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It is absolutely fascinating to hear him talk about how he got the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, how he did other things, alienated the South, knew he was alienating the South, a Texan, you know, the big guy from the Senate and so forth.
He's just marvelously eloquent in that. And Cronkite knows all the right questions to answer. You say, well, he was backfilling. OK, fine. If you look at LBJ s time and the time he utilized the Congress, he got more done in that short period of time, the Vietnam War notwithstanding, than any president probably in the 20th century. Incredible what he did. If we had something like that, again, because of the retreat of the Republicans and the dominance of the Democrats and the progressives, as you pointed out, were able to bring their influence to bear in meaningful ways, we could have a different future in the next decade or two, then I think we're going to have and hold out some hope for that.
But it means a retreat of the Republican Party. It certainly does.
Honestly, I've not been very optimistic. I don't think either of us have. But there is a moment here which has some potential, this crazy disarray, that Trump induced. I remember my first interview with you about Trump. I think the first words out of your mouth were Trump's mission is to destroy the Republican Party. And I was kind of surprised that that was your take on it. And boy, boy, maybe he's done a service here in some ways.
Larry WilkersonThat wasn't any original thought of mine. I got that from taxis in New York City. Taxi drivers. That's what he's going to do. You know, he's a lifelong Democrat and he's a New Yorker. And the Mafia is even scared of him. In New Jersey and New York, the mafia is even scarier. Donald Trump, he's going to take on the Republicans and destroy them.
They didn't say it with any positive nature, they just thought that was logical.
Paul JayWell, all of these events from yesterday have helped, one would think, to have a somewhat more progressive space, both for the progressives and even for Biden, if he actually is so inclined.
So it's very incumbent on all of us to get an action here, because the thing at stake, as you said, you know, the pandemic, the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, and I agree with you, I think the issue of AI is being greatly underestimated, how much that's going to transform society and maybe it's not in the next 10 or 15 years, but it could be coming on quickly.
Larry WilkersonI mean, really quickly, looking at it through the military lens, it's coming on much faster than I thought it was going to. Come on. We're talking about spending billions, if not trillions now in the military
Paul JayOn AI weaponry.
Larry WilkersonYeah.
And it is going to revolutionize the whole landscape.
Paul JayYeah, because once you've done it for the military, it's not that big a stretch to turn it into consumer goods.
Larry WilkersonIt happens all the time.
You know, interestingly, what you were just alluding to, I saw a minor example in the negative sense last night. I don't know if you saw it, but Anderson Cooper was trying to interview Bernie Sanders and he began the interview and then had to cut Sanders off because Pence came on presiding over the Senate for the Electoral College developments. Then he went back to Bernie when Pence sat down. Then he left Bernie again in mid-sentence because he went back to I think it was Pelosi.
Then he went back to Bernie again, and then he cut him off again and went back to the Senate again because McConnell was speaking. And Bernie finally said you could hear him off-camera sort of, Bernie said, that's all I got to get in the Senate myself.
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