Understanding Politics: A Candid Conversation with Political Strategist Jasper Hendricks, III.

[00:00:00] You are now listening to Black Guy Therapy, a therapeutic podcast.

[00:00:15] It's just something about that intro I love it.

[00:00:18] Every time we come back, anyway welcome to Black Guy Therapy.

[00:00:22] If this is your first time listening us, we are at The Reputed Podcast.

[00:00:25] I got my man derived with me today.

[00:00:28] How are you sir?

[00:00:29] I am doing fantastic, as always just happy to be here once again trying to get people

[00:00:34] what they want.

[00:00:36] I like it.

[00:00:37] We also have a guest with us this week.

[00:00:40] We have Jasper Hendricks.

[00:00:42] How are you sir?

[00:00:43] Doing alright man.

[00:00:44] How's it going?

[00:00:45] It's going.

[00:00:46] We're going to talk a little bit more about Jasper here in a second but obviously I say

[00:00:51] we're at The Reputed Podcast.

[00:00:53] Somebody asked me, you keep saying you're at The Reputed Podcast but what does that mean?

[00:00:58] Well I thought about it.

[00:01:00] When I say we're at The Reputed Podcast, this is a place specifically for Black men to

[00:01:05] come and relax and have thought of open conversations.

[00:01:10] That's what I mean when I say we're at The Reputed Podcast.

[00:01:14] Think of us as the barber shop with purpose.

[00:01:17] There we go.

[00:01:19] How you feel about that?

[00:01:21] I think that that sums it up.

[00:01:24] Open place for us to talk about our issues and an open space where no one's going to look

[00:01:30] down upon you for having those views.

[00:01:33] So this is the perfect place for that.

[00:01:35] Exactly.

[00:01:36] Relax.

[00:01:37] Start provoking.

[00:01:39] If you can listen to this, if you are someone who loves a Black man or someone who cares

[00:01:45] for just anybody out there, you know, you can still listen in games perspective.

[00:01:52] Most definitely.

[00:01:53] I love it.

[00:01:54] I love the barber shop with purpose.

[00:01:55] I like that.

[00:01:56] I might put that on a shirt.

[00:01:57] But anyway, anyway, like I said, we got a guest with us today.

[00:02:02] We got Jasper Hendrix.

[00:02:04] So let me tell you who Jasper Hendrix is.

[00:02:08] If you are in the Nashville Tennessee area, you know this name.

[00:02:14] You know who this brother is.

[00:02:16] But right now I'm just talking a little bit about him.

[00:02:18] So right now he is a commissioner and vice chair of the Metropolitan Nashville Fairboard.

[00:02:26] So we got a commissioner on the call today.

[00:02:29] So we're winning.

[00:02:30] He's also had a very long career in public service where he's been a presidential, he's

[00:02:37] served as an outreach advisor for presidential congressional state and local campaigns.

[00:02:43] He's also been senior a been a senior a to members of Congress.

[00:02:49] We might get into that a little later.

[00:02:53] He's also done some other cool things on some nonprofit boards and his thing is, you know,

[00:02:59] social justice and civil rights.

[00:03:01] I figured it's November.

[00:03:03] It's a great time to have him on this show because I mean, this is, this is election time,

[00:03:10] right?

[00:03:11] Is that right Jasper?

[00:03:12] Yeah, some people do have elections coming up over the next few years.

[00:03:17] So yeah, very, very.

[00:03:19] See and I think that's where we get kind of lost in the sauce, right?

[00:03:25] We think that there's only the elections for what every four years for president.

[00:03:31] But we don't think about the other elections that we have.

[00:03:33] So look, I thought it would be great to have you here today to kind of talk about those

[00:03:39] things because.

[00:03:40] Look, it's black.

[00:03:41] Man, we are already behind the curve when it comes to voting.

[00:03:45] So hey, maybe talking about this can help expand our mind a little bit.

[00:03:51] So Jasper, I'm going to let you tell the world about yourself.

[00:03:55] Just just tell us a little bit about yourself other than what I told.

[00:04:00] I just want to say that I got a promotion.

[00:04:03] I think maybe it's a promotion.

[00:04:04] I guess you can see from now chair of the of the fair board.

[00:04:09] Oh, he's the chair now.

[00:04:10] Yeah, yeah.

[00:04:11] So I'll see.

[00:04:13] We get that man to play man.

[00:04:16] We get that man to class.

[00:04:18] Maybe a promotion.

[00:04:19] Yes, sir.

[00:04:19] We got this on the bridge.

[00:04:22] My bad.

[00:04:23] My bad.

[00:04:24] Yeah.

[00:04:25] But like I said, I don't know if it's a,

[00:04:27] I don't know if I will say it up promotion.

[00:04:29] It's like a full time job.

[00:04:31] But without the pay, you know,

[00:04:33] so.

[00:04:33] But there's a lot of exciting things happening over there.

[00:04:40] One simple.

[00:04:42] And on the fairgrounds period,

[00:04:45] and we have great staff over there that is working to maintain

[00:04:51] everything that's over there.

[00:04:53] But but yeah, so I'm excited to be here to talk about this topic.

[00:04:58] And like we said, there are collections coming up.

[00:05:00] Some very important elections coming up over the next few days

[00:05:04] the people of the city of Houston will be elected a new mayor.

[00:05:09] You know, and the people of Kentucky

[00:05:13] will be electing a governor, you know.

[00:05:17] So which is interesting because you do have a black man that's running

[00:05:23] on the Republican side.

[00:05:25] The current attorney general is running to be the next governor of Kentucky.

[00:05:30] So we'll see how the voters there feel about that.

