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- [00:00]
Ezra Levine
The positions of this administration and the positions that this Republican Congress are enabling are so deeply unpopular and they hope against hope that they're able to do it in the dark without any kind of pushback. It is our job right now, as they try to do that, to not provide them that benefit, to stand up loudly with other folks and say, clearly this is wrong.
- [00:36]
Lee McGowan
Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl Podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan. Let's get into it. So last weekend I went to D.C. to participate in a weekend long event run by Indivisible. And for the first time in a long time, I felt hopeful. The event was filled with community and group organizers from all over the country, from Alaska to Hawaii. And everyone is absolutely fired up to fight back and protect our democracy, our rule of law and our place in the world. I was part of a new media panel with Aaron Parnas, but I heard inspirational speeches from so many people, including the keynotes at the end with Congressman Maxwell Frost who said those of us who are fighting this lawlessness are not the minority, we're the opposition. That we don't need to be more like the Republicans to win. We need to take off our own shackles and be more like ourselves. To stop apologizing for leaning with love. Because love is not passive, it's powerful. We also heard from Senator Chris Van Hollen who pointed out if the guardrails are gone, then we need to be the guardrails. The whole event was so well organized and every leader there was just the tip of the spear because they were all going home to lead groups. So today I thought we would talk to the co founder and executive director of the group that organized this amazing event, the same group that will be leading the no Kings protest this Saturday across the country in opposition to our President's self indulgent military birthday parade. Indivisible is an incredible grassroots movement of thousands of local groups across the country with the mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy and defeat the Trump agenda. Prior to founding Indivisible, Ezra served as the Associate Director of Federal Policy for Prosperity now and was a Deputy Policy Director for Democratic Congressman from Texas, Lloyd Doggett. So without further ado, please welcome my guest, one of GQ's 50 most powerful people in Trump's Washington, number two on POLITICO's list of top thinkers, doers and visionaries and the co founder and Executive director of Indivisible, Ezra Levine. Welcome Ezra.
- [02:37]
Ezra Levine
Hey Lee. Great to be here.
- [02:38]
Lee McGowan
It's so good to be here. I mean Honestly, I was just saying in the introduction that I was with you in D.C. for your leadership conference last week, and I found the whole thing incredibly hopeful. And at a time where hope is not my predominant feeling, it was a really nice change of pace. So what did you think of the event?
- [02:55]
Ezra Levine
You know, it's funny you use that word, hope, because when we first started doing this, when we wrote the original Indivisible God, when Trump got started, our goal was not to give people hope. We weren't trying to tell everybody, it's going to be fine. We're all going to get through this. Don't worry too much about it. We actually, when we first wrote the Indivisible guide that told people to organize locally, find your community and start pushing your elected officials, the initial response before we made it public were some people saying, gosh, this is pretty negative. Shouldn't we reach out to the other side? When they go low, shouldn't we go high? Like, this is kind of dark. And we said, look, things are pretty dark. Things are pretty dire. We're facing a crisis in our democracy. We're. We've got to organize and fight back. And so we put out the guide. And the overwhelming response as people around the country started finding their own communities, started identifying where they had leverage, and started pushing was this sense of hope. Because it turns out you don't give people hope by telling people and it's going to be fine. You give people hope by telling them you've got power. You are not just a victim of world events. You can actually participate in politics. You don't have to rely on BS politicians to carry us through. You can actually change things. So when we bring together three or, or 400 group leaders from, you know, from Alaska, from Montana, from Texas, from blue states, from red states, from purple states, the overwhelming sense that you get is, we're going to get this shit done. We're going to do this. Let's figure out how to do it. And I come out of that feeling, I'm elated, inspired, overwhelmed, excited, and most importantly, I think people come out of that feeling. We've got some practical steps we can take to actually make a difference.
- [04:27]
Lee McGowan
Oh, without a doubt. And I do think that when you tell people like to Pollyanna, it, it just makes them angry and it shuts them down.
- [04:34]
Ezra Levine
Yeah, indeed. Yep, that's right.
- [04:36]
Lee McGowan
Well, I think one of the things that's so amazing is that you, you're saying, you know, you launched Indivisible as a Google Doc, not an organization, right? Like it was 2016. Donald Trump had just been elected, and you and your wife Leah sat down as former congressional staffers, and you wrote this, like, guide, this very practical guide to resisting the agenda. You weren't trying to make people have goals and hopes, and you weren't trying to create this big organization. But the indivisible guide that you wrote went viral, and it led to, like, New York Times articles and New Yorker places, and you had all these television spots. And it also created all of these thousands of local indivisible groups across America. And here we are nine years later, and the indivisible moment is growing every day. But I feel like you and Leah have always stuck with your original premise, which is that Trump is just a symptom of a democracy that was already sick, and that ultimately it's up to all of us to make the country better.
