I believe is here and I had mentioned her earlier. So thank you Senator Friedman for being here. I apologize if I've missed anybody else but feel free to throw it in the chat and I promise I will give you a shout out. And thank you to Lisa Padula for helping me spot our elected. I also wanna thank all of our allied organization, town and city committees, who have co-sponsored with us tonight and moving forward for our next two forums. Again, as you can see, we have a pretty robust group of supporters and co-sponsors and we're really thankful and excited to have you guys be a part of this tonight. So now on to the main event. Our moderator and host for tonight's forum is author and Arlington resident, Steve Almond. Steve is a Cognoscenti contributor at WBUR where he writes extensively on politics and democracy. Steve has authored 10 books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers, Candy Freak and Against Football, in addition to the recently published Bad Stories, a literary investigation of democracy and its delusion. Thank you so much Steve for joining us tonight to help us grasp the state of our democracy and to engage our panelists in a candid discussion of what we need to do to not only protect but strengthen our democracy and indeed the Democratic Party. Steve, please take it away. All right, thank you, Stephanie. Let me start by just outlining the format for the event. We're gonna first hear from our panelists about the threats and opportunities facing both the Democratic Party and democracy. We won't have a chance to take audience questions from our panelists, but we've made sure that there's gonna be ample time in the breakout rooms to discuss what we have discussed on the panel. That interactive strategy segment of tonight's program is gonna happen in a breakout format. And after 20 minutes in the breakouts, we'll come back together and wrap up the formal program by 8.30 or so. For those interested in networking, the schmoozing portion of the evening, several members of the ADTC will keep the event going until nine, just to have a chance to make informal connections and discuss further. I wanna turn now to Caitlin Castillo. She's the president of the College Democrats of Massachusetts who will introduce our panelists. Caitlin is active in politics. Obviously, she serves as Democratic State Committee member, representing college students, a member of Boston's Ward 15 Democratic Committee and a fellow for Andrea Campbell's campaign for mayor of Boston. She's finishing her master's in public administration at UMass Boston. Thanks, Caitlin, take it away. I am so very pleased to introduce Governor Deval Patrick. Originally from the South side of Chicago, Deval Patrick served as the 71st and first African-American governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During his eight year tenure, he helped revive a battered economy through the expansion of affordable healthcare, unprecedented investments in Massachusetts public schools and public infrastructure and initiative stimulating clean energy and biotechnology. Before that, he was assistant attorney general for the Civic Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice where he worked on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct for the Clinton administration. More recently, he founded and built an impact investment fund at Bain Capital. Currently, he supports progressive politics and grassroots groups as co-chair of American Bridge, 21st century through its bridge initiative, together initiative. I will also be introducing Tony Mack. Tony Mack is Maine and New Hampshire state advisor for the movement voter project which works to strengthen progressive power at all levels of government by helping donors, big and small, support the best and most promising local community-based organizations in key states with the focus on youth and communities of color. Since 2006, Tony has consulted for grassroots organizations providing strategic support around what is now called integrated voter engagement, electoral organizing, policy advocacy and grassroots-based building. I will also be introducing Herb Meister. So he is a national campaigner with Common Cause. Herb recruits, organizes and trains a national network of grassroots volunteers and community leaders to help Common Cause accomplish its goals of holding power accountable and building a democracy that works for everyone. Herb is one of the leaders of Common Causes for the People Act campaign, also known as HR1. He has a research background in LGBTQ advocacy, survivor advocacy and criminal justice. Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or endorse political parties or candidates. All right, awesome. Thank you, Caitlin. I wanna begin the discussion by just pointing out and getting all the panelists' response to this, if you could. We're in this real politic right now in which democratic policies from COVID stimulus bill to the infrastructure bill, from Obamacare to sensible gun control, all of these measures are overwhelmingly supported by the public. I'm interested for the panelists to speak to why this overwhelming popularity doesn't translate into overwhelming support at the ballot box. Where do you think the disconnect is? And let's start with Governor Patrick and then go to Tony and Herb. Well, Steve, I thought the idea was that they were gonna go first and I was gonna come in after. Thank you for the question. Thanks to Stephanie and to Amy and Richard and the whole team at the Arlington Town Committee. Caitlin, thank you for the generous introduction and thanks everybody for tuning in. I think we are where we are in large part, Steve, because our democracy is itself broken, meaning the way that we move ideas through- What here, Governor Patrick? Can you hear me okay? Yes, please mute if you would, if you're just watching the forum. We can hear you perfect. The way that we move ideas through debate and onto