Hello and welcome to Let's Pod this. My name is Andy Moore. Friends, listeners, welcome back. Uh, over the last few weeks we've had some really great guests. We've, um, city council member, Camal Pennington, uh, Keith Gaddie several times, uh, and some others. And we've got some more coming up soon, but I feel like every few months we've gotta have a episode... kind of like this, where it's just us, just you and me. Um, and I usually come to this point when I realize there's like something that I need to hear myself. And I have found over the years that it, if I'm feeling a certain way, it's likely that many of you are feeling something similar. Um, and I right now, gosh. Everything just feels so heavy and chaotic. I was at the store today and ran into a friend and just said, Hey, how are you? And you could sense the heaviness that both of us felt of just like, yeah, I'm good. And I'm like, we both are. Like I, I don't really mean that. Like things are hard and scary and uncertain and exhausting and all of that's like. It kind of annoying too, right? So everything just feels like one more thing. And I think over the last few weeks as I've been thinking about this and talking with some of my friends and mentors about how they're feeling, there's a lot of similarities there. Everyone kind of echoes the same sentiments, but also I've noticed that a lot of it has to do with. Mindset, right? That we get what you give, um, and that you are, if we get into a, I'll say a habit, but really it's like we get conditioned to keep seeking out certain types of nutrition, we'll call it news, news, nutrition. Um, and so you. We all kind of like collectively, I think, get our brains in this mode of like, oh, we're all exhausted and everything feels hard. And so like that's our common language that we share. And so we talk a lot of, you know, like a lot of the memes that I share with friends, I'm sure you are, are sometimes a little or a lot sarcastic or like it's making, it's kind of like a dark humor about politics today, but also like. Yeah, that's what a lot of the content is, and I know that the algorithms perpetuate this. I think we all know that. I'm actually hoping to watch at least two football games this weekend. And you know, the last time I watched two football games, probably like 2007, um, I've. Just have not been a big consumer of sports. And right now the idea of sitting on my couch and watching two ball games, um, sounds luxurious. I mean, like an honest to God vacation. Uh, and so fortunately it's OU Texas Weekend, and, uh, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. Sorry to everyone else out there. That's a lifelong thing for me. Um. I, I don't like Jerry Jones either. I think we all agree on that. Uh, but back in the, uh, Roger Staubach days anyway, um, they're playing at noon on Sunday. So maybe I get to watch a couple of games this weekend, and maybe you do too. Or you do whatever it is that you enjoy and that nurtures your soul a little bit. And while we're there nurturing our souls, I hope that we can share a sense of. Um, interest in dedication to curiosity about the feeling of hope. Um, there's a lot of reasons In the midst of all this shit, I think there's still a lot of reasons to be hopeful. One, pretty notably in the last couple of weeks here in Oklahoma is that Ryan Walters resigned and has. Slowly faded from the news cycle. Not entirely like I expect he'll come back. In the same way that Scott Pruitt came back in the news cycle several times after he left. He was the first elected official for whom we have, uh, theme music that we've used here on the podcast. And. Walters is another one that we've had the music about, if that's an indication of what's to come. The third person is getting her Drummond. I think that's the music. And so that makes me a little bit nervous about what the next, uh, few years might hold, uh, for him. Who knows? Uh, if he, you know, as campaigning for governor, undoubtedly he'll be in the news. Um, anyway, with Ryan Walters gone, um, there was like this immediate relief. Right. A lot of this is credit to interim superintendent Lindell Fields and his transition team, um, the statements that he has put out that the speeches he has given, heck, the statement that came from his new interim comms director was such the antithesis of what we've heard over the last three years from Ryan Walters. That it, it really felt like. You know, aloe vera on a sunburn. It was really, uh, we were really burned by that guy and it hurt a lot. And this has been so cool and nice and I don't know how this is gonna play out with, as far as his leadership style. From what I've read and heard from people who know him, it sounds positive to me. History will tell. Um, but if nothing else right now, in this moment. There's like a collective sigh of relief, and I've seen this most from teachers and school staff who are really stressed just about knowing that they're doing everything right and worried that someone. Namely Ryan Walters would find something wrong anyway, or choose to see something wrong. And it's, it was actually in one of those conversations with a teacher, um, where I first started thinking about mindset, right? That for so many of our school staff and parents and school board members, at every level, there was this, uh, understandable anxiety about what's to happen, but. There we had gotten into a mindset, um, because of his behavior, um, that everything was risky and so we pulled back, right? And