your last hit. so now we come to this point where our democracy is in peril and where the fact that our democracy was in peril in 2020 did not stop black and brown voters and asian american and native american voters from coming out in record numbers, which is why the 2020 presidential election was the election with the highest vote turnout ever in the history of this country. not since 1900 because in 1900 black people couldn t vote and women couldn t vote. ever in the history of this country. not only did 5 million black people turn out to vote in november 2020 in georgia, 4.5 million of that 5 million showed up for the special election on january 5th, which is why you can t talk about january 6th without talking about january 5th because january 5th showed once again that this power was a transformative power. it didn t just elect joe biden by this incredible margin, it also resulted in the election of the first black senator from georgia since reconstruction and only the second jew
their own government. it s kind of frightening. last thought? no. i was just going to say what is interesting to me about the republican mythology is that there were these good old days. putting aside the fact that and i think it s in their mythologies in the fifties, putting aside the fact that a lot of black people couldn t vote and if you word a you probably committed suicide in a closet. it was a time when we created this great economic engine. that was the result of the new deal and of investment and everything these people are advocating against. it i think they have a big problem. exactly right. if it weren t for franklin roosevelt and the g.i. bill and the opportunity it gave all these working-class guys to become middle class guys and upper-middle-class guys, it wouldn t have been the 60s. you ve got that right. one last point, if i may.
tonight because you are not seen the lockstep republican party of old. you are seeing these different factions. you are seeing the born again. you are seeing the establishment. you are seen interventionists, isolationists in another country they might be three separate parties. well said. my phrase was lord of the flies. a bunch of kids i got stuck on an island trying to make up their own government. it s kind of frightening. last thought? no. i was just going to say what is interesting to me about the republican mythology is that there were these good old days. putting aside the fact that and i think it s in their mythologies in the fifties, putting aside the fact that a lot of black people couldn t
president obama s new interview with b.e.t. we can t equate what is happening now to what happened 50 years ago. if you talked to your parents, grandparents uncles. they ll tell you that things are better. things are better according to the president, michael. as a white person things have always been good for us. so it s very difficult for me to put myself in the shoes of black people and say things are better or worse. certainly, i think, 50 years ago, black people couldn t vote in this country and now they can vote. 50 years ago they were separated at drinking fountains and now they can join in the same privileges white people have in public. nevertheless, there are still huge injustices in this country that favor white people. whether it s the health care system the education system the legal system the justice system. i see across this country, the poll numbers are interesting. what i m seeing is young people young white people young black
exactly. and in a way, i think reince priebus and the boys with their multi, multi, dozen state efforts to keep the blacks from the voting booths aroused you tell me. no. i think the voter suppression efforts drove up the black vote. i think they ticked people off and they made people more determined to show up at the polls. you saw that effect particularly in a state like ohio, for example. which was sort of ground zero. they really thought they had something going in ohio. it turned out they didn t at all. because the black vote was was greater than the white house proportionally. it s an incredible thing. for a guy who grew up in the south, when black people couldn t vote, it s extraordinary. talk about this. talk about this. there s three things going on here. one is the black vote is at least keeping its own in terms of showing up. which is the key. woody allen said 80% of life is showing up. if you don t show up and vote, you ain t voting. you can only complain then.