It’s now been about a month since I had this conversation with Tim Cywinski.
It has remained relevant despite the century of news that has transpired since then. Donald Trump just announced he was going to wipe the 5000+ years-old Iranian civilization off the map. This is just one of a dozen (at least) horrifying, beyond career-ending idiotisms this festering orange cyst has vomited from his face anus in the last two weeks. There’s a point when you just want to give up as a journalist. What more can you say to move the needle in the direction of sanity? How can the oligarchs condone this state of affairs? Even if they simply care for their own fortunes, the rest of the planet be damned, how could this trajectory benefit them? To be the richest cinders on the irradiated glowing heap?
What the actual fuck is happening???
It is with this bewilderment that we continued our conversation. I know the frustration shows through a professional exterior that, in other times, would be the standard I’d hold our discourse to. But we are beyond that. There is no professionalism in an apocalypse. There is no measured speech when the enemy is (literally) devouring your children! There is no restraint when the most powerful gremlin in the world, in the gloaming of his despicable life, threatens to murder 90 million civilians in an afternoon.
The gloves may have come off in the conversation for our futures, but it seems the lily-white manicured hands with power to do anything bout it would rather count money than shoot Nazis. That’s where we jump back in…
Christian Detres: When we are up against the giant wall of money that the oligarchs and the crony politicians that fluff them present against our plans of reform, how do we respond? Do we let that stop us? Should we give up, point at that money wall, and say, “Well, we can’t fight that.” No.
Tim Cywinski: That’s what people want to see in our base. Donald Trump knows that half of his demands and executive orders will be overturned by the Supreme Court, or will not hold up to scrutiny. He does it anyway. Because it pleases his base.
Why have the Democrats not done that? Why aren’t we pushing through the obstacles with demands? If the Dems think it can’t get done, they don’t even try. If you’re not willing to say, “Let’s try it anyway. Let’s just see what sticks…” If we believed in these things as much as we pose for them, we would. And that is why you’re seeing more Insurgent Democrats run for office. I call myself a Reformist Democrat because it’s not just about public policy. It’s not just about our political culture. It is also about our party. We need to remind the party who we’re stuck voting for – because, well, look at the truth. Some people say we need third parties. I’m willing to have that conversation, but we gotta live in the real world right now.
The real world right now is that you get two choices. We get two choices. Part of being an adult is saying, “I might not like everything, but I’m gonna do what’s best in the situation.” I gotta play the cards we’ve been dealt. Let’s flood the zone of the Democratic Party with Reformists and go for the goals we all agree on. I’d like to be the person who says that on day one I’ll write up an article or try to form a special committee-
CD: Write it now. Bank it. You don’t have to wait for day one. We need manifestos right now. Not suggestions. We need fully-fledged banners on intent, not vague moralistic appeals to empathy, etc. We need at least a bold directive or declarative moment. When Sir Edmund Hillary decided to summit Everest, he didn’t put a statement out about wanting to explore the idea of putting a committee together to visit the Himalayas. He said he was going to climb to the peak of the damn mountain. I don’t hear conviction from anyone on the Hill unless it’s coming from the Right. The scariest thing about them is that I 100% believe them every time they announce another horrible idea.
TC: As a case in point of that, will I support indicting everyone who has any even semblance of connections to harm in the Epstein files? Absolutely. I will. I’ll just say that right now. This is a lay-up to say these things. Children were harmed. That’s supposed to be the one thing we’re all supposed to agree on. Regardless of what we voted for. The bedrock of our morality is that children are innocent and that there is no quarter for those who harm them.
But then, what happens with the gross faucet of right-wing media? Megan Kelly said, “Well, we’re not exactly talking about children, we’re talking about 14-year-olds.” What kind of disgusting bullshit is that? And that’s not because she actually believes that. It’s because everyone on that side is a grifter who is connected somehow to someone who has a stake in the powerful people in the Epstein files evading justice.
CD: One of the hardest things for me to process is that it’s not like insider trading, you know? We’re not talking about a metaphorical or rhetorical crime. Or an abstraction, right? We’re talking about literally raping children. The only thing we can get from Dems not taking that lay-up is “Do you have something to gain from not doing this???”
