Transcript
Celebrating Public Schools Week with Mike Johnson (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Wed Feb 26, 2025
Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.
and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Albaugh, along with an outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.
It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is.
There you go.
The camel has made it.
Zommers, we have made it halfway through another week.
How about that?
Last week of February.
All right.
Last week.
Last week, March is right around the corner.
So spring not too far was feeling very spring like here in downtown Madison, cloudy skies right now, temperatures around the state of Wisconsin, though, could be pertner near 50 degrees, maybe over it still.
T-shirt weather, right?
I am my Packers polo shirt on today.
Might get a little talk in, by the way, with our main guest this hour, as he always does, every Wednesday afternoon comes on.
Talks politics, but always likes to talk little packers.
You know, because he's a packer owner and there are rumors now Here is the deal the packers are hosting the draft big hoopla as well There should be and rumors now as the bright lights are on Green Bay That they may be traded what trading away their number one draft pick
I mean talk about I mean shouldn't the owners have a say on this shouldn't the owners have some kind of we'll ask one of the owners here in just a minute
I
Wait a minute, who are they thinking about trading for?
We'll ask the owner in just a second also later on in this in this half hour He is the superintendent of Eau Claire public schools Mike Johnson is gonna be on the program talking about our great public schools as it is
public school week, looking forward to that.
Also in hour number two of what's worse edition today and at the bottom of hour number two, very happy to be having as our guest, brand new state Senator Sarah Kayeski of South Central and Southwest Wisconsin.
Senator Kayeski is going to be in talking about the right to repair bill of which she is a co-author.
Shouldn't it just make sense that.
If you own something that you should be allowed to work on it, she'll be in to explain why that is not always the case and her legislation would give Wisconsinites the ability to do so.
Pat Crightlow is on kind of a work, he says, work vacation.
I feel like he's back down in the Bahamas, but we'll find out next week.
But who is here?
Our old friend, ongoing contributor, former Republican like myself, River Falls Boy, and now a senior advisor at the Lincoln Project joining us from our nation's capital, Trig V. Olsen, and a Green Bay Packer owner.
How you doing, Trig?
Todd,
I
do
Crosby, Miles
No, I don't think so.
I'm all for it.
I don't know.
We'll have to ask Mike Clemens at some point.
I don't know that.
I don't think they're telling who they're potentially doing it, but things are leaking at Lambeau Field.
It's
That
the fun out of it, Trigme.
Here we are in Green Bay.
No, it doesn't.
They get to announce it and then they say,
And the Green Bay Packers, with their number one overall pick, trade it to blank.
to cheer for
All right.
We'll talk more
by the way, Tony and Zimmerman.
If
All right, we'll see.
Tony has never been watching on Facebook says Miles Garrett would be huge huge
Garrett was the defensive player of the year last year, Tony says.
So there you go.
All right, we'll see.
We'll talk a little bit about Packers later on this hour, but right now, Trigvie, let's turn, by the way, I know it was late, I know it was late, but it's public education week, and Mike Johnson's been on the program before, and so I texted Trigvie yesterday, I said, could you reach out to your buddy, Mike Johnson, as he'd come on the show, and Trigvie was kind enough to take
10 seconds to text me and says, I'm a very important person, but here's- No, no, no.
Why don't you reach out?
I wasn't playing
I know.
You're looking at the fears of
I won't say who, but you're having dinner with very important people.
I've said this before, you're two lovely daughters.
You're two lovely daughters.
You know, first and foremost, it's like that old Steve Martin.
If I only had one wish at Christmas, it'd be for world peace.
If I only had one wish for your daughters, Trigby would be for the fatherly love that you show them.
If I had two wishes, if I had two wishes, it would be that they inherit your roll the decks because when Trigby's roll the decks, those girls could get a lot done.
Anyway, Mike Johnson was so kind.
So we're going to have him on at the bottom of the hour talking about public education and what they're doing.
They're in the Eau Claire public school system, which is is fantastic, by the way.
But it is
He
Don't we all those those my mom told me like
My mom told me that would
My mom.
OK,
Are you are you are you like going to the gym before these appearances now and hyping up on protein drinks or way or
on?
