How Far We've Come

Danielle reflects on Democratic National Conventions of years past as she prepares to head to this year's DNC.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
me your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the home Bunker.
But guess what, dear friends, I Am going to be
on the ground at the Democratic National Convention all week long,
and I'm going to be bringing you my thoughts and
reflections on the day's events right here on WOKF every day.

(00:37):
I'm super excited. I cannot express to all of you
how excited I am to be attending convention. So this
is my second Democratic National Convention. The first one was
eight years ago for Hillary Clinton. And you know, I've

(00:58):
been reflecting on this for the last week, like as
I was finalizing details to be able to attend convention
this year, And my god, eight years ago, this country
was in such a vastly different space. And I can

(01:20):
tell you that, I mean won me personally. I was
in a completely different space and place. Like I could
have never imagined eight years ago that now I would
be a full time podcaster and content creator, and like
having had the ability to do that because of all

(01:42):
of you, because of all of the support that I've gotten,
particularly from those that have supported me throughout the years
on Patreon, I know that it's you know, for some
it's five dollars, it's fifteen dollars a month, and for
some people, you know, you don't know how much that

(02:03):
money has allowed me to be able to get to
the place that I'm in, Like I cannot express to you.
Like people say, like, oh, follow your passion, follow your passion. Yeah,
but you actually need the resources in order to be
able to do that. And so having had people on
patreon dot com slash WOKF for the past you know,

(02:26):
few years supporting me and just believing in me, it's wild.
It's wild to just recognize, like what immense gratitude I
have for you all, and what immense gratitude I have
for all of the people who listen, who support, who
share my content on a regular basis. But eight years ago,

(02:49):
you know, WOKF didn't exist. WOKF would come out of
you know, that election, and it would launch in twenty
seventeen following the inauguration of Donald Trump. I remember heading
into that convention not knowing, like, you know, other than
seeing it on television, Like, what is this spectacle that

(03:10):
comes into these cities around the country every four years
to go through a process a nominating process as old
as basically the country, and so you know, to be there.
I wanted to attend because it was history, right. It
was Hillary Clinton, the first woman to receive the nomination

(03:35):
of a major political party. And you know, I remember
being there setting up like my two mics and I
had a banner because I had gotten press credentials, which
are like very hard to get with a podcast that
didn't really exist at the time, but it was just
an idem I had. But I said, fuck it, I'm going,

(03:58):
and you know, I'm just gonna go people, and you know,
I know people I've worked on the Hill. I've you know,
worked at think tanks, i have worked for nonprofit organizations,
and I'm going because I want a witness history firsthand.
And it was extraordinary. I mean, it was incredibly exciting
to be there, to be just in the energy, to

(04:18):
see all of these people that you know, I would
see on Capitol Hill, to see people that you just
see on television just walking past you. And it was
really exciting. But the funny thing is that I remember
it didn't occur to me, honestly, like what I really
reflect on it that Donald Trump could become president, Like

(04:41):
I knew we'd gotten the Republican nomination, and you know,
obviously you're following the media, right, was following is every
move and this untraditional candidate and what have you. But
I thought, as millions of other people did, that Hillary
Clinton was a shoein' right, Like this was all just

(05:01):
gonna be this circus of an election. But then America
was going to come to a census. We were just
coming off of eight years of Barack Obama. There's no
way you're gonna fall for this grifter and this pussy
grabber and elect this man over this super accomplished woman
who we've all known in our lives for as long

(05:22):
as she's been in public service, right, And then we
all know how that fucking ended. And so you know,
I don't know how often all of you go back
eight years, but it's hard enough to go back, for right,
to go back before COVID, right, five years, to go

(05:45):
back to January of twenty twenty when we didn't know
what was coming in but two months, right, So going
back eight years is really a trip down memory lane.
Think about out where you were, where you were in
your personal life, in your career, in your group of friends,