So you have to understand I’m watching this limp “battle” go down in stunned astonishment. The Democratic Party could not be given a better cannon to point at the Republicans’ faces. Find anything that triggers people’s passions more than child rape. I dare you. I guarantee you, if this fight were being waged with half the intensity it deserves, Independents and a sizable portion of the Right would agree with you.
You can shut up about every other platform for a bit. Set these other things aside for a second and focus on the Vorpal Sword in our hands against the most offensive cabal of monsters we’ve seen in generations. This isn’t a QAnon conspiracy anymore. You know who’s getting the most worked up about all this? The QAnon people! The “idiots” of 2019 who were raiding pizza place basements were RIGHT. They were a little myopic in their focus as to who was to blame, but these people were onto something that a good lot of us dismissed as extravagant and foolish. We are the ones who look like fools now. Not all of the “Tinfoil Hat Gang” will ever realize they’ve been fooled into thinking their MAGA heroes were on the outside of all this. There’s too much messianic idolatry surrounding the Orange Blister to break through to the truly stupid. But they were, in every sense that actually matters, right.
TC: Our perspectives are manipulated by a media ecosystem (social and traditional) that has every financial incentive for us to be distracted, to get us to be angry at each other. You know that thing you were talking about earlier, how when you wake up every day, you check Reddit hoping for an obituary? Knowing that they can make you angry is good for those companies, good for their product. The angrier you are, the more you’re going to stay on that platform – scrolling and cursing under your breath. And the more you stay on that platform, the more likely you are to buy whatever it is they’re selling. I miss the days when you would just tweet a picture of you somewhere and be like, “Eating some tacos! Having fun…”
CD: Yeah. Pepperidge Farms remembers.
TC: Now you do that, you’re eating some tacos, and someone undoubtedly is gonna say something about immigration with some racist bullshit attached.
CD: I’m going to pull away from the passionate side of this because I can rant all day about it. Here’s another softball. How do you feel about AIPAC?
TC: I don’t take money from them, and I don’t like ‘em.
CD: Okay, just so for your benefit and the readers, the idea of Antisemitism – wherever I see it, whenever I hear it, whenever it’s even kind of flirted at, is offensive to me. My feelings about AIPAC have nothing to do with any sentiment towards the Jewish people – as a religious group, a culture, or anything genetic.
TC: Do you think what you see a lot on social media about AIPAC is dog-whistling? Antisemitism with more steps?
CD: I don’t. No, not in the context of what I’m asking. It’s pretty difficult right now to have a productive conversation about this. Some of the leadership in the Democratic Party seems to be so far up Israel’s ass that they’re building the battlements against criticism of political powers “representing” the concept of “Jewishness.” I’m mad for my Jewish friends who feel compelled to answer for Netanyahu’s horrors. They’re being used as human shields by politicians who have co-opted the Jewish identity for their own selfish purposes. The same way that Trump and MAGA have perverted American patriotism into Christian White Nationalism. Same playbook, same results.
TC: No, that’s what I’m saying. But when we have this conversation, I do think it’s important to make that distinction. I do think it’s important to say, it’s the Government of Israel that is perpetuating these awful atrocities, not the people of Israel. I do think that what is going on with the Government of Israel – the things that they’re doing – has allowed anti-semitic people an excuse to put their anti-semitism on full display. That’s okay to acknowledge for sure.
CD: So disappointing. How do you win that argument?
TC: But is it about winning an argument, or is it about illuminating the humanity and the atrocity at the same time? Yeah, I think we’re resetting the tone of the rhetoric and making sure that we hold ourselves accountable to what kind of language we use. We can acknowledge that what happened in October 7th is unforgivable, and we can also acknowledge at the same time that the Israelis government, and what they have done to Gaza, and what they’ve done to Palestine, is inexcusable.
Yeah, we can acknowledge those things at the same time and say, ” This is what’s going on. What are the solutions, and how do we find those solutions without blaming everyday people without any power? And say that we need to stop the worst things that are going on right now.
So would I vote for funding to increase arms to Israel? No, I would not.
