D.L. Hughley Says Trump Is America

0:00Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required, $15 per month equivalent to taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes when network is busy, see terms. Labor day is hitting different this year and there's good reason for that. There's a conversation you gotta listen to and you gotta think about. Not because it's easy, but because it's hard. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. DL Hugley is not just funny, okay? He is a man of a certain age he has lived. He is dealing with something that is almost impossible for him to believe is a black man in America, which is that he was born 1964, which now looks like a golden age for minorities in America

1:01when rights were expanding and the idea of equity and the idea of true parity and equality were real. Now he's got grandkids and at least the daughters, the granddaughters, they don't have all the rights that he had in 1964. There were roading what happened for voting, there were roading what happened for control of your own body. You don't think that removing row with dobs is the first instance since prohibition of a right being taken from a class of people. So you get hit twice as a black female. So Labor Day is when we appreciate what is supposed to be about in this country, which is what? Making your way. And we are at a very important time when we don't know what that means anymore. It's all about the few, it's not about the many. We do not respect or honor labor. We don't and I don't mean about unions. It's not what I'm talking about, unions matter to me.

2:01I think they're important. I think the erosion of unions has hurt, has hurt the American experiment. But that's only one little piece. What matters? What are we about? DL Hugley has a clear eye to understanding of the concerns of the time. As well as why he believes in irrational optimism and why he believes that there is something next to come. And I wanted to talk to him about it and I want you to hear it. DL Hugley, you know the name, but these ideas are gonna hit different. So I have a working theory that I wanted you to weigh in on. It's kind of like where we are at. Well, first off, how are you doing? I ain't touching a while. First off, wait, wait, wait, hang on. How are you Chris? How are you? I listen to you.

3:01I have been watching, I have been listening. You know, and I think something's interesting. You say this very rarely, but I did hear you the other day. Kind of say what I've been hearing like a Bill Burr says also in an always, but hey, listen, I'm just a comedian, man. I'm a comedian. You are not just a comedian. And even if professionally, yes, you're a comedian, you're an entertainer, you're an actor. Fine, there is a long legacy of our entertainers, our comedians being social commentators and social critics. And I don't think there is any reason for you to demean the value of what you're putting out there because you're also fucking funny. You know what I mean? I feel the same way about Bill Burr when he puts out stuff and he says to reporters, what do you ask him anything for? What do I know? I'm just a, you're not just a joke teller. Well, you know, you would be a friend of mine, but I will say that it says more about what, what, what import society puts on, um, levity that it does

4:06on people who are supposed to be professional storytellers. I think that I read recently where, um, the vast majority of Americans get their, uh, information from satirist, which says a lot about what we are as a society. And so it isn't so much diminishing what I, what I do, it is, uh, society's import and, and, and who they choose and how they choose to absorb information is more to point. Well, look, let's say you're right. And I have read those same indications. Then that only makes you. Yeah. Then even I was suggesting. And what does that mean to you? Does that give you a sense of empowerment, uh, a sense of purpose or you like geez, we're in a bad place if people have got to look to me now. I think all of it, I think all of it, I think that's how the boy, I remember, I once did a movie and this guy said, uh, in the place that he was so devoid of human touch, the dude when the knee in the back felt like a blessing

5:10to him. And I think that's where our in society, I think our inability to absorb information without being tindilated without being satiated without being distracted is is probably why we're in a situation where right now, like the reason we're addicted to so many things is because we, uh, we have to have things sweet. We, we have to, the sack, like we're addicted to sugar because we can't just take the unborn to shoot. And, and we're in a situation we're in right now is because people, um, don't tend to pay attention. And I think, um, and I think that anybody who studied any level of history knows that this is probably the beginning of the demise of any great empire civilization is where people stopped hearing and, I believe they already knew what was going to go on and they stopped being curious and they stopped paying attention and things like this happen. Now you know, uh, Richard prior, uh, George Carlin, uh, Lenny Bruce before

