Loopholes, Lost Voters, and the Future of the Democrats
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Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com slash iHeart. You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Jon Stewart. Thank you.

Everybody! My name is Jon Stewart. It has been two weeks since the election. Two months. It feels like two months. It's been 15 years since the election. It's been... I mean, this was me! Election night! Oh! Was I ever that young? Or ever look that handsome?

But Donald Trump is returning to power, and so once again it is time to saddle up a la Zistall! Because, if you remember, before Trump won the election,

Democrats were clear-eyed about the stakes. It's time that fascism is called fascism, and Americans know exactly what they're voting for. He is paving the way to become a Vladimir Putin or to become an Adolf Hitler. He is a threat to democracy. He is a clear and present danger to our democracy, to our way of life. The damage may be irreversible. The destruction could be unthinkable, and it would be a betrayal of everything that our framers fought for.

You're not even gonna look up? You're not even gonna... You know, a little eye contact, a little inflection could drive the danger thing. You give it a little urgency, you know. I feel passionately we should fight him on the beaches, in the field, God forbid, the streets, the asphalt, the sidewalks.

It's really... All right. Is it sad that the only thing that really makes it a Schumer impression is, I put glasses on? Is that... Was it really that? I mean, you applauded literally just the glasses. I'm a pair of bifocals away from being Chuck Schumer. You bastards! Now, I assume now that the Democrats have lost to the greatest theft we've ever faced as a nation, that they will be forthright in acknowledging, one...

the Democrats' role in this catastrophic defeat, and two, the bleak hellscape we now face. Or... We're proud of the fact that we've defeated more House Republican incumbents than they've defeated House Democratic incumbents. We did flip three House seats from Republican to Democrat and gained back almost all of those that we had lost in 2022. Yeah, almost is doing a lot of work in that sentence. LAUGHTER

Yeah, we almost gained back all we had lost. Almost is kind of a load-bearing adverb. Spin-wise, finding a positive in what is clearly not good news. You can't... Parents, good news, we gained back all of the children we lost on the field trip. Win-win!

It's a new dynamic. It is a willful, bright-siding, this shit show that we celebrate in our new segment called "The Audacity of Cope." Now, technically, yes, Democrats have less seats, but have you heard who's in those seats? - In this freshman class alone, and I'm gonna stop for cheers for each one of these because they're remarkable, we have our first trans member of Congress.

We have an engineer from an immigrant community in the San Fernando Valley. We have the first Iranian American Democrat in Congress. We have the youngest member ever elected to the House from New Jersey. Not a thing. How did you go from the reasonably impressive first Iranian Democrat to hold the seat to the, I think, somewhat reaching for youngest person ever from New Jersey? Yes!

By the way, to the audience, if you think that that framing is not that interesting, wait till you hear that this record-breaking young phenom from New Jersey is 38 years old! Eight years old! Come on! How far are we going with this? Oh, in Illinois, we elected a ginger. Ooh! Hey! Yeah, yeah! We elected the first representative from Washington State.

who looks like he has a terrible secret. He ran on loneliness. Wow, this is going to be the most diverse group of congresspeople to ever get all their legislation blocked. So inspiring! But you know what? No, it's fine.

Those are just the lonely House Democrats. How will the head of their party, the outgoing president, man the ramparts during this challenging and fraught, peaceful transition to fascism? President Biden is in Brazil, where he became the first American head of state to visit the Amazon rainforest. He went there to highlight the dangers of climate change and the need to turn away from fossil fuels. What the f- No! That desk was there! No way! No way!

Not a chance. He disappeared to the rainforest, starring in what appears to be like four Pixar movies in one mixed together. Clearly, Up is one of them. And in Kanto, I'm going to say there's a little Moana, maybe Wally, had a powerful anti-consumerist message. Well, hopefully, listen, Wally's down there. Hopefully he has some inspiring words for us. Mr. President. History is literally watching us now.

So let's preserve this secret place for our time and forever for the benefit of all humanity. Thank you very, very much.

What is happening? You know, maybe this is how we should do the transfer of power. The winner moves into the White House and the incumbent just wanders off into the junk so that his nutrients may be returned to the soil.