CD: Yeah, how about a binational organization that represents the many Israeli citizens and elected representatives who are horrified at what’s happening in Gaza? They protest their own government more than we do, you know, who are represented in their own government. Why are we not building coalitions with the disaffected citizenry in Israel? They can’t vote here, and we can’t vote there. But we are both voting on the same issue. Where is the effort to join voices in cooperation with our international brethren?
TC: I understand what you’re saying.
CD: The understanding that people like us exist here the same way that people like us exist there. That kind of coalition builds better. That’s a free dollar on the table for you, haha. Please use the benefit of that talking point.
This is a real issue that we need to kind of combat. It goes beyond Gaza and Netanyahu. It goes into undue influence in our political system. I’m not so naive asd to think every government in the world isn’t constantly trying to find leverage over anyone they can reach. That manipulation game is happening everywhere. What’s more than that is that if you’re gonna pick a target, how could you not try to hit the US? If you’re going to try to manipulate anybody on this planet, we’re the ones you’re going to get the most out of. You know? So we get it; we understand there’s a silent little spy vs spy war going on all the time. Everyone’s going to try to get leverage over anything that they can. Us included.
This, however, is a rare situation. We are sending billions and billions of dollars to this ‘allied’ nation – money being deluged into their system. Then it’s being funneled back to the political campaigns of the very same people voting in Congress to send Israel money in the first place. What the hell is happening? It’s enough to make your head spin.
TC: It’s essentially a money laundering scheme.
CD: How are solutions to this so impossible to come by?
TC: I’m the only candidate who is running in 2026 who has not just vague promises of campaign finance reforms, but an actual plan to make sure that everyday people compete with big money.
CD: Oh yeah? Please explain.
TC: $500 per person per election cycle. Given directly to each registered voter. That’s your taxpayer money coming back to you, which I don’t think is unreasonable at all. You can dedicate however much of that money you want to federal candidates of your choice.
So instead of me spending face time or taking calls from AIPAC or some corporate entity/donor, and only being influenced by their perspective, we can have an incentive as elected officials to actually represent communities. Not business interests that benefit a handful of already wealthy constituents.
The whole idea, and this is truly my belief, is that when you level the playing field, people win every single time. 10 times out of 10. If we get to play by the same rules and with the same resources as the big money players, we win. That’s why they’re so scared about losing their stranglehold on influence. They change the rules to strategically disadvantage us.
CD: What are they scared of? Wouldn’t they rather be the most powerful person in the room when they’re meeting with some giant corporation? To not need them or their money? To be able to shape policy on what the vast majority of their constituents deserve, and let the free market decide the fate of companies that treat their employees like dirt and their customers worse? Like, they are the ones who make or change the rules. It’s literally their job.
TC: What I want is to go to those companies and say, “Look, I can talk to you. But I want you to know, I don’t need you”. Do you know how empowering that would feel? Do you know how many things that would unlock for us?
I don’t know if it would work perfectly on the first election that we do it, incumbents and all. But the second election, you’re gonna see a wildly different class of politician. This is a way to empower people, strengthen our democracy, and change the course of our political future. That’s what I want to do. And that’s why my platform, the reformist agenda part of my platform is all designed around that. So we can pass a policy that works with communities instead of against them.
That’s how you get other people who otherwise couldn’t run for office, who are like me, not wealthy, not wealth-connected. I don’t know anyone who can give me a max out donation of $5700. I don’t know anyone, and I’m doing it anyway. There’s a gap between what we are feeling right now and what the people in power are doing about it. With that campaign finance plan, more people like me can run for office. We can be pillars of our communities. We can be people who are entrenched with, like 7 large families, directing $500 in federal collected tax to the registered candidate of their choice, knowing that every other voter has the same financial skin in the game. For the first time in our lives, we would get to say exactly where our taxpayer money goes; we get to literally have that power. It strengthens our democracy, and it will recruit better politicians.
I think that addresses everything that we’re talking about in our national discourse. The heart of it is big money. If you’re not willing to fight against big money in politics, you are not willing to fight for everyday families. There is no one who can convince me otherwise.
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