6:14them had the same apocalyptic prophecies that that's it. Man, we stopped paying attention and now they get over on us and this is the beginning of the end. Why does it feel different to you here and now? Well, but probably to all those people, um, um, the, they would probably had a moment like this, but I think that there's no debate. I think the American psyche was always predicated on our feelings, how we felt about things. Um, if you look at, I remember, uh, you know, one of the things that, uh, it's probably wanted to avoid was this comparison, um, to Jimmy Carter. Uh, Jimmy Carter was a good human being, but not a great president. And I think it's hard to be both. It's not a big good man and a great American president. I think if you look at the underpinnings of what was happening, um, you had the Iran, uh, hostage situation and you had high inflation and you had America not feeling away about it. So but this time it's decidedly different because for the first time I think

7:15in the history of this nation, we are, we are the danger. It isn't China. It isn't Russia. It isn't. So our perception around the world in a few short years has as taking a hit that I think is irreparable. I just, so, so let's indulge. I think it feels different. I think it's not just talk. I think the way our allies feel about us now, which is more of a, they have to not I want to. Uh, I think you see that in what's going on with the regime in Iran, which everybody knows is a bad group of individuals, but why is nobody jumping to get involved with us? What's cause of Trump? What we see with ice, uh, what we see, uh, with our institutions. Uh, yes, they've always been under assault, but it feels different right now. It just, it feels like stuff is going to hell. Well, because it is, well, if you are, if you are a black or brown person, or

8:18you live in a blue city or a blue state, you really have no representation at the federal level. You are really on your own. I don't care if you're getting trouble from a natural disaster or if there is a, you know, a budgetary concern, you're on your own. This is, I, it's certainly we've had situations where people, you know, read and blue, but generally there was a sense that we were all in this together. And I don't think anybody can honestly say that. I think that it's, it's this frag made it minute notion. Like it's like having a, a no smoking section on a plane. And I think it feels very divided. I think it feels very fragmented. And I think we saw underpinnings of that one doing the first administration, when there was that approach to COVID. I think now we are in the situation we're in because a bunch of people decided it would be better if one group was in charge and they are. This is, this is, we have a bunch of white men, whether the competent or not, who are running every aspect of this country. And it is, it is, it is showing you how important diversity is.

9:21Because when you have one mind said one thought, one idea, you, you, you, you, you, you fall prey to stuff like this. An economy that wants the envy of the world isn't. Now I can say that a lot of people, a lot of bayonets are rich, but people on the average, on, on the aggregate, they are people who just didn't know how could interconnected all these things were. It's like pulling a string and then finding out the whole sweater falls apart. People didn't know farmers didn't know how dependent they were on, on, on snap, or on the federal, as a federal level. You didn't know the, the, just the, just the sheer back trapper, what a farmer has to deal with, whether prices, the market, you know, the value of things, fertilizer, fuel, all those things were offset by the government. Now there's no help, but they thought it would only be effects of money. They were successful. That telling us it was always someone else and it's been laid there. We are a better one. We're together, but now we don't even know how to be. You don't know how to. What do you sense when you're on the road? What, what, what are you getting from people and what has it done to the challenge for you to be funny?

10:29Well, it was all ironic. I mean, like you can't kick out all the evidence and wonder why your construction ain't done. You can't, you can't wonder why your pool is green. You can't wonder why lettuce makes you shit. And like you can't, we are all in it. But I think that there is to say that people didn't know this was going to happen or didn't know how bad it was going to be. It is, it's interesting because there are no innocent players in this. There are people who voted for this. There are people who didn't vote and there are people who voted against it. But all of us, if you are a certain age and you were able to participate in the political process, whether you decided to or not, you have a hand in it. And it is all our worth. It's all our value. We are all in this together, whether we want to be or not. But you can see now you have a man who's not even interested in talker. He, he fights harder for a bar room than he does for anything else. And everything is about a gimmick and everything is about transaction. And I think that a country, I would never look at a, because this isn't a one-off thing. This is 12 years members of this country have been voting for this guy.

11:30And he had the same more fun. So if I were another nation, I would, who, who, who attacks Canada at the time, they argue with Mexico at the same time they're fighting Iran at the same time that they're fighting, trying to annex Greenland? No one does that. Mm-hmm. What does it mean to you that he got the most votes? Now, of course, demographics matter, right? The country gets bigger, the more people you're going to have more popular votes. But the fact that he took votes from groups that used to be democratic, not just democratic voters, but against what he is. What does that mean to you? It means that he appealed to the, the very base selfishness that inherited on everybody. Everybody is naturally inclined to be selfish. You have to work hard not to be. But everything that he promised him was to happen to somebody else. Like, look at all the Haitians who thought it wouldn't be them. Or the Venezuelans who thought it wouldn't be them, or the Cubans who thought it wouldn't be them.

