Thanks Rick. I think all Americans should hear that. In fact all those
who think they live in a democracy should.
YITBOS
John Wellar
On Sat, 5 Mar 2022, 2:51 pm Rick Gafuik, <ricali@xxxxxxx> wrote:
some of us follow this lady's blog, you might appreciate this interview
*Rick*
------------------------------
Interview with President Biden
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxtUsFuozAQ_ZpwCzK2IXDgsEqUhrRQdUWTtBdk7CE4IcAaE0K-vibZy0or2R7pjefN6L3hTMOxUWPYNp22pifTYwthDUNXgdagrL4DlUkRYkoCRDCxREiF47u-JbusUAAXJqtQqx6sts8ryZmWTf2oQC4hVhkWOaY5L3yPiwA5Aha563PIyUIAKYoCP_uyXkioOYRwBTU2NVhVWGrddjPya4bX5pTAdAmKNzclecmU6Jra7vq804yfbd5czJ_WXFmbua8ShvkgdTlvFXRSQK3n-RRmZK2b8xRXMG4djnfjAVfn6NSMySp241U8xuMg-UtwF-ug_V5GXrI6kySN0HsaddGlKoXB4vQLJaePMUk_0ftykOyQ3A2H5JudfEujIUnjeyQND9nJBz7xLZ3xe78-iZfqmsttYP9Oj6v9gc7_6KxL3g7e9XjbbPEn6tVmuA1-sffcRi5f3dePL0saPTFGBFGMnAD5NrY9gqHwiBM4GBhdMPvejzdxduSMossR_6ONpUKjGqumXCWvYHM2-ZWZ1KWvpR4zqFlegXhaqZ8b8TA3O0INymyKyJgOHY96FLsu9d3gr3XGaxosXEwNYHqKxlTV4f_s-gHK69ZP>
Heather Cox Richardson
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkE1uwyAQRk8TdrFgAP8sWHTTa1hjmMQoDliA07inL4krtRJCwGjm4z2Lha4x7WaNubDXNpZ9JRPoKy9UCiW2ZUqjdwaUHLgEyZxRTvS6Zz6Pl0R0R7-YkjZi6zYt3mLxMbw7uJaSzcYq5CBJYS-lsANvZT9pHBRAi3oS_MjFzXkKlgw9KO0xEFvMXMqaT_LjBJ915W3KBe2tsfFer2uKF79QPam-07przzNhmSmdbXyek7czJpdjYL7-BIBLroCLgfcNNK0EurRSDAIIVYfN97Y_3U34k-L3KzT_o1gydRgur9riH9RYfJGOtXTfgi_7SAGnhdwhoRwu31rGKwVK1bEbsRjRqlaB1qrXAxzQ1ZIaOg2qPtRMF2tXML8cFeOP4gfc5I8n>
Mar
4
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxtUtuOmzAQ_ZrwFuQbLDzwkG5ERLqwXTUtbV6QsSeJw1XGJCFfvyZpHypVssaaMx7P5RzBDRw7PUV9NxhnNoWZeohauA41GAPaGQfQhZIRYTRElFBHRkziwAscNRQHDdBwVUdGj-D0Y1krwY3q2kcG8ih1ThELSiakz0t6YB5DHvdwwChAgHAZCHx41uWjVNAKiOACeupacOroZEw_LOhqQWJ7TsDNCbToblqJE9dy6Fp3GMvBcFG5omvsG94ray_YmvlXez36W2rgYu5rQWPTVWDvNUxbLMjP6Repq-TcTdk69dJ1OqXTVYlNeJdx2O9fEz9bVzTbJeh9lwxJu61_5xnieTjaHMV6UiXqqngeI-vfsvMHydYJznYf7O112wuaqne1vco8Mel5hdN7qix-t_6MT_s8PstNfSnVNnSXXgKMfM2B-l-8N3m8VoQH8QaKbPlt90Ont-Vyv3rJ4Pu2WhB_NE0xdKMWYGf5u4U_eANSjc084zy8oywVhCCKGEE4RIFLXJ8SOPgUh5gAZy_cvY_TTVZYLRhqjuSftTo6sgvn9Ryr1QVcwWeqCxtqxlaZqYCWlzXIpwrMU0yP0sURWtBWZLLgJsI-8xnxPBZ4IXmybmXCwhePMAvYmrKzWW30P6Y_AS1h5qg>
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<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxtUl2PojAU_TXyJoEW0D7wsNE44gxMZsOoMy-ktBepAmVLEfHXb9Hdh0026Ud6eu-57TmXUQ0nqcawlZ22piXTYwthA0NXgdagrL4DlQkeIg8TByNs8dDj7tJfWqLLCgVQU1GFWvVgtX1eCUa1kM0jw_ExtsoQFjklZIkXxcIFH1FCmV-Q3C0CwgKfkmdd2nMBDYMQrqBG2YBVhaXWbTfDP2ZoY0YJVJegmLwpwUqqeCcbu-vzTlN2sZmsTUxrpmjMu68ChvkgdDlvFXSCQ6Pn-bSZABNam7Nh3mh5MRBew7hzGdqPR1RdorMck3Xsx-t4jMdBsBdy5xvSfq-iIFlfcJJGznsadVFdldxgcfrlJOePMUk_nffVIOgxuRsOwbZ78ZZGQ5LG90gYHrwXD3ziW7nj92Fz5i_VNRc7Yv9MT-vD0Zv_0lmXvB2D6-m23aFPp1fb4TYsi0PgS7F69V8_vmYo6HWddbJXDMzb_0rwB6-Bi76e_jQ5YwnjA0IOdjzkuMRZ2sgOMIIiwC5xEVBvQe17P974xRUzz6lP6B9NLRUatWk13VXiCjajk8_ZpGHfCD1m0NC8Av5sAf3spEfp7AQNKNNhPKM6dAMv8JDve0ufoKflpkc8svCRZwBTk0uT1YT_s_k3bvvprA>
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<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxtkl3PmjAUxz8N3ElKy-sFF-5hZjrhyZMsU3dDSnuUKrSsFBU__YpuyZYs6Uv663lpz_8wauCk9JT1ajDuvFRm6iGTcBtaMAa0Ow6gK8EzHJAUEUxcngXcT8LEFUN11AAdFW1m9AhuP9atYNQIJZ8eKCTEbTJ0jAmGmqR-HEc1YSmKkoTjiMWc4iOlr7x05AIkgwyuoCclwW2zxph-cMjSwSs7GqCmAc3UXQvWUM0HJb1hrAdD2cVjqrM2vZ1C2ndfBdwWN2GaRa9hEBykWdTz5pDVaLpqUKNm4JD8TwAHRzPvgIuxs_z5r9-QKRtSmtna5gVLKZt_-Rcw6jLHzmHa-Ax_n_a4vazPairzIizyYiqmm6C7FbLsXp4_cJmv_fLbR7B92_SMFOJdbG58tzbFeekXj0JY_rDnJ69Jibb7TXvYlYju0nEtkafz8_hOip-HcvFl9_UyfY5N3NzYtD-8LQtf_ag_mdVxA9F2e3CFlQJjRFCAkZ-ixMNeZBU5RsRPfQw0iKn3GKc7v_jCCVB3wv-U1dWZLTht57tWXMFjdJbaVqXrRinMVIGkdQv81QXm1UzP-lUnkKBtk_GKmsyPgijAYRgkYYpfqts2CdI4xIEFNidX1ktm_1P6F46F6Y8>
Every day, people write to me and say they feel helpless to change the
direction of our future.
I always answer that we change the future by changing the way people
think, and that we change the way people think by changing the way we talk
about things. To that end, I have encouraged people to speak up about what
they think is important, to take up oxygen that otherwise feeds the hatred
