Latest / Breaking The Meta / “Something Has to Change” – Andrew Rice Running for Congress (CT-03)

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“Something Has to Change” – Andrew Rice Running for Congress (CT-03) · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: Don't be so radical to think that electoral politics don't matter, but don't be so moderate to think that electoral politics are all that matters. We get people out to the polls, they vote, and they think their work is done. In order to maintain that accountability, the voters, they need to show up beyond just elections. Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Andrew Rice, who is running in Connecticut's third district for the US House of Representatives. Hello, Andrew. How are you doing today? Hello, Mike. Hello, everyone who's watching. As I said earlier, minus the fascism, I'm doing quite well. Well, you know what? Let's have a conversation about how we're going to fix that problem. I would love to have a conversation. fixing that problem, right? So the way I usually start out is if you wouldn't mind letting anybody who may be not ⁓ who may not be fully aware of Connecticut as a whole, what is what what is encapsulated in Connecticut's third district? So Connecticut is ⁓ basically the greater New Haven area everywhere from Stratford, which is four or five cities west of New Haven. to Guilford, which is six or seven cities, Eastern New Haven, ⁓ and then basically the square of that area, basically most of New Haven County. Gotcha. Okay. It's where Yale is. ⁓ well, there you go. ⁓ So let's start off with you giving us just a little background on yourself and why you decided to run for Congress in the first place. the elevator question, the elevator pitch. Yes, let's the elevator pitch to start. Uh, yeah, so my name is Andrew rice. I'm running for Congress in Connecticut's third congressional district. Most of my life. I've been a scientist. I started as a lab technician, moved up to being a lab manager. And then most recently, I was a scientific project manager for a small biotech nonprofit. And I back on July 25th, Christmas in July. I remember the date specifically. I was. at an event trying to make noise for Gaza and for Palestine because the UN had just said that the two million people in Gaza were at, I think, stage five famine. So we were trying to bring awareness to that situation. I went to a flea market in New Haven with a couple of people. They had pots and pans. I had a bullhorn. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone with this vibrant purple hair. And I'm like, that's not Rosa DeLauro, is it? Sure enough, it was. so I have a video of it on Instagram. so I confronting her is a nice term. I was accosting her. I accosted her for her vote for the $500 million that she just gave to Israel. And I kept asking her, why could she not call this a genocide? Why can you not call this a genocide? People are dying of genocide. How do you sleep with yourself at night? And she turns around and says, very well, thank you. I'm like, ⁓ my God. I captured, I had it all on film. I put it on Instagram, it got onto Facebook. So on Facebook is like someone should run against her. I was like, I can do it as a joke. As you get you put it out in the world. And so someone from the the Hamden DTC saw that message and messaged me and like, Were you serious about that? And I was like, I don't know. Am I serious about that? And then so everyone in you know, I never really questioned Rosa de laura we're not really taught to question our representatives if you're part of the party you know just almost dogmatic and that's something that I need to you know work on for myself but then I started looking more into her record and seeing ⁓ her her her stance on Palestine sucks but so does a lot of her other policies and then the more and more I did she ⁓ you she won't vote to abolish ice she's been funding it for the past 20 years She voted in favor of the Charlie Kirk resolution honoring a fascist. I'm like, that's a great way of fighting fascism by honoring them with a day for themselves. She's not in support of universal health care. She hasn't funded the idea program for the past 34 years that she's been in Congress. And a lot of our cities and towns have a lot of funding gaps in their education system. And so. I started realizing that I don't think that she is the progressive champion that she sold herself to be and I was like, you know what? Can I swear on the show? Sure, go for it. I was like, fuck it. I was like, fuck it. There's nothing to lose anymore. There's nothing to lose. Our climate is dying. Our country is, you know, barreling towards just outright fascism and imperialism. My science isn't even science. In the capitalist society, we don't do science. Science is never accepted unless it advances capital interests. I wasn't really even feeling inspired by my own work because I was like, even, I mean, we're taught to treat disease, not cure it because curing is not profitable. Treatment is. And even if my work did help create a treatment, only the rich and the people with health insurance could afford it. And as a scientist, that is antithesis to everything I believe in. Because science is about advancing the general welfare and knowledge of all mankind, not just those that can afford it, especially when all of the science is paid for on our tax dollars, all of it's like publicly funded and then private industries come in and swoop up that data. And so I, I'm not really, I'm not the most well off individual, but I've had, you know, I had enough in savings and 401ks that I decided, you know what? I can quit my job and If I really budget myself, I can make it through a year on just savings and 401ks. And so I was like, something's got to change. Something has got to change. If no one else wants to work