So, here's a little story, um. In, I guess I'm gonna guess 1971 or 72. I was very active in student politics, and it was a big deal. Then, because of the Vietnam War. Um. That we were draft age, and there was a draft. And um? And the people were out in the streets, and it was interesting time.

And, uh, so I was so. That we were going to a March on Washington from New York City and the organization I was part of had rented out, like a hundred buses and filled them with people going to. You know? March in Washington. And um? And because I was a regular part of this group, I was one of the leaders on one of the buses and my friend's mother, my friend's name, was Robert McCarthy.

He and I were the two, I guess. No, I was the leader on this bus and. Um, the mom was sitting there, and I was sitting in the front seat, the front passenger seat, and she tapped me on the shoulder, he says. When are you going to give a speech?

When are you gonna start talking? I looked there. I was, like, what, what do you say? And she said, yeah, here we all are some. We gotta have a rally. You gotta start rallying. And it had never occurred to me. I'm getting like, you know, whatever, um? The feeling in the stomach just is about.

You're about to go on stage. I'm getting it right now. It's how strong the memory is. So I got up. And I said, hey, I'm Dave. And here we are. We're all headed to Washington, DC. And. We're going down there to stop the war. And everybody goes. Yeah, and I was like, wow, all somebody.

This is amazing. First of all, it never occurred to me that this was I was supposed to stand up and nobody told me to do any of this shit. I just, you know, I'm the guy that they talk to when the bus gets there. And basically, my job is to make sure everybody knows where to go because the bus parks, one place, and the people have to get to the other place because the bus can't park where the March is.

And it was, it was thrilling, and it was obviously life-changing. It was like 16 years old at the time, had bad I had acne. Yeah, I anyway, so, um?

I think that is the problem with the politics in America right now, and I think the Democratic party has been coasting. We have had leaders over the last, you know, whatever years, Bill Clinton? All right. Listen to a podcast the other day, uh, he was president when Columbine happened and.

That was a school massacre, and it was like the first one that really got everyone's attention. And um? And Bill Clinton went to Columbine to give a speech and Charlton. Heston also had a gave a speech in Denver at the time. As the president of the National Rifle Association, so it was kind of an interesting pairing of and Charlton Heston, I remember as being kind of a dignified guy, but he was a rat.

I mean, this guy was rubbing it in. These people had just had their kids had gotten killed the kids that, were, you know, whatever, it's just like it was. So, I mean, Heston's been long gone. He's been dead a long time. He's a, you know, he wasn't even in my parents generation.

He was my grandparents generation. And, uh, and it's like, wow, he sounds like one of the goons that we have around right now. I mean, like? Don't you get it? Everybody's thinking about the families now. You're talking about your rights, and nobody gives a fuck about your rights. And besides, you're wrong.

Nobody's arguing about your rights here. Just is a moment where world changed, and you are like in the wrong place. My friend, so, and Bill Clinton was great. I mean, Bill Clinton had was famous for being able to feel your pain. I feel your pain. And this to be fair to Clinton.

This is before. You know, the Social Web existed. There was no Social Web. We were. We were starting blogging. I was already blogging at the time that happened. And so, we're I know a few thousand other people. I guess I'd have to check that out, but it wasn't big.

It wasn't anything. It wasn't for another couple of Cycles before it was before the. The dean campaign broke through there and brought blogs into the political process. Um. And Barack Obama could do it too. I mean, Barack Obama. It was a thrilling speaker. You never sat. I mean, I guess you're.

Oh, I guess what. To be honest, what I was worried about he was going to get assassinated. That's what I was thinking when he was giving his speeches that, what are they going to do if somebody blows them away right now? I mean, they must have had incredible security at those things because of who he was right.

And how good he was and? I mean, he was more than good. He was great. He was a breath of fresh air, too. I mean, by the end of his? Second term, I was really tired of him, not because of the theatrics just because I don't think he was a particularly good president.

I think that in the way that we are not good at politics right now. Because there's been a change. Things have fundamentally changed in the Democratic party, has not gotten it yet, and it's, they're never the people. There are never going to be the ones who get it except, like AOC.

She totally gets it. Okay, I mean, sit down and put her up there, and you just fucking. Listen to her for a while. Okay. I don't know if you guys do. I think they got the stick so firmly up their ass that she has to be around for a while.

We don't like the weather, you know, what? She really reaches people. She really does. Because she's real. She really reaches people because and it's not. Well, if it's an act, it's one fucking great. It's not an act. That's who she is. She's an amazing person. Okay, let's be really clear about that.

