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at mintmobile.com. See full terms

1:02

at mintmobile.com. Welcome to Aging

1:05

Moderates. I'm Sky Galloway. And I'm

1:07

Jessica Tarlev. Jess. We are literally

1:09

bigger than the invidia conference. We're

1:12

even even bigger than Taylor Swift.

1:14

We have sold out in minutes

1:16

the 900-seat auditorium at

1:19

the literally the Cathedral

1:21

of Wokism, the 92nd Street, why

1:23

we are sold out, Jessica Tarlow.

1:25

I know. We are sold out. I'm

1:27

on the one hand, super excited

1:30

about that, and on the other

1:32

hand, upset because people can't

1:34

get tickets anymore to come, and

1:36

I'm getting a lot of... Do

1:38

you think the secondary market is

1:40

going to be huge for us? Well, I don't

1:43

know, but I reserve 50 tickets and daddy needs

1:45

new shoes, so we'll see. Daddy needs new shoes.

1:47

So you sold us out, basically? Let's be

1:49

honest. No, no, no, no, no, no. One

1:51

of us is quirk and interesting. The other

1:53

is smart and hot. I'm going with smart

1:55

and hot sold us out. And I hope

1:57

that doesn't trigger our feminist followers, but yeah.

2:00

I've done a lot of these events.

2:02

I've never had it sold out

2:04

for this big an auditorium this

2:06

quickly, and I think you're the

2:08

variable here. Anyways, we can't say

2:10

who we have, but we have

2:12

someone who's probably a likely contender

2:14

for president and a huge power

2:16

player. I didn't want to guess.

2:18

Just did. I thought we could

2:20

carry this thing. I want more

2:22

opportunities to talk about me. And

2:25

he'll take some of the oxygen

2:27

out of the room because they're

2:29

a player. a player, but you

2:31

wanted to guess. I wanted to

2:33

have a broad discussion that made

2:35

plenty of time for us, more

2:37

for you than for me, because

2:39

one of us needs more of

2:41

that than the other. And I

2:43

also wanted to cement our place

2:45

in the beltway relevancy, I guess,

2:47

and I think it's super cool.

2:49

And there will be tons of

2:51

opportunities also for us to do

2:53

this. I was talking with producer

2:56

David that maybe we would. do

2:58

a little touring around the midterms

3:00

or something like that and we

3:02

can go selling out theaters across

3:04

the country. What do you think?

3:06

So I'm dying to be relevant

3:08

in Miami, in New York, in

3:10

LA. I could give a shit

3:12

about being relevant in the beltway.

3:14

I think the beltway is literally

3:16

the, name a cool bar in

3:18

DC. First off, the people aren't

3:20

that hot. Secondly, no good bars,

3:22

nowhere to go out after midnight.

3:24

I mean, I could literally decide.

3:27

everything that affects your life there.

3:29

I understand. I mean, and I'm

3:31

just not a DC person. I'm

3:33

sure there is a cool DC

3:35

bar in like one of the

3:37

hotels or something. Not even the

3:39

hotels are that cool. The hotels

3:41

are lame. It's inspiring. It's where

3:43

you take your kids. But if

3:45

you want to roll, if you

3:47

want to have some fun, if

3:49

you want to meet super interesting

3:51

people. Yeah, the people from DC,

3:53

anyone who's lived in DC for

3:55

longer than 10 years. Pro Tip,

3:57

they've brought up a room by

4:00

leaving a room by leaving it.

4:02

We have we have someone important

4:04

showing up to the 90 secondary

4:06

why. Yeah, thank you for just

4:08

totally crapping on the entire premise

4:10

of this. Anyway, it's gonna be

4:12

great. And most of the people.

4:14

are from different districts, so they're

4:16

from different areas. Right, so they're

4:18

cool back home, but once they

4:20

get there. It starches them of

4:22

all, they're cool once they get

4:24

there. Uplifting promo for our talk

4:26

at the 92nd Street White. Anyway,

4:28

we're really excited. Clearly, all right,

4:31

today, in our episode of raging

4:33

moderates, we're discussing what's going on

4:35

with the Social Security Administration. Trump

4:37

tries to dismantle the Department of

4:39

Education. in the 2024 presidential election

4:41

autopsy report. All right, let's bust

4:43

into it. The head of the

4:45

Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, threatened

4:47

to shut down the entire agency

4:49

over a court ruling, only to

4:51

walk it back after a federal

4:53

judge called him out for misinterpreting

4:55

her order. This all started when

4:57

the agency gave Doge brought access

4:59

to Social Security data to supposedly

5:02

root out fraud. A judge stepped

5:04

in, saying that was a major

5:06

privacy violation, and Dudek responded by

5:08

claiming that limiting Musk's team also

5:10

meant limiting his own employees, essentially

5:12

making it impossible to run Social

5:14

Security. The judge wasn't buying it,

5:16

and now Dudek has backed down,

5:18

but this whole situation raises big

5:20

questions about what's really going on

5:22

with Social Security under the Trump

5:24

administration and Musk's involvement. Meanwhile, protesters,

5:26

retirees, and union members are sounding

5:28

the alarm about potential cuts and

5:30

disruptions to benefits. As Commerce Secretary

5:33

Howard Lutnik suggested that only fraudsters

5:35

would actually notice of Social Security

5:37

checks just didn't go out one

5:39

month. I can't even get past

5:41

that statement without saying... Jesus, talk

5:43

about winter, head up your ass.