[00:05:35] And in an oil and the state of Virginia,

[00:05:39] Virginia has all 140 of their seats in the house,

[00:05:44] 100 seats in the house and 40 seats in the Senate

[00:05:48] than an awful election.

[00:05:49] And that is it can be in a stored election because if Democrats do gain control

[00:06:00] of the house, then you will see the first black speaker

[00:06:06] of the house in Virginia.

[00:06:10] But if they maintain control over the Senate,

[00:06:14] you would see a black woman who is the Senate president,

[00:06:18] pro-tem who's also who will also be chair of finance

[00:06:21] and a black woman who will be the majority of the Virginia Senate.

[00:06:26] So you will see, you know, black people actually in charge of the Virginia legislature

[00:06:33] for the first time in history.

[00:06:35] So, you know, so there are very important elections that do happen outside

[00:06:40] of the presidential cycle and this is an example.

[00:06:44] This year is a prime example of that and what it can mean for black people across the country.

[00:06:51] So just in talking with that, let me, I want to fall back to you.

[00:06:57] We're talking black people in politics and some historical events

[00:07:00] that could possibly happen in this election cycle.

[00:07:05] You being a black man in politics, how did you even come down this path?

[00:07:11] Because this wasn't something that they was talking about at career day for me when I was in school.

[00:07:16] So how did you as a person who's brown skin get into this game?

[00:07:22] Because again, I look at a lot of representatives, especially in the state that I mean,

[00:07:26] a lot of them are fair skinned.

[00:07:30] So, no see a lot of people that look like us.

[00:07:32] So how did you be in black just getting into the political game?

[00:07:38] It was actually through my early involvement with the NAACP growing up

[00:07:43] and that actual involvement didn't come out of a good,

[00:07:52] actually turned bad situation into a good thing in that when it comes to my involvement with NAACP.

[00:08:00] I was at home suspended from school and I was a little radical kid growing up.

[00:08:10] But I didn't know where the energy was coming from.

[00:08:12] I didn't know where it was going and when I say radical,

[00:08:15] it wasn't that I was causing bad trouble in school.

[00:08:19] We were just speaking out against different things that was happening

[00:08:23] and not necessarily doing it in an appropriate way.

[00:08:28] And so one day while sitting at home, I was asking,

[00:08:32] I know just my neighbor next to a neighbor who was retired.

[00:08:36] A teacher and I was like, where are you going?

[00:08:38] All dressed up and she said, oh, I'm going to school board meeting on behalf of NAACP

[00:08:46] to go down there.

[00:08:47] Then the next day she's going somewhere else and say, what are you going today?

[00:08:51] And she's like, oh, I'm going out for NAACP.

[00:08:53] Everything was about NAACP.

[00:08:55] And so I was like, well, what is this NAACP?

[00:08:58] So I asked her when they if I could go with her because I was sitting around how I was bored.

[00:09:02] You know, by this side, she's like, you know, she's like, I don't finish out my work.

[00:09:06] So now I'm just waiting for my sisters to get home from school so we can play outside

[00:09:11] because I grew up in the country.

[00:09:15] And so she was like, well, ask your parents.

[00:09:17] You know, ask them out.

[00:09:18] And so I asked my parents if I could go to NAACP meeting with,

[00:09:22] you know, the next door neighbor, they were like, oh,

[00:09:26] it's something that you want to do.

[00:09:28] I guess.

[00:09:29] OK.

[00:09:31] And while sitting in those meetings, you know, I realized that hey,

[00:09:36] there was a way to actually protest and there was a way to actually

[00:09:40] address things that would happen systematically

[00:09:44] that you didn't necessarily agree with without,

[00:09:49] you know, without necessarily breaking the rules.

[00:09:52] You know, to a point where I would continue to get suspended from school.

[00:09:57] And so, you know,

[00:10:00] and getting involved with NAACP, then, you know,

[00:10:04] as a young person, I was the only young person coming to the meetings.

[00:10:08] And so they welcomed me in.

[00:10:09] They gave me a position, you know, after a few months,

[00:10:13] I got a position within the branch, local branch,

[00:10:17] you know, as a 15-year-old, and this time, you know, sitting there amongst,

[00:10:21] you know, 50 and 60-year-olds.

[00:10:25] And then I started going to conferences.

[00:10:27] And they started family, you know, so then I started seeing,

[00:10:30] you know, going to NAACP state conferences and regional conferences

[00:10:34] national conferences and meeting other young people

[00:10:37] who were involved in their communities.

[00:10:41] And it was actually working to change things.

[00:10:45] And, you know, and so I interned for the NAACP,

[00:10:51] you know, in college.

[00:10:52] You know, my first job was, you know, doing voter empowerment for the NAACP.

[00:10:58] And so, you know, and that gave me the exposure.

[00:11:03] You know, meeting elected officials across the country

[00:11:07] and starting seeing the growing number of black people

[00:11:10] who are getting elected, but not necessarily having the support

[00:11:14] that their white counterparts were receiving.

[00:11:17] And so now that became my fight, you know.

[00:11:22] And the way because the only way you can change the system

[00:11:25] is if you have people at the table.

[00:11:27] And if our people have problems getting access to the resources

[00:11:32] to get them to the table,

[00:11:35] well, you know, how can I do to help them, you know, get there?

[00:11:41] And so, and that's what, you know, I've been working on for the last few years

[00:11:45] and making sure that we can get our people to the table.

[00:11:49] Wow, that's crazy.

[00:11:51] That's strong.

[00:11:53] So so that's some heavy work, like straight up heavy work,

[00:11:59] like no, no doubt about it.

[00:12:01] What keeps you motivated to continue doing that work?

