Sam Forstag

They haven't been in spaces where that's part of it.

And what we have ended up doing is creating a language of power where a lot of

poor and working people actually would not feel comfortable in that space.

And if we as progressives care about poor and working people and improving their lives, we should be creating spaces where they would feel welcome to and where we are not going to eject them immediately if they stumble.

And if they fail to keep up with a changing language that is changing before their eyes, I think that's somewhere we've messed up as the left.

And that's somewhere where we've ended up leaving a lot of people behind who should be part of our coalition.

Yeah.

And just as importantly, we don't need to eject somebody from that space if they...

aren't ready to be using that language just yet because these things take time, right?

And because, you know, again, if you're out in the field for six months and then you show up in a space like that, well, some of these folks, they quite literally do not know the words and you should not have to know the specific words to be involved in a space where you're changing policy or involved in what the future of our state looks like.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the ACLU, as it was conceived, actually, it's an organization that's supposed to defend your civil liberties regardless of what side you fall on.

The ACLU was defending the KKK's right to protest, not because they're not schmucks, not because that is not a despicable organization, but because our First Amendment and the right to free speech and demonstration is something that benefits all of us when it's out in the open instead of suppressed.

Yeah.

So we can address hateful ideas.

What I was working on was largely criminal justice reform.

It was free speech.

It was pushing back against a lot of what I would offer distractions that the Republicans in power in this state were spending two-thirds of their time singing and dancing about while they picked all of our pockets and continue to cut top tax rates for the people who need it the least in this state.

And what I found is that there actually are a lot of opportunities to find common ground and work across the aisle.

I mean, we ended up getting some major criminal justice reform policies passed in the state.