[excited celebration sounds]
This feels good.
This... also feels a bit like
the final scene in “Jurassic Park.”
Remember when Dr. Grant,
Ellie, Ian, John Hammond and the kids
fly away from the island,
having barely escaped with their lives?
Then it cuts back to the T. rex
who lets out a giant
[T-Rex Roar]
“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”
That’s what this moment in American history feels like.
We barely got away from Trump with our lives.
But the problem is,
there’s still dinosaurs back there:
Trump voters,
far-right extremists
and Republicans.
And Joe Biden is a bit like Dr. Hammond, who’s like,
“We can work with them.
They'll have an epiphany.”
I’m Francesca Fiorentini,
and we’re looking at the lessons
of the 2020 election for Democrats
and how to ensure that Trumpism
does not rear its head again.
Because after all,
fascism...
...finds a way.
[theme jingle]
Joe Biden won the presidency,
and Trump will be out of office come January.
That is, unless he refuses to leave,
in which case the military will have the embarrassing task
of removing him.
The same way they’ll have to remove
all the Trump wigs from all the nuclear warheads,
which he might actually fire off in the next month
and perhaps even at his own people
have I mentioned there are five “Jurassic Park” movies?
No matter what that urchin does,
in a couple of short months, the real work begins.
And inheriting this America
is not an easy task.
There’s a health crisis,
an economic crisis,
a climate crisis,
a crisis in policing
and Beyoncé’s activewear line has sold out.
And now a debate is raging
about how much Biden can get done,
what those priorities are
and who he should be answering to.
That debate has everything to do with the fact that
Democrats lost House seats,
may not win back the Senate
and didn’t win by the percentages they thought they would.
It’s the kind of intraparty discord that can only be resolved by
pushing Nate Silver and Nate Cohn out to sea.
Sorry Nates,
it’s for the good of the country.
I’m sure you’ll come up with odds
for how long it’ll take to find land,
which will be wrong.
Of course on mainstream outlets,
the debate about what’s next for Biden and the Democrats
is ironically dominated by a lot
of former and current Republicans.
He will govern from the middle.
He will make deals.
People on the far-left
and far-right won’t like it.
For all the Republicans that came out
— The Lincoln Project —
those people have to be part of his
governing coalition.
I don't think the American people
want to sign up for the Green New Deal.
I don’t think they’re interested
in Medicare for All.
We’re not gonna be
turning a sharp left turn
in terms of public policy.
Frankly, the Democrats have
to make it clear to the far-left
that they almost cost him this election.
Wow, ah —
OK, John.
Let’s do this.
First of all, between you
and the career war-criminals- turned-Biden supporters,
you've got yourself...
...a few dozen voters.
And hey, that’s enough moderates to swing...
jack sh*t.
Watching “Never Trump” Republicans convince themselves
into thinking they know what all Americans want
is a bit like listening to a 6th grade boy
talking about what girls want.
The thing about chicks
is that they really like boys
who are good at Minecraft,
have asthma
and tell them how to wear their hair.
If people are going to BS about what Biden’s mandate is,
at least back it up with stats.
Because as it turns out, there is no evidence
that shows moderate Republicans
swayed the election for Biden.
In fact, quite the opposite.
It was Trump who turned out Republicans,
in staggering and upsetting numbers.
Earlier this summer,
we asked if racism would bring voters to the polls.
It did!
70 million of them.
This brand of racist authoritarianism was so powerful
it even brought some people of color out
— who I assume voted on their way back
from dropping off their abuela at ICE.
But the fear of Trump
also turned out more voters
for Biden.
And it was young people, people of color
and specifically women of color
who care about progressive issues,
that Kasich considers “far-left,”
that made the difference.
62% of 18-29-year-old voters voted for Biden,
an estimated 10% increase specifically in battleground states.
A near 90% of Black voters came out for him,
and in clincher states like Nevada and Arizona,
the Latino vote overwhelmingly went to Biden
and most likely made the difference.
Mind you, that’s in the face of disproportionate voter suppression
of those same groups.
Basically, young people and people of color
were all Michael Jordan in the 1997 NBA finals,
racking up 38 points and a game winner
while being sick with the flu.
And somehow,
Mitt Romney's trying to give the game ball
to Luc Longley.
Ya did nothing, Luc!
Of course, the turnout didn’t just materialize out of thin air.
It was thanks to grassroots organizers who made it a priority
to mobilize these communities that’ve been long taken for granted.
As former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner put it:
Mm!
Girl, if you don’t run for president one day,
I swear to God.
So let’s look at all the radical politics
of the people who came out for Biden,
and of those House Democrats,
who did manage to win their seats back.
Despite what guys like Kasich and Romney think,
no House Democrat who strongly endorsed Medicare for All
lost their seat.
I repeat:
No House Democrat who strongly endorsed Medicare for All
lost their seat.
And young people are making the connection
between having health care and this pandemic
we’re still not out of.
Because we are living
within a COVID-19 pandemic,
as well as a racial pandemic,
I really feel as if
health care is a key piece
to ensure that everybody
is well and healthy and alive.
All I heard was
“I WANT MY AVOCADO TOAST.”
[laughs to self]
The issues that young Biden voters said they were concerned about
were the coronavirus,
racism
and climate change.