and do it. I never thought, you know, on July 24th that a couple of days later I'd be running for Congress. But when an opportunity comes like that, I'm like, fuck it. I'm going to give it all I've got because I want to see change. If no one else can do it, I may as well try myself. And I figured since I don't have much name recognition, I've never held public office before. So there's going to be a learning curve. And also people are struggling. They're losing their jobs. They losing their healthcare. I figured it would help to have some experience of what that is like and to put, you know, risk something. Because if I'm not willing to risk something, why should anyone trust me over these other politicians that don't risk anything and just say pretty words? Yeah. That's pretty amazing ⁓ and definitely not something that many people would be willing to do. So in all fairness, though, I'm very privileged and fortunate that I even have the option. Absolutely. Totally understood. ⁓ As you've walked around your district and talked to different people, what are the pain points that you are experiencing and hearing from your constituents, from the people of Connecticut's third district? What are the things that people are hoping they will get more support from the federal government in regards ⁓ if you were to go there? Universal health care. People are struggling with their health care costs. They're struggling finding a doctor. They can't switch jobs without losing coverage and the uncertainty that that brings. So I wanna fight for universal healthcare first and foremost. Second, a lot of people are struggling with the cost of housing and rent. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that private equity companies come in, they swoop up all these empty houses, they buy out housing. If someone goes to sell a house for $400,000, they'll come in with cash and offer $450,000. Then, you know, sell it to one of their shell companies for $700,000, reducing the availability of housing on the market and an artificially inflating ⁓ housing costs. Working for affordable housing, people need to have affordable housing. And then education, our schools are crumbling. You there schools that have mold, there schools that they'll have to send children home because they can't stay hot enough, can't heat up enough in the winter, can't stay cool enough in the summer. And people are struggling to have comfort that their kids are actually being able to have the education that they deserve, especially in one of the richest states in the country and one of the richest countries in the world. then transportation, Connecticut. You've mentioned before that you've driven through Connecticut. I don't know if you've ever had to deal with the I-95 corridor, but it is one of the most congested areas of the country and people lose hours of their lives. weekly monthly just because they are sitting in traffic that could be alleviated if we actually funded well, ⁓ well maintained infrastructure, high speed rail, a public transit system that integrates our district and would allow easy transportation between the suburbs of New Haven to New York City where a lot of economic activity could be helping these areas develop more. but we just don't have the ability to move people because we've ignored our public transit systems for so long. And then ICE. ICE is another big one. People are very upset about ICE. A lot of people want ICE to be abolished. And so I just happen to be someone that agrees with all of these things, that we need universal healthcare, that we need to be funding our special education so that schools have the funding that they need to have high quality schools. I believe in affordable housing programs. And I ⁓ believe in abolishing ICE. All things that Rosa DeLauro does not believe in. Now, what has been the response? Is is Congressman DeLauro running again? She will never retire. OK, so what has been the response of people as you've been walking around and said that you're you know, you're running in the primaries against a congresswoman who's been there for 30 some odd years. 34 years. She was first elected in 1990 and began her tenure in 1991 when I was a three year old boy. And so my experience has been people either love her or hate her. The people that hate her, I'm assuming that they're more likely to vote for me. So I still have a conversation with anyone because I want people to feel that they're being heard. I want them to understand that I am hearing them. And I do want to understand their concerns, not just be like, ⁓ easy vote, bye. The people that love her though, I move in a little gingerly with the, ⁓ yeah, she's done, you know, this, this and that. But did you know that three of her corporate sponsors, AT &T, L3Harris, General Dynamics, all give her corporate funding, all of them have contracts with ICE, is she ever going to abolish ICE when her corporate donors profit off of ICE's existence? One woman was actually like, I don't believe you. I'm like, it's true. Like, are you really? I'm like, yeah. And those are just three of them. I mean, she takes money from Raytheon, from Lockheed Martin, from SpaceX and Blue Origin. So when she talks about, you know, how the wealthy and the rich are like, you know, union power, I'm like, you're getting money from SpaceX which is led by Elon Musk and Blue Origin which is led by Jeff Bezos the two biggest billionaire bastards we know of that hate unions that hate that yeah that are actively trying to bust unions and so when you add up her rhetoric, but then you look at her voting patterns and her corporate funding It doesn't all align and what I've realized is is that Rosa is really good at She's a performance artist So most recently, she voted down the DHS bill that would fund ICE. And she makes it sound like, ⁓ look at me, I'm voting down this bill