Yes, you do.
All right.
Let's get into the news of the day Things ain't good trig me and master if you noticed out there the belt way things things are not good and a couple of things that in all seriousness that I think is a troubling turning point as one of the CNN people put yesterday in the White House now and for those people that don't know
When you see on the evening news, you read the paper or whatever about what the president doesn't matter who they are, what the president did that day, there are what tricky?
I mean, well over a hundred different news organizations that have a White House correspondent.
Well, you can't fit all those people into the Oval Office.
They can't always fly on Air Force One to every appearance.
And so it was called a press pool.
And since 1913, 1914, the Nonpartisan White House Correspondence Association has organized that pool.
And they divide it up and they rotate it.
And the deal is that whoever is with the president at whatever event, then they share that video, that audio, that reporting with all of the White House correspondents.
They're free to put their take on it, but they all have access to the same basic information.
That changed yesterday when the White House announced that they were going to start controlling the press pool now, not the White House Correspondents Association, but the Trump administration, the Trump White House, and that they were going to not just exclude people like on the Associated Press, but also now Reuters is being thrown out, and that they're going to only allow places like Newsmax, The Blaze,
Um, you know these these right wing places to cover the president and In this article and in CNN says perhaps most telling the Huffington Post Was taken out of its planned Wednesday spot as the print pooler and replaced by Axios Huffington Post reporter SV is it daddy or I'm not sure how to pronounce last name has been a thorn in Trump's side for years and Trump bristled
at his questions the last time he was in the pool.
Trigvie, as you so often ask us, I think this is a good time for our listeners to ask themselves, regardless of who they voted for, if someone else, if Kamala Harris had won and she banned Fox News, how would you feel?
I mean, that's the question we all have to be asking ourselves.
And it's a dangerous, it's a dangerous thing.
I mean, part of living in a free society is the notion that politicians, particularly the president of the United States, have people who are asking hard questions and holding them accountable.
And what they're trying to do here is basically let Pravda cover the administration.
And to your point, Todd, which is what I make often, if
Kamala Harris Kamala Harris had won and said we're only going to allow MSNBC to cover us That would be wrong and all the media organizations should stand up and there is precedent there have been other administrations that have tried this both Republican and Democrat and in fact the last time Trump tried to do this Fox News was one of the organizations that protested they all protested by not coming to cover
Um, that isn't happening this time.
And I think it tells you it it begs the question and I would ask this if Harris were doing the same thing.
What are they trying to hide?
Yeah.
Why
I, I, I totally agree with that.
And, and in fact, in fact, uh, I don't, I'm looking for the name right now.
I don't have in front of me.
Whoever the, uh, White House correspondent is for Fox right now.
I think it was a woman.
And I believe she actually did say this was not good for the long term because you're opening up the door for the other side, quote unquote, to do the same thing should a Democrat get back in the White House.
So even the Fox News reporters are saying this is this is not what you want
Right.
And there will be people on the right who will be doing what about what about what about.
just as there are people on the left who do, what about, what about, what about?
If your side is doing it and it's wrong, you think it would be wrong if the other side is doing it, you need to call out and say, it's a real simple test that you can use for if what the other side is doing is
either a country that have people that have faith in one another or we're a country that lives in fear of each other.
And people in Wisconsin and most people don't live that way with the people they encounter on a daily basis in places like River Falls or Richland Center or Beaver Dam or wherever.
You're not afraid of your neighbors.
You have to understand, but it's easy to vilify people who you don't know.
And we've got to get a lot better at having empathy and understanding.
Also,
I spend
I want to get back to that, by the way.
Also overnight, Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Washington Post, made a major change.
Bezos sending an email to staffers at the Washington Post saying quote we are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars personal liberties and free markets That's it That's all and he offered David Shipley the longtime editorial director at the Washington Post the opportunity to stay on but he told Shipley you either have to say hell yes Or else no Shipley today
walked away from Washington Post.
If this isn't state-run media, I'm not sure what is, but we will ask Trigley Olson on the other side about that as someone who has fought against state-run media and who is banned from Russia by Putin himself.
Stay with us.
