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Normally Podcast: It's OK to Question Trump's Cabinet Picks · Normally

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey guys. Here we are back on another episode of
0:08
Speaker 1: normally the show with normalist takes, but when the news
0:10
Speaker 1: gets weird. I am Mary Catherine Ham.
0:12
Speaker 2: And I'm Carol Marco. It's him, Mary Catherine. How's it going.
0:15
Speaker 1: It's going. Okay. This is the season of sick toddlers'
0:19
Speaker 1: tis the season and they're all right, they just got
0:22
Speaker 1: a mild cough, but it makes them cranky. And I
0:25
Speaker 1: just wish that we could fast forward to RFK at
0:27
Speaker 1: HHS because then we'd have like government distributed elderberry.
0:31
Speaker 3: That would it would never happen all of these.
0:35
Speaker 1: Problems for me. So the future is near, That's what
0:39
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Very bright.
0:43
Speaker 2: Okay, I wanted to make a we'll have a pollio again,
0:46
Speaker 2: but but toddlers won't have sniffles.
0:50
Speaker 3: No, this is totally kidding, people, totally kidding.
0:53
Speaker 1: My watch for it is like I'm a bringback beef tallow,
0:57
Speaker 1: but not measles. These are my this is my lie,
1:00
Speaker 1: and there are some things we could do.
1:03
Speaker 2: Yes, So Trump continues to make picks. I continue to
1:09
Speaker 2: be positive about some of them and very very negative
1:13
Speaker 2: about some other ones. You know, a few years ago,
1:17
Speaker 2: I wrote a column actually in the Daily Beast when
1:19
Speaker 2: when they allowed that kind of thing from conservatives. Yeah,
1:24
Speaker 2: but I wanted, I wanted to speak to a more
1:26
Speaker 2: left audience, and they let me publish it there.
1:28
Speaker 3: So, but my.
1:29
Speaker 2: Piece was when the tent gets too big and how
1:33
Speaker 2: that it's a problem because you're no longer represented in
1:36
Speaker 2: that tent. And yeah, you win elections, but what does
1:38
Speaker 2: that really mean when none of your kind of priorities
1:43
Speaker 2: get prioritized. Sorry, it's quite early, That's all I got
1:47
Speaker 2: right now. Language wise, priorities get prioritized. But you know,
1:53
Speaker 2: I have, I have been happy with a lot of
1:55
Speaker 2: Trump picks, and I can't say that I don't feel prioritized,
2:00
Speaker 2: but I do think that some of them are just
2:04
Speaker 2: for the larger constituency.
2:07
Speaker 3: And I am not a fan.
2:09
Speaker 2: So I'll just get into it because I feel strongly
2:13
Speaker 2: about this one. But Florie Chavez Duremmer for Secretary of Labor,
2:17
Speaker 2: what is up with that? I just have to say,
2:20
Speaker 2: if Randy Wingarden is happy about it, I am not
2:22
Speaker 2: happy about it. And that's that's how I knew this
2:25
Speaker 2: was going to be a disaster.
2:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, bad sign, bad sign, right, And.
2:31
Speaker 2: A lot of people celebrating are people that I just
2:34
Speaker 2: do not appreciate at all. But she was co sponsor
2:37
Speaker 2: of the pro act. She supports labor unions, at largely
2:41
Speaker 2: at the expense of freedom for workers.
2:43
Speaker 3: Threatens right to work laws.
2:46
Speaker 2: Richard Hinania had a post on x where he wrote,
2:49
Speaker 2: Conservatives have a fondness for saying make America Florida. They
2:53
Speaker 2: recognize that their policies have worked at the state level,
2:55
Speaker 2: which is why Red states have seen so much more
2:57
Speaker 2: growth in terms of GDP and population flows. The American
3:00
Speaker 2: people are voting with their feet. Chavez Duremer's motto can
3:03
Speaker 2: be better summed up as make America Florida. She wants
3:06
Speaker 2: to force Red states to adopt the labor policies that
3:10
Speaker 2: have caused massive migration outlaws, outflows from the more liberal
3:14
Speaker 2: parts of the country. I am not interested in any
3:17
Speaker 2: of that. I hope the Republicans.
3:20
Speaker 3: You know, don't confirm her.
3:24
Speaker 2: And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying no
3:26
Speaker 2: no to this one.
3:27
Speaker 3: This doesn't fit our needs.
3:29
Speaker 2: It doesn't it's not what we're looking for in a
3:30
Speaker 2: labor secretary.