legislation is broken and you'll hear more about some of the reasons why the hyperpartisan gerrymandering, I think Herb's gonna talk about that, the way we intermittently engage at the grassroots and need to be more systematic and permanent about that and Tony's gonna talk about that. And I think it's also true if you layer in the things that Republicans have rigged the system because they know they can't win a fair fight. They know these ideas are popular even with so-called Republican voters. We're awash in dark money and the Republican Party I think has emerged and I say this as a Democrat who doesn't think you have to hate Republicans to be a good Democrat, but they have invited are being awash in dark money. So I think that the bigger challenge in some ways is that we have come to lose faith in democracy. That's both a consequence and a cause, right, because if you were, I can tell you that the notion of that sense of economic isolation or insecurity of social isolation of despair as measured by suicide rates or rates of addiction, that feeling that those issues are issues at election time and then they disappear in between elections. That's why black people have been feeling for generations. Now everybody's feeling that way. And so we have a, I think, a really, really big challenge and we have to understand that when we ask people to come and care about and engage in democracy, we're asking a lot of people who for a long time or more recently have felt like democracy didn't answer for them, which is why I think it is so important that when we elect our leaders, they deliver. And I say kudos to the Biden team who have just come in and been all about getting stuff done, reaching out but not letting bipartisanship as it's defined narrowly in Washington be an end in itself. Great. Herb and Tony, I would ask you to weigh in on that as well. Herb, you wanna start? Sure. Yeah, I think Governor Patrick hit the nail on the head with so many of this. I think when there's so much going on in one place at a time where there's so much disinformation and misinformation that goes on as well could really, really contribute to this. And something that I really also wanna talk about that Governor Patrick mentioned is gerrymandering, is specific systems that put people in place who didn't earn this, who didn't earn their votes and who have cheated the system. Gerrymandering and partisan and racial gerrymandering is a giant part of that, cutting districts to make sure and ensure that specific demographics of people are in districts to get more people elected. I think a big part of this as well is dark money. And I think actually that is one of the largest ones is dark money in politics. And I will talk about this a bit more but before the People Act is a big, big reason of how that can make more of an equitable balance of our government. Where there's a majority of the American population regardless of political ideology. And I think that's a really important point. For the voters, regardless of political ideology there are many, many, many policies that are popular over 50%. And they're especially with voting bills and voting rights. There are people regardless if you're a Republican and independent, a Democrat or another third party, it is popular. And the reason why a lot, big reason why those are not becoming law is because of dark money, gerrymandering and suppression of voting rights. So that's just one thing I would tack on about the inequity of the voting system as well. So I just wanted to add one thing. So at the end of it, why does this, you know it does translate, it may not translate into the voting box but it's about who gets to the voting box and who is allowed in the voting box. So I think that's a really, really big inclination there and a big difference that we should make is that there's a difference between getting to the voting box and the ballot box and supporting what you would like to vote for. Right, Tony. Yeah. I agree with everything that Governor Patrick and Herb said. I sort of think of it in multiple categories. I think there's the structural issues that we're facing, right? There's, you know, arguably the US Senate is not a democratic institution. The electoral college is not very democratic. And then, you know, there is gerrymandering as Herb talked about. There is the voter suppression that we've seen from the obvious efforts that have happened more recently to just the fact that, you know there are fewer polling locations in poor black neighborhoods and so there are longer lines and, you know all of that is depressing the vote and I'll come back to that in a second. But, you know, Steve, you talked about these overwhelmingly popular policies and I think one of the challenges we have is that voters don't always vote based on policies, right? They often vote based on values but they vote based on emotion frequently and we all are very focused on that and the Republicans have done a better job sort of with the sound bites and the tapping into emotion and I think, you know, we can get back to it but there are increasing efforts from Democrats and progressive side to figure out how to do that better and to sort of be the counterweight to some of the divisive emotion triggering approaches that Republicans have taken, you know they have used race to divide us and to stoke up their base and there's efforts like we can get into it more but the race class narrative which is the sort of other way of approaching the dialogue with voters that sort of helps people see that we are all in this together and taps into that emotion of the idea that no matter what race you are and no matter where you come from the American dream should apply to all of us and we can't let them divide us and it's clear who them is but if you're more partisan you can make it clear who them is, right? And so that kind of more emotional take I think has gotten more effective and then lastly I