- [05:31]
Ezra Levine
Look, that's right. And I'm not the leader of this movement. Leah isn't the leader of this movement. We're not going to fix this. If we are going to fix this collectively, it's going to take all of us. So, you know, there are 2,200 local indivisible groups. Now, every single one of those was started by somebody who raised their hand and said, I guess I've got to organize. I guess I've got to do it. We had a panel during this national convening with new group leaders. And the common story was, it's some normal everyday person. It's a teacher, it's a nurse, it's an IT technician. And they find themselves just motivated to show up at some protest, at some rally, or they find themselves in some group and they look around and they say, well, why aren't we organizing? Why isn't anybody collecting email addresses or cell phone numbers? What are we going to do next? And they have an internal debate and they say, well, I'm not a leader. I shouldn't be doing this. Somebody else should be doing it. But every leader of the indivisible movement went through that internal monolog debate and said, shit, okay, I guess I will organize. That's what this movement is based on. I am so inspired by people around the country who are deciding in this moment to not sit on the couch. They're deciding to be part of the solution, and it's the only thing that's going to work. And that's not me with an inspirational bumper sticker. These are the lessons from authoritarianism across the world. The way that you push back against an authoritarian, that's Targeting media institutions that targeting businesses, that's targeting universities, that's targeting law firms. When those pillars of liberal democracy are falling, the way you successfully push back is normal people organizing where they are. Identify their leverage, linking arms and fighting back in peaceful, boisterous, empowering ways.
- [07:16]
Lee McGowan
Which is probably why your organization is working so well, because you didn't create it so you could be a big superstar. You created it so that other people could find their power. And that is what's actually happening. It's authentic, it's legitimately grassroots, but it's also not about you guys pulling in big checks to pay yourselves. It's about, you know, really pulling in big numbers to make a big difference. You know, like, the idea behind Indivisible seems to rest and correct me if I'm wrong on the idea that our opponents are absolutely dependent on dividing us. So you believe that we have to treat an attack on one of us as an attack on all of us, that we have to be showing up for each other, particularly those facing the worst of the right wing ideas right now. So it's like immigrants, people of color, low income people, the LGBTQ community, and of course, women. Right? And your literary literature says democracy is in grave peril, but it's not dead. Fascists depend on convincing us to give away our power and fall in line. But when we do that, when we give up the fight, that's when we've actually lost. And then you and many others have said, we have to be really clear eyed about this, right? Like, this is a real threat we face, but we cannot be doing the fascist work for them. We have to be in active opposition against them.
- [08:34]
Ezra Levine
Leah, I love how you've done all your homework and you've dug into the literature. You are reading some of my words back at me. And some of the words Leah wrote, oh, gosh, I'm like, yeah, that does sound like what we stand for. That is how we fight. No, look, that is exactly right. Donald Trump is a typical authoritarian. You talk to Maria Steffin, Erica Chenoweth, Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson. They describe around the world what the authoritarian tries to do, which is to. To act as if they are all powerful, to act as if they are the only elected official, to act as if they have control of everything. And then they engage in this, as you say, a divide and conquer strategy. They want to focus on the weakest elements of the majority coalition, say, let's all attack that. And then they move on to the next and the next and the next. And so we have A choice right now we can say, well, I'm a cisgender white man. I'm straight. I'm not immediately under attack. I was born in this country. I'm not going to be targeted right now, therefore I won't show up. And you can pick your category and say, that's not under attack right now. And you will wait your turn to be targeted. That is how this works. Or we can treat an attack on one like an attack on all, like you said. And we stand up and we fight. So when immigrants are under attack, we stand up. When ICE is terrorizing communities, we stand up. When trans kids are under attack, we stand up. And we do that because solidarity makes us all stronger, not just the morally right thing to do. That's how we freaking win elections. We create an us versus them dynamic where they are the weird minority coming after all of us. And we're with the majority all. We are standing up for majority values. So that is the goal. To create. Draw a circle around 60 or 70% of the population, say, that's us, that's America. We are the majority. And this would be authoritarian. He's a lame duck, he's unpopular, he's pushing a bad agenda. We're going to reject him and democracy is going to reassert itself. And we do that not just to win an election. We do that to send a really strong signal to the marginal members of elite society, those institutions and leaders who might choose to go along with Trump or might choose to fight back. We want them to know, hey, this era we're in, it's temporary. We are headed towards an era of accountability. And you, CBS News, you, Paul Weiss law firm, U Columbia University, you're still going to be around in 27, in 29, when we've changed who the leaders are and where, when we're in that era of accountability. And you're going to have to contend with your actions today. So let that factor into your calculus. When you decide a Velo Airlines whether or not to disappear Americans to El Salvador, you're still going to be a freaking airline. So you should choose your actions today carefully because the people are standing up and democracy is reasserting itself.
