>> Pro-Bernie group roots in action, which
was actually pretty harsh and aggressive in
criticizing the Biden campaign during the
Democratic primaries is now urging progressive
voters in swing states to vote for Biden in
the upcoming general election. Now one of
their efforts involves a pretty effective
ad that they've spent about six figures on
it will air in swing states.
And the whole point is to talk about not how
great Biden is because obviously they were
very critical of Biden but more importantly
how critical it is to beat Donald Trump. That
is the focus and you're certainly gonna notice
that in this ad, which uses the voice of Noam
Chomsky.
>> Another four years of Trump may literally
lead us to the stage where the survival of
organized human society is deeply imperiled.
The most important issue that humans have
faced in their history is the impending catastrophic
climate desist.
>> According to a new report, experts say
that we have until 2030 to avoid catastrophe.
>> Trump is the worst person in the world
on this issue.
>> All of this with the global warming and
that is a lot of it's a hoax. It's a hoax.
>> So we have a choice between trying to find
a way to survive or ensuring this exists.
That's just the beginning. The traditional
lift position is you don't fight for, you
vote against. It doesn't matter how I feel,
doesn't matter whether you like Biden or not.
That's your personal feelings, irrelevant,
who cares about that? What they care about
is what happens to the world. Have to get
rid of Trump.
Keep pressure on Biden just as Sanders and
associates have been doing. Politics is activism.
Not taking five minutes to push a button.
Look what's happening in the streets of the
country. The greatest social movement that
has ever developed led by Black Lives Matter,
take Sunrise Movement, managed to put the
Green New Deal on the legislative agenda.
This generation is gonna decide whether organized
human society can survive. And the crucial
point of this decision is to get rid of the
major barrier to survive, which happens to
be in the White House.
>> So, John, I really wanna just discuss the,
I guess, your perception of the efficacy of
an ad like this, especially in swing states,
it is targeted toward progressive voters who
have become incredibly discouraged with electoral
politics.
Do you think it'll be effective or do you
think this isn't enough to persuade people?
>> I think it's a good ad. My inclination's
to say that it will be ineffective for a few
reasons and not necessarily the ones you might
think. I think one reason that it will be
ineffective is that I don't think it's as
necessary as it might seem.
I think that, like I remember in 2016, warning
people about what Trump was gonna be like
and then spending the last few years experiencing
all of that coming true. I think that a lot
of people kinda just get it. I don't think
that the case needs to be made quite as much
so that it's not really a point to its efficacy
but the need for it.
I think that that's one thing, is that I think
the number of people would need to be reached
by an ad like that is significantly smaller
than it was four years ago.
>> Yeah, I agree with you on that. I do agree
with you on that.
>> I also think that in terms of really changing
someone's mind, if this is one of the things
that sorta core to your political identity
is that I'm not gonna do it.
If you don't think of political engagement,
the way that Noam Chomsky just talked about
there, where it's about what you're doing
all the time. And voting is one of those things
rather than I think some people just think
of their vote as a judgment on who they are
as a person and what their convictions are,
or something like that.
It's the most important thing. If you think
of that, then I don't know why that ad would
necessarily change your mind. That's, again,
not necessarily much of a criticism. Yeah,
that seems like an incredibly difficult thing
to do. But I don't know what an ad would have
to look like to change someone's mind if that's
how they approach Election Day.
>> Right, and so, I'm of two minds of this.
First off, I actually overwhelmingly love
the ad and the reason why I love the ad is
because, well, first, let me say I agree with
you. I don't think that that group is as big
as some might think.
I think most people understand the importance
of getting Trump out of office. That's point
number one. Point number two is what I loved
about that ad is that it started with this
statement about how important it is to get
rid of Donald Trump. But you're still left
with that problem, of voting for a candidate
who has pushed for policies that have been
just disastrous for this country, disastrous
for working Americans, there's no question
about that.
But toward the middle, it switched to a message
that I think is super important. And it's
the message that encourages the type of political
activism that we've been seeing lately. And
it's not just about Black Lives Matter. It's
about the Sunrise Movement. It's about workers
strikes. It's about labor getting together
and trying to figure out ways to hold their
employers accountable for their actions.
And for me, personally, watching that ad in
the beginning, I was just kinda like, I know,
I know this is the right thing to do. I get
it and then all of a sudden it like really
hit me like a ton of bricks because we are
winning electorally when it comes to some
of these congressional races.
There's no question about it. We're gonna
talk about that later in the show Cory Bush's
win, for instance, is huge. Rashida Tlaib,
everyone was telling us that she was a very
vulnerable candidate and she won by a large
margin. I mean we're seeing progressives really
make a name for themselves within Congress,
Jamal Bowman, the list goes on and on.
But aside from that, aside from electoral
politics, I really do think that the activism
that we're seeing by the people, is incredibly
important, right? And I like that the ad not
only touched on that it really emphasize that,
beginning in the middle of that ad to the
end.
>> When I said at the beginning that it's
a good ad, I think it's incredibly well done.
I think the visuals are powerful. Obviously,
Noam Chomsky speaks with, I mean, you know
who he is, you get what he's saying. Like
it is powerful, like it's always going to
be with him.
I get that. One of the things that I get sorta
there's a bitter edge to the ad, is that I'm
watching it, and a lot of it in the beginning
is about climate change. And so you probably
think, well, this is made for Chomsky, this
is something that he cares about, and it is.
But it's also like this is coming after a
few years of, like for regular people, it
is still so hard to get them to care and like
I'm watching it. I'm thinking, man, you're
right, no, he's so powerful, the idea that
he'd have four more years devastating your
efforts to climate change.
But I also know that although it is gradually
working to convince more people to put this
sorta central their politics, it's still a
very difficult task, getting people to care
about that about climate change and dealing
with it, especially in this time. In 2020,
it's harder than it was in 2019 or 2018.
Because obviously we have these big things
that are punching us in the face literally
every day. And so that's another reason I
wonder if that will be a sorta messaging that
will work now, are enough people going to
be primed to think, yeah, no, that should
be the most important thing that we're planning
for and I'll act accordingly.
I 
don't know.
