And the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question whats brewing in heartland america are classic republican strongholds going wobbly and are democrats poised to turn a lot of red states blue lets get to the bottom line. Many local elections were held across the United States last week and both parties found reason to celebrate virginia turned from red to blue and as a sign that times are changing to muslim women were elected to Public Office in that state elsewhere republicans held their ground and even made some gains so is there a National Trend here or there are just too many unknowns like impeachment which is going to get really big this week and the lack of a democratic challenger to face donald trump but were fortunate today because we have 3 people in this room who just have all the answers or brohm a sure want to seat on the school board of Fairfax County virginia just became the youngest elected official in the States History journal. A strategist for the Republican Party is cofounder of speak georgia a Town Hall Forum for people to talk about politics and Simon Rosenberg is strategist for the Democratic Party and advisor to former president bill clinton and the president of the new Democrat Network so good to have you all here today abroad or congratulations i know you just want to election is the youngest person ever to win a race in virginia so whats all that about what is motivating you right now to throw your hat in the ring and congratulations on your win thank you and thank you for having me you know its more so a testament really to where we are and where where are we where are we so you know i would even throughout my work on the campaign knocking on doors while being a member of the party and having to navigate those kinds of relation the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party who endorsed of course because we were i ran as an independent realizing that this connect oftentimes between what the elites are talking about what folks you know who are in power talking about versus just the basic conversations that are happening at the doors and thats kind of what motivated our campaign and made it about representation having everyone so drill down for me just when youre out there youre running as an independent free talking to republicans are talking talking to other philly aided you know what are the things they care most about when you i know you were trying to run for the school board right maybe youre saying is that what were they saying hey i really want to talk about x. What are the things they want to write i mean you know you had folks who would talk about Mental Health services in the schools you had folks and that was consistently by the way students especially their number one issue you had families talking about safety in the schools and this conversation about gun control and their concerns related to that you had some of them special needs parents who would just complain about the difficulty of raising a child with special needs and the School Systems you know whether theyre supportive of that or not so youd see that the conversations are far more related to their daily life than the Grassroots Level of whats going on for their child in the school whether they can access an advanced academic memory not whether the child was bullied in school or discriminated against those are the conversations have these are like real issues and if i wanted to sign me to the. But i want to ask you when youre out there and theyre talking and right now youve got the Democratic Party i know youre an independent so i respect that but it sounds like youve got a little bit of a dorsai democrat you know a little bit of a tilt there and i am so so in a little bit so you have as you look at the process by which we have debates going on we have one coming up on november 20th weve got joe biden we may have Mike Bloomberg weve got to have with warren weve got mayor pete to judge when you look at that realm of people are they doing it for you. Well i do think that were having very healthy conversations i think that they are a healthy conversation right about time that he laid out for a while while also so i used to work at the d. N. C. Actually and it was a year and outed. You know so by law i mean the pretty great ok so just to clarify. There were the rest there was you know with the with hillarys election thats happening with the bernie kind of factional right party you know who are the progressives who are the all the thousands democrats whats going on and thats really symbolic of the National Conversation right lynn what were seeing again locally versus on a National Scale so when we see that array of candidates theyre really reflective of the common mans issue that populist kind of argument while you know i still live in tucson i mean if youre deep into the tectonics of the Democratic Party and youre not independent. Whats going on is there a civil war going on you know as as a broad just talked about i mean she didnt say if the civil war but the she did basically said theres a divide down the middle of the party that she has to be expected frankly on empower our parties have to represent 51 percent of the country they hope and so you do have factions and wings and debates that are going on but i do think that i was a Senior Advisor to the House Democrats in 2018 and at the digital sea and i was very involved and i was flipping the house and i think the single thing is a win because of you know i like to say i definitely helped but i think the thing that people underestimate i think many voters right now democrats are not motivated by ideology as much as they are they feel the countrys in trouble and they want to strong leader to be able to take on try and lead the country to a better place and see the candidates who are succeeding right now finds a serious person warren recast herself as the woman with plans who judges a veteran speaks 7 languages conveys the sense of gravity and i think its those candidates who present themselves as serious people in a time of struggle theyre doing well which is why i think joe bidens new set of ads which are very much like a general election taking on donald trump that just came out this morning is really tapping. Into the most important sentiment in the democratic family right now which is were worried about a future we want a experienced person of gravity to take take on these but with the least interesting democrats right now running. Well i. Think that the most interesting is happened in our race will the candidates have been locked out by the d. N. C. Process right this very aggressive debate schedule weve now got the possibility where Mike Bloomberg mayor of new york for 12 years book of governor right weve got you know Deval Patrick if he gets in a governor and theres one more theres a 4th cant Michael Bennett senator from colorado all thoughtful serious experienced people wont be in this next set of debates but also gabbert in andrea will be right and i think that so the question will be is that do democrats really give this new group kind of a look and will race open up a little bit from sort of the very static race that weve had over the last several months you know youre not an independent either youre a help with your if youre here you know and i really appreciate you joining us today but i want to ask you you know as you look at i interviewed Vice President biden in 2016 and he made a comment which i still hear ringing in my head today said you know the Democratic Party had become a party of snobs and he saw this before the donald Trump Victory over Hillary Clinton he said that had become a party of snobs and left a lot of people behind your republican now and im interested in as you look at your own political dashboard why are you a republican and did joe bidens admonition about the party have something to do with that so no nothing that joe biden said to me being a republican but i will say that you know im a republican because i fought firmly believe in the principles of the party in the values of the party to what are those principles yet so Smaller Government personal responsibility being able to take care of your own the 2nd amendment these are things that are really really important to me