3:31
Speaker 3: And we stand firm on no.
3:34
Speaker 1: Yeah that on that point for the make America California,
3:37
Speaker 1: which again has been losing people and businesses by the
3:43
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands. She has supported the pro Act. The
3:48
Speaker 1: pro Act is this idea from California, a total dumpster
3:52
Speaker 1: fire that they enacted in California, which basically led to
3:56
Speaker 1: the elimination of independent contracting. Yeah, the elimination of gigwork.
4:01
Speaker 1: That was the idea behind us, because they were like, well,
4:03
Speaker 1: we can just regularize everyone, make them union type eight
4:07
Speaker 1: to five employees, give them health insurance, and you know
4:11
Speaker 1: what happened, All those jobs disappear, right. So then what
4:15
Speaker 1: happened is that it was so bad that California was like,
4:19
Speaker 1: oh crap, we'll just write a bunch of carve outs
4:22
Speaker 1: for a bunch of industries. So they start doing favors
4:25
Speaker 1: for whomever gets in touch with them Hollywood blah blah blah.
4:29
Speaker 1: But then the little guys, of course, are left out.
4:32
Speaker 1: So like transcribing people who do that at home community
4:36
Speaker 1: theaters where you couldn't pay people full time to make
4:39
Speaker 1: sets for community theater. These things died in California. There
4:44
Speaker 1: are full industries that are gone from the state of
4:46
Speaker 1: California because of this act. They tried to make it national,
4:50
Speaker 1: which would have been yet another California dumpster fire pushed
4:54
Speaker 1: on the rest of us. And I don't want their
4:57
Speaker 1: dumpster fires. Yeah, and so this.
5:00
Speaker 2: In your dumpster, it worries not spread it to our dumpsters.
5:03
Speaker 1: Seriously, it worries me very much now like I don't.
5:07
Speaker 1: The unfortunate thing is that they're not going to pass
5:10
Speaker 1: the proact in the Senate House. Obviously Republicans are in charge,
5:14
Speaker 1: but there's a lot you can do with labor rules
5:16
Speaker 1: to lean in this direction. Yeah, and guess who's in
5:19
Speaker 1: charge of labor rules exactly? Not great. Yeah, so that
5:24
Speaker 1: concerns me. I understand that Trump has expanded the coalition,
5:29
Speaker 1: as you say, made the tent much bigger, but can
5:32
Speaker 1: I just note he didn't even get the Teamsters endors.
5:36
Speaker 2: Right right, Well, I just got them not to endorse Kamala,
5:39
Speaker 2: which is big.
5:39
Speaker 3: Listen.
5:40
Speaker 2: But I also think like even when they issue endorsements,
5:45
Speaker 2: the individuals still do what they want. So it's a
5:49
Speaker 2: half dozen of one, six of another.
5:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, no. I And also I think again, this is
5:57
Speaker 1: a move to say thank you to the labor movement,
6:01
Speaker 1: but it's also a gift not to a rank and
6:04
Speaker 1: file labor person. This is labor leadership, right, and labor
6:08
Speaker 1: leadership is very different from rank and file labor union members,
6:13
Speaker 1: and so I would just be very wary of anything
6:18
Speaker 1: coming out of a pick like that.
6:20
Speaker 2: It's just absolutely seeing winegarden, happy period and life story.
6:26
Speaker 1: And if one of your goals as an administer, this
6:28
Speaker 1: is interesting to me is what if one of your
6:29
Speaker 1: goals as an administration is to get rid of the
6:32
Speaker 1: Department of Education, but you have a Randy winegarden ally
6:38
Speaker 1: at labor.
6:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be tough that.
6:41
Speaker 1: And this is to your point about whether the coalition
6:43
Speaker 1: is too big. At some point, if your goals are
6:45
Speaker 1: in opposition within your cabinet, you're going to have to
6:48
Speaker 1: pick a goal, right. That's it.
6:51
Speaker 2: That's that's the problem is with the two wide tent.
6:54
Speaker 2: It's nice during election time, it's a lot harder during
6:58
Speaker 2: governing time.
7:00
Speaker 1: And this is something I'm going to steal a point
7:02
Speaker 1: from Charles Cook, who I was hanging out with this
7:04
Speaker 1: weekend in Louisiana for a conference where we both spoke,
7:08
Speaker 1: but he noted, you know, this is a little bit
7:10
Speaker 1: like European style government, where you make a coalitional government.