[00:12:07] Is the actually knowing that it's helping people,

[00:12:10] it's helping, you know, I can sit back and watch news,

[00:12:15] clip-ins of, you know, elected officials introduce a legislation

[00:12:20] and knowing that, you know, I wrote that legislation.

[00:12:22] I wrote that bill.

[00:12:23] You know, I gave them, I worked with them on that.

[00:12:26] You know, we were, you know,

[00:12:28] and it made major impact to people, you know.

[00:12:33] And nobody has to know that I did it, you know.

[00:12:38] So because you remove yourself, that's the idea of, you know, of for me anyway.

[00:12:45] Is that and that's why I enjoy working with the elected officials that I do

[00:12:50] and have had the privilege to work with is that they take themselves out of the equation.

[00:12:54] And what does it mean for, you know, people?

[00:12:57] How can we help the most people at one time, you know?

[00:13:02] And because you may only have this one shot,

[00:13:05] you know, because we throughout what you do it,

[00:13:07] you know, you write that.

[00:13:09] You know, you may not be able to just speak again,

[00:13:11] you know, or, you know, or want to be able to, you know,

[00:13:16] you may have to change your approach, but, you know,

[00:13:18] it becomes a little bit more difficult.

[00:13:21] And so just knowing that we're helping,

[00:13:23] you know, that we're helping people at the end of the day just keeps,

[00:13:28] you know, keeps going and it is tough

[00:13:30] because it's a lot that you go up against, or, you know,

[00:13:35] through my involvement with the NAACP, you know, I was receiving death threats when I was in college.

[00:13:39] Oh wow!

[00:13:40] You know, because you're out there, you're in the public.

[00:13:43] You're, you know, attending these meetings and,

[00:13:46] you know, and, you know, and we're getting legislation passed that is helping,

[00:13:53] you know, black people, that's serious.

[00:13:55] And a lot of people don't understand the magnitude

[00:13:58] of what's really happening within those organizations,

[00:14:02] and they're quick to say that those organizations are not effective.

[00:14:06] But at the end of the day, you wouldn't be receiving those death threats if you were not effective.

[00:14:11] You know, and no one did not perceive you as a threat.

[00:14:15] Um, you know, and so, um, but it's enough to keep, it's enough to keep me motivated.

[00:14:23] Man, that's, that's tough.

[00:14:24] You talk about receiving death threats.

[00:14:27] I mean, what is it like to the burden of caring with you and your family receiving that?

[00:14:32] How do you mentally, you know, handle those types of things?

[00:14:36] Yeah, I check in with my family, and I'm more concerned with my family.

[00:14:40] And so, you know, I have a conversation with my mom.

[00:14:44] You know, doing the two, I was a member of the presidential electoral college in 2016.

[00:14:49] You know, so which means that I was one of, you know, 538 people that actually voted for president.

[00:14:54] That's it. Hold on. Wait a minute. You're the, you're the first person I've ever met that was on part

[00:15:00] of the electoral college. Hold on. That is, you passed by that like it was something nine.

[00:15:07] It's efficient. We all vote. We all, why do we need electoral college?

[00:15:11] This man was on the electoral college. Now that's, that's, I've never, you know, I've never met anybody

[00:15:17] that said on that stage. Yeah, that's a lot of conversation.

[00:15:25] You know, it was interesting how I ended up on that. That was my, that was something, you know,

[00:15:29] I saw my reading and I was like, oh, what is this?

[00:15:34] I went check this out and figure out. Yeah, listen. And you know,

[00:15:39] it ended up, you know, it ended up happening.

[00:15:42] Is that like a vote you win? I've got to tell us how do you do that?

[00:15:46] How do you get an electoral college? You voted for the president. For real?

[00:15:50] For real. For real. Yeah.

[00:15:54] So how I ended up on it was that the people of my congressional district voted for me

[00:15:59] to represent them. And so we had to go through like a whole,

[00:16:04] like constitutional convention type of thing and a high school auditorium in southwest Virginia.

[00:16:12] Like you're together with people from your congressional district.

[00:16:15] Like they're elected to vote, you know, through their local democratic parties.

[00:16:22] It's a whole system, you know, that you go through.

[00:16:28] You know, and you have to campaign to all those people

[00:16:33] that were elected to represent their local democratic party at this convention.

[00:16:41] And yeah, so I beat out five other people that were nominated.

[00:16:48] You know, it was like six of us, I believe they were nominated.

[00:16:52] And so I received the most votes.

[00:16:55] And which meant that when, what that means is that when people go to vote in November,

[00:17:03] they don't see the name of the presidential candidate.

[00:17:07] They're voting for the electorate. So like your name was actually on the ballot.

[00:17:12] So my name was on the ballot. So it's like when so when people from my congressional district

[00:17:17] went to vote, they were like vote for Suzie Q.

[00:17:22] Delegate for, you know, for Donald Trump or Jasper Hendrix,

[00:17:30] Delegate for Hillary Clinton.

[00:17:33] You know, and so more people in my state and my area voted for Jasper Hendrix,

[00:17:44] the Delegate for Hillary Clinton.

[00:17:46] So I actually got to participate in the,

[00:17:50] in the ceremony. So it's a whole ceremony. So you go to your state legislature.

[00:17:56] You'll present it with like, you know, these papers, these certificates, you have to sign

[00:18:01] and they go off to the National Archives.

[00:18:03] And so and they stay in the National Archives in DC forever.

[00:18:07] Forever, forever.

[00:18:09] So so if you go back and look at the 2016, if anybody wants to go back and research

[00:18:15] the 2016 elections, you know, my name and signature is, you know, one of those five hundred

[00:18:22] and in thirty eight people who actually certified the election for president.

