Astead Herndon

And people will definitely respond.

I guess my question is, there is some form of a conflation between the overt corruption we were talking about in the beginning and something like corporate consolidation.

Or do you see those as kind of a one and the same when we're talking about these monopolistic media companies?

Mm-hmm.

To this point, you signed a memo with Senators Schiff, Warren, and Smith that argues the Democrats can't run on affordability without naming the corporations and the billionaires driving the crisis.

I guess I wanted to ask about that with the context of what the Democratic Party's history has been in mind.

You know, there's close relationships between the Democratic Party and some of these, let's say, Silicon Valley money or tech money.

There's close relationships between Democrats and folks in big law.

Are those relationships an impediment for Democrats doing that clear naming and shaming that you're talking about?

Absolutely.

I mean, that really rings true from, you know, even my some experience on the road.

I mean, oftentimes leading up to 2024, things like corporate capture or corporate consolidation were things I heard even more Trump supporters or RFK supporters sometimes talking about and not necessarily coming from Democrats.

What took so long to name this, to name something that feels like it's been in the populist air for a while?

Makes sense.

I want to end on a question about people's own kind of emotions in this moment.

I think the scope of Trump's corruption can feel disempowering.

The administration seems immune to public opinion at many times, undeterred by legal and kind of institutional restraints.

And it feels like, you know, we're kind of strapped in the beginning of a roller coaster that, you know, you don't know where it ends.

Is that true?

Like, do we have, are constraints coming?