Latest / Politix / Chad Bunny And 'Berger Queen
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_02: They are literally not trying.
- 0:02SPEAKER_02: I don't think like Democrats look themselves in the mirror and say,
- 0:04SPEAKER_02: after the 2024 defeat,
- 0:06we have done literally nothing to attempt to rehabilitate the
- 0:10image of this
- 0:11SPEAKER_02: political party.
- 0:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's too much of a machine-like party.
- 0:13SPEAKER_01: Democrats just need to subscribe to this podcast,
- 0:16SPEAKER_01: listen to the second half of the episode,
- 0:18SPEAKER_01: and just try everything that we suggested,
- 0:21SPEAKER_02: including- Get some tattoos.
- 0:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 0:28Hey everyone,
- 0:29you're listening to a free preview of the Politics Podcast.
- 0:32This week we'll do a quick Super Bowl recap and overview of
- 0:35Donald Trump losing his
- 0:36SPEAKER_01: grip on the broader culture.
- 0:38SPEAKER_01: But we're mostly going to talk about the early days of the Spanberger
- 0:42administration in Virginia and whether it's a good model for
- 0:45Democrats both now and
- 0:47SPEAKER_01: in the post-Trump future we're all waiting for.
- 0:51SPEAKER_01: And finally,
- 0:51we'll take a look at what can be done in Virginia and other
- 0:54states and nationally
- 0:56SPEAKER_01: to make Trump less popular ahead of the midterm elections.
- 0:59SPEAKER_01: If you want to hear the whole conversation,
- 1:01SPEAKER_01: you can upgrade your subscription to paid at politics.fm.
- 1:08SPEAKER_01: Hey, everyone.
- 1:08SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Politics Podcast.
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: I'm Brian Boyler.
- 1:11SPEAKER_01: I'm Matthew Iglesias.
- 1:12So we're going to talk about some pretty good news coming out
- 1:15of Virginia in the
- 1:16SPEAKER_01: first couple of weeks of the new Democratic trifecta there.
- 1:20SPEAKER_01: But can we do a minute on on Bad Bunny,
- 1:23the Super Bowl halftime show and how the right wing lost its
- 1:26grip on the culture?
- 1:27SPEAKER_02: It was the single greatest show of all time.
- 1:31SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, you know, it's interesting.
- 1:35SPEAKER_02: We had,
- 1:36SPEAKER_02: after Donald Trump won in 2024,
- 1:40SPEAKER_02: or around when he won,
- 1:42SPEAKER_02: there was a much ballyhooed vibe shift.
- 1:45SPEAKER_02: It was notable that...
- 1:47SPEAKER_02: Trump did a lot better with young voters,
- 1:50and there was a sense that there was more cultural cachet in
- 1:54Donald Trump and the
- 1:54SPEAKER_02: Trump movement,
- 1:56SPEAKER_02: that,
- 1:57SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 1:57SPEAKER_02: athletes who favored Donald Trump were becoming vocally pro-Trump,
- 2:02SPEAKER_02: other things like that,
- 2:03SPEAKER_02: that the right wing was cool now.
- 2:05SPEAKER_02: And we had in the Super Bowl—
- 2:08SPEAKER_02: A,
- 2:09SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 2:10SPEAKER_02: politically provocative selection of Bad Bunny,
- 2:12SPEAKER_02: who is a popular musical artist,
- 2:14SPEAKER_02: but had also been quite outspoken about ICE and other things,
- 2:19SPEAKER_02: to do a halftime show.
- 2:21SPEAKER_02: Conservatives chose to throw a big fit about this.
- 2:25SPEAKER_02: You know, they could have played it cool.
- 2:28SPEAKER_02: But like Trump and TPUSA, you know, they didn't just like...
- 2:34SPEAKER_02: People whine about stuff in politics all the time,
- 2:36SPEAKER_02: but they,
- 2:36SPEAKER_02: like,
- 2:36SPEAKER_02: actually staged a kid rock alternative conservative halftime show.
- 2:42SPEAKER_02: Trump, like, really tried to get people to watch it.
- 2:47SPEAKER_02: But, you know, I think most people watch the normal Super Bowl show.
- 2:51SPEAKER_02: It was widely enjoyed.
- 2:52SPEAKER_02: He was singing in Spanish.
- 2:54I do not know exactly what the lyrics were,
- 2:57but it appeared that he was making some reference.
- 2:59SPEAKER_00: Lo sabes?
- 2:59SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 3:00sorry state of the Puerto Rican electrical grid,
- 3:03which is an important issue,
- 3:05in fact.
- 3:06SPEAKER_02: And they also,
- 3:08I also thought it was notable that Green Day played before the
- 3:13Super Bowl in a much
- 3:14SPEAKER_02: lower profile gig,
- 3:16SPEAKER_02: but sort of from the opposite end of the age and demographic spectrum,
- 3:20SPEAKER_02: a little closer to my wheelhouse personally,
- 3:23SPEAKER_02: but also known to be a very political,
- 3:25SPEAKER_02: very vocally anti-Trump
- 3:27SPEAKER_02: band.
- 3:28SPEAKER_02: They did not do their no Trump,
- 3:30SPEAKER_02: no KKK,
- 3:31SPEAKER_02: no fascist USA chant during the show,
- 3:34SPEAKER_02: but they were playing exclusively songs from the American Idiot album.
- 3:38SPEAKER_02: Which like holds up really well because Trump happened to get elected.
- 3:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 3:43SPEAKER_02: Yes, exactly.
- 3:45SPEAKER_01: Not their finest work by any stretch of the imagination,
- 3:47but if we just get authoritarian-minded Republicans in power
- 3:52every 20 years or so,
- 3:54SPEAKER_01: it'll have a...
- 3:55SPEAKER_02: I thought it was noteworthy.
- 3:56SPEAKER_02: They didn't play their newest songs,
- 3:58and they also didn't play their most classic songs from back in
- 4:02the early 90s.
