Democracy is a chorus and it starts with you.
Shadow politics.
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Senator Michael D. Brown holding open the door.
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Good evening and welcome to Shadow politics and how our long grassroots talk show.
It is on a mission to make America think again.
I'm your host Michael D. Brown, United States Senator Emeritus.
And along with my amazing co-host Liberty Jones,
we are interviewing the people who are making it happen.
Not always in front of the camera, but always ahead of the curve.
We're not just going to tell you how to feel or who to vote for.
We're just putting out the information because what goes on in the shadows
makes the world go around.
So come listen, learn and because a vote is a terrible thing to waste.
And now more than ever we need everyone listening, learning and engaged.
If we're going to make America sane again.
And today we have tonight we have a very special guest, India May.
India is a candidate for House District 58 in Iowa.
You may remember that during a public meeting last year,
India had the guts to stand up and confront Senator Joni Ernst about Medicare cuts.
She said people will die.
And that's the absolute truth.
Thanks for having a guts to speak, truth to power.
And welcome back to shadow politics, your FBO on the first time.
Welcome, India.
Exciting to talk to you, Mike.
And so much has happened in the last year.
I bet.
But before we start, let me say happy Father's Day, everybody.
So make sure as a father, I want to say,
make sure you're sending your dad lots of money.
Let's move on.
All right, nice tip or at least a card.
Let's move on now.
It's been a year since you've been on.
So let's start.
Tell us what have you learned and what's the most surprising thing that you've learned.
I know they're very smart, very well educated, nurse, librarian, medical examiner,
mom, you got it all going on.
But what is it?
What surprised you the most and what you've learned?
Oh, my gosh.
There's been quite a few surprises.
I think the biggest thing that I have learned this year is how much power we really
have as civilians.
I am running for the Iowa House in District 58 in Floyd, Chickasau, Bremer County.
And I'm looking to be in a position of power, not so I can wield it to control people,
but to help people.
But it turns out that as a civilian, I've been able to help people quite a bit.
And that's been really awesome.
The big shocking thing that I should talk about, you know, we encouraged Joni Ernst to
step down.
And she did.
She retired.
And one civilian can do that just by speaking out of terms.
And I also have been speaking about my opponent's behavior.
He is chair of the oversight committee in the Iowa House.
But as a real estate developer, he was not paying his own property taxes.
He was letting it go to auction and then paying individuals who purchased his debt to our
community.
And so I started speaking on that subject.
And this year, he paid his property taxes.
So we are making headway even as a civilian.
So imagine what I can do from the state house, you know?
Yeah, no, exactly.
And you know, seeing good all the great anthropologists said, it's only a person that can make a difference.
There's always one person that gets it going and can make a difference.
So yeah, that's an amazing thing to learn.
And you've come a long way.
I can just tell you, I've listened to some of the interviews you've done and you're really
turning into a candidate, man.
I've been a candidate.
I've been working on campaign for 50 years and you've really, really, really turned into
candidate.
Liberty Jones, are you with us?
Liberty seven, if you technical.
Hello, I'm with you.
Okay.
So ask a brilliant question of India.
So I have to say, out of all of the time that you've had navigate this new position,
what do you are the biggest disparities between your expectations and your realities?
Oh, gosh, that is such a good question.
I am approaching this as somebody who's been outside of politics.
I've been an independent, most of my voting life.
So now I'm running as a Democrat and party politics can be pretty shocking, especially
in what's considered red and rural Iowa, because you wouldn't believe the number of people
who have stepped up to really take a huge amount of work on and to doorknob like crazy.
And I mean, we've had a great turnout.
We have a band that's been going to the parade with us.
We have live music and we've been having people applaud us as we're walking by in these
parades.
So the amount of recognition that something is wrong and we need to fix it and the Democratic
Party is actually stepping up to do that now.
That's been amazing.
Just a really pleasant surprise.
Well, it's good that you're getting the support of the Democratic Party.
Now, you're getting, I assume even more as the somebody that won her primary election.
I know you were on the post, but in politics, the win is a win.
So congratulations on that.
And are you getting more support from the party because of that?
I do think that that had something to do with it.
I also think it's just the goodness of people's hearts.
It's not really the parties themselves, but people recognizing good candidates.
