 So I was originally not planning on watching the DNC convention But for whatever reason because I'm a sucker for punishment. Apparently I decided to tune in and I should have followed my initial instinct And avoided the DNC convention like the plague because I came away from this event after just night to feeling incredibly demoralized depressed and Hopeless and this is kind of the sentiment that I saw as well because it's clear that like all the Fighting that we've been doing over the course of the last four years It seemingly has it amounted to anything because the DNC is Pretty overt in courting Republican voters and not the left I mean they invite John Kasich on to assure all of us that Joe Biden definitely won't turn to the left shocker You know, we see these beautiful stories about how Joe Biden and John McCain were phenomenally close You know, they had this great really touching relationship We see Colin Powell a war criminal who should be in prison endorsing Joe Biden and we see AOC kind of just sideline She gets 60 seconds. Everyone else, you know Ilhan Omar O'Connor the future of the party. They don't get any speaking time It's it's frustrating like they're very clearly trying to appeal to suburban Republican voters when that strategy is Approven failure because suburban Republican voters will be voting with the Republican Party with Donald Trump so, you know, you see This strategy and you know a lot of people Just feel hopeless, right? You see them trying to court over them the other team and not us We see the Democratic Party transitioning into the Republican Party of the two thousands and it's sickening Like it goes beyond the cringe that we would have expected or did expect from the DNC and it just feels nauseating, right? Because it feels like no matter what we do we we can't catch a break and there's no policy substance There's just platitudes and I think that Marianne Williamson basically had the best take about this Brianna Joy Gray tweeted out Truly would love to hear about policy. Did I miss it? And then Marianne Williamson responded saying you didn't miss anything beautiful pictures of people of color and reference the black lives matter but no actual policy on how to end systemic racism Touching homage to COVID victims and responders, but no actual policy in providing universal health care No policy period except for Bernie and then Mark Ruffalo tweeted out watching the Dem convention It's so good to see so many diverse people coming together addressing racism and the promise of America There is a sweetness and kindness about this production to which Marianne Williamson Responded saying no, I'm sorry. They did not address racism They showed a lot of beautiful pictures of people of color and made references to black lives matter But there was not one mention of an actual policy to help end systemic racism It's like binge watching a myriad commercial And to that I say she is absolutely 100% correct This is a disaster like this is supposed to get their base excited There's no enthusiasm for Joe Biden with younger voters So this is supposed to be their attempt to show everyone why they should not just vote for Joe Biden But it be enthusiastic about doing so and they failed they failed and And Marianne Williamson's you know her analysis here is so correct That's exactly what this was like and it shouldn't be this way And you know because of that I see a lot of people on the left feel demoralized depressed Straight up now. I've seen one of two responses and It leads me to believe that left really needs a pep talk currently I need a pep talk currently, but let me tell you what I've seen I've seen people just say look Fuck it. I'm checking out of politics Electoral politics has been a dead end for us and I kind of felt that instinct as well And then on the other side you have people just saying look, I'm done with the Democratic Party I mean, this is evidence that no matter what we do. They don't care about us They don't want to win us over. We are not their base. It is moderate Republicans who they are now trying to court We're no longer the swing voters like in their views They think that they got us or they don't care about us or that we don't come out to vote enough So fuck it. I'm done And both of these instincts like it makes sense Like I think this is the rational thing that you feel when you watch this painful event take place And let me just respond quickly to the people who feel the instincts to check out of electoral politics Don't do that because it's like you're waving the white flag and you're surrendering This is exactly what they want you to do They want to beat you down until you just check out of politics entirely. That's a victory for them You're handing them a win so regardless of what you do you have to continue to press on you have to continue to agitate Because part of being a leftist entails that we're always going to be Sidelined we're always going to be marginalized. We're always going to be outside of the mainstream This isn't new to left-wing politics It's just part of the process like it's baked into the process It's an expectation that we should all have as leftists because what we're going up against is an entire system that commodifies everything very powerful Well-funded interests that stand for everything that we stand against so of course It's not gonna be easy and there's never going to be a day where we sit back With you know a margarita and we just relax and we throw our hands up and we say we did it We have the utopia that we wanted that will never happen the fight Will always be a thing that the left has to do we will never see our visions fulfilled in our lifetime It's a constant struggle a constant need to agitate and Provoke the Democratic Party establishment and the establishment and capitalism in general and capitalists because that's what being a leftist is About right so we just have to push for as much progress as we possibly