12:32Or the Mexicans who thought it wouldn't be them. Or the Ethiopians who thought it wouldn't be them. Everybody thought that somebody else was a responsible for their problem, and they were bear their brother. And I think now you see that all of us are in this together, all of us. And I think that they were able to appeal to somebody. They successfully made people believe that somebody was responsible for their, their life, that those people would be gone and then all this floodgate of opportunities would happen. And I think that's a fool's errand. And I think that we're bearing the brunt of it now. Did you see, or how does it strike you that this may be in your life, in my life? This is the first time that that scapegoat is in you. By the way, usually when somebody is making a group responsible for the pain of white people or for the majority, it's usually the black man. And it's hard to be successful at doing it. Like, the one thing, I don't care what immigrant comes here. They don't immigrant come here.

13:32They're, it is love that generally brings people together. But to, to, in this country, it is the stain of black. Everybody finds a way, whether it wasn't no matter where they come from to blind things on black people, they do. They find a way. And this is the first time though that he, look, he started with that. That's what DEI was. Sure. That's what, but now it's really not about the, you know, black people as a focus of animus of other rising and all those other fancy words. It's really the immigrants in a way that we haven't seen before. Even immigrants, the first thing they do is tell you that I black. The first thing they do is make it. They're not black. The, the, the delineation between them and us. And I think ultimately the only people who are not buying law and surprised by this is black people because nobody knows this country better than us. Nobody does. Nobody does. We can have all these guys like I hear Bill Maul all the time. And he's to me, the quintessential example.

14:33He's a guy who used to hang around with black people and dated black women. It was very cool. And now he's becoming what he was. He was becoming what he's always been. And so ultimately in this country, in this, by the way, what do you mean? I think he is a selfish, self centered my topic, uh, old white man. And I don't know that he knows how to think any differently. Like I like, um, I heard him talking to how I'm in dealt about bad ideas. Well, the Ryan War was a pretty bad idea. It couldn't have been executed well with a game show host president and a drunk powercaster executing or it couldn't, it couldn't have gone well. There was no, the thing about this country's we tend to not understand. Like Iran is not, the all part Iran is an advanced civilization. Iran has a 95% industry. They top 10 in the world in science and chemistry. This America, we read it the fifth grade, let we don't fuck the round start and fight with tech support. Like they have fought every major power and on the man they fought the Roman empire.

15:35They fought the Byzantine empire. They fought gang is calm. They fought Alexander great. If you fight Alexander great anyway, the fucking gonna be scared of the Donald the dumb. And that's what we like literally this is Kendrick and Lamar and guess who Drake. This is Kendrick and Drake and guess who Drake is. The fact that people are so he believes that you can just be white and throw things at things that people see to your will and it doesn't work. You could put these people in in situation that they're not bright enough to be in. You fire all the generals, you make loyalty to like we have a ship in the, the US S Abraham Lincoln where they can't eat that there no sanitary supplies. They're they're not outfitted well. If you you're so busy testing for testosterone, you forget their women need tampons. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen. But it is a, but America believes a lot of people believe that air all the source of their problems with all these people who had jobs and who had these positions of

16:36power that were artificially given to them. So we strip all that away and we give it to the rightful air to that place. The world automatically be a better place. And and and there is no place for that's working. Not no aspect of this country's working. I get heat for this and I understand why I do you know, sometimes when you do what I do the way I choose to do it, you're signing up for, which is why you want what that's why you think we still freeze. Certain feelings, certain criticism. I sign up for it and I understand and I'm not saying it just to be provocative. But one of the things I say to people very often is, listen, BB Netanyahu is a bad guy. It's a bad ally for America. He is not Israel anymore than Donald Trump is America. But I have to tell you, I have been thinking recently. I'm right about BB Netanyahu.