[00:18:29] They're trying to, well, no, 2020 is a similar to what they're trying to,

[00:18:34] you know, they're trying to overturn 2020. But this is 2016, I was 2016 with Hillary,

[00:18:39] you know, actually eventually lost but, but, you know, but my vote, and I always laugh at people

[00:18:45] and say that I was probably one of the only people that can say that I legally voted for Hillary Clinton

[00:18:50] three times in 2016. So I believe in it. I did my best. You did your best. And I know with all

[00:18:59] of the like January six, this stuff and things happening. What it was trying to change the

[00:19:04] electors and putting a fake a electors can you tell us a little bit more about that process

[00:19:09] and how they were trying to, uh, get's pervert some of those things that, you know, have long

[00:19:15] standing. How did they try to because you have a probably better understanding than we would

[00:19:19] if we're trying to try and see them. Even people in this goes back to your early question

[00:19:23] that we were getting into was about the, you know, the threats and everything. And so when I received

[00:19:27] threats doing that whole process of 2016 from the Trump, you know, side because, you know, they

[00:19:33] were demanding that I vote for Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. But my people voted for Hillary Clinton

[00:19:40] right? And so in that side of the electoral process works is whoever your people tell you to vote for

[00:19:46] is who you actually legally obligated to vote for. So it's like I can't just say in it, you know,

[00:19:52] I can't say that, you know, um, I'm gonna vote for, uh, you know, anybody else. Actually,

[00:20:01] you know what I tried the funny thing is is I tried because we knew that Hillary Clinton was going to

[00:20:06] lose anyway. And so, you know, when everybody started talking about those fake list electors and

[00:20:10] everything. So I started thinking about, well, what can I get out of this? Right? And so I said,

[00:20:15] well, you know what? Hey, I'm going to be because everybody else is saying that they were going to hold

[00:20:21] their votes because Donald Trump voted Donald Trump, quote unquote, one, the, um, you know, the most votes,

[00:20:28] you know, uh, whatever I just said, well, you know what, I'm gonna flip the script. And I'm gonna say,

[00:20:33] I'm going to hold out on voter for Hillary Clinton until the Democratic Party has a conversation

[00:20:38] on how they treat African American voters because that was the problem. That is why Hillary Clinton lost.

[00:20:44] That was one of the main reasons why Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 was because she did not, you know,

[00:20:50] the campaign didn't like campaign in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, you know, these large black

[00:20:57] populated, you know, urban areas they skipped over. And that was her wind margin, right? And so

[00:21:04] when I'm like, look, I'm tired of us having this conversation every election year that Democratic

[00:21:10] Party, you know, only, you know, would take black voters for granted. Like so I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold

[00:21:16] my vote, you know, and I may not vote for Hillary Clinton. You know, but, you know, until the

[00:21:23] Democratic Party has this conversation, well, I received a notice from the to stay party chair

[00:21:29] that I would be sued if I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton. Wow. Oh, you know, all right.

[00:21:39] I'll let you know what, you know what? It's another way maybe I can do this, you know, but

[00:21:44] I want to get $10,000 fine. You know, so you went back to your younger days when you was getting

[00:21:50] in trouble for being a freedom fighter. You was like, and they said that Sue and you was like,

[00:21:54] all right, $10,000? Let me go. Let me get it. And saying this piece of paper.

[00:22:04] So that brings me to a good question. Like we have,

[00:22:09] uh, people, we have a the 538 electoral people, right? That's for that's the electoral electoral college

[00:22:18] that we all hear about, right? Yeah. So my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong because

[00:22:25] this is just what I remember from the civics class I was given in high school. But my understanding

[00:22:31] is that that group was created because when America first started, the people weren't as smart.

[00:22:40] And and then I'm not necessarily a smart but didn't have the access to Washington to know

[00:22:47] the issues that were going on. So they had these electors that represented the areas so that they

[00:22:54] could be informed and make the decisions. Is that sort of true? You don't do anything

[00:23:00] inside of casting the vote. And like I said, we cast, we vote for who the people say the vote for

[00:23:05] you know? Okay. So and you think about it, 538 is actually not what members are in

[00:23:09] a congress. So it's actually allocated based on congressional representation which means that

[00:23:16] to me it ensures that all votes are, you know, the votes, the voting is equal, you know,

[00:23:24] that is equal like states. If you're if you think about it from a standpoint of the way that our

[00:23:31] Congress is currently, well, I don't know if this is a good point because what we just want to

[00:23:36] what we're seeing right now but say, think about it. But but it's just it's just to ensure that

[00:23:46] you know, there's three equal representation. There are some tweaks to it that I believe that we

[00:23:51] need to look at because we need to I think include our territories, you know, like like the

[00:23:59] citizens of Puerto Rico do not have representation, you know, in it because they don't have congressional

[00:24:06] representation. I'm going to do the people of the US Virgin Islands. So I think that if we're

[00:24:11] you know, they're going to be a part of us and especially just recently seeing the devastation

[00:24:17] in Puerto Rico, like I just returned from Puerto Rico and they're still not haven't properly rebounded

[00:24:24] you know, from Hurricane Maria and and the other storm. As you while I was there, they had a storm

[00:24:33] in their infrastructure cannot handle it. You know, we ended up eating dinner in dark, you know,

[00:24:37] in a restaurant. And so, you know, and I think it's because they don't have the representation. And so

[00:24:44] to me, that's the one thing that I can't say about tweaking is that tweaking the system to include

[00:24:51] our territories. I think needs to be looked at. But we pretty much basically do what

[00:24:58] our people tell us to do. So here's another question for that just to play off of that because

[00:25:05] my gear is a turning here. We're the only country in the world who does this process, right?

