CNN keeps demonstrating that its reason for existing is largely to promote the Democrat agenda. It joined MSNBC in promoting the latest book of David Pepper, who led Ohio's Democratic Party from 2015 to 2021. His new book is titled Saving Democracy, but Pepper seems very upset that Republicans were elected in so many states. In other words, democracy fails when Republicans win.
And it was only just last month when the same CNN show let him promote his previous book Laboratories of Autocracy, which made the same lame point. CNN CEO Chris Licht told Republicans it was going to be different....but it's not.
On Thursday's CNN This Morning, the day after MSNBC's Morning Joe also interviewed him, CNN co-host Kaitlan Collins set up the segment by recalling several pieces of right-leaning legislation and actions recently seen in several states:
Just this week alone, we've seen the power that state governments have. In South Carolina, the senate there sent a six-week abortion ban to the governor's desk. In Nebraska, the governor there signed a 12-week abortion ban that also restricts gender-affirming care for transgender children. A Florida school removed a poem that was read at President Biden's inauguration from the elementary section of the school library into the middle school section after one complaint from a parent. That was under the state's, quote, "Stop Woke Act."
She then noted:
All three of those states have government trifectas where the Republican party holds the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Republicans have 22 of those overall -- Democrats have 17.
Since there has increasingly been more straight-ticket voting in recent decades, it's not shocking that nearly every state's legislature is controlled by the same party that won the last presidential election there. Even so, Pepper pushed a subjective narrative that Democrats have not fought hard enough in the states controlled by Republicans. Democrat hardliner Pepper complained:
One side has been on offense in that place for decades. And the other side, unless something happens to be a swing state for a federal election, really is not in those states. ... the team that's always on offense does win the game, and, right now, even though Democrats have done well in certain federal elections, even when they win those elections, for the most part, Republicans have locked down statehouses.
Even though the actions that Collins had recalled were not extreme actions, Pepper then complained about Republicans being "extreme" as he added:
And the reason why all those stories you mentioned are happening is statehouses have become unaccountable places. Half of the Tennessee Republicans who kicked out the two Justins didn't even face opponents in last year's elections. So of course they're going to act like they're acting. Every incentive in the world they live in is to be more extreme. And, until the other side gets into these places and starts competing, it's just going to keep going on, just like it is.
Nothing was acknowledged about Democrats ever doing anything "extreme" in the states they control, like making sure abortion is legal on all occasions.
Pepper went on to urge corporations like Disney to take actions that he presumably thinks would benefit Democrats, like registering voters and helping them get voter ID.
The Democrat activist made similar points when he appeared on Wednesday's Morning Joe. Fill-in host Willie Geist gushed about how Joe Scarborough would approve if he were there: "I know if Joe were sitting here, he would absolutely love what you're saying because he says Democrats have to learn how to fight the way Republicans have always fought."
This promotion of the Democrat party's agenda was sponsored in part by on CNN by Sling TV and by Creative Planning on MSNBC. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
CNN This Morning
May 25, 2023
6:55 a.m. Eastern
KAITLAN COLLINS: Just this week alone, we've seen the power that state governments have. In South Carolina, the senate there sent a six-week abortion ban to the governor's desk. In Nebraska, the governor there signed a 12-week abortion ban that also restricts gender-affirming care for transgender children. A Florida school removed a poem that was read at President Biden's inauguration from the elementary section of the school library into the middle school section after one complaint from a parent. That was under the state's, quote, "Stop Woke Act."
All three of those states have government trifectas where the Republican party holds the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Republicans have 22 of those overall -- Democrats have 17.
The former chairman of the Ohio Democratic party -- David Pepper -- has a new book out called Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every American. In it, he argues that Republicans are stronger running for lower level offices, and he uses this analogy to illustrate his point with an assist from his son.
DAVID PEPPER, LIBERAL AUTHOR (in video): They've also learned a really important lesson in their short time playing soccer. Charlie, what is that lesson?
CHARLIE PEPPER, SON OF DAVID PEPPER (in video): The team that's always on offense wins the game.
PEPPER (in video): Did you hear that? ... The team that is always on offense wins the game.
COLLINS: And David joins us now. One, why didn't you bring Charlie? And, two, in all seriousness, reading your book, you essentially say, "I don't like this idea of an off year -- an off election year." It's always election year, in your view.
(...)
PEPPER: So, yeah, this is the problem. The democracy of our country is shaped in states and statehouses. That's where the election rules are written. That's where the districts are drawn, and you can either have rules and districts that lead to a competitive and representative democracy, or one like in many of the states we're talking about where it's locked up and the results are guaranteed.
One side has been on offense in that place for decades. And the other side, unless something happens to be a swing state for a federal election, really is not in those states. And so that's why I used the analogy with Charlie, the team that's always on offense does win the game, and, right now, even though Democrats have done well in certain federal elections, even when they win those elections, for the most part, Republicans have locked down statehouses.
And the reason why all those stories you mentioned are happening is statehouses have become unaccountable places. Half of the Tennessee Republicans who kicked out the two Justins didn't even face opponents in last year's elections. So of course they're going to act like they're acting. Every incentive in the world they live in is to be more extreme. And, until the other side gets into these places and starts competing, it's just going to keep going on, just like it is.
POPPY HARLOW: Your book prior to this one was called Laboratories of Autocracy, and that's how I came to know you making, like, the play where it's laboratories of democracy, right? About how important states are in the federalist system. But the way you opened this one, I think, is so interesting. You write this in the introduction. You write, "The arc of the moral universe is long," so we think it's going to be the famous MLK quote, but then you say, "But it bends in the direction of who's pushing it harder for longer is pushing."
(...)