would say it's about turnout, right? I mean, part of the reason we're not winning is that the turnout of the progressive base youth and people of color particularly, you know has been weaker and I think that's because people feel disenfranchised as the governor said they feel like democracy doesn't work for them and so what do we do about that is obviously the question because it's true that the democracy hasn't worked for them and I think they often also feel that candidates sort of drop in right before election season and say we're gonna make a difference in your life but and we will get back to this it's the year round engagement it's making sure that people understand that this is not just about elections it's about being engaged year round and again we'll come back to it but the grassroots organizations that are doing that year round engagement and whoever is making people participate in winning the things or getting the changes in the policies but will have a concrete impact on their lives is what's gonna turn this around. Right, so what I'm hearing in a way is a kind of chicken and egg dilemma and I wanna direct this to the governor because you've had a lot of experience governing that's part of the job the Republican party has become increasingly right before our eyes a party dedicated to electoral manipulation in many forms and so there's this real question how much when Democrats do hold power should they be devoted to governance to the things like COVID relief and the infrastructure bill that's pending versus focusing on their energy on fixing these long-term structural problems voter suppression, gerrymandering the inherent Republican bias the electoral college and Senate that's a real that you were suggesting governor that you can't solve you can't effective you know democracy can't be effective if it has these structural problems but then Biden's in office and other elected Democrats saying okay but we also have to govern we've gotta take care of our constituents that means infrastructure there's a lot of political capital devoted to that and how do you balance that with trying to address these structural problems which are holding you know essentially holding back common sense policy from being enacted. Well Steve I think you use the magic word and that is balance you have to do both and you have to not do it on your own in my view it shouldn't just be what office holders are doing it should be what the rest of us organized and energized are asking of each other and demanding of our office holders to do. So I think I mean some of you some of our participants will know I believe so so strongly that we are supposed to bear our generational responsibility in office which is we're supposed to do things in our time that leave things better for those who come behind us and if that means you know you have to spend political capital fine that's what is there for in my view it's not there just to be accumulated for bragging rights it's there to be used because in fact a term of two or four years six years in the case of the United States Senate is not that long. I think the other thing that has to happen so that may be about the structural things but frankly that's also about big hard things like infrastructure which get bigger and harder the longer we ignore it, right? The money that is being proposed by the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress is so big because we've been starving our hard and human infrastructure for decades. And everybody understands that in their own lives but somehow or other we've thought you know when we ask government to do it and when we actually get to the reality of having to pay for it in our taxes we seize up and that brings me to a third point. We have to talk about what we're doing and this is one of the things you know I remember saying to Barack Obama when I was when he was president and I was about to run for reelection he said, are you enjoying yourself? And I said, well not every day but I really love the job and we got a great team and we're getting stuff done. I said, but there are two things I really don't like and he said, what's that? I said, I hate raising money and I hate the bragging and he said, get over it. And in fact, I know he was right but in fact that was exactly the latter exactly their issue, right? And we've reflected on that. We went into 2010, the midterms with folks knowing about the ACA or thinking about the ACA that it was about death panels, right? It was what, eight years before the ACA got the mojo it deserved about trying to make people's lives manageable, possible and more equitable in the society. Same as, you know, we still talk about the stimulus bill as if it's some stinky waste of money. It was the stimulus bill that made it possible for us to keep our promise to spend in public education at the highest level in the history of the Commonwealth when the bottom had fallen out of the national, of the global economy. So one of the things I'm working on at American Bridge is telling that story, engaging with people especially people who were disengaged so they know that what is happening in their lives that is directionally right that makes a difference for them now and over time comes from Democrats. Right. As a writer, I think of this as the Democratic Party needs to be a better narrator for the national story. You think about FDR, for instance, he was telling a story. I wish personally, this might anger some people I wish President Obama had told a better more precise story about the financial crisis and who the authors of that crisis were so that the public would be prepared for more serious regulation of the financial sector, for instance. Let me ask her, given the GOP's ongoing assault on voting rights, can you talk about the For the People Act and how it might affect the 2022 midterms? Sure, I can talk about the For the People Act all day. And I love talking about the For the