[00:25:14] Every other country in the world, they go off the popular vote. Why do we have why do we even have

[00:25:24] a popular vote if we have to do the electoral college deal? Well also from people don't they don't

[00:25:34] directly elect their leadership like you know, they don't elect the king and queen of England,

[00:25:41] you know, but they elect the prime minister. You know, and so, so you know, which means that

[00:25:52] our all forms of government don't work for everyone, right? And so, not what's asked for

[00:25:58] at all in throw. And I think that what we do have what we have, you know, sort of has been working for us,

[00:26:06] you know, as far as a country because we haven't happened to be the superpower. So do you want

[00:26:12] to change that? Like that happens for a reason, you know, and so everyone relies on us.

[00:26:20] So we can't be doing too bad of a job, you know. But I guess I wonder because if you think about

[00:26:28] Hillary won the popular vote in lost election, our goal in the popular vote lost the election

[00:26:35] like more people voted for these people, but they're still we're still losing elections.

[00:26:39] Because because we because it because that we say it like because we say it like that, right? But

[00:26:50] when people are off of president, you don't run for president to get the most votes. You know,

[00:26:56] most popular votes, you want to be wrong for president to get the most to win the most states to win

[00:27:02] the most, you know, electoral college books. So it's what and I explain it to people as a,

[00:27:09] you know, playing space right? You go to somebody's house and you will be like, hey, you want to play

[00:27:14] space? You know, what you don't you want to know the rules of the table before you sit down,

[00:27:19] right? And so because you can't change it in the middle, you can't change it at the end.

[00:27:25] You know, what was the big joke or a little joke? You know, you know, and all that so

[00:27:32] so when we when you run for president, you know that you have to get

[00:27:37] the most electoral college votes. And when you look at it, yes, she won the most votes,

[00:27:44] period national popular vote because she won states like California, New York, you know,

[00:27:51] so does that mean that the vote count in California should outweigh the people's voices in Iowa or

[00:27:59] Minnesota, you know, or you know, or Virginia because they happen to have way more people. You

[00:28:08] know, and I think that's where the electoral college comes in is to make sure that there that

[00:28:15] you know, that the voices of all people, you know, I heard it not just it's just coming from one side

[00:28:24] but other because quite frankly California got a lot more known and I'm not sure if I could trust

[00:28:30] them to leave that country right now. It's just weird for me because I feel like a vote is a vote

[00:28:38] right? And I know that our system isn't worth it way, but in my mind, I feel like a vote is a vote

[00:28:43] yeah, California has however many more people than Virginia, but there's still people at the end of

[00:28:49] the day and the issues that they're voting on. They want this person, you know, I don't know,

[00:28:54] it's just our system is weird. I'm still trying to learn it and some days I get frustrated.

[00:29:02] Big big and that's yeah and period full stop. I'm gonna stop it. Yeah, because I'm actually working

[00:29:10] on electoral college project right now. It's gonna roll out at the beginning of the year so that we can

[00:29:17] actually begin to educate people and break down electoral college so that way it's less confusion

[00:29:22] at the end of the year. So it just incates something does happen, you know, I actually want us to be

[00:29:27] prepared, you know, this election cycle to make sure that we're debunking it as much disinformation

[00:29:35] as possible across the country. So, but like I said, that's what we want to roll that project out

[00:29:40] around the first of the year. Well, let us know because we'll definitely push out a link to that.

[00:29:46] Oh yes, for sure. They asked me thinking about the, you know, the whole, you know, 2020 election

[00:29:53] in electoral college. How was there a possible way that Trump could have somehow finagled his

[00:30:01] way to when I know it kind of got close to someone would have kind of went one way or another and

[00:30:05] things could have changed could that have possibly happened and could have happened in the future?

[00:30:09] I guess with this next election. No, and that's why we hit that's why I say that it was important

[00:30:14] that we did have the system in place. You know, because it stops it, you know, it's in our constitution

[00:30:20] and you can't change it. And that's why Mike Pence said that there's nothing that you can do

[00:30:24] because you can't just, you know, say that what's in the constitution right there is not like

[00:30:28] close your eyes, but they all can't see it. You know, and do it. You know, and do what you think

[00:30:33] you can do. And so, um, and so no, it would not have succeeded because each state has already

[00:30:41] certified like we certified. Um, like we voted on December on December 18th. And so all the people

[00:30:50] working stuff was there. Like everybody, everybody knows who were the electors. And like I said,

[00:30:56] the names, our names were on, um, what actually on the ballots on people's ballots. So there's so

[00:31:04] much record there that you know, there was no way they could swap out and say, oh no, these want

[00:31:09] to be electors. These, it was these people, you know, and it was a way, you know, I think the

[00:31:15] electors, how did they? Then I think they're, you know, people are being prosecuted for sending in fake

[00:31:21] electors, right? Is that what they did? They put in other people's names on that piece of paper

[00:31:26] that you guys had to sign? Is that right? That's what they did. They were just like, oh yeah,

[00:31:30] no, they just switched the paper and just like, no, like I mean when there's actually every one of

[00:31:35] them are recorded because like I said, they happen within the state legislatures. You know, it's a

[00:31:40] whole ceremonial process. Like, and it happens, everyone happens on the same day. You know what I'm

[00:31:47] saying? It's on January 18th. Like it's so, so there's a process that we have though, you know, and um,

[00:31:53] and so, you know, on January 18th everyone knew who all the electors were. So for you,

[00:32:00] for them to try to switch names on January 6th, it was just like telling saying, oh I know you,

[00:32:07] I know you think you read that but you didn't. This is actually what you read, you know.

[00:32:15] Hey look over here. What's that over here? What's that over there?

[00:32:18] These people never reminds me of the Dave Chappelle skit where they're at the table where he's playing

[00:32:27] George Bush and he tells him he knocks the water over and they take off running because

[00:32:32] he didn't want to answer the question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a question.