7:14
Speaker 1: America makes those with its electorate before the election, whereas
7:19
Speaker 1: in the parliamentary style you have to all get together
7:21
Speaker 1: and juggle and figure this out. So we're kind of
7:24
Speaker 1: figuring it out now. But we are the more coalitional
7:28
Speaker 1: party at this point than the Democrats, who have nothing
7:31
Speaker 1: but like single college educated white ladies living in the suburbs.
7:37
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I'm sold.
7:38
Speaker 2: Randy Winegarden is happy, and I don't like that europe.
7:42
Speaker 2: This is the way the Europeans do it, and I
7:44
Speaker 2: don't want that. So yeah, you know, make America Florida,
7:47
Speaker 2: do not make a California know to this Labor secretary.
7:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Okay, so I have one too. For
7:55
Speaker 1: surgeon General, Trump chose doctor Jeannette nische Watt, who's known
8:03
Speaker 1: on Twitter as at doctor Jeannette. She has been a
8:06
Speaker 1: Fox News contributor, but now she will move on to
8:09
Speaker 1: this process and spoke on Fox News often during the pandemic.
8:15
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. She took the wrong takes. She
8:18
Speaker 1: had the wrong takes, Carol. She was promasking for school
8:22
Speaker 1: kids to get them back in school. She was, you know,
8:28
Speaker 1: very effusive about the vaccine during a time when many
8:32
Speaker 1: people were saying, like okay, but let's be careful about
8:36
Speaker 1: who actually needs this and who doesn't, and the one
8:39
Speaker 1: that really puts it over the top for me. She
8:42
Speaker 1: praised Facebook for censoring various viewpoints that were not effusive
8:48
Speaker 1: enough about government prevention of the COVID virus. And I
8:55
Speaker 1: can't with that. Here's the thing. What we do not
8:58
Speaker 1: need is Donald Trump from Mary twenty, which understandably it
9:02
Speaker 1: was a weird time, but he was a little too
9:04
Speaker 1: deferential to people who were quote unquote experts, And now
9:07
Speaker 1: we have information that tells us many of those experts
9:10
Speaker 1: were wrong when it came to mandates, when it came
9:13
Speaker 1: to the efficacy of the vaccines, when it came to
9:15
Speaker 1: certainly the idea of censoring the American people via government
9:20
Speaker 1: or via social media about the facts of the things
9:23
Speaker 1: that the experts said they were right about. All of
9:26
Speaker 1: those things are unhealthy. And this seems like just a
9:31
Speaker 1: move in the exact wrong direction instead of what we've
9:34
Speaker 1: seen in other places. Whisperings of Jay Batcharia at NIH,
9:39
Speaker 1: the actual pick of Marty McCary for FDA. Those are
9:44
Speaker 1: the folks who put it on the line, went the
9:46
Speaker 1: opposite direction from their peers. Paid a price for it
9:49
Speaker 1: were brave, and I would love to see more of that.
9:52
Speaker 2: I joked in what I was saying at the Labor
9:54
Speaker 2: Secretary that I don't want to see Randy Winingarden happy.
9:57
Speaker 2: But a lot of it is you can't I know
10:00
Speaker 2: everything about all of these nominees, so we do look
10:02
Speaker 2: for tells. And I've seen some conservative friends happy about
10:06
Speaker 2: doctor Janet's tick. Kevin McCullough the radio host, and Joe
10:11
Speaker 2: Kanca have both said nice things about her, and she
10:15
Speaker 2: follows me on X, which is generally a giant plus
10:18
Speaker 2: for anybody, but huge green flag, right, yeah, exactly right.
10:22
Speaker 2: I should just like her off the bat.
10:24
Speaker 1: But then I.
10:24
Speaker 2: Saw old tweets where she was criticizing the Surgeon General
10:29
Speaker 2: of Florida, Joseph Ladappo, who I think is amazing. She
10:33
Speaker 2: was saying that masks have saved millions.
10:36
Speaker 3: Of lives, and I was like, that is just bonkers.
10:39
Speaker 2: And the thing is that this is already It's not
10:42
Speaker 2: spring twenty twenty, and the point.
10:44
Speaker 3: That she tweeted at, I believe it was already deep.