- 4:02They played their most the incumbent Republican Party president
- 4:06sucks songs.
- 4:08SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I want to talk about how...
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: Like why we call this like a vibe situation,
- 4:16because it really does kind of require you to inhabit some kind
- 4:20of media space and
- 4:22SPEAKER_01: then sense what's happening.
- 4:24SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 4:24SPEAKER_01: And you can clearly sense what's happening now,
- 4:29both in the microcosm of the Super Bowl and the Republican
- 4:32Super Bowl alternative.
- 4:35SPEAKER_01: But also like in the Melania movie and like Jeff Bezos funding that,
- 4:42SPEAKER_01: thinking that he was making like a really good bet on Trump.
- 4:44But now he's like caught shoveling money into her purse and
- 4:50crushing the Washington
- 4:51SPEAKER_01: Post at Donald Trump's best.
- 4:53SPEAKER_01: At the very moment that Trump's at his political weakest,
- 4:56SPEAKER_01: like he's on the retreat as Republicans are.
- 4:59SPEAKER_01: Demand he like take down a racist tweet he posted about Barack Obama.
- 5:04SPEAKER_01: There's the the the killings of Alex Peretti and Renee Good.
- 5:08Like that's the backdrop for how a lot of like a lot of people
- 5:13like this was the
- 5:14moment where I think that they thought they were going to have
- 5:16the great payoff of
- 5:17SPEAKER_01: like signing up with MAGA.
- 5:19SPEAKER_01: And instead, it's not worked out that way.
- 5:22SPEAKER_01: If you go back like a year ago.
- 5:24SPEAKER_01: it felt like the opposite was true that like the,
- 5:27the places where Democrats had drawn a lot of cultural capital
- 5:31was like Hollywood,
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: the movie industry,
- 5:34SPEAKER_01: um,
- 5:35SPEAKER_01: like corporate pop,
- 5:37SPEAKER_01: I guess,
- 5:37SPEAKER_01: for lack of a better term.
- 5:39SPEAKER_01: And all that seemed like it was on the way out, right?
- 5:41SPEAKER_01: Like,
- 5:43like kind of over being replaced by like a much greater number
- 5:49of influencers who
- 5:50SPEAKER_01: were in some sense,
- 5:51SPEAKER_01: they're like small business people.
- 5:52SPEAKER_01: And so they're much less, I think, progressive as a community.
- 5:57SPEAKER_01: And Trump was winning that set.
- 5:59SPEAKER_01: And so he had the future, right?
- 6:01SPEAKER_01: And Democrats were stuck with these cultural artifacts of the past.
- 6:06But from the vantage point of today,
- 6:07I'm not confident that that assessment was right.
- 6:09SPEAKER_01: And I feel like,
- 6:12The vibe shift that we were picking up on after Trump won the
- 6:17election or around
- 6:17the election may have just been like mostly an artifact of like
- 6:21Elon Musk fucking
- 6:22SPEAKER_01: with the Twitter algorithm.
- 6:23SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, so there's cycles within cycles, right?
- 6:26SPEAKER_02: There's lots of different things happening.
- 6:28One thing that just happens in politics is people win and lose
- 6:32elections,
- 6:33right,
- 6:34based on votes.
- 6:35And we know that the total age distribution of the American
- 6:39population is pretty
- 6:41SPEAKER_02: old at this point.
- 6:42SPEAKER_02: It is getting older with every year.
- 6:45SPEAKER_02: And also that the electorate is older than the population, right?
- 6:49And some of that is because senior citizens voted a higher rate
- 6:52than young people.
- 6:53SPEAKER_02: But a lot of it is also just that,
- 6:54SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 6:55SPEAKER_02: a like teenagers can't vote,
- 6:59SPEAKER_02: but like they absolutely can and do like buy music and go to movies.
- 7:04And actually,
- 7:04like the opinions of 16 year olds have a lot of influence on
- 7:08like the culture.
- 7:10SPEAKER_02: And, like, who matters and what's cool.
- 7:13SPEAKER_02: And they have literally no influence on politics, right?
- 7:17SPEAKER_02: And, like, 19-year-olds, you know, have diminished political influence.
- 7:21SPEAKER_02: But, again, a lot of sort of cultural clout.
- 7:24And so you can have a situation like we had when George W.
- 7:28Bush was president where—
- 7:30SPEAKER_02: He won the election.
- 7:33SPEAKER_02: He won the 2000 election in a somewhat shady manner,
- 7:35SPEAKER_02: but he won the 2004 election,
- 7:39SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 7:39SPEAKER_02: fair and square,
- 7:40SPEAKER_02: solid majority.
- 7:41SPEAKER_02: He did really well in the 2002 midterms.
- 7:44SPEAKER_02: He also had the business community really solidly behind him.
- 7:49SPEAKER_02: Like,
- 7:50people who work in democratic politics today but weren't around
- 7:54in the aughts,
- 7:55SPEAKER_02: I think,
- 7:55SPEAKER_02: like,
- 7:56SPEAKER_02: can't imagine the spending disadvantage that,
- 7:59SPEAKER_02: like,
- 8:00SPEAKER_02: every Democrat was,
- 8:01SPEAKER_02: like every Democratic challenger in the 2006 midterms was outspent by the
- 8:06SPEAKER_02: Republican incumbent.
- 8:08SPEAKER_02: And Kerry was just buried in money in 2004.
- 8:12And the media,
- 8:13you know,
- 8:13conservatives had their critiques of the liberal media back
- 8:16then.
- 8:17But the establishment was very deferential to the national
- 8:23security agencies that
- 8:24SPEAKER_02: were under Bush's control,
- 8:26SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 8:26SPEAKER_02: things like that.
- 8:27SPEAKER_02: Like he was really like a solidly had command of America.
- 8:33SPEAKER_02: But he was also always uncool.
- 8:35SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 8:36SPEAKER_02: Like there was a big age gradient in the voting patterns.