[00:32:38] It never reminds me of that right there. So obviously we're all black people and we're talking about

[00:32:45] the process that frankly, you have taught me so much about just in this short conversation because

[00:32:52] like you said, there is a lot of disinformation out there and a lot of us aren't civically engaged

[00:32:57] enough to know what's going on because there's not a lot of this being taught in school anymore.

[00:33:04] Usually as electives now, not as as required material but as black people, as black men,

[00:33:12] specifically, what are some things other than voting that we can do to stay involved civically

[00:33:20] like throughout each year, each and every year, off year, election year or whatever.

[00:33:25] You know, I think maybe get it involved with some local organizations. You know, you have 100 black men.

[00:33:32] You have your local NAACP branches and local Democratic parties that do activities and all these groups

[00:33:46] do activities throughout the year. There are a few other groups out there so you can do research

[00:33:52] on what's around in your area and just pay attention. I would say go to attend community meetings,

[00:34:04] attend your local school board meetings, get to know your local elected officials. It's not that hard

[00:34:10] to reach out to them and follow them, subscribe to their newsletters so you can see what they're

[00:34:16] writing about what their concerns are and making sure that their concerns align with yours.

[00:34:23] You know, and you can determine that on what they choose to highlight in their newsletters.

[00:34:29] You know, also just making sure you pay attention to what goes around what's going on in your neighborhood.

[00:34:40] I think that's pretty much it.

[00:34:47] I want to pivot because again, I know that you have done all these cool things and you have even helped

[00:34:59] or not even but you have helped in picking candidates to run for local offices.

[00:35:07] What is the process that goes into finding like the right, because we're black,

[00:35:15] we want to get black people so they can sit at the table. You said that earlier.

[00:35:18] So what is the process to finding like the right black candidate to run for office?

[00:35:26] I don't think there's a real process. There's a, you know, I just feel like a person making sure

[00:35:35] the person is genuine. You know, for example, back in 03, I met a state senator

[00:35:48] in Wisconsin who was running for Congress and she, you know, to me was a phenomenal person when

[00:35:58] I looked at her background. She had started a credit union in her community because she

[00:36:05] had heard and well, she was aware that local banks was like giving to black people so she decided

[00:36:11] you know what was she going to do about that? You know, and that was to start a credit union.

[00:36:18] She, you know, but prior to that, she had been a welfare mom, raised, you know, raised her kids,

[00:36:24] put herself to college and she wanted to run for Congress. And she was, you know, very well-liked.

[00:36:32] We did some polling. I had some polling done in the community and they said black people

[00:36:37] was not going to vote for it. It was not going to vote in the presidential election if this

[00:36:40] woman was not on the ballot in November. And I was like, well, who is this woman? You know,

[00:36:45] and you know, just doing more research as far as, you know, she's very genuine and very down the earth

[00:36:51] and so, you know, I convinced the Democratic Party to actually power players within the

[00:36:59] Democratic Party because we had to get involved in the Democratic primary uniform or her to win.

[00:37:05] And, you know, they gave me, you know, a budget, you know, and to spend in Wisconsin to get out

[00:37:18] to vote, you know, or her behalf so that she could win. And she's still serving as a member of Congress.

[00:37:25] She's the first African-American to represent the state of Wisconsin and Congress. You know,

[00:37:30] she's on the ways and means committing that and, you know, and what she means, you know,

[00:37:35] what she makes it to, ways and means, that's it right there. Control the tax dollars, you know,

[00:37:42] you know, and all that. And so, you know, that's what I look for the genuine, that

[00:37:47] genuineness, that person, that the people in the community look up to, that can, you know,

[00:37:53] you go out to the community and say, oh yeah, you know, the people say, I rock with them,

[00:37:57] I rock, yeah. Like, you just talk to the average person and, you know, you know, and they're like,

[00:38:04] oh yeah, I know they fight for the community. You know, I typically know I got the right candidate,

[00:38:12] you know, and to me, I can tell if the person is there for the community or their for themselves,

[00:38:19] you know, just having, you know, the conversation, just asking them, you know, what their goals are,

[00:38:26] what they want to work on, you want to run for office, what are your top three? We'll be your first

[00:38:30] three pieces of legislation because as a representative, you know, you go there to legislate.

[00:38:37] You know, I know there's a lot of talk right now when people say, oh, I, you know, we're going

[00:38:41] to elect disruptors like what disrupting things don't get things done and, you know, and

[00:38:49] right now people need things done for them, you know, they need it because as prices are going up,

[00:38:56] you know, and say oh, we're going to disrupt, you know, so if government doesn't work, that means

[00:39:02] money isn't getting out. You know, people which means that people are going to be hungry

[00:39:08] and people are not going to be able to afford gas. And so, um, and so I want to make sure that

[00:39:15] we're electing people that's going to go to our legislative bodies and actually legislate.

[00:39:23] That brings me to a point that I like to ask people about is considering in the black community at

[00:39:32] times you have those who are, you know, disruptors, people who are going to be activists and you

[00:39:38] got people who are politicians. And some of those who may not, they may feel the same way as you,

[00:39:44] but they go about it a different way. And I feel like we need to have space for that right? So,

[00:39:50] you can have activists who's going to push the most, uh, the things that we, the people really need.

[00:39:56] But in politics, there's a way that you try to persuade people on the other side to do the

[00:40:02] things you want. And can you speak a little bit about that persuasion versus the hammer that people

[00:40:07] want them to use? And then we fussed at those who try to use that persuasion that they're not

[00:40:12] moving things fast enough. How can we play that role, you know, one side of the other to come to a

[00:40:18] good, good time. Yeah, if you're disrupting something, nothing is happening. Nothing is happening.

