Alex Friedman, comedy writer
Being a Republican now is just straight-up embarrassing. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Hello and welcome to What’s Left? Weekly interviews with interesting people on the left side of the political spectrum!
If you’d rather listen to or watch my (very fun) chat with Alex Friedman, the link is here.
Supporting What’s Left? helps me so much, as it’s a joyful but very time-consuming project. Having said that, if you’d like to watch the interviews and access the archive, but paying isn’t possible for you right now, please get in touch and I’ll gift you one 🧡
Alex Friedman is an LA-based comedy writer who grew up in Cobb County, Georgia, where the school district once put "evolution is a theory, not a fact" stickers in the biology textbooks. She's worked for CNN, ABC News, and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and has developed an original project with Broadway Video. Her twice-weekly politics and culture Substack, Hot Tip, delivers news the fun way to thousands of readers.
Welcome, Alex. So, if there was a version of the political spectrum where zero means you're a total centrist, -100, an actual fascist, and +100, a radical leftist, where would you put yourself?
This would be a very jarring moment for me to let you know that I was actually a full fascist.
I would have to rename this newsletter immediately.
I would say +55.
That is so specific! How did you get there?
I’m very specific when it comes to numbers, and now I’m wishing I’d chosen 56 or 54.
Well you’re in luck because it’s not too late to change.
Ok let’s say a +54, 55 or 56. I consider myself a leftist who leans further left than a centre leftist. Just given my upbringing and the people that I've always been around.
Tell me more about the people you grew up around who influenced you.
I'm from a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and I’m a Jewish person. Jews are mostly liberals, and I had dedicated Democrat parents and grandparents who talked about politics and what we believed in.
But I also grew up around a lot of young people whose parents were Republicans, and who proudly wore that badge. Being a liberal in my very white Christian conservative suburb of Atlanta was different compared to my friends who grew up in New York City or even in LA.
The district that I'm from, Newt Gingrich was our representative. And it’s been interesting to see the way that district has evolved, because now it's represented by a Democrat who's a Black woman.
Wow. Georgia is fascinating.
Georgia's so fascinating. It's really purple, and people usually don't realise that Atlanta and the Metro Atlanta area are blue.
We're fighting an uphill battle there sometimes, but that's part of why I'm so passionate about politics. I grew up surrounded by people who believed something different to what we believed. I went to a high school that had Baptist, conservative teachers who would try to proselytise us. And I encountered a lot of anti-Semitism at my public school from them.
From the teachers! I mean that's appalling from anyone, but teachers must have been particularly hard.
There was also a period when the school district put stickers in the biology textbooks that said evolution is just a theory. It went to some high-level court and they ended up having to take out the stickers. I’m from Cobb County and that's what Cobb County was briefly famous for.
I was going to ask what county you're from because I have weird knowledge of counties in Georgia and Arizona from being an election nerd.
Me too. I’m like, why do I know what Maricopa County is?
Maricopa and Fulton. They're the ones that I would never otherwise know.
Exactly.
So you said earlier that the Jewish community skews quite liberal. I've also observed that. Where do you think that comes from? Is that a facet of the faith or a cultural thing? Or do you think it could be a mix?
I think it’s because historically, we were a minority. Jews make up something like 2% of Americans and 0.2% of people in the whole world. There was a lot of exclusion in the world that my grandparents grew up in, and a lot of historic alliances between the Black and Jewish communities, particularly during the civil rights movement. I think a lot of Jewish liberalism probably comes from that.
I know that the groups that voted the most for Kamala Harris in the last election were first, Black women.
Always.
And second, Jewish women. It was like 92% or something like that.
Which is why it’s so interesting hearing Trump say that anything he ever does is to prevent antisemitism. I just think, Well, maybe don't hire so many Nazis then.
Right, that's one way he could start.
So here's a tricky question: do you think you'd be able to summarise your political views in a sentence?
I want to get as much good done as possible. And so sometimes I turn off people who are more idealistic because I'm more pragmatic about what's actually possible in the American political spectrum in which we find ourselves.
And again, maybe having grown up in a conservative community, I'm more accustomed to interacting with people on the other side of the aisle than a lot of people are.
Though that’s changed a good bit. Being a Republican now is just straight-up embarrassing—you should be ashamed of yourself—but back then, it was different. Even ten years ago, it was different. I mean, God, Donald Trump has been in our lives for 10 years now.
Even longer if you're a fan of the Home Alone franchise.
Right, and I am. I love Home Alone, it's so funny.
But yes, I want people to get more done. The government is so ineffective and inefficient, and there is so much good that can be done. I hate that that requires compromise with people who have extremely bad and offensive ideals sometimes, but that's unfortunately the system of government that was created for us and that we continue to exist in. And so I think I'm a little bit more realistic about what's possible and how to accomplish it.
Yes, it would be amazing if we could get anything done without ever having to interact with Mitch McConnell or Chuck Grassley or Lindsey Graham or any of those awful, awful people who have sold their souls. But that's not the way the system is set up.
Though soon, you might be able to get stuff done without compromising with Mitch McConnell.
Exactly. Any of them, they’re so old. I’m like, ‘Tick tock, baby.’
Ha ha.
I appreciate the Democrats who are willing to do what they have to do to get things done.
And who do you admire in the Democratic Party right now?
I admire AOC very much. I think she's in it for the long term and I want to see her in higher office. It would be awesome if she ran for president.
But she had to move a little bit. And I know that some people think she sold out or isn't the same person as she was when she ran. And I don't think that's true, I think it's just a reality check. She wants to get a lot of good done, and in order to do that, she has to play the politics game.