because it's awful. The House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans. Now, I think because so many people are dying because they're all, like, old, I think they still needed one Democratic vote in order to pass it. But it was more likely than not that that bill was going to pass with or without her support. What really would have mattered in this moment is if she had used her power and influence on the Appropriations Committee to not shepherd it through the appropriations process through that committee and multiple news sources have reported that her and Tom Cole, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, were working lockstep to get that push through appropriations. So you can't have it both ways. She tries to have it both ways. She uses her power behind the scenes, behind closed doors, with no transparency, helps these bills get onto the floor of Congress, and then votes them down as if she did something. It's just like, and I've seen examples like this over time. Even the $500 million that I first costed her about in July, I think she was trying to argue that she voted down the military authorization package that included that money. But because the Republicans at that time really control the Congress because not enough people died yet. It was going to pass no matter what. So again, she tries to do this two pronged thing and it's like, no, no, no, no. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, that is when you voted it down. That's when it would have mattered. That is when you could have gotten that $500 million removed. So don't try and pull the wool over our eyes. It's not working for me anymore. It's not working for a lot of people. And she's a household name and people haven't questioned her. And, she has her purple hair, which means she understands our youth and needs. And I've gotten a couple of people. someone who used to color their hair a lot, that does not mean you understand anyone, just in case anyone's unsure. Well, some people have said, like, they're like, I'll ask, what are your thoughts on Deloro? And their first answer will be like, I love her purple hair. And I'm like, OK, OK, I can I can work with that. I can work with anyone. And then I like, what about our policies? And she's like, I don't know much about our policies. I'm like, exactly. In all fairness, though, this country is very tribal. And so a lot of times Democrats don't question Democrats. Republicans don't question Republicans. And we all need to be questioning everything. And as a scientist, it took me too long to start questioning the Democratic Party because I was one of those, you know, I drank the blue Kool-Aid straight through 2018. Oh my God, it was delicious Kool-Aid, especially when Obama was pouring it down my throat. was like, me more of that Kool-Aid, please. And then in 2018, I was like, oh, this is actually toxic sludge. Not much different than the red Kool-Aid, except the blue Kool-Aid has, know, BLM sticker, a We Love Our Trans Kids sticker, and, you know, Obama for America sticker. And so I did start coming to the realization that both parties are more or less the same thing with the, just the performance of actually supporting marginalized communities on the democratic side, which as a gay man, I've got, I've started to feel very patronized by the democratic party because they're always like, you're gay, you better vote for us because you're going to lose all your rights if you don't. And I'm like, that might be true. However, what good are my rights? If I can't afford to live somewhere, if I can't afford to have a family, if I can't afford groceries, if I'm worried about losing healthcare, there's more to being alive than just my identity. And Democrats, feel like just fall back on the identity politics and just take all these votes for granted because it could be worse. And so I'm, since I'm in science, I have a dark humor analogy. The Republicans are cancer and the Democrats are AIDS. AIDS is better than cancer, but I don't want either of them. That's fair. I think the way I always describe the two was ⁓ there are two houses in a room and they're both a complete and utter pigsty mess, but one the Republican side has also a giant pile of shit that's on fire. That's how I've described it. ⁓ So they're both, they're both messes. And I agree with you on that. ⁓ But what this does actually bring up a really good ⁓ segue into something that's also very important. And you talked about this whole idea in general with your current representative ⁓ and that's accountability. And that We do not hold our representatives accountable, federal, state, some local, any of them. we, as a society, we're pretty dang bad at holding people accountable ⁓ as a whole. So my question is, what does accountability mean to you? How do you see your being held accountable by your district, by your constituents? And how do you see accountability going forward? in Congress? ⁓ So, I mean, first and foremost, transparency. There should be everything you decide. I feel like there should be transparency as to how you came to that decision. Now, I'm not in Congress, so I don't know if there are legitimate explanations as to why some information. I mean, if something's classified and I'm acting on classified information, I'm obviously not going to be able to be transparent with that. But whatever was going on in the Appropriations Committee with the DHS bill, I'm assuming you could have been transparent about what was going on. But I think the key thing is, and I saw Mimi the other day and I thought it was very poignant. Don't be so radical to think that electoral politics don't matter, but don't be so moderate to think that electoral politics are all that matters. And that is a lot of times what happens. We get people out to the polls, they vote and they think their work is done. And