5:45

That statement, as you can imagine,

5:47

did not go over well. Let's

5:49

have a listen. Let's say Social

5:51

Security didn't send out their checks

5:53

this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94,

5:55

she wouldn't call and complain. She

5:57

just wouldn't. She thinks something got

5:59

messed up, and she'll get it

6:01

next month. A fraudster. Always. makes

6:03

the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and

6:06

complaining. My dad. is 95, he's

6:08

struggling, and he is in hospice,

6:10

he no longer recognizes anybody, including

6:12

his son and his daughter. If

6:14

his Social Security check didn't show

6:16

up, I'm pretty sure he would

6:18

come to and head down and

6:20

protest. The notion that this wouldn't

6:22

immediately cause massive panic for anyone

6:24

whose son isn't the head of

6:26

an investment bank and magnificently rich,

6:28

I couldn't get over. This was...

6:30

This was town deaf even for

6:32

the Trump administration, your thoughts. Yeah,

6:34

and they're setting a new standard,

6:37

right, when you have 13 billionaires

6:39

in the government, which, and again,

6:41

I'm not anti-billionaire. I think capitalism

6:43

is a wonderful thing, but I

6:45

think that there are good billionaires

6:47

and there are bad billionaires, and

6:49

the bad ones shouldn't be in

6:51

charge of our government. And Lutnik

6:53

has been on a tour of...

6:55

Asinine commentary in the last few

6:57

weeks. I mean, it's not just

6:59

this, which I think will kind

7:01

of be in the Hall of

7:03

Fame, and if he is out

7:05

of a job soon, which I've

7:08

spoken to a number of Republicans

7:10

who feel like he will be

7:12

the first to go, just because

7:14

he is embarrassing the administration right

7:16

left and center, this comment will

7:18

obviously be atop the list of

7:20

why that happened. But I'm wondering

7:22

how somebody can have such little...

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30:48

are back now in GMA earlier. We were

30:50

talking about the Men's, the Ben's College Basketball,

30:52

it's championship week for women though.

38:02

a radical audit. The problem is

38:04

they, you don't trust them. They're bad

38:06

actors. They're not trying to help

38:08

kids. They're trying to just gut

38:10

the system and do away and implement

38:13

their own sort of, and they say

38:15

they're going to replace it with vouchers,

38:17

which is nothing to put a transfer

38:19

of wealth from the lower middle income

38:21

households to you and me who don't

38:23

need money for our kids to go

38:25

to school. It even reminds me of

38:28

the debate on... a woman's rights to pregnancy

38:30

where we're not even willing to have

38:32

a conversation around whether there should be

38:34

restrictions in the third trimester because like

38:37

we can't trust the other side. They're

38:39

using that just as a cudgel to

38:41

outlaw all of it. And the Department

38:43

of Education in my opinion is probably

38:46

a department that if they put in place

38:48

more local assurances around funding, especially

38:50

in low-income areas, you could see

38:53

quite frankly doing away with it.

38:55

But no one trusts them. No

38:57

one thinks you're actually concerned about

38:59

our children. No one says, all

39:01

right, are you really being an

39:03

honest broker here around ensuring our

39:05

kids have access to some decent

39:08

education? And again, the mother of

39:10

all own goals, the districts that need this

39:12

the most are the ones that

39:14

are like rooting them on. It's like,

39:16

I mean, I hate to say it, but look

39:18

at what happens when you're no

39:21

longer getting your Medicaid. There's

39:23

no longer a school within

39:25

driving distance, and there's no

39:27

one to enforce it. Your kid that

39:29

is severely autistic, there to enforce

39:31

that this kid has a place

39:33

to go to school. It's like,

39:35

folks, be careful what you're asking

39:38

for here. So I don't, I feel like

39:40

the Department of Education was

39:42

ripe for reform, that this

39:44

is just people who aren't

39:46

sincere about helping kids. Yeah,

39:48

well, that's the theme. right of everything that's

39:50

going to go on for the next few

39:53

years if you have bad actors in positions

39:55

of power i'm going to dig in and

39:57

say you can't have access to anything because

39:59

you're not going to be doing this

40:01

in a responsible, well-intentioned way. And

40:03

the Department of Education is already

40:05

one of the smallest cabinet departments,

40:08

268 billion a year, 4% of

40:10

the US budget. McMahon, Linda McMahon,

40:12

who is in charge of it,

40:14

wants to cut staff by 50%.