- [11:16]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, I really hope that that is the case. And I do think that's the case. And I do think we. We cling to the idea of true. But like you said, if you tie a circle around the 60 to 70% of us that actually all agree, I mean, one of the things Indivisible has said is that we need to think of all of us, like this giant pro democracy team, right? Like, some of us will play offense, some of us are on defense. But if we all play with the same goal in mind, and that's to protect our country and our democracy and our rule of law, there's no way we can't win because we really do have the numbers on our side. I mean, clearly the Trump administration is doing an epic amount of damage right now. Like, we're watching it every single day. But I think we can see that it could be infinitely worse if we weren't standing in their way. Like, we're winning 90% of the court cases that are filed against them. Like, yeah, it's taken a long time and it's exhausting to wait for and they get to do their bad thing. And then it gets like, peeled back, you know, but then we see, like, okay, yes, our health is in grave danger with all these cuts to the FDA and the CDC and the nih. Like our world class universities that you're mentioning are in danger with all their federal funds being cut and cut to research. So we're not studying dementia or cancer or all these things that they were really in on. But we're still holding them up, right? We're still holding them up in many, many ways. It looks like these tariffs are going to be overturned, like, all of them, right? You say, I'm going to do this. You're like, except we don't work on executive order, buddy, and eventually it's going to catch up with you if we keep holding you accountable. Now, that's not ideal, right, but it is hopeful because it shows that our justice system is holding. It shows that our opposition is working and it shows that our people are fighting back. You know, I think, like, you're talking, if we can get Congress back, boy, could we make some real change.
- [13:05]
Ezra Levine
But we have to start laying that groundwork now. I think we're on track to get Congress back, but I think there's a possibility that it's 2027, we have the House of Representatives and the immediate action of a Democratic House is to say, well, we shouldn't talk about oversight, we shouldn't talk about investigations, and we need to demonstrate as Democrats that we work with Trump that we can work with these magas. And so we're going to reach across the aisle and we're going to just talk about, we're going to talk about economics and we're going to talk about bipartisanship, because that's what the American people really care about. And if that's not the future you want to see. If you want to see a wholesale rejection of MAGA and this authoritarianism and this attack by Trump and his administration, you need to start demanding that now there are Democrats who are going to be asking for your votes in open and, and, and challenging primaries over the course of the next year. What do they stand for? Do they actually stand for fighting for our democracy, for fighting back, or are they following the, the James Carville strategy? The Democrats should roll over and play dead. So are they dead dog Democrats or they fight back Democrats? So I'm looking at folks like Maxwell Frost and Jasmine Crockett and Chris Murphy and J.B. pritzker and AOC and Bernie. There are a lot of fight back Democrats out there. But then you see others who are just choosing to go along with it. You see folks who are cutting deals with Trump or trying to avoid the spotlight. And, and I think we actually need to make some hard choices and make some demands, because if we want a party that fights back, we've got to demand a party that fights back and that comes to us. You can complain about the Democratic Party all you want. I certainly have. It's got a 21% approval rating right now.
- [14:35]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, it's lower than Trump and the.
- [14:37]
Ezra Levine
Republicans, like, hello, but that is on us. We get to decide what the party looks like. We get to decide what the party fights for. And if the people don't organize and say, hey, I don't like that, I'm going to vote you out. If that's how you actually stand within a position of power in the party, then that's our fault. So I have a lot of energy right now over not just winning back the Congress because this is some game between blue and red, but actually electing leaders who are willing to fight for, for what I, and I believe the vast majority of Americans believe in. But that, that takes work. That takes more than just saying, I don't like Trump or I don't like Vance or I don't like Elon Musk. That's good. That's a starting place. But you got to go a step further than that. Stand up for what you actually want them to do.