People Act. I mean, I believe that we have a slideshow as well because I know that I'm a visual learner and seeing things definitely helps me keep it in mind of why this bill is super important. So I believe we could pull up the slideshow that would be awesome. I feel confident that that slideshow is gonna be pulled up as soon as 10 seconds. It's nothing fancy, just some bullet points but bullet points nonetheless that are really, really important. And that really nail home what this bill is and what it will accomplish for us. We'll start talking about it. And I feel confident that somebody will figure out the screen share function now that we're all living in Zoom Geist. Okay. Cool. I actually think I can pull it up as well. One second, please. That's all right. We have all been living in what I refer to as the Zoom Geist. So this is like a familiar moment in any online gathering, the moment we're waiting for this to happen. Genuinely. There we go. Awesome. Great. So this is why I wanted to have this up because it makes a really big difference of what this does. And this bill is over 150 pages long but I picked out the really specific parts that really will make a difference in our upcoming elections and just elections in our government to come. So a big part of this bill is protecting and expanding voting rights. This bill offers automatic voter registration, online voter registration and same day registration. Additionally, it allows voting rights for people when they are released from incarceration. And I wanna make it really clear about this bill and the importance of it. This is a baseline. This is a uniform baseline for states to use and the requirements for them to have within their states. So voter suppression bills that you're seeing in states like Georgia, like Florida, like Iowa, like Ohio, that would not happen under this and they would have to meet these regulations. Additionally, it ends racial gerrymandering. So it creates an independent commission of people to build and create different districts so that the districts are not drawn based on race or based on political affiliation. And it creates a uniform rules and completely ban of partisan gerrymandering starting 2030. Also, it has a big, big sweep of ethical and accountable government reforms. It will require the president and people running for president to disclose their tax returns. It bars politicians from serving on corporate, yeah, wouldn't that be nice? Bars people, bars politicians from serving on corporate boards and it slows the constant revolving door of people coming into Washington and then coming into corporate lobbyists. And it slows that revolving door. And lastly, this is my favorite part of this bill. It reduces big money in politics. Similar to like I stated before, reducing big money in politics will create a system of change within our election system, within our voting rights and with our lives and with our everyday lives. So it creates citizen-funded elections for federal campaigns on a public donor matching system. Any of you are familiar with New York City, it's something similar to what they're doing right now with their local government and their mayor race. And also it mandates donor disclosures for anyone donating more than $10,000. I mean, it would be mandated that it's disclosed. So we know where money is coming from. And the reason why this is important is because it'll make sure that politicians, if they're having citizen-funded elections to meet a specific threshold to get that matched, that means that they'll spend more time talking to people on the street, going to rallies, shaking people's hands than with big corporate special interests behind doors. And that's what makes government more equitable is people representing people and not special interests. So this bill is fantastic. There's so much more than this, but this is the big points that I really, really wanted to hit and go over. Great. Yeah, definitely. And so something that I also wanted to mention is the filibuster, if that's okay. Yeah, sure. Great, because I think that these go hand in hand. So many people are wondering what the filibuster is. And the filibuster is a Jim Crow relic that is used to stall progress. And I wanna make it really, really clear that it is not in the constitution. And essentially it's a mechanic mechanism and it allows one senator to object to a bill behind closed doors. So when I used to think of filibuster, I thought of someone standing up and talking for a really, really long time. For this use, that's not what it is. This was a change in Senate rules that instead of creating a simple majority to pass a bill, it must be voted by 60 senators. Opponents of the people who support the filibuster believe that this creates bipartisanship and bipartisan actives and make sure that people across the aisle talk to each other. But in practice, it doesn't inspire bipartisan action. Essentially what it is is a recipe for gridlock and it gives the Senate minority a total veto power over the entire legislative process. So the first question we were asked is why are popular things amongst Republicans, Democrats and independents not coming into law? The filibusters are big reason why. Because 28% of the total US population can block legislation. Even if over 50%, over 50% of the United States population supports that legislation. And even if it's 50% of Republicans, it can still be blocked. It is an undemocratic rule. I believe that it's outrageous that a vast majority of Americans and a vast majority of people who want to get these bills passed, who want to create better lives for their friends and for their families and for generations to come can be blocked by a handful of senators who represent a minority of Americans who lost their election, who won a party loss in election. So all of this to say, if we want the new Congress to get anything done, we need to end the filibuster. And this connects