This is Rumble with Michael Moore and I am Michael Moore.
Michigan. I like my own Shores.
I long to see Michigan ever mention to you that.
I'm from Michigan. So is the great actor.
Jeff, Daniels of the purple rose of Cairo.
Jonathan demme's, something wild and of course Dumb and Dumber
and so many other great films He's he's also from Michigan.
So I thought we kick off today with Jeff Daniels singing, our
State Anthem Michigan, MI Michigan from Saginaw Whispering
Pines from Lake superior's, farthest - fair in the light of
memory shine, Michigan, Michigan, Val gave that Sons
without a side. Michigan, MI Michigan and sent
by bravest forth to die, Michigan, MI Michigan beneath.
The Hostile Southern Sky, they bore thy Banner crowd and ready
to fight and now, Ever to fly Michigan.
Michigan, kind of a sweet but mournful song for a stadium
Michigan, lost a lot of lives, in the Civil War.
I think probably per capita maybe even more than most other
states. Michigan was an early
abolitionist state. Trying to end slavery.
There's a famous court case, where an escaped slave was,
recaptured by Southerners who came up to capture slaves in the
north and that was allowed by the federal government until
Michigan. Put its foot down and the courts
in Michigan, put their foot down, and then that was the end
of that. And then Michigan became a
beacon of place. If you could get the Michigan
from the south, well, we're right there on the border with
Canada and then you could get true freedom because Canada at
that point, of course. It's didn't have slavery.
And so, the State Anthem makes these references to the losses
of the Civil War. But it is.
I think when you listen to it, you'd think that the state song
from Michigan would be something from Motown, right or Aretha
Franklin, or Iggy Pop or the white stripes or Madonna, or Bob
Seger, there's so many great rockers and Hip-Hop from
Michigan Eminem but no, this is still our state and Anthem.
But today's podcast is actually quite a happy podcast because I
want to share with you before we get too far away from our
election and the great results we had last month stopping the
Red Wave creating a blue wall. I want to point out what we did
in Michigan, that was so amazing and so overwhelming and I think
can provide a model for a lot of you and other states to follow
what we did to turn the state around, talk about a Blue Wave,
talk about a blue tsunami full Democratic control in all the
top offices, Governor lieutenant governor, Secretary of State
Attorney General, on top of that, for the first time in 40
years, the Democrats control the entire Michigan legislature, the
Michigan State Senate, the Michigan State House of
Representatives, and our Congressional Delegation from
Michigan for the first time in, Many years is now majority
Democratic of our 13 representatives in Congress.
Seven Democrats will be sworn in on January 3rd in the United
States Congress. Seven Democrats in the house and
six Republicans 726. And plus of course we have our
two Democratic United States senators.
We set a record for having the largest voter turnout in the
history of the state for a midterm election.
Massive turnout. We codified Roe versus Wade and
actually improved on the Supreme Court decision and made it part
of our constitution, permanently last month.
That and so many other things all progressive ballot proposals
regarding giving this people in Michigan, even more voting
rights ending voter suppression, making it easy to vote.
And another proposal that got into how politicians don't have
to report all the money, That they're collecting and hanging
onto they. Now they're going to have to do
that and more of it. So all these good things are
happening, I mean, you know, I live up in northern Michigan and
fairly, you know, small town 15,000 people year-round in the
town and I don't know when the last time was we had a democrat
in the State House, representing Us in the city and yet we
elected Betsy. Kofi has a woman who's run
before and got elected this time.
We're off. I can't, we actually are going
to have a democrat in Lansing that we're going to be able to
call when we need help with the things that we need to fix still
in the state of Michigan. And there's so many stories like
that especially in the area where I live is a fairly red
area of Michigan, and our congressman is Jack Bergman.
Right wing Republican election denier voted to with the other
Traders there on January 6, 20 21.
Overturn, the election, overthrow the government.
Keep biting away from taking his seat in the white house.
That's our Congressman. So don't want, I want to make it
sound like I live in some, you know, hip evil here.