- [15:24]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, this is the time for us to, to really shake it up, to change our party from within. You know, people that are like, well, we'll just start a third party. I'm like, that's never going to work. It's just not how the country is set up. So what can we do within the system in which we have what cards can we play that we've already been dealt, and how do we play them properly to still win this game? And part of that is primaring our own representative saying, you do not stand up for us. You haven't stood up for us. You're voting for all of his cabinet members that you knew could kill us. You know, like, this is not the type of opposition that we need. We need fighters. Like you're saying, fight back, Democrats versus dead dog Democrats. And we're not doing that anymore. I mean, one of the things I think is very important about what Indivisible has always pointed out is that we face these two fundamental problems in this country. First, our democracy was always rigged to favor the white and the wealthy. And over the past few decades, an alliance of white nationalists and the ultra rich have been actively working to undermine that already flawed democracy, to permanently cement their hold on power. So we can't allow our opposition to help them in that goal. Right. It was already flawed system. So if we want to start making real change, we have to also fix the system from within. Because I think that's how we found ourselves where we are right now with, you know, Elon Musk buying Donald Trump a presidency and Peter Thiel ready to take over and steal all of our information and data and the big beautiful bill ready to strip everything from everyone who isn't in the ultra rich. 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- [20:18]
Ezra Levine
Goshly, this is a big question. I have so many thoughts, so let me I have a few ideas here A few ideas. So one is you mentioned Musk and Trump in this relationship that is imploding before our eyes. Democrats, the richest man in the world, the largest donor to Donald Trump, his most esteemed adviser, who he gave the most power to do the most damage, just accused the president of being a pedophile. Where is the investigation? Who's calling for subpoenas? When are the hearings going to start? When are the field hearings going to start? And also there's this pay for play relationship between the two that seems somewhat problematic. When are we going to investigate that, get specific, tell people what to expect If Democrats get in the majority, that is something we can all be demanding right now and then give positive reinforcements. When Dems do that, when somebody shows up calling for the right thing, give them love. These folks are politicians. They love cheers. They love love. That's what they want. That's why they got into this business. Many of them, they want adulation. Give it to them when they do the right thing. And if they're not doing the right thing, push them. We are not an arm of the Democratic Party. Our goal is not let's elect Democrats. Our goal is to fight for democracy. And that means supporting the fighters within the party when they are fighting and pushing the ones who are laying down, rolling over and playing dead when they do that. So that's one immediate tactic we can engage in. Another immediate tactic. This Saturday is Donald Trump's birthday. It happens to be Flag Day. And he for years and years has wanted to throw himself a military parade. Well, he's getting his wish. He is now throwing himself a military parade. That'll cost somewhere between 50 and 100 million dollars. Paid for by Yuli, paid for it by me, paid for by all of us. So we can have somebody jump out of a plane, parachute down on the White House lawn and present him a flag and roll tanks through the streets of D.C. that's literally what is happening on Saturday. So rather than engage in that farcical activity, indivisible and dozens and dozens of other partners and thousands and thousands of local leaders are going to be peacefully protesting literally everywhere else. As of, of this time that we're talking, there are more than 1600 locally led protests all over the world. They're in every single congressional district, they're in every single state. They're in blue states, red states, purple states, urban areas, rural areas, suburban areas. And they're led by people who are watching this, who raised their hand and said, I guess I've got to do it. I guess I got to start my protest. And you know what they're going to find? Hundreds or thousands of people who think as they do that in America we don't have a king, we don't do kings, and Donald Trump can throw his little pathetic birthday parade. We are where power resides in this country. And we send that message by showing up in force. So if you have not found your local no Kings Day parade party protest, find it. Go to no kings.org and find it. If you look for one and there's not one nearby, congratulations. You're the new organizer of your local no Kings Day protest. And if you do already know where your no Kings Day protest is, there is no multimillion dollar ad budget out there to advertise this. The way that millions of people are finding out about this is because you're posting to social media, you're telling your friends, you're calling up your grandma. Your second cousin once removed is Ariana Grande. Let her know, get her to post about it. We need to get the word out. And that's not on anybody else but you watching this right now. That is how this grows. Beyond that, I do want to, just to make a note for what you're doing, Lee here, because one place that the right wing has invested unknown quantities of sums is in their media ecosystem. They have been developing their operation to propagandize their people and the rest of the population. And we haven't invested as much in truth, in actual objective sources of what's going on in the world. And the corporate media has repeatedly let us down. And we keep on hoping, can we get one more hit? Can we get one more mention, maybe slightly better coverage? And you said something on the panel and the national convenience that really struck me, which is that that media system's dying. That is dying. That is not the pathway to moving the majority of Americans in the direction of truth. And what you're doing is setting up an actual source of truth for people who want to know what the hell is going on in this country. So more followers for Lee. More people investing in new and emerging media that can help. Tell your friends if you're watching and your friends and family and colleagues aren't, tell them to watch politics, girl. Tell them to actually get the truth. That is helpful because we don't need people brainwashed by a broken media ecosystem that's been infested by right wing billionaires and proto Nazis who are trying to steer us down a cliff.