But of course, as the Democrats struggle, Donald Trump headed to Madison Square Garden with his grab him by the pussy posse to do his favorite thing, watch people submit. Oh, Trump likes submission in the octagon. He likes it out of the octagon. He likes submission from his enemies and even from his new friends. And by the way, it doesn't take much of a transgression to warrant a bended knee for Trump. For instance, last week, Trump's newly minted Health and Human Services nominee hit Trump with a bit of a lighthearted jab,

about his diet. The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad. It's not... Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto that airplane is, like, just poison. A little friendly swipe, a little bit of ribbing, gentle ribbing, and he will pay for his insolence. President Trump, Elon Musk, Don Jr., RFK Jr., and Speaker Mike Johnson eating McDonald's on Trump's private plane.

Hey, Robert, come in here. You think that's poisoned, yeah? Hey, Robert, eat the whole thing. Yeah, in front of us right now. Eat the whole thing. And by the way, when you're done eating the whole thing, Grimace is going to come in here and f***ing yes. Yeah, that's what we're going to do. Yeah, that's right. Grimace. Hey, the whole thing. Grimace is going to f***ing yes while we're doing it. You got to make eye contact with him the whole time. Yeah, we're going to film it. I was just going to keep going with the premise. All right.

By the way, I know we're focused on the humiliation of RFK Jr., but look at poor Mike Johnson there. Poor Mike Johnson right there. He didn't even get a seat at the cool kids table. And the sad part? This whole thing was Mike Johnson's bachelor party. Meanwhile, Joe and Mika Brzezinski-Scarborough...

who famously warned of the growing threat of Trump's fascism, also had an interesting announcement to make. -Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself.

On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with President-elect Trump. And for those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Because you said he was Hitler. Okay, tap out, tap out.

But look, we don't know what the visit was. We don't know what the tone of the visit was. We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents, and media outlets. Oh, I bet you really laid down the gauntlet, Joe. I bet you walked in there and just let him have it, didn't you, Joey? I'm gonna do a one-act play called Joe and Mika Go to Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. President, your rhetoric is outrageous. I cannot in good conscience. Oh, are those macaroons? The pink one is raspberry. We've learned nothing. Even those putting up resistance to Trump's agenda don't seem to understand who they're dealing with.

Senator Elizabeth Warren accusing President-elect Donald Trump's transition team of breaking the law. There are reports it missed a deadline to file a required ethics pledge. Hear ye, hear ye. Hitler missed a reporting deadline. The war is over. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because they glued their balls to their thigh. Laughter

That is what is happening. The election that we just was a repudiation of the status quo, an overly regulated system that is no longer responsive or delivering for the needs of the people or their beloved behatted squirrels. Oh, R.I.P. Peanut.

Government is theoretically a constitutional system of checks and balances between equally powerful branches. But what government actually is, is an overly complicated Byzantine bureaucratic maze of rules, loopholes to those rules and norms. Complex enough that A, if you want to find a rule that keeps you from doing something, you'll find it. And B, if you actually want to do something, you can find a loophole to get around said rules.

And then the norms are just how often you've had to pull any of this shit. For example, Trump's let's be generous, provocative and unorthodox cabinet picks. I don't think Hulk Hogan's been nominated yet. I think he's going to be the secretary of take your vitamins.

Democrats are positive that the vaunted constitutional rules of the Senate shall be the guardrail to this madness. Certainly we can fight back. The president nominates...

The Senate confirms. We're a check and balance. We're there to be a guardrail. The Senate has a constitutional obligation to advise and consent on this nomination. Oh, shit. You want Matt Gaetz, Mr. President? Prepare to be advice and consented, biatch. There is no way for the Constitution to allow you to get past it.

The Constitution does give the president power to adjourn the House and Senate on extraordinary occasions. To unilaterally install his most controversial nominees and bypass the Senate confirmation process entirely. That is our government in a nutshell. The rules say we can stop it. The loophole says, and so what are you left with? The last refuge of losers.

I don't think that's appropriate and I don't think that's what the founders intended. That is not the custom. Yeah, you can do it and it's legal by whatever guy. We're going to think you're a dick.

Republicans exploit the loopholes. Democrats complain about the norms over and over and over. And it has ghastly consequences. Remember when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to give that a vote, saying, well, it's only one full year before the election. It's too close.

Now, you could make a case that Obama could violate the norm, say the Senate failed their advice and consent, and appoint him anyway, and see whatever the happens. Fight. But they just went, well, we never heard of that rule, but, uh, okay.