- 8:40And you could tell that like a lot of his best issues were
- 8:44things like opposition
- 8:46SPEAKER_02: to gay marriage,
- 8:47SPEAKER_02: where again,
- 8:48SPEAKER_02: you could see like that was a big winning issue for him because it was
- 8:51SPEAKER_02: overwhelmingly unpopular with senior citizens.
- 8:54But like young people,
- 8:55like people our age at that time were already there on the
- 8:59liberal side.
- 9:00SPEAKER_02: And so you could just look at it and you could be like,
- 9:03SPEAKER_02: This guy is a very significant political presence.
- 9:08SPEAKER_02: You know, he's won a trifecta in his reelection.
- 9:11SPEAKER_02: He's got all the money on his side.
- 9:13SPEAKER_02: He's got a lot of corporate influence on his side.
- 9:15SPEAKER_02: But he's not cool.
- 9:16SPEAKER_02: This is not the future of America.
- 9:18SPEAKER_02: And that's the context in which the American Idiot album comes out.
- 9:23SPEAKER_02: Michael Moore is winning Oscars at that time.
- 9:26SPEAKER_02: You know, like people in the culture of
- 9:28SPEAKER_02: Culturally influential people were like, this guy's bad.
- 9:31SPEAKER_02: This guy sucks.
- 9:32SPEAKER_02: And he was uncool.
- 9:33SPEAKER_02: But he was really there.
- 9:35SPEAKER_02: Then when Trump was president the first time,
- 9:38SPEAKER_02: you had a different alignment,
- 9:40SPEAKER_02: which was like he had won.
- 9:42on the backs of older voters and on the backs of very
- 9:47unfashionable people,
- 9:48SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 9:49SPEAKER_02: in the rural Midwest who had swung in his direction.
- 9:53SPEAKER_02: But not only were like youth and cultural influencers anti-Trump,
- 9:59SPEAKER_02: but at that time,
- 10:01SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 10:01SPEAKER_02: it really seemed like
- 10:04SPEAKER_02: The younger tech entrepreneurs,
- 10:06SPEAKER_02: people like Mark Zuckerberg,
- 10:08SPEAKER_02: really wanted to be identified as sort of anti-Trump.
- 10:11Jeff Bezos,
- 10:13older at that time,
- 10:14but like he was running the Washington Post.
- 10:17SPEAKER_02: They adopted their democracy dies in darkness slogan.
- 10:22The old regime at Twitter was very amenable to like progressive
- 10:26ideas about conflict.
- 10:26SPEAKER_02: content moderation.
- 10:28SPEAKER_02: So was Facebook at that time.
- 10:30Google had a lot of Obama administration people had sort of
- 10:34revolving door into it.
- 10:35And so there was a sense that like both the cultural vibes were
- 10:41against Trump and
- 10:42SPEAKER_02: also like in some sense,
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: like the establishment was really against Trump.
- 10:47SPEAKER_02: Now in Trump's second term, I think we have
- 10:51SPEAKER_02: you know, a re-realignment of the culture, right?
- 10:55That like,
- 10:56that sort of like vibe shift towards Trump has proven to be
- 10:59very ephemeral.
- 11:00SPEAKER_02: His youth support has evaporated.
- 11:03SPEAKER_02: A lot of his sort of like
- 11:06You know,
- 11:06Joe Rogan has talked about how like he doesn't like what ICE is
- 11:10doing.
- 11:11Jake and Logan Paul got into an argument with each other about
- 11:14Bad Bunny because
- 11:16SPEAKER_02: being anti-Bad Bunny was like the uncool sort of stance.
- 11:21But Trump has brought big business basically back to its
- 11:25natural home,
- 11:28which is that like
- 11:31SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
- 11:31SPEAKER_02: Like, Jeff Bezos is a wealthy businessman.
- 11:34SPEAKER_02: When Joe Biden was president,
- 11:36SPEAKER_02: the regulatory environment was,
- 11:37SPEAKER_02: like,
- 11:38SPEAKER_02: not actually that friendly to Amazon.
- 11:42SPEAKER_02: Democrats like to raise taxes and...
- 11:47Just like which businessman sort of miscalculated that Donald
- 11:53Trump was going to
- 11:53SPEAKER_02: create an enduring dictatorship that they would all benefit from.
- 11:57SPEAKER_02: But also,
- 11:58SPEAKER_02: I just feel like they're comfortable,
- 11:59SPEAKER_02: they're increasingly comfortable just acting like CEOs who
- 12:04SPEAKER_02: have mostly acted throughout American history.
- 12:07SPEAKER_01: I was,
- 12:07SPEAKER_01: I was super with you until just this last point here,
- 12:10SPEAKER_01: because like,
- 12:10SPEAKER_01: as I mean,
- 12:11SPEAKER_01: it's,
- 12:12it's maybe like a narrow distinction and it's not like the Bush
- 12:15arrangement with
- 12:16SPEAKER_01: corporate America was totally on the up and up.
- 12:18SPEAKER_01: Like,
- 12:19SPEAKER_01: like we could talk about the K street project someday,
- 12:21SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 12:21SPEAKER_01: there were,
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: there was,
- 12:23SPEAKER_01: there was like,
- 12:24there was a level of corruption there that at the time felt
- 12:27extraordinary,
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: right?
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: Like we're since Watergate or whatever.
- 12:31SPEAKER_01: Um,
- 12:32SPEAKER_01: but like,
- 12:33SPEAKER_01: it was not a shakedown situation with like,
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: bags of cash with dollar bills,
- 12:40SPEAKER_01: like emblazoned on the side of them or anything like that,
- 12:42SPEAKER_01: the way it is now.
