North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble
North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble
Marcus Flowers, US Congressional Candidate for the 14th Congressional District
The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts
Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties.
Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact.
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Hello, and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our special guest Marcus Flowers candidate for the United States Congress in the 14th district running against Marjorie Taylor Greene. Welcome to the show, Marcus. We're happy to have you with us today.
Marcus Flowers:Thank you for having me, Meral. I'm honored to be here with you.
Meral Clarke:Let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Marcus Flowers is the Army veteran and Democrat running for Congress to unseat Marjorie Taylor Greene. He spent his entire career defending the United States of America. He served as an active duty member of the US Army, followed by more than 20 years as a contractor for the State Department and Department of Defense. Marcus has spent a decade in combat zones around the world and has worked across four continents. He's seen firsthand the damage done by extremism and disinformation. And he will not let Marjorie Taylor Greene take us down the same path here in America. Marcus believes in bipartisanship and bridge building from negotiating on behalf of the US with Iraqi and Afghan warlords to engaging in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions all over the world. Marcus can work with anyone because he has worked with everyone. Marcus has served this country for 27 years and is ready to continue that service by representing Georgia's 14th congressional district. Well, first, Marcus, thank you for your service, we are eternally in your debt. Is this the first time you've run for office? And if so, why now? And why do you believe you're the most viable candidate to take on Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Marcus Flowers:Meral, thank you for that introduction. And just to correct the record a little bit. I'm also a government official for the Department of Defense. So I worked directly for the federal government for several of those years that you mentioned. But it has always been my pleasure to serve the country. It's something that, you know, I picked up from my grandfather, who was a sheriff had uncles who were police captains. And my dad was a school teacher, I had uncles who were in the military service to this country means something to me and my family, and it's been my life. And that, in and of itself is a reason why I think I'm most suited to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene as our next congressman from the great State of Georgia. Because when you spent time at places like camp Buka, the birthplace of ISIS, when you've negotiated on behalf of the United States of America with Iraqi and Afghan warlords, when you've sat face to face with our true enemies, you know, it gives you some real perspective. Having seen the best that America has to offer, and to have worked along, you know, so many truly great American heroes, and having seen the damage done by extremism and radicalism, the type of which that Marjorie Taylor is trying to infect our country with, I think that makes me the best candidate to serve here.
Meral Clarke:Great. And what's wrong with Marjorie Taylor Greene? What is wrong with her? Why is she like this? And what's happened to the entire Republican Party being hijacked by this far right wing mentality? What do you think is going on here, In your opinion?
Marcus Flowers:In the beginning, I thought that Marjorie Taylor Greene was just simply, you know, trying to employ the same tactics that Trump employed the Southern strategy, I guess you could say, I thought that's what she was trying to employ on steroids. But you know, having been up on the hill and spoken with several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, you know, her colleagues, they informed me that no, she's, she's a true believer in what she's saying. She drank the Kool Aid when it came to conspiracy theories around Q Anon, and she bought into it 100%. So I think she has a penchant for, you know, the what's a good way to describe it those far right talking points that have misinformed so many Americans. That's where she was. And you know, when you look at the media over the last several years, certain right wing media outlets, disinformation, misinformation is running rampant there. And I think she's bought into it hook line and sinker, as have a lot of Americans and we have to push back on that we have to start agreeing on truth facts. That's what matters. You know, we need to start negotiating in good faith, this bitter partisan and white hot rhetoric that's been permeating in our politics, as of late, we've got to stop that we've got to stop looking at each other as enemies, because we're not, we're all Americans, we all want the same things.
Meral Clarke:Right. Agreed completely. So let's dive into your platform and the issues that you consider most important. On your website, you state that you care about veterans, of course, jobs, the economy, health care, environment, equality, social justice, etc. Let's touch on the ones that you consider to be most critical and why you think they're critical and why we need to address these issues.