- [25:03]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, we have to be so clear that there's just so many People out here who are looking to steer the conversation in a way that will help them. Not us, not the people, but them. I've had so many fights on national media, nations, just trying to get the truth in the people's way, because, honestly, you feel like a salmon swimming upstream. They're professional propagandists, they're professional liars, and it's so detrimental to our country as a whole. And I think the thing is that we need to remind people, if you're out here in your small community and you're like, well, maybe I'll start an indivisible group, I don't know if I should or not. You should, should you? 100% should. Because at the end of the day, we have to keep reminding people that political power, it doesn't just reside at the federal level. Right. Like, yeah, we have local and state governments as well, and most of them are working overtime to stop the worst of this fascist behavior coming from the federal level. I think about AGs like Tish James or governors like J.B. pritzker. Right. It's essential that we empower these other levels of government. And we have to remember that. That the Republicans did this for years. They were out of power federally, so they obstructed, obstructed, obstructed at the federal level so we couldn't get stuff done. And then they focused on taking over state legislatures and local offices and things like school boards. So while Democrats were out here feeling like winners because we had the presidency, they were able to do massive damage. Right. So, and then we look at the south, we look at Florida, we look at Texas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas, Wyoming. Right. They've been able to do so much damage to their people with abortion care and with taking away education and with LGBTQ rights that they have just decimated because they took that time to take over these local and state governments. So the tables have turned. Now Democrats have very limited federal power, so we have to build these coalitions and work to strengthen our state and local power up and down while we plan to retake the federal government. But we need to know that all levels of government are important. So if you're in your little small town in Kentucky, you can actually make a huge amount of difference there. That will really help the people, but also help build the power nationally.
- [27:16]
Ezra Levine
Oh, my gosh. A thousand percent agree. And one of the key differences. There are many differences between 2017 and 2025. Yes, there was a Republican trifecta with Trump at the top. Yes, there was a egregious overreach from the federal government. But in 2017, there were six states that were in full control of the Democrats where the governor and the state legislature were controlled by the Democrats. In 2025, there are 15 states that are fully controlled by the Dems. They can be entrepreneurial, they can go on offense. We need more JB Pritzkers who are both walking the walk and talking the talk. And if you have extraordinary power, if you live in a Washington and Oregon and California and Illinois and New Mexico, these states that can unilaterally be a bulwark against an overreaching federal government, by all means do it. And then the other point you make, look, I come from outside the city limits, in a small town in Texas, rural area in Texas, Texas, where the word Democrat was a bad word. People didn't show up for the Democratic Party. It's like, oh gosh, no, we don't do that. I remember when I was first getting politically active and I was against the Iraq war. I was a dumb college student. I didn't know what to do. I was back home for summer. I said, I guess I volunteer for the Democratic Party. And I went to the Hayes Democratic Party and showed up and they looked at me like was an alien. Like, you want to volunteer? What? Why do you want to be here? So I did data entry for a while. That's what I thought activism was. That was my, that was my entree into activism. Indivisible groups have the opportunity to reach people who would never show up at a Democratic party headquarters because we're not an arm of the Democratic Party. And whether it's indivisible or some other local organizing group, if you're in Homer, Alaska, the side of a new indivisible group that just formed last week, you can do good work there. If you're in a rural community or red community, you can do work. You know why we lose Texas and Alabama and Mississippi and Arkansas and Oklahoma? Well, one reason is we don't freaking invest in organizing there. Nobody knows. Democrats, Democrats are nervous to organize in many parts of those states and those communities. But when you go and start organizing against tax cuts for billionaires and cuts to Medicaid, when you go and organize against a would be monarch and an authoritarian who is disappearing Americans, what you will find is in the reddest districts in the country, in the most rural parts of the country, a lot of neighbors are going to believe you and agree with you and finally understand that actually they don't just have to buy hook line and sinker this line that is coming from these authoritarians in the Republican party. And in fact there are places where we agree, in places we can coordinate and build, build coalitions around. And that's how you go from a deep red, impossible to win state to something like a Georgia that is suddenly purple and has two Democratic senators. But if you don't ever organize in these places, there's always going to be deep red and impossible to win. So some of us, we can elect our next senator. It's a competitive election and we have the chance to get the Republican out and get a good Democrat in that's going to fight for us. Some of us have the ability to get a new representative in. That's great. Some of us, us, it's, it's not going to happen in the next cycle. Instead we got to focus on the city council, we got to focus on our state rep. Some of us just running somebody for each of the seats that's available to us would be a victory because the dims aren't even putting people up. But you got to start somewhere. You either have to give up the game and say well, the authoritarians won. I'm not going to do anything or identify where you have leverage based on your political geography and join up in a group, group. Don't do this on your own. Nobody is going to fix this on their own. The first step for any kind of political engagement should not be you signing some bullshit online petition so people can ask you for money. It should be you finding actual real life human beings in your community and saying, well, what the hell are we going to do? Where can we actually make a difference? Okay, let's focus on that.