I have a great running partner as like a Senate candidate.
Jim Vowels shout out to him.
He's a band instructor and he's running against Sandy Salmon, who is notorious in our state
because of the 11th hour of sessions, two sessions ago, she filed a resolution to ban
gay marriage.
And I took her to task on that at her town hall so you can see videos, her actual response,
her family, because she has no reason to legislate homophobia.
But the gentleman who's running against her, Jim Vowels, has a queer child and is just
kind.
He's still based on Christian values, with the kind and generous and big in spirit form
of Christianity, not the hatefulness.
Well, you know, this is one thing I love sometimes about fundamentalist Christians is
that they live in the Old Testament.
And I often say to them, come forward, meet my friend Jesus Christ because he really doesn't
hate anybody.
And as the father of openly gay daughter, I thank you for the stand take because it's
so important, even though my daughter was aware of a place where, you know, they have
lots of laws to protect her.
It's important that that that gay people all over the country feel safe.
Let me ask you, you've got this.
Is this a problem for you because you're young that you live in an area where you have a
lot of farms, you have a lot of older, you have a kind of an older constituency.
Do you find that a problem or is it a benefit that you're young?
I think overall it's a benefit.
I do have my heart and mind on the well-being of elder people.
I have provided nursing care at assisted living centers and nursing homes.
And I see some of the problems of how we treat elder people too.
So I can have that conversation.
But I get feedback a lot that, and it's from older people, thanking me for running as someone
who's younger.
That's what we need right now.
So that's very honoring.
And I appreciate that so much.
Well, and it's true.
And that's why Liberty Jones is on here to keep me straight.
But let me also say, you know, on paper, you're amazing.
Vibrarians, nurse, all these things, I read about you.
But I took an interest in you because I heard you speak.
And I talked to you.
And I said to me, I said to myself, this is exactly the type of person who should run
for political office in America.
It's what our, I would say it's what our founders had in mind, speaking of your spirit
and not your sex because they didn't really recognize women.
The spirit that you display is exactly what I think they wanted.
That they wanted real people to take these offices and people that have come up and shown
their commitment to the community, all of which you've done.
So you asked if I would endorse you.
I'd be proud to endorse you.
And I want to make that statement right now.
So you've got my endorsement.
Let me go ahead.
Thank you.
Liberty Jones.
Liberty Jones.
Yes.
Hello.
Yeah.
So I want to understand better, you know, what do you think are the biggest barriers to achieving
the goals that you had in mind as a young person who also dreams to run for office one day?
I know that I have a lot of things, a lot of lists that I'd like to enact immediately.
But I know it doesn't quite work like that.
So what are some things that you really want to move forward with that you think are a
lot more difficult in practice than on paper?
Okay.
I have a couple different answers for this.
I think if I had to narrow it down, though, the number one most important legislation
is something that our Democratic candidate for governor, Rob Sand is talking about.
And I absolutely back him with this legislation that would make voting more fair.
So we don't have such a reliance on the party politics and we can trust the intelligence
of the voter.
That would make such a huge difference.
They banned in the last two sessions ago, they banned ranked choice voting.
And so I would love to look into primaries that don't exclude the parties from one another.
I would look into star voting or approval based voting.
I think those would improve our systems.
I do think having ballot measures available for Iowan would definitely help with some
of the railroading that we've been having in the legislature where representatives are
not listening and senators are just rubber stamping, especially the Republican party
that's had a trifecta for a decade.
And they've done some real measurable harm with that.
So that would be number one priority that I would feel really good about my legacy would
be one that I can lean on is that I helped make things more fair going forward in Iowa.
Well, and given the fact that the Republicans have had such control, that's going to, that's
the big challenge.
Is it not breaking through that barrier and having planned to do that?
Oh, they've put into place a lot of legislation that put up more and more barriers because
they were expecting to lose the trifecta in the next election.
So it will be very interesting overcoming some of this very strange legislation.
They put in a place a bill that would make it so that if two-thirds majority don't agree
on a budget bill, then the previous year's budget would keep going into perpetuity.
And this is a huge issue because our current budget, the end-the-tax structure, puts us
in a $1.3 billion deficit this year.
It also under funds our schools and it gives big corporate tax breaks to people who don't
need them.
So we've got massive issues.
