Most Americans do in fact believe that our democracy is at risk,
but a small fraction of them are basing their midterm votes on
the fact that they feel that democracy is being dismantled.
Now, in a New York Times Sienna College Poll, which was released this month,
71% of voters said they believe democracy is at risk, but
only 7% said they view it as the most important issue facing the country.
Now, are there fears about democracy being dismantled or being at risk valid?
Yes, it turns out that about 60% of Americans will have an election
denier on their midterm ballot.
And that's of course people candidates who completely bought Trump's lies
about the election being stolen from him.
Some of those candidates are running for offices such as governor,
secretary of state, and attorney general, which would give them significant
power over how elections are conducted in their states if they were to win.
Now, we can talk about a lot of the reasons why voters might be
feeling this way, so there's gonna be a little bit of speculation here.
But before we get to that, let me just note that the priorities for
these voters were inflation, crime, gas prices.
So some of the more immediate issues that they're dealing with whereas
our democracy being at risk is not necessarily an immediate issue to them
that's impacting their lives negatively at this moment.
So that's one of the potential reasons, right?
It's just wanting to deal with what's in front of you right now, but
I think there are other reasons as well.
So Ben, I'm gonna go over to you and ask you what you think.
>> I think this is the absolutely most pressing issue we are facing right now.
I'm so glad we're talking about it today because we have just a few days until
the midterms on November eight.
And there are a lot of different reasons and so many of the reasons people still
are not prioritizing it are just missing the forest for the trees here.
Of course, the immediate issues are very important.
But if you don't have a democracy, if you have literally just authoritarian rule
take over, and leaders that do not listen to the will of the people,
and fuel conspiracy theories, it leads to violence, it leads to chaos.
You see what happened to Paul Pelosi,
you see what's happening people shooting up outside of FBI offices.
You see what's happening everywhere, where people attacked the Capitol building of
this nation and then claim that's not a problem and they are patriots.
So quickly, everything turns upside down if you do not
prioritize protecting what we have left of our democracy.
So a lot of people are also saying they don't care about the risks to our
democracy because our democracy is already so broken.
Yeah, that is of course true, we have so much dark money and so
much influence of corrupt people corrupting corrupt politicians.
Absolutely, but at least we still have the vote at least we still have the ability
to kick them out.
Sometimes even we at least still have the ability to Say that is not gonna stand and
bring in new leaders and at least as fast as we can change and
save literally the future of the country.
And as America goes the world, you see it now happening in Brazil,
you see it happening in places all over the world.
And if we don't step up right now in these midterm elections and
have historic turnout, if we don't outdo the midterm turnout from 2018.
If we don't step up and say enough is enough and
we will not support any election tyr 60% of the country.
And already the statistic it has an election tonight are on their ballot right
now that we'll not agree to your vote, we'll not agree to the will of the people.
You think it's bad enough that rights are being overturned,
the right to reproductive health is being overturned.
They're talking about turning over gay rights talking about turning over any
basic right in this country that we hold dear is up for grabs.
Once you have people that are not beholden to the will of the people at all.
And are now just beholden only 100% to their corporate backers to whatever job
they wanna get when they leave Congress soon as the revolving
door can spin around once.
You have to step up right now and tell all of your friends and
tell all of your Republican friends.
This is not the time to vote for wedge issues is not the time to vote for
the things that traditionally divide the parties,
it's the time to step up for truth.
That's why groups like the Lincoln project and others are standing up and
saying we still believe in Republican principles, but not now.
Now is the chance we have the first time and
maybe the last time we get to go on record at the ballot box after Jan six.
And say anyone who does not believe in the free and
fair elections of the United States will be pushed to the dustbin,
not even of history because they won't even be a footnote, they'll be a joke
that ran and lost horribly, it's right now only, November eight.
>> Yeah, look, I have a lot of thoughts on this.
Number one, it seems as though democrats have
used the risk to our democracy as a campaign
messaging tactic and nothing more than that.
And I think when you use something as serious as a political tool rather
than actually following it up with what it needs to be followed up with,
people are less likely to take it as seriously as they should.
So let me explain what I mean.
The January six hearings, I mean, Trump is still not being investigated.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Like he still has not been charged by the DOJ for
his very clear involvement in what transpired.
Not only on January 6th, but everything that was taking place behind
the scenes with all the planning and all the plotting that was going on.
The fact that the DOJ hasn't charged him with anything, okay, well,
I mean is our democracy really at risk.
Because if it were at risk, wouldn't the Democrats, wouldn't the DOJ wanna charge
Trump after we've seen all these hearings and we've seen all that evidence?
I think that the Democrats really hurt themselves by doing like a billion
investigations into Trump that lead to nothing, okay?
Different issues not just like the election denialism.
And I also think that when people are hurting economically, yeah, that is gonna
be like the most important thing that they're gonna be thinking about.
The most important thing that they're gonna wanna solve, right?
They want politicians and
they want political leaders who can speak to that economic instability, and
Democrats haven't really done a great job on that either.
We've heard a ton of excuses for why they weren't able to accomplish the things that
they said they would accomplish as long as they got that majority in Congress.