Well, and then you know. So, Obama, let's go to Obama. Just talk about that for a minute, um? You know, he used the internet, of course, in a better way than Dean did. Why? Because, well, he was elected in 2008, was that right? Yes, and re-elected in 2012. And by 2008 Twitter did exist, and um and Facebook was going pretty strong.

And um, and we had the skills to put up a pretty good. Uh, Community website, and they did put up a good Community website, and they organized the whole freaking campaign around it, and everything was organized around. It was really state of the art for the time, and they also used the tools that were out there like they used Meetup really.

Well, you know? And, and so people were, it was fun. I mean, you know, there were people were going to? Neighborhood meetings, like the bus meeting I'm talking I was talking about before, where they talk amongst themselves. And. They plan on how to do things you know in the community, and they get tips and help from the home office.

It's a fantastic thing, isn't it right? And it's all done by online. It's not done. It was, this was the Breakthrough, right? It was done all with with. I mean, they didn't have to. They did put field people in there. Okay, the Obama campaign had plenty of money for that, and they did put.

I'm not going to say they didn't do that, but these things were organized wherever anybody wanted to be organized is key point, and it worked. And I was so excited to vote for Obama and a fucking thrilled when he won. I mean, it was like, what did I? We lived in Berkeley, California at the time, give you an idea of I mean, you know?

People were out marching and partying and laughing. It was like.

Excuse me another emotional thing because? One of these things that when I never thought I would live to see this, okay? And I imagined how? Certain people. Like? Like Al Sharpton, Howard Al Sharpton. Be feeling right now. You know, Al Sharpton was a really good presidential candidate and people.

A lot of people didn't listen to him. I did. I was surprised. I always didn't think he was that deep, but he's really smart. Um. And then I thought about the people that didn't make it to see that. And I was a big deal. It was impossible to explain what a big deal it was huge.

Anyway, so I was really excited also about the fact that, oh, you know? I've assumed that that organizing website that they had was going to become whitehouse.gov? And I also, I dreamed big, I guess, too big. Um, but I also imagined that it would go worldwide. And that they would organ use that system to organize people.

Everywhere. And I and I wrote about this on my blog, um. I imagine Barack Obama. This is before Putin became a whatever a villain, you know, we were actually trying to. We were thinking of of Russia as, uh, you know, compatible with us. And I imagine, but not really okay.

Hey, this is, I mean, not. I can tell you stories about that too. By the way, FYI, um, so, but I'm not going to. And I imagine Barack Obama going to visit Putin and making a presentation where he showed him. This is what your people want, you know, and how do I know that because look here they are?

The big point was. I thought, finally, we're not just going to be part of electing our government. We are going to be participating in the governing. This is the big change, and here we are, and they didn't do it. They didn't do it. They shut down the website. Here, you got all these people organized everywhere and you just turn it off.

And there is your mistake. That's the mistake right there. If you want, I mean, it's like, sometimes you wonder, what was it that made that made the difference? That was it? Yeah, it's you look back. I didn't look, I was, I was there. I, if anybody would have listened to me, this is, I guess we all feel this way, right?

But I'm absolutely sure of it, but anyway, didn't happen. So? And then it happened again in 2012, and then it happened again. Uh, with? Hillary Clinton running for president her website. Gone. Um. That just happened. It happened, of course, with Joe Biden, Joe Biden, you know, so old. I hate to say that, but you know this stuff.

Joe Biden ran a LBJ inspired presidency and highly competent. Got a shitload done, but was is going to be remembered as the guy who saw who didn't do what needed to be done. Let's put it that way. And if he had those tools. If Obama had built those tools, I don't think Biden would have shut them down.

And Biden would have learned very quickly that we were getting very impatient with him. And with his attorney general. Because, and he would have listened. If he understood the Constitution, he would have listened because the Constitution made the big, powerful branch of government Congress because it was the closest to the people because we are the government of this country.

This is the thing, the Epiphany that everybody has so far not gotten in this whole thing that's going on right now. This coup d'etat that has happened. It's not ongoing, it has happened. They are changing our government right now. It's happening, and nobody can do anything about it. That's the crazy part because we could be doing a lot about it.

And we're just it's. I wrote, I wrote this. I wrote this in a post today, but I've written it many times as if we don't even put a team on the field. We're playing a football game with the Republican party. I'm, you know, I'm an ex Republican by the way.

FYI, you have to go pretty far back at this point for that, but I voted Republican for quite a few Cycles. I don't know why I just like it was a stupid kid. Let's put it that way, but um. Yeah, but I'm a Democrat. Now, I'm not. I don't think the Republican Party exists as far as I'm concerned.

There's nothing there anymore. We just didn't even go on the field because the part I left out and this little story is Along Comes Trump and Trump figures it out. Trump trusts his, uh, intuition, whatever, or is it his taste, his Instincts? Trump is a natural-born blogger. I looked out of mbb search by site for the term natural born blogger.