Smash cut two months before a presidential election. Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court after the completely unforeseeable death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And as you can imagine, the Democrats went right to the nearby Kinkos. Behind me is the McConnell rule. On February 13th, 2016, when Justice Scalia passed away, Senator McConnell said, and I quote, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. And

And so Amy Coney Barrett was forced to head back to her homestead, never to be heard from a... Oh, they didn't give a... Oh, right, I forgot. They didn't give a... Let this show be the utterly ineffective hypocrisy finders. I can tell you from experience, it does nothing. You guys be the loophole guys that figure out how to get shit done because they don't give a...

about your norms. They will exploit any loophole, even if they have to go through clearly closed windows to do it. You would think after Trump's presidency, Democrats would have learned, but they doubled down. When Biden tried to get immigration reform into the Inflation Reduction Act and the Senate parliamentarian told him he couldn't, did he respond to the rule with a loophole or did he

That's for the parliamentarian to decide, though, not for Joe Biden to decide. No! That's for, you take the parliamentarian and you put them in a locker and then you bring Grimace in and have him. That's what you do! Do you guys get what I'm saying? Perhaps a demonstration is in order.

To get anything done, the Democrats feel like they must thread the needle to make sure, ooh, we have to make sure each norm follows the overly complex bureaucratic process that we created ourselves. Ooh, ooh, the parliamentary, ooh, I can't do it because the norm says, ooh, I can't get anything done. Meanwhile, the Republicans come in and all they have to do is finger bang a donut. All they have to do, we're going to get Matt Gaetz in if the advice and consent, there it is right there, boom, boom, there he's in there, there he's in.

Do I have to sleep with this now? I've made you all uncomfortable. Now Trump has the House, Senate, presidency, and judiciary. So it's going to get harder, not easier. Democrats are going to have to forcefully play the loopholes. But the good news is, you're well set up for it. With the youngest congressional representative ever from New Jersey, 38-year-old LaMonica McIver. Unless... Wait, I've got a loophole.

What if Joe Biden got his vice president to not certify? No, no. Hey, listen. We'll be right back with Roy DeShera. Attention, parents and grandparents. Are you searching for the perfect gift for your kids this holiday season? Give the gift of adventure that will last all year long.

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Thank you for joining us. Hey, my pleasure. Your book is Where Have All... I don't even know what... I'm holding it up to you. I'll just hold it up over here. Where Have All the Democrats Gone? This was kind of an expose, I think, on your recipe for how Democrats lost their coalition. Written when? We put it out last year, basically. Exactly a year from... Rui, let me ask you a question.

Did you send it to any of the Democrats? Not really, no. We hoped they'd pick up on it. I guess it didn't happen, you know? People aren't really readers anymore. Is there an audio book? There is an audio book. Maybe we should have sent that to them. Or maybe like a five-slide PowerPoint deck. Now you're learning the game. First of all,

It is a really interesting historical breakdown context of sort of how the Democrats lost their more populist economic instincts. And can you can you go through it sort of the Clintons probably began it in a way. But but even as far back as Jimmy Carter. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Jimmy Carter had a sort of deregulatory, sort of anti-populist approach toward economics. He took on a lot of things that eventually found their way into the Reagan approach in terms of deregulation and so on. And, of course, with Bill Clinton, we have, you know, deregulation of finance. We have NAFTA eventually after Clinton leaves. But, you know, sort of he was pushing it along. We have the accession of China to the WTO and you have the so-called China shock.

which really destroys millions of manufacturing jobs. So over time, you saw a lot of working-class people developing a sense, particularly in the areas of the country that we left behind, that were dependent on industrial growth, on resource extraction. I mean, they felt like Democrats didn't have their backs anymore. They felt Democrats were...

You know, this was a new world. We're all going to get educated. You know, we were going to have a lot of economic growth because we're moving into the new information economy. Right. And forget that old manufacturing stuff. And there wasn't seemingly much difference other than maybe tax cuts and tax hikes between neoliberal Democrats and Democrats.

Republican free trade policy. Yeah, yeah, no, that was definitely true. I mean, that was very noticeable at the time, and there's some Democrats who pushed back against it, but they definitely lost the debate, and the Democrats became, you know, there's sort of this third-way thing in the 90s with Clinton and Blair and people like that, and sort of

They basically put their chits down, and we have to get government off people's backs. We have to, you know, deregulate. We have to just let her rip, right, with global trade. And eventually, it will all trickle down to the masses of honest workers and peasants of America. -It's coming, people. It's going to trickle down. -Yeah, yeah. -A few more decades.

So then it's sort of you get the rise of kind of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. There is this and throughout it, you know, Paul, well, a progressive wing that wanted a more populist approach, but they could never win the day. And you make the case it's because the money that was coming into the Democratic Party was coming now from business.

and not from labor. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, the influence of labor on the Democratic Party just declined so much in the 80s and 90s, of course, through our current day. I mean, it used to be labor was the backbone of the Democratic Party. That's what they relied upon for troops, for money to some extent. And that really just becomes completely replaced in the 80s and 90s.