it was hard to find any iota of hope. I think, uh, in the, at least in the. News about the Department of Education. When we talk to individual teachers or classrooms or kids, there's all kinds of hope, right? Of course, things are good and happy and kids are still learning. Um, but it, it made what is otherwise I think, should be a pretty joyous career path, right? That is a, I mean, everyone has a positive story about teachers, everyone. Um, anyone who I think of merit points back to a teacher in their life who made a difference, I think is such an impactful career and an important like, uh, web of people throughout our society that really kind of like knit us together as a community. I think we underestimate teachers in all kinds of ways, uh, and realizing how hard it's been for me as just a parent. I can't imagine what it's been like for teachers the last few years. So there's some hope there. That was a long way to say there's some hope. Um, if you are worried about national level stuff, federal policies, and you have good reason to, the government is currently shut down. They Russ vote, who runs the Office of Personnel Management, announced today that they're starting to, um, lay off people, reduction in force, let people go during this, this has been part of the plan. This is part of Project 2025. Um. We talked about that some last year. The president who once distanced himself from the plan is now embracing it and, you know, praising, uh, VO by name. And, uh, I think the last estimate I saw was from August, um, where the people that are tracking. Project 2025 and all of its elements pretty closely have said that as of August of this year, it was about 47% implemented. Some parts of it are hung up in court, right? And legal battles that will likely play out over the next year or between now and the election. Um, but I think this is a good point, America, or like we should definitely take notice, right? So if you. If you are someone who like knows that project 2025 was a thing but didn't really spend time like reading it or looking into it or reading much about it. 'cause you were like, well that's like one more thing. I get it. And maybe that's fine. But if that's something you feel compelled to read about, I think history is showing that, um, maybe some more attention should have been paid to it. Uh, it also means very likely right, that economically things are gonna get. Bumpier for most of us, if you're someone who's super wealthy listening to this, you'll probably be okay. But for the rest of us, um, it's probably gonna get a little bumpy over the next year or two. It's hard to predict week to week what's happening, but, um, it hard to predict. That aside, there's no reason for hope here though. Let me drag you down Polling, right? Tracking polls that monitor the, OR survey. The president's approval rating as well as like his approval rating on various issues. Um, I'm someone, we've talked about this a lot on the pod over the last few years. That one poll is one poll. We really shouldn't put too much weight on any one poll. They make headlines, um, today, but they're gone tomorrow. What we should look at is like an average of polls, uh, you know. Okay, Nate Silver for My Money is still one of the best at this. You can go to his website. It's called The Silver Bulletin. It's like a Substack. Um, but he, it's probably nate silver.com. I don't know. Google, Nate Silver. It'll be the first thing. He has, um, a process of tracking these kind of approval polls for years and years, and. I think it's pretty smart how he does it and intelligent and it tells us something. And when last I checked, uh, Trump was roughly at 53% disapprove, 47% approve. It may be lower than that. Um, but it's been this way for a while and it's, the trends are continuing. Um, where's the basement on approval? I don't know. Right. It seems like somewhere between 30 and 40% likely. But it's hard to say. But we're getting, you know, there's like that element in the middle where it's all kind of the same, but we're getting outside that now we're getting into the part where he is losing popular opinion, um, pretty soon, you know, almost like a two to one. And when that starts to happen, big changes are afoot. I think we'll see this next year in the election, right? It's a little over a year from now. And if these trends continue even for half that time, um, it's gonna get real dicey, not for the president because he is not in the ballot, but for all these members of Congress in every district, right? There are more and more candidates who are eyeing races, who are considering jumping in, um, not even for partisan reasons, but for like governance reasons. And so I think that is reason for hope, right? When things get rough. Americans show up truly in 2018 here in Oklahoma, when we were in the midst of the teacher walkout, things were dire. The budget was a mess. Um, and it had been in a mess for several years, or these like major shortfalls, all these teachers got laid off and the teacher walkout happened, and candidate filing was that same week. And it was a record where the most candidates file for state and federal office that year of any time in history, 794 candidates, I think filed. Um, it was wild. I hope that happens. Again, we need more people to run for office. Last election, uh, half of the legislature was elected by default because no one filed against him. Not of the opposite party, not even of their same party. No one. But when you ask people