10:46
Speaker 2: Into twenty twenty one, and we kind of knew that
10:48
Speaker 2: those masks didn't do anything, because you know, we have eyes,
10:52
Speaker 2: and we could see, and we knew what the numbers were,
10:55
Speaker 2: and we knew where people were not wearing masks and
10:57
Speaker 2: how it didn't make any difference at all. So it
11:01
Speaker 2: is a concern. I don't know what the thinking was here. Again,
11:06
Speaker 2: Donald Trump loves his television. It could it be that
11:09
Speaker 2: he just saw her on TV, thought she was smart
11:11
Speaker 2: and was like, let's do this. Possibly somebody else could
11:14
Speaker 2: have recommended her, obviously, I just I don't know who
11:19
Speaker 2: this pleases exactly, because again, she is allegedly supposedly right
11:25
Speaker 2: of center, right, so she's not a liberal pick, but
11:29
Speaker 2: her positions are all sort of.
11:32
Speaker 3: Backward and not where the base is at all.
11:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, It'll be interesting to see what happens with this one,
11:39
Speaker 2: because I don't know who's going to come out strongly
11:42
Speaker 2: against her other than you know, those of us who
11:46
Speaker 2: were still harboring some negative.
11:48
Speaker 1: Feelings about down.
11:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, still mad about that, bro. It's interesting because I
11:53
Speaker 2: don't know our Republicans going to say no to this.
11:57
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
11:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if they're going to use there
12:01
Speaker 1: like sort of limited firepower on this person. That The
12:05
Speaker 1: thing too, is like, again, we're not in March twenty twenty,
12:10
Speaker 1: and I can have some grace for people who during
12:13
Speaker 1: the spring and summer of twenty twenty were confused and
12:15
Speaker 1: didn't know what to recommend. Okay, fine, but you later
12:19
Speaker 1: have to run away from those takes in order to
12:24
Speaker 1: convince me that you are in the sane camp. Right,
12:29
Speaker 1: it was an insane time, But much like Kamala Harris,
12:32
Speaker 1: you need to answer for the fact that you were
12:34
Speaker 1: in the insane camp for a while, but you're not
12:36
Speaker 1: in the insane camp anymore. And I would love to
12:39
Speaker 1: see her answer questions about that. By the way, there's
12:41
Speaker 1: another TV doctor, Nicole Sapphire, who was right about all
12:46
Speaker 1: this stuff and did buck the trends. And so that's
12:51
Speaker 1: when a pandemic is upon us. Should it happen again,
12:56
Speaker 1: people will be confused in the early days once again.
12:59
Speaker 1: And what we need is people like Desanta's and the
13:03
Speaker 1: Barrington Declaration, guys who look at the actual data and
13:07
Speaker 1: don't just get carried along with the current. So I'm
13:12
Speaker 1: contract we'll be right back on normally.
13:18
Speaker 2: You know, I wrote I think possibly the first piece
13:22
Speaker 2: about closing schools in the pandemic. It was March twenty twenty.
13:26
Speaker 2: My husband had stopped going to work, my kids were
13:28
Speaker 2: still going to school, and I was like, this seems
13:30
Speaker 2: crazy and we should close schools and figure it out.
13:33
Speaker 2: I have since, obviously, I just I didn't just talk
13:36
Speaker 2: about how wrong I was. I wrote an updated piece
13:39
Speaker 2: about how mistake and it was. And I have to
13:41
Speaker 2: say that that was March twenty twenty, middle of March.
13:44
Speaker 2: By April, I was like, open the schools. This is
13:47
Speaker 2: not what I was counting on.
13:48
Speaker 3: I thought two weeks as low as spread.
13:50
Speaker 2: I mean, I had never lived through a pandemic before, obviously,
13:52
Speaker 2: and I believe them that's not going to happen again.
13:56
Speaker 2: But yeah, you have to own up to your mistakes.
13:58
Speaker 2: That was my giant mistake. I have talked and written
14:02
Speaker 2: and felt awful about that error. I think if you
14:06
Speaker 2: were wrong, say so and say it a lot, because
14:09
Speaker 2: I think that's important. I think it's important to own
14:12
Speaker 2: it a lot.
14:14
Speaker 1: You know, weirdly, and to heap shame upon both of us.
14:16
Speaker 1: Because like I was like, okay, let's get through spring break.
14:19
Speaker 1: That's okay, we're almost a spring break. Anyway, I'll take
14:22
Speaker 1: these two weeks. We can handle this, sure again, thinking
14:24
Speaker 1: that we would actually go back. You know who was right?
14:28
Speaker 1: Build a Blasio was like, I don't know, if you
14:31
Speaker 1: stopped this engine, we might not be able to get
14:33
Speaker 1: it back going.
