Navigating Identity Politics in Today's America

Project 2025 aims to consolidate power in the executive branch by dismantling government departments and replacing career civil servants with loyalists. Anti-trans legislation across states potentially constitutes a conspiracy to violate civil rights.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Project 2025 and Executive Power Grab
• 4:00 Constitutional Rights and Anti-Trans Legislation
• 5:44 Conflicted Support for Kamala Harris
• 9:14 Trans Representation and Election Concerns
• 13:01 Abortion Rights and Voter Turnout
• 16:08 Palestine Issues and Campaign Communication

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

government put in loyalists to Trump only and ripped down any department that is considered woke, like the education, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 0:12

I mean, yeah, I mean but we as reason is there, I don't know. Yeah, well, no, I mean, look, it is a crazy ass plan to to, yes, but advocating for removal of a government agency or service. You know, nothing is inherently wrong about that, necessarily. People have opposed the Department of Education from day one of legislation and executive action. Legislation can change that. You can't universally just get rid of it because it's authorized by Congress. You would have to take over Congress. It'd have to be an act of Congress to eliminate whatever wants. Now, certain departments are in the US Constitution. You can't get rid of the State Department. You can't get rid of the Justice Department. You can't get rid of the Treasury.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Those are all constitutional departments within you have three branches of government, separate for the powers to be, so Project 2025 is not attacking those three powers.

Speaker 2: 1:17

No, it is an attempt to secure most of the power in the executive branch by getting rid of certain departments and then making them operate under the authority of the executive office of the president. So it is transferring it from, which is a combination legislative and executive function, because legislature creates it. The executives are the ones who get to appoint the appointees, but most of them are all civil service anyway. You don't have a loyalty to a president or a party. When you get your job, you get it because you're a citizen and you get to keep it. You know it doesn't get changed out with the change of every administration. It doesn't get changed out with the change of every administration. Could you imagine the government trying to operate where, every single time there's a change of administration, everyone is fired and new people have to get hired? How would you have continuity of government or programs? It just doesn't exist. So what they're advocating for is basically the total destruction of the government of the United States and placing it all in the hands of the executive, which is a horrible, horrible thing to do.

Speaker 2: 2:31

There are aspects of Project 2025 which I think you could consider to be a conspiracy to violate individual civil rights.

Speaker 2: 2:39

I personally think that a lot of these anti-trans bills that are being put together, advocated for by these national organizations and hate groups, and being money being funneled to state legislators to bring this up and pass it, that that is the actual conspiracy to violate the civil rights of individuals because they're seeking to use the power of government to take away our ability to exist as humans, and that, to me, is, you know, a violation of our civil rights and you know them engaging in that conspiracy. Now, whether I'm going to get anybody who wants to jump on the board and, you know, take on the legislature of Georgia for their actions and taking away the access to the same thing that they did to African Americans in trying to, you know, take away their voting rights and prohibit them from being able to vote, taking away their schools, those you know organizing to take those things away from people is wrong and illegal, and I think it's the same when they do it to go after the LGBTQ plus community. Yeah, yeah, to go after the LGBTQ plus community.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I heard, I think, this morning, that there is I forget who it was Someone's advocating basically some old law, basically in constitution, that because Kamala Harris is black, that she's technically not even allowed to be voted for as well because she's technically not a person. I mean the level that they're already going to and we're only in like what, a month and a half since the analysis.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Well, if you, if you go to the original constitution, and blacks were considered three quarters, I believe, of a voter, or four fifths, they were not given a full personhood for purposes of census and things like that. But that's just absolute bullcrap, because we've had the Constitution since then? Yeah, but it's normal that they're thinking it yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Yeah, because here's the thing, like I'm conflicted about Kamala sometimes with some of it, because of the whole. It's not that she was a cop, but she was a cop to a degree and there's a lot of things that were problematic with what, you know, affected a lot of community members. And looking at it in the way that she is just being hammered hammered it's it's when you see her in the tan suit, in the same way that obama wore the tan suit like I'm conflicted, like I'm excited to vote for her, but I'm also, like, still scared at the same time because of there's the whole cop city things that are popping up. There's a lot of different things that really directly affect trans people like they really do. Trans folks, unfortunately, are in the system at a higher rate than most communities and it's really unfortunate that there's that history for her.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Because, at the same time, I'm also like looking at it and going, oh my God, like I feel like Disney magic, like hope in my heart, like you know, seeing the DNC and and seeing you know there was even like mayor John Erickson there was from West Hollywood. I saw him posting and he was like right there. I think he even got an interview with I forget what major network, but there was a lot of beautiful moments that happened in that. But at the same time, there was like a really great streamer. Well, I wouldn't say great, sometimes he's a little problematic, but he was. He had a, I think, like 90,000 folks on his stream and because he was talking about Palestine, they like pulled them out of the building.