can within our lifetimes So this leads me to the other response that I saw from people I'm just done with the Democratic Party, you know, it's time to go third party route and look I was someone who was very much Let's just say fuck it to the Democratic Party and go third party route You know du rege's law is a thing, but maybe we could subvert that if enough people just Move away from the Democratic Party But you can't just pick one strategy and say this is what I'm going to do because you have to understand that the Democrats Don't want you to be part of their coalition. They say it's a big tent But what that means is Republicans are included in that tent not necessarily you so you can't just have one approach and say This is the approach that I'm going to pursue going forward and that's that we have to have a multi-pronged approach Because we're really we're not sure what is specifically going to get us victories I mean left-wing movements around the world currently are suffering right I mean look at what happened in the UK with Jeremy Corbyn their own party sabotaged him They were fighting to have Boris Johnson win over Jeremy Corbyn and his party So you've got to understand that what we're dealing with here It's going to take more than just getting a third party and even when we get what we think is going to make us Successful the fight still continues right because I think a lot of people they they create this goal in their head either short-term or Long-term and they say once I reach that goal once I get to that position Then we're good I could let off the gas a little bit But I want you to understand that that's not really the way that things work the fight will never be done Right so feeling demoralized is just a natural part of the process if we're fighting for justice if we are a part of The left so let me explain what I mean by that so I Was someone who was basically? Very very high on third parties because even if we live in a first-past the post system Even if duverges law typically tends to hold you know in 2016 what I saw was mass Frustration from the left so if there was ever going to be a time where we got the Green Party in Jill Stein one of the most influential Green Party candidates ever To 5% where they get federal funding then it would have been 2016 But she got 1% which tells us that there is this embedded cultural expectation that it's not just you know reasonable to vote For either the Democratic or Republican Party because that's how I stopped the party who I disliked the most from winning But that we have to morally only support one of the two parties like it's embedded within our culture So what that tells us is you can't just create a third party because that third party is going to be marginalized It's going to be an outsider What you have to do to make that third party actually win and become viable if you truly want to pursue this path is To get electoral reform that's step one if you want a third party step one is electoral reform And there are things that we can do easy steps we can take to make that a larger possibility, right? I've been talking on the show for years about HR 4000 which ends gerrymandering It makes us a proportionally representative system, right? It gets rid of first-past the post and it institutes nationwide ranked choice voting This is important on top of that You can be fighting to make ranked choice voting a reality in your state by getting it on the ballot in your state If that is a possibility for you, but let's say hypothetically speaking We actually get proportional representation and we have like five or six parties and finally there's some ideological diversity And we don't just have to vote for Democrats and Republicans Well, there are some countries with a lot of parties and they still have quite a bit of problems Brazil is an example of that they have I think an effective number of political parties That's about 20 to 22 and you might think that that seems Ideal, but it's not because when you have that much parties, you know There is a lack of ideological Coherency to these parties like people just leave and create their own parties on a whim and it gets a little bit muddy So like having as much parties as possible Isn't the only thing that we want like we want these parties to function and do what they are intended to do But let's just say for argument's sake that we actually get that people's party that we want that we're fighting for that We all believe needs to happen Well over time That party that institution as all institutions do in a capitalist system will inevitably become Corrupted it will turn away from its working party roots as the Democratic Party did So you don't just stop when you get to that goal of having a viable third party once you get electoral reform Then what you have to do is make sure that we Decommodify elections get money out of politics so that way the same thing that happened to that party that we created You know the same thing that happened to the Democratic Party doesn't happen to the new party that we created That's what you have to do But even if you're able to make that much progress right not only do you create a third party? But you get electoral reform so that party is viable and actually get seats in Congress But then you get money out of politics so we decommodify elections and that party isn't susceptible to the same corruption that the Democrats are Well, then what happens? Well, then those gains are automatically vulnerable so long as we live in a capitalist system because the capitalist system like it Functions in one way only that is to maximize profits So if it has this barrier this new political party that's stopping it from increasing profits It's gonna attack that it's a virus it always attacks What is going to you know hurt its profits, right? So if you want to protect the gains that you've made then you have to go a step further and and capitalism entirely So, you know when