 Hello everyone, I'm here with Joshua Collins running against Denny Heck in the 10th congressional district of Washington State Joshua Thank you so much for coming on the program. Yeah, thanks for having me Mike. How's it going? Yeah, it's going great I know that you're a truck driver so you're traveling the country You're just an ordinary person who's choosing to run for Congress. What made you want to run? Well a number of things The biggest thing is just in my district. We are one of the most progressive and safe blue districts in the country and we have representative who Just won't budge on pretty much anything. He's a conservative Democrat and you know, he won't support Medicare for all ever He already said he'll never support it He won't sign on to the Green New Deal and just the giant issues that we're facing in this country are too important and too And we're in too much of a crisis to have someone who's not going to actually Help with an end it. Yeah, we've actually been following Denny Heck for quite some time on this show Back when he was asked at a town hall whether or not he'd support Medicare for all and he very bluntly said no So I've kind of watched this district for a while I brought on tambourine Borelli who ran against him as an independent in 2018 and now we're interviewing you so I Really hope that You're successful here because we've all been watching this district and Denny Heck is really one of the worst Democrats Like I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that he's extremely concerned if he takes corporate money And he doesn't represent the people of that district who as you said are incredibly progressive So let me ask you this there is a lot of candidates running in 2020 what sets you apart from other progressives? What are some key policy issues that you really will go into Congress fighting for guns blazing? Well, some of our biggest policy issues, I mean, I guess we have a lot of them Because we are pushing the Overton window with almost every issue When it comes to marijuana, you know, we don't just believe in legalizing it We don't just believe in you know Expanding the records of people who have been convicted of marijuana offenses we also believe in paying reparations to people who have spent years or sometimes decades of their lives in prison and That is so important to us Because you know this government has stolen Lives from people that is you know relationships ruined people's careers ruined and that is you know trauma that they will never recover from And I think it is only fair that the government pays for what it has done to these people and their families Yeah, that's actually really interesting I hadn't thought about that previously and my you know sense of what reparations Should be given out has kind of broadened like I'm definitely on board with reparations for American descendants of slavery I don't know how you feel about that as well. Awesome. Yeah, I I support reparations for the sentence of slaves and indigenous people both structural and financial Whatever we can get done. I I support it. That's great. Yeah So so people like you and also might revel to an extent have broadened my view of you know Who wish you'd be paying reparations to you know be at victims of war people who were victims of our drug war? I think that's really interesting So let me ask you about these things because you are basically a very staunch progressive But let's just go down the line here I want to put you on the spot and ask you some very specific policy questions And if you can give me a yes, no or a maybe on this This will kind of give people really good sense as to what you stand for so Medicare for all, right? Yes, and I also believe in erasing all medical debt. That's great. That's really great student loan debt cancellation I believe in free college. I believe in Giving stipends to students and canceling all student debt every single penny. That's great. How about ranked choice voting? Yes, I support ranked choice voting automatic voter registration, etc. And what is your stance on legalizing psychedelics? I Support legalizing psychedelics Same as many other drugs that we should have legalized for both medical and recreational use. That's that's excellent How about public financing of every single election across the country? I I support it fully. I They have a really good system in Seattle and I think we can copy that the rest of the country where they give you essentially a voucher where you can You know give it to whoever politician whichever politician you want and they use that and turn it in they get They get actually funding for it. So that's what I would like to reproduce across the country. That's great That's great. Um, how about Let's see here. I have a couple of different things, but I have it for Senate and House So I need to make sure I get the right one a federal jobs guarantee Yeah, I support a federal jobs guarantee and that can be a combination of things between Transitioning people in the military from fighting in wars overseas to actually bring them home and putting the work to work on our Infrastructure and also, you know getting people out and doing the work that is needed in this country to transition to green energy And you support a green new deal you support reparations for people who? Were locked up for marijuana possession and I'm assuming sales. So yeah, this is great I think that just looking at these types of policies you really see that you are different than Someone like Danny heck you're part of the new wave You're an AOC type of Democrat And I think this is really exciting for people But a lot of people currently they feel and myself included to an extent and I'm sure you as well Feel demoralized because it's really difficult to run a campaign against an incumbent Democrat because you are choosing to not take corporate money So it's a disadvantage that you're accepting but at the same time It's important because you're one remaining principal and to you're demonstrating to people that you're not going to be beholden to these large multinational corporations you're