TEASER: Zerlina Maxwell: Republicans Know Dems Suck At Messaging to Black People
The New Abnormal with Molly Jong-Fast & Rick Wilson- 713 views
- 21 Dec 2020
Political pundit and author Zerlina Maxwell was booed and hissed at during a Politicon a few years ago (which is “a Comic Con for political nerds”) because she said that if Bernie Sanders ran in 2020, which he did, he’d have to improve his messaging toward communities of color. Fast forward to this year and Maxwell has a book out on the subject and stands by her statement. “It seems like I was psychic or something, but really I was just saying a thing that seemed to be an obvious point that somebody needed to say, and I think Republicans understand this,” she tells Molly Jong-Fast in this bonus members-only episode of The New Abnormal. “That's one of the reasons why they try to suppress voters of color and they try to pack power in, in the court system. You know, they understand the demographic shifts in a way that I feel like Democrats needed to.” What does she think of Biden’s cabinet? Molly points out that some have criticized the president-elect for not enlisting more Black women. But Maxwell is OK with his choices, despite the bar being incredibly low thanks to Donald Trump. (“I mean, we're already doing a lot better than we were just a couple of weeks ago.”) Speaking of Trump, Maxwell shares the one thing she can’t quite wrap her head around: “I look around and I can't believe that there's 70 plus million people who are getting duped by somebody who's not intelligent,” she says, both in general and with the coronavirus messaging. “We lie to ourselves when we say that we are exceptional in particular ways in which we are proving to ourselves in this last year, we are not,” she adds. “Like, if you asked Americans to do something mildly inconvenient, uh, to protect their neighbor, they're going to sue them.” Plus! Jong-Fast asks Maxwell what white feminists can do to be more intersectional, and frankly, better to Black women and causes. To start, she says, aboriton isn’t the only cause feminists should focus on: “They need to really lean in to the fact that racism is a problem they need to care about too.”Want more? Become a Beast Inside member to enjoy a limited-run series of bonus interviews from The New Abnormal. Guests include Cory Booker, Jim Acosta, and more. Head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com to join now.
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When you're about to hear is a teaser for our new bonus episodes, we're doing it for subscribers to Beest Inside The Daily Beast membership program. We have a very special guest with Zerlina Maxwell, who's the host of The Zerlina Show on Peacocke TV. She's also the co-host of Signal Boost on Sirius XM and the author of The End of White Politics. Again, this is for Beast Inside Members, only to hear this, along with the rest of our upcoming bonus episodes at the new abnormal DOT, The Daily Beast dot com.
That's new abnormal dot, the Daily Beast dot com.
First, let's talk about the end of world politics, because, you know, just tell our listeners a little bit about that book and why you decided to write it.
Well, it's so funny to sit here now and think about why I decided to write the end of my politics, because I didn't anticipate that some of the things I was talking about in the book would happen so quickly. Yeah, but if I could take you back to Politico, in which I'm not sure if you've been to political.
I've never been, but I've heard a little bit of a hot mess. It's sort of like if you it's like Comic-Con for political nerds on cable news.
It's very much Dennis Rodman in culture in the same room. James Carville's over there. You're like, why that? And so I went to the court and I was on a panel which was like, what now? Liberals. And it was in twenty eighteen before the midterms, before the Miller report came out, all of that. And it was like, you know, progressives who supported Bernie, a couple Hillary folks. Markos Moulitsas was on the panel like it was a it was a good cross-section of people on the left sort of unpacking why we lost in 2016.
Yeah, but it turned into a complete dumpster fire when I made the point to one of the Bernie Sanders supporters that if he were to run again in twenty twenty, what she did, he was going to need to improve his messaging towards communities of color, specifically how he engages black women because black women are the base of the Democratic Party and you can't win without us. And I made that point, which now it seems like. Yeah, everybody went after what we just watch.
But that I guess it was something they didn't want to hear. So I got booed as it was a little it was a little dramatic. Right. And I realized I mean, it was it was luck. Write the book editor. Christian Trappin was in the audience from Hachette. She was like, you should write this book. This this is a book. You have something to say about the left, what just happened? There's a lot there.
And so I really just took that back sort of moment and used it as, I don't know, a jumping off point to just sort of speak to my people on the left and really get them to understand that the demographics in America are shifting towards a reality where white voters are going to be a minority of the electorate. And that's not true yet. But in a lot of places, because of the pluralities and in some cases like in Texas, the majorities that people of color and the coalitions they can create, they can win elections.
In hindsight, I was on to something. Oh, yeah. Because we just witnessed the 20, 20 elections where I didn't anticipate we were going to flip Georgia so quickly. I knew that was possible. I talk about Stacey Abrams and her playbook that she ran in her gubernatorial race by engaging all different swaths of the electorate and going directly to voters of color and talking specifically about identity and policy solutions for those communities, understanding that race is a factor and gender is a factor.
And I just think that now it seems like I was psychic or something.
But really, I was just saying it's not just a sewing machine for Maya. It's a chance to give her family a better life. It's not just a way to make a living. It's a chance to give her daughter an education. Like thousands of mothers, Maya lives in fear of what the future holds for her little girl. And it's not just this Christmas. Your love can make all the difference. There's a true 1854 made for ways to cook until love conquers fear.