Marcus Flowers:These are the issues that I think are critical for this district. Georgia has a huge veterans community. And I myself being a veteran, being a disabled veteran, you know, having gone through the VAs claims process, watching Vietnam veterans, only now getting their benefits and claims process. I think there's a problem. And I think Congress and our government can and should do something about that. But here in our district, also, we have issues with jobs and the economy in school education for our kids, we're getting left behind because we don't have rural broadband, a decent infrastructure there so that our kids aren't left behind. And so that we can attract large corporations to create more jobs, childcare at all, it all falls into the same thing. These are issues that we face here in Georgia. But the biggest thing for me what's on the ballot, and what I try to tell people that's really on the ballot here is democracy, and how we have to hold the line and protect it for future generations, for my children, for your children of our grandchildren. That's what's really at stake here. When you have sycophants like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have basically pledged allegiance to one man, not the Constitution, but to Trump. And the big lie, that is dangerous for our democracy, and all those other issues that, you know, I'm concerned with, they don't matter if we can't keep our democracy intact, because we lose on those anyway.
Meral Clarke:How do we go about? Or how would you go about rather ensuring that these issues are addressed? Because let's start with Veterans Affairs, it is the care that veterans receive in this country is abysmal, or I should say, lack of care. And you just highlighted the problem with the VA. How would you go about ensuring that veteran care is improved throughout our state?
Marcus Flowers:You know, our country has been through 20 years of war in the last couple of decades. And you know, many of our veterans are coming home, you know, a lot of them are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, their scars seen and unseen. I bear them, both of them, we owe it to our veterans to make sure that they have quality health care. That's just one thing that we can all do, we've got to do better, it's unacceptable, that you have to travel two hours away, to get care as a disabled veteran or have someone take you two hours away to get care. So veteran, I think we have maybe two VA hospitals in this region, we've got to do a better job and making sure that the veterans can get the care that they need. And that's one thing I would definitely fight for, for our veterans.
Meral Clarke:And what are your thoughts on the GOP's recent voter suppression tactics? SB 202? How do we protect voting rights to ensure that everyone has access to the polls in the ballot box?
Marcus Flowers:We've simply got to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I mean, our vote is our voice. This last election was the biggest the most secure election in history. Georgia was a testing ground for that with SB 202. These voter suppression laws are seeing that, you know, hey, Americans are pushing back against what it is that we want to do, and they're coming out in record numbers to vote. So let's try and stop certain people from voting. Let's get rid of certain ballot boxes in certain locations. Let's cut down on the time that people can vote on the weekends when they're not working. We've got to make a voting holiday. That's something I firmly believe in, people should have the time off of work to go and vote. Voting should be made easier, not harder. And that's just where I am. I'll do everything I can to ensure that people's voices are heard.
Meral Clarke:Terrific. And since it's Black History Month, and you're kicking off Black History Month for us, tell us your experience as a Black man in America, and the inequality and racial issues that you've encountered. Tell us about that and how you would fight to ensure that all Americans have the same rights in our white supremacist culture. And I'll say that because we are a white supremacist culture. You don't have to say it, I'll say it for you. So tell us about your experiences there and how that affects you how you want to make it easier for others to succeed.
Marcus Flowers:You know, share a personal thing about me is at 11 years old, I was in a children's home because my family like many families in this district and across the country faced some really, really tough times. You know I spent time there with black kids, white kids, Asian kids, Latino kids. And again, that also gave me perspective. When you spend time with people of different races or cultures or backgrounds and also did in the Army, you know, it's kind of hard to hate someone, because you understand their struggles are just like yours. They want the same things that you want. As far as my experience with racism. Yes, of course, you know, I grew up in the South, I've experienced it. I've been profiled, I just always like to look forward at what America can be the dream of Martin Luther King, little white boys black girls holding hands, and not thinking about race. But when people tell me that, you know, they're colorblind, and I kind of take that with a grain of salt and say, Well, you know, none of us are really color blind, we all see color. But it's about what Martin Luther King said, the content of your character, if you can just look past your biases, or whatever, and look at the person for who they are, if we can get to that point, and I think America wins.
Meral Clarke:I would have to agree with that. So can we touch on social justice issues, including environmental justice, we've had the great Daniel Blackman, a friend of mine, who is the EPA Regional Administrator here, and also the executive director of the Sierra Club of Georgia. We've had him on as a guest, and recently re ran one of his episodes as a classic episode. He elaborated on environmental justice quite a bit. So what does that mean to you? And why do we need to keep working to ensure that this issue is stressed. Tell us why it's important and why it matters.