It's The All Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready
When Trigby Olsen just you know put on a pair of skates and hit people on the ice up there at River Falls And you know we went home and watched Dan rather Walter Cronkite on TV and and the big controversy right low And the big controversy was you know did Reagan and Tip O'Neill You know put a jab at each other, but then they sat down had a drink and everything was fine Those were the 1980s Trigby, but that is not what we're living
I
to
21 out minutes now past the hour of 12 noon on February 26.
Trigby Olson, senior advisor at the Lincoln Project is with us now coming up at the bottom of the hour.
Mike Johnson will be along with us talking about public education.
We cannot wait for that.
But Trigby, before we do that, I want to finish up here a couple of things that I find particularly disturbing that you've had experience with all over the world.
The first of which
and the Washington Post last night and into this morning.
Now owner, multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, announcing, giving longtime political editor at the post, an ultimatum saying that the post is going to now only focus their opinion page will only focus on two things, personal liberties and free markets.
And giving chip lead ultimatum saying you either have to say hell yes and stay.
or else it has to be a no.
And Shipley said, no, I'm not going to be told as editorial opinion editor that I could only write about it.
My editors could only write about two things.
So he is leaving.
And finally, before I let you speak in the CNN story today saying that New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker
did not take the actions yesterday of having Trump now decide the press pool lightly.
This is what Peter Baker said, quote, having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure the only compliant journalists were given access.
Unquote travi you've been banned by russia by putin himself you have fought for democracy and against autocracies in eastern europe am i over inflating this am i over making too big of a deal Out of bezos comments what's happening in the white house saying that we are pairlessly pairlessly close To having state-run media in this country
Well, I would say and I know peter from back in the day when I was doing stuff in that part of the world I would
you know, Peter's words are spot on.
It is not dissimilar to what's happened in a lot of places, Hungary and where other places.
And what happens here is allies, rich allies of oligarchs in some cases buy up the media and then they make the media compliant.
It's one of the dangers of having media owned by
you know, non-independent sources.
And I think, you know, Jeff Bezos and these guys, you know, I was talking to somebody who comes from that world recently, who's super smart about it, was in that category of people, and they said, listen, what you have to understand is Bezos, Elon, all these guys, what it's really about is the future of AI and who's gonna control it.
Jeff Bezos wants to control it.
Elon Musk wants to control it.
Mark Zuckerberg wants to control it.
They all have competing systems.
Obviously, Sam Altman and Chad GPT are out in the front.
You've got all these players, and it's the danger of having somebody who's as transactional as Donald Trump, where it's all for sale.
And so Jeff Bezos is trying to protect his own interests because he doesn't want somebody to come along.
and take what he has.
And that's what I mean by fear.
Even if you're Jeff Bezos, the world's second richest man, you live in fear of the world's richest man being able to come and take your stuff.
And does anybody think that Elon Musk wouldn't come and take other people's stuff?
He'd take your house.
It had value to him.
Brendan ran in most people's houses in Wisconsin wouldn't be something he'd be interested in but
but I want to get back to that in second trick me but Brendan watching on YouTube asks The Associated Press is being kicked out.
Yes, Brendan The in fact the Supreme Court has now upheld that to date although that case is still pending that Donald Trump Is is not allowing the Associated Press to cover him the reporters not allowed to
The Supreme Court thus far has upheld that and and also yesterday from the Pentagon, one of the Pentagon spokespeople tweeted out against the reporter saying, well, that may be this is paraphrasing now, but basically that may teach them a lesson.
This is the Trump administration saying the only people we are going to allow to cover us are things, people that and organizations that say good things about us and don't ask the president tough questions.
And to your point, Trigvie, I want to come back to this.
Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk might not want any of our houses, most houses in Wisconsin.
What they do want is our political power.
And that's why Elon Musk now is approaching a million dollars in dark money spending on our state Supreme Court race.
And, you know, I mean.
I'm a pretty conservative guy, but the reality is you have a class of people.
And I think, you know, most people, I guess, most listeners have probably never met anybody in that net worth category.
You know, through what I do, gotten to know a fair amount of them and interact with some of them.
And in fact, some of them I consider my friends.
I'm not in that net worth category.
But you have to understand, they have a very different
understanding and perspective on the world.