directly with the poor that people act. We want this to get done. If we want a big sweep election in ethics and accountability reform, we need to end the filibuster. And the last thing I just want to say on this topic is that when we think of politics and we think of getting involved in politics, I can tell you the first thing that doesn't come to my mind is democracy reform. That is not the sexiest topic in the world. I find it pretty fun, but I know lots of people that I spend time with find it kind of quirky and hard to follow. But we all care about specific things, right? I really care about LGBTQ advocacy. That's really important to me is LGBTQ rights. I care about combating climate change. I care about future families. And all of this is impacted by our elections. And all of this is impacted by our politicians who represent us. And so I want us all to think, why are we here today? I know democracy reform and voting rights is really important to us, but why? It's important to us to pass the progress that we believe is fair. That's good for us and our family. And I really try to think about that every day when we try to lobby for this bill and advocate for it. And I encourage you all to do the same. And then just lastly, I wanted to mention that we do have phone banks for these targeting specific senators and patching people to their constituents, patching constituents to their senators and leaving messages. And I could put those in the chat. There's also a phone bank this Monday with New England democracy who is a phone banking as well. But happy to answer questions in any breakout room, but that's why I love this bill. That's awesome. Great. Thank you. One thing I would say just again about sort of narrating the American story that's fascinating to recall is that the story of Watergate is mis-told as a story. It was about malfeasance and political corruption, but it's actually a story about idealism. It's about the institutions responding to corruption. And one of the things that happened in the wake of Watergate was a raft of reforms to get dark money and corporate money out of politics. Those were slowly stripped away and eroded by right-wing political actors supported by that corporate money. So it's not that we're incapable of doing this. And you could argue that the January 6th insurrection is the sort of event that could be catalytic in getting people to realize how dangerous it is that there's so much corporate money and dark money awash that can sort of support bad political actors and demagogues. So that's my hope is that the past will be prologue in that sense. Tony, can I just... I'm sorry, I definitely want to hear from Tony, but just on the example you made, it's also really, really important that the other side, the nefarious element in the other side never stops working. Bill Moyers told me that every single thing that led to a conviction of the Watergate folks is legal today. Every single offense is legal today. And one of the things to realize is when your primary objective is not governance and serving your constituents when there's another agenda, then you are laser focused on ways to enable corporate money and influence to influence. You get the rise of Alec and so forth. That is also anti-democratic and it's hard to get our hands around because oftentimes people on the left or Democrats are focused on what governance is supposed to be, serving constituents, formulating policy that will be efficacious in effecting people's lives. That's a very different agenda. And this is just to your point, Governor, about their laser focused on their agenda. Tony, I do wanna turn to you. We've talked about how the GOP profits by a smaller electorate, but the voter movement project is dedicated to growing the electorate in communities of color and rural areas. How do you do that work and how can activists from other areas support you in that work? Yeah, thank you. So that is correct. Movement Voter Project's goal is to, let me sort of back up. Movement Voter Project supports grassroots organizations across the country that are rooted in communities of color in their organizations made up of youth, organizing those communities and other marginalized communities around the country. And MVP raises money from individual donors. The core of what we do, we raise money from individual donors and move it to those organizations in the critical states that are gonna make the biggest impact on national politics and state politics in some cases that are doing the best work to get out the vote and to engage people. And so the model is that these organizations, they work year round, right? They are the local organizations that understand that their communities, they are of, for and led by those from their communities, of for and led by those who are most impacted by injustice and they're engaging their communities around the issues they care most about. And so again, it's the voters of color, it's youth that are and other marginalized communities, those are their representative organizations. And so these organizations are spending sort of every day, not just election season, but they are engaging people around the issues, right? So they are addressing, if it's climate change, a lot of youth organizations are very focused on that. They're focused on economic justice issues in healthcare, housing, you name it. And then people that are getting engaged around those issues, then we'll get engaged around elections and they're keeping that year round cycle going, people who get engaged around elections, they then keep them engaged from election season to volunteer, to vote, if there's the year round cycle and they don't just stop there, right? So they don't treat elections as a one-off once the election is over, going back to the issues, but they also can then hold elected officials accountable between the elections, right? And so not only does that make sure that we keep winning