S2 Ep1029: Beto O'Rourke: Never Lose Hope
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Who is Beto O'Rourke and what is Powered by People?
Hallo und willkommen zu The Bulwark Podcast. Ich bin euer Host Tim Miller. Es ist Freitag. Ich brauche ein bisschen Therapie, also habe ich einen alten Freund mitgebracht. Er ist ein ehemaliger demokratischer Kommissar aus El Paso. Er läuft Powered by People, der registriert und mobilisiert Votierende in Texas und arbeitet auch, um langfristige Veränderungen in den Staaten zu machen. Das wird nötig sein. Er ist auch auf Substack. Jetzt ist jeder auf Substack. Es ist Beto O'Rourke. Was passiert, Beto? Schön, mit dir zu sein.
What is the importance of town halls and face-to-face voter engagement?
Hier in El Paso. Es ist ein... Absolutely gorgeous day out there. And soon headed to Denton, Texas. We're doing these town halls all over the state of Texas. And we're going to be at this place called Anderson's. It's a brewery on Saturday. So I'm excited to be getting out there and to be with people right now.
Man, ich muss dir sagen, es fühlt sich so gut an, nur auf persönlicher Ebene.
Not to be watching or waiting or hoping or praying, but to be out there with people. And, you know, there's certainly something cathartic and therapeutic about it, right? For everyone concerned, because I'll talk for 10 or 15 minutes and then the microphone goes around the room and anyone, you know, We don't screen for party affiliation. We don't check the questions ahead of time. Anyone who has anything they want to say is able to do that. And from those conversations, not only am I learning a lot about what's on the minds of people in Wichita Falls, where we just held one, or Rice University in Houston, where we just had one, but everyone else in the room is listening to their neighbors and folks in the community. And they may find common cause. They may
understand from someone who's drawn a different conclusion on an issue that they care about, how they got there. There's something really powerful in that. And then we also, for our group Powered by People, which does voter registration and uses relational organizing to stay in touch with newly registered voters, we also recruit volunteers from those meetings. We say, hey, we've had a great conversation today and we learned a lot. If you want to now take action, which I believe is the antidote to despair and the key to victory and fundamental to building long-term political power, then sign up with us. We'll train you to become a volunteer deputy registrar to register voters. We'll train you in our program and then we'll send you out there with other volunteers and you can do the work right now. No waiting for 2026 or, you know, 2028, wenn jemand das tatsächlich macht. Du kannst das jetzt tun. Also, ich denke, das ist essentiell die Formel, zumindest wie ich es verstehe, ist, du musst den Moment treffen, in dem Moment. Du musst da rauskommen, was auch immer es ist.
Wenn es ein Hands-off-Rallye ist, Wenn es um die Schule geht und über die öffentlichen Kommentare spricht, wenn es um einen dieser Stadthallen geht oder um eine Stadthalle selbst zu halten, wenn es um all diese Dinge geht, dann tun wir es. Wir brauchen das gerade. Es gibt echte Macht, um zusammenzukommen. Und wie Lincoln gesagt hat, öffentliches Sentiment ist alles. And when you get people coming together in numbers larger and larger, they begin to influence and shape public sentiment on the things that we care most about. And I think that gives us ultimately the power to overcome these challenges. But at the same time, you've got to be patiently and persistently building that political power. Democrats, at least in Texas, have sucked at this forever.
You know, Colin Allred's running. Let's get excited. Wendy Davis is running. That's O'Rourke's running. That's great. But even better is doing the work year in, year out to register voters, stay in touch with them, make sure they turn out. Republicans have been excellent at this in Texas and in other parts of the country. And the outcomes show just how effective they've been.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Beto O'Rourke and what is Powered by People?
0:34–0:55
2
What is the importance of town halls and face-to-face voter engagement?
0:55–8:04
3
How did the 2024 election results affect Democratic strategies?
8:04–18:28
4
What lessons can be learned from Beto's 2018 campaign and voter outreach?
18:28–27:09
5
Why do some voters support Trump despite economic hardships like tariffs?
27:09–43:05
6
How are Democrats addressing voter outreach and registration challenges in Texas?
43:05–50:50
7
What are the biggest constitutional and political challenges facing the U.S. today?
50:50–1:00:49
Speakers
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