Woke AF DailyWoke AF Daily producer Andrew Marshello returns to the guest seat one last time to look back with Danielle on seven years of Woke AF.
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to ook F Daily with Me your Girl Danielle Moody pre recording from the home Bunker, Folks, I am very, very excited for one of the last conversations to happen on wok F Daily to be with the producer extraordinaire Andrew Marcello, who has been with wok F Daily since the very first episode.
I think if I am not.
Correct, and has just been an extraordinary partner for the last seven years in making this show possible. And yeah, I just wanted Andrew for us to be able to close it out together. So it's been a journey. It's been this, It has been a journey. I started this show in response to Donald Trump's first election, thinking that it was going to be a blip on America's radar. And we're ending the show and he's starting a second term in a couple of weeks, which is just wild. But tell me first, like, seven years it's a long time.
How do you feel.
I feel like a different person than I was seven years ago in a lot of ways. I feel like the show itself has grown so much from where it started. I'm very proud of where you and where we got with this show. I wish I could say the same for the country.
Sam.
You know, the show started out, even in the space that it was in, as a more left wing oriented or more progressive oriented voice, and I'm fearful that I feel a lot of things. I have a lot of feelings about how progressive politics have been treated over the last four years. I think they were starting to become normalized, and even during the first Trump administration, I felt like, at least as a form of resistance, they were still somewhat prominent and being heard. And I think the last four years in particular have been really disheartening in terms of the regression that has happened. In some ways, I wasn't really actually surprised by Trump's reelection because I felt the forces in society shifting more and more towards the right, and I'm certain fearful for what's going to come next.
Yeah, I think that that is right. I wanted to be surprised, I think by his reelection. I wanted to really believe that the country had progressed and had learned write some really hard lessons in his first term, but also over the last seven years. And you know, I think that one of the villains, if I will say, of the wok F daily story, have been the Democrats and their messaging or lack thereof, and their desire to really appeal to a center that doesn't exist anymore. I've been referring to Democrats these days, those the Pelosis and the Schumers, as they're basically moderate Republicans. They're what moderate Republicans used to be before they all gave their soul to the devil and became a of a cult.
Right.
But I saw so much possibility right in progressivism, and I thought that for certain, seeing Donald Trump's first term unfold, that folks would gather and Democrats would gather people in a way to say, like, no, you're deserving of all of these things that other industrialized countries have, like universal health care right, like childcare taken care of, like you know, children outside of the womb, actually having their needs met. And it seems as if they have gone in the complete opposite direction. What do you make of what you've seen of Democrats over the last over these last seventy years, and like you know, where you saw possibility and where you have seen disappointment.
I'm going to point to two moments that that really resonate with me years and years later, and I think may resonate with some other people who feel similar to me years and years later. In June of twenty nineteen, Joe Biden was speaking to donors at an event at the Carlisle Hotel in Manhattan, rich wealthy donors, and he said four words that I will never forget nothing would fundamentally change if he is elected. Nothing would fundamentally change. And then I think about I think it was Nevada. There was some weekend in twenty twenty where Bernie Sanders had won some Nevada or like multiple states, and I was so excited. I saw a picture of myself. To go back a little bit more from I saw a picture of myself from a Bernie Sanders rally in twenty sixteen, and the light in my eyes, the hope in my face, I was like, who is that? So when there was a what felt like a second chance that weekend, it was really invigorating and exciting. And then there were a bunch of backroom deals and I think it was Jim Clyburn from South Carolina mm YEP said that he would help Biden and a bunch of people in the primary dropped out and put their force behind Biden, and all of a sudden, it was Joe Biden.
Yeah.
And what I don't know is that a democratic process.
I no, it's it's it's not.
But it has been backroom dealings. I feel like have been the way right for so so many decades. This is this is how, this is how they have told us that politics works and how politics should have worked, right was. I mean, we were covering this every single day on Woke a Up. Joe Biden was not my first through fifth choice right to be the nominee.
It wasn't winning a lot of states at the time.
It wasn't winning any states until Clyburn said, no, I'm putting South Carolina in his column, which is what he did, and then from then on Biden had a clear runway. And I think that when the democratic establishment decides to create these clear runways for the candidate of their choosing rather than the candidate of our choosing, that's how people lose faith in the process.