But we got Democrats elected. We got the antrum county outside
of Traverse City all red. I live there for a number of
years. When I first moved there, you
know, I wanted to go down and see how the Democrats are doing.
Are there any Democrats in this County?
I was told. Were like four dues-paying
members. So we started to organize and I
was not myself, a dues-paying member of the democratic party.
And I've talked about this before nonetheless, within a
couple of years. We had 200 members of the local
Democrats and and now this year, there are four over 400 in the
county and three townships were flipped from red to blue.
You'd have to like live in this area to understand how that's
just not possible. Except it happened.
So it is possible. And it wasn't just in the area
where I live throughout the state, we retook the house and
the Senate from the Republicans who've held on to it for 40
years, literally, it has been 40 years in the state of Michigan.
Since the Democrats, controlled all the top offices.
And, you know, at the governor and attorney general level, and
all that, and had control of the State House, and the state
senate, The trifecta is what it's called, but this doesn't
just happen on its own. Now granted the Republicans have
been a big help, keeping Donald Trump around running
wackadoodle, candidates q, and on supporting crazy, crazy
people. And you know, the majority of
Americans are not crazy, they don't want to vote for crazy.
It's such a pleasure to watch the people in your state, saying
that's it. I've had enough and do the right
thing. Everybody's kind of pinching
themselves and wondering, you know, how did this happen?
How did I mean we all worked hard?
Yes. But but it was also, one thing
that I want to share with you and in the hopes that maybe you
can get this going in your state for 2024.
So if you can stay with me for a little bit here today, I'd like
to give you this personal update from my home state, but before
we get started, I just want to mention that.
We are celebrating our third anniversary of producing Rumble
with Michael Moore 3 years ago. This weekend, December, 2019.
We had our very first podcast, you know, the first one was just
kind of an introductory of what I wanted to do when I hope to
accomplish with the podcast episode number 2, I have my
first guest on the great Daniel Ellsberg and then the third
episode, we got on the train, went down to Washington DC and
sat in the front row. On the balcony of the house.
The house Gallery. Well, they conducted the vote to
impeach Donald Trump for the first time we sat there, we were
witnesses to it. It was amazing thing.
And then we had our equipment with us that we couldn't really
record there in the inside the chamber.
But on the train on the way back, we did the episode on the
Amtrak writing back with everybody who had gone down from
New York to witness this historic event.
It's really a moment. This has been an incredible
three years 206 He 6 episodes covering so many issues having
so many great guest much much gratitude.
Thank you for these three years of Rumble.
And we've got some very cool things that were cooking up
starting as early as next week, so more on that later.
But for, I go back to what I want to share with you, the
secret of our success in Michigan.
I want to thank our Underwriters for today.
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Now, as you know your go, we launched the more store and this
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You buy goes to our causes that. I care deeply about.
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Shopify made this idea of mine for the more store come to life.
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Thank you. The blue said Ami in the state
of Michigan in the election on November 8th.
Let me just share with you why that has happened because there
is the secret sauce that if you just do one thing in each of
your States, I can guarantee you that many of them could have the
results that Michigan had and don't say to yourself.
No, Mike. That's not possible here
because, you know, it's Kansas. It's whatever its Republican.
It's a red State. Yeah.
Okay. You know we can keep whining
about that. Or we can change it because
sadly, Michigan had this Republican governor for many
years, Rick Snyder. And then back in the 90s and
early 2000, we had another Republican Governor, John
Engler, and these two Governors who both got multiple terms
helped, to destroy our state, and we didn't seem like we could
do anything about it, even though we were traditionally a
democratic State, the home of the modern day, labor movement,
and yet Republicans were Calling the shots.
I mean, soon ago as 2016 more people of Michigan voted for
Democrats and then they did Republicans.
Okay, so so the Democrats got the majority of people out to
vote and yet the Republicans and a majority of the House of
Representatives in the state of Michigan, even though they have
fewer people voting for them. How does that happen?
Gerrymandering gerrymandering gerrymandering?