those issues, but it also makes sure that people believe in the system, if what happens is if you really get riled up for candidate and they don't follow up, they don't follow through, that disillusionment really hurts our system. And so being able to hold people accountable to make sure that change happens. But the key to the organizations is that they, because they're rooted in community, because they're working their year round, they have relationships in the community. And so they are, and they have intimate knowledge of what matters, they are the representatives of the community. And so they are best at reaching voters who no one else is reaching. When candidates come in at the last minute and try to mobilize the vote, they may be very effective, they may even have people who are from the community reaching out, but because they haven't been their year round, they don't know the voters, they don't have the relationships, they're not able to have the same impact. And so the key is this rootedness in the communities. And so what the way MVP works and what people who are on this call can do is we make that connection for people. What I often hear, and I'll just sort of cut to this because I always hear it if we got to Q and A is, well, I really want to volunteer. And that's my lifetime experience has been mobilizing people to volunteer. So if you're not of an organization that is of four and led by those most impacted by injustice, what do you do? And what I have learned since I've gotten involved in this work is that organizing my community to support organizations in the communities that we need to be mobilizing most importantly is really important organizing work, right? We have been building these donor organizing teams around the country of people who have come together and had events like this and raised significant amounts of money to move to these organizations so that they can hire the organizers who can then recruit the volunteers who can become leaders themselves in their communities who can then recruit more volunteers to get out the vote and do the year round work that's necessary. And so the model that we've been using is and I think we'll be sharing this later maybe in the breakouts is the grassroots donor organizer model where folks can either organize a house party, a virtual house party or they can reach out to their network to mobilize people around raising funds to support this kind of work. And every house party that we organize and it's real old school grassroots organizing and volunteering generates more house parties. The governor has been on one of these house parties. I think that's how he found out about it. But more than one, yeah, you're amazing. Yeah, but you may have noticed we always encourage people at the end of those parties to host their own and every party generates several more and that's how organizing works. And it's the same thing the groups are doing on the ground to build power, to make change happen but this is to raise the money. And I'm just realizing a key thing I didn't say about the importance of the work these groups are doing is that they're doing year round work not just to win the election and not just to win the issues but to win long-term power, right? To change the structural balance of power. And we talked before about turnout and why we're not winning and it's because people whose lives are most impacted by policies that those of us who believe in social justice care about don't have the power to shift the political dynamic and that's what these organizations are doing by engaging people year round is building that power year after year so we have actually can shift the politics long-term. There's one more thing, Tony that you didn't mention that I have found is really important in working with some of the constituent groups that you guys are working with is that that organizing has the opportunity to actually better informed what the democratic agenda should be because sometimes especially at national campaigns or statewide campaigns somebody comes in over the top with what they think are the right issues and you get down on the ground and folks have a very different and sharper way of talking about what it is they want their government to help them do. Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's not always the same, obviously it's not the same across the country, right? Every community has a different set of priorities. The way I like to think of it is that part of the job of organizing and mobilizing is getting people to shift their thinking from being the object of history to being the subject of history. And what I'll ask each of you is to sort of play armchair quarterback as we generally do when it's election season, what is the one issue for all three of you? What is the one issue or policy that democratic politicians and activists should emphasize if we wanna mobilize voters for the midterms? I know this is a tough question and you're gonna wanna say lots of things, but if you were the boss, if you were calling the shots as to what you really push to mobilize voters with, what would it be? Do you wanna start her? Sure, I can start. Yeah, thank you for asking. I do wanna also make it clear that we are nonpartisan and so we aren't supporting any candidates or any political party for the midterms, but I can talk about the biggest importance of focusing on democracy reform. And I kind of mentioned it a little bit before, but I think when we say democracy reform, it doesn't really sound equitable. It doesn't sound like it's something that, if I was someone who wasn't involved in politics, I would hear democracy reform and say, what does that mean? However, if I talked about LGBTQ rights, if I talked about combating climate change, if I talked about voting expansion, if I talked about re-enfranchisement of communities and people who have been incarcerated previously, these are things that people can