[00:40:25] And that means everything is stalled because it's disrupted, right? You know, so you need to have

[00:40:35] the, uh, the thought of in the process of, um, building alliances within legislative bodies.

[00:40:43] That's the only way you can get something done is if you get a majority of the people to agree with

[00:40:48] you, you know, um, 50 plus one. And that's the, that's the golden rule. You know, you need a,

[00:40:55] you need a majority. And if you're disrupting, you're not getting the majority. There isn't

[00:41:01] it too much or they get you nothing because you're not doing anything. Nobody's nothing's moving.

[00:41:05] And so that agitating, that act, that advocacy and that activism is in another place. That's on

[00:41:15] the outside. That's when you don't have a seat at tape, you know, um, when you're not in the room,

[00:41:23] you know, and you want the people in the room to understand, you know, what you need and what your

[00:41:30] what your, what your, um, what you're trying to achieve, what you want them to do, um, on your

[00:41:36] hand, when you're in the legislative body, your job is to legislate. You know, um, and so that's

[00:41:46] the only way you get something, that's the only way you could be successful, um, in your job. So

[00:41:51] it's just like you go into your job and do a performance review, right? And they list what

[00:41:58] your responsibilities are and they, and they, you go over, okay, have you been able to achieve that?

[00:42:05] Well, as a legislator, your only role is to legislate. And if you can't mark that, if you can't

[00:42:10] check that box, then the people don't need to put your back in there because as a legend,

[00:42:15] you should be able to persuade other people to be, to agree with you, not piss them off and make

[00:42:22] them angry until a point where they don't want to talk to you when they want to drag you across

[00:42:27] the house floor versus sit down with you across the floor, you know, and talk on the aisle, you know,

[00:42:33] we all know the fight that almost happened. I know y'all saw that. I didn't see that one.

[00:42:42] That looked, that looked really bad, you know? Um, I guess what I'm thinking about is like it has

[00:42:48] to be somewhat of a mix between, and I don't know where that should stop and when it should start from

[00:42:56] activism into becoming a seasoned politician there, you know, fighting for what the people

[00:43:03] want versus being able to make that connection to others because I mean, sometimes it's black people.

[00:43:08] I think we don't realize that we need others, right? We're only 13% population. So in order for

[00:43:14] us to reach our goals, I mean, first we need, you know, capital, right? And then we need a motivation,

[00:43:21] we know the motivational factor that can help others to push things in our direction and not lose

[00:43:28] things that we already have. So how do you think is the best way we can do that as a people?

[00:43:36] I mean, just thinking maybe getting together, you know, sales and coming up with the plan.

[00:43:41] You know, um, I think right now we just have, we lack that leadership within our communities

[00:43:49] and without organizations. I think we're seeing our black organizations sort of on the rebound.

[00:43:56] You know, as most of the world, you know, when it comes to, you know, COVID, there was a lot of

[00:44:02] disruption that happened within our lives over the last couple of years. And so,

[00:44:09] and so we know it took a toll on some of our leadership, but we don't have the,

[00:44:15] you know, the Reverend Jackson's and the Reverend Sharp Thins of yesterday,

[00:44:20] you know, but who is that leadership? Is that the Freddie Hayes, you know,

[00:44:24] Pastor Freddie Hayes, so, um, you know, who's now taken over Rainbow Push and, you know,

[00:44:30] a Jamal Franklin. I mean, Jamal, sorry, not Jamal Franklin, but Jamal Bryant.

[00:44:36] Jamal Bryant out of Atlanta, you know, who, you know, who, um, who can we, who do we have

[00:44:44] at this moment that can bring people, you know, together so that way we can come up with the plan,

[00:44:51] plan of action, you know, for our communities.

[00:44:56] Man, that is what we need for sure.

[00:45:01] And here's a quick question for you. How do we, how do we engage young black voters today,

[00:45:08] given all the social media, all the disinformation, everything that we have? How are we engaging

[00:45:13] young black voters to get out and do what they need to do? One thing is that we have the

[00:45:18] conversation. Just having a conversation with them, you know, just if you see a young person,

[00:45:22] you know, ask them if they, if they already should have voted, you know, um, as they're interested in voting,

[00:45:28] um, you know, asking what, what, what concerns, what are their concerns?

[00:45:33] Um, and that's I think one thing that we don't, that we do not do, is ask, you know, what,

[00:45:39] what concerns other people, you know, because their concerns may not be your concerns.

[00:45:45] You may be concerned about educational system, but if they're 23 years old and they don't have,

[00:45:50] you know, any children, you know, are they concerned about the educational system or are they

[00:45:55] concerned with, you know, um, jobs, you know, access to jobs, access to health care, um,

[00:46:01] paying back student loans, you know, um, what's through the loan forgiveness? You know,

[00:46:07] what is it, you know, that will motivate them. Um, and then connect that to, you know, government

[00:46:12] in the role of government. Um, and, you know, because I think that people do not understand

[00:46:20] the direct, um, connection to their lives, uh, their government plays in every aspect of their

[00:46:27] lives. Um, you know, and so, um, so I think just getting, you know, just, just, you know, maybe

[00:46:35] created some type of social awareness campaign, you know, that could be catchy. Uh, that could

[00:46:43] grab the attention of young people to make, uh, some connection. You know, I think could be

[00:46:49] helpful, but just basically just having a basic conversation, what concerns and connected to

[00:46:56] connect and politics or government to what? Yeah. That's cool.