Remanding racist, gerrymandering.
You know, we have a number of majority black cities, Detroit
Flint, Saginaw that Harbor. And then there are those that
are pretty close to 50/50 number of Detroit suburbs.
And so what they do is they carve up the black districts,
the black neighborhoods and make it difficult for
African-Americans and Democrats to win and they did this for
years years and years. Until we put a stop to it in
2018. A lot of what I'm going to tell
you here, about what we did in Michigan to turn the state
around, is based on the fact that we had a ballot proposal in
2018 that past, and it made gerrymandering illegal in
brought out voters who wanted an end to this racist practice.
And when they did that, because it brought out so many people
who would vote for Democrats in 2018, that's when we Flipped the
governor's chair Attorney, General Secretary of State,
lieutenant, governor and they all got re-elected here last
month. I said I was going to give you
one thing, if they're could do one thing in your state.
If you want to turn things around and gerrymandering And
don't expect the politicians to do it for you because they
benefit from it. Even the Democrats have
benefited from it, you know, because you are in there and
you're carving up the map. But generally, if it's a
republican controlled State, they really carve up the I mean
the you've seen some of the drawings of districts in these
Republican states. It's pretty appalling.
But in 2018 a young woman in her 20s decided to start a petition
drive to get it. Our proposal on the ballot in
the state of Michigan, that would essentially Outlaw
gerrymandering and provide voting rights and stop voter
suppression. And she was incredible and
people just joined up, I mean, it's just one posting on
Facebook and the thing just blew up and all of a sudden there's
thousands tens of thousands of michiganders joining with her to
get this on the ballot and the Republicans, couldn't believe
how many signatures they got. They fought it went all the way
to the Supreme Court in Michigan.
Probably going to try to keep it off the ballot.
They couldn't succeed. And once it was on the ballot,
that essentially, it would be a crime.
Did Jerry Mander. And one of the ways to prevent
that in the ballot proposal, is that it said, from now on the
districts would be drawn by an independent nonpartisan
Commission of citizens. The name of their group, this
group, she formed. Was called voters not
politicians. Voters, the citizens would
decide the map, not the politicians who benefit from the
map and in doing so they snuff out the voices of people of
color and others who don't have the power to draw the map.
The map is now drawn by citizens who are vetted and have to, they
have to prove, they're not in there.
As a party functionary for either party.
They are there to draw an honest map and they redrew the map in
Michigan. They drew an honest map.
And then of course after the census here in 2020, the map got
tweaked again. And now when people went to vote
last month, the vote wasn't being suppressed, they weren't
voting in some wackadoodle weirdly drawn District.
They were voting along with their neighbors and the people
who lived and worked with them participated in a similar
economy. Had similar issues that they're
concerned about whether it's about the environment or a
criminal justice, or whatever you voted along with your
neighbors. Your voice was going to be
heard. And so that's what happened last
month, and once the map was fair, the Republicans were no
longer in charge because the people don't want the
Republicans, the people of America don't want the
Republicans running the country. I'll say it again, in seven of
the last eight presidential elections in this country where
the whole country gets to vote. Only once.
Since George, the first George h.w., Bush was president since
his election in 88. From then, until now.
The Republican running for president has only won the
popular vote once. And that was with baby Bush in
2004, in the middle of a war where we in America, waited.
We've never thrown a president out during a war.
So he barely wins that election in 041 State.
Ohio 100,000 150,000 votes. That's it.
So, for all these years and seven of the last eight
presidential elections in the 34 years, since the 88 election,
the vast majority of Americans have voted for the Democrat.
It was on the ballot. That's why Gore won by a half a
million votes. Hillary won by 3 million votes,
Biden won by seven million votes noticing a trend.
This has so freaked out the Republican party over the years
or recent years, that they have done everything that they have
been able to get away with to gerrymander these voting
districts. So they can draw the map so
Republicans can get elected. I just I would just like to ask,
you know, Republicans, how do you feel with?
I mean, I guess, yeah, you want to win.