that to me is the issue. In order to maintain that accountability, The voters, they need to show up beyond just elections. They need to maintain the pressure on their elected officials. They need to continuously call their representatives, show up to their offices, write op-eds. At any moment that a representative does something and goes back on what they said they would do, there needs to be massive outrage. People need to be putting on social media, Andrew Rice said that he'd stand up for Palestine and he just gave a million dollars to Israel. Call everyone, hold them accountable, get answers out of him. No one does that. need to, people need to stay engaged. People need to stay engaged always. It's not just every two years or every four years that you come out to be a citizen. You need to be a citizen every day. However, the other part that I understand, and this is just a fundamental flaw of our system, is that the system is designed to deprive us of our time and our energy. because in my opinion those are our two true commodities in life. Because if you don't have the time to do anything, you don't achieve anything. If you don't have the effort to do anything, you don't achieve it. So you could have all the time in the world, but no effort, nothing gets done. You could have all the effort, but no time, nothing gets done. And in this system, I try to go to homeless shelters, not as often as I would like to, but as often as I can. And there were a couple of people that came in from their job. They have a job. and they still cannot afford housing. Some people, in order to afford housing and just the bare minimum of what a minimal lifestyle should have, people are working two or three jobs. Of course they're disengaged. They come home, they don't want to have to go to another meeting that could have just been an email. They don't want to do that. They want to sit down and relax and recuperate so that they have enough energy to get through the next day. Or even better, We make it possible for people to live on one job so they can have time to do things. Not only one job. And one thing that's a little bothersome to me with a lot of the labor union action these days is that they're still fighting for the 40 hour work week. like, that was the fight of 1930s. True. So I used to ask myself, what did people do in the office before there were computers? And then I realized they did the same exact thing. They just didn't have the computer to get it done. So instead, yeah, they had all, all long hand, you know, typing typewriter, having a calculator with all the little like nodules and things. And that took a lot of time. Then you have the computer and suddenly one person could do the same job of four people. Did the rich and powerful give us back those hours where they're like, ⁓ you can do four times the amount of work. just work 20 hours a week and with the full pay. No, they fired three people and kept that one person at the same pay. The technological and productivity revolution of the computer age and the internet, that should have gone back to the working people. I think it's Jonathan Keynes, ⁓ Keynesian economics. He thought that by 2015, people would be working 20 hours a week because technological advances would allow for it. Technological advances do allow for it. They just chose to rob us of that to accumulate more of this wealth. And neither Democrats nor Republicans have done enough to push back on that. And that is, think, another reason why people flocked to Trump, because the Democrats have abandoned their roots. They have abandoned what made the Democratic Party amazing. And that was the policies of FDR, the New Deal, the second economic bill of rights. which is something that has been unfinished and the Democratic Party should be championing. We should be championing the economic Bill of Rights, but we're not. so although I don't fully understand why people flock to Trump because he's. So Republicans are cancer and the Dems are AIDS. Well, Trump's a loaded gun. And I guess at some point, if you have to deal with either disease, you might just want to kill yourself because maybe. And so I get it. But at the same time, but anyway, that is why I'm also very worried about these upcoming elections, if we even have them, because it seems like ICE, I think ICE is part of the scheme to sway the elections in the Republicans' favor. But if we elect the same Democrats with the same policies, those policies did not stop Trump the first time. And those policies did not stop Trump the second time. If we go back to the... You know, when Joe Biden was first elected and his press secretary came out, like, we're to go back to exactly the way things were. Are you tone deaf? We're definitely not doing that anymore. We're we're not possible. But if we if we reelect people like Rosa DeLauro, Hakeem Jeffries and all these other politicians that are just bought out by corporations, they will do the same thing. And then and then it's like in twenty twenty eight, the Democratic Party is also is already trying to push Newsom on us. I'm like. Newsom just had a podcast with Ben Shapiro on it and Ben Shapiro was able to convince Gavin Newsom that's what's happening in Palestine isn't a genocide. There's pictures of Gavin Newsom picking up trash and no, no, no, no, no, he was getting rid of homeless encampments because he doesn't care about homeless people. And then he was also, you know, he came out publicly against a ballot initiative in California to tax billionaires. And I'm like, and this is who the Democratic Party thinks is our champion for 2028? If Newsom gets in in 2028, we're going to have a competent fascist in 2032 because Trump, luckily he's a fascist. He's an autocrat. He's a dictator, but he's a bit of a buffoon. so his ego drives him. And so that protects us because as long as you know, get