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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... NOVEMBER 30TH 2024 Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse Looking for Hope? and more PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMwCEqNEFw Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Looking for Hope? \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Nov 30, 2024 948K subscribers ... 116,977 views ... 7.4K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Does Trump have a mandate? How did progressive ideas do in red states? Where does our democracy go next? And in these troubled times, what are you most thankful for? Grab a cup of Joe (or a plate of turkey) and join us for a special Thanksgiving Coffee Klatch. Explore the podcast Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house and yours truly Robert R and Heather we're doing a special one this week because of Thanksgiving um we thought it would be really useful and maybe even inspiring is that too strong strong to to talk even though it's darkening times and even though Trump is in control of everything and these nominees are just nuts U we thought it might be nice to to talk about silver lining right I mean what is it we are what what is it that we are we are thankful for and what do we want to Express gratitude for politically I'm leaving this class I'm done out wait a I don't leave there there there are silver linings I want I want to start with my silver lining the big Silver Lining this is kind of this is from the notion that when you hit bottom there's no place to go but up and I think the Democratic part has just about 1:01 hit bottom uh certainly the national Democratic party and I think that this is an opportunity for Democrats to make major changes uh no party in fact no individual makes major changes unless they are forced to make it and Democrats will now be forced to become the party that it should have been all along the party so dire the party of working people the party that focuses on uh the the gaping inequality uh that is becoming worse and worse but you say it will be forced how is it going to be forced by We The People by we by their moral consciences but no because there're because you can't continue to pretend that the Democratic party is doing is on the right track because it's now become the party of the college educated which are only 38 to 40% of America uh and working people without College degrees 2:00 are are increasingly going to the Republican party because there's no alternative because the Democrats have not reached out to them so I My Silver Lining Heather you look very convinced My Silver Lining is that the Democrats understand they have no place to go except in the direction they should have been going all the way along no of course back to the roots back to Franklin D Roosevelt back to the old Democratic Coalition but what does that mean more specifically specifically it means messaging wise well it means in terms of what Democrats stand for it for its economic populism it's taking on the big corporations it's taking on Wealthy individuals who have abused their wealth by pouring it into politics it's taking it's it's saying and and effectuating a notion that paid leave is very important that people want a higher minimum wage not just the people with the minimum wage but people generally think that's the fair thing to do 3:00 uh that family families need uh you know child care and elder care and uh this is kitchen table economics and it is time for the Democrats to return to kitchen table economics so they're going to do it done um so here's what we're going to do we're going to look at some specific wins that we can pull from this past November I mean there is interesting stuff on the ground especially in Red State so that's what I'd like to focus well no but this this fits in because if if the red States if even in red States we're seeing some examples moving toward either economic populism or uh kind of the direction of of the Democracy ought to be moving in uh this shows and should show the Democratic party and Democrats in general that there are opportunities here that they should what about people who say oh Bob we have to be safe let's stay where let's not get too Rogue you know let's not go too off to into 4:02 populace left land let's really get a little closer let's just stay in the center lane and see what the Republicans have done if that's what people want let's be a little closer Center Lane there's no center lane you know Heather in 19 wait a minute I just want to say 1994 no yes 1994 I mean it seems like ages ago but the Democrats lost both the house and the Senate and what did uh the the political class say well the Democrats need to move to the right move to the right right now how do you move to the right I mean the right is now basically authoritarian Fascism do you want to move to the right you want to compromise with authoritarian fascism no there's no compromising with the Trump trump View and or the Trump wing with the Trump Republican party there there is an opportunity here for Democrats to Define what it means to be a political party representing working people 5:01 average working people it feels like you want them to be assertive is that part am I being a little bit too assertive no I mean look you started to talk about the states okay oh let's get into it can we talk first about where the the votes are still being tallied what's to you know we're in whatever month it is can't remember this is another reason to be Optimist here we go no I'm not being physici now I mean for example KLA Harris latest data we have show that she got 74.6 million votes 74.6 million we're still counting still counting relative to Trump's 77 million okay now that's a that is a difference she lost okay here's the thing that is not being talked about uh the non-voters people who did not even vote how many of them are there well remember KLA Harris got 74.6 million Trump got 7. 