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Wendy Schiller: Republicans and The Politics of Fear · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: of one percent. I'm Charlie Pellett And that's a Bluebird
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  Speaker 1: business flash. You're listening with kath on Bluebird Radio. This
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  Speaker 1: is taking Stock. I'm Pim Fox, my co host today,
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  Speaker 1: Matt Miller, my co host regularly Kathleen Hayes on vacation.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Matt, the Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party
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  Speaker 1: they've launched now into the general election. Uh. This follows,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the last night's presentation of Hillary Clinton as
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  Speaker 1: the Democratic nominee. But the portrait that they are presenting
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  Speaker 1: of the country and of their platform seems to be
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  Speaker 1: not only different from the one that Donald Trump and
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans offered last week, but almost the complete opposite.
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  Speaker 1: Here to tell us more is Wendy Schiller, Professor of
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  Speaker 1: political Science, joining us from Brown University, and she's also
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  Speaker 1: professor of International and Public Affairs. Wendy Schiller, Professor Schiller,
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about your analysis of both
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  Speaker 1: the Democrat and the Republican plat forms and their conventions
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  Speaker 1: and are they talking about the same country. No, I
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  Speaker 1: mean I think there was a stark contrast, right the
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  Speaker 1: Republicans focused on law and order and particularly making Clinton
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  Speaker 1: the focus of that conversation. If you can't believe her
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  Speaker 1: and you can't trust her, and she broke the law. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: and that you know, there's terrorism. And it was a
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  Speaker 1: lot of fear, a lot of doom and gloom, but
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  Speaker 1: also projecting so this affirmative energy that they'll take care
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  Speaker 1: of it and they'll fix it, culminating with Donald Trump's
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  Speaker 1: statements that he alone can fix it, or that he
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  Speaker 1: would be the kind of leader that could make progress
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  Speaker 1: and fix it. The Democrats to me, looks like a
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  Speaker 1: convention for Ronald Reagan in they were all about unity,
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  Speaker 1: about how good the country is doing. It was very patriotic,
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  Speaker 1: lots of American flags, lots of chants of USA um.
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  Speaker 1: It really was a flip of the parties. Kind of
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats, you know, usually be doom and gloom right
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  Speaker 1: as the Republican president. Now the Democrats are saying, we've
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  Speaker 1: been in office for eight years, we know what we're doing.
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  Speaker 1: What was fascinating is that they really stressed the Democratic Party,
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  Speaker 1: which I think is interesting given that the d n
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  Speaker 1: C chair was fired on Monday, the first day the convention,
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  Speaker 1: and there's a Bernie Sanders conflict. Nonetheless, they're really banking
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  Speaker 1: on the appeal of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton,
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  Speaker 1: not just Hillary Clinton. Both parties have been really adept
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  Speaker 1: at throwing out red herrings to try and skew the
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  Speaker 1: issues so that you don't actually think about what the
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  Speaker 1: Democratic uh A National Committee did. You think more about
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the Russians may have gotten the information
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  Speaker 1: out there, right, And of course Donald Trump did that
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  Speaker 1: as well. I mean, we talked so much about Millennia's
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  Speaker 1: speech instead of talking about the possible racism or a
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  Speaker 1: bigotry that existed at the convention. So um, I think
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  Speaker 1: both parties about a strong, a strong red haired harring
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  Speaker 1: tossing a set of arms there. But I want to
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  Speaker 1: ask uh Wendy about these two America's that we often
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  Speaker 1: talk about here at Bloomberg. Um. The inequality that we
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  Speaker 1: see makes it hard to talk about the American economy
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  Speaker 1: as one monolithic thing. I mean, we can say that
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  Speaker 1: the economy has grown, but it hasn't grown for everybody, right.
