California’s Democratic Field Is Embarrassingly Weak (w/ Dr. Butch Ware)

Current Affairs

Politics, Culture, Government, Comedy, News

4.6 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Butch Ware is a historian, public intellectual, and the Green Party candidate for Governor of California. He is an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, a former Green Party vice presidential nominee, and an advocate for universal healthcare, housing, and divestment from war. He spoke to Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson about his campaign to get on the ballot and what he describes as efforts by the Democratic Party to block third-party candidates.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I'm the editor-chief of Current Affairs Magazine.
0:06.4	We are privileged to be joined today by Dr. Butch Ware. He is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
0:15.6	He is also the 24 Green Party Vice Presidential nominee, and now he is the
0:22.7	Green Party candidate for Governor of California.
0:26.6	Dr. Ware is a public intellectual, an activist, an artist, and
0:29.6	organizer. He has been a hip-hop musician. He has been
0:34.7	a baseball player. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania,
0:39.2	and he is the author of the book The Walking Quran Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge and History
0:43.8	in West Africa. We welcome Dr. Ware to the program.
0:48.4	Delighted to be here. And I'm just literally thrilled that you read out not only my academic
0:53.3	stuff and my publications, because I'm actually here at my office on out not only my academic stuff and my publications
0:54.5	because I'm actually here at my office on UCSB campus.
0:57.5	And I do love my day job.
0:59.3	I'll serve the people when called into action.
1:02.4	But I especially love that you mentioned that I got to live my two childhood dreams.
1:06.4	I got to become an MC and a professional baseball player and still finish PhD and run for
1:10.6	vice president.
1:11.6	So thanks for the for the Folson introduction.
1:13.7	I had to mention this because as I was doing my research, people need to know that you have
1:18.3	a very interesting background.
1:20.0	It says on your website, you play baseball in France?
1:22.7	Correct.
	...

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