Speaker 1: 6:43

So there's like a lot of different things that are happening simultaneously and I know she can't fix it all at once and I know that we as community members also want to put our hope in. But I I still fear because there wasn't even a drop of trans representation, at least in her party, that we're Almost like. Well, we got the trans vote because they know that if they vote for Trump, it's you know. Well, everything's gone. And that's how I feel because Kamala still has my vote. But I just wish that my vote was more considered, in a way that we're looking at the multiple genocides that are happening throughout the world and even people directly in this country legislatively.

Speaker 1: 7:28

I mean, as a trans person, I've got abortion rights that I'm fighting for and also trans stuff. So as a trans guy, I feel like I'm getting hit in both angles and nobody's even really platforming trans men at all or having those conversations. That's also why I wore a pussy boy, because I just wanted to make sure that that was known that I'm a trans guy, if anybody's watching this and has forgotten. But it's so many nuances that are happening at once and I'm still so hopeful. But it's like this, like I don't know. You know what I mean well to me.

Speaker 2: 8:00

The way I look at it is is is there is no other choice. Do I? Do I what she's going to do? I have a very good idea of what she's going to do in relationship to trans rights. You've got to remember, governor Walz sponsored and supported and signed into law this sanctuary provisions in Minnesota law to protect trans people who would come to Minnesota from another state that was seeking to persecute them, and he has a very, very good understanding of trans issues, from what I understand, and so he is going to be an advocate for us, and I know that President Harris has been at times an advocate for the trans community and at times, as attorney general, she acted against it, you know, and seeking to prohibit medical care for trans prisoners, but again that was.

Speaker 2: 9:01

That was a lengthy period of time ago and that was the standard prevailing idea under the law in a lot of circumstances for that, and we did hire her to enforce the law in the state of California. But she also acknowledges that that was a mistake and that she would not go that route again. I mean, so she has learned as she's gone along, which is something you can't say about Trump.

Speaker 1: 9:29

He's still doubling down on the same damn ass shit. I mean it's just in the back of my mind. She has my vote. I mean I even made merch for her as well, in support for her, because as a trans person, there's so much going on legislatively, but it's also, I mean, it's under their administration. I also realize she doesn't have the same amount of power because she's VP and there's a lot of technicalities there, challenges that the Harris campaign is going to have to face when it comes to day one in office, which I think we're all going to push over the line and get her there. I think that is going to happen.

Speaker 1: 10:15

I'm, I'm manifesting, I'm hoping, I'm praying for it honestly, because I I you know, I'm really worried about the other outcome because the other outcome feels like death to me, like I don't know if you've seen the movie V for Vendetta, but I was just like oh my God.

Speaker 1: 10:29

Okay, well, you know we're going to put roses in the windowsill. It's over, it's done. You know like they're just going to come knocking on our doors and when Harris was announced, I got to tell you that that was lifted off my shoulders. As a trans person with, as problematic as she has been in certain areas because she also has been as a woman, been pushed and even as a Black woman, has been pushed in ways to excel, like you said, far beyond most people that have ever applied to do the job as president, which is always that whole glass ceiling. Well, it could even be a glass cliff right now because it got a lot going on economically as a country, but it's that that whole thick glass that she has broken through.

Speaker 1: 11:17

I do acknowledge that work that she's put in and it is amazing to see a woman of her stature push through what she has and and and and become president, because that's something that you know again, trans guy born with a vagina. I like to say that sometimes in the episodes, um, it's kind of cool to see that there's going to be a vagina in the office and I don't care if that's weird to say I'm excited for that. Um, and and I know that there's a lot of ideology politics where people are saying, well, you can't pick her because she's a woman, you can't do this because she's that. I would pick her because she's a woman, because women are asked to do twice, if not three times, as much to get qualified for jobs, and I'm sure you can show me how I experience misogyny in a different way now, because you, you you're like, oh shit, this is this sucks um, and she survived that, in the same way that hillary clinton is super problematic in more ways even.

Speaker 1: 12:19

But you can still kind of respect like her business swag, like her game, that she as a woman made it through really toxic stuff, um, politically. And I I don't know. I'm really excited for harris because those kind of b for vendetta dreams have kind of lifted a little bit. I don't feel like we're going to get like knocked on the door and like ripped out of the room, um, but I just I just hope to see more like visibility for us in some shape or form.

Speaker 2: 12:49

And I think a lot of what the convention was for was not to reassure the base, because I think the base is fairly reassured. The purpose and what the focus of a lot of the convention was was to independents and Republicans who are tired of the MAGA movement and Republicans who are maybe vocally pro-life but in reality are pro-choice, and I know there are a number of them out there. I think a lot of Republicans you know they would be vocal, you know pro-life, knowing that there was the backdrop of Roe to protect them so they could have that opinion and be part of the group. But I think, as we've seen with the elections in Kansas, with the election in Ohio, when you put abortion access on the ballot it wins and that is going to bring over some additional voters. And we have, I believe, somewhere around 14, 15 states that have constitutional amendments to protect abortion access on their ballots.

