Oct 4, 2026 · 47 min · 11 segments
In this episode, Emma is joined by online political commentator Will (@willztalks) to discuss how progressives should approach the upcoming midterm elections and what role, if any, voting should play…
Unfortunately, there's only so much coalition building you can do with people that work with open fascists and people that insist on accepting corporate money and insist on doing absurd things.
And most importantly, we can have ideological disagreements, but when you fund, you know, corporation, if you, when you go on like the free presses podcast, you know, the free press by Barry Weiss.
I always watch them there.
She's an evil person.
It's a fascist newspaper.
And when you go and work with those types of people to punch left and say that the leftists are causing all the problems, is very difficult to coalition build with you, right? Like, this is the big tent party.
And then they go, well, you know, you can all go fuck yourselves.
And actually, you have no place in the party.
It's like, well, at some point, I have to take your word for it.
So we'll see.
Yeah, totally.
And it's frustrating.
And every time like that discourse comes up, I'm like, I really don't think that the problem was ever that the Democratic Party was left.
But in fact, that like people didn't see the Democratic Party as offering any actual alternative or solution.
It was just like, The same stuff, he, him.
And so I think I was seeing that there have been some studies and stuff that have shown that more and more Americans think that socialism could be a good idea.
I think some of the things, even the imperfect DSA candidates have started to kind of break some of the taboo that I think is still very much in place from the Cold War and the Red Scares.
And I...
I hope that this can lead to more of a shift in culture that happens over time.
But I definitely agree with you.
I think it's important for leftists to be part of the conversation and I just think continue to offer solutions to these problems and find what the real issues are.
What I am hoping is after everything that's happened in the past two years of Trump's term, exposing the level of corruption, that is possible within the presidency.
In some ways, I think some of it is also built to work this way.
Unfortunately, there's only so much coalition building you can do with people that work with open fascists and people that insist on accepting corporate money and insist on doing absurd things.
And most importantly, we can have ideological disagreements, but when you fund, you know, corporation, if you, when you go on like the free presses podcast, you know, the free press by Barry Weiss.
I always watch them there.
She's an evil person.
It's a fascist newspaper.
And when you go and work with those types of people to punch left and say that the leftists are causing all the problems, is very difficult to coalition build with you, right? Like, this is the big tent party.
And then they go, well, you know, you can all go fuck yourselves.
And actually, you have no place in the party.
It's like, well, at some point, I have to take your word for it.
So we'll see.
Yeah, totally.
And it's frustrating.
And every time like that discourse comes up, I'm like, I really don't think that the problem was ever that the Democratic Party was left.
But in fact, that like people didn't see the Democratic Party as offering any actual alternative or solution.
It was just like, The same stuff, he, him.
And so I think I was seeing that there have been some studies and stuff that have shown that more and more Americans think that socialism could be a good idea.
I think some of the things, even the imperfect DSA candidates have started to kind of break some of the taboo that I think is still very much in place from the Cold War and the Red Scares.
And I...
I hope that this can lead to more of a shift in culture that happens over time.
But I definitely agree with you.
I think it's important for leftists to be part of the conversation and I just think continue to offer solutions to these problems and find what the real issues are.
What I am hoping is after everything that's happened in the past two years of Trump's term, exposing the level of corruption, that is possible within the presidency.
In some ways, I think some of it is also built to work this way.
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