and division that have had far too much influence in our country of late.
Have any of your efforts mattered?
Well, apparently some people think they have. Last week, President Biden’s
team reached out to ask if I would like some time with him to have a
conversation to share with you all.
On Friday, February 25, I sat down with the president in the China Room of
the White House to talk about American democracy and the struggles we face.
It was an amazing time to be able to talk to the President. Russian
president Vladimir Putin had just attacked Ukraine, Biden was preparing to
give his first State of the Union address, and the president had just made
the historic announcement of the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
for a seat on the Supreme Court.
But I didn’t want to ask the president about anything I could learn from
other publicly available sources—I already read those every day to write my
Letters from an American. I wanted to hear from a historic figure in a
historic time about how he thinks about America in this pivotal moment, to
put the specifics of what he does in a larger context.
In my books, I have argued that throughout our history, America has swung
between the defense of equality outlined in the Declaration of Independence
and the defense of private property outlined in the Constitution.
Our peculiar history of racism has meant that every time it seems we are
approaching equality before the law, those determined to prevent that
equality have turned people against it by insisting that government
protection of equality will cost tax dollars, thus amounting to a
redistribution of wealth from those with property to those without. That
is, if Black and Brown Americans, and poor people, are permitted to vote,
they will demand roads and schools and hospitals, and those can be paid for
only by taxes on people with money. In this argument, an equal say in our
government for all people amounts to socialism.
With this argument, those defending their property turn ordinary Americans
against each other and take control of our political system. Once in power,
they rig the system for their own benefit. Money flows upward until there
is a dramatic split between ordinary people and those very few wealthy
Americans who, by then, control the economy, the government, and society.
This point in the cycle came about in the 1850s, the 1890s, the 1920s, and
now, again, in our present.
In the past, just when it seemed we were approaching the end of democracy
and replacing it with oligarchy—and in each of these periods, elites
literally talked about how they alone should lead the country—the American
people turned to leaders who helped them reclaim democracy.
We know these leaders from our history. Presidents Abraham Lincoln,
Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt all have entered the
pantheon of our leaders because of their defense of democracy in the face
of entrenched power. But all of those presidents became who they were
because they rose to the challenge of the pivotal moments in which they
lived. They worked to reflect the increasingly loud voices of the majority
of the American people.
James Buchanan, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, and Donald Trump did
not.
And now President Biden stands at another pivotal moment in our history.
What he does in this moment will reflect what the American people demand
from his leadership.
So do your voices matter? He wouldn’t have taken the time in the midst of
such an important day in America to talk to you if they didn’t.
Here is what he has to say:
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkLluwzAQRL9GLAWeOgoWCQI3qZIfEHisLcISKfCwrHx9KBtYbLGD2YcZozLcQjzkFlJG55rysYH0sKcFcoaISoI4OSspZyNmlCEruSWDGJBL0zUCrMotMscCaCt6cUZlF_zLgQVjaJZCG44ptUJzq7VRpFPXYSSG8p71xPA3VxXrwBuQ8IB4BA9okXPOW2rYR0MvdfZ9b49QctHQmrCeF5XN3LDLo2Ffv913Yp_-cqw_yFU2pZhhTjEZ8dDStmMUrh0jI6GgeK_av3I87Z24huP1RttUdMrK3M_PKMpYcyyntrhHpakz21SltXiXjwm80gvYd-z8bu9VxHQDD7G2aieVJel4x6kQfBAjfcesvfCxF5TXQ2XaUF1ezqDyDNGEZwXPKtoU_D-tIoqx>
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