going to be beholden to the people So how do you run a successful campaign against someone like Danny heck who's backed by the establishment and you know financial interests when you Definitely won't be able to raise as much money as him. So strategically like what is your plan to beat him? The So of course, we're not going to raise a million and a half dollars But based on what I looked at with the other campaigns is you need about 10% to be competitive So our our goal is realistically we can actually raise about 300,000 But if we have a hundred if we have a hundred fifty thousand, I'm pretty sure we will win this So we you know we and we are on track to do that. We just announced Like seven weeks ago, and we're at over $20,000 already and this is Completely online. This is just people going on to my website and donating. We haven't held any fundraisers We haven't sold any merchandise anything like that and we already hit 20 grand and I'm not a particularly well-connected person So this is all just organic people go into my website and donating, which is You know, I think the new model where people Go straight to you. They they hear your message and they want to donate to you And if anyone watching does want to donate it's at joshua2020.com And you can also sign up to volunteer and get updates as well As far as our strategy our strategy is to build a coalition And that is you know, as me as a truck driver and blue collar worker I don't have the same perspective as everyone But I can bring people from other perspectives into the campaign as part of our campaign and that means having a kitchen cabinet for every You know set of issues whether it's LGBT rights indigenous indigenous issues You know disability issues, etc. And that is what we are doing and you know making sure that everyone's Needs are addressed by this campaign because it isn't about me and who I am This is about like who I am going to represent And so far we've had a lot of success and a lot of it goes to me you know making a lot of noise on Twitter about these issues and And that has brought The attention of you know people all over the country on to our district, which is very difficult to do So, you know, we are Getting people activated. We're also bringing a lot of young people into the process people who were too young even vote when Bernie Sanders ran for president and you know, we are activating people and You know, I the fact that we have well over 300 volunteers signed up already. I think speaks volumes for you know, how Far we can go, you know, we're gonna need a basically a small army to defeat Genesek And I think we're gonna get there. Yeah, that's impressive. You have 300 volunteers that really is Relatively large like it doesn't seem large in the grand scheme of things when we focus on like presidential campaigns But for just someone running in a district who is grassroots funded that really is impressive So kudos to you and I think that your Twitter game is helping honestly because I've already seen you dunk on Ben Shapiro You are calling out Democrats and one thing that I really like is you've been incredibly vocal about the weakness of Democratic Party leadership I know that you've talked a little bit about Nancy Pelosi's unwillingness to pursue an impeachment inquiry to Donald Trump I find this infuriating. So in the event you were elected, what would you do to help push? I mean, hopefully when you're elected Trump will already be out But how would you just in terms of putting pressure on Democratic Party leadership? How would you get them to do what progressives want if you're also balancing out, you know Committee appointments and you're balancing out, you know, trying not to offend them to the extent where they can marginalize you in Congress Like what's the right way that you think you can hold people accountable in power in leadership and actually get them to listen I Think the most important thing is first of all having a large voice online to give myself a way to bypass the media Deciding what the narrative is and that's why I'm putting so much effort into my Twitter account In it doesn't sound like a lot, but in six months I went from 34 followers to 10,500 and that is just me tweeting and saying my views I think that is an important part, but also just make the entire conversation public that way there isn't any any doubt on where people stand on this and Part of that is bringing up like who doesn't support something and who does on Twitter But also if if someone is going to oppose Incredibly popular legislation like Medicare for all X for example I'm going to go in their districts and hold town halls and their district talk to their voters Let them know this is where your your representative stands if they don't like it then I I guess I mean That's democracy right you if you actually talk to people and let them know where they stand because this is like their entire Plan is to hide behind key issues where they are good like LGBT issues, etc And then just completely hide from the media never talk about it or be very vague when they talk about things like Medicare for All like the Green New Deal and and just kind of waffle on it and be weak on it and just hide from it So I think someone like me who has no problem making a lot of noise and actually Doing everything in the public arena is what it takes to actually get people to feel at least pressure to support stuff because you know I I think these issues that we are facing you know climate change We're facing an extinction level event this is the actual apocalypse like coming for us and we have politicians who are You know too worried about the existence of the fossil fuel and industry and the profits of you know shareholders, right? And then we also have Medicare for All 45,000 people dying every year And they're too worried about the lives of the insurance companies rather than the people dying Um, and so I think you know, it's very clear where the people stand on this stuff There's polling um, and it's and it's just obvious on its face that these are good for us um, and so that is that is my whole plan is just