And even the culture of the Democratic Party changes because there used to be much more contact between the Democrats and the labor movement. You know, there's a really close working relationship between them. Over time, the labor movement gets pushed out because it's also declining at the time. Well, that's what I was going to say. What do you think came first? The decline of the labor movement, the decline of people participating in the labor movement, or the Democrats moving away from that as a source of... Well, I think they were sort of in the...

interactive negative feedback a little bit as it were. I mean, fewer people in unions. A death spiral if you want to be melodramatic about it. Really, I do want to be melodramatic about it. I don't know if you watched the first act, but I punched my hand through a donut hole. Let's face it. That last election, things could have gone better. I think...

Now, I'll say something that I feel like resonated with the audience and has resonated with them in a while. My idea of what happened with the Democratic Party is it was a rejection of a status quo, of feeling that not just in the working class movement, but in many movements, that democracy is by nature analog.

We are living in a digital world where, you know, terminally online, the outrage and the anger and the confusion is much elevated. And the distance between those two points becomes untenable, especially if the Democrats insist on, well, we have to keep the I'd love to get you the help you need. But the parliamentarian is really been up my ass like all night. Right. I feel like that's a real problem for them.

Yeah, I mean, the sense that the Democratic Party isn't responsive to the needs of sort of ordinary, the common man and woman, the working class, and they're too caught up in other issues or they're too worried about, you know, sort of government regulations and parliamentarian stuff. And they're not like laser focused on getting stuff done. And, you know, even in places like New York City, where you have, you know, very democratic governance, there's a sense that

They aren't pulling out all the stops to make sure everyone gets good services and everything runs well. And, you know, effective government is what people want.

It's a triage system in some respects. There's two things. You have to respond to what seems to be the immediate needs and then lay the groundwork for the future. I still think they did an effective job laying the groundwork for the future. The first part is what? That's exactly right. Infrastructure built. Those are great things. But the New Deal worked because it triaged the urgency. That's right. It seems like they had a problem. By the way, I don't think the Republicans...

do that either no you know in terms of that i'll see i mean look at these great cabinet picks that trump they're ready they're tan rusted and ready you know to help the people i was warned about you really to share as a dry son of a bitch yeah right well you know no dead on dead on right i almost think and this is it this is a broader conversation but if you look at sort of

European countries, their satisfaction with government is higher because it feels like they think the money they pay into government returns in services they actually use. If you break down people's tax bill, the first probably five tranches of it are nothing that you use. You know, 75, 80 percent of it is it's military, Medicare, Social Security. It's stuff you'll use when you're 65 or 70. But you don't use now. How do we get them more responsive to

what really is happening in people's lives? Well, you know, if I knew that, I would be running the Democratic Party and they'd be running the table. But first of all, I mean, you can't hit the target unless you're aiming at it. Contrary to the Zen precept, you actually have to focus relentlessly on delivering for people in their daily lives and figuring out a way to do it. OK, you know, they've got X percent of the budget that's

you know, allocated these other things. But how can we take what degrees of freedom we have and use them to help ordinary people so they feel it? Let's not just pass a bunch of legislation that kind of sounds good and may pay off in the long run, but people don't really feel in their day-to-day lives. And I think they have a sense that they work hard, they pay money into the system, and then that money is, whether this is hyperbolic or not, I think it is, goes to people who don't deserve it.

It goes to migrants. It goes to trans people. It goes to this. And it's they don't deserve it. I deserve it. Right. Well, the migrants thing became such a problem, obviously, because of

you know, the extent to which immigration spiked, and then you had people turning up in overburdened urban areas. And, you know, you even had a lot of black voters, for example, in Chicago saying, "Why should I vote for Kamala Harris?" I mean, you know, they're giving away all this stuff to people, you know, who just came in from out of the country. They're not even legal, and, you know, what about me? -Even that tells you, though,

They had an opportunity to do something three years about it. They said they couldn't. Yeah, that was baloney. But I can't do it. I'm going to wait for it. First of all, that's the type of language that I absolutely... Wait a minute. I saw your monologue. That was... I don't know what happened there. It will get bleeped. Okay. But it is the kind of thing, like, we can't overturn norms and things. And you're like, well, how did you get to Kamala Harris as the nominee?