40:16

So I don't know what the

40:18

right number is in terms of

40:20

cuts to keep it functioning, or

40:22

at least the key. things that

40:24

it does functioning, but that feels

40:26

really scary to me. And when

40:28

they say, oh, we'll just shift

40:30

the things that we do that are

40:32

important, like Title I funding, or making

40:34

sure that we're protecting disabled kids to

40:37

other departments, they say, oh, we'll send

40:39

that over to the DOJ. No thank

40:41

you to Pam Bondi being in charge

40:43

of these kinds of policies. I don't...

40:46

I don't know her personally, maybe she's

40:48

perfectly nice, but I don't get the

40:50

vibe off of her that she cares

40:53

at all or that there's anyone in

40:55

kind of top lieutenant role that understands

40:57

how important it is that those

40:59

dollars get to those kids. In

41:02

February, there was a group of...

41:04

Top education officials from GOP control states

41:06

that took a meeting with Linda McBann

41:08

and they want this money as block

41:10

grants, right? They want to say send

41:12

it back to the states and we'll

41:15

deal with it So your point about

41:17

vouchers is well taken and we talked

41:19

about this a few weeks ago, and

41:21

I got some really thoughtful feedback from

41:23

people who live in red states explaining

41:25

to me what would actually happen if

41:27

we moved to a voucher system where

41:29

they are. So not only would kids

41:31

not have a school option anywhere near

41:34

them and they'd end up priced out

41:36

of the private schools anyway, but

41:38

that it was a move to

41:40

get people into religious schools to

41:42

be able to turn, you know,

41:44

one nation, quote, quote, quote, under

41:46

God into the policy across all

41:48

areas of life. And I hadn't

41:50

seen this quote before, this is

41:52

from Betsy Devas, who was the

41:54

former Trump education secretary, who openly

41:56

called it advancing God's kingdom, that

41:58

that was the plan. for how they

42:00

wanted to do education in this country.

42:02

So I hear that, and then I

42:04

think about even what I was saying

42:06

about vouchers, like should there be some

42:08

optionality, especially during a

42:10

once in a century global health

42:13

pandemic, that you should be able

42:15

to get $78,000 to be able

42:17

to go to the Catholic school

42:19

down the street or to the

42:21

temple down the street that has

42:24

a good program, and that scares.

42:26

the living daylights out of me.

42:28

The Oklahoma superintendent wanted three or

42:30

four million dollars to buy Trump

42:32

Bibles because of course everything is

42:34

branded and everything's a grift to

42:37

put those in the schools in

42:39

Oklahoma. And so if you hand

42:41

the keys over to these religious

42:44

zealots that have demonstrated no care

42:46

or concern for the children who

42:48

need a good public education the

42:51

most, I feel that I can abide by

42:53

that. and I'm going to become even more

42:55

dug in about the Department of

42:57

Education, which probably does need some level

42:59

of reform. This has been going on

43:02

since Reagan, right? It went in under

43:04

Jimmy Carter or became through the act

43:06

of Congress that it was created, and

43:08

we should note it can't be abolished.

43:10

That has to go through Congress,

43:12

and that will never happen. But

43:14

starting just a year later, Reagan

43:16

is crusading on this, and every

43:18

Republican since then has been making

43:20

its goal to abolish it. But...

43:22

Trump is clearly showing that he

43:24

will spend his last term, or

43:27

hopefully his last term, and no

43:29

way he's certainly going to declare

43:31

something funky, can go on at

43:33

the end of this, but to

43:36

destroy... every aspect of the federal

43:38

government. I think the kind of the

43:40

strategy or the thing that unifies everything

43:42

they're doing is the following. I think

43:44

they're trying to turn America into an

43:46

operating system that just transfers wealth from

43:48

the bottom 99 to the top 1%

43:50

and this is yet another example because

43:52

if you send your kids to private

43:54

school you want to literally starve all public

43:56

education of all funds such you have

43:59

more money for or other things that

44:01

you benefit from, whether it's tax

44:03

cuts or investments in technology or

44:05

investments in infrastructure. So I

44:07

think about 10% of US households send their

44:09

kids to private schools, which is probably less

44:12

than most people think. But once you get

44:14

into the top 1%, see above the tail

44:16

wagging every dog here, about half those households

44:19

send their kids to private schools. And that's

44:21

even misleading because if you're a household in

44:23

Woodside, if you send your kid to the

44:25

public school in Woodside or in Portola Valley.

44:28

It's a private school, folks, let's

44:30

be honest. They have an auction.

44:32

They're so overfunded. And one of

44:35

the great inequities in the US

44:37

is a disproportionate amount of funding

44:39

levels are based on local property

44:42

taxes. So this is just

44:44

transparently saying we don't want

44:46

to pay for anything that will

44:48

primarily affect the bottom 99.