how satisfied they are in the legislature or with Congress, so few f, so few folks run, and I understand like that it's a lot. Um, it can be really difficult, um, and time consuming and expensive, and now folks are worried about violence. Like I, I get it. Um, I am not running this year either, although I love my representation, um, at the state level, and I'm honestly. Oh, mostly okay with it on the federal level with my member of Congress, but I, I know that it's hard. Um, so I'm not saying this flippantly, but I also suspect that given the size of our listenership, that there are those of you who are listening, uh, or watching us on YouTube who are considering it, who've been thinking about it and are unsure. Um. But every day that goes by, you think about it a little bit more. That's good. I hope you do talk to somebody like maybe you know, someone who you think would be great and they haven't brought it up themself. They maybe they're waiting for you to ask them if they've ever considered it. Right. This is how it happens. Anyway, reason for hope there. Um, lemme look at my notes. I, uh, even wrote down some of this stuff. I think, um, the other thing that gives me hope is that we've been here before as a country. Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address, uh, in the midst of the Civil War. Right. And every time I go to Washington, DC almost every time I go, I make a pilgrimage to the Lincoln Memorial. You walk up the steps to say hi to. Then on the right side is his second inaugural was inscribed the left side, the south side is the Emancipation Proclamation, which is certainly worth your time. But that second inaugural, it's not very long. Um, but it hits me like a gut punch every time, and especially these last few years. Um, and like the last decade, I guess. Um. So if you haven't read it recently, Google it link. Just Google Lincoln's second inaugural and it'll take you three minutes to read. It's not that long. Um, and sit with the weight of, of that conversation at that time and what that would be like. We're not there, right? We're not, we don't have. Two armies, you know, states have not, um, seceded, we don't have two armies battling each other. Are we at war with ourselves? That's a bit more of a sticky wicket, I think. But um, still knowing that we've been here before, perhaps worse, even in the 1960s, right when they assassinated JFK and Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Um. Uh, you know, Americans were showing up at airports to jeer US troops as they deployed or returned from Vietnam. Um, you know, we didn't have social media back then. If we did, would it have looked as bad as it does now? Maybe. My point is that we made it through those times and I am. I am becoming more confident in the resilience of Americans, right? Uh, our country, despite its shortcomings and its failures is still pretty great. Like, we're not perfect. We will never be perfect. We are continually in the process of becoming a more perfect union, and it is hard. It's hard work. It has not come easy. If we take it for granted, it slides away. If we give up on it, it slides away. If we don't show up, it slides away. The reason that America became America over the last 249 years is because millions and millions and millions of regular people gave a shit. About something, right? About making their quarter of the world better. Some of them ran for office, some of them are, you know, municipal auditors, right? They look at numbers all day, and it's a job that maybe I don't want, but it's an important job to ensure that we're spending tax dollars correctly, right? And when we, and that's why it's so hard right now, I think when we see people. Flaunt in a way that almost mocks the commitment that hundreds of millions of Americans have given to this country. It does get under our skin, and I am choosing to shift my mindset to stop dwelling on those who are doing harm, but to think and find inspiration in the millions who have gone before us. Who have put in the work to get us to where we are today and by god far be it from us to drop the ball right now. I was thinking the other day about next year being America's 250th birthday and what can we do as an organization and you know, civics Con is gonna be really centered on that next April. And just kind of really trying to soak in the weight of like, this is a big birthday for us. Like, and realizing like it's. Uh, so many of us, like are exhausted and want to give up, and there's times that I'm like, man, it'd be a lot easier if my job didn't involve, like, paying attention to the news cycle and trying to strategize how to build a more perfect union. How to improve our democracy. Um, but what a blessing, right? What if even before this was my job, this is what I did with my time, this was, I participated in civic life. Served on boards. I worked to make my corner of the world a bit better. And that's what so many of us do too, right? So anyway, I, I think there's reason for hope here. I think that there is a precedent, a victory that we don't talk about enough. It is hard, and it's hard because when the storm is, is thundering around you and the clouds are dark. It's easy to focus on that and forget that beyond the clouds, the sun still shines. So don't forget that. Um, and why we need it on a personal level, friends, like hope is the thing that allows us to keep going. If you lose hope, you lose resilience yourself. When we lose hope, we like physiologically have