And we've also got oversight issues because they blocked the one Democrat that was in
office who is now running for governor, who is the auditor.
They blocked him from being able to do his job.
So there's been zero oversight over the privatized Medicaid system and the school voucher program.
And so we don't really have a good clear vision of how those dollars are getting spent, even
though they're taxpayer dollars.
Well, let me ask you the comment that you made to Joni Ernst and public meeting.
That was in reference to cuts to Medicaid.
And I understand that a hundred thousand islands are going to lose their Medicaid benefits.
How is that affecting people?
Have you seen that already?
Especially as a nurse, as a health professor.
How is that going in Ireland?
Yes.
As a medical examiner investigator, I have seen the effects of our broken medical system
here.
We are ahead of the curve with ruined healthcare.
It's a really horrible thing to be ahead of the curve on because our Medicaid recipients,
they have the shift of privatizing Medicaid back in 2016.
And so we've seen the compiled effects.
We've seen the people put off their care because they can't afford it because they were denied.
We've seen work requirements put into place.
We've seen hospitals waverly, which is very close right outside my district.
I listened to a board member of that hospital ask the sitting senator to please get in contact
with these Medicaid companies because they have almost a million dollars of reimbursement
overdue and they're going to have to close down if they don't get reimbursed.
They can't pay their employees.
It's a crisis here.
And I have seen the effects of the mental health care system here, failing people.
We are rated 51 in the United States for inpatient mental health care availability.
And that is absolutely killing people already.
Not to mention our cancer rates.
I mean, we're number one for fastest growing cancer rate.
We don't have very many oncology units.
We're considered a health care desert in many of our 99 counties.
That's crazy.
And I assume the big beautiful bill, whatever the hell that means, is not helping you out very much.
Oh, it's going to be a nightmare.
But those cuts don't go into place until November.
They did it intentionally so that when they lose the trifecta, they can tell their supporters
that it's because Democrats are in office, that they're losing their health care.
It's just downright evil.
With that statement, I can tell you, you've learned the most important lesson in politics.
Go ahead.
Liberty.
You know, that absolutely breaks my heart because it seems like
greed has overcome a lot of our political structures from what I can see thus far.
And in this situation where there's people dying and still we have this beautiful trifecta
working great with who's in office, do you think that there's potential for things to change
if we have a Democrat elected in the federal government?
If we have next election, let's say we have Kamala Harris as president.
Do you think that that will trickle down and possibly reinforce
what we need to see done in Iowa?
Or is it past possibility of influence?
I have my concerns as always about both parties.
I see complicity in some problems, but the Republican party has been entirely usurped by
MAGA, this sort of Christophascist death cult that really has been taking direct playbooks from
Nazi Germany in their propaganda with the Department of Homeland Security action.
A lot of very alarming breaches of our constitutional right.
So we are in a constitutional crisis, in which case the opposition party is always the lesser
of two evils, but I'm seeing a massive amount of Democrats who need to have accountability
for the funding that they receive and for their action.
Now, I'm really excited.
I don't know about presidential candidates yet, of course, but the candidate who won the primary
for Iowa. I have personally met every single one of them and grilled them.
I am very excited for the honorable people who don't take Israeli money and don't expect
big corporate money and still manage to be competitive with these MAGA people who are,
I mean, getting just 30 million here, 10 million there.
It is very crazy to see. I'm very proud of the statewide candidates as well.
So I'm really looking forward to these good people staying true to their moral as they enter
these office positions. But we're going to need all hands on deck to support them.
It's very hard to win over the amount of money that's being moved through these elections.
And I encourage you throughout the listening in your inner Iowa to help people like India,
because as she already said at the very beginning of the show, one person can really make a difference.
I think a lot of people don't understand that and really can. But let me ask you a question
indeed, because I'm a Christian and I've never quite understood why people like me
aren't standing up more and saying to these guys, where is your Christianity?
We had somebody from Charlie Kirch group on a few weeks ago and I kept on asking that question,
where's the Christianity? Because it's my recollection that Jesus Christ said, I'm your salvation,
not I'm your retribution. And that was what you do on to the least of them you do on to me.
I'm a Christian in Iowa, reconciled, thrown at everybody as a country, hating people,
all these kind of anti-Christian positions. Do you have any idea?