17:39He was very unpopular at home. He is on multiple stages of litigation. They were coming after him and with good reason. He is the most right wing. He has empowered the hostage. He has empowered the crazies there like we've never seen before as observers of Israel. But I think I'm only half right. I'm right about him. But I think Trump is America. You're fucking right. He is. He embodies everything we are. Everything we are. There is a bad side. On the bad side. Both of us. Well, here's the thing. People don't like this. Everything you think about America, the good shit is black people. Are independence. It is. All the dope shit about us is us. Is us. Like if you look at who is influenced as culture, it is black people. Like this is not me. This is statistical. Black people influence culture. But if you look at who's the most maligned and the most distressed and the most distressed, it's like it is also us. This is America. And the problem is now there is no obfuscating.

18:40We know exactly who we are. And we don't get pretend pretend to be like we're not. We have allowed this. We have allowed this to happen. Our our our institutions are in tatters. Our reputation is in tatters. The idea of us is in tatters. We are laid bare for the world to see and even for ourselves. And the great thing about that without a death, they can't be a resurrection. And the idea of America has always been, do you know that black people have fought in every single war in this country, every single one? And in every single war, we have been fighting against the country at the same time. We can fight Germany, but we're still fighting to be free. We can fight even right now. We're fighting Iran. We are fighting for people. They're rolling back rights of the voters' rights act. So there's never been a time when black people love this. We fight in every war and every single iteration of that war. We have now even fighting Hitler or the actions of evil or an Iatola or an idea or communism when this country wasn't fighting us at the same time.

19:42At the very same time. So you say the campy of resurrection without a death. Is that a statement of optimism about what you think is to come? I think that that's a statement of truth. I think that's a there's no pretending like it isn't so anymore. Even the way we fight wars anymore, the way we're built to fight wars. We haven't lost, we haven't won a war in 60 years. Well, there is, I don't disagree with you, but there is a, there is a twist on that. We don't occupy the way war used to work is you and I have beef. We go at it. Someone's going to win and someone's going to lose and the other one is going to own all of it. And then you'll figure out what you're going to do moving forward. We don't do that. We don't want to do it. And we don't know how to do it, which was the big sin of the war on terror. Yes. Or the one drug or the one drug was you know, I've, that's been a pet peeve of mine for a very long.

20:46I that pretty much was a catalyst of me in this business was crossing swords with Barry McCaffrey back in the day dating myself. Which I am more prone to do these days. I've fallen in love with my maturity. I have fallen in love with it because you know, at one point I was just like saying to my son one day, I was like, listen, stop asking me to do shit that I can't do anymore. I understand that you think I look like I'm capable of doing what I can to yourself. You stop lying to yourself. It's like I can't know I can't dunk a basketball. It doesn't mean I never could. It doesn't mean, but I can't do it anymore. But I'll tell you what I can do is I have wisdom. I know things. I understand things. I see things coming in a way that has become a very precious commodity in our media. And I see things what I don't see and why I was so happy to have you on.

21:52And I don't care if you give yourself credit for this or not because it's just it's demonstrable to me and my relationship with you over many years. I don't see the better any time soon. I do believe that he loses in the midterms, but not like where there is a, you know, a veto proof majority for Democrats in the House and the Senate. You know what I mean? So I don't know what it really means. I do believe we have to have balanced power right now with the way things are. But I'm starting to listen to people differently that when they would say he's not going to leave. He's not going to leave. I would say stop. He's going to leave. I'm never you saying it. And I look, I still believe he's going to leave. I believe the institutions are stronger than his envy than his pride. But I no longer correct people the same way of the L you lost the plot now.

22:54Calm down. Take a hit. You're all right. I don't say that. You're right to be afraid. You're right to be worried. I'm not going to say you're not. It's not fair to people who feel that way because it is a rational fear. It is a rational fear. Maybe my optimism is irrational. Maybe, maybe I think you're open to it. Is the only reason where it exists. You know why there's nothing to fear when you already knew what was going to happen. It's the punts you don't see the knock shop. It's not this is the only chance we have is to accept our part in this. Like when people say I didn't know and like I hear all these people, I didn't know you did. The one thing I will say to his credit is that everything he's saying, everything he's doing, he said he would do. They were so sure that we would not be moved by they put what they were planning to do in a book. It's right there for everybody to see. So no, there are no innocent people that would give me optimism.