fewer resources to devote to making things better. So I'm. I am both instructing you, uh, as best I can and begging you as a fellow American. Don't give up. We need you. We need you in whatever capacity you can, but I need you, Oklahoma. Need, you need United States of America, need you. What can you do? I have, uh, three actionable things you can take this month. The first, uh, if you live in Oklahoma City, this coming Tuesday, October 14th is an election day. We'll be voting on, um, issuing a new general obligation bond, right, the Go Bond. Um. It's, we had a episode of a couple weeks ago with City Council member Camal Pennington. Hopefully you listened or watched that. If you haven't, please do. If you have questions, you can also go to vision.okc.gov. Um, and there's some information on there. Um, I think okc.gov/bond25 also gets you there anyway. If you Google, "Oklahoma City Bond," you'll find it and, uh, you should read about it. And you should post about it, and you should remind your friends to go vote, right? Choosing to do it ourselves is step one, but we can't just leave it there. Like we've got to invite and encourage others. If you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance that you're a gold star voter every time. Good for you. Like I'm genuinely thrilled about that. And now you have to do a little bit more. You have to make sure one other person votes you are, you are each responsible for one more person. So you write down a piece of paper who that person is, and then you text them or you call them and you say, Hey, like I am choosing to help one person vote. You are my person. Here's what's happening next Tuesday. If you don't live in Oklahoma City, you probably know someone who does. So call them, make, make that your person. Uh, secondly, on October 24th, that's a Friday. We're having our monthly democracy drinks happy hour. You might say, well, that's not a high impact action like voting. Andy. Uh, I would argue it's, it's still showing up, right? We've averaged around 30 to 40 people at. Um, our last several, four or so, um, happy hours. It's been growing. Um, this month, the weather by the 24th should be lovely. You should come and you should bring a friend, whoever it is, you get to vote, invite them to come to this happy hour, right? Don't bribe them with a drink that's illegal. You can't incentivize them to vote. Uh, you can remind them and then you can. Reward them for being your friend by inviting them to come to Skydance Brewing, uh, here in Midtown on October 24th from four to 6:00 PM It's such a good time. Honestly, if you only come for 30 minutes, like that's fine. Um, but come and say hi and recognize that you are not alone and that. If nothing else, we can be hopeful together. And we always are. It's always a really upbeat gathering. Um, I meet new people every time. I've seen old friends from 10 years ago who came and I'm like, do I know you from Twitter? Back when? It was cool. Yes. Okay, great. Uh, I think like those kinds of relationships are important. And so I'm hoping, I'm asking you, I'm inviting you. Join us on October 24th, four to 6:00 PM at Skydance. And then third, um, there's a campaign for open primaries in Oklahoma that is an issue that we strongly support and we have supported it since. The beginning since I became aware of it. I think it was on our policy agenda in 2019. I know, 'cause that was the first year we had a policy agenda and it's still there. Um, open primaries, there's a campaign for this if you are interested in this, if you're interested in helping collect signatures, they will be starting signature collection, uh, on October 29th. Uh, I believe they have a training you have to do. Um. That is available online. It's real easy and quick. And, uh, again, the forms have changed. It's like a little, it's like a refresher course for those of you who have collected signatures in the past. Um, you can go, if you just Google Oklahoma Open primaries, I'm sure you'll find it. Um, I forget what the exact website is, but, um, that's a big deal. We need volunteers everywhere. Um, if you think about this as like. It's like selling candy bars for your kit or wrapping paper or whatever, right? Like you can take the form, you can get a clipboard and you can, your job is to just talk to your friends, right? Think of 20 friends that you can get to sign that. If we all did that, we could get this done real quick. We need more than that. But if everyone thought of 20 friends that they could get to sign it, text 'em, and say, Hey, I'm collecting signatures for this campaign. Can I swing by your house and get your signature? Do the pop in every, who doesn't love a pop in? Lots of people don't love pop anyway. You can do it. You can text your friends. You can just say, Hey, let's go get a cup of coffee. I wanna get your signature. Uh, and you go to them Too often we wait for them to come to us and that's, uh, that's not how it always works. Sometimes we have to be proactive. Right. We can't just sit around and wait for democracy to happen. We've gotta do something. And that's why like every week we end with the statement Decisions are made by those who show up friends. Here's three options to show up. If you want to find out more, you can go to our website. Let's fix this.org. Um, there's event page there with all of our events. Uh, but please click in the show notes, get the links, and uh, and find a way to show up this week. Okay. Have a good weekend. Enjoy your football.