So, win by any measure. Even if it's sort of kind of
cheating the map because you know the American people don't
want you anymore, right? You got that message, right?
You only won the popular vote once since 1988.
The American people don't want you in charge.
But you want to stay in charge, okay.
I get that, you know, it's hard to break up, it's hard to leave
when you're no longer wanted. So then you do all these tricks.
All this voter suppression, make it hard for people to vote have
poll Watchers challenging black voters, Brown voters.
Yeah, yeah, you know, you've done it.
You've done it all and you've succeeded.
In keeping a lot of our state's red and Republican.
When in fact, maybe they aren't red and Republican.
And you took over our state of Michigan for many, many years.
The majority of our Congressional Delegation was
Republican, even though the majority of Voters who were
voting in the state of Michigan were Democrats, how do you feel
doing that? I just curious.
I only have like one experience. Personally I can relate to back
in when I was on the eighth grade basketball team and I had
a really good heel hook shot. I was not a good runner but my
hand-eye coordination was pretty good and so I was And I could
hook it from way over in the corner, like near the out of
bounds. And so during one of these
games, I let off a hook shot over my head.
All the way from the corner where the two out of bounds
lines come together, except as I was doing it, I looked down and
I saw that my foot was like an inch out of bounds.
I made the hookshot swish right in and of course, the students
in our side, you know, my wild and cheering and And okay, I'm
sorry, I've got a conscience. I mean we all have a conscience
but mine is maybe sometimes a little too active.
I went up to the roof and I said, I was out of bounds when I
made that shot. and he looked at me like, What kind of crazy kid
are you? You know, I said it's not right.
I shouldn't get those points. And he just goes, he is mad at
me actually. So you just like, blows his
whistle and then announces that I was out of bounds.
And, you know, my coach mr. Herman was like, what happened?
When it went over to him? I told him.
I said, I told the ref that I did that shot wasn't legal.
It was, I was out of bounds. This is Catholic School league
and this, you know, this coach was so kind of
salt-of-the-earth. And so very much in his Catholic
place and he didn't hit Hit me he didn't yell at me.
He just nodded his head. And approved of my what
everybody else. Conservative faux pas, people
all the team so mad at me and was like, what are you nuts?
I said that, what's, that's not right.
It's not right to claim the basket if I could make it by was
out of bounds. So I want to ask the
Republicans, you're out of bounds, American people don't
want you, you don't win these elections properly.
How do you feel knowing when you take a seat in the State House
of the state senate or in Congress that the majority of
the people actually didn't want you there?
Don't want you there and yet you're sitting there, I would
feel so creepy. Every day going in there.
Going on the floor of the house taking my seat knowing that That
I was elected in a kind of a fraudulent way.
But a way that the Republicans Supreme Court has they keep
allowing it. Because they like being on the
Supreme Court, a 6, to 3 quart 623, Republican Quarry.
When the majority of Americans are not, Republicans, do not
vote for republicans. And yet.
They're the Republicans sit taking away women's rights.
Getting rid of good gun laws that get passed.
That was another thing they did this summer.
So I just wanted to do this today.
I wanted to to encourage all of you who live in many states
where it seems like something is wrong.
Like why are the Republicans still in charge?
Why are we still considered a red state?
When oftentimes, you can see after election after election,
it's Democrats are getting more votes.
So here's my encouragement to you, to follow the Michigan
model. You need to get a ballot
proposal. If your state allows such a
thing on the ballot in the next election that illuminates,
gerrymandering crib the Michigan one copy it.
I'll post a link to it. Here you could do this in your
Your State's if you if they allow ballot proposals and if
they don't allow ballot proposals in your state, maybe
you should think about making that happen.
I think it's slightly more than half the states.
There are some form of ballot proposal.
That's allowed But the other half need to be able to have
direct democracy. Also need to be able to pass
laws. The voters, need to be able to
pass laws at election time. So that is my challenge to you
in purple states, red States, even blue states, that still
haven't done this yet. Once we start to do this, what's
going to happen is what happened with us here in Michigan, where
the Democrats now, control the state, state government, state
legislature, and in many of our local cities towns townships,
Republican mayor's were booted out, Republican County
Commissioners were booted out. I mean, it was like, one big
boot going across the state of Michigan last month.