23:55As I know, America is very good at colloquialism. You got to hear rock bottom and it's tough love. That's what we are right now. That's what we are. I hope so because I'll tell you what we are dealing with first world problems here at home, not in terms of our talk, not in terms of our psychology. But if we were hard bitten like we were in the 20s and then in the 30s, you'd see a lot of quick change because people would have nothing to lose at a scale that we're not used to in this country. And I heard a line of the day of an all things, the Green Lantern series, but I heard a line that was great. And I don't maybe you'll say no, I've heard that before. This mother is talking to her child and she says, listen, courage is nothing but fear that has set its prayers. And that is a great line.

24:56And I do think there is a little bit of, I hope, I don't even know what I'm looking at half the time, but I'm looking up and I get it. I refuse to be afraid because I want to fight. And I think that when you're afraid, it's hard to fight. It's hard to fight when you're afraid. You got to, if you're governed by fear, but it's impossible to be like, it's impossible. And when I was growing up, I was always the first one picked for a fight and the last one picked for a game. So they never felt discernibly different to me. Like it was never, it was never. And both of them wanted to create a day in outcome. They wanted to win and these were the ways you did it. But that's the great thing about this place. It's a we lean into the idea that we were founded on or that we were, that we, that we asked at his core. America was always aspirational. It was always expansive. When it gets small, it is a problem. Every right that ever expanded our rights was great. The only time we ever took anything away was prohibition. When we tried to limit rights, like when I, when I watch people, I'm watching now people,

26:01I can tell America is inclined to listen by the names they choose to take. When you start hearing like, like, like, like, mandami and you hear the, the, the, the, the do's that sound like the, the protagonist on the lioness and America's willing to listen to. It tells you and, and listen to how now people are willing to say, maybe it's not so bad that everybody gets a healthcare. Maybe it's not so bad that everybody gets to eat. Maybe it's not so bad that our, our bridges are, are modern. Like if you go, the, the one thing I'll say about China and, and I don't know that they'll ever be a group of people that wanted to rule the world through military prowess. Like China doesn't have the basis we have. They don't have, they build infrastructure. Like in China, I'm not lauding China. I don't know, but I do know they can build things just because people need it. In America, if you want to build something, a white guy has to get the lowest bit and he has to make money for it. If you tell you want to be able to park, if you want to build an airport, somebody has to make money for it, it cannot be for the good of the people.

27:03And if it's for the good of people's socialism, but what is wrong with the wealthiest nation in the world, not having people starve to death? What's wrong with the wealthiest people in the world, not having all the citizens educated? I heard a guy in, and he was talking about his Medicaid guy, cut and he was never talking about the, the, the fact that, because people seem to forget the Californians really just can tuck you. It really just Alabama. It's really a few, like it is a very rural state. Like 60% of the produce grown, consumed in America at one point was in California, but he said his bills were $800. He makes $800. His medicine was 20,000. And he said, what am I supposed to do? You're going to die. You're going to die because that is what you have said was okay. I never thought that was okay. I never thought, I never have thought that it was okay that somebody in the wealthiest country, like the two wealthiest, the two states and cities in America who have the largest homeless population, the California, I was going to miss Los Angeles and New York. And they also have the highest concentration of me and isn't being there.

28:05That shouldn't be. That shouldn't be. We should not settle for this. Donald Trump has acknowledged three things while president that I think are really, really interesting commentaries. One, he was asked about the dreamers and he said, everybody loves the dreamers. I'm going to take care of them. We're going to take care of the dreamers. As a standalone, you're going to do a big, no, no, it's too hard. Nobody wants to do a big bill. We'll just do them alone. Second, I'm going to call in the healthcare bigs and they'll come when I call them. I know some of them, they know me, they respect me. I'm going to call them all in and I'm going to say, hey, this is not working. Okay. You're making too much and people aren't getting enough. We're going to change it with or without you. And then I'm going to close the doors and we're going to get a deal done. Third thing. You know what? You're right. It's crazy.