I am born and raised Methodist and our slogan is open hearts, open minds, open doors. I've been
very blessed in my church life. But if we even look at the old school, we look at the Old Testament,
I mean, they might be Old Testament Christians, but only if you really misunderstand the point,
because even the Old Testament talked at length with parables and stories about being hospitable
to the stranger and kind to those who need it. This is absolutely the antithesis of what Maga
wants to do to people and we're seeing cruelty and corruption left and right. It absolutely
has to stop. It is the opposite of what Christ or any Christian truly believes.
Yeah, absolutely. And I don't understand why we don't confront that more on it. Liberty,
what do you have to say? Yeah, it's really interesting how these narratives get misconstrued.
And I think we're in a position right now where there isn't,
there's, we, you know, we have to choose somebody to blame. I think that's a reoccurring theme we
see in politics. And I'm worried about that. You know, are you receiving a lot of blame holding
a democratic stance where it seems that Republicans are very empowered or you are? Oh, yeah, I have
been accused of so much. It is met. They're starting to turn my name into a cuss word, but that's,
I guess, car for the course. And that is, I'm willing to take on that risk. I'm willing to take on
anything that they throw at me because I know that I can rise above that and do some real good.
And this is the hostility and toxicity of what's happening right now. It's unavoidable.
And it's really unfortunate that it's happening to just about everybody.
Well, I find that surprising because you know what, if I was running against you,
or if I represented a candidate running against you, the first thing I would say is do not attack
this woman, do not attack your character. See, for God's sake, she's a nurse. She's a librarian.
She's a mom. She's everything we're supposed to respect in our society. So, I think it's great
that your talent stands strong. And I think you have such a strong foundation to stand on,
you know, that that's exactly what you should be doing. So, let me, let me ask you, are you
raising money? Are you surprised? I mean, are you raising money? Are people coming to support you?
How's your campaign going? Absolutely. Yes. We have raised a good amount of money.
I don't know what a dollar amount off the top of my head, but we've been
out raising my competitor, actually, which is such a blessing. He does $60 steak dinners,
and I do grilled cheese sandwiches, but it's free to the public. So, I get a good, big turnout.
We've got a big shindig coming up on the 27th at the Floyd County Fairground, 5 to 10 p.m.
It's family friendly, but also fun for the grown-ups. We've got some casino games that'll be our big
fundraiser for raffle tickets and stuff. It'll be just a blast. But other than that, I've been
fundraising online, and the show of support has been overwhelming. And I just want to express
gratitude to anybody who has ever donated to my campaign. Thank you so much. And you may now
donate again. But having said that we did outraise my opponent, however, he outspent us.
So, if you look at his filings, everything is public information. You can see mine as well.
He's got PAC funding. I don't. But he has outspent us. His campaign owes him personally about $78,000.
And I don't have the kind of money to do that. I'm going to put the bill myself. So, every dollar
accounts, 50 cents here and there, even adds up. So, if anybody can pitch in, it's deeply appreciated,
but never required. I know times are hard. Well, you know what? Give money, even if it's a little
money, you can never have enough money in a campaign. So, give money to this lady, because
she's the real deal. Tell us how we can do it. Oh, expenses. Oh, if you would come to the
May for Iowa dot com is the place to do it. M-A-Y-S-O-R, the greatest state in the whole nation.
Dot com. Okay. And is that your slogan? Why isn't it M-A-Y-E-D for Iowa? Why isn't it made for Iowa?
Because I think that's exactly what you are made for Iowa. Go ahead.
Ask something brilliant. Yeah. So, first of all, I want to commend you for coming up with such
creative ways. Despite all of the losses around you, I really love the casino idea. I think I
really commend your creativity. And something that comes up to me as a young person is that
I see a lot of people leaving rural areas and moving to larger cities and communities
like ones in Iowa, I feel are struggling to attract workers and doctors and entrepreneurs.