It was a beautiful thing to see and you, I know would love to
see it in your state. So get your petition drive
going. So you can get it on the ballot
and 2024. And if you don't have a way to
put a ballot proposal on, then start the lobbying efforts to
get your state government to allow.
Ow ballot proposals and point out to the Republicans that, you
know, they can benefit from this to that means they can put
ballot proposals on. They can try to get them past
and don't tell them that they're not going to have much success.
Because even in the selection last month, where the right to
an abortion was put into the state constitutions of Michigan,
California, and Vermont, Republicans.
Did it ballot proposals on the ballot in Kentucky and Montana,
but their ballot proposals were to Abortion to ban abortion and
those valid proposals lost. Why?
Because the majority of Americans agree with us because
there are more of us than there are of them.
And there, it will be that way for some time to come.
Why? Because every year for million
17 year olds, this country become 18.
And you know what, they don't want to vote for Donald Trump or
anybody that looks or sounds like Trump.
They don't hate people because of their race or because they're
lgbtq the, you know, we've raised a pretty good generation
or two of young people and every year for one of them become
eligible to vote. And they vote by overwhelming
numbers, High, well up into the 60 percentile.
When young voters vote, they vote for Democrats and the more
that we encourage this and get them out to vote.
The more that we put ballot proposal issues like student
loan, forgiveness, or raising the minimum wage.
Anything that would benefit young people to get them out to
vote, will guarantee that you will get more Democrats elected
in your state. I don't mean to make it sound,
like it's that simple. But my friends, it is that
simple. And I saw it happen again last
month in my home state of Michigan.
And I thank you for giving me this time today to talk once
again, about the state of Michigan.
But I'm doing it only because I want you to be inspired by how
we pulled this off. And it only took from the 2018
midterm 2 now Trump won the state of Michigan in 2016, so we
ended that voted for Biden. This can happen where you live
and I have some other cool things that I want to talk to
you about. I'm going to start off a podcast
series, another tsunami series next, Sunday on Christmas Day,
and I'll tell you more about it later this week.
But I'm going to give you a wealth of information and
tactics and strategy of how you can pull this off.
How even if you live in the reddest County the red estate or
whatever. You know, it may not turn it
around a hundred percent, but you can start to peel away to
dig into a Democrat here or democrat there.
I think you're really going to like what we're planning here on
Rumble and I my sub stack get people to sign up for my sub
stack. There's no pay wall I mean yes
you could get a paid subscription but all I really
means is you want to help us do our work here, you know, five
bucks a month. Great thank you.
It's much appreciated. Gift subscriptions here this
week for the holidays but you don't have to it's all free.
Every podcast is free every one of my Subs that columns is free
and again I want to thank you for these three years.
Of listening to rumble with Michael Moore, for sharing it
with your friends, and your neighbors, and your family.
I can't wait to do more of this and I can't wait till you see
what I'm planning to do here in the new year.
So more on all of that starting next week.
Let's stay in. Touch here.
I'm going to close with another Michigan song by another
Michigan group. Led by these two young women
from my town. From the time that I live in
Traverse City, Michigan. They're called Accidentals song
is called life. I think I played it maybe a year
ago. I hear it's called Michigan
again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you for being part of
this. This is Michael Moore, my thanks
to my producer and editor, Angela, vargo's, and we will see
you later this week here on Rumble with Michael Moore.
We lay down in the grass in the nest of sleeping bag.
Breathing in the Shadow. Canyon are the water 45 degrees.
We read out to the nice and soaked to the slaves in a semi.
Great steal and state. My in compass rose has Michigan
Michigan. And cactus flowers soldiers of
the find land. Great state.
What state my end, it covers roses for Michigan.
Great state. What state my end, it covers
roses for Michigan.