29:05People are struggling and these credit card companies just charge more and more and more and they find all these different ways that it's wrong. You know, there's a thing called usually, he said, I'm going to limit the credit card rates to 10%. They tell me I can do it. I'm going to do it. Those three things showed that somewhere in that man, there is still a monochrome of common sense of what is actual reality. And in each of those cases, he was immediately approached by Stephen Miller, Mike Johnson, and it went away. And the way they got it to go away all three times, which is why I keep bringing them up all the time and it drives the president crazy is because they said to him, if you do this, it will be bad for you. This goes bad for you. He doesn't ever ask why, like if I said to you, DL, Hey man, I heard that you're

30:06going to do this. Don't do it. It'll be bad for you to say why is it going to be bad for me? He doesn't even ask the mere possibility that something is anything but good for him is enough. And those three moments were crystallizing for me and why, no, I will not say that he has a nice haircut. I will not give him credit for what works on an absolute level because it is naturally offset by what he is. But he was an amoral man and has been the whole time. Let's see. You know what? I would say a moral may be generous in moral, but not in moral, but that says a lot about a country where most of the country and increasing increments every time decided that that was the way when you are a public servant. And this says a lot about the American psyche. Well, we should take a only in America. Would you go, I'm going to take a guy who's never done it to be a politician, right?

31:11You would never go to a dentist that never did it. You never go to an airplane pilot that never did it at the core of it. If you want to be a politician, there is at least one thing you have to have that is that there's time. I want you obviously there are a lot of intangible, but you have to want to be a servant. You have to want to serve. I, we can say whatever we want about what has happened. I, I knew you, I knew your father, you wanted to serve. Now, whatever else happened, I can't at the core of it all. You have to care about people more than you care about you. You have to get there has to be something past you. I, I have grandchildren. I love them. My daughter did something happen to me and I never thought about it. Now, I don't, you know, my daughter got into a situation. She was, she was, she, she got pregnant. Unfortunately, she lost a baby. She's, I didn't even know because she was past 30 that they called it a gerry, actually, gerry, actually pregnancy. And it was a bad shit. I can't, it's been a very tough little time. But she's in Georgia and she was wondering if she was going to be able

32:15to have what she needed to get rid of that pregnancy. It's just so happens. She was in Georgia, but she was in Texas. It had been a different thing. Yeah. You said earlier, pro-abition is the only time we've taken a right away, except for dobs. Roe v Wade being canceled by dobs was the removal of a right. And they'll say, no, no, no, they just gave it to the States. It's the same thing. It took it away from everybody. Why is it the people that yell freedom to loud us in America? Only want the freedom to restrict a woman's right for a time of her body and to carry guns. That's the only right they fight for. They only want the right to restrict a woman's body because of their religious ideology and to carry unfettered access. Or to say speech, which means their ability to say things that don't have any expertise attached to them. Well, I tell you what, they only want to speech, but then when you got a president that uses the FCC to squelch speech, or you fire people that tell jokes you don't like,

33:17you didn't want that. When a man, when they say they want speech, they want to say nigga and derogatory shit and not be punished for it. They don't want to. You know, I had somebody say to me, why are you defending Maggie Haberman? Why are you throwing this in their face? I remember you saying that you weren't that big a fan of her relationship with Trump. And I said, because a couple reasons, one, it doesn't matter what I think of somebody personally. It's what they represent. Okay. And he wants to just insult people who say things that he doesn't like. And that's not leadership. Well, the only time is freedom is when somebody says something you don't like. That's right. Like to me, I know what it's like when Don I'm in said what he said. I remember all the guy I've been on all I defended his right to say what he has to say because that is a right, right. The suck of I know that I'm going to want it.

34:17I know that everybody else has to have it to me. Everything that was about that was that potentially could have been great in this country that could could have been substantive and resonant and hard had bounded us all together. It's now being eroded. Yes. I want to end it. It's you would think that the first amendment we can all get behind it, right? We have some real battles we have to have here with social media, with AI, with the algorithms, with who's in control. But it's never going to happen if there's not a really dominant consensus about the need for it. But there is a dominant because this is it is both. There is a like most people agree that that it. You know what we live in an Ola card society, my algorithm and your algorithm is people things that you feed it. It gives you what you want. And we have to decide that that why is it that every time I hear you telling me, I'm telling the the the the the the the the the gravitas and the koocha months of your faith,

35:18it is to tell me what I can't do. Right. Why is it to tell me that that that and why am I supposed to be afraid of like they're going to change me into Islam. Ain't nobody ever came to my door to ever try to come. There are only two people to came to my Georgetown to give me to do anything. One is the girl's cows and the others Christians. There are only two people. There's no one. No one gets on get it. And look, I don't even like having to defend certain things, but it's very necessary in a free society. Of course. And look, we can talk about I don't know why the left is picking the phrase democratic socialist and why it is trying to get into this fight about Islam in such a country that is so bigoted about differences. I don't know why there's such an opportunity. Here's the thing. And what we're talking about social is everybody's cry was happening now to Bernie Sanders.