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: And, and I think that like,
- 12:45SPEAKER_01: Somewhere in Jeff Bezos' dark heart,
- 12:48SPEAKER_01: he must realize that he made a bad bet at some point during the Biden
- 12:55SPEAKER_01: administration,
- 12:56that whatever annoyed him about Biden or the progressive left
- 12:59or whatever else,
- 13:01that he would be richer today simply because Kamala Harris is
- 13:04not an unstable
- 13:05SPEAKER_01: person if she'd won the election and just governed with a steadier hand,
- 13:11SPEAKER_01: even though he can go to Trump and be like,
- 13:13SPEAKER_01: I can –
- 13:15like slice the Washington post throat and you can award me a
- 13:19$10 billion blue
- 13:21SPEAKER_01: origin contract,
- 13:22SPEAKER_01: right?
- 13:22SPEAKER_01: Like that's the gamble he's left to make,
- 13:25but it's probably a worse outcome than if he had just kept an
- 13:30even keel and
- 13:31SPEAKER_01: remained the democracy dies in darkness guy.
- 13:34And,
- 13:35and,
- 13:35you know,
- 13:36in a context like that,
- 13:37maybe Kamala Harris can go on to win.
- 13:39SPEAKER_01: And so I, like, I don't know that the,
- 13:43business community is rock solid behind Trump in as much as
- 13:49they are a bit trapped
- 13:52SPEAKER_01: in there with him and maybe even looking for ways to get out.
- 13:59It's dangerous because he will abuse his power to hurt them if
- 14:02they do it too
- 14:03SPEAKER_01: overtly,
- 14:04SPEAKER_01: but that they don't think that
- 14:09As much as they're happy for regulatory forbearance or whatever
- 14:13with this thing
- 14:13SPEAKER_01: where they have to bribe him,
- 14:14SPEAKER_01: where they have to damage their brands,
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: where they have to pay more for imported goods.
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: It's not the good old days of George W. Bush circa 2003.
- 14:27SPEAKER_02: I definitely agree on that level,
- 14:29SPEAKER_02: but I mean,
- 14:29SPEAKER_02: it's just it's also not,
- 14:31SPEAKER_02: from a business standpoint,
- 14:33SPEAKER_02: the good old days of Barack Obama circa 2013,
- 14:36SPEAKER_02: right?
- 14:38SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 14:39SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 14:39SPEAKER_02: there's a question of people who are annoyed,
- 14:42SPEAKER_02: but there's also just a question of,
- 14:43SPEAKER_02: like,
- 14:44SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 14:45SPEAKER_02: Democrats under Biden in a low-key but,
- 14:50SPEAKER_02: like,
- 14:51SPEAKER_02: high visibility to the tech industry way—
- 14:56were really pushing ideas that were bad for the biggest
- 14:59companies in America.
- 15:00SPEAKER_02: And post-Biden, as Democrats are increasingly...
- 15:08speaking,
- 15:09you know,
- 15:10Biden was not a forceful presence as an individual,
- 15:13right?
- 15:13SPEAKER_01: Which is what I think the culture,
- 15:15SPEAKER_01: like how Democrats lost the culture is that Biden was super uncool.
- 15:18SPEAKER_01: That's it.
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: That's it.
- 15:20SPEAKER_02: Well, that is part of it, right?
- 15:22SPEAKER_02: But I mean,
- 15:22SPEAKER_02: in terms of these other dynamics,
- 15:24SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 15:25SPEAKER_02: you could have had a read that was like,
- 15:28SPEAKER_02: while Sleepy Joe was napping in the West Wing,
- 15:31SPEAKER_02: Lena Kahn was running amok,
- 15:33SPEAKER_02: but like other Democrats will come out of the woodwork and be like,
- 15:37SPEAKER_02: no, no, no, that was bad.
- 15:39But like,
- 15:39that's quite clearly not what Democrats have been saying since
- 15:42the election.
- 15:43SPEAKER_02: You know,
- 15:43SPEAKER_02: as more people are speaking more forcefully with their own voices,
- 15:49you're seeing more and more and more that like Democrats are
- 15:54like really just like
- 15:58SPEAKER_02: more left wing on economic issues than they used to be.
- 16:02SPEAKER_02: And one can make of that, you know, what one will, but I think it's,
- 16:09To be expected that if you say like we're against billionaires
- 16:13as a class and want
- 16:15SPEAKER_02: to purge them and break up their companies and so on and so forth,
- 16:18SPEAKER_02: like,
- 16:19SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 16:19SPEAKER_02: they're going to go be Republicans.
- 16:21SPEAKER_02: And unlike other stuff that Democrats do that I think is like really,
- 16:25SPEAKER_02: really bad and stupid,
- 16:26SPEAKER_02: I'm open to this,
- 16:29SPEAKER_02: like the historic role of a center left political party.
- 16:32is to be badly outspent in campaigns and elections and to have
- 16:35the bulk of
- 16:37businesses and CEOs talking about how you will destroy the
- 16:40economy and expressing
- 16:42SPEAKER_02: no gratitude for anything useful that you do.
- 16:46SPEAKER_02: And,
- 16:46SPEAKER_02: like,
- 16:46that's fine if you're willing to sort of make your bed with it
- 16:50and align your
- 16:50cultural politics accordingly and make economic policy ideas
- 16:54that are good.
- 16:57SPEAKER_02: But, you know, I think it...
- 17:02I just think it shows that like we're going to have an enduring
- 17:06– I don't even want
- 17:07SPEAKER_02: to call it realignment,
- 17:08SPEAKER_02: but just like normal alignment.
- 17:10That like the leaders of the 10 biggest companies in America
- 17:15will largely prefer
- 17:16Republicans and will do what they can to put their thumb on the
- 17:20scale in favor of
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: it.
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: It still feels different to me because like –
- 17:24Yeah,
- 17:25there are Democrats who use anti-billionaire rhetoric,
- 17:29and I think it's fine.
- 17:31There are still several billionaires who align with the
- 17:33Democratic Party and
- 17:34SPEAKER_01: realize that this isn't some sort of like...
- 17:37SPEAKER_01: major ego bruise that they can live with.
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 17:39SPEAKER_02: But it was with Warren's trying to get rid of them.
- 17:41SPEAKER_01: Like that's her, that's her whole thing.
- 17:43SPEAKER_01: But like get rid of them or like charge them a little bit more in taxes.