to make everything public and keep everything out in front where people can see it so we actually bringing people into the conversation and uh Yeah, that's that's the whole plan essentially Yeah, that actually is a great plan because I think that if you kind of have your own like mini bully pulpit Then nobody wants to anger the person with like millions of twitter followers like aoc Even if she's a target of the right wing like you can see that Democrats when they often take like shots at her It's anonymously in a political article. So I think that kind of emulated that strategy That's a good strategy, you know, and it is a way to kind of move the needle in your direction And one thing that I find fascinating about candidates like you is that you're bringing in this new perspective You're younger. So like people like you and I like when we're older, we will witness Possibly the end of you know the habitability of our planet if we don't take action So this is a serious issue right whereas people in congress, you know, it's mostly Older people who don't really have to see the consequences play out I mean we're already seeing the consequences play out, but they're not going to see the worst of what climate change has to offer So I think that that is such a crucial thing that you're bringing You know in terms of just this perspective and also, you know being a blue collar worker talk about you being a truck driver because Um, if I'm a truck driver, I mean, I'm I just wouldn't want to run for congress in general So maybe I'm just biased but like I feel like you're you're going to be busy. You're traveling the world So wanting to run for congress would be like the last thing on my mind So what is it about truck driving and being a blue collar worker that made you feel as if this is what you need to do The biggest thing is France what happened in France with the yellow vests They we saw what happened when you have a liberal government try to um, you know transition to green energy without You know inconveniencing the rich and what that did was put the entire burden on the working class And it was specifically in France truck drivers who started Getting in the streets because they were the ones getting screwed over And I don't want to see that happen in this country. I don't want to see Um, you know a liberal government put all of the burden on the backs of truck drivers Welders and nurses and teachers rather than the extremely wealthy people who have most of the wealth in this country Who have profited off of things like, uh, you know burning fossil fuels And so that that's my whole purpose is to actually make the point that like If we don't address this and make sure that we are taxing the rich And that we are spending on our people and actually setting things up in a way that benefits the working class people in this country They're going to do everything they can to put the burden on us And I would like to oppose that now as a truck driver driving all over the country I've been all to 48 states the other two. I can't really get to with the truck But I've uh, you know, I I see right now automation is coming for us, right And it's being celebrated like this really great thing um Meanwhile, you have truckers, you know, some of you know in raging anywhere ranging anywhere from 20 to uh, you know 60 70 years old right out on this road They have put, you know years in some case decades of their lives into this industry They have put their bodies on the line. They have, you know, sacrificed their personal and family relationships to get people's freight across the country And then you have these companies like tesla Coming in and they just want to scoop up the entire industry and say, okay. Forget about the truckers. Let's uh Now all of this all of this money all of these jobs that were existing now All that wealth is going to be funneled straight to tesla straight to uber or whatever company automates the jobs away first and That is something that I think is just fundamentally unfair and that is what they want to do with Most industries in this country, um, you know low level coders You have uh, you know the entire customer service industry um, where you know companies are going to replace people with ai and That just basically leaves millions of people with no plan mostly high school High school educated people with no plan no jobs. No like no way to go forward And I think it's important that we have that perspective going to congress So that we don't have the same thing happen that happened with uh, you know the industrialization era where, you know A single factory could do the work of you know, like 10 factories and you know, people were just left with no options I think we need to address automation on the scale that it is necessary The same as addressing climate change on the scale that is necessary the same as addressing, uh, you know The health health care crisis on the scale that's necessary the housing crisis, etc Um, and that's I guess that's my my perspective as a trucker. No, and that's really interesting I find that fascinating because automation is something and particularly like with respect to truck driving You know, this is an industry that could be automated away 10 15 years Um, so let me ask you this in terms of dealing with something like automation What type of approach would you favor just broadly speaking? So I mean there's there's the universal basic income approach where you know, once these jobs go away We do ubi now there's various ways you can implement ubi You can do a ubi in lieu of social safety net programs Which I don't support or you can do a ubi in addition to social safety net programs Or do you kind of agree with this more democratic socialist model where you know if Automation is going to be the future, which it seems like that will be the case We should be reaping the rewards of that not these large multinational corporations Like what do you think just broadly because this is a really loaded question. But what's your take on that in general? So I guess I'll start with the ubi Um, I mean, I'm a fan of redistributing