Latest / Breaking The Meta / Your Apathy Was Designed. Y'all Vote Is the Answer. | Amandasmildtakes
Transcript
- Mike Winson: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Breaking the Meta. Our next guest. Today's guest is someone who is usually talking about Trump's L's for the week, but today we are going to be talking about voting and something amazing that ⁓ that she started in order to get people, especially down south, to vote. Her name is Amanda Nelson. She goes by Amanda's Mild Takes on all social media. Hello, Amanda. How are you doing today? Amanda: Hi. Great. It's hot. But I'm good. Mike Winson: It is so hot. And you're up farther north, and it's hotter than where I live in North Carolina, which is wild. Amanda: Yeah, it's about a hundred here. I'm in Virginia, like central Virginia. And it's ⁓ it's one of those things where like, ⁓ I understand all those theories about why the South is more violent because it's it's so hot, everybody gets so pissy. Mike Winson: Yes. Yes. And we get and you get all the humidity with it and it's just it's rough. Yeah. Amanda: Yeah, I'm staying inside. I was born in the right century, I tell you what, the one with air conditioning. Mike Winson: Yes. Yes. Did you see that they're actually arguing against air conditioning in in England right now? Yeah. They're talking about how they want to start putting air conditioning in houses, and people are going, you're just gonna destroy everything if you do it. Like it's wild. It's crazy. All ⁓ right. So for those of you listening, so after Amanda: Stop it. No. Okay. Well I'm glad we have independence from that country. Mike Winson: Louisiana's court case in the Supreme Court where they basically gutted the rest of the Voting Rights Act. ⁓ Amanda did this amazing thing. She said, We've got to fix this, which, you know, we a lot of us have said it. And and what's amazing is Amanda you have the capability, you have the audience, you've got the reach to make something like this go. It's called y'all vote. So Amanda: Mm. Yeah. Lightlift. Mike Winson: Let's start off if you wouldn't mind, just giving people just an idea of what y'all vote is about and then we'll talk we'll talk more into it. Amanda: Sure. Yeah, ⁓ y'all vote is a coalition of content creators across the South in every southern state. And content creators can be big accounts, small accounts, you can be talking about politics, you can be talking about gardening, I don't care, whatever. As long as you live in the South and you use social media to talk to people. ⁓ and the thing that we're pointing those folks at are ⁓ state house races. So that's your state, like your house of delegates, ⁓ and your state senate, also governors and state judicial races. So if your state is one that elects state Supreme Court ⁓ justices, then we worth talking about those two. ⁓ pretty much the folks in your state who manage gerrymandering and your maps. Mike Winson: Yes. Amanda: Those are the races that we're pointing out. ⁓ we have a hundred competitive seats in the South for this cycle that we're focused on. Those are spread across every state except Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia, because those states don't have house races this year. We wait for 2027 for that. But every other state, ⁓ especially Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. Mike Winson: That's right. Amanda: And the goal here is to ⁓ get people to give those folks money. Because when you're running, you know, for a very down-the-ballot kind of local seat, like a state house seat in a place like Alabama or or Florida, ⁓ you don't get a ton of support from the party, ⁓ the state party or the national party, especially if you're running in a district that is traditionally quite red, because they, you know, kind of what's the point? Well, there's a lot of point. So we are here to to help those candidates and flip some some state houses. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting. So as you know, you're very focused obviously on the South. And most of us, while I think you and I know there are obviously blue people in those red states, what what has been the response that you have seen from people in in those areas that you guys are focusing on? Amanda: Mm. Most of the the folks in the South, the response that I get from them is just gratitude, which is great, not a thing that I li it makes me uncomfortable. 'Cause like I live here too, you know. ⁓ but Mike Winson: Mm. Yeah. Amanda: The South, in my estimation, obviously a lot of Republicans live here. I'm not saying that's not true. But it the the reputation that we have for being this overwhelmingly backwards red region of the country, I think is not deserved. ⁓ We are a very voter-suppressed country, part of the country, ⁓ heavily gerrymandered at every level of government, including statehouses federally, more so now after Louisiana v. Calais. And the the South is ⁓ you know, where the majority of the black population of country lives. So I don't I just don't accept the the idea, usually coming from people in blue states up north or out west, ⁓ that we're a a place worth abandoning. And it's just I think people in the South just need to hear that, you know, like this is an