Rep. Maxwell Frost - Creating a Culture Intertwined with Politics | The Daily Show — Transcript

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1. 0:00wow Maxwell brush congratulations on
2. 0:02being elected to congress the same year
3. 0:04you were old enough to rent a car here
4. 0:07we go yep
5. 0:10so I mean I'm guessing uh the squad OBS
6. 0:13but um any uh oldies yeah well I don't
7. 0:18know how to say their names now because
8. 0:19now I'm calling them oldies I mean more
9. 0:22mature yeah look there's so many people
10. 0:24that I've gotten to connect with uh you
11. 0:26know folks who are have been just doing
12. 0:29great work Barbara Lee uh Maxine Waters
13. 0:32from eligible
14. 0:34yeah Jamie Raskin yeah so many amazing
15. 0:38people out there I wouldn't call them
16. 0:39oldies but you know uh see you know
17. 0:42senior members of Congress who are doing
18. 0:44amazing work yeah they're not oldies
19. 0:45they're goodies yeah they're goodies
20. 0:47there we go there we got you have been a
21. 0:49and I find this so impressive and
22. 0:51inspiring especially to people out here
23. 0:54you've been a gun reform Advocate since
24. 0:57you were 15 years old
25. 1:02by Sandy Hook which was in Connecticut
26. 1:05you're from Florida and you you
27. 1:07organized the March for our lives
28. 1:10these things that you know they got my
29. 1:12pit on too
30. 1:13it's the the five-year anniversary of
31. 1:16the Parkland shooting there is a school
32. 1:18shooting just last night at Michigan
33. 1:20State
34. 1:21now that you are in Congress
35. 1:24what do you think can be done how can we
36. 1:26break the cycle yeah well we saw
37. 1:28Congress pass a bipartisan bill to help
38. 1:30end gun violence last year it's not
39. 1:32everything that we need but it's a good
40. 1:34step forward
41. 1:35um the fact of the matter is we need a
42. 1:36governing majority that's actually going
43. 1:38to care about this issue and you know
44. 1:40this word bipartisanship is supposed to
45. 1:42mean what everyone can agree on most NRA
46. 1:44members and Republicans are for
47. 1:46Universal background checks but the
48. 1:48definition of bipartisanship in Congress
49. 1:50means what the NRA will allow and
50. 1:52because they're afront for the gun lobby
51. 1:54they have these politicians bought off
52. 1:56and they're unwilling to stand up for
53. 1:58what the people want so we can't get
54. 1:59things like background checks passed and
55. 2:02so there's a lot of work that needs to
56. 2:03be done a lot of it involves kicking
57. 2:05people out and replacing them with
58. 2:06morally just leaders who actually give a
59. 2:08damn about children's lives
60. 2:13in the interim I think we have an
61. 2:16opportunity I mean overturning citizens
62. 2:18united would certainly help 100 yeah
63. 2:21that's one of the issues to end all
64. 2:23issues you know yeah that's that's the
65. 2:25big one and that's the root of so much
66. 2:27of this so now that you've seen how
67. 2:29Congress operates kind of from the
68. 2:31inside are you hopeful do you see that
69. 2:35there's change possible are you excited
70. 2:37about America's future or is it
71. 2:39depressing both
72. 2:41I'll say I'm very hopeful you know a lot
73. 2:43of times on the outside you might look
74. 2:45in and say there's only a small group of
75. 2:47good people and everyone else is a
76. 2:48corporate hack and they don't care about
77. 2:49anyone but having conversations with my
78. 2:52colleagues I've been so surprised by so
79. 2:55many people who I get in the
80. 2:56conversation with them and I find out
81. 2:57what they're about and their values and
82. 2:59I'm like okay you know like you're
83. 3:01actually a lot more Progressive and
84. 3:03forward thinking that other folks might
85. 3:04think and I think the problem is people
86. 3:06have smaller goals because they
87. 3:07understand the landscape and the
88. 3:09battlefield that we have in Congress
89. 3:10right now and I think when we show those
90. 3:12politicians and everyone that good
91. 3:15policy equals good politics then I think
92. 3:18people will get the courage that they
93. 3:19need to stand up for what we need in
94. 3:21this country
95. 3:24more and less
96. 3:26I mean I think a lot of gen's ears tend
97. 3:30to not trust the government
98. 3:34um how do you think you can change their