Right. I definitely feel like there was a lot of disengagement over the last four years for a variety of factors. I think the suppression that occurred in I mean, there was a lot that happened in twenty twenty. What a year. But I think the suppression that occurred in twenty twenty and the response to that by you have me about how I feel about Democrats, and there was very much a like, we're going to put more money into police, and then Republicans had this narrative of like, Democrats are defunding the police when the opposite was happening, and then Democrats' response to their defunding the police was to just throw more money at the police, and which leaves the progressive position out in the rain.
It never made sense to me that for seven plus years that Democrats couldn't figure out how to message around Donald Trump, couldn't figure out how to redirect the conversation into a narrative that they want. And I think that you know, I've had a lot of time to reflect on Donald Trump's win, his second win, and you know, hate to say it, trust me hate to say it, but Donald Trump and MAGA for better or for Worse created a sense of belonging for a whole group of people who we may not have wanted in our tent, but by virtue of them not feeling like they had a place or a voice anymore. Donald Trump and Maga said, oh, come over here, right, the water's great. And at that same time, you were watching Democrats, right, Oh, we're four trans writes, Ooh, people don't seem to like that, so we're going.
To back away. Oh we're with black people.
Ooh, but white people don't seem to like that, so we're going to fund the police more. Oh we're So there was always this two steps forward twelve steps back that was happening, where Maga has already has always been full steam ahead.
How do you see it?
There's two issues actually in twenty twenty four and this whole cycle that I have thought about that I felt that way about, which is the uki spooky specter of crime, what a nebulous word? And immigration, And I think on crime, it's so frustrating because crime is like a factual argument. Like this idea that all of a sudden America's cities have become criminal wastelands is just not true. And all you have to do is say that's not true and like have some sort of I don't know, because I'm not a strategist, but like, you know what I mean, it just felt like there was this capitulation to this idea that criminals and criminality is ravaging American cities when it's not. That's just not the truth. And unfortunately this narrative was aided by people who were running certain American cities, like Eric Adams and others. I'll you know you're in New York, so I'll say he's certainly a prominent one. By the way, I wanted to talk about him, So I really just want to inject this what a goofy little purp walk that camera obsessed man just did and ended up making the man an orange who is innocent until proven guilty. He did such a good job making that man look like the people's hero because he, like Eric Adams, is a villain. He's a bad person. He wants a pardon from Donald Trump. He thinks that he's gonna go out there and show this man who terrorized my city. He didn't terrorize anyone but allegedly one.
Man, but one person. But they've and and that that to me, right him sitting down Eric Adams, And also what is he now the defender of the CEO, right like he's he's the sheriff of the of the of the CEOs because this city wasn't terrorized, right, this man and I will say that I believe that New York completely overcharged him when because me because New York has that that the ability to wage a terrorist accusation against somebody, This was not terrorism. Right. We can say acts that are terrorizing, but this was not one of them. This was a targeted attack against one individual in the city. This was not somebody opening up and a mass shooting that took place.
It was not.
If you were scared now, because you are a CEO of a company that has unethical business practices, all you have to do is take off your suit and walk out of the c suite. You are not a persecuted minority.
Are you sure?
Because Eric Adams said that they were, and so did and so did Kathy Hockel. Oh right, like, and so they're both Democrats in your in your state of Pennsylvania.
You know what I'm saying. Like, but that's that's.
And Cheryl Parker wants to evict a bunch of people from Chinatown to build a basketball stadium, that's a democrat. It's so like, who are there are there politicians of the people that's what's scary, to go back to the original thing.
And no, there aren't. And I was going to ask you. Millions of people sat home on November fifth did not vote. And I know right that I talk about voting and have talked about voting.
Throughout the years. It is your responsibility.
It is a right that was hard fought and one over decades, and you not voting is in fact casting a vote, right, So you might as well put some opinion, gusto, and thought behind who you're pulling the levers for. However, when folks looked at this, they said, they're all taken pharma money, they're all taken oil money and coal money. What do you think led to so many millions of people, and particularly young people thirty and under, who didn't vote.
I'm not at risk for saying this because you said oil money, you said all these other kinds of money. I'm gonna be real for a lot of people that I know. We're talking about apac money, baby, we're talking about is real. We're talking about the atrocities being committed overseas. We're talking about the genocide being committed overseas. We are talking about the full throated not only defense, but full throated endorsement of a genocide by the United States government and the Biden Harris administration. That Kamala Harris did not do nearly enough. I mean, did she do anything to distance herself from she did when she went on to if you talk about nothing would fundamentally change when she went on the view or wherever and was like, I'll be the same as Joe Biden. We didn't. He's not in the race anymore for a reason.
