Cenk Uygur

If we unite on this, we push our states to call for a convention. We all go to the convention together. We bring democracy alive, and we propose amendments to the Constitution. The best amendment gets three-quarters of the states to ratify. You go above the Supreme Court, and you solve the whole thing.

Well, eventually they will, right? And so that's why I actually have a lot of hope, even though things seem super dark right now. And that's why I was for Bernie. So I can come back to that. But why hasn't Trump done it is easy. He's like, what am I, a sucker? The guy gives me money. I do what the guy wants. Why would I get rid of that? That's how I got into power.

And so that's how I'm doing it now. I go to Miriam Edelson and say, give me $100 million and I'll let Israel annex the West Bank, right? So I'll go to the oil companies and give me a billion dollars and I'll give you tax subsidies, I'll let you drill, I'll take away regulation. Why would I stop that?

Yeah, and you're absolutely right, but that is the fault of MAGA. And so MAGA, you're screwing populists in a way that is infuriating, okay? And smart libertarians like Dave Smith have figured this out, and that's why he's just as mad at Trump as I am. And it's because he took a populist movement and he redirected it for his own personal gain. MAGA, figure it out. Come on. Right.

And so if you say, oh, you think Democrats have figured out that these polls? No, they largely haven't figured it out either. And I think there's blue MAGA and I could talk about that as well. But for those of us on the populist left, yeah, we're not enamored by politicians. And for example, when Bernie does the wrong thing, we call him out. Well, I'm not Bernie's not my goddamn uncle.

I don't like him for some personality reason. It's not a cult of personality. You do the right thing, I love you for. You do the wrong thing, I'm going to kick your ass for it, right? But Donald Trump does this massive, ridiculous corruption over and over again, and MAGA's like, I'm here for it, love it. As long as you're doing the corruption, I'm okay with it.

He says nothing about it. Maga, why haven't you held him to account? So when Bernie helped Biden take out $15 minimum wage from the Senate bill on the first bill that was introduced in the Biden administration, we went nuts. We did a petition. We sent in videos to Bernie, our audience going, don't kill it, Bernie. Don't kill it. And so Bernie then reintroduced it as an amendment.

It got voted down, but he did the right thing, right? That is us holding our top leader accountable and saying, you better get back on track, okay? Because we're not here for you and your personal self-aggrandizement. We're here for policy, right?

And if MAGA was actually here for policy, they would have absolutely leveled Trump on the fact that he... I mean, remember what he ran on, Drain the Swamp. That's why he won in 2016, right? So... I predicted on ABC right after the DNC and Hillary Clinton was up 10, 12 points, whatever she was. And I said, Trump would win. Okay. And they, the whole panel laughed out loud, right?

They're like, get a load of this crazy guy. I said, he's a populist who seems to hate the establishment in a, in a populist time. And so, and drain the swamp is, is a great, uh, slogan. Uh, and I knew he would win when he was in a Republican debate. And he said, well, I paid all these guys before I paid them and they did whatever I wanted. And I was like, that's so true. Right.

And people will love that. And especially Republican voters will love that. I actually have a lot of respect for Republican voters because they actually genuinely hate corruption.

So I started a group called Wolfpack. Nice name. Thank you. Wolf-pack.com. And the reason why I named it Wolfpack is because everyone in Washington I knew would hate that name. It's a populist name, and everybody in Washington snickers looking at it. I know you're supposed to name it Americans for America and just trick people, et cetera. No, no, no. Wolfpack means we're coming for you, okay?

We're not coming for you in a weirdo, physical, or violent way. We're coming for you in a democratic way, okay? So we're going to go to those state houses. We're going to get them to propose a convention, and we did it in five states, but then the Democratic Party started beating us back. We'll get to that.

And, uh, and so, uh, we are going to overturn your apple cart and we're going to bring, put the American people back in charge. So what does the amendment say? Number one, uh, a lot of people will have a different opinions on what it should say. And that's what you sort out in a convention. So for example, one of the things that conservatives can propose, which makes sense is term limits. Okay.

Because the reason why these super old politicians are in charge is because they provide a return on investment. So you know if you give to Biden, Pelosi, or McConnell, they're going to deliver for you. They love that return on investment. They don't want to risk it on a new guy. The new guy might have principles. Ew. Or, you know, might want to actually do a little bit for his voters. Boo.

Whereas these old, you know... And every corrupt system has these old guys hanging around that help maintain power, et cetera. So my particular proposal in the amendments would be a couple of things. One is end private financing of elections. So if, and look, if you're a business person, you're a capitalist, you know this with absolute certainty.

If somebody signs your check, that's the person you work for, right? So if private interests are funding people politicians the politicians will serve private interests and then you're going to get into a fight like elon did in new jersey where the car dealerships and tesla are getting into an auction can i hear a hundred thousand no a million two million three million right and then

And now you've got to go bribe the government official. That's called a campaign contribution. And this is a terrible system, right? End the private financing. Go to complete public financing of elections. That's when conservatives, because they've been propagandized by corporate media. Yes, mainstream media got into your head too. And right-wing media got into your head too.

And right-wing media also financed by a lot of this corrupt interest. And so they tell you, oh, you don't want to publicly finance. Oh my God, you'd be spending like a billion dollars on politicians. brother, they spending trillions of dollars of your money because they're financed by the guys that they're giving all of your money to.

Indirect funding's gone, direct funding's gone. You have to set up some thresholds. Not everybody can just get money to run. You have to prove that you have some sort of popular support. So signature gathering, you would still allow for small money donations, like up to $100, something along those lines. Not $5,000 or whatever it is now.