Latest / Pod Save America / Intentions for 2024 with Sam Sanders (Exclusive Clip)

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Intentions for 2024 with Sam Sanders (Exclusive Clip) · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Sam Sanders here.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: So John, John, Tommy, and Dan are taking a much
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: needed break to gear up for 2024. And in the meantime,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I'm here to give y'all some fun content. You may
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: recall me as a guest on Pod Save America previously,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: but I also co-host a podcast called Vibe Check. And
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited to share right here in this feed today,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: an exclusive clip from the newest episode of Vibe Check
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: with y'all.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Right here.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: In this clip, me and my co-hosts, Zach and Saeed,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: we're going to look back at some of the most
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: important news moments of this year, specifically the war in
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Israel and Palestine and what it says about America's changing
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: place in the world. Also, this year being the year
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of protest sweeping every industry across the country and perhaps
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: showing us a new way forward for our politics. And
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: then thirdly, Abortion on the ballot this year has seen
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: referendums in many states across the country and the aftermath
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of Roe falling. These referendums kind of forecast what next
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: year's election might be. I'm calling it the control election.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: We'll explain. All right. Here's my chat with Zach and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Saeed on those stories and more.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: We're back.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: We're going to keep this conversation going, talking about the
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: biggest election moments of the year. I want us to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: use this segment to talk about our biggest newsy or
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: political moments of 2023. And Zach, we're going to start
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: with you.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Well, I think the story that has defined this year
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: for me in so many ways is the Israel-Hamas conflict
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: that began on October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel, resulting
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: in a thousand people dead and the responding attack from
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Israel that has now engulf the entire region. This is
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: a story that is, I would say, once in a
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: decade type of levels. It's something that has really stopped
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the world. Everyone's thinking about it. It's constantly on the news.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: It's constantly a conversation I'm having with friends and family
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: and something I'm constantly just waking up and thinking about.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: And it will continue to go on for a while.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: So I think it's been an ongoing thing that's been
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: going on for over 70 years. And we've hit this
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: new inflection point that I think has just boiled over
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: and changed our lives in so many ways that I'm
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: still figuring out. So for me, that's the big story
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: of the year.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Both because of what happened, the terrorist attack on October 7th,
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: but also I would say Israel, in my opinion, just
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: factually disproportionate response, what Palestinian people are enduring and trying
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: to survive. has been harrowing just to observe, right? To
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: say nothing of people there directly. And in terms of
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: the future of news, like where we go into 2024,
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: I don't think that this is a news topic. I
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: think you're right. This is a bend in the river
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: for a lot of people. I think many people's relationships
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: to political ideas, ideas regarding politics, nationhood, war, violence, and
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: each other, How you feel about how the people around
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: you feel about this topic is certainly heightened. And I
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: think getting to the real, the awakening aspect of it,
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: people owning their politics, it's probably a net good, but
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: this is costly.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: Like how many thousands of people have died so that
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: we can have a richer understanding of politics? That doesn't
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: sound like a silver lining I want to embrace.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: For me.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: This conflict has really shown the ways in which America
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: has moved from being a leader on the world stage
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to an outlier. When you look at the number of
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: countries that are increasingly and consistently calling for ceasefire on
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the region, it's now a majority of the world, the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: vast majority of the world.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: You know who the outliers are? Israel and the U.S.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and maybe France.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: Let's dig deeper because it's also President Biden is an
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: outlier compared to most U.S.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: Citizens.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Most Americans are like, ceasefire is clearly the way to go.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And so it's been very interesting to see this conflict
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: happen and have the Biden White House continue the rhetoric
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: that most modern era presidents have used, which is, We are.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: A global leader. America is a global leader. We're doing
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: this to protect the world.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: That rhetoric is kind of being trotted out in the
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: midst of this conflict, but it is not the reality.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: The reality would be that if the U.S. wanted to
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: be a leader, they would much more adamantly be pushing
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: for a ceasefire, which is where most of the world is.
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  Speaker 2: So this, for me, marks a real shift in We
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: don't know how this thing ends, but this, for me,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: marks another big moment in which the U.S., on the
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: world stage, whether it believes it or not, is kind
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: of being left behind.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's such a clear way of putting it. That
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: is the biggest difference, I feel, as someone in their
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: 30s who's seen the U.S. engage in many conflicts. It
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: always felt like we were the one leading the West
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: into battle, into diplomacy, into whatever. And now we're just
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: reacting to BB's thoughts and actions in these really clumsy ways.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: And even inside the White House, it's really divided. Like
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: I've never seen a White House staff so divided over
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: something internally. So, yeah, it's a difference.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Last thing I'll say about this, even the way in
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: which the Biden White House administration in America talks about
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the conflict itself, they talk about it as if it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a fair fight.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: In so many ways, it's not.