- [31:01]
Lee McGowan
So my dog chips recently turned 10. He is getting older and it makes me a bit nervous. Nervous because I want to take the very best care of him and make sure he is with us for as long as possible. So one thing that matters to me is how he eats. Chips has always been a picky eater and we accept that. But it's also one of the reasons that I am so crazy about sundaes for dogs. Chips goes in and out on foods, but he has a sensitive tummy. So even when I try the handmade from scratch dog foods, he'll like it for a couple of days but then he'll reject it. Or I buy these really expensive canned foods that were supposed to be the best and we go to through five poop bags on a walk. It just doesn't sit well with his tummy. Needless to say, over the years. We have wasted a lot of time and a lot of money trying to find something Chips would both eat and tolerate. Which is why Sundaes for Dogs is so terrific. Sundaes is a fresh, healthy dog food that's easy to store and serve. So even if I put it out and he refuses to eat it, I can leave it or I can put it back in the bag and try again later. I don't just waste the entire serving. I've even taken to keeping an extra bag bag of food in my office. If Chips isn't hungry at breakfast, I will wait until he needs something midday. Then it's just pour and serve. Sundaes is a fresh made dog food made from a short list of human grade ingredients co founded by a practicing veterinarian who tests and formulates every version of each recipe. Sundaes contains 100% all natural meat and superfoods and 0% synthetic nutrients or artificial ingredients. Dog parents report noticeable health improvements in their dogs like softer fur, fresher breath and better poops. And unlike other fresh dog food, sundaes does not require refrigeration or preparation because of their air drying process. So you can literally just have it with you when you need it, travel with it if you want. Plus, Sundays is delivered right to your home so you never have to worry about running out of dog food. And if your dog doesn't like it, you can cancel or pause your subscription at any time with their 14 day money back guarantee. So why not give Sundays for Dogs a try? Try get 40% off your first order of Sundays by going to sundaysfordogs.com politicsgirl or using the code politicsgirl at checkout that's sundays4dogs.com politicsgirl and use the code politicsgirl at checkout for 40% off. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. Everyone knows you have to wear sunscreen in the summer. But what if your sunscreen can do more than just block UV rays? That's what the scientists at One Skin wondered. So they made a whole family of mineral sunscreens to target UV rays, free radicals and cellular aging. The best part? Unlike other mineral SPFs, it's not heavy or chalky. It feels like skin care. Lightweight, breathable and deeply hydrating. Oneskin was founded in 2016 by an all woman team of scientists with PhDs in skin regeneration, stem cell biology, immunology and bioinformatics. After testing the success of more than 900 so called anti aging peptides, they developed the OS1 peptide, the first ingredient to reverse skin's biological age by reducing the accumulation of sentient cells, the key driver of skin aging. Right in time for the summer, they've introduced their award winning OS1 face SPF in two deeper tints. Formulated with a non nano zinc oxide, One Skin's Pink, patented OS1 peptide and potent antioxidants that scavenge free radicals four times better than other so called anti aging SPFs. This is the sunscreen you're going to be wearing all summer long. Oneskin is also launching a mineral lip SPF that provides instant hydration and protection with a skin smoothing texture you can really feel. And just like other Oneskin sunscreens, it is scientifically proven to decrease key aging biomarkers and increase increase other markers like elastin production for healthier, more resilient lips. I'm going to have to be buying that one for sure. Oneskin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, Oneskin keeps your skin looking and acting younger for longer. For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off by using the code POLITICSGIRL at OneSkin CO. That's 15% off at OneSkin Co with the Code Politics Girl. And after you purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and tell them that we sent you. Give your skin the scientifically proven gentle care it deserves with one skin. Happy summer.
- [35:18]
Ezra Levine
Where can we actually make a difference? Okay, let's focus on that.
- [35:21]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, absolutely. And like you're saying, you know, when you actually sit down and talk to people, most of us agree, we're like, we're not. We don't want to give away our healthcare so billionaires can have more tax breaks. We don't want children to starve in their schools. So that like as Elizabeth Warren said to me recently, so that Jeff Bezos's yacht can have a yacht. You know what I mean? Like most people do not want that, right? Like when I look at Indivisible's Guide, you guys were really clear eyed about how things are going to get worse. Like they're going to get worse. And so how do we operate in increasingly authoritarian conditions, Right? Like you talk about this authoritarian creep and I think that's what we're seeing now, right? Like we look at ice in the streets, dressed in their full combat gear. Like they're going into Fallujah, right? And they're in like Minnesota and they're making domestic planes land and they're boarding and asking for people's papers and going through Their stuff people, I might add, who have already gone through tsa, right? They are cosplaying in military tactic gear with night vision goggles in the day. Storming Southwest flights, like that's got to scare people. It feels not normal. And we have to keep saying it's not normal, right? It is not normal for them to use IRS data to find immigrants on job sites when you've told us you're only going after the deepest criminals. It's not normal to go to courts where people are going through the legal process of becoming a citizen and then storming in with your mask and taking them out. It is important that communities are now standing up to oppose these lawless actions. Right? Like, I look around at our country and I think, geez, like, this is creeping authoritarianism. And it's so important that more and more Americans are joining together to stand up to these costumes. Him cowards. Right? We can't be violent. We get that. We can't. We can't get violent with them, but we can intimidate them. Crowd size helps with that. We can shame them. We can get in their faces. And we have to record everything because we have to keep showing our absolute rejection of this type of authoritarian behavior against our own people in our own streets.