area of the country that the the DNC, the National Party, has not paid a ton of attention to in a really long time. Mike Winson: Mm. Yeah. Amanda: Outside of Georgia. ⁓ and we feel it. Like, you know, we feel abandonment. We feel like resources aren't being directed here, that once the resources stop coming, it's hard to build a bench, it's hard to find talent, it's hard to find anyone who's even willing to run because it's scary, you know? And and in the south, you can get into really rural areas where like candidates don't even have good Wi-Fi. They don't know how to do social media, they don't know how they have no support, no training, nothing. ⁓ so mostly people have been like, Well, thank God, you know, because like I'm a blue dot down here and I feel like nobody listens. To me or cares about me, all I hear all the time is like, why don't we just let them succeed? And and it's just we really part of my one of my like secret goals with Y'all Vote is to shift the vibe of the discourse around the South and to get people outside of this region to realize that not only is the play is the South the place where authoritarianism is tested, it's also the place where solutions are tested because there's so much resistance here. Mike Winson: Mm. Hmm. Yeah. So I and I think that's where we probably have suffered, been suffering the most, especially over the last 10 years, is solutions have been a secondary conversation, really, when it's come right. I mean, it's it's really, especially with social media the way it is, it's very much we can all point out every problem that we've got, and and you can even I'm sure we can agree. Amanda: Hmm. Yeah. Mike Winson: the a lot of the problems that many on both sides are dealing with are very similar. I mean, we know that people, especially in these rural red states, are dealing with lack of healthcare accessibility, affordability, and it's not it's not something new. It's we're not willing to actually look at the actual solutions going forward. And my question then is while I was because Amanda: Mm-hmm. Mike Winson: I'm actually a part of Y'all Vote too, obviously, as someone from the South, which is great. ⁓ so I was excited. And I've I've, you know, I've been interviewing hundreds of candidates. And especially I I love interacting with the state candidates and the governor, because there are so many, especially in Georgia and Texas, ⁓ where there's for the first time, there's in Texas, I think the first time for the first time, someone's running in every seat. Amanda: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Mike Winson: Which is crazy. That's wild. S Amanda: Yeah, every state and federal seat. Yep. That's a real like ha tip of the hat to Beto. You know, he he's been working on that for a long time. ⁓ and also like the state level party in Texas. State level party the party in general gets a lot of shit, deservedly so. ⁓ but the state level party in Texas has has worked really hard on building out their bench and they did a good job this cycle. Mike Winson: Yes. So obviously getting people to run is one is one half and getting them visibility and things. But how do we how are you hoping to break through the the other difficulty, which is getting people in those states to care and to actually pay attention? Amanda: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's hard. And that's a product of gerrymandering and voter suppression in and of itself. You know, the a apathy, voter apathy, you have two different problems, right? You've got a lack of education, people don't know an election is happening or who they're voting for or what they're voting for. Or and or they don't care. And so you have to fight both of those things. When it comes to voter apathy specifically, if you're in a place like, I don't know. rural Alabama, ⁓ and you're a Democrat, it's gonna feel like, what's the point? Because there isn't one. Like your feeling is correct. Like they the those areas of that state are gerrymandered so much and voter suppressed to such a precise, like surgical degree, the Republican Party's very, very good at voter suppression methods that your vote doesn't particularly count. If you live in a gerrymander district that's that's R plus 80, Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: you're gonna lose. Like that's just it, you're gonna lose. ⁓ and so apathy over enough time becomes instinctual. It becomes just like Yeah, there's no point. So then you don't you don't vote, you don't run, you don't pay attention, you don't care, you don't bother educating yourself because what's the point? So ⁓ that I think saying that to people, like helping them name why they feel that way, ⁓ because it isn't like, ⁓ I don't care about voting because nothing ever changes. That is true for you probably. Mike Winson: Mm-hmm. Mm. Amanda: But why? Like why doesn't it ever change? Because it's supposed it's designed that way to not change. And I think the more people understand why they feel like political involvement or civic engagement at all in their state is irrelevant, the more they understand that feeling, the more they're willing to push back on it. Because people don't like to feel controlled. Mike Winson: Mm. It's interesting. I