7 77 million 6:01 there were 85.9 million people who did not even vote the part party the party of non- Voters yeah it's huge this is an opportunity I want to talk about opportunities today this is a huge opportunity right for the Democrats to peel off some of the non-voters to get the non voters charged up and the important thing about that number is it was not a mandate right it is not the vast majority of Americans have come out for Trump I know there's no mandate at all I mean when you have more people who did not vote than voted for Trump or for k Harris you don't have a mandate what you are seeing is an electorate that is completely cynical or basically had to choose they thought many people thought between you know a a jerk and somebody kamla Harris who they they didn't know or didn't expect was going to be on their side right so if you have to I still hate that didn't know but that's okay well I mean she did have only three mons let's let's be clear about this I 7:01 mean I know it's been three and a half weeks since the election that's it it seems it seems like forever but back to your point uh in terms of what happened at the state level uh yeah there's some good ones well voters in Arizona Missouri Montana and Nevada they voted to protect Reproductive Rights now these are all red States they voted to protect Reproductive Rights uh most of them puts the Reproductive Rights directly into their state constitutions as a result of talk about a mandate the vote three and a half weeks ago I didn't you know until I actually looked very carefully at these numbers I didn't see that the red states were creating had so much uh what we call you know left right it's not left versus right that's the point it's not left versus right anymore uh it's it's it's authoritarian fascism versus is the 8:00 people right okay so they so blue States also did but it's important to mention the red States and then Florida of course well Florida you didn't get up to the 60% so you did have 57% who wanted to protect Reproductive Rights in Florida and the reason 60% the the state requires that you get to 60% if you're going to have certain kinds of measures passed so this is local Labs of democracy where things are working Progressive popul is at play or you know people who care about Humanity women let's keep going can we talk about workers rights Laboratories of democracy by the way you know who came up with that phrase I forget who Lewis brandise oh here we go any chance to plug Lewis brandise over here who said or is is is reputed to have said uh that America has a choice we can either have great wealth in the hands of a few or a democracy but we can't have both great great jurist great jurist and lab of democracy okay 9:00 workers rights this is a good one you're a former Secretary of Labor yes so people are coming out and voting and saying we need a higher minimum wage we need paid sick leave and again in purple States and red States and red States purple areas well I think this is this is also proves the point in a way I mean if there is so much in Red State so much interest in raising the minimum wage and also providing Paid Family Leave what states do you know yes Alaska ballot measure then increase a minimum wage to 15 and required paid sick leave and banned union busting captive audience meetings which you know a thing or two about this is all in Alaska Alaska is considered to be a red State MH okay Missouri Missour well some some people say isn't the southern part of Missouri Missoura I don't know actually and I apologize to any Missoura ANS that we can you let us know when you have it from you from Missoura where 10:00 and then Nebraska nebras nebras um they passed a measure requiring businesses to offer paid sick leave again is this a pattern I mean this is seems like what this is a good thing I find this fascinating because paid sick leave is something that the Democrats should be screaming about all right I mean we we caught up with the rest of the advanced world uh in 1990 4 in terms of providing 12 weeks of unpaid I know family leave and then the rest of the world moved to paid leave and we just sat there I mean America could not do anything because the biggest corporations lobbied against paid leave they didn't want to provide their employees paid leave well Democrats here is something to do here is something that we can see in the red States they want I know and also I mean so youed corporations is what we used to say and we're still saying it but 11:01 billionaires now so right now you know fighting the nlrb we have Jeff ba Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and uh they're coming out they're coming out of the woodwork and that's the other part of my silver lining because this is smoking this is this is smoking them out you see I mean they're coming out because they're feeling well we're now in charge and so all these billionaires who who normally under under Democratic administrations or the the Biden Administration and I remember under Obama and under Clinton they they kind of kept themselves a little bit quiet you know even when they got successful at lobbying for what they wanted tax cuts and everything else they just didn't gloat about it but now they're beating their chest and they're saying great for us but so the Democratic party has to be louder than that barrage and bombardment well louder also here's the hard thing the Democratic party has got to stop being dependent on the 12:00 billionaire class and on big corporations for donations can they do that we'll see and the next DNC chair they have to we'll see I mean they have to absolutely have to I mean this was your point from the top of our coffee well that's I mean this is this is basic you know follow the money follow the money and what we're going to see I guarantee and here's the third part of my silver lining My Silver Lining is we're GNA see the Trump Administration overreach because there's no there's no limit you know Trump has basically both gates was the limit both it's the only limit apparently both both hous both chambers of Congress and a a a tractable Supreme Court uh and basically Trump is now putting these crazy people into his executive F into his executive branch and so you've got you've got no constraint and when Trump faces No constraint and the billionaires backing 13:02 Trump face no constraint what happens Heather they overreach inevitably they overreach and they're going to overreach with tax cuts for the billionaire class for corporations they're going going to overreach with tariffs uh you know on this and it's going to cause people to be so angry and upset that I think there's going to be a great big response a great but we'll take notice of inequality and yes the Democrats have an opportunity to say we are a party that is worried about inequality and we are going to aim for shared Prosperity we are going to aim to include everybody yeah with real solutions with real solutions fake tariffs yeah real tariffs well the tariffs are going to hurt people and you know you cut taxes and what does that mean