I tell people this They think wow, this is just It's a lost cause no matter what we do It's never gonna amount to anything except the whole point is we have to fight and keep fighting because our work is Never done as leftists. So as we all feel demoralized like understand that We're never going to reach a point in our society where we just think it's over. We did it. That's not realistic, right? And the people who checked out to go back to them for a moment who says, you know, I'm just done with electoral politics I'm ready for a revolution. I get that inclination But you have to understand that in our system even if we get some kind of revolution We are currently closer to a fascist revolution than we are to a socialist revolution So checking out if you are a leftist is just not an option You have to continue to agitate and fight otherwise That side who we're going up against the neoliberal Democrats and the fascistic Republicans They get an automatic victory, but they are denied that victory so long as we keep fighting, right? And it's not just a matter of you not checking out It's understanding that this anger and discontent that we're feeling currently That is important. Like it's not just for nothing, right? We're not just Tweeting into the ether and this anger is just going to evaporate But it can if we don't do something about it We take that anger that we're feeling and we harness it now. I don't know how to harness it I don't know how to do that I don't know how to channel it currently and that's why I think that the left is currently Disorganized and needs to do something about that We have to figure out how as a movement we become a lot more Unified and we have a cohesive strategy going forward, right? We have to make sure that we Continuously stay engaged and we convert more and more and more people because look we are At an advantage in the sense that we've convinced the American people that our policies are the right approach, right? Our entire generation millennials and the next generation Gen Z. They are disproportionately More socialist than they are capitalist at least according to some polls So we have a lot going for us that previous left-wing movements throughout history did not have they were just Fighting and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I think of the civil rights movement They had no idea that they would actually be Successful to the degree that they were they thought that all this was just for nothing And they put their bodies in their lives in the line to do sit-ins and protest segregation And they had no clue whether or not that would lead to anything But we're in a better position in the sense that we actually do have a sense that there is a light at the end of the tunnel The next generation who takes power is actually going To be in favor of the things that we want But the question for us is whether or not it will be too late when we have you know an incoming climate catastrophe on our hands So that's really what we have to you know grapple with here. We know this is success is coming It's just a matter of how fast can we get it here? How quickly can we muscle our way into power? But you know, I'm kind of rambling and this is probably incoherent But I just want you to know that like this anger that we're feeling it's all part of the process and that's not necessarily comforting It may not offer you relief But the fact that you have that anger it is Potential we can use that and harness it now I don't know like the left has to be introspective like we haven't been successful at getting power Like we're making some progress with Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman getting elected possibly Alex Morse But we have to understand that you know, we are Dealing with so much currently our generation has the weight of the world on our shoulders Literally, so if we're not feeling angry and depressed then something's wrong with us But the fact that we have that anger there the fact that these underlying material conditions will exist You know for the foreseeable future regardless of who gets elected. We have to use that right? So um, but in the meanwhile, I think it's therapeutic if you do want to make fun of the DNC for being cringe worthy and Democrats we're being hollow and vapid because you know, whatever we can do to get past this time and Keep ourselves motivated is what we have to do and the most important thing that I want you to take away from this Is that the fight will never end for the left? But so long as we are unified and we're not, you know Factionalizing and we're checking out entirely then we're gonna be okay We just have to remember that that there's going to be some rough patches where we feel more demoralized than we usually are But as long as we know that that's part of the process then we can go forward and still be relatively successful With what limited tools that we have and I think I'll leave that there because I don't even know if that made sense But I think that you know, I'm trying to talk through this myself, you know, because I feel like I Feel the same way that you all are feeling like I just feel super depressed watching these ghouls all Do this big circle jerk in front of us and kind of like exclude us from the conversation as they embrace their Republican friends and become the Republican Party of the 2000s And it sucks to watch I'll admit like I felt super depressed watching this but Again, it's part of the process like we're the ones who are correct Like we are the ones who are on the right side of history Not the party who's trotting out Bill Clinton to give a speech After a literal photograph of one of Epstein's victims massaging his shoulders comes out and then he gives a speech like we are the ones Who at the end of the day are credible and legitimate So we have to just like try to keep that in mind and put everything in a perspective and just keep fighting at a minimum Just keep going