So, is that a problem that you see as well? How can we navigate that? And what could convince
a 25-year-old college graduate to build a life in rural Iowa? You hit the nail on the head
expert, they're calling it brain drain, where the demographic of people who are leaving
are freshly college graduated. So, they're educated, they've invested in their futures,
and then they leave, and they're young too. So, we're missing out on the kids and our grandkids,
and that is, I think, a tragedy. Someone described it as Republican voters are looking for a quiet
place to die. And I just feel like there's more to life than that. And I always need to do to
retain our young people, because it's so beautiful here. It really is majestic. And we all want to
say we love our home. There's a sort of Iowa pride, and Iowa's nice is famous. It's really
Iowa kindness. But we absolutely have to stop the cruelty. We've had punishing legislation
towards LGBT people. We have, in the last session, we've banned even local
governments like city councils from enacting protective ordinances for trans and non-binary
people. It's so wrong. We need to stop attacking everyday people, small groups of people. We need
to properly tax the ultra wealthy and these corporations that come in from out of state and
make a buck on us. We need to protect the workers, make sure they have good jobs, and they're not
under attack by our own government. And we will keep our young people, and our communities are
going to thrive. And we get to hang out with our grandkids so much better.
Yeah, I mean, Iowa nice is a real thing, folks. I've been to Iowa a couple times,
and it's amazing. And the comment you made again, India is right on about Iowa's Republicans looking
for a nice place to die or a good place to die. My wife and I just moved to a 55 plus community,
very active community built around an active lifestyle just for that reason, because we were
living in Washington. I had so many friends that were just sitting on the couch trying to figure
out what was going to kill. I'm 72 years old. I'll be 73 next year. I'm in the next month. And
I moved to this place, and it's wonderful. It's alive again, and we have a lot of children,
grandchildren, and stuff to come and visit, and are part of the community. Actually, my 28 year
old daughter's program is right now. So it's been a great experience. But that actually is going on
everywhere, where old people are just sitting around saying, well, you know, no, no, I don't know
what's going to happen. And I encourage all you old people to get out there and knock on door for
you, and you may. Let me ask you about your opponent. He's been in two terms. Is that right? And he's
not a nice guy from what I got. Tell me something about him. We really don't know. Charlie Thompson,
right? That's right. Charlie has been in the legislature for two terms, and during those two terms,
he's been working as a lawyer and a real estate developer. The one thing I question is that he
has not paid his property taxes. And the circumstances of that appear to be that there's a big development
project, $9 million development project, on one of the bigger properties in Charles City, in the
center of the district. And it's a downtown property with two stories of apartment buildings and one
story of businesses all in one city block. He purchased it, but he was denied $3 million worth
of tax incentive funding. So he was going to get taxpayer dollars for it, but he didn't make the
two-year deadline for the construction project. So he bankrupted and dropped the bag on the
community's lap. So the bank, five years later, is still finishing up the construction project on
the first floor. Some of the apartments are rented out, though. So it's been really
sitting pretty dormant, even though it's one of the absolute nicest buildings. I mean, it's a full
city block, really, in our town. And then he decided not to pay his property taxes on several
rentals, his own campaign office, and two mansions all in town. And that's been public knowledge.
Every year it gets published in the paper. And nobody seemed to talk about it until recently.
But not to mention that weird situation where a person who's deciding how much we pay in taxes
isn't paying his own. He also co-sponsored some bills that were really unnecessary at best,
like a three-strike bill that would crack down on violent and drug crime. So if you committed three
crimes, then you would be going to prison. And now that that passed and signed by the governor,
we have to build more prisons in Iowa. Even though we are not a high crime state, it just seems
pretty punishing in a state with the worst mental health care. Oh my gosh, I could talk
quite a bit on some of the legislation that he's put through, but it's very much on the agenda
of the Heritage Foundation, a lot of it. Straight out of their playbook.
Well, you know, it's a guy that used to run a public interest group, big public interest group,
in Washington, that was right next door to the Heritage Foundation. I can tell you, they're not
nice guys. In fact, we had a staff meeting one time because there was a carryout in the basement
of the Heritage Foundation, which had the greatest sandwiches. And we used to go over there. And
some of the people in our organization hated them so much that they refused. You know, they tried
to get all of us to boycott the salmon shop that was there that wasn't associated with them at all.
So most of us didn't. But that's how much we dislike what they do. And believe me,
their agenda for America and their 2025 plan is just the most draconian thing I've ever seen.