14:34
Speaker 2: Well, yes, you know, I get it. He deserves a
14:39
Speaker 2: little bit of credit. But also because he was so
14:41
Speaker 2: aligned with the teachers' unions that he understood that they
14:44
Speaker 2: were never going to come back.
14:46
Speaker 1: Or you know, it would just a long long.
14:48
Speaker 3: Time for them to come back.
14:49
Speaker 1: I thought he understood our enemy better than we did.
14:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, I thought he could say.
14:54
Speaker 2: I thought Build a Blasio or Andrecomo, who kept you know,
14:57
Speaker 2: pounding the table and saying he was in charge. I
14:59
Speaker 2: thought they it just reopened schools.
15:01
Speaker 3: Turned out they would completely behold into this you know,
15:03
Speaker 3: special interest group. I was not aware of that. I didn't.
15:06
Speaker 2: I did not quite understand that the special interest group
15:10
Speaker 2: was actually in charge, so get.
15:12
Speaker 1: It, and that they had no interest in teaching children.
15:15
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yes, never going to make that mistake again.
15:19
Speaker 1: We're in a new era of Republican politics for sure,
15:23
Speaker 1: and because of the coalition we're in. And this is
15:26
Speaker 1: what I've said about you know, I think we've talked
15:28
Speaker 1: about it on the show, about people who were so
15:31
Speaker 1: anti Trump as to not recognize that you're just not
15:36
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat at the moment. Right, Okay, you
15:40
Speaker 1: can come along and get some things out of this,
15:44
Speaker 1: which is what politics is. Or you can think that
15:47
Speaker 1: the Republican Party remains your ideological party, which it's not.
15:52
Speaker 1: Like I'm an ideological person. Most voters are not. Most
15:55
Speaker 1: of the voters who voted for Donald Trump are not.
15:57
Speaker 1: And so if I come in and say, you know,
16:00
Speaker 1: you have to do things exactly like I want them done,
16:03
Speaker 1: that's not flying with a bunch of people who made
16:05
Speaker 1: him president. And so you know, you got to hang
16:08
Speaker 1: on for the parts that can work for you and
16:12
Speaker 1: criticize the parts that do not.
16:14
Speaker 2: Right, I do wonder what part of the coalition wants
16:18
Speaker 2: the surge in general?
16:21
Speaker 3: Who that would be right?
16:23
Speaker 2: Who is the no we should have been masking the
16:25
Speaker 2: whole time voter who voted for Donald Trump.
16:29
Speaker 1: For Donald Trump, Yeah, person exists, right.
16:32
Speaker 2: And it's funny because you know, you said at the
16:33
Speaker 2: beginning of the segment, but that Donald Trump was very
16:36
Speaker 2: reliant on experts. In twenty twenty, he gets so much
16:39
Speaker 2: criticism from Democrats for not.
16:41
Speaker 3: Being reliant on experts, and they're.
16:43
Speaker 2: Constantly like he you know, handled COVID so poorly. Yeah,
16:47
Speaker 2: he handled COVID so poorly because he listened to those experts,
16:49
Speaker 2: not because you know, that was what went wrong here.
16:54
Speaker 1: That's the thing is that the people who call him
16:56
Speaker 1: a fascist wanted him to be a fascist. Yes, in
17:01
Speaker 1: March twenty twenty, they were like, stop everyone from moving
17:05
Speaker 1: and shut all the borders and what. I don't know,
17:07
Speaker 1: it's like insane, and all of us were like, no, no, no,
17:10
Speaker 1: let's not lean into fascism. That would be bad. And
17:13
Speaker 1: yet here we are flipped.
17:15
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
17:16
Speaker 2: I also I remember in March twenty twenty when they
17:19
Speaker 2: closed businesses in New York and I, you know, on Twitter,
17:22
Speaker 2: I tweeted whispering, I don't think that we should be
17:25
Speaker 2: allowed to do this. I don't think government should be
17:27
Speaker 2: allowed to do this. And it was you know, I
17:29
Speaker 2: made the joke that I was whispering about it because
17:31
Speaker 2: it was such a popular and deeply unacceptable thing to say,
17:35
Speaker 2: even on the right. So yeah, I hope lessons have
17:41
Speaker 2: been learned.