wealth back to the working class Um, I am not happy with um, Andrew Yang's ubi as a truck driver and I've talked to other truck drivers They typically have the same sentiment Um, the whole point of his idea at least the way he's marketed it as being universal It's something that addresses the needs of everyone But he made it originally exclusionary of you know people who are unemployed who are, uh, you know elderly on social security who have disability etc and That was you know problematic for most people and they they addressed one Issue which is social security. So it no longer deducts from social security But that means that they recognize that it was exclusionary and they're still leaving everyone else out So it's still deducts from you know, your disability, etc. And that is why I don't support it I don't think something a universal basic income that doesn't actually benefit the people who are struggling the most I don't think that's a really good way for this country to go because it's not really universal in that sense Which is kind of my gripe with it as well Right if you just gave everyone, you know a thousand dollars a month Um without any stipulations of it subtracts from your social security or your disability, etc Just or your unemployment, then I would be you know all in in support of it But ultimately I think in this country what we need to do is address the unfair dynamic between you know workers And their bosses right and I don't think you can really get to the root of any of these problems without worker empowerment Um trucking is such a perfect example of this. We are pushed and pushed and pushed and no matter how Uh big of a shortage of drivers there is they don't want to increase pay So they just want workers to work longer hours for lower wages And that is why you see a truck driver making um, you know 40 thousand dollars a year now Where they were making that 20 years ago. Um, even though the flight Exactly, um, and you know nurses deal the same stuff You know, well, there's deal with the same stuff. It's the entire country that's dealing with this And I think that requires um, you know a full scale Change in the culture of our country And it requires empowering unions not just to continue Maintaining at the level they are but actually reverse it and get on a level of countries like sweden and denmark You know, a lot of these countries we look at who have these You know programs like, you know single payer and great education system, etc They also have a very robust, uh, you know union Unionization in those countries. I think that's what we're missing partially. Um, we need to strengthen workers And in one way I would do that, um to get people to be more willing to strike against the workers and to stand up Against companies like amazon would be providing, um, you know, unemployment benefits for striking workers Um, it would be, you know subsidizing union, uh dues to completely, uh, wipe out the entire argument against, uh Unionization that these right to work Uh supporters have have created. That's a good idea And also provide the infrastructure and the administrative Um support for newly forming forming unions and that should be all from the government and I think that would be a way to send Um a message to, uh, you know the country and the people in this country that, um, you know Here we're going to support workers We need to do that. Yeah, that's fantastic really great ideas with the subsidizing union, um dues I didn't really think about that but I like how you're bringing all of these new ideas to the table Like you're one candidate and you've gotten me to think about reparations for victims of you know marijuana being illegal in the past And subsidizing union dues. These are great ideas. So I know that a lot of people are going to be enthusiastic about your campaign One more time before you go tell us where we can donate what we can do to help support you and whatever you want to end with Make your pitch, man Okay, got it. Um, well The number one thing you can do is, you know, follow me on social media and, uh, you know Just keep an eye on my campaign. You can also go to joshua2020.com We need an army of volunteers and like we need we have we have hundreds. We need thousands And if you sign up there, I promise, you know, we will reach out to you and we will have something you can do for us Whether it's uh, even if you don't live in in washington, you know, we will have phone banking text banking events And just generally keeping in touch with the with uh our campaign and uh, you know helping us get um In touch with the media and and actually get people to cover our race And that has been, you know, a huge help from, you know, what i've been doing on twitter Um, and my twitter link, uh, or my twitter handle is uh, joshua the number four congress So joshua for congress, um, and yeah, so that is what people could do to help Um, and ultimately our our ideas. I think that is the most important about the thing about this, you know, i'm You know, it's a meme, you know, uh Dave rubin He loves to talk about ideas, but my brain is still in recovery mode from taking in so many high level important ideas I really am someone who's about ideas. You actually do have ideas. So yeah I have a lot of really good ideas a lot of plans that are, you know, pushing the overton window to the left Where it needs to be and you know, just follow us, uh, you know follow this campaign sign up And you know, we will actually win this race And you know, if you want to be part of that again, it's joshua2020.com Look, you've dunked on Dave Rubin now, which you get bonus points for you've dunked on ben Shapiro I mean, what's not to like so joshua collins 10th congressional district of the state of washington Uh, good luck hope to see you back on the show and we'll be following this because I think that um You know, denny heck a lot of people know he's a corporate democrat And I think that as time, you know continues on people are getting more and more frustrated So I hope that you know, you can be the catalyst to get him out. So good luck, man Yeah, thanks