Jon Ossoff Has a Blunt Message for Cynics and Whiners

hey everybody it's tim miller from the bulwark i'm taping this on sunday night i'm back from a weekend wedding in lexington kentucky i've never been to lexington andy beshear country shout out to everybody for their warm hospitality in the bluegrass state uh shout out to my guys thompson jt on their nuptials and um you know on the way back so to re-engage with the news i'm on the internet and um there are a few videos that made me laugh and one thing that really was getting my dander up and so i wanted while i was feeling hot to come talk about it with y'all and then me and bill crystal can go over the rest of the news on the daily podcast on monday so before we get to the thing that gets my dander up i figured we'd have a little laugh uh i did enjoy this at a campaign event in ohio old vivek ramaswamy guy can knock it out of his way you know famously not that great with the big picture baseball swing not that butch not that mask and um at an event this weekend he tries to show off his muscles in a different way and well let's watch together there you go big guy oh that's a big boy that's a big boy uh i'm gonna pick you up oh oh too big too big for vivek to handle those little noodle arms um i say that with love as a fellow noodle armor it's pretty funny and less funny as you know the thousands of layoffs in springfield after we were kind of told that everything wrong happening in ohio was the fault of haitians that are eating their pets uh it turns out that the economic stewardship of the area with donald trump as president with republicans running everything in the state has resulted in massive layoffs and devastation and um it wasn't actually uh the boogeymen and women that they're putting in ankle bracelets that were the problem after all it was uh the leadership of the state and the failed leadership the failed mega leadership and vivek wants to continue it uh amy acton does not she was one of the races that i highlighted uh to go consider supporting so go check that out um we might watch it one more time at the end just for kicks uh okay here was the other video uh it's john awesome but he's doing an interview with a few years ago and he's doing a radio interview on a uh radio program i'm not that familiar with called frankly speaking with frank ski that's a cool name frank ski um and man he drops some really important real talk um and i guess before i without biasing you why don't we just watch it together the full clip of uh ossoff sharing with frank um a conversation a hard conversation he was having uh with students for the first time in a while and he was like hey i want to talk to you about something well on the campaign trail earlier this week i spoke to a group of young people yesterday and some of them told me that they were looking at the state of the country and the state of the world and they were feeling despair and i was very blunt with them that despair is an indulgence despair is a luxury that we can't afford and you know if folks think that this is hard that we've faced setbacks and reversals and that yeah progress is not continuous study what congressman lewis and they were going they faced setbacks they faced violence yeah you know he was beaten bloody in the course of marching for voting rights and and so we don't have the luxury of despair right now the president is out of control the economic situation in the country is out of control the world is on fire yeah and young people in georgia can play a pivotal role by voting in this midterm election yes yes yes yes that is exactly correct that is exactly correct we still have agency okay people can make a difference and i think that there are a lot of folks out there who rightly like are feeling frustrated are checked out are despairing and i think that as a leader it is critical for somebody that's running for senate maybe higher office after that um that he offers a vision for them about why it actually matters to engage that's what leaders are supposed to do that's what we want from people in a democracy we want people to um we want our politicians we want our leaders to be bucking people up to be stealing their spines not to be like depressing them not to be going doing trauma dumps together like that what can we do to make sure that we're not just like what good does that do i mean maybe it you know i i that is not that that is not something that is oriented towards action like for a politician to just be like yeah just wallow in your despair what i what that that's a that would be a horrible message okay it doesn't mean that that there aren't things that people are going through in their life that could cause legitimate despair of course what john also is talking about is this notion that you see a lot out there uh on social media in particular that the world is fucked that there's this group of oligarchs out there that control everything um that the country is irreparably broken that you know that really like this is we're in decline everything's are only right like you hear all of this it's a common train from people particularly on the left right now we should just say um and and that fatalism that nihilism this notion that well all we can do is kind of hold hands and help support each other through the inevitable death and despair and fascism in front of us like if that is something that you believe then you shouldn't be running for senate you sure shouldn't be running for president like the point of running for senate is to is to believe that you can make a difference it's to engage people it's to is to rally people and i can tell you it is not only just the right message it is just correct it's correct you can just look through history we have been to worse times than this we haven't had a worse president i don't think um but the structural challenges that people were dealing with i mean obviously like you slavery and you just go on and on throughout history there's so many times where the odds were stacked against people to a degree much larger than what we're having now and and people overcame you know i was just talking with my dad on the ride to the airport um about my grandpa in normandy and like how the odds were stacked against those young men um i like to the point where you know if it wasn't for a few breaks a few missteps for the germans and a kind of a rallying to the cause of the of the allies like who knows what kind of alternate universe we could be living in right now and and we were talking about my grandpa just the death of his friends and like how how you steal yourself at 20 years old to to go into the battlefield like this with civilization on the line i mean there are just so many examples of this throughout all of history so we are going through a very hard time it is possible that our democracy is irrevocably broken and that could be a fine thing for the analysts to say jbl writes very beautifully in the triad newsletter about kind of the potential for inexorable catastrophic decline that we're on and that's that's an appropriate part of the discussion that's analysis coming from a newsletter writer that is different that's a different role than a senator and somebody running for senate and yet so many people like on the internet were confused about this this weekend and got so mad i i posted the asaf video on my uh x account and i and i talked about how like this was probably the most interesting and best answer i've seen him given in interview settings he's usually very kind of on message um and and and i just you know i don't want to like get into like random fights with all these random people online but i'm telling you these are real people not bots i was getting a lot of response particularly from folks on the left who could have more in the dsa faction