Last week, I talked to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to learn more about what true progressive
politics means in 2020. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is an American hero from the good
Washington. She’s also known for bringing Attorney General Barr to near tears.
- When protestors with guns and swastikas— - I am aware of protestors—
- Excuse me, Mr. Barr. This is my time and I control it.
This lady is my kind of Democrat! How does she do it?
You have been the vanguard of progressive policies, for so many years. Are you a seer?
‘Cause you were ahead of the curve on Medicare for All, $15 minimum wage, impeachment, free
college, the Green New Deal. How do you see these things?
- It’s impossible to not see them. All it means to be a progressive is that you are
first to the best and most just idea. So normally, we are ahead of where our president may be,
even if it’s a Democratic president. What are policies that Democrats are not really
looking at right now and will take another eight years for Nancy Pelosi to acknowledge?
- A federal jobs guarantee, universal housing as a human right. We have so much more to
do around just corruption and elections. I think all of those things are absolutely coming
down the pike. It’ll be cool when Mike Bloomberg gives
a speech about all those things at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
- I don’t see that in our future. Not Mike Bloomberg. No.
Okay. But Bloomberg did speak at the DNC this year, and so did a bunch of other people.
Barf. Honestly, the whole event—minus the Billy Porter performance—may not have been
what the progressive wing of the Democratic Party was looking for. How do you speak to
people who are, like... undecided about whether they would be willing to cast a vote for Joe
Biden? - I ask them what they care about. And they’ll
say Medicare for All, or climate change, or, you know, not spending so much money on the
military. And then I just take them through. There are two choices on the ballot, and there
is no progress possible with Donald Trump in the White House. So whatever you care about,
you’re not gonna get it with Donald Trump. We gotta get Donald Trump out of office.
Right. The stakes could not be higher. So okay, tell me what happens if we all wake
up the next day and nobody really knows who the winner is? What happens then?
- When you go down the road to fascism, which is what that would be, that… it’s gotta
be the people that turn out in the streets and are really ready to take on what is happening
and demand a fair result. Taking it to the streets I can live with as
a strategy. More Zoom meetings, I cannot live with that as a strategy. At least we have
fall protest attire to look forward to! And assuming we all treat our ballots like horny
chain texts and send them out, and assuming that Trump loses, and assuming—more miraculously—that
he leaves the White House, is that enough? - No. No. Definitely not. We already had the
tools for Trump to sort of put in place some things that really enabled all of the xenophobia
and racism. So we have a lot of things to fix.
What’s the worst case scenario that happens if we don’t address these root causes?
- We elect another Trump-like figure. Um, you know, because if you leave those things
to fester, then that is going to give rise to the same anger that allowed Trump to be
elected in the first place. So you mean, like a metaphorical other Trump.
Not like a literal other Trump. - I mean, Trump could decide to run again.
Eric Trump could decide to run— [heaving]
- All these people that surround Trump… [gagging]
That was like you punched me in the stomach. I just haven’t heard those words in a little
while. Ughhh. When will the Trumps stop attacking
my body? And how is a progressive Democrat and woman of color so calm about all this?
Is her stomach made of antacids? How do you calm yourself and center yourself? So that
you can do better battle the next day, or more battling the next day?
- I literally breathe. It’s a big technique. And it’ll happen in the moment, right? And
I will just stop, and then just take deep breaths. And I will have a little, you know,
something that I say, like, “breathe in power, breathe out anger.” Or whatever.
Does your anger ever breathe out, like, fire? - People tell me that when they watch me questioning
sometimes they see that fire. Let me try it! Okay, I’m gonna try it for
myself. Okay I’m gonna think about—, I’m going to think about Trump stealing the election.
Hang on. So. No, it didn’t work. I’m still angry.