17:42
Speaker 1: To this day, I look back and go, my gosh,
17:45
Speaker 1: what spell was this country under? And this is the
17:50
Speaker 1: one that I get mad at myself about is that
17:52
Speaker 1: I was not vocal or angry enough about churches being closed.
17:57
Speaker 1: I was like, in what world are you allowed to
18:01
Speaker 1: just wipe out large part of the First Amendment and
18:04
Speaker 1: tell people they can't gather to worship. And there were
18:07
Speaker 1: churches in California in particular that were surveiled for their
18:12
Speaker 1: insistence upon gathering to express their faith. And that is
18:17
Speaker 1: some real behind the iron curtain stuff right there. It's wild.
18:22
Speaker 2: That's just unacceptable, and yeah, we can never stand for it. Again.
18:28
Speaker 2: It's funny because stalitarianism doesn't always appear in the same way.
18:33
Speaker 2: So I feel like we're ready for a lot of
18:34
Speaker 2: things that we saw during COVID, but we need to
18:37
Speaker 2: carry that over into whatever the next challenge will be
18:40
Speaker 2: and say no, absolutely no to this. Anytime the government
18:44
Speaker 2: is telling you to do something that seems crazy, think.
18:47
Speaker 3: About that, check yourself.
18:50
Speaker 1: I agree, We're going.
18:52
Speaker 2: To take a short break and come right back with normally.
18:58
Speaker 2: So what's interesting about our criticism of these picks.
19:02
Speaker 3: Is that I think on the right there's.
19:05
Speaker 2: A kind of a conversation of don't criticize Donald Trump's picks.
19:10
Speaker 2: He got in, he won this landside election. Now we
19:15
Speaker 2: have to just shut up and support him. I'm not
19:19
Speaker 2: down for any of that. Again, I voted for him
19:21
Speaker 2: day one of early voting. I put on the sticker,
19:23
Speaker 2: I told everybody about it. I was a crawl over
19:28
Speaker 2: broken glass to vote for this man this time voter.
19:31
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean I'm not going to criticize him. That's
19:33
Speaker 2: crazy why I would like. He's a politician. Of course
19:36
Speaker 2: I'm going to criticize him, and of course I'm going
19:38
Speaker 2: to criticize the picks that I think don't align with
19:41
Speaker 2: my values and that I don't think are going to
19:44
Speaker 2: do a good job. So yeah, I'm going to be
19:46
Speaker 2: here for the criticizing, and I you know, I'm sure
19:48
Speaker 2: you are too.
19:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is where I think that we are actually
19:52
Speaker 1: despite being ideological more like normal voters, there's a particular
19:57
Speaker 1: kind of partisan that insists that you just back whatever
20:01
Speaker 1: the president does. And look, I've been in an uncomfortable
20:04
Speaker 1: ideological position for eight nine years now, same girl seeing Frankly,
20:09
Speaker 1: and Frankly was before that at times as well, when
20:12
Speaker 1: you know, people are pushing to expand the government in
20:14
Speaker 1: giant ways and I'm like, wait, what are we doing?
20:16
Speaker 1: The Republicans that ship have sailed? But uh, but so
20:22
Speaker 1: I've been uncomfortable in the coalition many times, but particularly
20:26
Speaker 1: during the Donald Trump years. And most voters are hybrids, right,
20:32
Speaker 1: They believe different things. They have a grab bag of
20:34
Speaker 1: thoughts about what works for them and what doesn't. Donald Trump, certainly,
20:39
Speaker 1: I think, has a mandate, so to speak. It's sort
20:42
Speaker 1: of a silly term in our democracy for change though, right,
20:47
Speaker 1: so he can do some wild stuff, I think, and
20:49
Speaker 1: get a lot of grace for it. And I hope
20:51
Speaker 1: he uses those wild cards for things like I don't know,
20:56
Speaker 1: taken out the Department of Education. No matter what his
20:58
Speaker 1: Labor secretary says about it. That's right, So we'll see.
21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And again I think that that is normal,
21:08
Speaker 2: That is healthy. Criticizing the president is a completely sane
21:13
Speaker 2: thing to do, even if you voted for him, even
21:16
Speaker 2: if you really wanted him to be president.
21:19
Speaker 3: You don't have to agree with everything.
21:20
Speaker 2: It's just it's it's a crazy idea that you do,
21:23
Speaker 2: and it's not obviously not just president. I've obviously been
21:27
Speaker 2: very effusive about my support for my own governor, Governor
21:30
Speaker 2: Ron Santis. I disagree with him on things. I think
21:33
Speaker 2: that that's again, normal, healthy thing to do. And if
21:37
Speaker 2: you agree with the politician on everything. Something has gone
21:40
Speaker 2: terribly wrong for you.
21:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really. This is this is where sometimes, particularly
21:45
Speaker 1: on Twitter, and I know Twitter is not real life
21:46
Speaker 1: or x is not real life, but there's a lot
21:49
Speaker 1: of people being really into politicians, like affectionate towards them.
21:55
Speaker 1: And I'm like, look, there's a couple in my life
21:58
Speaker 1: who've I've thought who I've thought were pretty great. Sure,
22:01
Speaker 1: Ronald Rayan. I think ron DeSantis is very impressive, particularly
22:05
Speaker 1: when it comes to disaster response, which is just stunning
22:09
Speaker 1: what he can do. Yeah, just as an administrative guy,
22:14
Speaker 1: Paul Ryan, because he was like actually trying to do
22:17
Speaker 1: something about entitlements. But like this thing where people sort
22:21
Speaker 1: of fall in love with a politician or at least
22:25
Speaker 1: play act about it because they have to bring other
22:28
Speaker 1: people into the coalition. There was a lot of pretending
22:30
Speaker 1: that people were in love with Kamala Harris and I
22:34
Speaker 1: can't do it. I'm not in love. I'm not falling
22:37
Speaker 1: in love with politicians.
22:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
22:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm also not falling in line. Hillary Clinton very
22:43
Speaker 2: famously said about John Kerry allegedly said you don't have
22:48
Speaker 2: to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.
22:50
Speaker 3: And I'm not doing either of those things.
22:52
Speaker 2: I'm neither falling in love nor falling in line behind
22:55
Speaker 2: a politician. I think we're just going to be, you know,
22:58
Speaker 2: seeing what we think on this show and taking it
23:01
Speaker 2: from there, not having to toe any particular line.
23:05
Speaker 3: It's very freeing.
23:05
Speaker 1: Actually, yes, live live in that space. Hold space for that,
23:11
Speaker 1: as the Internet has has said this week.
23:14
Speaker 2: So for a final segment, look Thanksgivings on Thursday. I
23:19
Speaker 2: know we're all looking forward to the yams. What we're
23:21
Speaker 2: here to say is it's okay to disagree with your family.
23:26
Speaker 2: Don't make it a thing, don't fall out with your family,
23:30
Speaker 2: and don't lose relationships over it.
23:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just this has been a trend. I think
23:36
Speaker 1: it really it really kicked up during the Obama years.
23:38
Speaker 1: I think I think, in fact, at one point the
23:40
Speaker 1: Obama administration put out talking points for your Thanksgiving dinner,
23:45
Speaker 1: which I just think is, to put it mildly, not
23:49
Speaker 1: the role of the federal government.
23:51
Speaker 3: Like creepy as hell.
23:54
Speaker 1: Let's not do this to people, right. The funny thing
23:58
Speaker 1: is it's always framed as what to do with your
24:01
Speaker 1: Trump loving uncle, when in fact I think the person
24:04
Speaker 1: more likely to have a meltdown is your Harrah's loving
24:11
Speaker 1: college niece, right, right, that's it.
24:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it always seems to go in one direction. It's
24:17
Speaker 2: you know, I it's you know. There's also this conversation like, well,
24:22
Speaker 2: the people who voted for Trump don't want my human rights,
24:25
Speaker 2: you know, and that's all ridiculous. But I would say
24:28
Speaker 2: about that, you know, I I'm Jewish. Israel's very important
24:31
Speaker 2: to me. I think the Biden Harris administration has been
24:34
Speaker 2: abysmal on Israel. I think they've been abysmal on Jewish
24:37
Speaker 2: life in America. Saying that the Hamosniks in our streets
24:41
Speaker 2: have a point.
24:42
Speaker 3: I'm still not.
24:43
Speaker 2: Like, oh, you voted for Harris. Well, you voted, you know,
24:46
Speaker 2: to end my life. I feel strongly about it. And
24:49
Speaker 2: yet I can understand that you don't actually want to
24:52
Speaker 2: destroy me because.
24:54
Speaker 3: You voted for the other person. I think that's important.
24:57
Speaker 2: You have to kind of step away from it and
24:59
Speaker 2: say this isn't actually about me. And they made the decision.
25:03
Speaker 2: I think it might be a wrong decision, but that's
25:05
Speaker 2: that's a separate issue past the mashed potatoes.