Mm hm.
They had an opportunity to forge a different path forward. And the people who pull the strings, the people who run the campaigns, the campaign managers, the people who are obsessed with polls and all this and perception rather than talking to actual human beings. They ran a campaign that was just like Biden in a different body. Yes, and I don't get why they did that, and the result was exactly what I expected.
I was just going to.
Say, I think a part of why they did it, And this is not to make excuses at all, because it was the wrong move. There's always just to the point that you said earlier, I think that Kamala Harris by saying is said what you said. Joe Biden said at the Carlisle. Nothing will fundamentally change, right. I may be this black and Asian woman m hm, who is going to be a potentially the leader of the free world, but don't worry, nothing is going to fundamentally change.
And I think that.
That was her and are handlers trying to assure the American public that, oh, this person from who sits at the intersection of multiple identities isn't going to change anything. She's really a part of the status quo. And they thought that that was a selling point, where as many of us saw it as a sellout point.
What are the two words you most associate with the two thousand and eight Barack Obama campaign? What, Oh, I'm asking you?
Yes we can? You said three years old.
Oh, okay, no, see, but that's that's the say I was going to say, hope and change.
Oh, hope and change.
Yes, but yes we can also a positive message, an energizing message, something that distinguishes you from what came before. I understand it's tricky when your predecessor is an incumbent Democrat, but this, this idea that she was going to be the same as what came before, that is not to me. That is not exciting to a lot of voters.
I don't think that it was exciting to young voters at all.
And I think that, you know, again, before right Thesella Beltway, you know, folks came in and interjected themselves into her campaign. The messaging that was coming out was largely around hope and joy and bringing that back to our politics. And then by the end, we're arm in arm with Liz Cheney, so you know what I'm saying. So at the beginning I felt like, this is a breath of fresh air. This is exactly what the kind of energy and attitude that we need. And by the end it was like, oh, I'm doing a tour de force with one of the biggest legacy political families right who have done so much harm to this country. We only agree on one thing, which is the Constitution. But this is where I'm gonna put all my energy.
How big?
Like, what could that time Andrew in your mind have been better spent doing?
I don't know, is anything else an answer? It's just like so many things like that, this idea, and some of it felt like felt like scolding the base, felt like browbeating the base, like we're gonna ally with moderate Republicans, which I don't believe in. But like, we're gonna ally with Republicans and you're gonna like it. We're gonna in a week before the election, We're gonna send Bill Clinton to Michigan to say, actually, you're wrong for being passionate about the genocide and Gaza, Like I don't know if they could have spent their time, I don't know. I feel like there's just there's flaws in the system that I'm not in this in the democratic system of doing elections that I'm not well versed enough to speak to. I've heard people criticize the whole inherent model of phone banking and canvassing as something that's impersonal and outdated. Can I offer something that can be done in exchange, not on a broad scale I said before, just like listening to people.
I feel like.
Democrats have this obsession with data and data driven campaigning, which data can be useful, but hearing what actual human beings have to say and our feeling and thinking is a lot different than sending someone a poll and having them fill out some bubbles or talk to some person on the phone.
It's so utterly disappointing, right, Like I think the win that Donald Trump had was not a landslide. It was not a mandate, regardless of what it is that he is saying now on his broke down social media platform or what the real president elect, Elon Musk is saying. And I want to get to that and your opinions on him right now and where JD vances on a mill cart in someplace. But it wasn't a landslide. So that means that there were people that could have been persuaded, right that could have been brought over. And I wonder in your mind, do you see any which way that Democrats are moving right now that would lead you to believe that a change is going to come.
You were just talking the other day about a leadership election and or you know, I don't know if election is the right word, but like democratic leadership and Alexandria Ocasio Cortes being passed over, and I think in a bubble, like whether or not that's the right or wrong choice in a bubble, to me, that's emblematic of just how the last eight years of democratic leadership has been. Like they don't even give crumbs when Corey Bush gets elected. Their reaction isn't to embrace Corey Bush. It's to spend ten million dollars or whatever obscene amount of money was put into that election to unseat her. And that was this year. So my unfortunately no, because they are not even willing to have what used to be called the squad as like they're token four or five representatives anymore. They they really don't care about us. They don't care about the left. They've decided that people on the left in America, progressives, leftists, whatever you call yourself, socialist, communist, anarchist, whatever you call yourself, they don't care about you. They don't care about us. They care about themselves. They care about the wealth, they care about the powerful, they care about the CEOs. They care more about shaking hands with Republicans than helping you. M M so no, like so no. I used to be bright eyed and optimistic. I think when we met seven years ago, I was more bright eyed and optimistic than I am on this day.