And uh, he is one. There are people just floating around us that have been blogging, had the blogging Gene. And, um, and they become very powerful in the time that we live in because the tools have just gotten so incredibly good for blogging. And, uh, and he's it, he's perfect.

Not my idea of what a blogger should do with their their power, but he is a blogger, and he's great at it, and he is 24x7, you know? 365 days a year, every year, not just election years because he's got something to say. That's what. That's how you know you're looking at a blogger.

It's gotta come out. He's gotta talk. And that turned out to be the secret sauce. In addition to being, you know, The Apprentice and firing people and all that shit? He was the perfect candidate, and even so. When he won, he didn't even win the popular vote. And this time, it was, don't, don't believe he was a landslide.

It was, like, 1% or something a difference in vote. That's not a landslide, folks. We came damn close to winning this election. The Democrats did, without ever really having a campaign and doing the most bone-headed thing you've ever seen. Switching candidates. After the primaries have run. They, it's, you know.

You have to laugh, right? I mean, imagine you were an owner of a basketball team. I love basketball. I love the NBA. And. And I've envisioned. I've asked myself. All basketball fans are always asking themselves this question is if I own this team, what would I do right and different from what they're doing right now.

I'm a Knicks fan, and I wouldn't do anything different. I think they're being managed in the most Artful way I've ever seen. I feel so lucky to be a Knicks fan right now. After years and years of putting up with the most inept management imaginable, but anyway?

They couldn't lead us out of. I don't know what these are. These people are incapable of leading. They can't form a strategy they can't make. They can't do a marketing campaign. They just can't do it, and we have to stop waiting for them to do it. We have to do it.

It's that simple. It's not a complicated thing. Do the skills exist to to do this? Yes, they do. The the missing person right now, in my opinion, is somebody who knows how to run. A national campaign. I mean, you know? It's like I I, I used to know how to run a software company.

I, I couldn't run one today because things have changed a lot, but in the 80s into the 90s, I could have run a software company or could have certainly been part of any software company that existed. And I didn't get there overnight. It's the kind of thing that you have to have experience at, and you have to know how to do they have to know people to hire to do the things that you need to get it done?

I would. I'm not the person, but there are plenty of people out there who do this and what we need you to do is to. Well, we'll help you do this. We're going to raise a lot of money behind advertising. So, we also need somebody that's really good at creative for advertising, and we have to have a talk about what that advertising is going to feel like.

What's going to make people feel like? And that my friends is extremely easy. They have to feel empowered. They have to feel happy that they're finally in a loop that that we have some amount of Hope, because we're getting off our asses. And they have to believe it in themselves and each other.

And really. I think that and and they have to listen. Well, what we have to say isn't, isn't hard to express. Our government is being destroyed right now. It's actually the truth. And that's all. And we have to say that in a way that hits home. Where we can say to them look?

If you have a family member who's on Medicare, you really need to worry right now. Because you know you're a certain age and Medicare is keeping you alive. It's making you not die. Not true of everybody, but it's true of a lot of people who are on Medicare. Is that without it, you don't live, so it's that's serious a thing.

These people are going to shut it down. That's the next thing they're gonna do after they shut down the well. First of all, how good is the government going to be at getting? All the things you get from the government to for your Medicare. It's gonna suck. It's. There's already very little we can do about that.

That's how desperate things have happened. But we have to stop it now. That's. It's not like, oh, we'll have fascism someday. It's not about fascism. It's about the implications of fascism. What it means for the individual person? It's not a hard story to tell. It takes a little bit of guts.

If. The TV networks don't want to carry it. We will find a way to get it out there. It will get out there. Because there's a tremendous thirst for this right now. Unbelievable thirst, and that's where we begin. We have to start getting those buses rolling to Washington, DC.

We have to put people on those buses that know what we're trying to do, we have to have signs to hand out to people slogans that they can chant in the streets, uh, interesting places that they can go to make their opinions heard when they're at home. All these things we we can get so creative right now.

People are so compelled it's and there's no place to give money. I had one, uh, Senator, who's one of the more outspoken ones is pretty good at it? Murphy from Connecticut, I saw one PL, uh, pitch to give him money. And I said, no, I'm not giving you money.

Not until you tell me what you're gonna do with it. It has to sound something like this, something like, what I just said. Because I'm fed up with. Think with you, just like. Because they're pissing away our opportunity. We had four years to fix this. It's not really their fault fault.

It's our fault because we actually are the government here. We fell down because? Oddly enough, it's not for them to lead us. It's for us to lead them. Key. Okay, everybody! Thanks for listening! Talk to you later! Bye!