(06:06):
like all of the things that have happened to us
as individuals but as a country is kind of overwhelming
to think about, and so we kind of wrap it
around these highlighted moments. If you're looking at the years
on a graph and you're like, well, this is twenty sixteen,

(06:27):
and here's twenty seventeen, and so on and so forth.
But to be headed to convention and I may like cry, guys,
because this is how I'm feeling today. I'm recording this
on Sunday, and I'm getting ready to fly out to
Chicago tonight as I'm recording this. But to think that

(06:49):
I am flying into Chicago to witness the first black
and Indian woman accept the nomination, the second woman and
first woman of color to accept the nomination of the

(07:11):
Democratic Party, I am just in awe. The amount of
history that we have lived through is crazy. I remember
when Barack Obama in two thousand and four was given
prime time speaking slot at John Carey's convention, and I

(07:37):
remember I was like newly I mean newly out of
college in grad school, sitting in my living room with
my roommate, and we looked at each other and said,
who is that and why isn't he running for president?

(08:05):
And it was Barack Obama's fucking moment. That man turned
a career as an organizer, his first book into multiple
runs for office until he would be elected, parlays that

(08:29):
into a junior senator position, and parlays that into the nomination.
But four years later, Barack Obama is a phenom. When
you think about the first time you heard his name
and that speech, if you remember, it was incredible and

(08:54):
so to think about where we are after he talked
about there are no red states and there are no
blue states, There's only the United States. It was such
an extraordinary moment in this country. Happened at convention. Four

(09:17):
years later, Hillary Clinton would throw her hat in the ring,
and we know how that turned out. Barack Obama would
become the Democratic nominee. After pretty dirty not as dirty
as things would come, but a pretty dirty campaign cycle,
Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States.

(09:43):
We see this beautiful black woman. They're two little girls
who are now grown women. They're two little girls come
out eight years we would have this incredible family, gifted
man and woman. Because first Lady Michelle Obama, my god, right,

(10:08):
who will be speaking this week at Vice President Kamala
Harris's convention. I'm just sitting here as I'm talking, and
I'm just it's like flashbacks one after the other. So
after eight years, we think, yes, Hillary Clinton, Okay, we're
ready for you. And then America said that was too

(10:32):
much history, too much healthcare, too much was going right.
So we you know, we gotta slow that role. And
we became complacent because we thought, well, there's no way
people are going to vote for this grifter. And for
the last eight years we've been living vacillating in between anxiety, fear,

(11:00):
and now back to a place of hopefulness, back to
a place where we can actually see a pathway forward.
So I encourage all of you to really think about
how far we've come in this time, but also be

(11:23):
reminded of what is at stake. Over the weekend, I
joined my friends Amin Mohedeen and Dean Ambodalla on Amen's
show on MSNBC, and offset Dean and I were talking about,
you know, have people lost in the sense of hopefulness,

(11:47):
the seriousness of this moment, And I said, no, we
just don't have to fear what is coming because we
have an alternative, so I don't have to berate you
all with this seriousness that Project twenty twenty five is

(12:09):
because we've been doing that for months. But what I
do want to do is encourage all of you while
we are in this place of hopefulness, why we are
in this place of possibility, to do everything that you
can within your power. It's not just enough to donate.
It's not enough to just get yourself to the polls.

(12:29):
What are you doing every single day to get Kamala
Harris and Tim Walls over the finish line? Are you
registering other people to vote? Are you volunteering? Are you
making calls? Are you organizing your community in house parties
and events to talk to them about the issues. The

(12:51):
Vice President just released our economic plan. Walk through it
with people. We have to do everything. There is not
a stone that should be left unturned. There's not a
person that should not have been talked to more than
one time. We have to do everything because, like you,

(13:13):
I do not want to wake up days after the
election and say I could have done more and had
that feeling that I had that election night in twenty sixteen,
where I sat the next day in a Canadian airport

(13:35):
the waitress at the diner that I was sitting inside
of at the airport said are you okay? And I said,
I don't think so, because I did not know what
was meeting me when I returned to the United States.
But we all saw what met us. So we cannot