36:23Is Jesse Jackson. Jesse Jackson is saying the very same things now that everybody's saying now. Saying then what everybody's saying now these ideas are not old but coming out of a black mouth at black lips. It couldn't the Fox News. The thing is that I find the most ironic right now Fox News made their career of maligning Jesse Jackson. And now Jesse Jackson's very ideas, the very things he fought for. Grasshopper Laudie was and all those kind of things are the very things now that are tipping point for that very organization that's been in a built his bones on destroying it. It is a little sad. You know, men are important. Men have to meet moment, right? But and I think about this, you know, Jesse and my father were close. And you know, if they were alive today, but then my, you know, my daughter says to me, yeah, but it was a different time. What Jesse Jackson came out of, what Mario Cuomo came out of isn't what's evolving right now.

37:27Isn't what it is right now. It's like, well, but the idea is he's like, yeah, but there she says, but they're experienced. And maybe that's, maybe that's part of it. But like, you know, I find myself saying, listen, I don't want to hear Protestant people tell me I got to be afraid of Muslims because they want to change us from a Christian nation to a Muslim nation. Right. You know, you want, you say you're afraid of what you're saying you want, which is that you want this to be a Christian country, we're not a Christian country. And they say, but you, you were raised Catholic. I say, I know, but the reason that I'm allowed to believe whatever crazy shit I want to believe is that you don't get to tell me ex that I can't. The thing is I, I think these Muslims are putting Christians to shame. I think that when you look at whether you like this or not, the things here doing are the very things Christ told us to do to look out for the sick to feed the downtrod to look out for the stranger. Everything he's doing.

38:27And even if they're not because look, you know, here's what happens. Right. So what do they throw in my face? Okay. They throw in my face. What happens in these backward ass countries where you have a lot of Muslims and look what they do with their women and look what they do with their gaze. Look what they do. We do it on women. There's no discernible difference between an Islamic fundamentalist and a Christian fundamental. They want to do it. That's an extreme extreme. I'm with you. Different way of saying shit. But I just want to make this point very clear. We're in the situation. We're in all prisoners, all administrations have unforeseen occurrences. Nobody could have predicted the mortgage crisis. Nobody could predicted, you know, I mean, things are some things are more like that. Like COVID, we are in the situation right now because he has successful legislation. He wanted everything he got. We're not in the situation because of things that didn't work. We're in the situation because of things that did you got what you want and they just didn't work. Terrific didn't work. Ice didn't work. This war didn't work. We're in the situation because you thought that this is the mindset that would work even though history told us it wouldn't.

39:32And I think that we're only in the situation right now because people now have no other option. I want, I want a country, a wealthy country where people don't starve. I want wealthy country that people don't die of things they shouldn't. I want a country, not even a wealthy country. I want a country where a man or woman is true to, true to, free to love and do as he sees fit as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. I want a country. My granddaughters were born. I was in 1964. I was born with the first as my mother's first child with a full rice of an American citizen. My granddaughters were born with less rice. And that to me tells you where we are. I think people have to love things like like great men plant trees, a shade of what they'll never know. We've forgotten that. You come from people that whose America was his best option because they sing something else. We are the children. We are, we are afraid of, we are afraid of when they sing full of people who were the descendants of great men who never