Marcus Flowers:You know, as a Christian, I believe that God gave us this earth, and He made us the stewards of it. And we should be doing everything in our power to take care of it and protect it. That's on us. And we have to preserve this planet for again, future generations, for our children, for our grandchildren. That's it in a nutshell, you know, climate change. It's real. The science is there. We're seeing with forest fires and hurricanes becoming more and more prevalent each year, we know that we're harming this planet, it's incumbent upon all of us to do what we have to do to save it. It's that simple for me.
Meral Clarke:Well, what about coal ash issues and issues where racial minorities in our country are adversely impacted? What are your thoughts on that?
Marcus Flowers:I think it's criminal. You know, we have some issues similar to that with the amount of chicken plants that we have in northwest Georgia and the pollution that it's creating seeping into our groundwater. Having a logistics background and working on certain things and during my military career, where we were in other countries, and we made sure that we protected their soil more so than we do here. Containment issues, that's really something that we need to focus on. We've got to protect our groundwater, you know, and people who are adversely affected by big coal or other industries that are major polluters that are causing people to get sick, and if they should pay a price for that.
Meral Clarke:I completely agree with you there as well. So let's turn our attention to education. We know there's a great disparity in educational attainment in our state and across the nation. How do we go about ensuring that children actually learn real history, and not the history that we were taught in school, which was whitewashed and bleached and completely inaccurate, critical race theory, diversity, inclusion and equity courses that so many parents are fighting back against? How would you ensure that our kids learn actual history and not the version that I learned when I was growing up? I had to take it upon myself as an adult to learn true history by diving into academic books and, you know, a podcast and other matters on the subject. How would you change that? How would we go about changing that in our society?
Marcus Flowers:You know, it's interesting that you point that out that you had to go learn several things that weren't taught in schools. One of the things that Joy Reid said that I love to repeat is that history is not an indictment. It's just history. And I find it very Orwellian, that you've got certain groups who are trying to do exactly what they said in the 1984 books if you control the past, control the future, control the narrative about the past, and you have the path to the future. It's a political calculus at this point, and we have to ensure that we're teaching a proper history. We have a shared history in this country. It's simple as that. No critical race theory. That's a straw man. If you had not been taught in any of our K through 12 schools, and any of the states. We have to get back to teaching our kids proper history. I didn't learn about a lot of the things that I learned about history in school also, I had to do just like you did find these things out on my own. And as you said, yes, our country was based on white supremacy, when you get 40 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, owned other people, right? Slave owners, exactly. Our founding fathers had, you know, no problem, none whatsoever with slavery or white supremacy. And it was the reality of their time. Why can't we just say that? We need to get to a point where, look, we had an issue, our biggest sin was slavery. We have to come to grips with that. You know, one of the reasons you don't see any statues of Hitler in Germany, is because they had that Naked Lunch moment where they looked at what was on the end of their fork. Those people, yeah, they were fighting for the country. But yeah, they were fighting for fascism and Nazism, and we fought against that. That's why you don't have monuments erected to Hitler, like we did here in our country. I mean, when you look at the issue of taking down certain statues, how it became such a hot button issue, they were honoring the Confederacy, those monuments or statues, they weren't put up in 1866, or 1867, right after the Civil War, they were put up in the early 1900s. If you look at what was going on, and people, a lot of people don't know, the rule of the land was Plessy versus Ferguson, separate but equal. That was a reminder to Black people to stay in your place. You know, at the same time, there were also a lot of lynchings going on at that moment in time. So we've got to get back to looking at history as it really was not the way we want it to be. It's a hard thing to do to ask people to reject what they were brought up with what they were taught by their parents, and at schools and even universities. You're asking him to do a difficult thing, a really difficult thing to reject a whitewashed version of our history. But a difficult thing is what we have to do in order to move forward in this country. I firmly believe that.
Meral Clarke:But how do we communicate that to the far right wing of the Republican Party, which seems to have taken over the entire GOP? How do we communicate that to the January 6 insurrectionists? How do we get that message across? That it's not just facts and alternative facts? It's just facts? No, there's no such thing as an alternate reality? What are your thoughts on that?