you're going to have 14:00 a larger budget deficit which means what uh more interest payments to whom to whom when the budget deficits gets out of control it's not me we the rest of us pay effectively on the bonds the the people who hold the borrowing who hold the bond holders and we have this fiction that they're all Chinese and Japanese or there no the majority of the people who hold the debt of the United States are wealthy Americans y these are the same people Heather who used to be paying higher taxes right to support the government now they're lending the government money and after Trump gets finished make you know increasing the debt by 4 trillion or five or 8 trillion they are going to be even having to lend more money to the government and that means the rest of us pay them interest pays but this is critical and you've said it we've said it so many times it's so interesting I do think people picture it as an 15:00 overseas issue or they don't see it at the same pocket the cycle is going through the sameet and the same thing I mean the same thing with with all of this stock BuyBacks I mean the the savings that corporations are making from laying people off GM just laid off a thousand people again what what happens to those savings they go into stock BuyBacks and what happens then that's the purpose of the stock buyback is to increase share prices y and the top one and the top 1% of Americans the richest 1% of Americans has 52% of all the shares of stock owned by Americans and all these workers being so productive are not reaping the benefits not reaping the benefits of their productivity that's what Democrats ought to be screaming about I know so one other win around democracy was in Alaska um and a lot of native communities came out and made this possible because it was only 664 something votes um but rank Choice voting 16:03 stays no that's big that's big and that's important because that means that you have a ground swell for strengthening democracy right good okay that's so are are you feeling I mean is gratitude is the tude emphasis on the tude okay can we talk about school vouchers because this one I worked in education for years School vouchers we know this disproportionately benefit wealthy famili they take away they siphon off students and funding and public schools are hurt so it is not a great policy Choice public schools end up with the people who the young kids who are hardest to teach because they are socioeconomically from the uh the most difficult backgrounds uh and that makes it very very it it it it it actually creates a two- tiered system of Education uh the Supreme Court in the 1950s said separate is not equal but now 17:01 we are with vouchers going into a separate kind of wealthy children system and so several States rejected that Colorado Colorado Kentucky Kentucky yes Kentucky yep yep and it would have cost the states a lot of money Mitch McConnell Kentucky red state right and it would be interesting to delve into the messaging there right was what what really resonated with me was the saving money because it's a lot of money that would have gone you know to these students um to the private schools to the private yeah to the outside of public schools so broadly defined we Nebraska repealed a state law that allowed the state to spend up to 10 million a year on tuition subies subsidies for private school students Kentucky Nebraska Missouri or Missouri I mean this is the heartland of red America and what we're seeing Bubble Up is all of these pay attention I mean it's important um and then what we want to look at I think this is so 18:00 interesting so this is an example of how we have to pay attention to the long game and Republicans have been so Savvy at all these different levels thinking about 10 years out 20 years out I mean in the Supreme Court 30 years out um longer but so in Wisconsin you know this one um there the 2010s were dire there was a Red Wave um and people have been working hard since then to win state ride Statewide races that would make a difference in terms of the Wisconsin state supreme court and it was flipped and and a lot of states have uh courts Supreme Courts that are voted upon I mean you know I'm not sure that's a very good idea I mean Mexico is now trying to do that and it's it kind of ensures a one- party State uh but nevertheless uh you have to do that if you want to uh do something that I think states have to do to strengthen their state democracies 19:02 right and also drawing these legislative maps I mean the power that these um state courts have is absolutely critical and it makes a difference and this was a long fight and people stayed in it you're talking about terms of Jerry M yeah exactly and Wisconsin had a republican Jerry MRI map and they flipped the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court newly flipped uh and a it's not just Democrat it's a matter of of caring about the Integrity of your voting system and what that Wisconsin Supreme Court did is it approved a new map that was much more much less Jerry Mander did much more accurate in terms of where people actually lived that's it that's exactly it um but that that meant that the entire Wisconsin government y well they're on I think they're on chart to flip both Chambers y so they I mean on a path um but this is a big deal they're 20:02 picking up seats it's making a difference so this is your it's Wisconsin back to your point but back to your point oh stop it you start with your point to your point about about about the long game I mean this is all part of the long game you've got to you got to think about what moves are going to lead to uh additional opportunities which lead to additional moves so that you can make democracy work so that you can provide repr productive rights so that you can uh strengthen the workplace and workers rights I mean if I may I think the Dems could improve their long game I think can I write that down yeah that's really really impressive I'm dem's improved the long game well there Heather there's been no Democratic long game I've been involved in Democratic politics since the mid 19th century and there's no long game it's always a little game around election time or it's just the year or a year and a half 21:00 before the election so now this authoritarian situation we're living in is going to light the fire That's the Silver Lining that's part of the Silver Lining yes it is going to and I like it and how was your things you a hard time about this but I am really grateful that you're saying it