Live from the No Kings protest in Knoxville, I join Steve Schmidt to report on something I didn't expect to see in East Tennessee - 5,000 people in the streets, including Trump voters who feel betrayed.

In this conversation, I share what protesters told me on the ground:

• Trump voters saying "this isn't what I voted for" as ICE raids hit their neighbors
• A WWII vet on a walker saying he's fighting fascism again
• Why even bodybuilders and construction workers showed up
• The fear spreading through Latino communities that make up 12-13% of our towns

Steve and I dig into the bigger picture:

• Why the Democratic Party is still less popular than Republicans (even now)
• How Tennessee went from 5 Democratic House members to the worst delegation in Congress
• Why I told Steve the only way Democrats win in Tennessee is by running AGAINST the Democratic establishment
• The party's lack of identity beyond "not Trump"

We also talk about what Tennessee used to be - a state built by federal programs like TVA and the Manhattan Project. Programs that actually built things. Oak Ridge is 10 miles from my house, still prosperous because of government investment. But I'm 44 and haven't seen the federal government build anything lasting here since the interstate system.

My take: Democrats have become a decline management party. We need to stop managing decline and start building again. There's nothing inherently incapable about us as a people - we built the TVA, we won WWII with American manufacturing, NASA developed the tech SpaceX uses.

The MAGA movement needs to be defeated and buried. But the mechanism we have to do that - the Democratic Party - is broken in places like Tennessee.

This is about more than one protest. It's about whether we're going to rebuild something meaningful or just keep managing the decline.

Recorded January 2025 from Knoxville, Tennessee.