The Senate’s Only Black Republican Says: Stop Being Pessimistic

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tim Scott is a rare bird: He is the only black Republican in the Senate. But the quality that makes him arguably more unique at the moment is his optimism. Much of that optimism comes from his own story. Scott’s grandfather picked cotton in the segregated south. He never learned to read or write. Within two generations, without money or connections, his grandson became a U.S. senator from South Carolina. Scott is frustrated at all the pessimism, including from inside his own party— and he’s frustrated at the notion that America is in decline. Or that perhaps we are heading for some kind of crack up. Or civil war. He makes the case for optimism in his new book: America, A Redemption Story. I hope Scott is right. But also, as you’ll hear in our conversation, I see very, very good reasons for Americans to be fed up with the state of the union and deeply worried about the future of our democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	At Barclays, we're here for every goal.
0:06.4	We're here for the Premier League,
0:09.0	and the Barclays Women's Super League.
0:12.0	We're here for the football chance for giving more girls a chance.
0:18.0	We're here for the grassroots and all the muddy boots. From schools to stadiums, we're here for it all.
0:27.6	Barclays, here for every goal.
0:31.2	This is honestly. We are a nation. This week, shortly after the FBI raided Donald Trump's home in Marilago, the former president
0:42.2	released a video on Truth Social, his social media platform.
0:46.0	We're a nation that is weaponized, its law enforcement against the opposing political party,
0:51.0	like never before, we've never seen anything like this.
0:53.7	And in the video he painted a bleak picture of the nation to say the least.
0:59.1	We are a nation where free speech is no longer allowed, where crime is rampant like never before, where the economy has been
1:07.4	collapsing, where more people died of COVID in 2021 than in 2020.
1:13.2	Do you remember Donald Trump's original inauguration address?
1:16.7	It was all about American carnage and it was so dark a vision that it was easy to make fun of it. But increasingly, this sort of bleak picture
1:26.9	feels more and more accurate, I think, to many Americans, and not just to Republicans or
1:32.1	conservatives.
1:33.0	Whether they're looking at inflation and the value of their dollar,
1:38.0	or college debt or crime, or rates of suicide and addiction, or the state of our education system, or
1:45.3	our hollowed out small towns and neighborhoods, or even something like housing.
1:49.9	There was a study that just came out that revealed that a third of Gen Z adults live with their parents and have no plans to move out.
1:58.0	That's just such a far cry from the expectations and the American dream really of our grandparents generation.
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