to us well I'm I think this is the week to be to look at you know how can we be grateful uh even though times are very very Bleak so Grim I know there's a lot of grimness in the world yeah um so my Thanksgiving was good I was with a family is that what you call friend family made up of friends yes but you have family too so friends and family but I wasn't with siblings and um parents I was with you don't have a sibling oh I've half siblings oh you half siblings sorry sorry this is very personal I don't want to get it's these yes um yeah so how about yours oh wonderful one of my sons and my daughter-in-law they came and and we had a wonderful time lovely time yeah we're 22:02 very fortunate okay so well that's a that's this is this is part of this is the really the essence of gratitude is friends and family and health and health and the little things you know listening to music here and there and I don't know trying to find mini nano silver linings and and also you know it's it's hard for many families uh the holidays I'm talking about Thanksgiving through Christmas because there are trumpers in many families now luckily fortunately here's a little personal Silver Lining there are no trumpers that I know of in my family wow they're no trumpers in your family are they oh I mean big time well but but the question is you know how do you handle your trumpers family trumpers who you love because they're members of your family I know well you have some good advice about that yes should we look back and you are hilarious letting us force you to play this character that you do 23:01 beautifully Uncle Bob Uncle Bob Uncle Bob let's take a look happy holidays to you and yours holidays with a family are great but they can sometimes be complicated happy holidays Uncle Bob what's good about him I'm paying too much in taxes to support poor people who are sitting on their duffs Good Old Uncle Bob sweet man wrong here are some suggestions to help answer the favorite arguments of the Uncle Bob in your holiday gathering actually Uncle Bob the top tax rate which I assume you're paying is just a little more than half what it was for four decades before 1981 and only a tiny percent of your taxes go to the poor by the way the poor are working harder than ever often 60 or 70 hours a week in more than one job but they aren't paying any income taxes you see he just wants to talk about income taxes that's a trick what you need to do is talk about the total tax burden 24:00 actually Uncle Bob they're paying a higher share of their incomes than you are for Social Security State sales taxes property taxes user fees and tolls add all these up and the entire bottom half of Americans is probably paying a higher tax rate than you pay but if the government taxes people like me the economy suffers because we're the job creators every holiday I hear about this job creat stuff even Uncle Bob if he thinks about it brilliant businessman I'm sure he is knows that he only hires people when he has customers actually Uncle Bob the real job Creator is of the vast middle class and the poor whose spending motivates companies to add jobs without customers there'd be no jobs that's the real economic problem the wages of most people haven't gone anywhere for 35 years if you adjust for inflation most of the economy's gains have gone to the top 1% ah ah the problem is labor unions 25:01 if they criticize unions tie the decline of unions to what's happened to middle class incomes actually Uncle Bob unions built the Great American middle class of the 1950s and 60s giving workers bargaining power to get a fair share of the economy's gains but because union membership has plummeted from a third of all private sector workers then to fewer than 7% now the median wage has been stagnant and the middle class has been shrinking so I suppose you want to raise the minimum wage too be ready for this one that'll mean fewer jobs because with a higher minimum wage employers will substitute machines or send the jobs abroad rather than pay people more actually Uncle Bob research shows a higher minimum wage creates more jobs because people spend most of their paychecks in the local economy thereby fueling job growth and it's also good for employers because it leads to more loyal and reliable employees and less 26:01 turnover you know what you are you're a socialist once they start the ad homm attacks You've Won no Uncle Bob I'm just interested in facts not labels don't choke on your Apple Pie Uncle Bob or in the spirit of being hopeful around the holidays this may happen name calling will get you know Uncle Bob you know we have much more in common than it seems you care about America I care about America we all want a stronger economy we're all worried about money in politics we want to leave a better world for our kids there it was you're a socialist I know you're so good at it but so I know this is kind of anti-s Silver Lining that was from 2015 yeah and it really had a big effect changing the public but it is it's such a I mean it's very 27:02 well done and still relevant but it is the answers are good this is the long game okay Heather Heather you know you you just work at this stuff I mean we make videos and it's public education and uh you know I write books that nobody reads and you just keep on you keep on you keep on school no you keep on doing this and eventually the Silver Linings will become cumulus nimbus clouds cumulus nimbuses I don't know I want to just thank you I I I'm I am grateful to you Heather loft house for being such a terrific terrific partner here Robert R really partner in policy yes and I want to and also grateful to all of you out there and and I I just uh you know your ability to 28:00 continue um to fight now I know that some of you the last three weeks have have been angry and uh not just angry and defiant but angry and depressed and angry and and upset and some of you have just uh uh let your cynicism take over but listen to me uh there are silver linings on this Cloud uh and we do have to fight we have to fight to maintain our democracy we have to fight to get a modum of social justice and we have to fight to protect the rights of women and and people who are going to be ground up in this in this Trump Universe uh so it's not and I want to say this very clearly uh it's not a silver lining right now uh but we've got to find what we can of encouragement and uh and again thank you for joining us see see you next week we'll see you next week [Music]

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