There are a lot of other Democrats who I think are doing a really great job with Trump. Jasmine Crockett is just so outspoken and funny.
She's another great communicator, isn't she?
She's a great communicator, I wish she were the minority leader. And I really like Greg Kassar and Maxwell Frost too, a lot of younger people. And obviously Bernie. Bernie's actually doing a pretty good job of like passing the torch on.
I'm highlighting the people who are completely comfortable standing up to the Trump administration and who are calling this out every single day.
And then you have people like Gretchen Whitmer. I’m like, ‘Girl, what are you doing?’
Oh, really?
She's the Governor of Michigan.
Right.
And I guess she played the political game that she needed to play, which is how you get money for an army base in Michigan. But she had to wine and dine Trump in order to do that.
Oh, I didn't know that.
There's a very funny picture of her in the Oval Office where they kind of tricked her. They brought her in, and there was press there, so she tried to cover her face with a bunch of folders as if to say, ‘I'm not actually here.’
That's like something from a Veep episode!
Everything we're living is a Veep episode. Trump accepting a plane from the government of Qatar to be Air Force One, that’s a Veep episode. It’s all a Veep episode.
So if the bigwigs at the Democratic Party were reading or listening to our conversation at this dire point in history, what would your advice to them be?
Quit, retire.
It's really unfortunate that the people who are leading the Democratic Party are so unbelievably ineffective.
I was very moved when Cory Booker spoke for 25 + hours on the floor of the Senate. And yes, it was a stunt, but I think attention-grabbing things like that are what we need. Pete Buttigieg going on the Flagrant Podcast and talking for three hours to those bros who just needed somebody to explain things to them.
There are some people who would look at a Pete Buttigieg or a Cory Booker and say, ‘Oh, but he's not far enough to the left.’ I don’t disagree with that, but Pete’s an effective communicator and he's doing something. The people I applaud are the ones who are actually making the effort.
The thing the Democrats need to do now more than anything is engage non-voters. In America, only 60% of eligible voters even vote.
But when I look at the leadership of the party, they’re not connecting with anybody. Hakeem Jeffries is doing his weird Instagram posts that look like album covers and Chuck Schumer is standing in front of the Treasury building saying, ‘We will win.’ That is so embarrassing and so ineffective. They are actively repelling people who otherwise might consider joining us.
So the biggest thing they all need to do is pass the torch and be a little bit humble.
There's also a lack of dignity in their behaviour. So much of the political situation we’re in now is their fault, yet they won’t fall on their swords.
Right. But then they’d have to confess that they had failed. And I think that's really hard for people, especially on that scale.
Don’t miss the longer, funnier video version of my chat with Alex!
So, are you optimistic about the future?
This could go a million different ways, but I’m optimistic that it could go well. In lots of ways, it’s already going wrong for Trump: in the Australian and the Canadian elections and even to some degree with the selection of the new Pope, who's pretty outspoken when it comes to the rights of immigrants and the Trump agenda.
I'm not sitting here planning my exit strategy. I do sometimes joke about that, but I care enough and I know a lot of people here care enough and lot of people in leadership positions here care enough.
We do go through phases throughout history of more fascism, and we're in a wave of that now. I guess what I'm optimistic about is that we can find our way out of it. It just might get worse first.
Ok thanks. I ask everyone that question, and you’re in the minority who gives me anything hopeful to think about.
You have to have some hope. Maybe I'm extremely naive and I'll be completely wrong. But I write my own newsletter that covers politics and current events, and I try to make it as silly as possible. Because I have some faith that at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, things will normalise again.
And in the meantime, we just all have to do what we can to cope. And so it's a combination of being informed and finding a way to laugh about it, because otherwise it's so easy to spin out.
Quicker questions now… Have you ever dated or slept with a conservative to your knowledge?
No, God no. And I wouldn't.
Ha ha. Noted. Can you recommend a left-leaning podcast or book or documentary or something?
I'm somebody who still to this day watches The Daily Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Colbert.
Wow. You still watch them all?
I do a nighttime watch to relax. It's crazy that that's somehow relaxing, but that’s how I end my night.
Do you have any recommendations for action?
The piece that I have been thinking the most about and trying to adapt into my writing is engaging non-voters.
Anybody who has voted for Trump more than once is too far gone, and I have no interest in trying to explain to them why they’re wrong. I don't think that's productive.
But there are also a lot of people who don't necessarily realise that politics does impact their lives. And maybe next time around, they will realise this, because money is the thing that drives everything, and people are losing money. They see that toilet paper is more expensive or that they can't buy a house. Things like that.
Democrats often wait until it's three months before an election to start knocking on doors, but we need to be engaging people who are not politically active now. Getting them interested in the political process and making them aware that this does impact them.
So my mission for the next few years is to try and connect with people who aren’t very engaged in the political process. Not denigrating them, just meeting them on the level that they are.
That's such a great perspective, thank you, Alex!
Thank you, Amy.
Don’t forget that you can listen to or watch our conversation here!
If you enjoyed our conversation, check out Alex’s newsletter, ‘Hot Tip’: a news and culture catch-up that can serve as your politics download for the week, or just give you funny, interesting things to say at dinner parties…
On the pod this week!
Did you know I have a podcast with comedian Samantha Martin? In FeMANism, we play two terrible cis men mansplaining gender inequality. This week, my character, Jamie, gets an AI girlfriend whose main hobby is complimenting him. But is it possible that she finds him TOO funny?
 | A guest post by
|