99. 3:36minds well I understand first off like
100. 3:39you know and this is something I like
101. 3:41running for congress I had to think
102. 3:42about the fact that during the black
103. 3:43lives matter protest I was tear gas mace
104. 3:46arrested and jailed for non-violent
105. 3:48protests now I represent those same
106. 3:50streets in Congress but I still have to
107. 3:52square the fact that I'm a part of the
108. 3:53system that causes a lot of harm and I
109. 3:55get it and I think part of what we need
110. 3:57to do is make government more accessible
111. 3:58Bridging the Gap between cool and
112. 4:00Consciousness and I think that's a
113. 4:02really good way that we can bring
114. 4:03younger people to the fold and March for
115. 4:05our lives did a great job of that and
116. 4:06with the movement it was like the cool
117. 4:08thing to be at the marches is the cool
118. 4:09thing to register to vote and I think
119. 4:11the more we can get our culture
120. 4:12intertwined with the politics I think
121. 4:15it's going to lead to more young people
122. 4:16getting involved I mean if the marches
123. 4:18could could uh
124. 4:20let it could translate to votes more
125. 4:24directly it would be ideal yeah
126. 4:26um but you know maybe election day off
127. 4:28would be a nice start exactly and
128. 4:32I agree and voter turnout is up for
129. 4:35young people you know we have record
130. 4:36highs of Youth where to turnout it's
131. 4:37never been the largest piece of the pie
132. 4:39but young people right now are voting at
133. 4:41higher numbers than any other generation
134. 4:42when they were our age and half of gen Z
135. 4:44can't even vote yet so we're not where
136. 4:46we want to be but we're going in the
137. 4:48right direction
138. 4:50um you brought [ __ ] ass [ __ ]
139. 4:54it's now in Congressional Record because
140. 4:58of you so um
141. 5:05that was about a certain person too
142. 5:07it was about well it was about a [ __ ]
143. 5:10ass [ __ ]
144. 5:12what's been so inspiring about you is
145. 5:16the that you got involved as a teenager
146. 5:18and how that can manifest into real
147. 5:22change and so I think it's exciting gen
148. 5:26Z is so exciting to me because they're
149. 5:29so motivated they're they realize their
150. 5:32power and that can really change things
151. 5:35I mean trying to get gen Z to trust the
152. 5:37government how about just trying to get
153. 5:38gen Z to be the government and I think
154. 5:41you've done that
155. 5:43no it is exciting and I think we see a
156. 5:46lot of young candidates running across
157. 5:47the country and look it's not like gen Z
158. 5:48was waiting to get in Congress I'm the
159. 5:50oldest agency or can be we just got old
160. 5:52enough to run but I think the the
161. 5:53significance here is that the first
162. 5:55chance we got we jumped at the
163. 5:57opportunity because we want to be a part
164. 5:59of the solution we want to be at the
165. 6:00table we don't want to be the only
166. 6:01people at the table but Congress does
167. 6:03not look like our country right now
168. 6:05right like gen Z and Millennials make up
169. 6:06a third of the country we're nowhere
170. 6:08near a third of government both local
171. 6:10and federal and so we need more people
172. 6:12to run for office yes Congress but also
173. 6:14city council County Commission these
174. 6:16seats that really are they're not lower
175. 6:18they're closer to the people and closer
176. 6:21to the decisions that matter on a daily
177. 6:22basis yeah being involved in those the
178. 6:25midterm elections and all the everywhere
179. 6:27down the ballot is essential and I feel
180. 6:29like the right realizes that yeah they
181. 6:32do and they're more organized around
182. 6:34that than we are that's why they've
183. 6:36played this long game of taking over the
184. 6:38state legislatures it's why we woke up
185. 6:40last year and Roe versus Wade was gone
186. 6:44it's that that's a plan that has been a
187. 6:46long time in the making so Democrats I
188. 6:49feel like sometimes we're too obsessed
189. 6:50with these short-term goals we need to
190. 6:51be about be about power building in
191. 6:53these communities long term it's not
192. 6:56going to happen overnight but that's how
193. 6:57we're going to wake up in the morning
194. 6:58and have our freaking rights back right
195. 7:00yeah
196. 7:01[Music]