you know, as someone who's now been voting for almost thirty years, you don't realize how lucky our ability to vote is. And so I for for those listening or watching, ⁓ I got to meet Amanda a week from today, actually. And and I, you know, I traveled in Virginia and DC and New York. Amanda: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah. Mike Winson: And I came back yesterday. And the person who was giving me a ride home was from Honduras. And he was talking about the president who was pardoned by Trump and is now basically going to be going back and taking over again. And he's talking, he was talking about how the people that work for him, that support him were basically going around to people's houses and saying, if you vote for this other person, we will. Amanda: Mm. Mike Winson: We will eliminate you, your family, your dog, everybody. And you know, though that's the thing that sits in the back of my mind that I fear because do I do I think we're gonna get there? I hope not. But there is that fear because there are there are people that want to turn what and and that's the part that I'm pushing so much and and that I hope everyone hearing is willing to. To understand and push so much is the fact that we get to vote at all is is a privilege and something that we need to fight for. And that's kind of what I feel what like what y'all vote is about is getting people to start fighting in a way that we haven't been, especially for a long time. Amanda: Mm. Yeah, and you that it's funny that you say, ⁓ I don't want us to get there. I don't want us to get there either. But we've been there before. You know, like that's not a violent suppression of the vote is is certainly not something limited to Latin America or like openly fascist governments. We've we've done that to black voters and their allies in the South for generations, generations. and I mean even recently, like ⁓ I one of my co-founders of Y'all Vote Anna was at an event with Stacy Abrams last night and Stacy Abrams was talking about an election for governor in New Jersey in nineteen eighty one, ⁓ where the Republicans really didn't want black and brown voters to turn out and vote for the Democrats. So they had ⁓ off duty police officers show up at the polls to to stop them from voting. And it's just like, you know, first of all, it's not just the South. We aren't the only place that has done stuff like that. ⁓ but also we have such a long Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: a long complicated and storied history of threatening people like that. And even like machine party politics in Chicago, you where they would go to new immigrants. D the Democrats, Democrats would go to new immigrants and tell them if you don't vote correctly, we're gonna murder you in your bed. ⁓ Tammany Hall in New York. Like this is a Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: something that we have so much experience doing to each other. And the the daylight, sunlight's the best disinfectant, right? So I think the more that we talk about the different ways in this region, violently or not, that people are trying to stop other people from voting. Americans, something it's like a common a co one of the question of what counts as an American obviously is on everyone's mind. But like our one I think one of our shared values across partisan lines is F you make me, you know? Like we don't like Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: to be told that we cannot do something. I think that's a universal American value. ⁓ yes, yeah, right. Just don't boss me around. We are just a country of toddlers. Which I love. It's fine with me. That's fine with me. But if you frame, you know, your apathy is actually a product of someone trying to stop you from doing something you want to do, I think a lot more people are willing to fight it. Mike Winson: Cannot or have to. Either way, yeah. We are Yeah. It's, you know, with this whole Democratic Socialist of America thing that has been that has been raging through the country, ⁓ to be to just be have the flames to continue to be growing becau after Colorado's primary, where a 30 year incumbent was just primaried and who Amanda: Everywhere. Mike Winson: Who again, if you look at where they stay stood on things, arguably were the same. You know, are you are you noticing from the people that are inter that you're interacting with in general, but also the people that are running and and working on this whole y'all vote thing that there's just a there's a different priority for people. Like it's not just it's not ⁓ because again, like in Colorado, it was two people that stood practically on the same things. The person who was in who was primaried, she tried to she put forth a bill at one point for Medicare for all. Amanda: Mm-hmm. I think there is a huge more than there's like a honestly more than there's a desire for like socialists, there's an anti incumbency thing happening right now. People are in our own party, right? Because we're talking about primaries, the New York primaries and Colorado, ⁓ and DC, where the DSA has won a couple of races. More than a couple, a lot. ⁓ it's people are so Mike Winson: Mm. Amanda: Tired of the Democratic Party, our own people. Like Democrats are tired of the Democratic Party. There's such a a feeling like, we're here a little bit because of you, because you didn't fight hard enough for bold policies. You didn't solve enough problems when you had power. Whether that's fair or not, like we could talk about the filibuster, we could talk about whatever, but that's how people feel. Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: ⁓ so I think that vibe is a little muted down the ballot in the South because a candidate who's gonna win on a DSA ticket in Denver is not going to win as a DSA candidate in Alabama. They're not. Like that's just they're just not. ⁓ Mike Winson: Yeah. Y I c I kinda wonder if like we would just assume the apocalypse is here if a DSA candidate wins in the south somewhere. Amanda: The chaos monkey and me would love to see that. Like let's just let's just see let's toss that grenade, baby. Let's nothing else is working. Like that's fine. ⁓ we are more likely, I think, candidates here are more likely to run as independents than they are as like farther to the left. ⁓ Mike Winson: Seriously, yeah. Let's do Yep, yep. Yep. Amanda: And yeah, they're they're more likely to distance themselves from Democrats as opposed to getting in the Democratic Party and trying to push it in a particularly more progressive direction. ⁓ so I think that that's and it won't always be like that, I'm sure, but Mike Winson: It's it's interesting because I've I've interviewed a few people, especially in Texas, that I think if they lived anywhere else but in Texas, they would probably call themselves democratic socialists because they definitely have that mentality about it, but you just can't talk that way, which is yeah. Yeah, if for no other reason than that no one knows, none of them know what socialism, communism, or any of that actually. Amanda: Mm-hmm. I really want them to change the name. And that's just because like No. Mike Winson: means they've just become they're just dirty words now. Amanda: Yeah, and like when I say that, when I say the DSC needs to change its name, I get a lot of pushback from people in the DSA who are like, well, we just need to educate people on what socialism is. Okay, so take 70 years to take over every school board in the country and then change what how we teach socialism, erase our instinctual American fear of collectivism, erase all of the red scares that have happened to us multiple times, and then maybe you'll win a general in a red state. Or you could just change the goddamn name. Mike Winson: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It it is wild. It is it is wild hearing hearing hearing the anger on all sides, hearing hearing moderate Democrats, establishment Democrats acting as though they don't even know what they're talking about. Amanda: It's so ridiculous. The fear mongering from like particular I get it. Okay, if you live in if you're running in a swing district in Michigan or wherever, like if you are in a competitive district as a congressional representative, that's within a few points, you're probably not gonna win if you al like ally yourself with the DSA. I understand that. Does that mean you have to like sign some dumb, strongly worded letter about how socialism is bad? No, because now you just look like a chud. Like you could just have your own interesting policies that your constituents care about. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ my god. Yeah. And and it's funny because ⁓ who did I just see? ⁓ her name was Aisha On her name. I just I I she's running in Michigan's 11th, and she is very progressive, and she just got endorsed by Rokana and all that stuff. And I was just like, you were talking about that, and I like, it Rokana is an interesting man to me. I struggle with Rokana because there are some days where I'm like, I love this guy, and there are other days where like I'm just I'm the same. I'm just like, dude, just go away. Amanda: Mm. No. So do I. I've tussled with him a bit. Mike Winson: Ugh. So the one of the other things that I want to to look so obviously Y'all vote is about content creators and and helping fund these people. Amanda: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mike Winson: For the people that aren't content creators, what is it just that we're just trying to get them to feel like they're a part of it? Is there more that we're trying to do? Like what We're still having an issue with people not coming out and vote in primaries. Part of that is independent. A lot of people consider themselves independents now, and in a lot of states, you're not allowed to even vote in primaries. what if you could give someone listening this some hope about the future, about what you're seeing, especially in this movement, what what would that be? Amanda: Mm-hmm. Yeah, close, close primaries, yep. Hmm. ⁓ so a few things. One of the benefits of y'all vote so far is that s the majority of our creators are not political people. Or like are not people who are making political content all of the time. They're like Mike Winson: Mm. Amanda: They've got 500 followers. They talk about cakes, or you know, they talk about their cats, or it's just whatever. And those folks, and this has been studied, right? Those