Democrats Abroad: The Blue Vote Café

Dr. Lauren Tucker of Do What Matters talks about her work in helping to found Indivisible Chicago, and about giving people the tools to (as Michelle Obama says), "do something." She offers the Reenergizing the American Dream (RAD) Act as a policy proposal to address the insecurity the average American feels due to income inequality. The plan addresses five areas that make life unaffordable for the...

Inge Kjemtrup and Julia Bryan join David and Rachel to talk about the work they're doing to offer Democrats Abroad members way to resist. Even small actions add up when DA members around the world team up to take them. By simply making phone calls, reaching out to friends, holding resistance roundtables, posting short videos telling personal stories, following the progress of legislation, making r...

David and Rachel talk to "MJ," a trans woman, about why she began to feel so unsafe in the U.S. that she has exercised her right as a dual citizen to return to Canada. The conversation starts light, with Canadian cocktails and the need for everyone to have an "Emergency David." But MJ does not hold back from sharing personal details about her journey as a trans woman, some of the ways in which it...

Dr. Arlie Russell Hochschild, sociologist, author, and proferssor emerita at Berkeley, joined David and Rachel to talk about the four moments of the anti-shame ritual, what she learned in talking to people in Louisiana and Kentucky suffering a downward slide of loss and about Democrats Abroad members as bi-cultural ambassadors. She also talks about her books Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and...

One week after Donald Trump's second Inaugration, Jodi Szarko and Linda Weide joined David and Rachel talk about the book club they founded for Democrats Abroad in the lead-up to the 2025 election to study Project 2025. They share some of their discoveries, their reactions to some of the content, the contradictions they found within the document. The book club has morphed focus to become gener...

In the waning days of the 118th Congress, a bill was introduced that could relieve many citizens living around the world of the headaches associated with filing U.S. taxes every year. Rebecca Lammers, the chair of Democrats Abroad's Taxation Task Force joins David and Rachel in the cafe to talk about it. She explains why introducing this bill days before it would inevitably die was advantageous. A...

Jason Sattler (LOLGOP on social media platforms) talks about the phishing attack that is being perptrated on America, about progressivism as the mainstream culture, and about the need to start thinking about and buildng progressive everything. Jason strongly recommends the two podcasts he's producing : Marcy Wheeler's Ball of Thread and Andrea Pitzer's Next Comes What. The conversation touches on...

Vivan Norris, a documentary filmmaker, joins David and Rachel in the cafe to talk about her experience as a single mom living outside the U.S. , and that drew her to the story of Obama's mother. The film Obama Mama about the life of Ann Dunham and her work with microcredit was the result. (Vivan can arrange for free screenings of the film for DA chapters and country committees.) Vivan has begun th...

Robert Gerrard, aka Bobby from the Bronx, joins David and Rachel to talk about the recent election, his journey from Republican to Democrat, and his intention to be the "Joe Rogan of the Left." Rob will be launching a podcast by Inauguration Day 2024, and hopes others on the left will help combat misinformation and disinformation with similar initiatives to present facts in a people-powered indepe...

This week's guest in the cafe is Charles Belk, active citizen, entrepreneur, and a newly drafted DA spokesperson living in South Africa. Charles tells David and Rachel how his goal to visit 100 countries came about, and about his four for four for four scheme to engage voters, and about his past efforts to bring about criminal justice reform, focused specifically on Justified Auto-Erasure legislat...

Scott Dworkin of the Democratic Coalition and DworkinSubstack.com drops into the cafe to talk about where we are, two weeks before the 2024 election. The conversation touches on the contrast between the two campaigns and candidates, on trying to find arguments that persuade Republican voters, and on what's at stake in this election vs what is possible. Register and request your ballot every year a...

Tomika Vukovic and Bryan Sanders from Wisconsin Voices explain how they use their three pillars to reach out to the BIPOC community--protecting democracy, teaching advocacy, and building community. We explore the endless conversation on why race and gender matters in an election, and what it takes to ignite the spark that inspires a young person to register to vote. Tomika turns the tables on Rach...

Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin joins Rachel and David, to talk #ResistanceLive, the work she's done advising women to run for office, and her time as a Democrat abroad in France. Elizabeth also addresses all the things a Harris/Walz victory would make possible: codifying reproductive freedom,, effective climate change legislaion, reasonable gun control, and the closing of inexplicable loopholes (how...

Former Anchor/Correspondent at ABC News and former Co-Host and News Anchor at "Good Morning America" Kevin Newman joins David and Rachel to reflect on the 2024 presidential campaign, the changing media landscape, and the challenge of reaching independent voters. He talks about living and working in the U.S. as a Canadian journalist, and how complex the U.S. electoral system is compared to Canada's...

Yvette Lewis, former chair of the Maryland State Party and Chair Emerita of Voter Engagement and Education for the Association of State Democratic Chairs, was the keynote speaker for the Democrats Abroad annual global meeting in Costa Rica. After the meeting, Rachel sat down with her to talk about what drew her into her work, an expansive view of voter protection, Angela Alsobrooks's victory a...

Founded on July 23 with a goal of raising $1000, #MastodonforHarris blew past a quarter of a million dollars within two days. Its founder--legal scholar, philosopher, and grassroots acitivist Heidi Li Feldman--shares her reasons for starting the campaign with Rachel and David. She talks about the small-d democratic nature of Mastodon, and makes an inside joke for Minnesotans. Heidi also discusses...

Leaving David behind in Ottawa, Rachel travelled to Costa Rica for DA's annual global meeting. When Day Two wrapped early, she caught the voices of 10 different DA leaders enjoying themselves in and around the pool--with an audiobomb from Friend of the Pod Miguel Madrigal. Register and request your ballot every year at votefromabroad.org. Find the full audio library of Blue Vote Café episodes...

Angela Fobbs and Adrianne George, the co-hosts of Power to the People (the Democrats Abroad Global Black Caucus podcast) join Rachel and David in the cafe. In this "podcast potluck," a special crossover episode, the four co-hosts each bring a question for everyone to answer. The conversation ventures into new and fascinating territory, as each participant brings reflection and personal h...

In one of our most wonk-ish episodes ever (complete with a cat!), mathematician Max Dunitz of DA France explains an intriguing situation that arose for the four or five states that used ranked choice voting in their 2020 presidential primaries. Because the Democratic National Committee restricts the awarding of delegates to candidates that garner 15% of the votes, a hybrid version of ranked choice...

David and Rachel sit down with DA's International Chair and Vice Chair to talk about their first year on the job. Martha McDevitt-Pugh and Steve Nardi share some of the triumphs from the year, touch upon some of the challenges, and outline the work ahead of us in 2024. Register and request your ballot every year at votefromabroad.org Find the full audio library of Blue Vote Café episodes at ht...

Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels joins David and Rachel to talk about her research into what motivates American citizens living outside the country to become politically engaged. As the title of her most recent academic paper puts if, "Democrats abroad: What motivates core activists to engage in political transnationalism?" Amanda confirms some of the speculation that has been bruited abo...

David and Rachel are joined by leaders from Democrats Abroad's newest country committee, DA Kenya. Robyn T. Emerson (Chair) and Mohamed Ahmed (Treasurer) share the stories of how each connected with DA, and the founding of DA Kenya. The discussion turns to a population unique to the "A" of DA's Europe-Middle East-Africa region: Americans of African descent; and touches on Mohamed...

Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Pary, President of the Association of State Democratic Committees, and a Vice Chair of the Demcratic National Committee, joins David and Rachel in the café, substantiating his claim that he will accept any invitation to talk where there are at least two Democrats. Quoting LBJ, Ann Richards, Margaret Mead, Ayanna Pressley, and Confucius,...

Rachel and David's guest in the café is longtime Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who gained notoriety in 2022 for calling the election right when everyone else had it wrong. Simon talks about the weakness of the GOP's position, with a candidate diminished in multiple ways and a crazy, ideologically unhinged politic, the 6 factors that will impede Trump in 2024, and about the Hopium...

The Reverend Harcourt ("Harky") Klinefelter joins Rachel and David to share memories from the time he spent working with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Harky, a DA member, talks about serving as Dr. King's press officer, and the Selma and Montgomery marches. He brings the voices of long-ago freedom fighters to life, and about working on Dr. King's funeral. Clips that are me...