25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that actually that's a pretty good rule of thumb.
25:12
Speaker 1: There's like, instead of assuming that someone's support for a
25:15
Speaker 1: politician means they're saying I want to destroy you and
25:18
Speaker 1: your family, wait for them to say I want to
25:21
Speaker 1: destroy you and your family. At that point, you could
25:24
Speaker 1: say I don't want you in my home, Like.
25:26
Speaker 3: That's right, that would be the line for me personally.
25:32
Speaker 2: You can't have any of my mashed potatoes if you're
25:34
Speaker 2: saying that.
25:35
Speaker 1: And that is a reasonable line. But the idea that
25:38
Speaker 1: like just by existing and casting a ballot that is different,
25:42
Speaker 1: that should be the line that to me is crazy.
25:45
Speaker 1: And of course now these are the there's all these
25:47
Speaker 1: pieces out about like, you know, feeling safe while you're
25:51
Speaker 1: at Thanksgiving because liberals lost this time. So yeah, they're right.
25:57
Speaker 1: How do we coddle ourselves properly when we go to
26:00
Speaker 1: our uncle's house And the fact is, like you can
26:03
Speaker 1: just eat food and watch football And this is a
26:06
Speaker 1: good let's call it exposure therapy for your purple haired niece.
26:11
Speaker 1: I know I'm dealing in stereotypes, but stereotypes of stereotypes
26:15
Speaker 1: for a reason, exposure therapy. Go out there, hear somebody
26:18
Speaker 1: say some things you disagree with. I know it's different
26:21
Speaker 1: from college, but I think you can handle it. I
26:24
Speaker 1: really do.
26:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
26:26
Speaker 2: I mean, watch the Cowboys Giants game. It's going to
26:28
Speaker 2: be a disaster no matter who wins on both sides.
26:32
Speaker 2: It's just going to be like you want to watch
26:34
Speaker 2: some really bad football coming out on Thanksgiving and watch
26:37
Speaker 2: that game?
26:38
Speaker 1: Truly? Can I throw in? And in case you missed
26:41
Speaker 1: it before we part today, it's good for the Thanksgiving
26:45
Speaker 1: season and ramping up to the Christmas season to remember
26:48
Speaker 1: that in western North Carolina there are still people without homes.
26:53
Speaker 1: There are people living in tents, there are families living
26:56
Speaker 1: in tents. There are tremendous efforts by the private sector,
27:00
Speaker 1: by charities to get our v's to those folks, get
27:02
Speaker 1: them in shelters. It is true that the large some
27:06
Speaker 1: of the large organizations, including the federal government, have not
27:09
Speaker 1: been efficient in those spaces and have not done things
27:12
Speaker 1: that are super helpful. And so just think of those people.
27:16
Speaker 1: Support them if you can find ways to donate. Samaritans
27:20
Speaker 1: Purse is a great one that operates in western North Carolina.
27:23
Speaker 2: You'll notice call them out on x and post the
27:26
Speaker 2: link to don't.
27:26
Speaker 1: Well and you'll notice that both Kamala Harris and Joe
27:29
Speaker 1: Biden have been totally silent on this situation, and it's
27:35
Speaker 1: going to get pretty dangerous in the coming months if
27:38
Speaker 1: people are not taken care of. So it's just something
27:40
Speaker 1: to keep your eye on and pray about.
27:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for that.
27:44
Speaker 2: I think that that's so important for people to remember
27:47
Speaker 2: and to know. I think that that's completely gone away
27:50
Speaker 2: from our news cycle, and we need to remember that
27:54
Speaker 2: this doesn't happen overnight, and we've had an absent government
27:58
Speaker 2: who hasn't been on this at all. So thank you,
28:02
Speaker 2: and we'll post again for the listeners a link to donate,
28:06
Speaker 2: and we'll donate ourselves.
28:08
Speaker 3: Thinks.
28:09
Speaker 2: Well.
28:09
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us on Normally.
28:11
Speaker 2: We're going to be off for Thanksgiving on Thursday with
28:14
Speaker 2: our families, watching bad football and eating all the ams.
28:17
Speaker 3: We hope you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
28:19
Speaker 2: With your family. Just don't argue too much. Normally airs
28:23
Speaker 2: generally on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you.
28:27
Speaker 3: Get your podcasts. Get in touch with us.
28:28
Speaker 2: At normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and
28:32
Speaker 2: when things get weird, act normally