44:50

And the top 1%? This doesn't mean

44:52

anything. Your kids don't need a public

44:55

school. Your kids... You have the resources

44:57

to ensure that your kid has the

44:59

special lead he or she might need.

45:01

You don't need to worry about how

45:03

your kid gets to school. And literally

45:06

everything they're doing is like, okay, how

45:08

do we tilt everything from the

45:10

bottom 99 to the one? I just see

45:12

that as another example here. It's

45:14

a strategy behind everything. It's

45:16

the explanation behind I think

45:19

almost every activity. Is there

45:21

to decide America? is an underlying

45:23

engine to try and create prosperity

45:25

or more prosperity for the top

45:28

1%, which a folk, spoiler alert. I

45:30

mean, the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones,

45:32

which we're obsessed with, they're basically just

45:34

a litmus test for out the top

45:36

1% are doing, who own 80 to 90%

45:39

of all outstanding equities. And guess

45:41

what? They keep hitting record highs.

45:43

Everything we do right now, I

45:45

would say in America and Trump,

45:47

to a certain extent, encapsulates this. is

45:49

how do we cut services from

45:51

the bottom 99 such that we

45:54

can provide more money

45:56

and more opportunities for

45:58

the top 1%? Yeah, to add to that. the

46:00

CBO releasing the data on the

46:02

implications for the revenue we're going

46:04

to collect with the cuts to

46:06

the IRS, another 500 billion into

46:08

the deficit, and guess who's not

46:10

going to have to pay their

46:12

taxes, the wealthy, who can navigate

46:14

around the system, who don't actually

46:16

need to get an IRS agent

46:18

on the phone. And I don't

46:20

want to hear ever again from

46:22

the right about the debt or

46:24

the deficit. I'm just over it.

46:26

If these tax cuts are going

46:28

to go through, which is going

46:30

to be trillions over several years,

46:33

what is it, the 800 billion

46:35

a year, adding to the deficit,

46:37

and things like getting rid of

46:39

the IRS so we can't even

46:41

pretend that we're going to collect

46:43

money from folks who are prone

46:45

to tax cheat. Just like save

46:47

it. And Alan Simpson, who died

46:49

last week, I was reading again

46:51

about the Simpsons Bowles Commission, and

46:53

like people will be laughed off

46:55

the stage if they tried to

46:57

do something. like that again. And

46:59

I mean, it didn't even work

47:01

when they first tried it. But

47:03

now I feel like it's just

47:05

a massive joke that anyone is

47:07

actually concerned about the deficit. Well,

47:10

to your point about, and this

47:12

is my favorite thing, taxes. Aren't

47:14

you a hoot? I know. I'm

47:16

fond of parties. But what other

47:18

department do you give $1 to?

47:20

And within a year, they give

47:22

$12 back. And the Republicans don't

47:24

want to claim that they're harassing

47:26

people, they're not harassing anyone. IRS

47:28

agents are over and trying to

47:30

figure out a way just to

47:32

get people to pay the taxes

47:34

they owe. And what happens when

47:36

the tax code goes from 400

47:38

pages to 7600, those incremental 7200

47:40

pages are there to fuck the

47:42

middle class, because what they are

47:44

is full of all sorts of

47:46

loopholes and Byzantine means of corporations

47:49

and the top 1% being able

47:51

to engage in massive loopholes and

47:53

tax avoidance. And when you have

47:55

an IRS, AI will help. But

47:57

AI will be able to start

47:59

from the bottom and audit in

48:01

a millionth of a second, someone's

48:03

fairly simple tax return, i.e. a

48:05

middle-class household. Once you get to

48:07

people who are in the top

48:09

1% making $700,000 a year. of

48:11

networks of the following, their tax

48:13

returns purposefully get really complex. And

48:15

you need highly skilled, well-resourced, and

48:17

expensive groups of people to hold

48:19

those people accountable. And this is

48:21

what's happened with our tax code.

48:23

It's created an incentive of the

48:25

following, an incentive structure of the

48:28

following. If you're really, really wealthy

48:30

or you're a corporation, the incentive

48:32

is to be... Absolutely as aggressive

48:34

as possible because if you've got

48:36

a parking meter in front of

48:38

your house that costs 50 bucks,

48:40

but the ticket is 10 bucks,

48:42

you're going to break the law

48:44

or you're going to be as

48:46

aggressive as possible. And our current

48:48

tax system as it relates to

48:50

the wealthiest Americans basically incensed them

48:52

to be as aggressive as possible

48:54

in terms of what they write

48:56

off. probably there's no sheriff in

48:58

town, there's a lack of agents,

49:00

and B, even if the sheriff

49:02

shows up, the penalties are fairly

49:04

minimal. So the notion, and then

49:07

this this trope that somehow the

49:09

good people of the IRS are

49:11

mean or harassing people, no they're

49:13

not, they're trying to make sure

49:15

that people pay what they're supposed

49:17

to pay, such that we can

49:19

afford snap food payments in the

49:21

Navy. So again, another example. Cutting

49:23

funding from the IRS? Who does

49:25

that benefit the most? Cutting funding

49:27

of the IRS. Does it benefit

49:29

all taxpayers who are aggressive? No.