So let me ask you, I have to ask you this question on Missy Brown's behalf,
because she was a librarian. I heard you make a comment on another podcast saying that there
are people in Iowa that believe that libraries and the kind of books you carry are turning kids
gay. Is that true? Are there people that they have to get the book? You know, Johnny has two moms,
who's got to get out of the library because they're afraid of somebody's resets are going to turn gay?
Essentially, yes. Oh, I should update you. I left my library job. The scheduling was really a challenge.
And so I currently work two part time nursing jobs. And I love the library so much and I miss
that work. But some things you got to do for the campaign. Some sacrifices after we made.
But we have an amazing librarian now. Thank goodness. Goobly is in the freedom of speech and the right
to read. And that is not something that my representative or my senator believe in. A lot of Iowa's
Republicans are both beat ahead on book fans. And they're getting their orders on passing legislation
from moms for liberty. If you've heard of them, they are often challenging books in Iowa. So we do
have an organization who gives out free banned books at different events and they're amazing
advocates. It's Annie's foundation and it's named after a really incredible woman, Annie, who has
passed away. But in her legacy, her friends are getting together to speak up against book fans.
Because if reading about, I don't know, if we read about Hitler, if we all read mine comp,
I don't think we would all turn into Nazis. So reading about a gay family is not going to turn
your children gay. But trying to convince Republicans that this is a quote that I heard from my
representative before I challenged him in this election, that the American Library Association
has the agenda to queer the catalog in quotation marks. And yeah, I think he is concerned that
librarians are working, also teachers, working to turn children gay. And I can assure you that we
don't have time for the heck we're trying to read. Right, exactly. And you know, this thing is,
this is very old. This is very old. When I grew up, you know, we thought that if we didn't teach kids
anything about sex, that somehow that would be better. Somehow that would reduce teenage
pregnancy. Somehow that would, you know, and obviously it doesn't work, right? And as a parent,
you're very, very confident. Because pregnancy is that these girls are not doing it with consent
with other children. It is adults that are abusing children. And so our decrease in the teen pregnancy
rate is the result of teenagers teaching each other how to be safe on the internet, because our sex
ed has not improved. And that is something I think we should be grateful for, that we've seen this
dramatic decrease in teen pregnancy. But it appears that our Republican colleagues are finding this
to be a crisis, that our birth rates are dropping for people between the ages of 15 and 18. And that's
a problem in their eyes. You know, this is, I'm sorry, go ahead. I just want to make one quick comment
that I got into dispute at church, because we had a gay administrator, and there were people that
didn't want to expose to children. And I said that I had three friends, three girls, three girls,
I knew that were sexually abused in high school. And they were all abused by heterosexual. They
weren't, they were not abused by, by a gay teacher, but by a heterosexual teacher. And part of that
is because we don't teach, we don't teach these things to our children. Go ahead,
Librarian, I'm sorry. Yeah, this absolutely blows my mind, especially because I think now in the
era of what my generation likes to call it clickbait politics, all of these quotes get thrown around
and all these politicians definitely say what the people want to hear, but I'm under the impression
that actions speak a lot louder than words. And especially when you have these people, you know,
lying about their tax records and possibly, you know, where I'm from, we had a huge corruption scandal
in Brazil. And same case there, the president was stealing millions and millions and millions
of heyes, and he bought huge mansions. And so obviously it were under the impression that
there's a problem. And when people don't have health care, when they're not being represented,
they should feel turmoil. And my question is, isn't this something voters want to punish politicians
for? Don't they look beyond the words and see these actions happening? Because when it's something
like Trump's presidency, I understand that something's are really big to affect everybody directly.
But in a community like Iowa, where it seems that you have the 51st worst, worst mental health
in the United States, you've said, how is it that these voters are not punishing politicians
for him for this? And how is it that they're rewarding them?
Is the trillion-bazillion-dollar question right now? I think voters are stuck in their algorithmic
echo chambers. And there has been a pretty big effort into keeping information suppressed.
So we had a water quality study that determined the number one chemical that's poisoning Iowa water
is nitrates. And that comes from runoff from agriculture. It's the application of fertilizer,
and it's livestock that's in confinement that runs off into our waterways. And this is a crisis
because nitrates are carcinogenic. And so there's a lot of discussion about the link to our cancer
and the study that they conducted concluded that with statistical evidence that that is what's
happening. And there was, I think, a $600,000 set aside from that study that was supposed to be
earmarked to educate the public on what they can do. And that money got rolled directly back into
the general fund. When they found out what it was, they did not invest in educating the public.