especially as an africanamerican what about all those other amendments. The a monument clause and you know which is which which which i mean i dont mean to be facetious about it but sometimes you know folks out there say hey you know republicans know one amendment and its the 2nd amendment now but you dont really Pay Attention a lot of the other amendments and i mean thats whats going to play out in this impeachment process is is there a respect for the constitution as a whole and im just id like to just understand as you look at it whether these other pieces of the constitution matter and whether the leadership right now in the Republican Party you worry that its not paying attention now absolutely it matters but as you say opened this this segment this show were talking about the ads actual average voter and were talking about individuals who are not as politically involved as we have the ability to do because this is what we do were talking about people who go to work every single day were talking about parents who in some cases a lot of cases they are Single Parents who are unable to attend p. T. A. Meetings because theyre working 2 jobs and and so more or less they are focusing on issues that are pertinent for their household so yes all of the other amendments matter and all that its really important but when i am talking to actual voters and im on the ground and im doing my town halls i am listening to what actually affects them when the day to day basis and all this other stuff does not put food in their childrens mouths or turn the lights on at the end of the day fasting i want you all to listen to a tape a clip we have right here of the president at a rally that you attended called black voices for trump in atlanta on november 8th. Last year democrats even shut down the government to preserve benefits for Illegal Immigrants never have they forth that hard to do anything for the African American community they dont fight that way. I see a mom with a video fight for the African American community. They would rather have illegal aliens come and health care schools. Ginnell and educated political analysts would look at that clip and say classic roger ailes you know the former fox news executive advisor to nixon divide and conquer and so is the president trying to set immigrants against the Africanamerican Community from your perspective no not at all what the president is doing is highlighting something thats been going on for over 50 years as africanamericans that have voted democratic city jiggly and for a number a number of years we have gotten absolutely nothing in return other than our vote so he says hey you cant get any worse with seize your wholly agree to leverage this point at this point i and i know a lot of africanamericans who said you know what im going to try Something Different and they are pleased with it because oftentimes our community is lumped into the category of minority which is nothing wrong with that in the grand scheme of things however everybody every community may have similar issues but we prioritize them differently right and this is what the president is saying abrar youre the granddaughter of libyan immigrants which i think is totally cool and congratulations again i mean youre youre youre 1st but yeah exactly you know were going to put a graph up here and we see that in this in this graph the black community actually has less problem you know less of an issue restricting immigration policy in the White Community does and we but when you look at the views of immigrants really across the board all americans white black hispanic very very high in the in the high eightys and ninetys of appreciate. For immigrants so this says Something Interesting to me that this notion about immigrants or new immigrants coming in is a new thing but nonetheless you have baked into the d. N. A. Of americans across all these groups a real respect for immigrants but i mention what you felt when you were running because people may look at you they may see you and we think that your recent immigrant and when youre not yeah absolutely and thats something you confront you know i confront that on a daily basis in a variety of you know deal with this oh absolutely you know whether its someone not being able to get past it and only talking to me about middle east politics or arabic are Different Things that are not the conversation im trying to have or you know oftentimes more sinister experiences that weve had but really to me that why this is important is showing the folks who are making gains on a local level or in politics in general are the ones in touch you know immigration or race are just labels really for the feelings underlying a lot of these topics and we can see how you know folks who are running for Office Especially as someone whos been doing it you know for the past year and a half now manipulate these different feelings and emotions that underlie a lot of these topics right number stations for their own gains immigration i mean that was never a real conversation about what immigrants bring because there are facts that back up you know how their contribution to society and all of that let alone of course just the humanity and the fact that theyre escaping a lot often times horrific you know scenarios but if we were to have a fact based conversation i think we would all agree on that and when its a one on one conversation even with a voter who may not understand you know what were scared so you can break a lot of that down to a bore is fair i mean i want to put you on the spot here for a minute and it may be unfair to you as you look at President Trump and the Republican Party are there things that that party could do to appeal to Muslim Americans here because you know is a contrary and shes interesting you know 8 percent of the voted for President Trump so she sort of sees something there but are there things there so most americans would vote for trump i dont know what the numbers are i know. 32 percent of hispanics voted for president drop in this im just issued what would be some of those those issues that would attract you if you saw them yeah no i mean ill start off by saying that i dont think either party has really positioned itself to accommodate minorities or you know whether its africanamerican male its you know as the Muslim Community immigrants. Because there are still elites who want to maintain that their clenched that kind of power and make it exclusive because about their own survival and thats just the matter of fact the reality of how some of this is set up you know when i was running within the party and of course they faced even from the democrats i mean thats just a reality so we know in terms of issues that would attract me i think my generation has become you know as we know from Political Attitudes is more inclusive is less respectful of institutions and is kind of tired of this limiting 2 Party Structure that that forces you to pick a side instead maybe we can talk about you know expanding Health Care Education for everybody things that are common sense that you can have a republican a democrat on opposite ends can have a conversation about and arrive at a place that is sensible and right works for everyone but on a National Scale when it becomes about optics and sensational you know conversation you lose a lot of that nuance and just polarize simon is there anything the Republican Party or donald trump could do that would impress you in a way and kind of give you if not their support at least your applause i just commenting coming at that in a slightly different way and whats been most interesting to me about the last couple years is that 3 areas where donald trump has gone on the attack right on immigration brain trade on Health Care Attitudes in the country have changed dramatically during his presidency the country now is 25 points more positive on obamacare the cia than it was 3 years ago attitudes on immigration have gone way up and even attitudes on trade and globalization have gone way up trump i think forced a conversation forced many america. Really think about these things in ways they hadnt before and in all 3 of them theyve come out against the president and the Republican Party in a way that i think is going to be dangerous for h