PEPPER: And right now, my worry has been that we kind of are in this world where we assume democracy is automatically intact -- justice is just automatically there. That's not our history. You have to keep pushing for it. And when it's under attack -- and it is in all these states -- and we're seeing the consequences as you went through -- it looks one way in Florida, another way in North Carolina. In Ohio, they're trying to change the Constitution in crazy and illegal ways. Those are all happening at the same time because, at the heart of our democracy are these statehouses, they're largely unaccountable, and they can attack democracy over and over again, and never be held accountable for doing so. We've got to bring that accountability back.
COLLINS: You also send basically a warning shot to corporations, saying, "What's happening to Disney is your future."
PEPPER: Yeah, and this is, you know, and I really respect that Disney is fighting back, to be clear. But so many corporations are giving to politicians the way they used to. But right now, in all these states, they are giving in a way that is lifting autocracy. They are giving in a way that is propping up these extremist systems. And so Disney gave to some of the legislators who then passed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
All of a sudden, the Disney employees says, "What the heck? Why are you giving to people who are attacking us?" That is the future for all companies that keep giving to the politicians in these laboratories of autocracy. So my advice to companies is: Avoid that fate. If you're a broad consumer-facing company, you're going to always run into this. Use your footprint, Disney, or Proctor & Gamble, anybody, to actually lift democracy.
HARLOW: Target's in the spotlight now.
PEPPER: Exactly, Target. Why don't you register every voter that comes into Target? Register them. If you're in a state with a strict voter ID law, help them figure out how to get their voter ID. These companies that have enormous footprints. And rather than putting the money into little autocrats in states -- which is what these places are becoming -- put the money into all the ways that help everyday citizens -- your employees, your customers -- be lifted in our democracy.
There have been so many people purged, well, help get them back on the rolls. Target -- they could play an enormous role. And that way they're not getting into this back and forth of who they're giving to. They're doing a much broader purpose of lifting democracy. And the book goes through so many specifics of how many individual nonprofits and individuals and companies large and small can be playing a --
HARLOW: Yeah.
PEPPER: -- huge role in lifting democracy.
HARLOW: And the importance of local media, by the way, helping that to build up these -- we got to go, we're at the top of the hour -- but to building up and covering up these statehouses in a way that the national media just doesn't.
PEPPER: One reason statehouses have become such a problem is there's so little coverage of them. If you want to do bad stuff, that's where you go to get it done.
HARLOW: David, that's a great read -- Saving Democracy. It's really accessible. A User's Manual for Every American.
PEPPER: Absolutely.
(...)
MSNBC's Morning Joe
May 24, 2023
7:45 a.m. Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: South Carolina now has become the latest state to restrict abortion access, a number of policy changes we've seen come from the state and local level over just the past couple of months. David Pepper, former Ohio Democratic party chair and author of the new book, Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every American, argues the fight for change needs to focus on the state level. David joins us now. David, it's good to see you this morning.
So this is your second book -- sort of your second warning. You had one that was Laboratories for Autocracy in 2021 that sort of raised the red flag but was not happening in national politics but what you saw on the ground. And we were just talking -- it does seem since then perhaps, though, I know you would argue Democrats are not all the way there. They have woken up to the fact that you have to earn this -- you have to fight for it -- that this democracy thing is not inevitable.
DAVID PEPPER, LIBERAL AUTHOR: Yeah, I mean, I wrote the first book to be a wakeup call that the front line to protecting democracy are the states. That's where it's happening. We like to focus on the big DOJ cases -- and we should -- in D.C., but where they are making sort of nonstop progress -- you mentioned South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida -- they take over these statehouses, gerrymander the hell out of them, suppress the other side, and that's where they can pass extremist laws that would never survive in Washington. They're too toxic.
And so I do, you know, when I named the book Laboratories of Autocracy, I thought, "This might sound a little much for people." Well, it's not, and I hear the term more now more often, but I still worry -- this is why I wrote the second book -- most Americans, while they see it maybe more clearly, we're still fighting the battle of old. And until we get to the front of the battle -- which is in states and statehouses -- and build an infrastructure that supports running in all those places, we're still fighting battles assuming democracy is intact when it's, in fact, in sort of jeopardy in all these states.
GEIST: I know if Joe were sitting here, he would absolutely love what you're saying because he says Democrats have to learn how to fight the way Republicans have always fought.
(...)
PEPPER: Just keep in mind, almost everything the other side is pushing -- and not everyone is going to like to hear this, but it's true -- is deeply unpopular. When they're trying to ban books, that is a toxic view in most places. So when they show up at that school board meeting wanting to ban books, those school board members -- if you're not already running yourself -- should know that they represent, when they want to ban books, probably a third of the community. So you show up to that meeting also, get a big crowd, and say, "We don't want the angry parent down the street banning books from our library -- we want to have a choice in our education -- our kids do, too." By showing up, you are literally speaking for two-thirds of that community.
We're seeing these toxic school board candidates, lose all over the country, including conservative areas. So whether it's running yourself for a school board, if you've been stuck in an uncontested state house seat -- and this is a crisis all over the country. Some states -- like that Tennessee Republican legislature -- half of those Republicans -- didn't face an opponent last November. Of course they're going to act like extremists. They have every incentive to kick out the two Justins and no incentive to keep them. That's how they'd lose the next primary, right? So if you're in a district that hasn't an opponent, run or find your most impressive friend and ask them to run. Whatever you do, get someone running.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: There you go.
PEPPER: School board. And, by the way, there are so many ways. I go through them in the book. Every nonprofit in this country and in any city could be engaging voters -- let them see how they can get a voter ID -- register them if they have been purged. We know that cities are being targeted by these state voter suppression efforts. If you're the mayor of a city, get in your entire city hall footprint dedicated to engaging these voters who are being left out of the process intentionally.