Speaker 2: 14:03

This fall. That is going to be a big motivating factor in getting turnout out. The pro-abortion I don't want to say pro-abortion but the people who respect bodily autonomy and the right to reproductive freedom are going to be coming out in force, because this is a big issue. Nobody wants to see a 12-year-old girl be forced to carry her bastard son-brother. You know, it just is.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Or a trans guy as well, or a trans man. Again. I don't know if you've seen some of the other episodes, but I have experienced assault. I was drugged in a bar and I needed that medication in order to Protect yourself from.

Speaker 1: 14:54

Protect myself because I was not gonna, you know, do that to myself, especially as a trans man. Um, and that's what has really caused me to even become much more politically active is because this combination of abortion rights and trans rights as a trans man, I'm like, oh my, it's coming at me at both sides and I don't have anybody really representing or talking about it in a way that is getting on CNN and having these conversations and how it's affecting folks. Even so, much of how we're talking about the Amani Khalif situation and the boxing situation. There's so much conversation to be had about what's going on with misogyny within so many different layers in mainstream community. Yeah, there's, there's so many.

Speaker 2: 15:41

There's so many ways that we could, paths that we could go down, and talking about how this is is such a problem, but it's. I think that the focus now of the Harris campaign is to give reassurance that we are going to have. I will tell you that.

Speaker 1: 16:03

They've got to get better on that communication. I mean, I know she said it's like and really you know what I mean Because I understand I don't really understand. To be honest, I'm I still learning a lot about palestine and gaza because I have focused a lot on trans rights and los angeles and that's pretty much where I focus my activism. Um, so I haven't commented too much on it, but the way that I think there was like a delegate there that was a Palestinian Democrat, like lifelong Democrat, that they didn't have them speak but they had Republicans who were like super problematic and have said some horrible stuff campaign, navigate that better. Because from what I'm seeing on tiktok and I'm just speaking from what I'm seeing because I can see it and say it it's it's not looking good in a lot of ways, even though we're gonna get over that vote. Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 1: 17:05

There I just got so much trauma with 2016 that I would really hope that the harris campaign finds not just using the Brat Summer stuff, which is really cute and it's funny. Some of the stuff that I cannot believe is posting from an official account is so genius. Whoever is doing that. I end up watching it on TikTok like four or five times, just going like I can't believe this is the Kamala Harris HQ campaign, promoting like campaign, like promoting this tiktok sound, and it is freaking hilarious. Like when I saw, like very, very mindful, I was like, oh my god, this is it's, it's genius.

Speaker 2: 17:42

But I just hope there's more substance behind it, because yeah, well, what I would like to see is biden, negotiate, uh, some type of agreement between these folks and you know in this if we can, but that's such an extremely difficult thing to do because you have two sides that are not willing to yeah and it's like so what side do you jump in? How do you jump in?

Speaker 1: 18:10

not jump in. I've seen some of the videos on TikTok of what is going on and like kids being decapitated and stuff, and it's like I'm not the only one seeing that.

Speaker 2: 18:20

A lot of america no, and it's and it's, and it's not a a good thing and uh, hopefully, you know, something will break that will break that, that deadlock where they're not able to talk to each other and at least come to some, uh, reasonable solution so they stop shooting each other for at least for a little bit, you know, and give them time to talk. But uh, that's a tough thing to do and it's and it's, it's a tough thing to say.

Speaker 1: 18:47

You know that it's the responsibility of the president and I know we're not gonna figure it out on the show right now, like yeah, you know what mean. And I don't expect that, but it's just that's but it's an issue that's out there, but again, what I was saying is what they're trying to focus on is that middle American.

Speaker 2: 19:03

They're trying to get those Republicans to be comfortable with either not voting or maybe actually voting for a Democrat for the first time because it's it's because Kamala is not somebody who is is particularly scary. She's got the background. You know, and and it's just so funny, you know seeing, you know the fact that you know, yes, we had presidents that came on and we had Bill Clinton. No, he has a background of having issues. We had that came out and we had Bill Clinton. He has a background of having issues, but at least we had them show up.

Speaker 2: 19:37

I mean, nobody at the Bush wasn't at the Republican convention.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Listen. I'm just saying what I'm seeing on TikTok from the younger generation and what they're seeing and saying and they make.

Speaker 2: 19:51

That's the issue that they're seeing, and do they somehow think that trump's going to be the the one to do that, because he's going to go in and just okay, the obliteration.

Speaker 1: 20:02

I think it's just everybody's just like what the hell is this? And we've lost hope. And that's kind of like what it really looks like is. It's there's so many things simultaneously going on right now, like just historic events, even in weather. There's tornadoes and things popping up and billionaires, you know every year getting sacrificed to another boat thing. It's like there's so much going on in the world and I think it's also probably social media. We're constantly streaming. We're much more aware of it. There's so much more factors to it, because as a millennial I remember it's less stressful.

Speaker 2: 20:38

We're more easily manipulated because we we get repetitive things and and and, so we start seeing that and that's what becomes the reality, and uh, you know, god, I don't want to live in the world of idiocracy.