And so it's our job as candidates to have this hard conversation with people that the water is
not safe, that cancer rates are preventable, that healthcare doesn't have to be an arm and a leg.
Child care doesn't either. None of this is normal. The challenges in the job market are a direct result
of the tax structures that are put in place that allow corporations to exploit their workers here.
And that's a tough pill to swallow for people who are stuck in an echo chamber saying everything's
fine. So they really have to feel it. And what I'm seeing is that they can't help but feel it right
now with the pinch financially. So if they can't see ISIS overreach of violating due process and
constitutional rights, if they can't see the rights of others being tread upon and care about others,
they will care about their own wallet. And so when the gas gets expensive enough, they will have
to look at the war that is preventable and unnecessary. And they'll have to look at the
investment we've made in descending bomb to Israel who has universal healthcare at the expense of
our healthcare. They're going to have to see the truth. It's our responsibility to keep speaking
the truth. And it's their responsibility to open their eyes to it. Many people are already. I did
have a he was MAGA four years ago. He was a library patron. So I was dear friends with that
told me that he wrote me in on the Republican ballot on the primary. So that means a lot. People
are waking up to the truth. Well, let me tell you something that I was trained by my grandmother
when I lived in a bad neighborhood and in North New Jersey. And we always got involved because
when we were we were taught when somebody you see somebody robbing your neighbor's house,
if you don't call the police, if you don't turn that guy in, it's a matter of self preservation
because he'll be back next week to rob your house. And it's the same thing about rights.
As soon as you accept people getting the rights trampled on, you open the door for your rights
being trampled on. And people should realize that they really should. But let me ask you,
we're here in Washington. We're here in Washington in a bubble. You know, if you had asked me either
in 2016 or 2000 and and 24, whether I thought Donald Trump could get elected, I would say that's
ridiculous. And of course, I was wrong. So tell me, is the blue coming off the rose with him out there,
have tariffs, had a I imagine they've had a desperate impact on farmers. And what do you think about
the magga people is there are there less of them or are there heads still stuck in that
informational bubble you talked about? Yeah, we have had record numbers of
boys, farmers filing bankruptcy. We set the record for the nation or we're way up there.
Anyway, one of the top state for farmer bankruptcy this year, a little bit scary. The Trump signs
came down pretty quick. I mean, January or February of last year, which is going out in
Iowa in February to take your sign down is not pleasant. Yeah, that's deep snow very cold.
Yeah, I'm very excited from some of the things that I'm hearing about happening in DC.
The new mayor candidate is very interesting. I have a friend, Nicole, hi from campaign in
a box and Pete Delesandro that have helped with the campaign of the the mayor that Janice
is that how it's going to? She's been on the show. Yeah, she is such an interesting candidate.
I am definitely keeping an eye on her. Yeah, even from Iowa, we're hearing about what's happening
in your neck of the woods. So rooting for you. Good. We don't hear enough about what's happening in
your neck of the woods. So, you know, we are really incredible.
If you want to hear about my takes on the primary winners and oh my gosh, we could talk all day
about Iowa politics. It's pretty juicy. There's some.
They're so I find that so interesting. So, so, so dish tell us because when I went to Iowa,
these guys flipped a coin to see who won at one of the caucuses because they tied. You would never
have that in Washington, DC. You would have lawyers and all these people involved. So, I, you know,
the Iowa niceness was was the thing I take away from Iowa. The most. So, tell us what's going on.
Oh, wow. Coin said, well, I hope the gubernatorial race doesn't come down to that because my goodness.