- [37:26]
Ezra Levine
They want to make you think that they are all powerful and that they control the tools. They want you to think that they are strong. But cover covering your face and showing up cosplaying as a invading force as you terrorize communities, that's not strength. That is fear that is driving them. They understand that the public will not accept this, that they will face actual social penalties for standing up, and that there'll be political ramifications for those politicians who support this behavior. They hope that by showing up in that way that the fear they spread is contagious. And you know what? What? They're right. Fear is contagious. That is why they act this way. They want to fracture our coalition. They want to bully everybody else, cow them into submission. So we say, well, sure, I've got political opinions, but I keep those to myself. I'm not going to show up. That's what they want because they understand they are in a very weak position. They're trying to steamroll the public with this increasingly antagonistic agenda that is terrorizing communities all around the country, and it is alienating members of their own coalition. Republicans in deep red seats were worried about the effect of Elon Musk on their own reelection chances. You see Joe Rogan, no friend of ours, in the last election saying, look, I don't know about, I wasn't for Kamala. But disappearing Americans without due process, I don't like that. The positions of this administration and the positions that this Republican Congress are enabling are so deeply unpopular and they hope, hope against hope that they're able to do it in the dark without any kind of pushback. It is our job right now, as they try to do that, to not provide them that benefit, to stand up loudly with other folks and say, clearly this is wrong. This community will not accept that. We will show up. We will make you famous for carrying this activity out. We will end your political career for refusing to stand up to. To it. That is in all of our power to do now, before the first vote in any primary or general election is cast, this is something you can do this weekend. There were three and a half million people out for hands off events on April 5th. I think there are going to be millions more out this Saturday. The numbers that we show in rural and red communities in addition to two blue and purple communities, that's going to send that message. That is a good. You can do. That is what it looks like to participate in a democracy in this moment. But it starts with you. It starts with folks actually taking it upon themselves to exercise some leadership and to take on some real risk, to stand up to the fear that they are spreading and say, yeah, sure, fear is contagious. I have fear. It's reasonable to have fear in this moment because they're coming at people. But courage is also contagious. It just takes some work. You got to spread it yourself. It's up to all of us.
- [40:23]
Lee McGowan
Yeah. And hope is contagious.
- [40:24]
Ezra Levine
That's right.
- [40:25]
Lee McGowan
And I do think you get that from working together, from seeing that you're not alone, that you are. You're terrified in your house by yourself, but you go out and you're like, oh, wow, look at all these people here that feel the same way I do. Like, don't be waiting for someone to come and save us because we have to do it and we have to work together to do it. I heard someone recently comparing us to the Star wars universe, right? And they were talking about how the people who fought the Empire, the evil Empire, were called the Rebel alliance because they were all individual factions fighting separately. But it was only when they aligned in their missions that they really started to make a difference and they were really able to give themselves the opportunity to win. Right. Like, and I think that's so important, you know, like, we might not all get along. We might not all be from the same planet, we might not all want exactly the same thing, but we know who our enemy is and we can unite in that.
- [41:17]
Ezra Levine
Oh, gosh, Leah, it's like you've been in our. At our dinner table with me and Leah. We have been addicted, addicted to the show andor I don't know if folks have seen it.
- [41:27]
Lee McGowan
It.
- [41:28]
Ezra Levine
I'm not even a big Star wars guy. Can I just say that? But Andor is almost incidentally a Star wars film. It is fundamentally a film about or a show about how do we organize across lines of difference, across power differentials to take on an empire that is threatening all of us. And that the display about how coalition politics works and how you pull people from the sidelines into it and what the bureaucracy of the empire looks like and how they're understandable villains and what's motivating them is a brilliant show. I think the best I have seen on how you organize opposition to an empire and to an authoritarian force. But the reason why a show like that can exist in the Star wars universe and feel so relevant is because the idea of gathering together in small groups for protection goes back, I don't know, 200,000 years to the dawn of Homo sapiens. How do we protect ourselves against, against the saber tooth tigers? How did we take down the mammoths to feed our families? We gathered in groups. That's what we did. It is built into our DNA that when we are facing threats, we cannot be alone. You perish alone. The ancestors of ours who just said, nah, I'm just gonna doom scroll and keep to myself, they didn't make it. They didn't pass on their genes. We are the great, great, great great grandchildren of small groups of gatherers who gather together for protection. If you are feeling isolated in this moment, if you are feeling depressed, if you look out at the world and are like, everything's screwed, it's all going to hell and there's nothing I can do about it. That's understandable. The best thing you can do is close the laptop, turn off the tv, find your community center or living room or library where people are gathering and just go. Show up. Just go show up and say, I don't know what to do. I'm here because I want to help and I want to find other folks. You're going to find other folks. It's not just going to feel good. It is cheaper than therapy. But it's not just going to feel good. You are going to find practical things. You can do to contribute to our shared goals across the empire, regardless of what planet you're from.
