On Democracy with FPWellman

The continuing madness of Donald Trump’s nominations and plans continued this week. A lot of us feel like we fell down the steps on election day. But, the fight continues to protect our freedom and claw back our power. We have to figure out what went wrong and apply those lessons quickly as 30 states have local elections, two with key Supreme Court selections, and statewide races in Virginia and New Jersey that Democrats must win. Fred discusses some of those lessons and more with Southwest Ohio Representative Greg Landsman. He is the first Democrat to win re-election in Ohio-01 in 40 years. Prior to his time in elected office, Greg was a public-school teacher and worked in education advocacy. Greg earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Ohio University and a master’s degree in Theology from Harvard University. In Congress, Representative Landsman serves on the House Committee on Small Business and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

You can learn more about Congressman Landsman’s campaign: https://www.landsmanforcongress.com/

It has been a hell of a week…again. The dust is still settling on the election, and we are all watching in shock as Trump selects a complete clown show of a Cabinet. Many are wondering what we can do and how to stop this unfolding train wreck from swallowing us up. We look at how Democrats can do a better job of getting their messages to more Americans and why that’s important as we face 30 states holding local and state elections next year. There are going to be fights to be had to stop his worst efforts too. We will discuss some of those and talk with the Co-Executive Director of ‘Run For Something,’ Ross Morales Rocketto, about how more of us can turn this around. Ross has been a progressive political operative for over 15 years working in campaign management, grassroots organizing, and data/analytics. In 2016, was an advisor at For Our Future. He previously managed Wendy Carrillo for Congress in CA-34 and was a Principal at STG. Rocketto got his start working for former HUD Secretary Julian Castro’s first campaign for Mayor of San Antonio. He is leading RFS as they ride a wave of new candidate recruits wanting to take on saving our democracy.

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It has been a hell of a week. Fred fell down his stairs and gave himself a concussion and then there was that whole election thing too. A lot of people are asking what happened, why Democrats lost, how Americans turned back to Trump, and much more. In the meantime, the Republicans have been planning for this opportunity for years. They have an entire Day 1 set of horrendous policies and there will not be time to organize after it all comes down. They are ready…are we? We will talk about that and what is coming as we prepare to roll up our sleeves and get back in the fight.

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It’s just days until the election. We’ve been in this fight for a couple of years now but here comes the finish line. We have to run through the tape and everyone is stressed but there are a lot of signs that should encourage you to keep running. Since most people should have their heads down sprinting for the finish line it's still a couple of miles away so Fred wants to throw up some signs to encourage you to keep running. From momentum, messaging, ground game, and turnout there are much more encouraging signs everywhere you look. We shouldn’t drag ourselves across the finish line on Tuesday. We need to run through with our arms in the air. Catch this whole show to get your last wind!

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The least controversial thing on Earth to say these days is that Donald Trump is a fascist. This week only brought a flood of confirmation from his own staff and experts as well. Two huge news articles broke from the New York Times and Atlantic laying out how much disdain Donald Trump has for the military and the rule of law. More terrifying is his love of Hitler. All of this comes as we head into the 'closing arguments' phase of the campaign and the messaging coming from the Republicans is a mess. Join host Fred Wellman for a solo episode discussing all of this and why we must keep on fighting.

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Donald Trump is clearly struggling with age and his ability to keep pace with the demands of a campaign and certainly to serve as President. Waiting in the wings is J.D. Vance, the least qualified Vice-Presidential nominee in modern history with barely a year and a half of elected experience. He was the choice of Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and the Christian Nationalist movement and that has far reaching implications. Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez has literally written the book on this modern movement. Dr. Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. She has just released a short film, For Our Daughters— on systemic sex abuse and cover up in evangelical churches, linking abuse with Christian nationalism and warning what a Christian nationalist state would mean for women.

Learn more about the film at https://www.forourdaughtersfilm.com/

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Fred is on the road for the third of his trilogy of shows on what Donald Trump really did as President and why we can't let him back in. This week we talk about his lifetime disrespect and outright hostility towards military service and veterans. It started when he got a fake bone spurs diagnosis to avoid the draft and continues to even today when he dismisses traumatic brain injuries to troops under his command as President as nothing but little headaches. Fred runs through the many pieces of clear evidence and why he's been on the road with VoteVets calling it out for the last two weeks!

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Fred is on the road with the VoteVets 'Not Losers or Suckers' Bus Tour so he is solo and reporting on the end of Trump's last administration and hopefully the work that will end his political career too. We talked last week about January 6th and Jack Smith dropped his big brief right in time to back us up. He lays out just how deep Trump was in the entire insurrection. But that's not all the terrible things Trump did in his last months. Fred lays out everything from his insane appointments to pardons for all of his friends. The bus tour he is on is working to make sure Trump's career ends once and for all as well. 

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There is a clear and concerted effort by Trump and his MAGA followers to get us to forget that January 6th even happened. The fact is that the events of January 6th were the last major act of Donald J. Trump's presidency. We cannot talk about his presidency and ignore the most outrageous act of it. They want you to think about low prices and his "policies" and ignore the chaos and violence. We won't. A new film has been released on YouTube and online with all new footage never before seen publicly shot by a military combat filmographer that day. This week Fred is solo to discuss the importance of highlighting January 6th including clips from the film.

Watch the Fight Like Hell film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZC-Wo9nJ3O4 si=_F53J2KA2Mhi4V9E

Learn More at https://www.fightlikehellmovie.org/

Take Action at: https://www.beheardpac.org/flh

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There has been a lot of talk during this election season about rural America. The Republicans like to think that it's their territory alone and only "real Americans" live in those small towns. We know what they mean by that. Recent events have shown us that their definition is far out of date and Democrats aren't writing it off at all. A number of organizations are in the fight to reach out and mobilize the proverbial 'dirt road Democrats' and it's a focus of the Harris-Walz campaign. It doesn't hurt to have a VP nominee from a tiny town in Nebraska either. Our guest Paolo Cremidis is the Executive director of the Outrun Coalition, a grassroots led volunteer organization that helps rural county Democratic parties and progressive organizations elect the next generation of local elected officials. Outrun has now reached 523 rural local elected Democrats across 17 states. Outrun is a coalition partner in the Rural Americans for Harris steering committee, which is helping to mobilize rural Americans across all 50 states to generate momentum for the Harris/Walz ticket.

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