- 17:47Like there are,
- 17:48there are billionaires who are okay with that arrangement.
- 17:51SPEAKER_01: And then there are billionaires who are not.
- 17:52SPEAKER_01: And the,
- 17:53SPEAKER_01: and I don't know what's happened in the,
- 17:54SPEAKER_01: in the whole population of American billionaires,
- 17:57SPEAKER_01: but the radicalized in turn seems very concentrated and
- 18:03SPEAKER_01: in the Silicon Valley slash tech slash crypto AI corner of it.
- 18:10SPEAKER_01: Not even like Wall Street or whatever, but like there.
- 18:12SPEAKER_01: Right, but the other... Okay.
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: And what I sense from Democrats is a...
- 18:21like,
- 18:21radicalized rage against that posse of,
- 18:25like,
- 18:26Trump-aligned tech billionaires.
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 18:28Much more so than,
- 18:29like,
- 18:30you know,
- 18:34broad,
- 18:35like,
- 18:35class warrior shift across the whole party.
- 18:38SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 18:39SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing that I think people need to think about, right?
- 18:41SPEAKER_02: Which is that before tech was that big of a deal, right?
- 18:48SPEAKER_02: All...
- 18:49SPEAKER_02: Sorry, put it a different way.
- 18:50SPEAKER_02: As tech started to rise,
- 18:52one of the things that was noteworthy about tech is that the
- 18:55tech industry was
- 18:56SPEAKER_02: centered in California and Washington State,
- 18:59and that the vast majority of its employees were themselves
- 19:03relatively high-wage,
- 19:06SPEAKER_02: progressively-minded,
- 19:08SPEAKER_02: college-educated professionals,
- 19:10SPEAKER_02: right?
- 19:10SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, if you look at, like, the politics of 2010, right?
- 19:14SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 19:15Silicon Valley is probably the most progressive industry in
- 19:20America in terms of its
- 19:22SPEAKER_02: executive behaviors,
- 19:23SPEAKER_02: et cetera,
- 19:24SPEAKER_02: et cetera,
- 19:24SPEAKER_02: et cetera.
- 19:25SPEAKER_02: As tech has gotten way bigger than it was in 2010,
- 19:29SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 19:29SPEAKER_02: those were not,
- 19:31SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 19:31SPEAKER_02: right now,
- 19:32SPEAKER_02: like,
- 19:32SPEAKER_02: that all the biggest companies in America are tech companies,
- 19:36SPEAKER_02: like everything is tech,
- 19:38SPEAKER_02: and the biggest tech leaders have become way more right-wing,
- 19:41SPEAKER_02: and Democrats are really mad about that,
- 19:43SPEAKER_02: and that's fair enough.
- 19:44SPEAKER_02: But it's not like Democrats have gotten,
- 19:47SPEAKER_02: developed a friendlier relationship with the executives of
- 19:53SPEAKER_02: the biggest retailing and manufacturing companies in America,
- 19:56those companies have just always been super duper right way
- 20:00because they have tons
- 20:01SPEAKER_02: and tons and tons of like really banal,
- 20:04SPEAKER_02: day-to-day,
- 20:05SPEAKER_02: picayune,
- 20:06SPEAKER_02: labor and environmental regulatory issues that like have always made them
- 20:10SPEAKER_02: conservative.
- 20:11SPEAKER_02: And,
- 20:12SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 20:12SPEAKER_02: you hear sometimes in like things people say,
- 20:17like an aspirational sectoral realignment where like Democrats
- 20:22are going to try to
- 20:22SPEAKER_02: like pivot the economy away from this like ephemeral,
- 20:27like slop economy of cryptocurrency and AI and data centers and
- 20:32like stand for,
- 20:33SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 20:34SPEAKER_02: for like real stuff.
- 20:35SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 20:35SPEAKER_02: But you're not.
- 20:36like seeing America's farmers and ranchers or agribusiness
- 20:40concerns or the,
- 20:43SPEAKER_02: like the CEO of Home Depot,
- 20:45SPEAKER_02: I think was Mitt Romney's biggest donor.
- 20:47He's not Donald Trump's biggest donor,
- 20:49but that's not because he's giving less to Trump.
- 20:51SPEAKER_02: It's because Elon Musk is giving more.
- 20:54SPEAKER_02: And so like, it's, it's fine as far as it goes.
- 20:58SPEAKER_02: But it's a,
- 21:00SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 21:00SPEAKER_02: it's a question of like,
- 21:01SPEAKER_02: what ultimately is your political coalition supposed to
- 21:08SPEAKER_02: Now,
- 21:08SPEAKER_02: like,
- 21:09SPEAKER_02: Bill Clinton had a very,
- 21:11SPEAKER_02: very working class,
- 21:12SPEAKER_02: very socioeconomically downscale political coalition that backed him.
- 21:16SPEAKER_02: And he won twice by very large margins.
- 21:18SPEAKER_02: He had a very narrow fundraising base that was heavily dependent on,
- 21:24SPEAKER_02: like,
- 21:24SPEAKER_02: movie stars and record company executives and other people,
- 21:28SPEAKER_02: like,
- 21:28SPEAKER_02: narrowly in the cool game.
- 21:32SPEAKER_02: And, you know, he won.
- 21:33SPEAKER_02: The way he did that was he was, like...
- 21:35SPEAKER_02: way more moderate on cultural issues than any subsequent Democrats.
- 21:41SPEAKER_02: So I think it's interesting.
- 21:43But I do think that the Trump cool factor has proven to be very
- 21:50ephemeral in
- 21:51SPEAKER_02: And that it's not just that Joe Biden was old,
- 21:54but it's that the youngest cohort of people are the most
- 21:59influenced by super duper
- 22:00SPEAKER_02: duper short term events.
- 22:02SPEAKER_02: And so if you were like 21 in 2024,
- 22:06SPEAKER_02: the only thing that had ever happened in the economy in your lifetime was
- 22:10SPEAKER_02: inflation.
