Ta-Nehisi Coates

Like, I think it's a tough system then, you know?

It is, man.

And I will say I'm completely sympathetic to people who, because they have bills to pay, because they have children to raise, because they have, you know, grandparents to take care of.

Like they can't hunt down every fact.

The system depends on some amount of leadership with, and I can't believe I'm going to use this term, but some amount of political virtue of some sort.

if you have a party entirely captured, effectively by reality TV stars, and with the ethics of the form, with the ethics of the form also, that's tough.

That's just really, really, really tough.

And, you know, obviously I make no excuse and no quarter for anybody's, you know, racism, bigotry, sexism, transphobia, et cetera.

But I also don't think it had to be this way, you know?

I mean, I agree with you.

I think one of the successes of Minneapolis is that they found a way to do that.

Like they found a way to counter.

It just comes off as basic American decency.

And if my friend Adam Serwer, I should say basic human decency.

That's what I should say.

Did he talk about how like this goes back to like abolition and like how like there's always been this spirit here?

Okay.

All right.

This is Adam's point.

But what Adam would tell you, like, you know, me and him, we talk from time to time.