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  Speaker 2: People in Gaza are relying on the people who are
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: attacking them for aid and to let them cross the borders.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: That is not an even or fair fight.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And it seems as if the Biden White House is
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: really reluctant to acknowledge that reality.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: It's troubling.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I am questioning how the Biden stance changes as we
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: move into the election year, because as Saeed mentioned, the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: majority of America at this point, at least its citizens,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: they want a ceasefire.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: And again, listeners, when this episode airs, it's going to
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: air a few weeks after we have actually taped it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: But this is a headline that I'm going to read.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: It is from today. It's from Reuters. Quote, Israel ordered
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: Palestinians to leave parts of the main southern city in
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: the Gaza Strip on Monday, even as its bombs rained
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: down on areas where it told.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: Them to go.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: They have nowhere to go.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: People have already been displaced once. who have moved to
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: a safer place, are now being bombed there too. This
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: is collective punishment. There's no coming back from this knowledge.
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: There are certain moments in your life, either if you're
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: directly affected or you witnessed them. If you saw the
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: Shock and Awe campaign, for example, in 2003. There are
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: certain things where you see and you just don't come
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: back from that knowledge. I hope it's a productive, transcendent transformation, right?
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: Where you're like, okay, how do we get real? How
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: can I work to make the world a safer place?
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: But I think for 2023... This is the kind of
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: year a lot of people are having.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Moving on.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Saeed, what was your most impactful newsy or political moment
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: from this year?
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: I think it certainly relates to the ceasefire or free
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: Palestine moment. Those are related, but maybe not the same
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: for different people. But protest, this is a year where
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: I think many people who maybe haven't had to make
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: a protest sign or, you know, find where, like, where
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: do you get a megaphone if you need one, you know?
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Like, you know what I mean?
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: Like, learning to download apps that can be safe in
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: case your phone is confiscated by cops at a protest.
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  Speaker 4: Like, all of that.
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  Speaker 5: Like, a lot of people, I think, are waking up
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: and are realizing, kind of like I was saying before, like,
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: this sense of understanding the power of the body in
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: terms of movement, in terms of dance. that pleasure is
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: transformed into the power of the body in terms of
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: collective action. SAG, WGA, Teamsters, UPS, hospital workers.
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  Speaker 1: Auto workers, all of it.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Auto workers.
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  Speaker 5: I have a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon, and
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: she was like, teachers are protesting. You know, I mean,
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: it's just every sector of our lives, certainly in the
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: last few years, but it really feels like 2023 has
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: been like an inflection point. And I have found that inspiring.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: You know, hard won. I mean, it's like, People don't
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: boycott or protest until shit is really real. You know,
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: people do not just do that casually, is my opinion.
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  Speaker 5: And so I don't want to just be like, oh,
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: it's so nice to see, but I'm like, no, this
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: is real.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: This is real.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: And for some of these issues, frankly, life or death,
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: but it's good to see people recognizing that there is
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: power in our bodies and there is power in us
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  Speaker 5: coming together to say like, no, you know, I'm not
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: like a lone voice.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And what I have enjoyed watching in this year
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: of protest is all of us seeming to collectively put
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: all the dots together.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Every sector, every.
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  Speaker 2: Industry is dealing with the same issue. Corporations and shareholders
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: have too much power and too much money, and they're
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: not sharing. And it doesn't matter if you work for
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the post office or HBO Max, right? Collectively, we are realizing...
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: that there's a corporate power structure that across all industries
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: is exploiting lower wage workers.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: And just like out of sync with the rest of us.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Out of sync.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And so to see everyone say, no, it's not just
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: over here. It's not just over there. It's all of
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: us and all around. That feels like progress to me. Yeah.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And I think people have become really aware of how
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: protests can lead to different types of results. I mean,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: living in Los Angeles, we've seen how the strikes have
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: directly impacted the city's economic stance and how we've also
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: had to rush to help each other. You know, every
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: quarter I go with producers to buy food for IATSE
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: members because no one thinks about the guys that are
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: serving you food on set. So we're all thinking about
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: means of production in these really broad ways and arriving
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: at to moments within that pipeline of where we can
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: show up and help out, which has been really incredible.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: It's like so much power.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: I think, is and has been taken away from individual people.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: It's like voter suppression just being one example. Increasingly likely,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: I think we often feel we don't have a voice
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: to influence what's going on, especially when corporations and billionaires
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: have so much power. But seeing people, the phrase power
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: to the people is real. It resonates for a reason.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: And I think 2023 reminded us of that.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Sam, what about you? What's your big.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: kind of news political moment of reflection for 2023?