- 22:11And those people like said in polls that they were really mad
- 22:14about inflation.
- 22:15SPEAKER_02: And Donald Trump said he was going to make prices be lower.
- 22:18SPEAKER_02: And then he became president.
- 22:21SPEAKER_02: He hasn't done that.
- 22:23SPEAKER_02: And he's he's lost the most ground with young voters,
- 22:28SPEAKER_02: Hispanic moderates,
- 22:29SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 22:30SPEAKER_02: the the most like inattentive,
- 22:33sort of like not that political kind of demographics that had
- 22:37swung heavily toward
- 22:39him over the inflation issue and where he is like just like
- 22:42genuinely done nothing,
- 22:44SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 22:44and it's like there's a reason why everyone is now scrambling
- 22:49desperately.
- 22:50SPEAKER_02: to like reframe whatever they want to do as affordability.
- 22:55SPEAKER_02: Because that like actually does matter to people,
- 22:59even though to anyone who cares about like big ideas and like
- 23:03the grand stakes of
- 23:04SPEAKER_02: democracy,
- 23:05SPEAKER_02: it seems a little...
- 23:07SPEAKER_02: petty to be like so amped up about utility prices.
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: I just think people need to be clear in their head about,
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: about two different kinds of antagonism,
- 23:17SPEAKER_01: right?
- 23:18SPEAKER_01: One is that if,
- 23:19SPEAKER_01: if Democrats are going to try to do working class politics,
- 23:22SPEAKER_01: maybe they need to moderate on cultural issues,
- 23:25SPEAKER_01: but they should expect the kind of picayune,
- 23:28SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 23:29SPEAKER_01: the home Depot guy donates to Republicans thing.
- 23:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:32SPEAKER_01: to be like a consistent feature of politics.
- 23:37SPEAKER_01: I think that's separate from the question,
- 23:39SPEAKER_01: what do you do about the interest groups that you went to bat for,
- 23:44SPEAKER_01: whether it's the tech industry or like the Teamsters?
- 23:48And their response to you bailing out their pensions or bailing
- 23:56out Silicon Valley
- 23:57SPEAKER_01: Bank is to swing to the Republicans.
- 24:00SPEAKER_01: It's like in that case, I think that like you do need for like –
- 24:07SPEAKER_01: just basic moral hazard reasons to not say,
- 24:11SPEAKER_01: well,
- 24:11our mistake was that we didn't pander hard enough to these
- 24:14powerful interest
- 24:14SPEAKER_01: groups.
- 24:15You need to like twist the knife when you get back into power
- 24:19so that they don't
- 24:20SPEAKER_01: feel like there's only one vindictive party in the United States.
- 24:24SPEAKER_01: It's the Republicans.
- 24:26SPEAKER_01: And so when it's election time,
- 24:27do I do the Jeff Bezos move and hedge because you know Kamala
- 24:31Harris isn't going to
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: come after me?
- 24:34Or do you think I better I better actually be neutral or I
- 24:37better support the
- 24:38Democrat because we know that they're capable of being
- 24:42retributive as well.
- 24:43SPEAKER_02: And I agree about that.
- 24:45SPEAKER_02: I'm glad that you mentioned the teamsters in this regard,
- 24:47SPEAKER_02: because,
- 24:47SPEAKER_02: again,
- 24:48SPEAKER_02: like I have seen a real asymmetry since the election.
- 24:51Like since the election,
- 24:52I have seen almost every Democratic Party elected official.
- 24:55SPEAKER_02: There's the ones I hate and there's the ones I like.
- 24:58SPEAKER_02: And they have all done like a harder,
- 25:01harder edged anti-tech tilt in their rhetoric because they are
- 25:06like butthurt about
- 25:07SPEAKER_02: this.
- 25:09The Teamsters,
- 25:10it seems to me,
- 25:10like,
- 25:11fucked the Democratic Party way harder than Tech did.
- 25:15SPEAKER_01: Because, like, you know.
- 25:18SPEAKER_01: Or, like, Elon Musk, David Sachs, these specific motherfuckers.
- 25:23Well,
- 25:24but,
- 25:24like,
- 25:24I don't think those guys betrayed Democrats in any meaningful
- 25:30way.
- 25:31SPEAKER_01: They just lied about them and bought Twitter.
- 25:37SPEAKER_02: But I'm saying betrayal.
- 25:38SPEAKER_02: Betrayal.
- 25:39SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 25:40The position of Donald Trump and the Republican Party forever
- 25:45has been that labor
- 25:46SPEAKER_02: unions should not exist.
- 25:48SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 25:49And like labor unions have always supported Democrats because
- 25:52Democrats support the
- 25:53SPEAKER_02: existence of labor unions.
- 25:54SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 25:55Democrats went way out of their way to not just be like,
- 25:59we think labor unions should exist.
- 26:01SPEAKER_02: We think labor unions are good.
- 26:02SPEAKER_02: But they were like,
- 26:02we think a big chunk of taxpayer dollars should just be
- 26:06transferred into the
- 26:07SPEAKER_02: Teamsters pension fund.
- 26:09SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 26:10SPEAKER_02: After which, not only did the Teamsters not endorse Kamala Harris, but
- 26:14SPEAKER_02: They didn't even say,
- 26:16SPEAKER_02: in our non-endorsement of Kamala Harris,
- 26:19the balance we are striking is that Democrats bailed out our
- 26:23pension fund,
- 26:24SPEAKER_02: but we agree more with Republicans about some other issues.
- 26:27SPEAKER_02: They just like went up on stage and- At the RNC.
- 26:31At the RNC and lied about Democrats' policies vis-a-vis the
- 26:37Teamsters unions.
- 26:38SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 26:39And then Democrats have responded to that by being the
- 26:43political party that is more
- 26:45SPEAKER_02: hostile to autonomous vehicles.