Marcus Flowers:No, generally, I say, meeting people where they are people who are truly misinformed or misguided or don't quite understand the history. I can't say that about people who are in government that should know better. We just have to insist on the facts when it comes to them. But with others, like I said before, we have to have that difficult conversation. We have to meet people where they are, because I respect some of the people's sincerity, who really don't understand. One of the things I was doing before I decided to run for Congress. I was out in our neighborhoods and public spaces, peeling off Confederate battle flags from public property. I was trying to have or start that Naked Lunch moment. But flag was about racism and white supremacy, not about heritage. It was about hey, that's what I do.
Meral Clarke:So I want to circle back around to the GOP's efforts at voter suppression in our state, which are not just our state, but actually nationwide. But in response to Georgia. How are the newly gerrymandered maps affecting you in the 14th district with your candidacy?
Marcus Flowers:Well, you know, here in the 14, those maps have actually made our district bluer.
Meral Clarke:Really, that's comforting. I'm happy to hear that.
Marcus Flowers:We're drawing in parts of Metro Atlanta who picked up southwest Cobb. So we've picked up a significant amount of blue votes there and people who are independents, and we're out talking with those people, we're again, meeting them where they are. But what did Marjorie Taylor Greene do? As soon as she realized Metro Atlanta had been drawn into our district, she was furious and immediately said, she didn't want those people in her district. Well, I want them in our district, you know, they share our same values. We share the same values in this country and in this state, and we need to come together. And that's what I'm doing. I'm talking to them, meeting them where they are as well. And having those conversations, letting them know that there is someone out there who will fight for you no matter what party you're in. If I'm elected to Congress, I'm going to serve you no matter whether or not you voted for me or not. That's not going to matter to me. If you need help getting your VA claim through and you're a Republican, you didn't vote for me. Not gonna matter to me. I'm not even going to ask the question. I'm going to help you get it done.
Meral Clarke:So you will serve all of your constituents, not just select ones. So let's talk about Black History Month. What does that mean to you? And what is the importance and the significance of it from your perspective?
Marcus Flowers:To me, it was just about, in the beginning, it was about teaching students about African Americans and their contributions to society. And there had been many. But you know, as of late, and I'd say the last 15 or 20 years, it's become more of a celebration of those who have impacted not only the civil rights movements when you talk about Martin Luther King and John Lewis and CT Vivian and Jesse Jackson, and, you know, people like James Baldwin and Maya Angelou, but it's become like a affirmation, really, to us, you know, because there's been so many contributions to America, from African Americans that a lot of people don't know about. Again, it's that history that we're talking about the shared history of our country, and our contribution to it. People like Harriet Tubman and Mary Buthoon and Shirley Chisholm, Thurgood Marshall, I could go on WB DuBois.
Meral Clarke:Oh my gosh, you could go on and on Reverend Lowry,
Marcus Flowers:Sidney Poitier who just died. He Sidney
Meral Clarke:Poitier. Yes, he was a trailblazer for the African American community and the black community, you know, these things need to be taught in school. And I will tell you that when I was growing up, I never learned about any of these folks, I never learned about Ida B. Wells, and her contributions. I never learned about the African American civil rights and women's activism back in the day. Again, I had to learn this on my own. And in our country, unfortunately, it many people will not take the initiative to take that up and learn these things, which is why it's so critical that all of this history is taught K through 12. Alongside I would say empathy, and kindness, which is something that really seems to be lacking on the other side of the aisle, you know, lack of caring about your fellow citizens. I mean, how would you communicate that, that empathy is so important to care about our actual citizenry, and not have this oligarchy that we seem to have right now, with corporations calling the shots? How would you fight that?
Marcus Flowers:You know, that's one of those things, you hit it right there the nail right on the head with that we have to be able to empathize with our fellow Americans, we have to get back to a point in saying you share the same issues that I do you care about the same things that I do, there are only a couple of things in our body politic, or in our public square that we legitimately disagree on Americans, as a whole probably agree on more than 85% of the things that gone this country. We all want better health care, we all want to see an end to gun violence. We all want our kids to get a better education and do better than we did. These are the same issues that we all face, how we go about getting there, maybe you're doing a little bit better than I am right now. But maybe you've been in a situation where you've struggled a little bit, how can you not empathize with someone who's going through it right now, who's trying to climb that ladder, up to the middle class, who's, you know, maybe lost a job, you have to look at your own struggles, in order to empathize with every other person in our country. We all go through tough times. That's a hard thing to do. But yet, we have politicians who like to pit us against each other corporations who like to pit us against each other because, you know, at the end of the day, it makes money for them.