folks are three times as influential than I am. I have almost two million followers across platforms. I can drive turnout. I can point people at whatever, whatever. I'm not saying I'm not influential. But when it comes to turning out your neighbors, like if you want to target, I want people in Georgia's first to come out on this day. Somebody with Mike Winson: Than we are, yeah. Mm. Amanda: 500 followers who are mostly comprised of that person's neighbors is going to be so much more effective. And they're so much more trustworthy if they don't make their whole career or their whole brand about talking about politics. Because then it it rings a bell, right? If somebody who only ever talks about cake is like, by the way, there's this election for a house state house seat, you know, that matters. ⁓ also, we are really, really good at down ballot education. We just saw this in Georgia. Georgia just had primaries, obviously. and Mike Winson: You're more likely to listen. Amanda: And hidden way down the ballot was a special election for a statehouse seat. Or was it state senate? I think it was state senate. ⁓ yeah, but it wasn't since it was wasn't a primary election, turnout was really, really bad. Because people think, well, I'm not a Republican, it's mostly a Republican primary, so I'm not gonna go vote. Why would I? ⁓ But that special election was on that Republican primary ballot. So turnout was really bad. It was maybe gonna be the first Republican pickup of the cycle. Mike Winson: Think it was State Sunnet. Amanda: And the all vote folks got a hold of it. The people in Georgia started like sounding a bunch of alarm bells and posting about it and posting about it and posting about it. And you can see the next day Democratic turnout skyrockets. Mike Winson: Mm. Amanda: And I'm not saying that is like all us, right? Like the on the ground organizers also saw the problem and were doing but the the ⁓ cumulative effect, the amplification of on-the-ground efforts that we can offer, we're not here to like replace Stacey Abrams, God nobody could, right? I'm not but we're not trying to do any of that. We're trying to take what Stacey Abrams is doing and put as many little spotlights on it as we can. ⁓ so st and then she won. Like we kept that seat. And I think that we had a good bit to do with that. Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: ⁓ another thing that I think is really cool about it as far as like hope building goes, you know, we've been around for about eight weeks. We've raised over $120,000. And these are candidates like it costs $1,500 to print all of your canvassing literature if you're a statehouse candidate. Because it's a little district, you're only knocking on a couple hundred doors, whatever. So you don't need like a huge budget. But if you know, we're raising six or seven thousand dollars per candidate right now, and that can fund a campaign, a whole Mike Winson: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: Freaking campaign. And these are people who are not getting money from their party at all. And they're very, very shoestring. ⁓ and they the the war chests that Republicans have are much bigger, especially after the Supreme Court decision from this week, that the campaign finance, which allows now parties are gonna be allowed to coordinate with candidates, which they weren't really allowed to do before. Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: The DNC has $18 million on hand. The RNC has $125 million on hand. Their ability to boost candidates is now much higher than ours. So anything that we can give to these down ballot candidates that helps them get out and talk to their neighbors is is like you're getting so much bang for your donation buck. One more thing. ⁓ the top of the ticket. Yes, the top of the ticket ticket impact. Mike Winson: Hey, we'll take it. We'll take W's for the week instead of L's for the week, right? Amanda: is really important. So there's this myth almost in politics that if you get a really cool person at the top of the ticket, the down ballot candidates can ride their coattails into victory. Sometimes that's true. In a presidential race that can be true. But then you get a state like Texas, which purposefully removed party identification from their ballots. So you can't just straight D down the ballot anymore. Because they don't want people to do that. Right? ⁓ so Mike Winson: Right. Amanda: Now the opposite is true. If you get a a seat where like a Republican ran for the state house seat unopposed and you put a Democrat in that seat to oppose them for the first time, ⁓ d the vote share is going to go up by 1.25% at the top of the ticket because people who are excited to have someone to vote for down the ballot will turn out when they otherwise wouldn't have because they don't give a shit who's in the Senate because it doesn't affect them, you know? Mike Winson: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: And then for every $10,000 you raise for that candidate, you get another 0.25% boost for the top of the ticket. So when we're thinking about Texas, Texas, ⁓ Talarico has a shot. I'm not saying it's like a big shot, but he has a shot. The the best chance that any candidate has had to flip that Senate seat. Yes. Yes. So he's got a shot. He needs every little bit of help that he can get. So if we can raise money for Mike Winson: Better with Ken Paxton than it probably was with Cornan. Amanda: Down ballot candidates is in Texas for the state house, especially in seats where Republicans have generally run unopposed. We can increase his the hit Talarico's share of the vote by two percent, one, you know, one and a half percent, depending on how much money we're raising. And he needs every vote he can get. These candidates can go into places in the state that he's not gonna make it to. Texas is huge. Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: You know, they can act as surrogates for him, they can talk to their neighbors. Hey, come vote for me while you're at it. Go to the top of the ticket. So I think that this can be, you know, obviously we want we want to flip statehouses for the maps. That's the goal of y'all vote. We want to have majorities in the state houses in the South so that we can redraw fair congressional maps and return ⁓ representation in Congress to the black population of those states. That's that is this that is the goal because it's a response to Louisiana VKLA. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: But we also want the top of the tickets. And the top of the tickets are easier to get when you support down the ballot. So that's my rant. Mike Winson: Yeah. Hey, I think that's great. ⁓ I think the the only other things that I have are kind of just side things because they're just really interesting. Have you had a chance to go to the all state America State Fair? Amanda: the pictures are enough for me. Ain't nobody there. Ain't nobody there. Mike Winson: That's fair. That there isn't. It's I was there. I was walking around there on Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. There was I saw nobody going in there, and there were literally thousands upon like the the walkways next to the to the thing were just packed out, but nobody was walking in. It was crazy. No, it is far too hot. Amanda: Hmm. Nobody cares. Nob it's too hot. Nobody likes you. ⁓ You couldn't get any good like bands to play. Mm-hmm. Mike Winson: It is far too hot. ⁓ No, they all left. And and then, you know, but Vanilla Ice was gonna be there, but then his concert got canceled for for weather. Weather. Amanda: ⁓ weather. Yeah. Scare quotes. Mike Winson: ⁓ my gosh. And you know, I did see somebody also putting their hand in the reflecting pool and did not get arrested. Amanda: ⁓ Well now they're just gonna be radioactive because that thing is full of God knows what asbestos at this point. Mike Winson: Everything. Do you You know, one of the things that I enjoy watching about watching your content is you obviously are look at things very similar to I do in the sense of, you know, sometimes you're just done with the bullshit. You just say it like it is, you just and and yeah, you can have a conversation about it, but you know, some there's just there's reality sometimes. And We're we're just in such a weird time where people don't want to hear the reality. So, you know, when I created this podcast, the entire purpose was to start having hard conversations, get uncomfortable to actually fix the problems. Like admit that you you followed, you you you believed the wrong person and say, I was wrong, which is what Americans hate to do more than. Almost anything else is admit that they failed on something. And and where is the mistake and how do we how do we move forward? Do you Amanda: Yeah. Mike Winson: Do you see a ⁓ willingness from people to s ever start doing that? Like is it gonna take a a nine eleven style event to wake people up or or are people starting to wake up? Amanda: ⁓ I think it depends on who you're talking to. ⁓ like are Trump supporters starting to wake up? I don't think so. I think, you know, we like to latch on to, you know, I'll make a podcast episode with someone who used to be MAGA and now they're not. And like people will listen to that and it'll go viral because we so want that to be the thing that's happening. ⁓ I think more likely those people will just get annoyed and not turn out, but I don't know that there's gonna be like a grand national reckoning or anything like that. Mike Winson: Yeah. Right. Mm. Amanda: ⁓ we don't really do that, you know. I'm not saying we shouldn't, but even after the the the points when we have bit the actual civil war, right? There was no there was no truth and reconciliation committee. there was no conversation. ⁓ we just moved on. We had reconstruction until it was over, and then we just moved on and went right into Jim Crow. Like, there's no appetite for that really. I do think that. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: Democrats are starting to be much more agitated. Like with the enthusiasm in the polls for voting and the turnout that we've seen so far in special elections ⁓ on the side of the Democrats has been through the roof. Incumbents are losing, like people are are quite energized. And I think there's a lot more appetite for involvement than there used to be. Like something I do think people are starting to realize is that the point that we're at now. Mike Winson: Mm. Amanda: was a very long game from the Republican Party between Project Redmap and the Federalist Society and Alec and Carl Rope. Like this has been since the eighties really that that getting to where we are now has been the expli explicit purpose of the Republican Party. And we don't have any anything like that. Like Democrats are just like, maybe we'll try healthcare. You know, like we like we're just nice and polite and we like rules and we like to read studies. Mike Winson: Yeah. And we and we love strongly worded letters. Amanda: We do, we do. ⁓ and I th ⁓ there's like some realization now that if on our side that if we are going to have any kind of country that we want to live in that looks anything like the promises that are in the founding documents that is still a liberal democracy, we're gonna have to be much more long term. It's gonna take a really, really long time and it's you can't be lazy about it. There's la there's no shortcuts. ⁓ and I think people are starting to accept that. So I don't know if that helps. ⁓ Mike Winson: D I mean ⁓ it's hard, right? Because we Because of the speed of the internet, there's this idea in a lot of us that the internet by its very nature can also cause very fast change. Now, the internet has helped speed changes up to an extent. Like it used to take like decades or or even more for things where where the internet at least maybe maybe it may take a decade for a change as opposed to Amanda: Mm-hmm. Mike Winson: You know, 50 years or something like that for some of these changes. I think the hard part for me is, and I think that I hear from a lot of people is this feeling that that we're going backwards on some things that a lot of us thought we were farther past. And I think that's where the scary part for a lot of us is, because now with the internet, people are getting voices on things that used to be able to be shunned to the side that they can't anymore. Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's ridiculous. I was thinking about this, you know, all day yesterday when we got birthright. ⁓ that that that ruling infuriated me. I mean, it was I I'm glad we still have it, obviously. ⁓ but the fact that we even had the conversation just makes me want to punch someone in the whatever. ⁓ but the point of that ruling is to take us back. Mike Winson: Yeah. Amanda: And then back and then back. Like going back to a a time when the government can decide who is a citizen based on their s skin color is Dred Scott. It's Dred Scott. So we're going back to before the Civil War. And for those of us who remember when Obama was made president and then we were entered into a post-racial utopia, right? ⁓ it's a very unsettling ⁓ and upsetting, and like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought I thought we'd fix this. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Amanda: ⁓ but no, we have not. There has been again, like the Civil Rights Act, ⁓ the Voting Rights Act, everything we got out of the Great Society and the Johnson administration, all of that progress has been the specific target of the right ever since, ever since. And you know, that was in the 60s. ⁓ so to us, I mean to me, I'm 41, so I can feel like this is not it's not been this bad in my lifetime, but It has been much, much worse. And that's sort of where I live in in the vibes. Mike Winson: Yeah. No, that's fair. ⁓ for anyone that is interested in learning more about Yalvo, whether as a voter or as a content creator that wants to also help, where where can they find, how can they get in touch with you guys? Amanda: Yeah, ⁓ y'allvote.org is our website. ⁓ there's a sign up sheet if you're a content creator talking about anything of any size, as long as you're in the south and not a candidate. Sometimes the candidates try to sneak no, no. ⁓ you can sign up there. ⁓ it will also have the link to our slate of candidates on Oath, which is a funding re fundraising platform. It's kind of an alternative to Act Blue. They don't sell your phone number. So if you give to one of our candidates on on Oath, no one's gonna text you or or email you. So Mike Winson: Mm-hmm. That would be amazing. And for anyone that wants to learn, if if you are listening and you go, I want to check out Amanda on all of her socials, I believe you are Amanda's mild takes on pretty much everywhere, right? Amanda: I know. Actually it's annoying. Everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Mike Winson: Amanda, thank you for coming in here. Thank you for spending some time with us, letting us learn more about ⁓ everything you're doing. ⁓ I appreciate it. I've like I said, I've watched and followed you for a while. So this is this is just really cool to sit down and talk with you for a bit. I appreciate it. And for everyone that is listening, thank you so much. Please like, subscribe, hit all those buttons down below. It helps me keep doing what I'm doing, which is interview amazing people like Amanda right here. ⁓ for everyone that might be new to Breaking the Beta, just so you know. Our whole goal is having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Amanda, thank you again for everyone else. We'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys.