
Won't you help me?
understand
Take me home.
Take me home.
Take me home.
Take me home.
Tennessee.
Tennessee.
Tennessee.
Lord.
But anyway.
We're going to be joined by former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.
You'll be joining us any minute.
We're going to talk about why it's so important, you know, with with the Supreme Court election, you know, and, you know, I was watching the debate last night with Susan Crawford.
And who was that stiff that was on there with her, man?
Who was that stiff that?
Oh,
Brad Schimmel.
But anyway, the amazing thing is I listened to Brad Schimmel on conservative talk radio before he even appeared yesterday.
And I can tell you this and why it's so critically important.
You can listen to Earl Ingram today and listen to him tomorrow.
and listen to them 365 days from now, and you're going to get the same Earl Ingram.
I'm not going to change.
This is who I am.
And I think people should expect people to be who they are and not change as they're in different venues.
But Brad Schimmel on conservative talk radio yesterday,
was a guy who was doing nonstop conversation about, you know, Republicans and, and, you know, he was entertaining the dialogue, conservative talking points, nonstop kicking it.
And, okay.
And so this is kind of who I am, you know, I'm, I'm supporting, you got to understand, I'm going to support the conservative way.
all the way through.
That's who Brad Shimmel is.
He wasn't hiding any of that yesterday on conservative squad radio.
But what Brad Shimmel did do, as I listened to him on a debate last night, he changed who he was.
Man, he changed who he was.
Now he could fool, he could fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
He couldn't fool me because I heard him yesterday afternoon He was a different guy last night before the cameras He was a guy trying to sound reasonable He was a guy trying to sound like hey, I'm not with those conservative guys Okay, I'm gonna be fair and you're gonna be able to trust me Because I'm you know, I'm one of you.
Well, listen Brad
Shimmer.
Be the same person that you are all the time.
So, you know, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, I've known for a long time and I can tell you, it doesn't matter whether I see Mandela today or tomorrow or next week or next year, he's going to be the same guy.
He's going to be sitting the same thing and you know that's who he is.
Brad Schimel changed He changed Jess in in less than 10 hours.
He was on conservative talk radio and he was all in for everything that Donald Trump and the conservative movement You know is But then when he came on the debate stage last night He tried to get people to believe.
Oh, I'm not really with those guys.
Well
Good morning, former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes.
How you doing,
you know, some changes is certainly necessary, but we're looking at the short span of time.
We're talking about one day where he is on a debate.
And I know a lot of a lot of shapeshifters, a lot of people who do that, like dependent on the setting, they are a different person.
Now, that's that's the real problem.
It's like, there's zero consistency.
And then it's people and it's like, why should we trust them to make the decisions that impact our daily lives when they don't
even have their own act together?
You know, I mean, just be who you are.
And if that's not good enough, then so be it.
But he changed like a chameleon man in less than 10 hours.
He was portraying this image of somebody who's reasonable and that if you vote for me, you're going to get.
You know, they're a balanced person on the Supreme Court.
But that's not, you know, who he is.
Your thoughts,
I mean, he was the attorney general that stayed for four years.
I mean, you just have to look at his record during that four year span and know exactly who he is.
And also we got a.
Think about the fact that this person was appointed by Scott Walker to serve on Walker Shaw circuit course.
So making no mistake, Scott Walker is not, uh, was not appointed any moderates to any judicial position.
So let's, let's be real clear about how he got to the point that where he is.
Uh, but, you know, Susan Crawford certainly handled her own and called out, uh, a lot of his BS yesterday and I was very proud to see that.
Several weeks back.
I didn't know her at the time and when we had her on and we had a conversation You know, you don't you don't really get to know a person for the first time and you know, especially over the airways But last night she was very strong and she was determined and she and she refused to be bullied she refused to be misquoted and And man, that's kind of what you're looking for man, you know
I mean, I was really, I was really surprised and encouraged by her strength, you know, and not being bullied and not backing down.
You've, you've seen the tactics before.
You, you, you ran for the United States Senate and they use the same tactics on you that they're using on her.
And it's not a new playbook at all.
And we just saw it going overdrive during my camp.
Obviously very, you know, disgusting.
But the fact is, you know, Susan Crawford has a proven, proven record.
And this is the difference between a person who is comfortable.
in the work that they have done versus somebody who is trying to figure it out on a fly and decide who he wants to be at what point in time.
And it showed very clear in Susan Crawford's presentation versus Brad Schimmel's presentation.
There's there's been well over 60 million dollars.
This this is an all time record.
We know the last time.
uh, there was a state supreme court, uh, seat available record breaking number of dollars were spent.
And this time even more so, it does kind of show how important this seat is, right?
Well, it shows how important the CD is, but it also shows just what the gross influence of money and politics, what that has become.
I mean, there's no reason that these races should be this expensive.
There's no reason any race should be this expensive.
And the fact that you have the world's most wealthy individual, the richest man on the entire planet is put in his influence in this race the same way that he did with the presidential election.
You see how that's turned out for every day working.
people.
You see how it's turned out for people who went into a career of public service to do the public good, to make life a little better for the rest of us, being purged.
And I don't want that stink on our Supreme Court.
And effectively, that's what will happen.
Rashimal could deny it all he wants to, but there is a reason why Elon Musk is spending this sort of money.
He doesn't just
Spend money to spend money sometimes it looks foolish like when he bought Twitter, but now he has vast control over this large social media empire that has turned into a racist hellscape and now we see this Persian at the federal government the same way he did at Twitter trying to turn this country effectively into the same sort of territory and There shouldn't even be consideration
for allowing his influence on our court in Wisconsin.
It should be a non-starter for everybody.
I'm not willing to take that chance.
They can't, they can't point, they, they, they invoke this man's name, but have yet to say a single.
thing that they have an issue with.
We're talking about a bad, like it was family, you know, fled the Nazis, right?
Like this is a, this is not, this is, it's, it's, it's, it's very, it's not even hypocritical.
It's just disingenuous.
Hey man, he's against crime.
George Soros.
Come on, man.
You know, it, that works for some.
and hopefully people are tired of that same old playbook, right?
They shouldn't fall for it anymore.
855-752-4842, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.
I'm gonna stop saying former Lieutenant Governor.
What is your title now?
Turn around Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around Turn around
Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Well, I say we are never going to get to the people who support the mega candidates because I'm driving in areas where the mega areas are and there's nothing but bread, shimmer signs everywhere.
But hopefully the moderates and independence are going to start coming around.
and realizing what's going on, because we're never going to win over the Megas, never.
I remember I got a little bit of trouble in 2018 when I said, you know, if they voted for Donald Trump, we'll just have to find voters elsewhere.
I got in trouble for that.
But the fact is, we have seen a constant decline, one in black voter participation since the 2012 election.
There are folks across the state and more rural communities who have also stopped showing up as well.
And it's because people don't oftentimes see Democrats as a party that's going to fight for them.
And that is going to be, it has been disastrous for us.
It was disastrous in 2016, it was disastrous in 2024.
The reality is our biggest swing voter is the people who just don't
show up to vote, but could be otherwise convinced if they felt compelled to, based on the candidate, based on the messages, based on what they are hearing.
But unfortunately, it feels or even just through conversation, like whether it's casual conversation or reports from the doors from our organizers that power the polls, like.
people are constantly saying they want democrats to show up and fight before they are compelled to show up and vote and you look in congress right now where you know everybody i talk to
doesn't matter the age doesn't matter demographic doesn't matter where they from they are always asking well where are the Democrats in Congress right now I'm not there so I can't answer that question but what I can say like even if they're in and I do truly believe some people are working on something but
if the people aren't feeling it just like throughout the 2024 election cycle there was always talk about how well the economy was performing the best performing economy if the people aren't feeling it which they weren't because they were still paying higher prices and still getting paid the same amount they weren't feeling it so that economic message did not resonate with them instead of a plan to drive down costs which should have been
what we led with.
And it is the same way if people don't see or feel that Democrats are working for them, even if a whole lot of work is happening behind the scenes, it will not matter come elections.
So Mandela, I have to ask you, man, because I'm frustrated as a man who for 52 years has always voted Democrat, never voted Republican, never will.
I don't believe in the policies just straight up.
But.
But for people who say the Democrats didn't do anything for us and they haven't what did they think the Republicans have done for them and what are they doing for them right now look Farmers and people in rural America who supported Donald Trump.
He's kicking them in the teeth Republican policies are treating them worse than Democrats ever did So how is it possible then that those very people?
who keep saying the Democrats didn't do anything for us, in light of what the Republicans are doing to them and getting ready to do to them, there's going to come a time when they're going to be on their knees begging for relief from the very people that they supported.
This is actually happening.
And my thing has always been, look, there are a lot of people who went out and voted for Donald Trump because he thought, or because they thought that he was going to bring down the hammer on this community, on that community.
It was sort of a vote of aggression because we felt that.
You know, these people are getting too many rights.
This is happening.
This shouldn't be happening and not realizing how vulnerable they were to the wrath of this president.
And now they're feeling it.
Now they are a marginalized community themselves because they are out of work.
Because if I hear again.
You know, constantly about the Democrats didn't do this, the Democrats didn't do that.
And so you look at the state of Wisconsin.
It was almost all red Okay, and so the people he's not only going to hurt the people in urban America But they're getting ready to do major damage to the farmers Right his policies worse and they're gonna be wishing that Joe Biden was back Who who did things to augment and to support farmers?
Right you say what you will but but today
is a different day.
And, and, you know, you're a Democrat.
And, and so I agree that there's some things that Democrats need to do different.
But for heaven's sakes, voting Republican doesn't fix that, man.
It exists.
Yeah, 855-752-4842.
Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is my guest.
You can join us again, 855-752-4842 on the Earl Ingham Show.
752 4842 855 752 4842 Texas that same number my guess is former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes so Mandela as as you now kind of Left the political arena for now and and For the first time in Wow, how long man?
Not holding an office, not holding an office, for sure, for sure.
Well, remember I did have a little brief period between 2017 and 19, between the Assembly and Lieutenant Governor.
Right.
But, you know, and that's the thing too, I'm comfortable enough not being in an office.
And that's one thing that happens too often is there seems to be sometimes a dependency on the title.
And people feel as if they can't be active or be productive or be helpful, be a part of the conversation without that title, which is absolutely not true.
And having a chance right now to still work on the things that have been important to me for so long, whether it's the clean energy work, whether it's the democracy work, getting people out to vote, creating jobs.
the work I have a chance to do and be a part of, and it's exciting for me.
I get to work with the same partners in organized labor, get to work with the same partners, even in elected office all across the state.
And sometimes I'm not gonna lie, right?
You know, there are parts I certainly do miss, but, you know, I'd be lying if I said I was fully removed.
I'm still here and I'm gonna be active.
I'm gonna maintain a presence, especially as
this moment calls for like never before.
Well, so the reason I asked the question is you see congressmen and senators who've been there for 35, 40 years.
And that's who they are.
And so somewhere along the line, you have to lose yourself in that.
And the person that you were prior to being engaged.
your thoughts man on somebody being in, you know, public office, we hear people say it for 35, 40 years.
And then it almost appears as though they've got to hold on to it and sometimes maybe lose themselves in it or or forget why they're there in the first place.
It's not necessarily the time, right?
Like it is the.
effectiveness.
If a person has been in office, whether it's the same office or multiple offices over the span of time, if they're actually putting in the work, if they are actually getting things done, if they are actually showing up and maintaining a presence, I don't necessarily have a problem with that, right?
Like, and I do support term limits for sure.
I think there should be term limits, but
you know, as it stands, like, I'm not gonna say that a person who's been there for some time and is still effective just has to go based on the fact they haven't been there unless the return on this in place be all for it because I know some people.
who have been in office for very little amount of time and do nothing in the short time that they've had.
You don't hear from them on the most critical issues, like people who are freshly elected, who should have the best ideas, who should be the most emboldened and go out there and make us think about what's going on and have some sort of presence or pushback to what's going on.
And you don't see that.
I know a lot of inactive young elected officials,
is the most heartbreaking and depressing.
Good morning.
I just have to get this off my chest.
A long time ago, my mother told me that you have to be a little bit crazy in order to be a politician and a leader, such as the ones that are in charge of our country right now.
And I just got to put it out there.
They look a little nuts lately.
They look physically and mentally crazy.
to put my two cents
No, the ones that are in charge right now, they look mentally crazy.
and their policies don't jive with the average everyday person, right?
Okay, and so they don't have the courage to resist.
They see bad policies that's gonna impact and affect their own citizens, and they don't have the power or the strength to say no.
Hey, Don, thank you very much.
for the call.
Let's go to Mike from Kenosha.
Good morning to you, Mike.
You say what?
Hey guys, thanks for taking my call.
Good morning, Mr. Barnes.
Hey, you know, and I'm responding to the comment that the Democratic Party didn't do this and Democratic Party didn't do that.
I say yes to that.
Today's public, it seems, really knows how to cop out.
in that really own their part of what it takes to live in a free republic.
You know, it just seems to me that the power of the people, we don't understand it, we kind of lost it somewhere.
Look what happened in Van Ork or Van Orton, I think the district, when he wouldn't show up, when still hundreds and hundreds of people showed up
to the public facility for this representative who chose not to show up, but who did?
A true public servant, Mark Polkan and other.
If people organize, and there's enough people, lay people, demonstrating and voicing their opinions, leaders will come out of that group.
Leaders will find that group and begin
to join forces and come together.
But the first thing that has to happen, in my opinion, and please give me your opinion as well, is we the people have to stand up.
We have to say enough is enough.
And in all of a sudden, things get the momentum going so we can somehow separate the public servants from the self-servants during the primary.
part of the election process and not after their election.
What do you think about
for
the
Yeah.
If I could take both of those last calls, I'll take the most recent one.
And, you know, I don't want this to be a blanket statement when I say when people ask where the Democrats, because there are, you know, we do have people who are fighting.
And it also goes back to my previous point about, you know, people having been in office for a while, but are still showing up and doing the work.
And so for sure, this is this is certainly happening.
And when I say this, I mean, you know,
writ large, right?
Like there should have been zero people who voted for the, zero Democrats who voted for the censure of Al Green.
There should be more people who were showing up all across the country putting in the effort instead of saying, well, maybe I can try to work with him.
This isn't a time to try to work.
This is not a normal administration, as you know.
And your whole point about the people showing up,
is the most important part to remember.
And I've said this so many times before, it hasn't been the politicians, it's been the people that have led the way and led the sort of revolts against what we're dealing with right now.
100% agree with you on that.
And I hope that not only you stay in, but you get a handful more people that get involved, that also get a handful more people to get involved, because that's how we begin to change things.
In the park, the caller before who mentioned
the appearance of people.
It's like you can only lie to people for so long before it starts weighing on you and honestly having a physical impact on you as a person.
And these are people who are lying every day showing up defending some of the most brotesque actions in government that we have ever seen in our lifetime.
In fact, not some of them.
It is the most.
It is the worst.
I try to be cautious.
I'm still under 40.
So I try to be cautious when I say in our lifetimes, but the people I've talked to who are over twice my age say that this is the worst that they have ever seen.
So I have to take their word for it.
um, you think things are bad when George Bush was in there and they were going out to Iraq and stuff.
It makes it look like Sunday school.
Um, I wanted to mention the money in politics thing.
You guys are talking about a few minutes ago.
I ran for state assembly in oh eight.
And back then you could get public financing for a small percentage of your.
campaign if you decided not to take corporate money and I did that and I was with a few people and the people running the local Democratic Party the state party were really mad at me for doing that and I wouldn't take the big money and then of course with Act 10 and all that Walker threw it all away but if we had complete public financing of all elections and reasonable numbers this whole thing would just be so different but even the Dems don't want to do that.
We also had Healthy Wisconsin
you know, 08 that I ran on, that we were told by the Dems not to run on it, but the state Senate, which was Dem-controlled, had passed it.
It was made with caffeine by and out and urban Bach and a few other people and a bunch of labor people and university people, business people got together and figured out a plan.
Turns out it was way better than Obamacare.
It would have led families in a rural area like I live in, have $6,000 more a year to spend.
in town.
Well, if every family around here spent $6,000 more in town, can you imagine what that would do every year to the economy?
And also make people healthy.
And anyway, those are things the Democrats decided not to do.
The people decided not to do that are in charge of the Democratic.
Well, they're trying to chop the heck out
Oh, I'm not saying we're not going to vote Democratic if we have to, you know, if that's, but you're asking what the Democrats did wrong.
They gave up on the things that would have made a huge difference for the regular people.
And it's because they went corporate, you know, whatever.
Well,
Or also that the Democrats spent more time, they were more focused on urban America than they were on rural America.