49:31

It benefits the top 1%. Full

49:33

stop. See above my unifying theory

49:35

of everything, Jess. I do like

49:37

that you've reduced it all to

49:39

one short TED Talk. Break it

49:41

down. That's why I'm here. All

49:43

right, let's take one more quick

49:46

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limited by state law. Not available.

54:03

Campus. You would be such a

54:05

weird pediatrician. Just your vibes. Thank

54:07

you for that. I guess they would

54:09

be different. I'm good for, I'm good

54:12

with kids. I'm shockingly good with kids.

54:14

Anyways, but it sent me from North

54:16

Campus, I'm sorry, from South Campus to

54:19

North Campus where the people were much

54:21

hotter and the parties were much better

54:23

than the South Campus. So everything worked

54:26

out for you. We go. We're getting

54:28

clear insights into what happened in the

54:30

2024 election. Blue Rose Research's analysis shows

54:32

that key voter groups, including Hispanic, Asian,

54:35

young, and disengaged voters, shifted towards

54:37

Trump, mainly due to his perceived

54:39

strength on economic issues, including inflation,

54:41

and the cost of living. Despite

54:43

concerns over democracy, voters felt Trump

54:45

was a better option now with

54:48

Trump's popularity dropping. The Democratic Party

54:50

is left scrambling, unsure about their

54:52

identity and next steps. The analysis

54:54

reveals that if those who stayed

54:56

at home had voted, Trump would

54:58

have won the popular vote by

55:00

almost five points, while Trump's favorability

55:03

remained steady. Vice President Harris and

55:05

the Democratic Party saw significant drops.

55:07

And voters cared most about issues where

55:09

Dems lost trust, like the economy and

55:11

inflation, though they still trusted them more

55:14

on health care. Jess, this is kind

55:16

of your wheelhouse. Which findings from the

55:18

blue rose data really caught your eye?

55:20

Any surprises or patterns that stood out

55:22

to you? That stands out to

55:25

me is that is real bleak. I was expecting

55:27

at least Something that felt like

55:30

a sunny day and it was

55:32

all a torrential rainstorm of information

55:35

coming down I listen to David

55:37

Shore on with as recline and

55:39

I don't know I guess now

55:41

because how prevalent podcasts are and

55:43

again. Thank you to the listeners.

55:45

It's great that you're paying attention

55:48

to what we're talking about like

55:50

that's the best way that I'm

55:52

absorbing information at this point and

55:55

I was walking listening to it

55:57

and I didn't actually shed a

55:59

tear but I felt my ducks start

56:01

to activate. As David Shore kept bringing

56:04

out chart after chart and saying to

56:06

him, like pointing at something and saying,

56:08

you see this quadrant? We have nothing

56:10

in this quadrant. And it was like

56:12

the success quadrant, right, of the chart.

56:15

Things that stuck out in particular, the

56:17

idea of if we vote we win

56:19

is now over is. deeply problematic because

56:21

I also don't want to become the

56:24

party who wants folks to stay at

56:26

home like that was always the Republicans

56:28

thing and now I guess it has

56:30

to be our thing because if we

56:32

all vote we lose and we lose

56:35

by a lot I mean the idea

56:37

that Republicans could win a popular vote

56:39

by 4.8 percentage points then won the

56:41

popular vote in 20 plus years anyway

56:43

but like that's our thing right that

56:46

Folks turn out to vote and we

56:48

do super well. So that's over. Everybody

56:50

please stay home. I'm for disenfranchisement now.

56:52

I'm just kidding. I'm not. We'll fix

56:55

it and we'll make it so that

56:57

we win back the voters. But that

56:59

was deeply concerning. The one that really

57:01

stood out, because I feel like it

57:03

flies in the face of everything that

57:06

we thought about the way Trump was

57:08

campaigning and how people were receiving his

57:10

message, was this change that Biden won

57:12

the immigrant. population vote by 27 points

57:14

and it looks like Trump won it

57:17

by one this time like that level

57:19

of a way yeah especially when the

57:21

guy is out there you know they're

57:23

eating the cats and the dogs and

57:25

you know Puerto Rico's just a i

57:28

a floating island of garbage and all

57:30

the xenophobia and it didn't matter at

57:32

all and obviously this is different you

57:34

know various immigrant populations and we always

57:37

know that there are more conservative groups

57:39

like the Cubans for instance have always

57:41

been that way but it feels like

57:43

we've been going through 20 30 years

57:45

of a particular political reality and now

57:48

it has been completely upended and this

57:50

idea that we are trying to quote-unquote

57:52

rebuild the Obama coalition has to go

57:54

out the door. It is dead and

57:56

buried at this point when you lose

57:59

you know at some polls you know

58:01

12 to 24 percentage points with Latino

58:03

voters you're not rebuilding anything even if

58:05

you get some of those folks back.