- 26:50SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 26:50SPEAKER_02: Like,
- 26:51SPEAKER_02: in Massachusetts,
- 26:52there is a move in the state legislature to ban self-driving
- 26:56taxis that is being
- 26:57SPEAKER_02: pushed by the Teamsters Union.
- 26:59SPEAKER_02: It's just Democrats who are for that, right?
- 27:02SPEAKER_02: And,
- 27:02SPEAKER_02: like,
- 27:03SPEAKER_02: you look at the maps of,
- 27:04SPEAKER_02: like,
- 27:04SPEAKER_02: where is Waymo existing,
- 27:05SPEAKER_02: etc.,
- 27:06SPEAKER_02: etc.,
- 27:06SPEAKER_02: etc.,
- 27:07SPEAKER_02: and it's exclusively...
- 27:09like,
- 27:09blue states that are giving them problems,
- 27:12and it's all on behalf of the Teamsters Union.
- 27:14SPEAKER_02: So you have,
- 27:15SPEAKER_02: like,
- 27:15SPEAKER_02: Democrats doing bad policy to help the Teamsters,
- 27:18SPEAKER_02: the Teamsters not supporting them,
- 27:20SPEAKER_02: Trump winning the election,
- 27:22SPEAKER_02: and the Democrats just coming back to be like,
- 27:24SPEAKER_02: let's do more bad policy on behalf of the Teamsters.
- 27:28SPEAKER_02: And, you know, there's tactics, whatever.
- 27:30I think there's a lot of good questions about how you should
- 27:32handle the David
- 27:34Sachses and the Elon Musk's of the world when you come back
- 27:37into politics.
- 27:38SPEAKER_02: office,
- 27:39but like the only move Democrats have over the past several
- 27:44years is just like go
- 27:45SPEAKER_02: more left wing,
- 27:47SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 27:47SPEAKER_02: on everything.
- 27:48SPEAKER_02: So it's like pander more to the teamsters,
- 27:50SPEAKER_02: but pander less,
- 27:52SPEAKER_02: uh,
- 27:52SPEAKER_02: to the tech industry while also being more left wing on energy policy,
- 27:56SPEAKER_02: also more left wing,
- 27:57SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 27:58SPEAKER_02: on everything,
- 27:59SPEAKER_02: um,
- 27:59SPEAKER_02: time and time again.
- 28:00SPEAKER_02: Um, um,
- 28:04SPEAKER_02: To me,
- 28:04SPEAKER_02: the interesting thing about the Super Bowl is that for all this talk of,
- 28:07SPEAKER_02: like,
- 28:07SPEAKER_02: Trump's vindictiveness,
- 28:09SPEAKER_02: like,
- 28:11SPEAKER_02: nothing's happening to NBCUniversal or the National Football League.
- 28:16SPEAKER_01: Not yet, and maybe not at all.
- 28:18SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of the— Like, it's fine.
- 28:21SPEAKER_01: Like,
- 28:21you can just— One of the crazy Republican congressmen is trying
- 28:24to sick the FCC on
- 28:26SPEAKER_01: NBC for airing the Bad Bunny concert and—
- 28:29SPEAKER_02: And I mean,
- 28:30SPEAKER_02: we'll see what happens,
- 28:31SPEAKER_02: but there are no actual examples of this like alleged Trump vindictive.
- 28:39I don't want to like exonerate Trump against the charges of
- 28:42having inappropriate
- 28:43SPEAKER_02: aspirations,
- 28:44like when they tried to get Jimmy Kimmel thrown off the air in
- 28:47the Charlie Kirk
- 28:48SPEAKER_02: crackdown.
- 28:49SPEAKER_02: But like there was intense backlash to that and it didn't work, you know?
- 28:55SPEAKER_02: So it's like if...
- 28:59SPEAKER_02: whoever, wanted to do whatever.
- 29:01SPEAKER_02: Like,
- 29:02I think that this continues to be a country with more or less
- 29:05the rule of law and
- 29:06SPEAKER_02: electoral democracy.
- 29:08SPEAKER_02: And it's like,
- 29:09SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 29:10SPEAKER_02: if you want to support Trump because you want to support Trump,
- 29:12SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 29:13SPEAKER_02: God bless.
- 29:14SPEAKER_02: But like,
- 29:15SPEAKER_02: you can put Bad Bunny on the Super Bowl and the halftime show and like,
- 29:19SPEAKER_02: your business will be fine.
- 29:20SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no...
- 29:22SPEAKER_02: The fires of hell have not rained down.
- 29:24SPEAKER_01: I think you're saying that Trump is more bark than bite,
- 29:28SPEAKER_01: but I think that that's...
- 29:30SPEAKER_02: It's not that he's more bark than bite.
- 29:32It's just like the basic institutional framework of the United
- 29:35States of America.
- 29:38SPEAKER_02: Like, it's just still in place.
- 29:40SPEAKER_02: And like, it's a bit of a conjurer's trick.
- 29:43SPEAKER_01: What I mean, though, is that like...
- 29:45SPEAKER_01: NBC had to make a gamble.
- 29:47SPEAKER_01: They didn't know for certain Trump wasn't going to do something.
- 29:50SPEAKER_00: Sure.
- 29:51SPEAKER_01: They reasoned that this would pay off, right?
- 29:55SPEAKER_01: Like, it would be the better bet.
- 29:57SPEAKER_01: And I think that they were right about that,
- 29:58SPEAKER_01: even if Trump does try some heavy-handed crap with them.
- 30:02SPEAKER_01: But his...
- 30:04Putting everyone on notice that this is how he operates things
- 30:08and that you will
- 30:08SPEAKER_01: lose contracts if you don't do what I say.
- 30:11SPEAKER_01: We will find other ways to punish you,
- 30:12SPEAKER_01: but we will find ways to reward you if you put money in my pocket.
- 30:16SPEAKER_01: The existence of that spoil system inherently warps the calculation of...