not entirely just talking about how never trumpers shouldn't be lecturing young democrats about their despair and and liberals want us uh don't want us to be mad or upset they just want us to shut up and clap like seals and and people saying that gen z won't re this message won't resonate with gen z it was i didn't maybe there were some gen z saying this i didn't see any i saw a lot of old guys saying this gen z hasn't seen any results gen z has no faith in anything um when somebody said that this felt like noblesse oblige coming from john ossoff i'm just like guys i i i just think that this whole attitude this whole fatalist attitude that it's like that that the gen z young men and women are not capable of recognizing that yeah they face some really tough challenges and yeah coming of age during the trump years has been a disaster and yeah home ownership is out of their hand and they're like a lot of these challenges but but also that the future is in their hands too, and they can act and make change. You know, the Gen Z co-host of my podcast, Cameron, he's a pretty cynical guy at times. He started March for Our Lives. He's out there working for Ro Khanna, trying to help make change. He and Ro Khanna are in the West Bank, trying to bring attention to and advocate for the people whose homes are being raided and who are being menaced by terrorist settlers. Like, there are plenty of Gen Zs that are stepping up to the moment. It's like this idea that like, oh, you know, oh, like, oh, you don't get it. You don't get it. Like, Gen Z just doesn't trust anybody. They've been let down so much by the Epstein class and the oligarchs. It's like, sure, sure, of course they have. Yeah, of course. People get let down. They're bad leaders. There's a ton of bad leadership happening right now. But, fuck, we can make, we can change it. What are we doing here if we can't change it? Like, honestly, if you don't think anything can be changed, if you don't think that there is any way for us to beat back this authoritarian threat, if you think that the only thing to do in this moment is to just sit around in despair and think about how the horrible hand that you've been dealt, well, then why are you even posting about politics at all? The whole point of politics is to try to organize people to make change. The whole point of what we're trying to do here is to organize people to help create as broad and as big of a coalition as possible to take down this authoritarian threat that we're facing. If you don't think that that change can come to pass, then, fuck it, just go get high. Like, go watch Bravo. I don't care. Like, go whatever. You know, go do anime. Go whatever it is you like. Go to the outdoors. Hang out. You know, be one with nature. Okay. Don't post about politics and tell John Ossoff that he should respect your despair more. Like, you don't think anything can change, so who cares? Go party. That's fine. That's, whatever. Like, that would at least be rational. It's like, fucking lecture people. I mean, like. Like, oh, no, you're wrong. You're wrong to think that, you know, despair is a luxury, right? Like, the despair is actually the right path. You're wrong to tell Gen Z that they should engage so they can make a difference in this election. They can't make a difference because the oligarchs and the power structures prevent change. Is that true? We've seen positive change. We've seen a lot of negative change lately. But those guys, the fucking bad guys, they believe that they can make change. They're running roughshod over the country right now. And we better push back hard and aggressive. And if you're not on board, if you don't think change can happen, then step aside for people that do. This message is brought to you by Talkspace. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy, bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatrists that you can access anytime, anywhere. And getting started is easy. You can sign up online and typically get paired with a licensed provider. Within 48 hours, you can take appointments from the privacy of your own home. And you can even text your therapist between sessions when there's something you need to talk through. I actually know firsthand how much therapy can help. When I was a kid, I had this very intense fear that whenever my parents traveled, something very bad would happen to them, whether it was a plane or a train, even a long car ride. It was bad. It wasn't a fear I could just reason myself out of. I was a kid. And seeing a therapist gave me a way to talk through that anxiety. It genuinely helped me get past something, that was really scary. There's one reason I appreciate how accessible Talkspace makes therapy. You don't have to rearrange your life around getting to an office. And most insured members have a $0 copay. As a listener to this podcast, you'll get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. That's S-P-A-C-E-8-0. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. I'm a big James Baldwin fan. I just, I think he's unbelievable. And there was something when I was watching Ossoff, I mean, nobody does it like James Baldwin. But I watched that clip and it reminded me of an interview I had watched with Baldwin in his later years. And this guy was so good in interviews. The stuff that he could pull off the cuff. I just have such professional jealousy, if nothing else. But he was doing an interview and this question of despair came up. And I kind of thought, I kind of remembered it, but I couldn't remember the exact phrase. And so I searched it and I found the video. And I want to play it for you guys. Are you still in despair about the world? I know that I've been in despair about the world. I'm enraged. Enraged, all right. But I don't think I'm in despair. I can't afford despair. I can't tell my nephew, my niece. You can't tell the children. There's no hope. I've been enraged by the world. It's the same thing. We can't afford despair. We can be enraged. We can channel that rage into action. And we should do that. And all of us who are complicit in getting us here in one way or the other should and all of the innocent young people that are worried about their future should. Because that's all we can do. That's what we have ahead of us right now. An opportunity to channel our rage into action in order to make a difference. And that's why I wake up every day and do this. And I think that's why I was moved by what John Ossoff said. And why I got frustrated that there's a lot of pushback from people that were like, no, you're out of touch. You're out of touch to think that a difference can happen. I'm sorry. I think that we can make things better for people. I'm sorry. I think that we can defeat these fucking clowns. And actually right now, I think we are. I think we are starting to see it. And so let's rather than nitpick each other and try to strip people of any agency and try to be so cynical that anytime someone offers a word of uplift or word of hope or word of action that you need to tear that down and describe all of the negative things that are happening in the world. We all know that there's negative things that are happening. Our eyes are open. We know that people are going through challenges. I'm sure some of you watching this right now are going through deep challenges and are living in deep despair. And we can honor that and respect that and appreciate it and also recognize that at the group level, mass despair gets us nothing. So. I appreciate what Jon Ossoff is out there doing. And you can tell I got a little hot right there. So let's watch Vivek drop the child one more time. There you go. Big guy. All right, everybody. We'll see you on the podcast with Bill Kristol. Appreciate you guys. Subscribe to the feed. Tell your friends. We'll see you soon.