Meral Clarke:Absolutely. And I think we have to get away from what I like to call capitalism on steroids, which I think is where we are much like MTG. You had mentioned a straw man, a straw man approach, which is actually a logical fallacy. A lot of voters aren't educated on logical fallacies. Can you explain a bit more about what that means? And why logical fallacies are endangering our country and lack of education as well? There should be a basic history test, I think for everyone in Congress.
Marcus Flowers:Absolutely. Critical thinking.
Meral Clarke:Yeah, critical thinking skills. Exactly. That's something else we need to teach K through 12.
Marcus Flowers:I'm just gonna oversimplify it for you. Hey, look at this bright, shiny object over here while I'm picking your pocket, giving you something else to think about while I'm doing something wrong, that's completely distracted you
Meral Clarke:That's a beautiful way to explain it. That is the from what's really important. straw man fallacy, among many others,
Marcus Flowers:Like I saw a meme once of Rupert Murdoch. He had a huge plate of cookies in front of him of chocolate chip cookies. And you had a an American, and someone who was trying to immigrate to America. And they both had one cookie on their plate. And Murdock is saying to the American, that the immigrants trying to take his cookie.
Meral Clarke:...and that's obviously not correct. Americans don't want to do those jobs
Marcus Flowers:At the end of the day is what it boils down to. I mean, that was a very accurate meme. That's Fox News that's OAN, and that's a right wing media in a nutshell. That's what's happening here in the country. And we've got to push back against that, because it's the height of misinformation and disinformation. And we see how dangerous that is. And I've been all over the world and seen the damages done from that, you know, when you think about people who put on suicide vests, that doesn't just happen in a vacuum, you have to get them there over a long period of time of being misguided, and that can be vulnerable to it in the first place. All the things that are going on our country. You know, a lot of people are vulnerable, because our history has been stolen from us. And they've been misinformed.
Meral Clarke:Absolutely. So let's circle back to national issues. President Biden recently came to Atlanta, and spoke about voting rights and the GOP efforts at voter suppression, which of course have been successful since they control the legislature. You know, the economy is improving.
Marcus Flowers:3.9% unemployment.
Meral Clarke:Yes. I mean, the economy is improving the stock market is doing well, the job rate as you brought up is very low. What do you think people have the perception that things aren't going well now? Do you think it's a messaging issue? Or what are your thoughts on that?
Marcus Flowers:Well, people have the perception that things aren't going well, now's because they're spending more money at the pump, more money in the grocery stores, houses are a lot more expensive. Inflation is a problem. Here's one of the things that I try to remind people of: this isn't necessarily because of one political party and other if you look at you know, other countries like Germany and Russia, inflation's on the rise there, what's causing that? Well think about our supply chain system, think about our high energy costs, that affects everything. When you have bottlenecks in your supply chain that's going to cause inflation. We are just getting on the other side of a pandemic. Hopefully, we're starting to get on the other side of it right now with Omicron. Looks like there's been an uptick. But we're coming out of this pandemic, hopefully, very soon, you're going to be issues there. And again, one side is using that as again, a straw man, hey, look at this bright, shiny object over here, worry about this. Don't worry about the fact that we're taking your vote away over here and suppressing your vote, messaging you to death with things like oh, your vote doesn't matter. And we're not doing anything. I think this administration is doing everything they can to tackle, you know, a lot of the issues that were out there. President was dealt a pretty bad hand. But he's coming in, and he's dealing with it. And I'd rather have him at the helm than the former guy right now.
Meral Clarke:Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Any day of the week, you know, just the return to civility, which is so important in our politics, especially right now in our current political environment.
Marcus Flowers:You know, government is a it's serious business are serious people. I think neither the former president nor Congresswoman Greene, are serious people.
