Political Division Threatens the Future of Democracy

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0:30 Speaker 2 Sunday Morning with us today is Governor David Pattison. Well, one common sense Democrat. A lot of people listen to him. Or what’s going on in our city, our state, our country, the world? Well, Governor Pattison, what are we talking about this morning?

0:47 Speaker 3 Well, I was reading about two or three weeks ago John about the other states and how the party in the majority, be it all a Republican party or a Democratic party, are really coming down on redistricting in a completely partisan way, and there’s no real way that the opposition can stop them. And what it’s really doing is

1:11 dividing our country almost the way it was divided before the Civil War. And in particular, up to now, New York had not acted as if they were going to go in that direction. But now now it looks like the legislature has decided that they want to do this.

1:30 Speaker 4 I don’t think what are they gonna do.

1:32 Speaker 3 What they’re gonna do is draw their own maps, and they’re gonna draw.

1:36 Speaker 4 So they’re want to do it all over again. They’re gonna do it all over again.

1:40 Speaker 3 And I don’t think this is something that the governor was really excited about doing. But you know, she’s completely outnumbered here and so she’s almost taking the lead on it just to you know, maintain that relationship.

1:56 Speaker 4 But it’s it’s it’s a real problem, and it’s and it’s.

1:59 Speaker 3 Interfering with one of the most fabled, you know ways in this country. We have moved ahead of other countries by really having a democratic process where people vote their conscience and not their party. Not to be outdone, the legislature has also passed legislation reducing the time between the hearings for individuals who are convicted of crimes. So you

2:30 may have situations now where criminals will get a chance to have a hearing every year, and in the case of murder cases, as was pointed out to me by Judge Weinberg the other day, there will be families being dragged back into the process to look at the person who killed their family member.

2:49 Speaker 4 I mean, that is macabre.

2:51 Speaker 3 And I just don’t understand how the members of the legislature could do that.

2:55 Speaker 2 I don’t understand that. Now. I had krol and Maloney on last week, and she is pushing me equal rights amendment for women and and she’s also pushing UH the Women’s Museum. And I’m said, I said to her, like a common sense individual that me and you are. I believe in both that women should have equal rights and

3:20 and and in the museum too. But I understand there’s one controversy brought up by Kame Jefferies that they want not only men and women, they want the additional six genders. And I don’t know what six genders there are in addition to men and women.

3:40 Speaker 3 Well, I think we’ve tried it in this country after basically causing people who were lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered out of the closet.

3:54 Speaker 2 But I think, and look, I have no problem with days, I have no problem with lesbians.

4:00 Speaker 4 I don’t have any problem with them.

4:02 Speaker 2 But they are men and women.

4:06 Speaker 3 So if the classification is going to be men and women, it would still stand. But what I guess the UH what the minority leader of the Senate is saying, he wants them identified by the way they identify themselves, and that it’s gonna It’s not gonna happen because the Republicans are not going to put that in a bill.

4:28 Speaker 4 That’s not going to do it.

4:30 Speaker 3 And so I suggest they find something else to do with their time other than that.

4:34 Speaker 2 Understood, what else would you like to talk about this Sunday?

4:37 Speaker 3 Believe well, John, you know, because of the couple issues that I raised right right in the beginning, I think, as I said, we’re moving more toward a society that is going to be Balkanized. We’re not going to really understand each other. We’re not going to work with each other.

4:55 We’re going to make presumptions about people or ideas that are you are going to really injure the process of a country that for so many years has led the world in terms of inventions, in terms of opportunity, in terms of a way to run a government without people being abused by it. And if we’re not lucky, if

5:25 we’re not if we’re unlucky and this continues for too much longer, we’re going to be in a dire, dire situation.

5:32 Speaker 2 I agree with you there too. We need some more common sense. We need the days to come back where common sense Democrats, common sense independents, and common sense Republicans all sit down at the same table and do what’s best for our city, our state, our country.

5:50 Speaker 3 Well, John, that’s really what our hope is. And how to actually execute it. It’s going to take some strong leadership, and it’s going to take some people who are going to have to take some risks with their careers to try to make that happen. Whether they win or lose, it won’t matter, but it will improve the relationships we

6:13 have among each other.

6:15 Speaker 2 Governor David Pattison, thank you for coming on this Sunday morning, and let’s hope common sense prevail and me and you will still be around to celebrate the three hundredth year of our country. Fantastic