I mean, my hope is found in a few things.

You know, I have hope because we've been here before.

You know, like in the sixties, Congress was a mess.

It was polarized.

It was obstructionist.

And it looked a lot like our Congress today.

It looked a lot worse, actually.

You know, Southern Democrats were aligning with Republicans to block progressive reform.

And in that cauldron, you know, a whole new society was like reinvented, like we passed major pieces of civil rights legislation.

We passed the Great Society, the War on Poverty.

These are programs that reduce poverty by half.

You know, real deep investments in the poorest Americans.

And.

And so why?

How?

Right.

How'd they do it?

And, you know, movements, especially the civil rights and the labor movement, just put unrelenting pressure on lawmakers.

They forced their hand.

And I'm I'm just so grateful that they didn't dissolve into despair, you know, or or wish for another congressional alignment.

You know, they just pushed and pushed and pushed.

And so my hope is with the movement today, that movements that are stirring, you know, the new labor movement, a multiracial movement against poverty, you know, that's manifested in groups like the Poor People's Campaign, the new movement for housing justice.

You know, that's really demanding something more for renters that are just completely crushed by the high cost of housing.

So my hope is in their efforts.

And those efforts also are incredibly joyous.

And it's interesting to spend time with folks on the frontlines of the poverty movement, because if anyone has room to despair, it's them.

You know, these are movements led by people that are often squeezed by the American economy.

And they're often people that have been exploited and left out.

And they are not despondent.

They're often very hopeful and joyous and big hearted because they've seen what their their efforts can do.

I also have a lot of hope in the fact that we are an incredibly rich nation.

And New Jersey is an incredibly rich state.

Um we have the resources to do this.

You know, a study published recently found that if the top 1% of us just pay the taxes we owed or they owed, I should say, not paid more taxes, just like stopped evading taxes, we could raise an additional $175 billion a year, which is almost enough to lift everyone out of poverty.

You know, so this is not hard.

And I have hope.

Just the last thing is the thing that I'm calling for is a thing that will benefit all of us.

You know, it will certainly make a difference in the lives of low-income Americans.

But this is also a call for a happier, safer or more flourishing country at large.

So.