In fact, people should read Kara Swisher's book called The Burn Book about the Silicon Valley guys.
It's fantastic.
And Kara is amazing, much like Peter Baker.
Yeah.
I'm getting ready to call it, Trig V.
I do this in sports with my friends all the time would be texted back and forth a packer game or a badger game It might be in the the second half with eight minutes to go in a badger game You like last Tuesday by the way the badgers got a nice win over the University of Wisconsin or over Washington last night The real UW beat the fake UW but over the weekend when the badgers got beat Text back and forth.
I'm calling it over game over.
I'm kind of getting ready to call it on traditional American democracy We have now Trump
Taking over the press we have the United States voting with our sworn enemies North Korea and Russia not even China by the way voted in favor of the result or voted against the resolution Identifying that that it was Russia who attacked Ukraine.
I'm waiting kind of for one more major shoe to drop We don't they'll still call it democracy right Trig V But are we I really feel we're getting close to no longer having true traditional American democracy
We'll save that part till 10 till, but right now we're going to talk public schools with Mike Johnson and Trig V. Olsen.
Don't go anywhere.
It's the Civic Media Ready Network.
Welcome back everybody.
It is now 34 minutes past the hour here.
Glad to have you along with us on this beautiful day here in Wisconsin all across Wisconsin.
Joining us the Senior Advisor of the Lincoln Project.
former River Falls boy.
You can take the boy out of River Falls, but you can't take River Falls out of the boy.
Trigvie Olson, now a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project, and our special guest in this segment, Mike Johnson, who is the Superintendent of Public Schools and the one, the only, the beautiful Eau Claire School District there in Northwest Wisconsin as well.
Mike, thanks so much for coming on today.
And on Mother's Short notice, but we, you know, Trigvie said his minion, me, to book you his friend, and I appreciate you saying yes.
Hey, I'm so glad for the invitation.
And as always, Trivian Todd, you know, whenever you call, I'm always interested if I'm available.
So yeah, more than happy to really excited to talk, you know, public schools week, and it's a great week for us.
It really is.
And my whole family are educators.
I'm fond of this, but for you folks, and not just Eau Claire, but for public educators across the state of Wisconsin, what does this mean to you as administrators, to your teachers, to your students, and how are you celebrating that?
It's really, it's a thankful time.
In Eau Claire, just one example, we've got a very active retiree group.
but also some community members with the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
And we've got signs at all our schools celebrating, promoting Public Schools Week.
We love our public schools here in Wisconsin.
And Monday morning in the snow banks, now they're no longer in the snow banks, but Monday morning in the snow banks, I got a few pictures from some of those.
We had a board meeting last week and we were able to talk about how much our public schools mean to us in celebration and recognition.
And at every school, there's maybe a little bit something different.
But yeah, it's certainly a special week here in Wisconsin for our public schools.
One of the things I just wanted to ask a little bit about is we're in the middle right now, not in the middle, but getting towards the end of the school year.
This is an exciting time where we're in the middle and get ready for state wrestling.
We've got basketball coming up.
I know you folks have hockey.
I know that school is academics, but for so many of our communities across Wisconsin, there are also our communities.
Talk a little bit, Mike, in the Eau Claire School District about some of the successes outside of academia that just makes it part of the community.
It is those those activities and events are really important for our for our kids and their families You know just a couple weeks ago, you know a show choir competition at Memorial High You know fast forward to now we've got the tournament series for athletics and Whether it's wrestling whether it's hockey whether it's swimming whether it's basketball girls basketball just kicked off this week
You know, there's always something to do on a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Friday or a Saturday.
And if we're working here, like last night, I was watching Memorial.
I had them on the broadcast and then, you know, with streaming and I was able to watch River Falls for a little bit and able to watch North Husky's basketball.
Yeah, it's just, it's an interesting time.
An exciting time for kids and families and, you know, making memories.
Yeah, I mean, I think you get to the heart of it, Mike, and we've had this conversation a lot of times.
Um, you know, it's the cornerstone of the communities, right?