Meral Clarke:No, and nor do they have a grasp on the extremely critical issues that we're facing in our country today. So what are your thoughts on abolishing the filibuster in order to get federal voting rights to get the John Lewis advancement Voting Rights Advancement Act passed and actually getting rid of the filibuster, which is an antiquated, racist, or at least it's rooted in racism? Yes. So what are your thoughts on doing that on the national level? And don't you think that's important in order to ensure that states like Georgia can't impede citizens' rights to vote?
Marcus Flowers: Stated simply:I'm for it. Again, like I said, earlier, democracy is on the ballot, we have to hold the line and Mitch McConnell when he was the leader, he didn't much care about the filibuster, when he was pushing through Supreme Court justices and packing the courts and keeping Obama from putting judges on the bench - didn't much care about it then, and the hypocrisy there's glaring. It's not something that's helpful at the moment, because without voting rights without saving our democracy and holding the line right now, which is what I believe Democrats are trying to do and trying to deliver on none of the other issues out there are going to matter, because we're going to lose on them all. Whether it's climate, whether it's schools, whether it's health care, you name it, jobs in the infrastructure, we will lose there if we don't hold the line. I keep telling people democracy is on the ballot.
Meral Clarke:Yes. And protecting our democracy is
Marcus Flowers:Vital to that is protecting everyone's right to vital. vote.
Meral Clarke:Yes, it is. So we're running short on time. Let's end on a positive note. What's new and exciting with your candidacy? Give us some positive news about your campaign.
Marcus Flowers:Well, to this point, we've raised probably about four and a half million dollars from over 150,000 Americans from all over the country.
Meral Clarke:Wow, congratulations. That's great.
Marcus Flowers:That's saying something you know, 100,000 people have invested in this district, they've said that we believe in your district and they've stood up, we've been endorsed by Vote Vets, the collective PAC, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. So we're going to be able to make a huge investment in this district, you know, I'm putting everything I have in ensuring those things like affordable health care, a safe environment, to raise our kids in our infrastructure and economy here. Like I said, before, we have to do a better job of taking care of our veterans, not only our veterans, but our seniors, you know, we have an aging population here as well. And with that investment in the district, we'll be able to go up on the Atlanta television market and match Congresswoman Greene ad for ad will be able to get mailed out, we're able to knock on 100,000 doors, something no Democrats been able to do in this district ever. So I'm excited about all of that. Because we don't, we no longer need an absentee voice in Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who only cares about personal gain. That's, that's what she's there for. I'll be there to serve the people of Georgia and the country, as I've done since I was 18 years old.
Meral Clarke:Well, that's great to hear. And you've certainly been consistent in your actions and your outlook. So if someone wants to volunteer with your campaign, donate or just learn more about you in general, where would you send them?
Marcus Flowers:www dot Marcus for georgia.com. all spelled out.
Meral Clarke:Terrific. Thank you. And finally, and I ask all my guests this question, tell us a fun fact about yourself something not related to your candidacy, or politics or anything else having to do with your campaign necessarily. Tell us something fun and interesting, just about you,
Marcus Flowers:As a man of a certain age who has dad jokes. Yeah, that's.
Meral Clarke:You love dad jokes.
Marcus Flowers:I do like those. But I am a narrator for all of our pets. We have what five pets now two cats, three dogs. So I narrate for all of them to our kids. So they love that. So you're, you're their voice and the voice of all of our pets.
Meral Clarke:Oh, that's fantastic.
Marcus Flowers:Let the kids know when they need to be fed and need to be walked. And, you know, it's good to really get a kick out of that.
Meral Clarke:I would actually love to hear that. If you ever have a chance to record yourself,
Marcus Flowers:You know, I'm going to save that for only the kids.
Meral Clarke:Oh, no, you're not going to share it with us. Oh, well. I really appreciate it though. And I am also an animal lover. So thank you for that. I think that's wonderful. Well, thanks for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support Democratic Party policy and maintain our democracy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. We hope you'll join us next time when we interview Georgia State Representative William Boddie, candidate for Georgia labor commissioner. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing please visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia Democrats.com all spelled out, share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcasts consider becoming a founding patron and friend of the show at NorthGeorgiaBluePodcast.com/patron so we can continue getting into more good trouble.