Faiz Shakir
Appearances
Pod Save America
Trump's Indefensible Pardons
We've gotten a creeping sense that maybe you feel the same way, Dan, that there's a powerlessness about the DNC. Oh, it's useless, especially in an age in which you've seen a lot of the power drift over to super PACs and outside actors who are a little more nimble and quick. And I understand that. But Let me get philosophical with you for a moment here, Dan.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
We are dealing in a society where you've got great wealth and income inequality, where power is residing with people who have a lot of money. And when you think about, like, if you just pull back and say, okay, well, what do you do in a situation where, hey, a lot of power has moved to the hands of a few?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
What you need are people-powered organizations led with integrity that say, hey, don't forget about us here. And those things have to exist as institutions. So to all the people, and I understand them, there's a lot of working class people out there who say institutions are corrupt. They're broken. They don't work for me. I'm making the argument, yeah, but institutions are your way out.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
You need to have solidarity within organizations. a structure, to have some power. This is what unions are about, right? This is why you and I have built up our own media institutions, is that people need voice. And the DNC is one of two major political parties in America. You've got the Republican Party, which we know what direction it's going in, and the Democratic Party.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I'm like, don't give up on a structure and an institution that has to work for people.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Yeah, the shortcoming in my mind is that I am very pleased and happy, no surprise to you, that we're not talking about being a working class party. I'm like, great. Right.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
been hunting this one for a while but like I'm glad coming out of this like we're all talking about it and so then I'm sitting around saying hey okay get me what is the ambitious new thing that we are going to do out of the DNC that is going to turn the heads of working class people to say oh that's different that's interesting I didn't realize you guys are going to act that way
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And I quite frankly was feeling let down by the lack of ambition on that score. And I'm jumping in to challenge the notions of our constraints of thinking around what the DNC can do. If you're an apparatus with $100 million plus in raise of a year and you've got 50 plus state parties – Can you think outside the box of how you let people into this?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
The big thing that I'm trying to force everyone to think about is a grassroots DNC that says membership to our organization is not merely a contribution. It is us being in community with you. We have to be out there with striking workers, organizing workers, people fighting utility rate hikes or evictions and foreclosures.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
You have to be closer to grassroots people who are fighting economic justice issues and And using your media apparatus to highlight those fights in which I think working class people turn to you and say, well, that that I've never seen from the DNC. That's interesting. That's different. That's what I'm compelling and forcing us to think about.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So I blend it all together that the media infrastructure being on the front lines, let's take, I mean, you go case by case here, but let's say Amazon workers are going to organize to fight for a union in a North Carolina warehouse, which, by the way, is going on. And does the DNC play a role in this? Right now, historically, you and I know we're a partisan organization. We focus on elections.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
What I'm arguing is that if you are a working class party, you associate with the working class struggles in all different fronts and utilize some degree of your email list to help build solidarity with them. Use your media channels to advertise and explain what the hell it is that they're fighting for at this Amazon warehouse, why they matter to us.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And ultimately, when we stick our necks out for them in North Carolina and there's an election, I believe you're more likely to get some of those people to stand with the Democratic Party up and down the ballot when the time comes.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So I'm seeing it more holistically that when we change the way we are projected to working class people, when we get closer to their fights rather than just our fights, I think we got a better chance to recruit them back in, particularly in this moment where people feel like Donald Trump is leading us into a world where wealth and power dictate all.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I'll try to keep it short. My diagnosis is that when Joe Biden was rightly doing a lot of great populist policy, it was not matched by the political apparatus leaning into those same fights. So you take a moment where Joe Biden makes history by going to a picket line on behalf of the UAW during the midst of their strike.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
You do not see a UAW kind of solidarity effort and action from the DNC saying this is our fight. We together in this. This was Joe Biden doing his thing, not the Democratic Party standing with you.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
You take any of those big moments, you know, if you have a Biden administration going after big pharma, launching a major case, going after pharmacy benefit managers, going after Amazon, a Kroger Albertsons merger, whatever the case might be, some of these big bank junk fees that that Rojachopra and others were fighting. You correct me if I'm wrong, Dan.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
It does not feel to me that the policy apparatus that was taking on these major challenges was accompanied by a political apparatus telling you, here's what we're doing and here's the friction that we are engaged in right now and why we're asking you to be part of this Democratic Party. We can't blame voters for just being like, I had no idea.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And I think to this day, if I went out and talked about, hey, did you know we were fighting the Kroger Albertsons merger because we wanted to make sure grocery prices were low and you had competition? What percentage, Dan? What are we talking about? Five, five percent, 10 percent?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
What a sad situation that these were the biggest things that Biden was bringing about. And as you know, the business world, if I went into any K Street lobbying operation or any chamber meeting and I mentioned any of these things that you and I are just talking about, would they know? 98% awareness, right? They were very upset. Why is Mark Zuckerberg where he is?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
He was upset that, you know, they're taking on his Facebook monopoly. So he's upset and he moves away. Elon Musk, oh, I didn't get invited to a White House meeting and Joe Biden was calling me a union buster. Yeah, these rich and wealthy people were very upset at this direction.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And yet the political apparatus is not leaning in to tell you this is the direction that we are choosing to fight for working class people.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Part of your job, I think, in this moment is to think of yourself as editor-in-chief of a social media channel. Thankfully, we at More Perfect Union have about, I'd say, 1.3 million YouTube subscribers now. Dan, I want you to guess, how many does the Democrats' YouTube channel, which started in 2006... How many followers does it have of More Perfect Union? What does Pod say?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Probably close to a million or maybe 750,000 or something. Yeah. So, you know, respectable numbers here. What does the DNC have?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So we are obviously undershooting on just utilizing the channels to do compelling and interesting content. You and I know you don't just sprinkle fairy dust on a YouTube channel and suddenly it grows. No, you have to give some compelling content. I don't know, do you ever work in the building? Back in the day, I was a DNC opposition researcher. What I do know is we're sitting on content.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
If you want to know what Donald Trump ever said from his first term, his campaigns, video. It's there. They have been recording it. It's wild that you can't come up with compelling and interesting pieces to just tell people about, here's what Donald Trump promised, here's what he said. Just that alone could do a hell of a lot of service of content.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
But then, as I was mentioning, when you're grassroots operation, you're getting out in the country and you're trying to tell people we're a working class organization, we care and affiliate with your economic justice fights.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Why not use the channels, the videographers and our 50 plus state parties to say, hey, we're going to get on the ground and tell this interesting and compelling economic justice story just as a service to all of us to know what's going on in the housing market, how you're getting screwed on your utility rate hike, whatever the case might be.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I find that those types of pieces of content right now would do a hell of a lot to attract new audiences and that aren't just purely partisan in nature.