40:33knew struggle and now try to approximate it. You know what you said originally is probably the best and thought. You know, sometimes you need a death for a resurrection. It doesn't take a long time. I want to say this, but we know it doesn't have to be a civil war. I think that I think we never stop fighting a civil war. I say this. I am often asked to explain my dynamic. Well, you and I know we have, we have, we, you know, there are things that are beyond explanation. But because there are things that are beyond explanation, there are things that I know humanity exists. There are people who can talk about their fathers. We know we're talking about, they're putting things in your top of the experience with nobody else's around. So there's nothing nobody could say to me about you to me. Now, I can't say how they look at you, but I know how I look at you. And there's nothing somebody could say that externally wouldn't because I know what we do. I'm not going to give anybody inside of privy. So I know that if I can cover him here and you can cover there and we can agree on these things

41:35and feel these things and talk about these things, there is hope. But there's one thing we have to see. We are human and you're human and my human don't have to look or feel the same way. But they have to be at a certain level who doesn't want their children to do better. Who doesn't want the place that they gave them what they are to go on? Who doesn't want something past them? And because we're a nation full of people who have caught the power. Who want nothing past them? They just want the now and the now is why we're here because we're now is inherently selfish. Watch a child that you hold like I never knew men that wanted less for their sons. I never have known that. And we're a nation full of people. You can say what you want about your body. One thing you can't tell me is that man didn't love his son. You can't tell me that. You can't tell me that.

42:35You can't tell me that he didn't love America. But you get I don't know that that's true of a lot of other people they love the idea of America. They love like that whole day the whole Solomon thing where they cut in the baby and have there are people who are rather than the baby. He couldn't have that somebody else get something they didn't get that is true and we're seeing it you know it's difference between more pie. And your slice of that pie you keep in people off it we are forgotten that this country has always been at its best when it's just making more pie. Making more pie and then let the slices be what they are. But we forgot that and we're just like yeah forget the more. I don't know if we ever knew it but the possibility that it could happen see for black people the best way for us is forward for a lot of people in this country. The best way forward is back like we're nation for the Jezans and the Flintstones and the Flintstones are running because that was my problem with Maga from jump right people like what don't you like about great I says has nothing to about great it's again.

43:47It's again I got the fucking problem with I don't have any problem with great I love great I love more perfect union I love aspiration I love it I love imagination I love it I love it all of it. Again is my problem it's inherently reductive and when he's asked about when he always goes somewhere around the guild at age which was the absolute worst time for the many in the modern American experience and so look we are where we are. And the question is where are we going to be and maybe you're right you need a death of an idea for there to be a new one and we know we got to do better. And I love listening to you about it I love your cure clear I'd understanding. I love your love of what we're supposed to be what we can be here so thank you and I'm taking it in my friend I love you I fucking I don't I don't all this bullshit is I mean you talk and have talked about shit that. Nobody else ever know but I there there are things that that the five explanation.

44:56There are dynamics that the five explanation and really that is what we're talking about. It is the first time in this and this whole. This this whole fucking rubble the first time is I want people to vote for things as opposed to things they don't want but goes towards something as opposed to a way for something. And that is we're in the wilderness right now and the only way like I you you talk to about the green lander and I talk about the movie the is people died in the wilderness from shame they don't move they stay there. And in American decide because we could be a great experiment but we're not the first or maybe not even the last empire to crumble because it does not see past what is now amen brother amen and I'm here for the fight. And I know you are as well so we'll continue on together thank you for coming on love you man as a friend brother thanks always all right thank you thank you.

46:08Look here's what I'm doing and I hope you're doing the same. You got to tap back into what we're supposed to be about and become obsessed with better you got to I know I've talked about it before but a lot of ideas you got to repeat for yourself from my own self. Let alone for you why because you got to repeat things you got to install install it in yourself and and instill it through repetition. We're not where we need to be. We have to be about something better for the many. It can't just be about the few. It can't it never was supposed to be in this country it's always been our biggest concern and it is now. So see labor day for what it is see where we are for what it is. And realize that the path forward matters every bit as much as how we got here and you got to learn from the latter to make the most of the former which is the future. We got to get to a better place we got to be obsessed with better and we're not right now we're obsessed with blaming people for why things keep getting worse.

47:12And that is a dead end. Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for believing in something better. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to articulate it and expose it for you as a critical thinker. Thank you for buying the merch that shows you're a free agent that you're different that you're a critical thinker that you want to fix America first instead of doing all this stupid shit that we're doing abroad. Thank you for each and for all of it. The challenges are real. Let's get after.