MSNBC’s Joy Reid is out with a new book on Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1963, and his wife, Myrlie. Her book tour took her to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, where she would compare her favorite politicians, such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and the Tennessee Three, to Evers by noting their “courage.”
Colbert asked, “I'm curious what you learned in your research for this book that is applicable to our country and the divisions that we have today.”
Reid replied, “I would say what I learned was about courage and I think that is the other theme in this book. You think about today who are afraid to stand up to a former reality TV show star president because of a tweet. And yes, indeed people do face death threats if you speak against him, but a lot of the people who were facing those death threats can afford 24-hour security because they're wealthy people.”
Getting to some examples, Reid continued, “You know, these are people who went into the battle for civil rights with no resources, no support, and so I think about today the political courage of people who I deeply disagree with. Your Toby Keith segment really moves me because this is the thing: I disagree with Adam Kinzinger, I disagree with Liz Cheney vehemently on their politics, but that’s political courage to stand up to your party, to stand up for your country.”
Reid can claim she still has profound differences with Kinzinger and Cheney, but for all the talk about how their beef with the Trump-era GOP is about election denialism and January 6, Kinzinger specifically has started to sound more and more liberal on actual issues.
Reid also wasn’t going to pick any Democrats who “stand up” to the radical segment of the party. Instead she picked the radical segment, “The Tennessee three. These 20 something-year-old state senators and Ms. Glory Johnson, their 60 something-year-old friend who came together and said, ‘We're going to stand up against the Speaker of the Tennessee House.’ Those small acts of courage are what can save our democracy and to have courage, you have to love something, right?”
Courage means being willing to face the consequences of your actions because you did what you thought was right. The expelled Democrats—who were fighting for gun control, not civil rights—didn’t have much to lose as they quickly re-won their seats.
Still, Reid declared, “If there's a fire in your home, you're going to run to save your kids because you love them and in order to really have courage, you have to access that love and so, I think that's what I learned, is that there was so much courage back then and the people today, we have so much more, so many more resources. We need to have a little courage to save this democracy.”
And courage apparently means “do whatever Joy Reid tells you to do.”
Here is a transcript for the February 6-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2/7/2024
12:17 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: We have to go here just a second, but I'm curious, I'm curious what you learned in your research for this book that is applicable to our country and the divisions that we have today.
JOY REID: I would say what I learned was about courage and I think that is the other theme in this book. You think about today who are afraid to stand up to a former reality TV show star president because of a tweet. And yes, indeed people do face death threats if you speak against him, but a lot of the people who were facing those death threats can afford 24-hour security because they're wealthy people.
This was a man who had no money, he wasn't even making enough money to sometimes afford his insurance premiums and he was a former insurance salesman.
You know, these are people who went into the battle for civil rights with no resources, no support, and so I think about today the political courage of people who I deeply disagree with. Your Toby Keith segment really moves me because this is the thing: I disagree with Adam Kinzinger. I disagree with Liz Cheney vehemently on their politics, but that’s political courage to stand up to your party, to stand up for your country.
The Tennessee three. These 20 something-year-old state senators and Ms. Glory Johnson, their 60 something-year-old friend who came together and said "we're going to stand up against the Speaker of the Tennessee House." Those small acts of courage are what can save our democracy and to have courage you have to love something, right?
If-- you love your kids, right? If there's a fire in your home, you're going to run to save your kids because you love them and in order to really have courage you have to access that love and so, I think that's what I learned, is that there was so much courage back then and the people today, we have so much more, so many more resources. We need to have a little courage to save this democracy.