in his ear, he'll sway a certain way because he doesn't have any true conviction except for the fact that his father never gave him a hug. and now he's, you know, releasing his unresolved trauma on the rest of the world. No, it's it. feel like a lot of these people just needed a hug as a kid. And for that, I feel bad about that they didn't have that love. I mean, a lot of issues in this world, I feel, arise from the fact that we don't actually, you know, mental health is still highly stigmatized. And if these people, you know, his father called him like, you know, I think his father called him an idiot and all these nasty things. course, he's a monster. Yeah. when you're treated as a monster, you become a monster. I'm not saying this excuses him from any of the awful things that he's been doing, but if we have someone who's actually competent and a fascist, what we're seeing now is just going to be the tip of an iceberg. We're already just seeing the tip of the iceberg. This is going to be, instead of having just a little iceberg that a polar bear can try and reside on, this is going to be the Titanic iceberg. that destroys the unsinkable ship in 2032 if we don't actually have working class Democrats fighting for working class policies and lifting everyone up out of poverty and not just focusing on these identity politics that at the end of the day are more divisive because no matter what unique things make us different, there is so much more that makes us the same. Yeah. So let's future cast for a second. So you Get through primaries you get through general election you win January 2nd comes along you get ⁓ sworn into office as the congressman for the third district of Connecticut. What's the first thing that you do? Immediately file articles of impeachment against Donald J. Trump Pam Bondi Marco Rubio Pete Hexeth ⁓ and I probably forgetting name because there's just so many of them, but the the fundamental There are three branches of government and the most simple responsibility of the Congress is to be a co-equal branch of government and to use the power of impeachment to hold officers of the federal government accountable for violating the Constitution. If you cannot uphold that sacred honor to impeach someone who is violating the Constitution, then you have no moral clarity to say anything else. Additionally, We want to pass some of these bills. We have a rogue government, we have a rogue administration that is not going to follow the rule of law. So there's no point in trying to pass anything that won't be followed by law anyway because we have a lawless president. So first and foremost, he does need to be impeached. The second thing I'll do is make sure that we do not have a House Speaker until we get assurances that that House Speaker will bring up a vote on universal healthcare, will bring up a vote on abolishing ICE, and we'll bring up a vote on establishing a 21st century economic bill of rights. I will shut the house down with as many colleagues as I can because one of the frustrating things about like the, to me like some of more progressives in Congress now, when we took over in 2020, there were enough of you to stop Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker and hold her to some of these votes for Medicare for all, for a lot of these programs that we need for our citizens. They didn't use that power. That bothers me. The Republicans did it. They were able to get so many concessions out of, ⁓ what was his name before Mike Johnson? McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy. They were able to extract many concessions out of the man because they used their power. If I make it into office, I'm not having Hakeem Jeffries. Well, there's a gentleman by the name of Vance Bostic who is running against Jeffries. He's part of a coalition that I'm with, the Citizens Impeachments. And so I hope he is successful in removing Jeff, Jeffries. But if he's unsuccessful, I will never vote for Jeffries unless he concedes to some of these major votes, because I want to have on record which Democrats actually support the working class people and which Democrats pretend to support the working class people. Yeah. Okay. If you were if if Everyone who is listening has been listening now, ⁓ gets to this point. What is one or two things that you would want to make sure that no matter what, they come away with knowing about you and your campaign? ⁓ That I want to fight for the working class. I want to fight to have the assurances that people need that living in the most powerful, richest nation in the world, that they never have to worry about going hungry. that they never have to worry about losing their homes, that they never have to worry about losing health insurance, that no matter what befalls upon them, that they will always have a safe and secure place to be for them and their families because this is America and every American deserves a guaranteed minimum standard of living. There was actually a study done, and it's on my website, where they ⁓ determined a minimum standard of living. how much resources and labor that that would require to have for all 8.5 billion people on this planet. And they came to the conclusion that would only take 30 % of the current resources and labor that we use. And yet billions of people live in poverty. We need to change that. I want to change that. And the other thing is accountability starts before someone even gets elected. Ask me questions. Ask me tough questions. Make sure you are confident that I'm not just some lip service piece of shit who is going to get into office and completely turn my back on everything I say I want to do because too many times we've seen that. And to me, that has been the biggest struggle of the campaign is how do I reassure people that I'm not just another one of these well-spoken politicians who doesn't