Like people, people, it's what they're talking about on Wednesday morning or Sunday and when they go to church and people lose sight of the fact that in our small towns, like where you and I are from, um, that is the hub, but not only is it the hub of.
socially, it's the driver of the economic engine, right?
Like, you know, people go from the public schools to our public universities, and then there are the lawyers and the teachers and the nurses.
And so it's easy for people to demonize public education if they don't pause and think.
Just what a hub.
It is truly what makes the state of Wisconsin an amazing place.
No, I couldn't agree more and you know many school leaders I'll just talk about my own field You know, I'm unapologetic about my athletic background and coaching and teaching and You know at times, you know people would people mention that all about athletics or this or that it's very important
It was important to my family.
It was important to me.
And it's that element of competition.
And when you fail in athletics or in the activity you're in, whether it's show choir, whether it's forensics, it doesn't matter.
It teaches you that stick-to-it-iveness in your, whether it's the college or university you attend, and then into your life, we compete.
I still compete.
Do I look at the statistics on the state report cards in November when they're unembarrassed and the embargo is listed?
And do we look at, do I look at our regional schools?
Do I look at schools that are our size and how we're achieving and our growth?
Absolutely.
And I think part of that is that competition, whether it's in an activity or whether it's in athletics.
We're talking with Mike Johnson.
He is the superintendent of public schools in the Eau Claire school district in northwest Wisconsin along with Trig V Olsen senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.
Mike, if you could just talk a little bit about because Trig V and I talk a lot about what happens in Washington.
Of course, he has a lot, you know, all this experience as you well know, but we try to put it through a Wisconsin lens.
And I think when we hear all these stories about immigration and changing policies,
A lot of folks don't stop and think how that affects families in Wisconsin and in particular our schools.
And I know you've been very adamant about keeping our public schools as safe places for students to learn.
If you could talk a little bit about what these changes in Washington immigration, the effects it has had for you locally in Eau Claire and how you've dealt with that.
I think we dealt with it very well according to our families in the community.
about a month ago, we were in Milwaukee for the state education convention with our board members and a few administrators.
And that's when things really started to pick up a little bit with that executive order on immigration.
You know, we talked about it in the large district caucus where 20 to 25 of the largest school districts talk about these matters when we were down in Milwaukee.
And you know what, consult with legal.
consult with DPI, examine your own policies, and we put something out to our staff and our families.
And yes, it got circulated around the media, and that's fine.
But we follow our policy, and here's the steps we take.
We have control in our schools.
We have control of our educational environment.
And if an ICE agent were to come in, here's how we would handle it.
They don't have carte blanche.
You know, they're a visitor like anyone else, but we have certain things that we need to examine.
And we shared that with our principals.
We shared that with our families after and our staff so that everybody felt comfortable.
But it really is quite a bit of trauma to some families in our district.
And, you know, when we made that announcement on a Monday evening, you know, I'd have to say 15 or 20 to one, you know, the positives that we heard from families across the district.
Just about this is how the schools will handle in that type of a case.
And unfortunately, you know, social media the next day, well, we, you know, somebody posts something about seeing somebody at an ICE agent at two of our schools.
Well, then that just, that sets us back.
And the nice thing was here in Eau Claire, the law enforcement agencies said, you know, that's very disturbing.
And it really goes against.
all that we believe in and the partnerships that we have with the schools and the community is, you know, it just causes unnecessary trauma and to our entire community.
I was just so
amazed, I was
impressed with, just real quick, I was just amazingly impressed, like with your leadership, with your district, you didn't make it partisan, you put the students first,
You included the community and you included law enforcement.
And I was particularly impressed with the way law enforcement worked with the school district.
And I think it's a great example of how people in Washington don't think about how these things are going to affect the local communities.
And then it's on your shoulders and the police chief and everybody else in the community.
And I just thought what you all did at Eau Claire was just an example of how it should be handled.
Yeah,
I mean, you know Obviously Mike you and I have been friends for a long time and and that that's a testament to the public education system, too Right like I was saying before you got on walked into Tim Hirsch's class and been friends ever since but I mean I'm proud of the way that you've been leading on it and I think I think your leadership really you hit on perhaps the most important point the the
the trauma that's caused and that you have to mitigate is not just for the kids who, I guess we lost, Mike, but the trauma isn't just for the kids who might be deported, who are victims in it, but it's for all of them, all the kids who are sitting in that classroom, because that's their friend.