And as a person who lives in urban America, I don't know where they got that from, because if you go through our neighborhoods and communities, I don't see where the Democrats have focused on our community.
Mandela, do you?
So what I'll say to that point is I've certainly heard it before, and I guess it goes back to the whole point is, you know, as a Democrat, as somebody who is going to continue to be one, whether I'm in office again or not, you know, if, you know, that's the way people are feeling.
If that is the response, then we should rethink strategy.
We have to, you know, figure out what our approach is to meet the needs of everybody across the state.
And it is not my first
All right.
Hold the phone.
855-752-4842.
Guys, hang on.
We'll come right to you.
All right, welcome back to the last few minutes of the Erlingham Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Texas, that same number, my guess, is former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.
Let's go right back to the phone lines.
Let's go to Tom from LA.
Good morning to you, Tom.
You say what?
Good morning.
First, thank you, Mandela, for showing up on civic media.
We need more people like you on here.
Second, we the people ultimately are the government, and we must never forget that.
And that's one thing I think Democrats do poorly, is they seem to talk down government.
We should be the party of good government.
We should be the person that's fighting back against all this negativity towards government.
I also think that we need to follow the playbook.
of the person that won three or elections, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
We have the playbook.
Why are we not following that playbook as Democrats?
I think you should run as an FDR Democrat.
I am a proud FDR Democrat myself because I went back and studied history.
But people should know who it was that brought us social security, unemployment, and the rest.
Also, ask this question to anybody.
In the past 15 years, what policy, what prescription have the Republicans put up or have passed for the average working American person?
morning.
Listen, I just wanted to comment.
A couple of people have talked about what the Democrats aren't doing.
I want to thank Governor Tim Walz for putting himself out there.
He's going to be in Des Moines, Iowa, and he's offered to go to any city to a town hall, Republican or Democrat, and talk to the people and not run off.
because as we've seen the notice has been put out by the RNC for these knuckleheads to stop going to these town halls and it's very important because it is where the people's voice is heard and he took it on his shoulders and he said look we made a mistake we didn't we obviously didn't message right
you know so you know and James has please please
Sparris, Linda McMahon, running the educational department.
You know, why don't we just put Trump's caddy in charge of some other department?
But anyway, but long story short, he's out there, he's doing it and he's talking.
Yeah, I guess I was a little confused online.
I didn't know Mandela was your guest because online I was seeing apparently an old show.
So I don't know if it's appropriate.
I wanted to say a few things about Ukraine.
Should I just go forth or wait another time?
Yes, I wanted to refer back to Tom from somewhere other than both times.
First of all,
Every time that votes have come up and people proposing to make public funding of politics and government, it's Democrats who support it.
Democrats vote for it every time they get out and they get beaten on that vote by the Republicans.
is busy about corporate, whatever, people have to do what they have to do to win an election at that point that's within the law and taking corporate donations sometimes is what they need to do.
The last second thing is referring to all this talk about, I think the talking heads and the press will get to sit on the sidelines and go tut, tut, tut all the time over to the Democrats.
It becomes their way of making a living, is find out what they can say about the Democrats because you know what, there's no secret handshake.
I'll bet you more than half of those people on the call in here complaining about the Democratic Party one way or another.
Never have worked a day for the Democrats to get elected or to get involved in shape policy.
The door is open.
There's no secret handshake.
Walk in or shut up.
If you have a complaint, the same thing I say to people who say they don't want to vote, if you have a complaint, that's all the more reason to show up to vote.
If you're frustrated with Democrats or you think they aren't doing enough, show up to a meeting.
work to influence the conversation.
And as they say, the cure for alien democracy is more democracy.
The more participation we have, the better off we all are.
It is easy to sit and complain about what the team is doing on the field.
But if you aren't out there in the game, it's hard to be very direct in that assessment.
It's easy enough for us all to get involved and find their multiple ways.
online, virtually, or in person, which is the most impactful.
Hello.
Okay, during going back to your earlier part of the show, oh, here I go again.
During Abraham Lincoln time, there were wigs and tories.
I was going to ask if you either of you guys
know what mid-dentories are, but they coined the phrase mugwomps.
And it just came to me while I was waiting that we are inundated with trumpwomps right now.
And I would say Brad Schummel, you know, we've had a time with him and it was a disaster.
man,
You know, man.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.