I want to start tonight with a thing about our election. That's about to happen. And for our non-US

listeners, I apologize, but this is important. And I feel like this is important enough

that if we didn't say anything that we would be advocating our duty as Americans. So

I am urging all eligible U.S. citizens to vote. And I want to talk to everyone here

of every political persuasion. You know, you all know out there that we are pretty liberal,

but I also want to talk to the conservatives right now as well because I know we have conservatives

in our audience, you're listening to, and while we probably disagree on some particular policy

positions, there's also a lot that we can agree on as Americans. And you know, one of the fundamental

things is that we can agree that our country is a democracy. And the fundamental nature of a

democracy is that people vote to elect the representatives and their leaders. And to me,

everything else is secondary. All other policy decisions are a lower priority when the democracy

itself is under attack. And it would be wonderful to have the luxury for conservatives and liberals

to debate policies and laws. But that's only possible when the foundations of our democracy are

solid and trustworthy. And right now, they are not. The Republican Party at state and federal levels

has consistently and systematically orchestrated massive voter suppression efforts for decades.

And they've been alarmingly accelerating in recent years. And this is not a politically biased

statement or argument. This is a fact supported by tons of reliable evidence from nonpartisan sources

and lawsuits and court decisions going back many years. There is specifically a Republican effort

done to tilt elections in their favor. If you look for evidence of voter suppression by Democrats,

you won't find anything substantial. Again, this is not a partisan slant. These are just the facts

with tons of evidence behind them. And as far as I'm concerned, anyone who tries to win by making

people's votes not count is anti-American at the highest level because that's a fundamental attack

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