- [43:33]
Lee McGowan
There you go. There you go. And the thing is, is that it comes down to the fact that we cannot wait for someone to tell us what to do. I mean, God knows democratic leadership is absolutely going to drop the ball. They keep doing it. So we can't be waiting for direction or permission. We have to be those leaders that we keep hoping will show up and tell us where to go. We have to do that ourselves. And I think it's really important, important that Indivisible is helping us do that job. That we can, we can go to your website and we can go to these rallies and we can go to these events and we'll get some sort of sense of not only community, but direction. And I think that's so important. So, listen, I know that Donald Trump is throwing himself this ridiculously undeserved, authoritarian, heavy military parade for his birthday. The fact that we're doing a military parade for someone that is a draft dodger is just so sick, honestly. But tell us how again, we can join no Kings Day, what website we should be going to, how we can help the organization, because ultimately we need to be together, we need to be in community. So tell us how we can support Indivisible but also be at this no Kings Day event.
- [44:38]
Ezra Levine
Just allow me one more reference to Andor. There's a tagline from andor where the rebels let each other know that they're, they are on the same team if they haven't met before. And it's, I have friends everywhere. That's how they let each other know. I love starts by finding your friends who are everywhere. So if you're looking for your local organizing hub, I, I would suggest to check out Indivisible. If you don't have another place and it's fine if you've got another place, I, I just want you organizing locally. But if you're like, yeah, I don't know who's doing anything in my area, go to Indivisible.org you'll find thousands of local indivisible groups. Find a local one. If there's not one in your area area, you can start one. That's how these get started. And then for no Kings Day, this is this Saturday. There are more than 1600 events all across the globe. I just saw one registered in Florence. We're in Paris, we're in Germany, but we're in every single congressional district too. So find your no Kings day protest@nokings.org and again, if, if it's not up there, you get to organize it. That's how we've done this. Millions and millions of people will be coming out to peacefully organize and say, hey, we don't do kings in America. That's not what we do. The source of political power is us. We are standing up against this. And that's going to send a very clear message, not just to Donald Trump, but to our leaders who could be making other choices right now to fight back. And we want them to fight back. And the way we get them to do that is by saying in one loud voice, this era is ending. Democracy is coming back. You're either with us or against us. Choose a side.
- [46:02]
Lee McGowan
Yeah, choose a frickin side side. You have friends everywhere. Ezra, I love it. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for starting Indivisible with Leah. Thank you for, you know, dragging yourself across the finish line to start something that you probably didn't want to do. I think a lot of us feel that way. Sometimes we are the leaders we're waiting for, and sometimes it's the people who don't want to lead that end up being the best person for the job. So thank you so much for doing this and I really hope to see everyone out in the streets on no Kings Day. I. I think it's very important that we're not doing it as a counter protest to this ridiculous birthday party, but we're doing it everywhere around the country to say, this isn't about this one man, it's about all of us.
- [46:43]
Ezra Levine
Thanks for being such a great friend to this movement and to our democracy.
- [46:46]
Lee McGowan
Always. Always. So that was Ezra Levine reminding us that the people who seek to destroy democracy want to do it in the dark. So it is up to us to keep shining a light light to stand up loudly and resist their efforts. That we need to remember that we have friends everywhere, friends and fellow countrymen that want the same things we do. Freedom, fairness, justice, stability. We want leaders who represent us, leaders who fight back. And if we can't find that leader, then we might have to be that leader. We might have to, however reluctantly, meet the moment ourselves and others will come and join us. I want to thank Ezra for joining us today and you for caring enough about democracy to be here now. Go check out indivisible.org and find or organize a group near you and plan to be out in force on the streets on June 14 for no Kings Day. Go to nokings.org to find the closest group and connect with your alliance. Enough of this lawlessness and foolishness. This country was built on better ideals than this. Until next time week Peachy Hand Would you like to get this podcast ad free delivered directly to your inbox along with my kitchen rants? Then please consider becoming a member of Politics Girl Premium by going to politicsgirl.com and signing up. If you are already a premium member of this podcast, thank you for your support. And if you're not a member, please consider being a patron of my work. Mainstream news is only giving you a version of billionaire backed propaganda at this point, so if you want real knowledge, it's essential to support those of us out here. Still, there is a link to sign up in the bio of this episode, but also on politicsgirl.com and as always, please like and share this podcast so we can grow our audience. Because the more people who have access to this kind of information, the better. As always, thank you for your time and support. The Politics Girl Podcast is written and performed by me, Lee McGowan and produced and edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment. All rights reserved.