actually mean what they say? Test me. test all of us. Absolutely. ⁓ This podcast, it's funny, I was interviewing ⁓ another candidate earlier ⁓ in the week and I mentioned that this podcast as a whole is about having hard conversations and they mentioned after the recording was done, they said, those weren't hard questions. I was like, well, I'm not here to give the hard questions. My goal here is to let people know that you guys exist and it's really incumbent on your district to ask you the hard questions. And I was like, maybe in the future when you become a congressman, then we'll, I'll bring in those hard questions. But right now the goal is to let people know you exist so you can actually have that chance to do what you say you want to do. ⁓ So I have two more questions. The first one is, if people want to learn more about you and support you, where can they find you? ⁓ We have a website www.riceforct.com. ⁓ Rice is just like the food, R-I-C-E-F-O-R-C-T. You can go on the website. Our platform is there, our policy positions, a little bit more about me, who's inspired me, and there's a volunteer form. And then of course, the worst ask of all, fundraising donations. ⁓ know, Rosa DeLauro incumbents, have millions of dollars at their disposal because they accept money from corporations. I do not want corporate PAC money. I really don't want any PAC money. Even if it's like an environmental group that's doing great stuff, I really do not want to rely on any sort of PAC money because at the end of the day, but we're even like, I am a big union guy. I don't really even want union PAC money because at the end of the day, that still technically makes me more beholden to them than to the average ⁓ person. And so. We really need, so we're kind of hoping to get like six, seven thousand small dollar donors giving like six or seven dollars a month. Cause that could fuel a campaign that could really give us what we need to have some basic staff. ⁓ Cause you know, even it's like mom, Donnie had like 40,000 volunteers or whatnot, but the people managing those volunteers were most likely paid. So the unfortunate reality is until we have something like public financing of elections, which I really hope we get to one day, because even if know, six, seven thousand people donating six, seven dollars, I'm technically more accountable to those six, seven thousand people than I am to the seven hundred and fifty thousand people in the district. And so the only way for congresspeople to be truly accountable to their constituents is public financing of elections. And then, of course, asking people for any money these days is awful because it's like, You can't afford wrench. You can't afford groceries. You don't have health care. Please give me Please give me money. Instead of feeding your child, feed my campaign. Yeah. Thanks. ⁓ But it is what it is. So asking people for donations is the hardest part of all of this. And the second question I have is, when are you planning to color your hair pink so everyone remembers you in comparison to the purple hair? OK, so well, should it be my hair? Should it my... Beard. haven't decided. Ooh, the beard. Should I my beard and my hair? That would definitely, that would definitely put you in a different, you know, in a, they already have the hair. You already got the hair in Connecticut. So if you do the beard, would, it would stand you out from the rest of the crowd. And if I really want to lean into being gay, I could do like a rainbow. You could do the rainbow. I could really make a statement. ⁓ my, my beard's rainbow. I must care about the gay people. Exactly. beard is rainbow. I'm not going to vote for anything that actually help you live a good life, but I have a rainbow beard. love you. got a rainbow beard. ⁓ Andrew, thank you so much for sitting down with us and letting us get to know you and what you stand for and about your campaign for, for everyone that listened this far. Thank you so much. Both of us on it. ⁓ Honestly, really appreciate it. Please hit all those buttons down below. It really does help me be able to keep doing what I'm doing. ⁓ For those of that are that fun fights fascism. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. Joy is a form of resistance. That's another thing I always say. ⁓ For those of you that are unaware of what I'm doing, maybe you're just watching this through Andrew. ⁓ I have decided that in 2026, I'm going to interview as many people that are running for Congress, especially that are progressive. that want to make changes, that want to break the status quo, that want to fight for the kind of changes that we need going on in this country. This podcast, it was built on that idea and especially the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. And that is something that I will continue to fight for here. So please watch this, watch the other videos of the candidates that are running. One of the most important things that these candidates that are not incumbents need is visibility and name recognition. We joked about the hair and the beard, but honestly, those are the kind of things are necessary in order for people to, it's too easy for people to vote for people that they've just, they just know the name already. So please watch, please share. ⁓ Even if you're not part of the district, because it does make you feel really good knowing how many amazing people there are in this country that are running for office. not just the people that you interact with every day. So again, Andrew, thank you for hanging out with me. Thank you. And thank you everyone who's been watching. We need your help. This is a fight that we all need to support one another in. And so even just watching, really appreciate it. And you having me on, I really appreciate that as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Take care, everyone.