(13:57):
look currently at where they are saying, and by they,
I mean corporate mainstream media is saying that the polls are, oh,
she's up by four here, tied here, up by five here,
because someone posted an image and it was the week
before the twenty sixteen election, and the national flocking polls

(14:21):
said that Hillary Clinton was up by twenty points. Twenty points.
So that is the day that I lost faith in
all polls. And I tell people that all the time,
I've had pollsters on this show and on The New
Abnormal and on Democracy Ish, and I tell them, I

(14:45):
don't mean to disparage your industry, but I don't give
a lot of stock to polls, because in twenty sixteen,
the week before the election, Hillary Clinton was all the
way up, and I remember that Donald Trump was shot
that he had won. I'm also not convinced now in
hindsight that he actually did. But that's a story for

(15:07):
another day. I want us to get through that finish
line and wake up excited for the America that is
to come, and jubiliant as we count down the days
to inauguration when we see Madam President Kamala Harris sworn in,

(15:32):
That's what we want, and I just want folks to
know she is not perfect. They will not have a
perfect administration. I will absolutely still be on air critiquing
and asking questions because that's what I do. But we
are never again going to allow the perfect to get

(15:53):
in the way of the good. And I believe that
she is good. I believe that she believes in democracy
and the middle class. I believe that she wants every
child in this country, regardless of their zip code, to
have access to equality public education. I believe that she

(16:14):
wants everyone in this country to have high quality healthcare.
I believe that she wants America's infrastructure to be the
envy of the world. I believe that she wants first
time home buyers to have the hurdles to building wealth removed.

(16:34):
But we are also going to need to deliver her
a Congress that is going to deliver us those campaign promises,
because absent all the d's down ballot, we're going to
be going head to head with Mitch McConnell or whatever
other cripkeeper they roll out. We cannot have that happen.

(17:00):
This week on WOKF Daily, I am going to be
doing a bunch of solo shows, providing you with reflections
on the day's events, who I spoke to, what's going on,
some behind the scenes stuff. But I also have another
important announcement. I have launched my very own YouTube channel

(17:25):
at Danielle Moody Underscore. It is the same handle that
I have on TikTok that I have now on YouTube,
and I am going to be going live there. I'm
going to be producing shorts and video interviews, and I
want you to subscribe. Subscribe, subscribe, Get everyone that you know,

(17:47):
bring it like it's a party. I'm telling you everyone
is welcome, So you subscribe, and then get five other
of your friends and family members to subscribe. I don't
want us to rely on corporate mainstream media anymore. I
want to create the content, the channel, the vision for

(18:10):
what journalism, what reporting, what analysis should look like. And
feel like you all have been riding with me for
a long time and you know that I am always
looking for new, better ways to provide you the content
that I want. Right. Podcasting is great because you can

(18:30):
do it on your commute, you can do it while
you're gardening, you can do it while you're working out,
playing with your kids, your dogs, your cats, whatever. The
video content is something that I have always wanted to
do on a regular basis and am working with Mary
Trump Media, which you guys, if you subscribe to Mary
Trump Media as well, you will catch me on nerd Avengers.

(18:52):
I am one of the nerds there. I also launched
my show Get Woke, which is a micro show that
I'm doing on YouTube that I've been doing on Mary
Trump Media that is now going to be on my
own channel at Daniel Moody Underscore. We're going to provide
you the link in the show notes so that you
can easily get there, and if you follow me on

(19:14):
social media, I am promoting it there as well, but
please subscribe follow me this week as we're in Chicago,
it is going to be a time and I'm so
excited to bring you all fresh video content going live
and you know, check in and see who I am

(19:34):
going to be running into and interviewing and it's just
I'm so excited and I'm excited to bring it all
to you. So do make sure, dear friends, subscribe to
my new YouTube channel at Daniel Moody Underscore. Bring five
friends with you, and let's turn this into something as always,

(19:56):
dear friends, Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
get woke and stay woke as fuck.