I mean, hell, I was more bright eyed and optimistic as well. I mean, you know, I was coming off of the Obama years right, thinking that that was the trajectory was only going to go up, that it hadn't occurred to me, and that was my naivete that there was going to be a backslide, a white lash, as there always has been any time that there's been any notable progress in this country. And you know, and I wasn't prepared. And I wonder this time around, Andrew, as we wind down and we see who's really running the show, which seems to be Elon Musk, the head of the brolagarc I guess like, where are you looking for opportunities in these obstacles ahead? Where do you see possibility, if any, right in how we're going to be moving forward.
I am going to lead by saying I don't think this is healthy for a left wing movement, but I feel that there's others my age and who have my inclinations who are taking the same persuasion of divesting. Honestly, I voted, I will say that, especially living in Pennsylvania. Oh yeah, I voted. But I think I used to be a lot more politically active in a lot of different ways. I used to care about the political maneuverings within Washington, within state government. I used to literally be in the streets. I feel like I'm going to be divesting from capital pee politics and focusing on the people around me, the people who are in my community, keeping my community and my loved ones and myself safe because like I just like, if they don't care about us, you can't make someone who doesn't care about you care. Yeah, if we've spent the last eight years, whoever this wei is, if we spent the last eight years mouths a gape, throats raw, screaming at them, pay attention to us, care about us, protect us, fight for us, and their responses to stick their fingers in their ears, and you're nean er nein or neiner Okay, heard, got it?
All right?
What's next? Yeah, I'm going to take care of those in my immediate vicinity because that's really all that's in my power to do. And the people who who have more power than me aren't interested in representing me and the people I love and care about, and that makes me very sad.
But yeah, but some you know, sometimes we need to go back to the fundamentals, which is what we can control, which is strengthening and supporting our own communities and what that looks like for us, and you know, and let these people are going to do what they're going to do.
Right.
And I there was a time I remember on WOKF where I would say, and this is back in Donald Trump's first term, that things are going to get bloodier before they get better, and I would say it all the time. And the fact is is that there is a lot of pain that is about to happen. There is a lot of cruelty that we are going to see wield it.
The good guys or the good people did not win, right.
But I think that sometimes America needs to be revealed the good and the awful, and we are we need to see the awful because by just talking about it and telling people what could possibly come, it wasn't enough. And sometimes people need to see it to believe it. But I think that if we can control what we can control, which is you know, saving our public libraries in our communities, supporting our teachers, hosting gatherings just so that people feel safe and are reminded of joy, you know, of holding on to those things that make us feel human and connected, then we will find a way to weather through.
I think one thing I definitely do want to add on to what you're saying is not just community protection like I said, but also you know, community education, because a lot of people are still like people are waking up, but you can help. You can help people wake up, You can help people learn what's going on. You can help people have the tools to think more critically about what's around them and take action for themselves. So I do think that's something important as well, holding gatherings, talking to the people around you, finding out what they believe, and if gently, guiding them in the right direction.
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Well with our final moments here, Andrew, I just want to thank you so incredibly much, Thank you publicly, so incredibly much for the hours upon hours and hours of work that you have put into making WEKF as successful as it has been for nearly a decade.
Wow.
It is an extraordinary feet to produce a daily show that is as that tried to be informative uh and hopeful but honest uh and I really could not have done it without you. And I just I want to thank you for for every bit of passion uh that you put into into this and into me over the last seven years.
Thank you very much. I'm honored and I'm excited for what's next for you. I'm apprehensive about what's next for me, but I'll be you know, I'll be good.
You will you will be great.
Thank you because of the talents that that you have, So thank you for making the time to join wok f Daily. Thank you for all of the work that you've put into wok f Daily and.
I appreciate you.
Thank you very much.
That is it for me today.
Dear friends on Woke af as always, Power to the people and to all the people.
Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.
