Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal

I feel like I saw Mayor Mamdani go on Theo Vaughn a conservatives podcast and Theo Vaughn's like what's what is socialism and And then Mayor Mom Donnie's like explaining it with a smile simply.

And to be honest, I think the left needs some basic understanding.

I think so too.

We would win the Senate if the Republicans and the technocrat billionaires behind them weren't cheating.

Correct.

To me, cheating is paying for your way in life, which a lot of them have since they're born.

And now they're paying for the way that...

The Tesla guy really did pay for this presidency, right? $300 million, whatever.

And the way the California billionaires are paying to trick Californians out of voting yes on Prop 40, which would set a precedent for taxing billionaires fairly.

But can you explain in a simple way to this working person – To this comedian who makes jokes in basements, I need it said simply.

Can you explain to me the cheating, the campaign finance reform, the need for citizens united? Can you explain some of this in a basic way for me?

Okay, so the premise is that we have a democracy and every vote counts equally, right? That's the premise.

And that when you have a democracy, everyone is voting and my vote counts just as much as your vote.

And together, whatever the people want, where the power lies, is with the people.

That's the premise.

It is so far from that for a bunch of reasons.

We won't get into all the structural ways that the Electoral College and other parts of our democracy don't work.

I'll go straight to the corruption, which is none of that works if you have corporations and giant billionaires, millionaires, ultra-millionaires everywhere.

able to buy their way into those votes.

And so Citizens United is the Supreme Court decision that said that corporations have the same rights as individuals, and that corporations can put tons of money into elections, and their voice counts the same as yours or mine, except that it counts much more because they have a lot more money.

But the other way that it does enrich members of Congress' personal wealth is members of Congress have stock portfolios.

I have the bill to ban stock trading for members of Congress because I think if you want to trade stocks, you should go to Wall Street.

Correct.

If you work in Congress, you should be fighting for your people, for your constituents that you represent, not to put money in your pocket.

And so there is a lot of personal enriching that happens with members of Congress.

I feel like I saw Mayor Mamdani go on Theo Vaughn a conservatives podcast and Theo Vaughn's like what's what is socialism and And then Mayor Mom Donnie's like explaining it with a smile simply.

And to be honest, I think the left needs some basic understanding.

I think so too.

We would win the Senate if the Republicans and the technocrat billionaires behind them weren't cheating.

Correct.

To me, cheating is paying for your way in life, which a lot of them have since they're born.

And now they're paying for the way that...

The Tesla guy really did pay for this presidency, right? $300 million, whatever.

And the way the California billionaires are paying to trick Californians out of voting yes on Prop 40, which would set a precedent for taxing billionaires fairly.

But can you explain in a simple way to this working person – To this comedian who makes jokes in basements, I need it said simply.

Can you explain to me the cheating, the campaign finance reform, the need for citizens united? Can you explain some of this in a basic way for me?

Okay, so the premise is that we have a democracy and every vote counts equally, right? That's the premise.

And that when you have a democracy, everyone is voting and my vote counts just as much as your vote.

And together, whatever the people want, where the power lies, is with the people.

That's the premise.

It is so far from that for a bunch of reasons.

We won't get into all the structural ways that the Electoral College and other parts of our democracy don't work.

I'll go straight to the corruption, which is none of that works if you have corporations and giant billionaires, millionaires, ultra-millionaires everywhere.

able to buy their way into those votes.

And so Citizens United is the Supreme Court decision that said that corporations have the same rights as individuals, and that corporations can put tons of money into elections, and their voice counts the same as yours or mine, except that it counts much more because they have a lot more money.

But the other way that it does enrich members of Congress' personal wealth is members of Congress have stock portfolios.

I have the bill to ban stock trading for members of Congress because I think if you want to trade stocks, you should go to Wall Street.

Correct.

If you work in Congress, you should be fighting for your people, for your constituents that you represent, not to put money in your pocket.

And so there is a lot of personal enriching that happens with members of Congress.