Right.
Right.
It's relationships.
It's relationship building.
Mike, do we have you back now?
Yeah, sorry about that, guys.
No worries.
I think I did catch enough from what you had shared, but to Trigvie's point.
Yeah, it was just
Yeah.
That's that River Falls and UW Eau Claire.
I'm sure.
No, like you had both mentioned, it was the trauma wasn't necessarily to families directly impacted.
It was, you know, my friends.
you know kindergarten through fifth grade students at an elementary school well my friends um this could happen to my friends and and that was something that you know that we had heard from other families as well um not just uh not just some of our like I said some of our families are directly impacted.
Yeah.
As we look ahead, we're talking with Mike Johnson, who pretended public schools in Eau Claire, celebrating this public schools week.
As you look at what's on the horizon.
in terms of we're in a state budget right now, and I know you don't like to get partisan political, that's absolutely fine, but just help us understand as laypeople who are not in education, because I think a lot of us just don't understand it, because we're not there.
What would you like the general public to be aware of, of the challenges, but also the opportunities for public education in Wisconsin?
Well,
Yeah, that's a that's a heck of a question and probably be a two to three hour conversation and things we discussed the top water to April when you guys Yeah, when you guys when we had this at the University last year, you know, ultimately, Wisconsin schools have been severely underfunded for decades And it's really magnified now with you know with the
with the Esther monies that came in to really help with the results or the impact of the pandemic.
Well, with Wisconsin, not getting in the past biennium to get any increase in our funding.
Well, now we're seeing the results of that, where this is largely on the taxpayer, where we went to referendum in November, and about a third of the schools in the state had gone to a referendum for their operations.
the day-to-day stuff.
It's people.
It's supplies.
It's programming.
And now we've got to wait until June or July to get a budget, a new biennial budget.
Well, I think the statistics are right now.
93 districts or 85 districts, maybe 93 questions, are going in February.
I think there are five or six and the rest are going to go in April.
on April 1st.
Again, and that's what we heard throughout our 65 referendum presentations for the funding of our schools, equitable funding of our schools, is that this is not just an Eau Claire problem, this is a regional, this is a statewide problem, that schools are not funded as they should be, keeping up with inflation and with the programming and positions that people had found necessary.
as a result of COVID to keep those things going, keep those people in those positions, keep those systems moving.
And it'll be very interesting to see how many districts go to referendum in November if there isn't some serious work done, whether it's on special education funding, for example.
30 seconds left, Mike.
Anything we have not asked you, you want people to know about Eau Claire Public Schools during this public schools
week?
You know what you mentioned it before, it's a nonpartisan issue.
And we found that in our referendum.
We had a big ask for the taxpayers, the largest that we've had in Mclare, to my knowledge.
But we had 64, 65% who voted yes.
There are plenty of Republican folks that strongly support our schools here in Eau Claire, and I'm really proud of that, and I'm proud of our community.
Mike Johnson, Superintendent of Public Schools, Eau Claire, Mike, you and all your team are part of what makes Wisconsin great.
Keep doing a great job.
Thanks for being with us.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thanks for all you do.
Daytune back after this.
In the morning, just strap on the skates and go out there and practice on that clean ice as the sun comes up over the St.
Croix River in order to be an NHL star.
And that's
But
Johnson, who is, what a great guy, always a good friend of yours.
He's an All-American.
Was he really?
Good for him.
No, when Mike was on the team, he gave my, uh, Platteville, uh, pioneers fifth, but the only team that Bo Ryan ever really had a problem, Kenny Anderson and the, uh, the blue golds were a thorn in Bo's side all those years because
great teams.
Yeah,
education, too.
Many things to Mike Johnson, superintendent of public schools as we celebrate this public schools week.
Trivia want to go back quickly because we started this at the bottom of the hour.
I didn't want to drag Mike into our part of our partisan discussions.