relate to in everyday lives of healthcare, things, putting food on the table. And I really can't emphasize enough that this all starts with our elections. And all of this starts with local elections and state legislations. A lots of times, if we can't win a federal campaign or we haven't won a federal campaign, we took it to the state legislature and won. And that is impacted people within those specific states. So I think the biggest thing that people can focus on moving forward is how they're going to make this country more equitable, how are they gonna make the voting booth more equitable and connecting that, connecting, making sure that everyone who is eligible to vote is able to vote easily and excessively. How is that going to then transfer to passing the Equality Act for LGBTQ rights or getting to net zero emissions as soon as possible? How are those are directly connected? And too often, I think we don't connect them. And it is our time right now. We have the opportunity. If someone says, why is it so important to pass? I'm gonna go back to before the People Act S1. Why is it so important to pass? Why is it so important to get rid of the filibuster? It's because we can make a change in people's communities. We can grant people more access to healthcare. We can grant people more access to the ballot box and that itself is empowering. So I know that was a big answer for, you know, but it was also a big question. So big answer for big questions and I love that. And I think that that's it, you know, like this bill and these bills coming forward, especially the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, DC statehood, all of these things are systemic changes to what's going to impact us next. That these bills passing can then directly impact someone to win a small local office that will give people more access to food, all of it's connected. And so that's the biggest thing that I think I would touch on. Fabulous. And I like what you're saying, Herb, about connecting the kind of lofty rhetoric to very concrete, appreciable, actionable issues that are of direct concern to citizens. What do you think, Tony? Yeah, I kind of wanna cheat a little bit or not answer the question completely because I think there is no one silver bullet policy that is gonna mobilize voters because every voter is different, every community is different. And it's sort of part of, this is the principle of the Movement Voter Project. I will say that what Herb is talking about, I think is the most critical issue facing us because everything else hinges upon it, right? I mean, voting rights and fighting back against voter suppression is so critical to changing the system such that everything, all the other work that is happening, as Herb said, can happen effectively. I'm not sure it's to what's gonna mobilize voters the most though, right? And so you have to listen to the communities, right? You have to listen to the organizations that are in each community and not think that there is going to be one issue that is gonna mobilize all communities, right? There are communities where criminal justice reform is what's gonna drive people and that's gonna get people out to vote, right? There are communities, what I have seen is climate change when we work with youth organizations, climate change just is a burning issue, life and death issue for so many organizations of young people. And then other examples, a lot of folks living in urban areas right now are facing a housing crisis that is just overwhelming and COVID has made it a complicated issue but for a lot of folks, that's what's gonna mobilize them is the idea that this, who you elect may determine whether you're gonna have a roof over your head. And so the organizations that have effectively harnessed those issues to engage people know best what those issues are. And so I think the key is to listen to the organizations and say, if we're gonna help out to mobilize voters, we need to follow the lead of the organizations that are rooted in those local communities. Governor Patrick. Well, I want to second both what Herb and Tony said. I think they're right. I think that we have to win. I mean, and all these issues are so important so it's unfair to be asked to pick one. I think we have to win the issue of community itself. That is, do we want and do we wish to be a part of a state wide, a neighborhood wide, a national community in the sense of understanding the stake we have in each other that we belong to each other. Just think about this. I never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined we could politicize a public health emergency. But somehow or other, freedom got associated with your choice not to wear a mask, a profoundly self-involved view of what freedom is. That you have no responsibility for anybody else. And unless we start seeing that Herb's interest in LGBTQ justice is my issue too. And my interest in economic justice and opportunity is Tony's too. And around and around we go, right? Unless we have some way to see that in each other and to care about that in each other, then I think a lot of the big hard decisions we have to make now that make our communities better over the long run are up for grabs. And so you've got another party, which I believe understands this, which is why division is their political strategy, right? It's all about apportioning justice as if it's a limited resource, right? So if you get something, I lose something. And we have got to win this notion that, you know, as Brian Stevenson, I think it was who said that in America, the opposite of poverty is not wealth, it's justice. And the only way to understand that in my view, and I think also in his is the sense that we belong to each other. I think Democrats can make that argument, have won that argument. And I think we have to do it in order to connect up all of these different needs and understand they're not competing, they're in fact parallel