58:08

We have to do a full burn

58:10

it down strategy that's really focused on

58:12

attracting working class voters back of all

58:14

races and ethnicities. But I don't know

58:16

if we're going to win national elections

58:19

again, it's going to look wildly different.

58:21

And David Shore was pointing out that.

58:23

We did surprisingly well in the Senate

58:25

map and we had good candidates and

58:27

they had bad candidates and that has

58:30

been a feature of the Trump era

58:32

that he goes and he backs people

58:34

that can't win elections and we get

58:36

lucky because of that like Ruben Diego

58:38

who we have on the podcast this

58:41

week actually going to interview him He

58:43

won in Arizona where Trump won Arizona

58:45

by five points now. He was running

58:47

against Kerry Lake. Are they going to

58:50

run Kerry Lake again? I don't think

58:52

so or a carry-like, adjacent type person.

58:54

And a lot of that is for

58:56

what the world looks like in a

58:58

post- Trump era, you know, 2028 and

59:01

beyond. But deeply concerning is how I

59:03

felt. How did you feel, looking at

59:05

the data? Well, I love this stuff,

59:07

but I like to bust the solutions.

59:09

In my view, even the poll is

59:12

the problem of the Democratic Party's platform,

59:14

and that is, in my view, how

59:16

you get Latin voters back or Hispanic

59:18

voters back, is you stop talking about

59:21

them. The way you get black voters

59:23

back is you stop talking about it.

59:25

And what do I mean by that?

59:27

The Democratic Party has to make it

59:29

verbatim to continue to engage in identity

59:32

politics. And they should focus on the

59:34

economy through the lens of the middle

59:36

class. There's been too much advantage. crammed

59:38

into the most advantage group in America

59:40

right now are non-white children of rich

59:43

people. Because we have based affirmative action

59:45

on race and our entire politics in

59:47

the Democratic Party through identity. And it

59:49

made sense 20, 40, 60 years ago.

59:52

The academic gap between black and white

59:54

60 years ago was double what it

59:56

was between rich and poor, and now

59:58

it has flipped. And now it has

1:00:00

flipped. And the swing voters have one

1:00:03

thing in mind. Swing voters. have the

1:00:05

economy in mind. And this is the

1:00:07

opportunity, because it's dynamic, meeting some cycles.

1:00:09

People see Democrats is better on the

1:00:11

economy. Some Republicans is better on the

1:00:14

economy. And what the Democratic Party in

1:00:16

my view needs to do is say,

1:00:18

look, we are going to restore the

1:00:20

middle class. The most prosperous nation in

1:00:22

the world should have the following table

1:00:25

stakes. Young people need the venues, opportunities,

1:00:27

and means to meet someone. Fall in

1:00:29

love. And should they desire? own a

1:00:31

home, and have kids. So we're going

1:00:34

to have mandatory national service, more freshman

1:00:36

seats, vocational programming, more interaction for less

1:00:38

anxiety. We're going to have 7 million

1:00:40

manufactured homes in cool little areas that

1:00:42

cost 30 to 50% less. Then homes

1:00:45

built on site, we're going to make

1:00:47

it affordable. We're going to have low

1:00:49

interest rate loans for anyone under the

1:00:51

age of 40. We're going to have

1:00:53

a tax holiday for anyone under the

1:00:56

age of 30. We're going to have

1:00:58

$25 an hour minimum wage. And if

1:01:00

you don't want to get married and

1:01:02

you don't want to have kids fine,

1:01:05

you can spend all that money on

1:01:07

brunch and St. Bart's. But we are

1:01:09

going to get out of this lens

1:01:11

of trying to shove advantage and talk

1:01:13

about the needs and the wants and

1:01:16

the injustice of people based on their

1:01:18

gender, their sexual orientation or their race,

1:01:20

and we're just going to say we

1:01:22

are here to reverse engineer everything we

1:01:24

do to the following. The middle class

1:01:27

in America and young people are going

1:01:29

to have the opportunity to be able

1:01:31

to have kids and have a home.

1:01:33

and live in relative prosperity. And these

1:01:35

are the 8, 10, 12 programs and

1:01:38

stop rolling out. every special interest group,

1:01:40

which all it says to the 24%

1:01:42

of people that don't qualify for a

1:01:44

democratic special interest group, that we're not

1:01:47

going to discriminate against you. We're about

1:01:49

the poor in the middle class rising

1:01:51

up. That's it. That's your only identity

1:01:53

politics. Because even these polls are like,

1:01:55

how do we get Hispanics back? No,

1:01:58

you don't want Hispanics back. You want

1:02:00

the middle class back. And you want

1:02:02

to stop telling people you should vote

1:02:04

for me because you're Hispanic and I'm

1:02:06

better for you. Mexican Americans in Los

1:02:09

Angeles into the same group as Cuban

1:02:11

Americans in Florida. They have entirely different

1:02:13

priorities. In the notion that some, the

1:02:15

daughter of a Taiwanese private equity billionaire

1:02:18

needs affirmative action, it's just fucking stupid.