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  Speaker 1: We can say that unemployment is down, but it's not
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  Speaker 1: down for everybody. We can say that violent crime is down,
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  Speaker 1: but in some neighborhoods it's still horrible. And it seems
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  Speaker 1: like these uh this is a concept that the Republican
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  Speaker 1: Party has been able to grasp and the Democratic parties
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  Speaker 1: as as kind of ignored. Well, I think that the
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  Speaker 1: Republican Party has successfully seized upon that part of the
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  Speaker 1: population that feels as if they've been left behind, and
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  Speaker 1: they have been left behind. When the factory closed in
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  Speaker 1: the southeast or in the Midwest, nobody built another one, right,
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  Speaker 1: and that is you know that grand sound of jobs
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  Speaker 1: wishing down in Mexico or going to China or Vietnam
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  Speaker 1: under TPP. So, yes, the Republicans have been very good
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  Speaker 1: at focusing on that community that they feel they've been
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  Speaker 1: ignored by both parties. That's why Donald Trump did as
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  Speaker 1: well as he could. If you do nothing in Congress
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  Speaker 1: for nearly six years but obstruct and people clients figure
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  Speaker 1: out the government isn't helping them. So I think that's
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  Speaker 1: been pretty brilliant on Trump's part, just to hammer in
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  Speaker 1: the problem for Republicans is there aren't enough of those people,
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  Speaker 1: I think to win the general election. And I think
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats, which only the laundry list that Hillary Clinton
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  Speaker 1: recited last night in a relatively good speech for her um,
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  Speaker 1: were designing to get at those people. I didn't hear
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  Speaker 1: a lot of worker retraining, but you did sort of
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  Speaker 1: hear about job growth and stimulus and infrastructure, maybe the
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  Speaker 1: kind of job that some of the people who've been
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  Speaker 1: left behind can get. So you're absolutely right. And the
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  Speaker 1: conflict in the Democratic Party is exactly the poverty and
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  Speaker 1: crime conflict. You know, really have African Americans advanced under Obama?
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  Speaker 1: You know, didn't matter to have an African American president?
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  Speaker 1: And who does that affect poverty per se um? And
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  Speaker 1: then immigration for Latinos. So there are unaddressed issues. The
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  Speaker 1: question is which person and which party are the undecided
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  Speaker 1: and independent is going to look to and say they're
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  Speaker 1: better equipped to solve the problems war I sincerely believe
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  Speaker 1: they will address those problems. So I think that's the
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  Speaker 1: big calculus in people who are currently undersided. Did Hillary
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  Speaker 1: Clinton and other Democratic leaders did they successfully woo the
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  Speaker 1: supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders. I think you can clearly
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  Speaker 1: tell from all the booze and the protests that they
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  Speaker 1: didn't woo all of them. I mean, we have repeated
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  Speaker 1: polls that indicate that you Sanders supporters will vote for Clinton.
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  Speaker 1: We're not going to know that and until election day.
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  Speaker 1: But what the Democrats rolled out that the Republicans didn't
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  Speaker 1: was sheer star power and star power of elected officials
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  Speaker 1: for the most part, with the exception of Michelle Obama.
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  Speaker 1: But nonetheless it was star power after star power, coherent, inspiring,
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  Speaker 1: energetic speeches that give the impression that this is the
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  Speaker 1: party you want to be with if you're a Democrat,
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  Speaker 1: any Democrat. So I think that in doing that, they
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  Speaker 1: were successful at getting as many of those Bernie supporters
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  Speaker 1: as they probably can did Hillary Clinton, I mean, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sure if this is really her aim, but the
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  Speaker 1: concern is that she doesn't have the likability and that voters,
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  Speaker 1: even in her own party, find it difficult to trust
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  Speaker 1: what she's saying. Um, and we were told that maybe
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  Speaker 1: she was going to try and turn that around in
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  Speaker 1: her speech. Did she take a different tact? Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: don't think she did enough of what we call softening.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Hillary Clinton has a great smile, she had
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  Speaker 1: a great laugh, She can be very funny. There were
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  Speaker 1: moments in the speech when she was good. She was
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  Speaker 1: funny and softer and approachable. I think she's so intense
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  Speaker 1: about policy, and she's so interested in policy that she
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  Speaker 1: just gets carried away on that front. And doesn't really
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  Speaker 1: figure out how to connect with the voters, particularly on TV.