Remember leading up to those two Senate runoff races in Georgia,
what did we hear over and over again from Democrats?
We need to win because if we win, we'll have the majority,
if we can get the majority, we can get you voting rights.
They failed in that they didn't even try with voting rights, they didn't even try.
And so I think that is part of the problem, like it's hard for
people to take the fears of our democracy being dismantled seriously,
like if we don't see real action, do you get what I'm saying?
>> 100%, so much I wanna respond to them because you're so
right that people aren't seeing the change.
And it's again, because Democrats do not ever message strongly and
properly, and they make false promises that are not accurate to the letter of
what the truth is.
So you're totally right, they were saying those two spots in Georgia would make
all the difference and we're gonna pass it.
And we got those two spots,
nothing past because they were not talking about real math.
They were saying, we need to get to 50, and then plus Kamala Harris
is 51 just ignoring you got Manchin and Sinema, and sometimes others that just
refused to go along with the party's platform that can change the future.
So the real numbers 52 plus Kamala Harris's vote, and
that's sadly was not message now.
So you're gonna lose a lot of people millions are gonna say you lied last time,
but the truth is we need 52 for most of these issues to pass.
And then it is Manchin and Sinema proof for
some of these like cannabis like this we need about five more in the senate, and
we need to of course hold the House as well.
That's the real math, and so it sucks we have to change it.
But it still doesn't change the fact that on November 8th, we get just two more
Democratic senators and hold the House, then all these things will pass.
Because the house took action, the house did pass voting rights,
the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but it won't be taken up by a senate that won't
allow it and we don't have a filibuster proof majority.
And we don't have even enough to make a carve out of the filibuster because you
need the vote that you won't get from management Sinema on that.
You get two more and you get all those carve outs and
that change truly can happen.
I wish they were messaging that better pushing that out better 100%,
that's a real shame that they did not.
But at the same time,
when you're talking about the threats to our democracy more broadly, that is true.
That is a giant problem that people don't believe it to be true just because
these investigations aren't leading to things 100%.
The Jan six committee should not have done all these trials come to a conclusion then
said, but now, maybe Subpoena Trump and see what happens.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> They just weaken themselves and they let go at the end, but I'm hopeful.
>> It looks because when they do that, it looks like it's just political,
like it's just for show and something to do, something for
Democrats to kind of hang their hat on as we approach the midterm elections.
And when it appears politically motivated like that,
Americans are not going to take it as seriously, especially when there are other
issues that are front and center in their lives impacting them day in day out.
>> True, but I still hold out hope that, I mean,
we do know that the DOJ is investigating Trump, they have not brought charges yet.
I'm hoping it's because they were trying to hold to the old I guess respect for
not interfering with midterms.
I don't know how truth would interfere, but maybe right after the midterms,
there will be charges coming soon.
Let's hope because it is not just all the things that you mentioned that Trump did
leading up to January six, all of the planning.
But the worst thing is that he is currently still undermining
our democracy every day calling these elections and I you're saying,
the more you double down on the big lie, the more you're gonna win.
And that he's current still trying to tear down our democracy is committing
crimes every day by the definition of sedition of treason against this country,
it's giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
What would give any enemy of the United States more comfort than a former
president that controls the minds of 40%,
50% of the country to say we don't have democracy anymore.
You can make up your own facts that destroys America that is treason by
definition.
And in the constitution, treason can be punished by up to a punishment of death.
So we need to start taking so much more so seriously in this country.
The consequences that we purport to stand by and if you care so
much about the constitution, start standing up for it.
Not just being able to keep your gun based on the one sentence and
the second amendment, but the whole thing in its totality, and what it stands for
in this country.
Then maybe you can save the future, we don't let our country fall by the wayside.
Or don't or don't just stay home and keep those two hours to binge Netflix more and
let American democracy go, bye bye, I don't know why I didn't instinct bye, bye,
bye at the end.
>> I don't know I'm into it though, do you though?
>> [LAUGH] Thank you so much.
>> All right, now, I love the passion.
It's just it's so hard at this point to have any faith in the Democratic Party
doing anything that would turn this ship in the right direction really.
Republicans tell you who they are, they're candid, they're transparent, they tell you
exactly what they're planning to do, and more often than not they actually do it.
>> And they message so hard on lies and we should message as hard on the truth.
They are taking away your country, your freedom, your democracy, all of that.
And why I'm so glad we're talking about this a lot here at TYT is
because the mainstream media keeps making false equivalences on this
issue that determines the future of the country on both sides.
This is not a both sides issue, there is no way that you can say,
it's an equally valid opinion to say democracy doesn't matter and
elections don't matter, that's crazy.
And there's mainstream news networks saying, I'm sorry, Trump supporters if
you're offended by this story, no, that's no longer a valid opinion.
If you support Trump now today in the face of his ongoing torching of our democracy,
you are a traitor as well.
You don't get to support somebody's policies when they're not in power.
When the thing they're still doing being out of power is destroying the democracy,
that is all he's doing, and that's a huge danger.