That wasn't the norm. You overturned it. And by the way, when you did, there was an explosion of enthusiasm and excitement because they suddenly felt like, oh, they're recognizing a reality that I also see. And now we have a chance. And now we have a chance. Why isn't that more a part of the governance? Well, I think one, I mean, for example, look at the immigration issue. Right. Yes, they there were some.

TENUOUS EXCUSES WHY THEY COULDN'T MOVE ON IT EARLIER. BUT WHY DIDN'T THEY MOVE ON IT EARLIER? IT WAS A LOT BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATIC COALITION IS SO RESPONSIVE, BIDEN WAS RESPONSIVE TO THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF THE COALITION, HE DIDN'T WANT THEM TO DO ANYTHING. RIGHT?

A lot of parts of the Democratic Party that really thought things were fine. This is like not really a problem. It's all made up. It's all on Fox News. And Biden didn't want to cross. I mean, and this is a part of the problem with the Democratic coalition today. There's too many parts of the coalition have veto power on doing effective things. You get into something interesting with that. And it's something that I, you know, rightfully, I think, have a blind spot on.

and that is this idea of woke and DEI, and that the Democrats are too woke and too DEI, and that's why they lost. And it's hard for me to wrap my head around that. Well, it's not the only reason, but it was a contributing factor. Right. I mean, if you look at, like, there's been some data collected after the election by the Blueprint Strategy Group that saw the top three reasons. Sure, the Blueprint Group.

You know them? I love their listicles. Their listicle? Well, in this listicle, the first reason was inflation. The second reason was too much illegal immigration. And the third reason was Democrats being too concerned about cultural issues and not the welfare of the middle class. Right. I mean, and there's similar data from other places. Here's where... Maybe you can help me with this, but the idea of DEI... And maybe I'm just working off of the wrong definition of woke. Mm-hmm. You know, which is...

And maybe that's the thing that I don't understand. But like when they say all this DEI, it feels like you're talking about like that one seminar you have to sit in. Like that's like an hour. Like I know it's a little more like it gets eye rolly, but like it's a f***.

Right. Well, there's more to it than that. I think people have the perception that it's being used as a way of allocating things that's different from merit, and that's the real problem. I'm just saying, you know, it doesn't seem to work that well, and people don't like it, you know, including non-white working-class people. So, you know, that's... Yeah, I mean, there's a very reasonable argument that we need to lift up people who've been left behind by various heritages of... vexed heritages of our country. But I don't even know why that's controversial. That's not controversial. And why it's not...

That's not controversial. People are fine with helping out people who are disadvantaged. I mean, people are good with that. I mean, they don't think necessarily... But see, here's where I'm lost. Right, okay. Because you just said people don't like that. So I guess is it because of my definition? People don't like DEI or reparations or whatever. I mean, whatever kind of a basket of things that sound to them like they're going to give people stuff that they didn't, you know, sort of earn in terms of... But what is it we're doing? Tariffs are there to repair the damage, yes? Yes.

I mean, I'll use the exact word. Tariffs are an economic policy that's supposed to

make it, you know, sort of more things made in America. It's supposed to help manufacturing workers. Yes. And so on. Okay. So, wouldn't that suggest that... Well, I mean, people look at class different from race. What can I tell you? It's just a fact. But it's all mixed together, isn't it? Of course it's all mixed together. So why are you yelling at me? Because you seem to be determined to, I don't know, just... What's your point? It's like race is more important than class? No. What's your point? No, my point is, it seems that government's job

is to look at the systems that we use in this country to create wealth and progress. Sure. And then to look at the natural areas where those systems create collateral damage and repair as best they can the collateral damage of those systems. And I don't understand why we've singled out DEI as the devil and helping...

manufacturing as smart and good. Like, isn't it all the same thing? The point about DIs is it's not particularly effective in lifting. But that's a different argument.

argument, is it not? No, it's not a different argument. Basically, what I'm saying is that if you want to actually help people in a material sense, you want universal policies that will disproportionately lift up, say, black and Latino poor people because they're more heavily concentrated among people who are economically disadvantaged. That is what is popular. But they were explicitly disadvantaged, so why wouldn't we try to

repair that. But my point is, government picks winners and losers all the time. We have subsidies for farming areas, and those aren't controversial because they say the policies that we have in place have hurt farmers. So let's get some subsidies in there to ameliorate the damage. That is a particular group. If you want to help out people who live in, say, poor black areas or poor Latino areas, you can't just channel that money to people who are Latino and black because that's

unconstitutional and it's extremely unpopular. If you want to lift them up, have universal programs that actually help people to live in those disadvantages. Everybody's for that!