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  Speaker 1: So I think it was a missed opportunity. I think
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  Speaker 1: she should have done more of that. Um, I think
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  Speaker 1: all the other testimonials tried to do that. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think she really succeeded in that way. I think the
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  Speaker 1: trust issue is both of her own making, self inflicted,
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  Speaker 1: but also externally. She's been pounded on this. It's for
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  Speaker 1: twenty years, so I think those people who just don't
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  Speaker 1: trust her are never going to trust her. Wendy, is
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  Speaker 1: there a Is there some kind of litmus test for
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  Speaker 1: all of the videos and the biographies that are shown
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  Speaker 1: in between the speeches. Were those convincing? You know? I
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  Speaker 1: think some of them were pretty well done. I think
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  Speaker 1: the speeches themselves, the testimonials were far more convincing if
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  Speaker 1: people had a chance to see them than the actual
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  Speaker 1: production videos. And I think that's the thing the Democrats did.
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  Speaker 1: They brought a lot of people from a lot of
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  Speaker 1: realms who would experience loss or tragedy or good things
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  Speaker 1: and really tried to connect with as many people in
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  Speaker 1: America as they could, whereas the Republicans focused on a
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  Speaker 1: particular demographic in a particular type of message eva Hilary Clintons,
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  Speaker 1: that will show up the Republican base. But I just
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  Speaker 1: don't think they reached as far as they could for
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  Speaker 1: independence or people who could empathize with particular types of people, women, men, background, religion.
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  Speaker 1: I think the Democrats are always better rolling those people out,
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  Speaker 1: and I think this year was no exception. Did did
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats do? It seemed to me from watching the
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  Speaker 1: first few days of I didn't watch last night, but
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  Speaker 1: the first few days that the Democrats did a great
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  Speaker 1: job of convincing people not to vote for Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if they didn't convince the voter that Hillary
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  Speaker 1: Clinton was trustworthy or likable, they definitely convinced the voter
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  Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was not the person to vote for. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, voters never like to regret their
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  Speaker 1: vote choice, right, So sometimes people will not vote in
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  Speaker 1: order not to cast the vote to put somebody in
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  Speaker 1: that they really fear. That's not gonna help Hillary Clinton
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  Speaker 1: that much. She needs turnout among the Democratic Party base
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  Speaker 1: and the independence and she needs turn out in specific
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  Speaker 1: swing states as we know from now on. I really
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  Speaker 1: believe this is ground game, this is the organization, This
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  Speaker 1: is Paul watchers and people who call you on election day.
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  Speaker 1: This is where the Trump organization and the r n
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  Speaker 1: C are lagging, and I just don't see the evidence
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  Speaker 1: that they're going to catch up. I think convention bounce
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  Speaker 1: fades and then it becomes honest to goodness, get out
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  Speaker 1: the vote, state party chairs, county party chairs, and in
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  Speaker 1: that way, the party in the Democrats arena looked to
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  Speaker 1: be more energetic and united than the party in the
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  Speaker 1: Republican arena. But we don't know how that's going to
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  Speaker 1: play out a month from now when the real dynamlysist
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  Speaker 1: campaign start. Wendy. It's no secret that both parties to
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  Speaker 1: some extent are are divided, but the Republicans especially seem
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  Speaker 1: to have such huge, prominent names like the Bushes that
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  Speaker 1: want to annihilate Donald Trump. Do you think that we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna see Bushes A. K. Sik Rubio come out and
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  Speaker 1: support Hillary Clinton. Uh No, I don't. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna see the Bushes support Hillary Clinton. You know,
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  Speaker 1: and this is a family that beat Papa, so there's
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  Speaker 1: no way I think they're going to do that. Um.
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  Speaker 1: There's been rumors about supporting Gary Johnson, the Bertarian candidates,
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  Speaker 1: who will, by the way, have an effect in states
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  Speaker 1: like Colorado and states like Nevada, possibly New Hampshire. So
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  Speaker 1: he's still a player in this game to the election,
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  Speaker 1: but I don't see them doing that. They could quietly
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  Speaker 1: steer donors away from the presidential race and to the
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  Speaker 1: Senate rating, so that to me seems to be their
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  Speaker 1: only option right now. All right, Wendy, thanks so much.
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  Speaker 1: Wendy Schiller, Professor of political science at Brown University. This
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  Speaker 1: is Bloomberg m HM.