But and I'm you know,
every time I say this now all I think of Joe Biden when I say I'm not joking around but I'm not joking around when you when you look at what's happening in Trump icing out media people who don't agree with him now and controlling the White House press pool as you look at the Washington Post and Jeff Bezos taking control of a very narrow
op-ed window as you look at the United States now voting with our sworn enemies in North Korea and Russia against our NATO allies on Ukraine.
You talked about this earlier.
I'm going to be very close to saying, yes, people will call it a democracy.
But the reliable, dependable, traditional American democracy that we've enjoyed for nearly 250 years is on the precipice of disappearing.
You said it's not just all about elections.
Explain.
that that is what makes it democracy.
I mean, people vote in Russia, people vote in Iran, people vote in lots of places, and they don't have democracies.
Democracies really are built on a lot of different things, the rule of law, that we're a country where there's a set of rules, and those rules apply to everybody.
That is certainly under assault.
where there is process, where it's slow, it's deliberative, it's freedom of speech, it's freedom of assembly, it's freedom of the press, that politicians can be held accountable.
And it's not just elections.
And we've had this tendency to, you know, those pillars are under assault.
And we have a tendency for people to think, well, democracy is just, I get to go and vote on a Tuesday in November or April.
That really isn't what it's about.
It's about a system that wraps a whole schoolhouse rock of pieces around the fact that holding power is very zero sum.
And if you don't have mechanisms for holding that zero sum in place, those people who want to control everything are going to seek to do that.
And ultimately, everyone loses when that's the case.
And yeah, we're dangerously close to that point.
I don't disagree with you, Todd.
That said, I don't want people to be all pessimistic.
I don't want people to be all pessimistic.
Because I will tell you, listen, I will tell you, I have seen this around the world.
That, you know, de Tocqueville said, democracy is like a rising tide.
It only requires to come back with greater force.
And I think de Tocqueville is right in that.
You know, and we're seeing that in places.
There are people standing up to these assaults.
You're seeing that with the Fox News reporter saying this is really troubling, right?
Like it requires people on the side that is attempting to do it to speak up.
I am still a conservative in a very traditional sense, but I believe in democracy more.
And I'm willing to make alliance for people who I want to have a right to free speech.
I want my kids to have a right to free speech.
I want my kids to have a right to peaceful assembly.
I want my kids to be able to go and have people that are holding those who have power accountable.
That is a far better world than the alternative.
And I've seen the alternatives up close.
And I think that's what Peter Baker is talking about when he's saying, you know,
People should people should and I'm not trying to just float my own horn here But the people that do the best job of covering this as reporters the people who seem to have the greatest understanding of this are the people who have actually had to spend time and live in those places, right?
And we've seen that people standing up this week at Wisconsin showing up at a town halls with Glenn growthman and Scott Fitzgerald Unfortunately Derek Van Orton refuses to hold town halls But the those who have have gotten an earful and you know, they've been you know, fairly respectful No violence or anything like that But I I think that is important that people continue to show up and and voice their their actions as Reed Gaylen said of this program a couple weeks ago We the people get get involved in your communities, you know make
Here's the here's the thing
Derek Van Orton run around we the people we the people we the people Why doesn't he want to is he no longer we the people?
Right, I mean, that's a whole thing.
I you know Well, I mean it's all these guys Mike Mike Lee senator from Utah I remember listening to him speak one time where he talked about carrying the Constitution around in his pocket He's being awfully quiet when pieces of the Constitution are being circumvented
In fact, he's been speaking the other way.
The question is, I mean, it's like my buddy Stuart Stevens, colleague, you know, was it all just a lie?
Did they not believe it?
And the we the people stuff.
Derek Van Orton would have been, I'm all about states rights.
Now that you have states saying we're not doing this, this is our purview.
Well, now they're not for states rights.
Do they not stand for anything other than themselves being in power?
The truth of the matter is that is what they stand for.
Trigby Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project.
Oh, it's a pleasure.
15 seconds, 10 seconds.
I love the music, Zomers.
We're like Power Civic Radio today.
All right, thanks, Trigby.
We'll see you next Wednesday, my friend.
Be safe.
Trigby Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project.
What's worse is coming up in hour number two, also State Senator Sarah Kayesky.
Come on back.
It's hour two on The All Ball Show on the Civic Media.