I've talked about Rob Stans. He currently serves as the auditor. So, he's won one statewide office
before and he served it well despite the legislation that was put in place specifically to block him
from doing any of his job. So, he has plenty of time to campaign since he wasn't permitted to do
much of anything as the state auditor, which is a red flag if there's grifting happening. And it
turns out that they're likely is Kim Reynolds, who happens to be the least popular governor in
the United States right now, was flying around the entire state on the private jet. It was 2.3
million dollars paid for by taxpayers to ask Iowans what services they would be willing to sacrifice
to reduce property taxes. And she was quoted by the Des Moines Register saying, do we need to have
quite so many rural fire stations? So, I take that as she would rather watch my hometown burn to
the ground than charge property taxes to the wealthiest Iowans. And she's putting us in a deficit and
then putting this legislation in place that would keep it at their preferred budget that puts us in
a 1.3 billion dollar deficit into perpetuity if we can't have a two-thirds agreement. So,
the current situation is not great. And we all expected Randy Seantra who is a sitting
college person to win the governorship nominee position. But this random guy from Canvas
won. He is so fascinating. Zach Lane is from Canvas does not live in Iowa. He flies
more than once a week private of course between Canvas around Wichita and Iowa to campaign.
And he married into the Koch family. Now, I don't know for sure if it was a Koch brother's wife
that he stole or if it's a Koch brother's daughter. I'm still not clear on that. But that's where he's
getting family money to be flying so much. He also invested a million dollars into a business that does
a genetool. What are like a wearable biometric feedback thing for male genitals?
Oh, great. I don't know if I can call it what it is. But yeah, so he's got money, honey. But
it's very strange some of his behavior. He has all the Christophasius talking points of
being anti-LGBT, anti-public school teacher. But he is giving lip service to cleaning up the water
and making it safe to drink and holding big ag accountable. So we have this mess where some people
who are environmentalism is their only cause lean hard towards this Zach Lane guy who is just
this bizarre character who obviously lies at work for the Koch family. He's been in politics for 17
years. That's his entire career has been in conservative politics. So he can talk the talk.
But everything that he's done as a businessman and as a lobbyist is not walking the walk. And I hope
that people can see that. But those are choices of the governor's. So I think Rob's
band is a shoe in, but he better work hard and stay true to his values or else.
Well, first of all, how do you run for office in Iowa if you live in Kansas?
Can any don't you have to live in Iowa?
Nope. He said, oh damn, I'm going to write something in Iowa.
Yeah, I just can't afford to fly back and forth. Maybe I'll call up the Koch brothers because
they maybe there's some money in my way. We're almost out of time. So save me here, Liberty
Jones. Ask the last brilliant question before we let this grad. So let me just say,
India May, you check all the boxes with me. I'd vote for you. I wouldn't even question it.
Go ahead, Liberty. So, India, thank you so much for coming on today. And thank you for
trying so hard to create a difference in some where it seems so difficult to achieve.
If a young Iowyn is listening to this conversation and remembers only one thing from this,
what do you hope it is? Oh my gosh. How young are we talking? Say you can help a lingo?
But like no cat be you because of like unapologetically be yourself. Figure out who yourself is and
be it to the max babe because we absolutely need people who talk different, act different and
speak truth to power relentlessly. We need all hands on deck to really allow people to be who
they are, give permission to be authentic and real and honest under fascism. So keep your chin
up. Be proud of yourself. Well, I know why I can say a lot of good things about India May,
but I think the most important thing to say about you India is that you are authentic.
And that's the thing I like most about you. You are the real geo. You've gone through the
pains of helping your community, your ran a community library, your nurse. It's the most
respected profession in America. And you've proven yourself and you stood up and spoken
truth to power. You've got everything going on in my opinion young lady. And I wish you all the
best of luck. And I'm going to follow you. You're going to follow Denise. I'm going to follow you
every step of the way. And I endorse you. And I hope everybody listening to this broadcast
will come out and support you as well. You are the kind of candidate that we need in America.
And again, let me reiterate what Liberty said. Thanks so much for coming on the show. And you
know, we leave our audience with a song that we dedicate to our guest. And tonight, it's going to
be one by Sia called unstoppable. And I don't know if you're familiar with the song, India, but
you should play it every morning. Because that's what you need to be is unstoppable. And I think
you can do it. And we're all rooting for you. So thanks so much.
Thank you. And I don't have enough power to endorse you, but I will buy a t-shirt because I
like the style you have. Yes, by T. How do you buy a t-shirt quick? Tell everybody.
If you go to my website, that's may for Iowa.com. There's a t-shirt link. They are union printed
and American manufactured. And I really am quite proud of them. So thank you. Oh, and they're comfy
and flattering too. All right. It's got it all going on just like you. So go buy one.
Here's unstoppable by C and we'll see you all next week. Thank you, India May.