1:02:20

All of our programs should be focused

1:02:22

on color, specifically money. If you don't

1:02:24

have money in America, you need more.

1:02:26

And corporations and the top 1 percent.

1:02:29

should be paying a lot more, lowest

1:02:31

taxes in history for corporations since 1939,

1:02:33

25 wealthiest Americans paying an average tax

1:02:35

rate of 6%, and everything that has

1:02:37

happened over the last 30 years is

1:02:40

an attempt to cram more money into

1:02:42

the top 1% of corporations. But for

1:02:44

God's sakes, get away from these polls

1:02:46

and this discussion of how do we

1:02:48

get black voters back? No, how do

1:02:51

you get the middle class back? Stop

1:02:53

the identity politics. I want to agree

1:02:55

with something. Definitely, color green, most important.

1:02:57

91% of voters said cost of living

1:03:00

was their top issue. There's an argument

1:03:02

to me made that incumbents lost all

1:03:04

over the globe, and Kamala Harris was

1:03:06

also an incumbent. She was Biden Harris

1:03:08

administration. And as an interesting corollary, Mike

1:03:11

Donovan, who's top advisor to Joe Biden.

1:03:13

was speaking about what happened in the

1:03:15

election and he said it was crazy

1:03:17

that they pushed Biden out. I think

1:03:19

that the party went insane and we

1:03:22

all thought that that was crazy, right?

1:03:24

Like that we breathed new life into

1:03:26

the campaign, getting common out there. and

1:03:28

we would have lost by, you know,

1:03:31

he, Trump could have won 400 electoral

1:03:33

votes if it had been Biden, but

1:03:35

the way that favorability ended when we

1:03:37

went into election day, Kamala was negative

1:03:39

six and Biden was plus six. Now,

1:03:42

would that have drifted down further had

1:03:44

he stayed the candidate? Possibly, but it

1:03:46

was interesting. David Shore kind of entertained

1:03:48

the premise that Mike Donaldin wasn't in

1:03:50

scene. On the identity politics front, I

1:03:53

agree with you in general. I'm not

1:03:55

mad about the idea that we move

1:03:57

away from having all of these special

1:03:59

interests conversations. But you used black voters,

1:04:02

for instance, where Kamal Harris was trying

1:04:04

really hard to just have an agenda

1:04:06

for all Americans. Her best testing ads

1:04:08

were ones that appealed to everybody in

1:04:10

the lower and middle classes. She wasn't

1:04:13

necessarily going after the wealthy voters. She

1:04:15

said, you know, you'll just come with

1:04:17

me, and that is what ended up

1:04:19

happening. But then... she had to go

1:04:21

and do a town hall with Charlemagne

1:04:24

on the Breakfast Club for black men.

1:04:26

She had to release an agenda for

1:04:28

black men because she was hearing from

1:04:30

all of her key stakeholders that black

1:04:32

men in particular didn't think that she

1:04:35

had any proposals specifically. focused on them.

1:04:37

So what do you do about that?

1:04:39

When you're trying to run a general

1:04:41

campaign where the economy is your central

1:04:44

issue, these are the kind of policies

1:04:46

that I'm implementing to help you, I

1:04:48

want to build more housing, I want

1:04:50

to go after price gouging, those hugely

1:04:52

popular policies, and yet a target demo

1:04:55

comes back to you and says, well,

1:04:57

what's in it for me? You haven't

1:04:59

told me specifically with my name on

1:05:01

it, like the black man agenda. What

1:05:03

do you do? I think you have

1:05:06

your sister soldier moment and I say,

1:05:08

you grow the fuck up. I'm not

1:05:10

here to play identity politics. I'm here

1:05:12

for young people. Programs to focus on

1:05:15

young people would right now disproportionately impact

1:05:17

and benefit young men who are struggling.

1:05:19

It would disproportionately impact young men of

1:05:21

color who are really... struggling. And look,

1:05:23

Democrats need to come out of the

1:05:26

closet and acknowledge the following data and

1:05:28

truth in America. And that's the following.

1:05:30

You would rather be born today, and

1:05:32

this is a victory we should celebrate,

1:05:34

you'd rather be born today, non-white or

1:05:37

gay, than poor. And that's great. That's

1:05:39

a sign of our victory. So who

1:05:41

are we going to help? We're going

1:05:43

to help. the poor, and we're going

1:05:45

to help young people, and by the

1:05:48

way, the way you calm special interest

1:05:50

groups down, who are used to Democrats

1:05:52

showing up and pandering to them, as

1:05:54

you say, folks, do the math. There's

1:05:57

a 70% overlap between many of the

1:05:59

special interest groups who count on the

1:06:01

Democratic Party to represent them and poor

1:06:03

and middle-income households. As MLK said, if

1:06:05

you don't bring along the white poor,

1:06:08

You're never going to make that much

1:06:10

progress because it creates resentment. It also

1:06:12

creates accidental racism where when you're at

1:06:14

a school or anywhere you immediately look

1:06:16

at someone left and right and think,

1:06:19

okay, did they get in? 54% of

1:06:21

gay men are attending college. It's 38%

1:06:23

of straight men. I mean, at some

1:06:25

point we just have to acknowledge the

1:06:28

data and be the party of the

1:06:30

middle class instead of rolling out every

1:06:32

special interest group and having Michelle Obama

1:06:34

who I adore go Who's going to

1:06:36

tell them this might be a black

1:06:39

job? That is not helpful. That is

1:06:41

not helpful. And the only people that

1:06:43

don't parade on stage are young men,

1:06:45

when they're in fact are the ones

1:06:47

who have probably fallen further faster than

1:06:50

anyone. So get away from the identity

1:06:52

politics. The discussion around how we get

1:06:54

back Hispanics is only going to alienate

1:06:56

more Hispanics. We've made tremendous progress. We

1:06:58

are here to lift people up who

1:07:01

are poor. and make sure the middle

1:07:03

class is the most prosperous middle class

1:07:05

living in the most prosperous country in

1:07:07

the world and hear a series of

1:07:10

programs and if you want me to

1:07:12

talk about what goodies you get because

1:07:14

of the color of your skin or

1:07:16

your sexual orientation, or whether you have

1:07:18

indoor or outdoor plumbing, other than protecting

1:07:21

a woman's rights to family planning, I'm

1:07:23

not going to engage in that conversation.

1:07:25

I'm here for the middle class, full

1:07:27

stop. I think that message really resonates.

1:07:29

It gets a lot of moderates back

1:07:32

in the fold. It gets a lot

1:07:34

of moderates back in the fold. And

1:07:36

it gets a lot of moderates back

1:07:38

in the fold. And I think a

1:07:41

lot of non-wights are absolutely ready to

1:07:43

have that conversation. They're sick of being

1:07:45

categorized and taken. They don't think that

1:07:47

anymore. No. And Trump can point to

1:07:49

a bunch of data from 16 to

1:07:52

20 that people, that non-white actually did

1:07:54

okay during his administration. Now, granted, it

1:07:56

was all debt-fueled, which is a tax

1:07:58

on young people, but that's the argument.

1:08:00

We've got to stop these deficits. They're

1:08:03

going to fuck our children in 10,

1:08:05

20, 40 years. It doesn't matter what

1:08:07

color you are, what sexual orientation. If

1:08:09

we keep running up deficits, you're all

1:08:12

going to be fucked. That's the argument.

1:08:14

Now that's a sexy message. Right, that's

1:08:16

not a bumper sticker, is it? Yeah.

1:08:18

I can see that. That's perfect for

1:08:20

Galloway 2032. We sold out the Y.

1:08:23

We sold out the Y. Oh my

1:08:25

God, I'm so excited about that. I

1:08:27

keep rubbing it in care of switches

1:08:29

space. I don't know if you heard.

1:08:31

Just Harloff sold out the 92nd why

1:08:34

in about three minutes. I'm like, we've

1:08:36

never done that, have we, Kara? Well,

1:08:38

in Paris Defense, apparently, you're not open

1:08:40

to doing these things, but you don't

1:08:42

want to go to Paris with her.

1:08:45

So I'm going to go to Paris

1:08:47

with her. There you go. Actually, I

1:08:49

know. And I feel a little threatened

1:08:51

and a little jealous. Do you? Yeah.

1:08:54

I think you guys. Yeah, that's an

1:08:56

interesting thought. Don't get any ideas. Remember

1:08:58

any ideas. Remember who discovered who discovered

1:09:00

who discovered who discovered you. All right.

1:09:02

That's all for this episode. Actually, I

1:09:05

think Reuber Murdoch discovered you. All right,

1:09:07

that's all for this episode. Thank you

1:09:09

for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers

1:09:11

are David Toledo and Shinneya Onakai. Our

1:09:13

technical director is... boroughs. You can now

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Make sure you follow

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that your little

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girl is doing just

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fine. And I I

1:10:22

don't know if you've

1:10:24

heard. we're We're doing

1:10:26

an event at 90-second

1:10:29

why and We're sold

1:10:31

out. I heard something.

1:10:33

I also heard we're

1:10:35

sold out. We out.

1:10:38

We're sold out.

1:10:40

Thanks, everybody. everybody.