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: I have been watching one simmering politics story that I
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: think will be the defining issue of the 2024 election.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: And that is seeing abortion when it's on the ballot
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: across the country in every election after Roe has fallen.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And every election in red states or blue states, voters
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: have chosen to preserve the right to legal and safe abortion.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: It's happened everywhere. It's happened in the Midwest. It's happened
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: on the coast. And this is a sign for Democrats
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: and Republicans about what's going to resonate. I'm most fascinated
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: by the results in Ohio, Saeed's home state.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: O-H-I-O, NOAA.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: And we've discussed this before on a previous Vibe Check episode.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: But what I found so fascinating fascinating about that election
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: is it's not just that Republicans wanted the right to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: abortion on the ballot. It's that in the same moment,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: they tried to disenfranchise voters' rights to vote to get
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the results that they wanted on abortion. They lost on
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: both counts. This is a big deal, and it sets
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: up the ways in which abortion... is actually about more
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: than just abortion this next election year.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: It's about control.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: There's a beautiful essay written by Rebecca Traister in New
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: York Magazine that lays this out a bit. But long
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: story short, when you talk about abortion and you talk
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: about the current GOP, this is just the start of
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: what they want to do. They don't want to just
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: control your right to legal and safe abortions. They want
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: to control what pronouns you choose to call yourself. They
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: want to control what kind of books can be in
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: your libraries. They want to control what your children can
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: wear and what bathrooms they can use. They want to
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: control whether or not you can organize to unionize when
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: you're at work.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: It is all about control.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: And there is one party that isn't just trying to
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: control things like abortion and They're trying to control your
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: access to the ballot box to then control your right
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: to things like abortion. It is imperative for Democrats, should
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: they want to not see Trump get elected again, it's
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: imperative for them to connect these dots. I think a
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: lot of folks on the left are just thinking, well,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: you know, next year, just say abortion over and over
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and over again. It's a winning issue, but it's not enough.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I think there's a moment now, seeing the way that
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the entire GOP has reacted to the fall of Roe,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: there's a moment to say, this election is all about control.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: One party wants to control you inside and out. The
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: other seems to want to lower childhood poverty and see
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: wages go up. It's just kind of a no-brainer to me.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I don't trust Democratic leadership to get that messaging right,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: but there's an opportunity, should they want to, to do
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: just that. But yeah, for me, abortion is the political
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: story of 2023, and it will also be for 2024.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I love that because you're right.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: The democratic machine does need a through line to really
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: galvanize all of its constituents. And talking about control is
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: a really you know, juicy thing. I can bite into
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: that as a voter. I'm like, okay, they're trying to
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: control me. They're trying to control my bathroom, trying to
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: control where I can watch drag shows, trying to control
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: how I vote.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: What I read. What my kids read.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: What my kids read. That control is... such a good
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: verb to use there, and it does help me kind
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: of crystallize what's happening, because they get us with, you know,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: here's a drag queen, here's a book, here's a this,
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: it's like all over the place, but we need that
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: thing to coalesce around, and control does seem to be that.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And they're so likely and so loved to use the
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: word freedom, it's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: when you peel it back, they want the opposite.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: They want the opposite for you and your body.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: We'll see if the Democratic Party's leaders.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: seize this opportunity because I think both when it's like,
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: obviously abortion on the ballot works and like another issue, ceasefire,
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: overwhelming support. But guess who's saying everybody but the people
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: at the top, you know? But yeah, I think it's
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: very clear. And it's like, it's a clear through line.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: It's actionable.
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: When you say like this election is about control, it
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: like lines up in people's minds. You can see the
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: dots go dot, dot, dot. And that's powerful.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I got it. It's the Janet Jackson election.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: I was waiting.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to say that to you, but I
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: was like, I'll let Sam get there when he gets there,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: but Auntie Sam is going to land in an election. Wow.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Also, I want to give credit where credit is due.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: The Rebecca Traister essay I alluded to is in New
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: York Magazine. It was published November 17th of 2023, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: it's called Abortion Wins Again.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Now what?
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Now what? All right.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: You just heard a clip from Vibe Check. It's a
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: weekly culture podcast where me, Sam Sanders, and my friends
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: and co-hosts, Saeed Jones and Zach Stafford, talk about everything
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: and make sense of what's going on in news, culture, entertainment,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: et cetera, and also how it all feels. Think of
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Vibe Check as your favorite group chat.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Come to life. I would love for you to listen
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: if you want to.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Subscribe to Vibe Check wherever you get your podcasts.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Vibe Check. Two words. Thank you.