Everybody's for that. That's not DEI. DEI is really different. No, they're a completely different set of issues. I disagree with you that everybody's for it because I think they view that as woke. That what I just described, they would view as woke and that that is of a different... That's right. I get the sense that in this country, people look at entrenched poverty in the cities and think that it is a product of culture,

and vice. And they look at entrenched poverty in whiter areas and think that they are victims of economic policies that they are not in control of. I do think in this country it's viewed differently. I just think it's, you know, here's what you didn't get. Here's what you didn't get during the crack crisis.

Deaths of despair, these poor people. But in the feral brightness, rightfully so, you do. And I think some of that has to do with the populations.

And so that's my point is, why is DEI? I feel like then it's a failure to describe what we're trying to do. OK, well, DEI isn't the name for what you want. It's because DEI is the only thing that will be allowed. You know, left behind black and Latino. But the real things that would help entrenched poverty in those cities aren't done in favor of, OK, we're not actually going to do that. But we will let you have an hour every three months where you just.

get to tell us. I agree with that. I agree with that. I think DI is a very poor substitute for those kinds of programs. Could you just look into that camera and say that? Do you think it is something that can be fixed? Is it perception or is it reality? It is a matter of the kinds of programs will have to be

promulgated on a universal basis which have a disproportionate effect on black and Latino working class and poor people. That's how you do it and it's possible to build support for those I really believe. Don't call it DEI, don't call it reparations, don't call it anything like that because those are really unpopular. Call it you're just trying to help people who are disadvantaged and there may be complex historical reasons for it and there's black people and white people, Latino people, all need that kind of help. That is actually pretty popular.

Why do you think the Republicans don't have to play by those same rules? Like, if you're pro-Palestine, they're very happy going, "You're a terrorist sympathizer." -Mm-hmm. -If you want certain economics, "You're a Marxist and a communist." -Mm-hmm. -They name-call constantly.

They do the same thing that you're saying. They do. So why? Well, they don't seem to ever have like if they really wanted to seriously dominate the country in a way that's different than taking advantage of the fact people hated the Biden-Harris administration. They would have to like

push back on stuff like that. They would have to move to the center themselves. That's the whole thing about the political era we're in. We're in an era where both Democrats and Republicans seem incapable, maybe even not interested in forming a dominant majority coalition and sort of sanding off the rough edges, correcting the things that need to be corrected and really capturing the center of American politics in a decisive way. And absolutely, the Republicans have the same problems.

But they say and do a lot of stupid stuff that puts a ceiling on their support. Generally, the biggest movements in America that have done what you're saying weren't centrist. The New Deal and FDR was considered far left. Reagan and the Reagan revolution was considered far right. And it seems like the centrist Romney McCain, those guys got their asses kicked. So I'm not sure it was actually quite centrist. I mean, just.

The New Deal was centrist? Yeah, I mean... It was basically Norman Thomas and socialism. No, no, it was basically... Come on. It was the institution of Keynesian economics in the country. And it was actually wildly popular at the time. I mean, people revered FDR. They thought he stood up for the common man and woman. Well, okay, but they still liked it.

But it wasn't centrist. No, it wasn't the center. I'm not defining the center as being a particular ideology. I'm defining it as what do people in the center of the distribution want? What do they care about? What are their concerns? You mean like, oh, so you're talking about statistical. Yeah, that's my thing. Sorry. Guilty as charged.

i didn't know statisticians were such argumentative sons of are you pretty argumentative yourself can i tell you something yeah super argumentative like i actually don't like that about myself i'm very contrarian too yeah like and can get a little sanctimonious yeah i i don't know what i'm going to do about that yeah i have a feeling it's not going to get it's not going to get any better trust me on this no i'm going to be one of those dudes where people are just like don't

Right, right. You guys can check out Rui's work. LiberalPatriot.com. Rui Teixeira. We'll be right back after this.

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remember it. No, but I wanted to go down there for unity. I want to be unified with all the people who he won't be getting revenge on. We had a great conversation about mass deportation and the bottom line is I can tell you now that I'm gonna be okay.

What about all the people being mass deported? Oh, yes. I can tell them, too, that I'm going to be okay. Congratulations, Desi. Desi Lydic, your host this week. Here it is. Your moment is now. Then you can see him embracing Joe Rogan. Let's see him. They're going to get together in a second. Here it comes. Wait for it. He's walking in. Now he's going to say hello. There's Dana. Dana.

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