We feel very fortunate to host tonights a featured speaker at this moment. And to will appear in the contemporary politics racism in American Society looking at the numbers today over the last eight or nine years he has been part of the community is great to have the chance to hear the limits of the Democratic Practice are tested and in conversation tonight with another man were grateful for the chance to have them both and with tonights presentation. Thank you very much and to the whole town hall team. I can appreciate with all of the staggering numbers so a better than to spend on spend an evening with american politics right now . Thank you for being here from far and wide. A nationally acclaimed political scientist the expertise about rightwing movements and africanamerican political and social are widely recognized and for over a decade the team insight on the frequently quoted National Media including the New York Times and Washington Post and many others its worth noting chris is one of the very few scholars calling Donald Trumps election in 2016 his first book fighting for democracy it is a fascinating guide to experience a black veterans with the service of the United States navy and with personal insights on this arena change they cant believe and the tea party the reactionary politics in america is deeply researched and a datadriven book that the code behind the trump voters we just want to say he such a gifted writer with allied of information with a fun and accessible form now hes writing his next book the donald trump race in the crisis of american democracy earning his phd from the university of chicago i have had the pleasure taking several of his classes and the love the city that has been criticized suffering from seattle nice so true breath of fresh air he is never shy for telling how he sees it which is what we are going to experience. Im actually a fifth generation seattleite a long career in broadcast journalism working in washington dc and National Affairs from on pbs news hour and then Brian Williams lead producer and now back home in beautiful seattle writing for a Communications Firm will have to worry about things ever being boring. And the top official to response of the president ial election and he was guilty for actually speaking publicly calling it the most secure election in history. There is a terrible overuse but im using it anyway unprecedented clearly he lost the election, refusing to concede and just as bizarre the Top Republicans from congress seem to be backing him up. What is going on . Thank you to town hall for hosting that and becoming and having classes with me because we do have the history. I will probably drop a few swearwords tonight so otherwise get off now because i will go there. So the Republican Party they are trying to placate this guy in the reason why is because he will continue to pull the strings of the Republican Party for the years to come. So because he has this robust order of 72 or 73 Million People voting for him a lot of these people were hardcore and would follow him to the ends of the earth and he continued to manipulate the Republican Party because of that base. Moreover they made him come out and campaign in the runoff elections in the senate in georgia and january party was running for one seat and Kelly Leffler is running for another. And they are opposing. So continuing in that vein the election is only two weeks old which is hard to believe so what does that tell us about the American Voter in 2020 . The record turnout was a decisive win for joe biden but trump had 73 million votes at the last count 8 million more than 2016. What gives . What is happening now the bottom line is election tells us for the country is added at any given point in time so thats how they can predict who will be elected. This time we got trump. And so now they see the country is changing too fast for their liking they think the america they have come to know and love is going byebye actually with gender and race and sexuality and this is changing way too fast so what they see and trump is between them and the rest of us to say people of color and the rest of white progressives thats the only thing he can get away with because he is also seen as a lasting standing between complete and utter change. Their life is being destroyed. Because they think of politics in this framework of good versus evil. They are on the good side the rest of us are evil. So chris, along those lines it explains 73 million trump voters and why . And that is the paradigm profile you identified in 2016. What is going on that is growing are not going away . So for them it was the one way to explain is because they saw the blue wave coming. Thats the mobilization of the progressives because they saw this coming and they tried to head it off. For someone, think about this for a second maybe we get to this later by talk about it now 73 million votes and counting which is 8 million more than last time but this is after a pandemic where 250,000 americans are about to pass, after locking up children after he says there are good people on both sides there is a more between progressives and neonazis. This is after saying Shithole Country and this is after to say but the thing that separates us from a second term from this idiot and where we are now is this pandemic so then they could spare us from this guy. So what i am saying is that we really need to come to grips dont be too quick to pat ourselves on the back to say hes gone. Hes not completely gone but he will continue to defy the country if not hes not in the white house. And he actually got more votes this time. We have to come to grips people thought the 2016 was an election was the one off. No. This is who we are. Along those lines trump may have lost but he did not lose and the selection especially the down ballot with this say one the senate races talk about that. Yes. Thats another thing so thank you for bringing that up. So trump may be gone but will haunt us for some time to come. I think at last count the republicans in the house may continue to have a hammerlock on the senate. So what that suggest is the people around not completely comfortable with democrats in the white house they want republicans to own two thirds of government. So i think what that tells us that the country is completely convinced we will not go very far to the left and there is some tangible concerns that maybe they will get joe biden for the socialism. So it is comfortable with self policies. And the tax cut so they are comfortable with that. So when it comes to running the country but on democrats to have the freehand. So that reasons how much of a factor when you peel this all back is race certainly many people thought coming back to the obama election we now have a racial america and is not a completely false dream and then to play the race card left and right are all 73 million race voters racist quick. Thats a really good question in this on which the country was raised. And they are and remain aligned. Those which happened with johnsons win in 1955 when they align that party so now this is pounding he was built on racism. Come on. If they start off with this goes on and on each race related group so therefore it does not surprise me that continues to be a problem. With all 73 million trump supporters. I just have to give them a pass. If they want something differen different. Post charlottesville . How do you not see this guy as racist and i will call you a racist. He wants you to know he is racist. And that he is sexist. So how many times do they get . At the very the these support racism and sexism and that homophobia . Frankly llc how we make the distinction. That is a pretty dire view of america right now and with the black lives Matter Movement and then finally to be highlighted never before with the murders of george floyd and those with black folks for change. Do you see any counterpoint right now . So i will go on a ledge to say trump knows. Do we see Race Relations improving . And with black lives matter i am convinced. I could be wrong but i could say right now that is pending against other shiny objects if they are really that committed to racial progress. We that we were the Inflection Point. And then think about the other things that were happening with the pandemic. And to be very cynical on my part. Because i know history very well this is my cynicism kicking in. Nobody is going to get mad at me for doing that. And a get out of class. That may be the Inflection Point to think about these things. To see someone slowly getting murdered and nine minutes thats a lot of time to see the cop shooter man but to see his life leave him but now a white cop at that . That outrage sparked with a lot of people. Biden himself said those that were responsible for his victory with the record turnout. One of the things i wanted to do here taking a beating and 2016 because the black community said we didnt really turn out the way we did under obama for his president ial run. And with those enterprising undergraduate students that put this together for me that says the blue balls post georgia and the reason why 2020 is not in here to choose the most reliable data and it would take a while to be published because 2016 was the president ial election. 2018 was a Midterm Election year so i will show you the difference with these four states. But i was remiss in the earlier remarks not inviting the audience while listening to ask questions there is the ask the question tab at the bottom. Im sorry to interrupt. You can describe this slide. I believe it is the state of georgia showing huge to differences and turnout between 2016 and 2018 for black folks. The slide after that i believe is michigan which shows the same thing a huge difference of turnout between 2016 and 2018. After that is pennsylvania between 16 and 18 and in the final slide shows that black turnout was roughly 90 percent in 2018 versus of 2015 which was 60 percent. So to talk about what that means. This is one of the things i find deeply ironic generally the black folks have to pull the country back and tell it is recognized with a small d democratic ideals. And when have the 13th or 14th or 15th amendment and then the aftermath of world war ii with the black veterans come back and put their life on the line but even pay for that and a blue wave and democrats took back the training. So now we see high levels of black turnout in georgia and so i find it deeply ironic that on the one hand that is something really inspiring about that put on the other hand