And yet the solutions to those problems
are somehow seen as radical by the same conservatives
who think fusion food is radical.
I do not know what a Korean taco is,
and I don’t care to find out.
One poll showed that openly talking about
Biden’s groundbreaking $2 trillion climate plan
was explicitly mobilizing for those young voters.
But obviously! They’re typical Marxists,
wanting to redistribute all the
...life.
What about Black Lives Matter
and the calls to defund the police?
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina
claims it alienates Democratic voters.
And yet,
while voter registration was at a worrisome low in the spring
compared to the same period in 2016,
it skyrocketed in the wake
of the demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder.
The movement energy helped the electoral strategy.
Voters are turning on status quo policies
and candidates all over the country.
It’s why progressives like Cori Bush
and Jamaal Bowman and others
keep successfully primarying moderate Democratic incumbents.
And why voters no matter which party
are blazing forward with ballot measures
that weren’t necessarily backed by Democratic leadership.
Colorado passed a 12-week paid family leave law,
the first of its kind in the nation,
Arizona voted for a tax increase on the wealthy
to fund public education
and four more states approved recreational marijuana,
including red strongholds
like South Dakota and Montana.
Those states...
...won’t be red for long, though.
I mean,
how many stoner fascists do you know?
...Other than Elon Musk.
In Florida, voters passed a $15 minimum wage,
even though the state Democratic party
didn’t endorse it,
a reason one state representative believes
her party lost seats in the state.
The Democratic Party
doesn’t have values.
Ah, that we run on an anti-Trump message,
and don’t offer local solutions
or ideas to inspire folks
to actually come out and choose you,
to vote for you.
Not endorsing a minimum wage measure
she said was another example
of why Democrat keep losing
and revealed how beholden the party is to donors
and consultants.
Yeah,
didn’t we establish Democratic consultants are trash
back in February after an app botched the Iowa caucus?
See, where, uh,
the problem was is that we did not calculate
the time it would take
to remote download the update for —
[ka-ching]
— and my check has cleared, goodbye.
And yet, one of Joe Biden’s cabinet picks for commerce secretary
is Meg Whitman,
the former head of the failed streaming app Quibi
that lasted six months.
What will her solution to the financial crisis be?
Turn it sideways and give it a paywall?!
But truly, Quibi was an app that spent $2 billion
trying to lure young people with celebrity content
while never actually taking the time
to ask what young people wanted.
Quibi was basically if the Democratic Party
were a streaming service.
Biden is also considering former Senator Heidi Heitkamp,
who was for the Keystone XL Pipeline, as Secretary of Agriculture.
And a possible Secretary of Energy
with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
And of course...
Joe Biden’s transition team
is reportedly vetting a handful of Republicans
for potential cabinet positions.
Some of the names being floated:
former Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Oh, John.
I get it.
It’s a job interview.
There are real forces pushing back
on an ill-advised rightward shift of a Biden presidency.
Groups who formed part of the Biden-Bernie coalition
and who were pivotal in the Democratic victory
are keeping pressure on.
And thank God,
because the stakes could not be higher.
Because it is precisely
the shift away from working-class concerns
and toward corporate interests
— and precisely the capitulation to dangerous Republicans
that helped fuel the rise of Donald Trump in the first place.
A guy who rightfully said Washington was broken
but then said he would fix it,
much in the same way that Hannibal Lecter said
he’d take care of dinner.
Republicans have proven time and time again
they have no interest in working with Democrats.
They don’t even have an interest in recognizing the reality
that Joe Biden IS the president-elect.
And we’re supposed to meet them in the middle?!
What would that even look like at this point?
Donald Trump is president
and Joe Biden is his driver.
It all goes back to that final scene in “Jurassic Park.”
Dr. Alan Grant looks out the plane window
and sees birds flying along the water,
the origin of what became
those terrifying and destructive dinosaurs.
Those birds?
Those are moderate Democrats.
Their hollow backbones and middling policies seem harmless,
but then you wake up 30 years later with massive inequality,
the prison industrial complex,
no health care
and a Bronzasaurus just breached the perimeter.
But because people’s lives have gotten all the more horrible,
they’ll probably start to look at the velociraptors and think,
“Gee!
They seem to have the courage of their convictions!
I mean, they’re smart —
look at them opening doorknobs!”
And then we’re all f[censored]cked.
This is the Democrat’s last chance
to make good on their promises,
make actual change in American’s lives
and save this country from a smarter fascist.
Which, let’s be honest,
isn’t a high bar.
As AOC says, progressives are the Democratic base.
And that base... isn’t the enemy.
Authoritarianism is.
It’s time for Democrats to give up the moderate Republican ghost
and embrace their base.
The future of our democracy is still...
...up for grabs.
Hold on...
...to your butts.
Thank you for watching Newsbroke.
That is our final piece of 2020
and thank God.
‘Cause I’m tired
as hell.
And I will not take it anymore.
[laughs]
Thank you for being here,
thank you for your comments.
Let us know what you’re hoping
a Joe Biden administration looks like
and how it responds
to the grassroots.
And thank you to everyone
who’s made Newsbroke possible,
to all the producers
and the writers
and the team at AJ+.
Couldn’t have done it without you.
But especially you,
the viewers.
[end theme jingle]