and equally and supportive of each other. I love that quote. I'm gonna give you a quote right back because I think about it all the time. Maybe some people will recognize it whenever people say, well, what should, you know, how should the Democratic Party speak? What do they represent? What do they stand for beyond, you know, particular issues or constituencies? And there's this quote I love, at many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day, it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. At every stage and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth. That is nothing new. All I ask in civil life is what you fought for in the civil war. You recognize that quote, Governor Patrick? I think I do. Teddy Roosevelt speaking the new nationalism speech he gave in 1910. And this is Teddy Roosevelt who was a pretty hardcore imperialist who evolved over the history of his career and eventually becomes really kind of this great spokesperson for what we think of now as progressivism. I wanna ask just one more quick question before we wrap up and go to the breakout rooms which is as activists and I wonder if you guys can speak quickly just briefly to this question, are we better served in Massachusetts and New England to fortify our grassroots organizing close to home regionally in the Northeast or to focus on where the threats are the most real and the most urgent? I'll just say I think it's a false choice. We have to do both. We have to do both. And you know it's ungeared it us if this is the point you're getting at in terms of the threats said. And I think it's such a question challenge. The question today among the woke is whether we're gonna leave room for the still waking. And if you are, if folks are on your last nerve as they are on mine on the other side it's a big ask but it is a necessary discipline I think for us to want and have community on the other side. I love that. Tony and Herb, do you wanna weigh in on that? I'll just say I agree completely with Governor Patrick. I think organizing locally, mobilizing around, it's all integrated, right? And so if you're organizing locally around local issues around state politics, you are also mobilizing. You have to also be thinking about the national. You have to be thinking about everything that's at stake. And there's no reason it can't all be integrated. There's no reason why when you're mobilizing your friends and neighbors around getting out to vote in a local election or winning a local issue that you can't also be mobilizing to support organizations in other states in that same, and that's the donor organizing I talked about before is can be totally integrated with local organizing. So you're building up your local base of people who are committed to both winning locally and supporting organizations remotely who can then organize locally where they are. So that we're all in this together. It may be one byproduct of this terrible pandemic that's all the ruin is that we do see how much people can work remotely and organize remotely and digitally. Herb, you wanna weigh in real quick on that before we go to the breakout rooms? Sure, I can just add one more thing to what everyone else said is absolutely the nail on the head and I just wanna give an example of why it's important to do both and why they aren't mutually exclusive. So for instance, a big thing that's happening and that a big movement has been built for years and years and years that's really come to shine this past year is police accountability. And police accountability and lots of different places are mostly municipal. And that's all local. That is all talking to your neighbors. And then there's HR one, which is a national push. Both are just as important. They're both so important about making an equitable government and equitable life for so many people. So I really moving forward, wanna make sure that, yeah, we're working on this, but what are you talking to your neighbors on about a specific thing on your local ballot? What candidates are you looking into? What specific things can you change within your community that will help your neighbor? And it can be that direct. And the wins are sometimes a lot more when they're local. So if you need a win, I mean, it's a good feeling as well. So, just talking on what everyone else said, both are genuinely equally as important. Good. And I like also wanna sort of underline the idea that some of this comes down to a shift in perspective from who is going to rescue us? Is the media gonna shape up? What are political actors gonna do? Are the millennials gonna show up? Are young voters gonna show up? Are thus is such a constituency? And I always think that the way to gauge how an election is gonna go is to think about yourself and how politically active you are. I think and cringe about how little I did in 2016 and then what the result was. And in 2020, I was not gonna get fooled again. We understood by that time how the rights of people were gonna be abrogated in the kind of outrageous corruption that just became commonplace and accepted. Maybe the other side is an interested in accountability. Clearly they're not interested in accountability, but that has to be our domain. On that note, I wanna thank our fantastic panelists and we'll be moving into the breakout rooms. Please stick around for that. I wanna turn it back to Stephanie who will usher us into those breakout rooms. Thanks, Steve. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you all. I mean, I just wanna say wow. Huge, huge thank you to our panelists and our moderator, Governor Herb, Tony and Steve for engaging in this important discussion. It's gonna be tough to beat our next two forums. This is pretty impressive, but it really is apparent from this conversation that there's a lot at stake and a lot at risk in our democracy both now and in the future. So I'm certainly motivated to take action and I hope you all are too.