[00:47:02] And so I'll ask, Gerard, uh, Gerard, I can I ask your famous question or, or you go ahead and

[00:47:07] ask your famous question about the, what do we, what do you do to get your, your black got

[00:47:14] therapy on? Yeah. Yeah. What'd you do to get your, your black got therapy? You know, this was

[00:47:17] a therapeutic podcast. What things do you do in your life to help? Um, you're, you're,

[00:47:23] you're therapy, you're black got therapy. Well, one thing I think I was going to start doing is

[00:47:28] incorporate a little bit more, um, personal time into travel. So I just got from saying one last night.

[00:47:38] You know, it was, uh, it was sort of a business trip, but, you know, extended it a few days to,

[00:47:45] you know, to get some, some R and R, you know, in there where, you know, to important with

[00:47:51] people, but I was like, well, I haven't seen you any, yeah, because I was sleep, sit outside on my

[00:47:55] balcony, you know, watching the ocean. You know, just, just meditate and think and plan, um, you

[00:48:03] know, and, um, and plan ahead. Um, so, you know, I want to incorporate, you know, a little bit more travel,

[00:48:09] but, you know, but as far as, um, you know, otherwise is just, you know, it's a very good question.

[00:48:16] So it was a question that I had to, you know, ask myself, you know, because you're working and

[00:48:22] you're constantly working in, you know, and unlike some fields, you know, politics went, you know, um,

[00:48:30] went even harder during the pandemic. And so a lot of us didn't have any time off. We didn't,

[00:48:36] you know, um, you didn't have personal time because you're constantly working and putting out

[00:48:42] fires. And so, um, and so, you know, I try to go to some live music events, you know, at least take

[00:48:51] a break, you know, for a couple of hours and, um, it goes to some good shows, you know, we have

[00:48:57] fortunate enough to be in Nashville where there's, you know, quite a few options to do that. So, um,

[00:49:05] but yeah, but I think everybody needs some beach time in their life.

[00:49:11] You know, I definitely hear that. I hear that. So, um, how can, how can everybody find you?

[00:49:19] I wish, shout your socials out just so people listen to you and want to find you.

[00:49:25] Yeah. So it's, uh, pretty easy, but it's, uh, at J L H the third, um, on every platform.

[00:49:34] So it's our J L H T H E. The number three are D at, uh, so it's, um, on Facebook, on Twitter, um,

[00:49:46] Instagram. And y'all can also find him on a podcast called Funky Politics.

[00:49:54] He's there too. So you can listen to him talk some more political, uh, jazz with, with others.

[00:50:02] I don't know. A little bit more out of our realm, but, uh, hey, we can listen to you there and if

[00:50:08] you're local to the middle Tennessee area, you can see him on TV. Oh, was that Sundays? Is that

[00:50:13] a Sunday show? Sundays, yep. You can see him on TV on Sundays on what's that show called?

[00:50:19] National film, Nashville and Focus. Nashville and Focus. That's what it was. I'll buy the

[00:50:24] same politics in focus, but it is Nashville and focus. So if you, if, and are they allowed to call

[00:50:30] in on that show too? No, not on that show. Not on that show, but, but you're not, you're

[00:50:35] I'm going to say just not yet. So that's gonna be some changes possibly coming up in.

[00:50:41] Okay, cool. Cool. Well, yeah, you can find him there too. He's on, he's on Fox 17.

[00:50:48] And he's also on another podcast that he has called Funky Politics. So we look, I need to give

[00:50:56] you the clap because we appreciate having you here. Man, we really appreciate a fun conversation.

[00:51:03] Yes, yes, sir. Not my life. The invitation. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

[00:51:10] So here's the thing. As we end our show today, we always ended with some therapeutic music as you

[00:51:21] can hear. And we also ended with a final word. So each person will give a final word. So we'll

[00:51:27] let you start us off today. Sir, what is your final word for the people out there in listening land?

[00:51:34] I would just say stay woke. Stay woke. Staying creepy. Y'all know, you know, they're trying to make it a dirty

[00:51:43] word, but we've been using it a long time. Yeah, yeah, that's easy. That's easy. It's easy, short and sweet

[00:51:50] to the point. Jira, what you get for the people? I mean, since this is a therapeutic podcast for us,

[00:51:58] I want everyone to understand that the most important thing for you to do is know yourself, right?

[00:52:05] Know yourself deeply. Know what your motivations are. Know you so you can help others because if

[00:52:11] you don't know yourself, you don't know what your true motivations are, what things can move you.

[00:52:16] We always help in others, but sometimes we need to help ourselves. So everyone out there help

[00:52:21] yourself. Know get to know yourself, see somebody if you need to talk, pray, meditate through all

[00:52:29] these different things that if you need to make sure that your mental is taken care of.

[00:52:35] I like it. So my final word for the day is first off there is a poll or not even a poll. There's a

[00:52:46] or I guess it is a poll, but it is outlining all the little Davies necks from top 25 little Davies necks.

[00:52:54] And I would just like to say that whoever made that poll is absolutely wrong. The the cosmic browning

[00:53:01] should not be number one. It definitely should be the old no cream pie. The old no cream pie didn't even

[00:53:07] make the top team. And I'm upset about that. So I just want to say whoever made that poll and

[00:53:15] that didn't work the way I wanted it to, you need to go back and redo it because the old

[00:53:20] mere cream pie needs to be number one. Follow by the fudrown, follow by the nutty buddy,

[00:53:25] and then the star crunch. That's what I'm gonna say, but on a serious note, again we

[00:53:31] will come back to you each week and we will keep bringing on guests and keep having these

[00:53:38] stuff provoking conversations. Because again we're at the therapeutic podcast and that's what

[00:53:42] we're here for. So if you like us, subscribe, keep listening and we'll just keep seeing you every

[00:53:48] Monday. And I guess if nobody else has anything to say, we out. We outta here. Thank y'all.