- 30:27companies they shouldn't have to run the calculation that i
- 30:30said that that they ran
- 30:31like they shouldn't have to make a gamble they should just know
- 30:34right we can we air
- 30:36the super bowl we don't even really give a fuck who's doing the
- 30:39halftime show and
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: um i just think that that like uh is a
- 30:51it's like the corrupt Trump method of trying to sway interest
- 30:57groups into doing his bidding.
- 31:00And because Democrats are like not crooks like that,
- 31:04they have like only public policy levers.
- 31:07You either like support workers or you do policies that don't
- 31:14support workers.
- 31:15SPEAKER_01: You have...
- 31:17SPEAKER_01: like a tax system that is progressive or you don't.
- 31:20SPEAKER_01: And I don't,
- 31:23I don't know how it's all going to wash out in terms of like
- 31:25voting dynamics and
- 31:27whether CEOs decide that like a little bit more in taxes is
- 31:32worth it for stability
- 31:33SPEAKER_01: and to not be over the barrel by this corrupt fucking thug.
- 31:37SPEAKER_01: But like that, like,
- 31:41SPEAKER_01: they have to make the whole calculation, right?
- 31:44Including aspects of like democratic policy that maybe they
- 31:49don't like,
- 31:49but like,
- 31:50I don't know.
- 31:50SPEAKER_01: Like it,
- 31:51it seems like you put a lot of weight on the idea that like
- 31:55various democratic
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: regulatory ideas are a little annoying to some of these companies,
- 32:00but none on the idea that they find being prostrate like this
- 32:04to Donald Trump to be
- 32:05SPEAKER_01: both harmful to their business.
- 32:07SPEAKER_01: And also just like,
- 32:09uh beneath them in some sense and i mean i i don't know what to
- 32:12tell you you know i
- 32:13just i i hear what i hear i'm told what i'm told um you know
- 32:18there is very very
- 32:21very intense intra-coalitional pressure inside the democratic
- 32:25party on everyone to
- 32:27SPEAKER_02: not say
- 32:29SPEAKER_02: Like,
- 32:30SPEAKER_02: I think the Lena Kahn era was a mistake,
- 32:32SPEAKER_02: and I don't want to return to that regulatory posture.
- 32:35SPEAKER_02: And it is also true,
- 32:36SPEAKER_02: like,
- 32:38the pro-Kahnites will tell you accurately that there is a lot
- 32:42of pressure from the
- 32:43SPEAKER_02: business community,
- 32:44SPEAKER_02: from the Dem-sympathetic sides of the business community,
- 32:48SPEAKER_02: to say,
- 32:48SPEAKER_02: like,
- 32:48SPEAKER_02: throw us a lifeline,
- 32:49SPEAKER_02: like,
- 32:50SPEAKER_02: disavow this.
- 32:52And there's a lot of pressure inside the Democratic Party to
- 32:54make sure that nobody...
- 32:56SPEAKER_02: does disavow it.
- 32:57SPEAKER_02: And I think it is 100% reasonable,
- 32:59SPEAKER_02: 1,000% reasonable,
- 33:01SPEAKER_02: 10,000% reasonable for the Democrat in the street to say to themselves,
- 33:06SPEAKER_02: I don't understand why this is such a big deal.
- 33:08SPEAKER_02: I am annoyed that it's a huge sticking point.
- 33:11SPEAKER_02: But it is a huge sticking point.
- 33:13And for now,
- 33:15every single Democrat in elective office is choosing to side
- 33:19with the
- 33:22sticky leftists about this rather than the sticky culturally
- 33:26progressive business
- 33:27people about this and i think everyone should ask themselves
- 33:31not just like who am i
- 33:33SPEAKER_02: most annoyed with but like is the juice worth the squeeze on
- 33:40SPEAKER_02: Abandoning traditional, like it's so stupid.
- 33:44SPEAKER_02: I think if you got in a time machine,
- 33:46SPEAKER_02: you say like one of the most important issues,
- 33:49SPEAKER_02: high profile,
- 33:51SPEAKER_02: like endless clashing,
- 33:53SPEAKER_02: et cetera,
- 33:54that is going to bear like massive financial and political
- 33:57costs is whether or not
- 33:59SPEAKER_02: antitrust policy should be guided by consumer welfare standard,
- 34:04or should we attempt to create a different analytic standard
- 34:08for judging merger
- 34:09SPEAKER_02: approvals?
- 34:10SPEAKER_02: Like, who fucking cares?
- 34:12SPEAKER_02: Like, let's try to beat Donald Trump, I would say.
- 34:15SPEAKER_02: But many people care.
- 34:17SPEAKER_01: Well,
- 34:17SPEAKER_01: I this is actually like a great segue into talking about Virginia,
- 34:20SPEAKER_01: which we're way overdue to do.
- 34:22SPEAKER_01: But let's talk about Virginia.
- 34:23SPEAKER_01: I agree with you that it's the who fucking cares.
- 34:26This should be an easy bone to throw because it's a promise you
- 34:28can easily break if
- 34:29SPEAKER_01: you decide you want to break it.
- 34:31SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, go ahead and say, OK, sure.
- 34:33SPEAKER_01: No more Lena Khan.
- 34:34And then you win the next election and you can point whoever
- 34:37you want to run the FTC.
- 34:39SPEAKER_02: Sure.
- 34:40I mean,
- 34:40you can't because you would have to have a Senate majority to
- 34:44appoint anybody.
- 34:46SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of Democratic Party.
- 34:48SPEAKER_01: Oh, no, that's all over.
- 34:48SPEAKER_01: You just you just shove actings in and they do whatever they want.
- 34:51SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll see.
- 34:52SPEAKER_01: OK, we'll see.
- 34:53SPEAKER_01: We were supposed to do this before the.
- 34:56SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll do it after the break.
- 34:57SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:57So we're going to talk about an alternative model of just
- 35:02fighting Trump and not
- 35:03concerning yourself with intercoalitional fighting in Virginia
- 35:09on the other side of
- 35:09SPEAKER_01: the break.
- 35:10If you want to hear that conversation,
- 35:12go to politics.fm and upgrade your subscription.