Pod Save America
Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So when you mentioned I was at the ACLU, I faced the same thing. We had 50 state affiliates all over the board. We were fortunate that we had a great grassroots fundraising operation. I think we ended up raising $200 million plus. I think the DNC can do that this year too. So I would challenge the notions that, well, we just don't have enough money.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I think it's a matter of conviction around that money. It does mean if you take away from somewhere, you have to add to somewhere. But if you have a conviction of saying – A baseline of funding, right now you may know this, Dan, but most state parties, if you're out in Idaho or wherever, you probably get $12,500 a month. That's a poverty budget.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Think about trying to run a state party in Idaho at $12,500 a month. And so one is just you have to increase the baseline of that.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And if you had a robust grassroots operation, you're not only increasing their baseline, you're also saying that the data, the donor, the lists that we're getting out of maybe even the last election cycle, we raised a billion dollars from small dollar funds, that that list goes back over to you as well. But you've got to know what to do with it. This is a challenge I face at the ACLU.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So I give you the list. Do you have the digital expertise? Do you know how to do online to offline events with volunteers? Probably it might be challenging for a lot of other states. That's where DNC comes in to say, hey, I got to give you some baselines. Not only am I increasing the amount to this I also got to give you technical expertise from national of how to use it, the know-how.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And then I would just say our job, and I'll say this with all delicacy and respect to the DNC universe, which I've been in and you know a little bit about, lots of councils and lots of caucuses. Man, one council in one caucus breeds another council in a caucus. What we really need is like program and mission.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And so, by example, what I did at ACLU is say, hey, we got one program mission for us was expand voting rights in this country. Here's a North Star. Now, states, pitch me on what you could do to expand voting rights. You got independent redistricting commissions. You got expansion of early vote. You're trying to get formerly incarcerated individuals to vote. Great. Get me a pitch.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Explain what's going on in your state and what you need to help fund it. So if you set like a goal and ambition, a purpose at the top, and now you've got states saying, I think here, even in Idaho, I think we can do something about that. We need that. So goals and ambitions are like grassroots organizing is one in events and communities that I was mentioning before.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
Candidate recruitment across the board. Tell me what you're doing to expand and do interesting candidate recruitment, and we'll fund it. And, you know, so I just feel a lack of ambition around where's program and mission here.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
You know, one of the learnings of Bernie's email list, which still to this day is very vibrant and raises a fair amount and probably outperforms a number of candidates still running for office, is that, and I don't know if you're on the emails, he writes very substantive, long emails and asks people, often not even for a direct contribution, it's a petition action and a secondary ask for money.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And I think I don't want to treat people like they're dumb. I do think people, particularly in this age where the economy is complex, people know it's rigged. They're seeking depth. Get me an understanding. Own your leader, your job. Help unpack stuff for me. And I believe the emails, lists, and texts don't have to be superficial and treat people like they're dumb.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I think you can raise the bar and you say, hey, this is something interesting and compelling that I want you to know about and I'm asking you to fund it. I think we'd seen an increase in funding, not a drop off.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
So what I'm – yes. Well, what I'm most upset about there is that corporate power influence over the party. So I wouldn't accept money from PACs, lobbyists who are trying to say, hey, we want a seat at the table. We're going to influence this. And right now I think that that's what you got going, Dan, is you've got these folks who believe not – that when I give you a contribution –
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
I expect that my finance committee will now not be run by finance people that are the delegates or people who we've brought into the DNC, but they're outsiders. The people outside the organization, they come in, they make determinations. So I think if you're a working class party, in my view, you do things that stand for working class people. And I'll do a twist on you on this one.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
If Amazon wanted to give me... I mean, I was wrestling with this in real time. If Amazon wanted to give me $50,000 for the DNC, I promise you, you're marked to support Amazon workers in this country. So I'll take it. And guess what? Those Amazon workers who are organizing in North Carolina, they're going to get every penny of it.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
We're going to show... If you're a working class party, this is what you are supporting. And in that way... Yes, I will show my true colors because corporate influence will not have driven the decision making.
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
And I think that my sense is there's a lack of transparency and people feel like corporate influence is having a large role of it because we don't even know where the hell the money is going. Where does all the large numbers amounts? Beyond the FEC filings, there's consultants who get money. But what... I don't see anything. Where is my value as a member of the Democratic Party?
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Trump's Indefensible Pardons
What are you doing in community with me? We can raise the bar on that one. We can do compelling and interesting stuff in communities all over the country.
Pod Save America
Trump's Indefensible Pardons
What do you make of President Trump's pardons for violent offenders?