Why Republicans Are BEATING US at the Bumper Sticker Wars (ft. Sen. Raphael Warnock)

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Speaker 12 Welcome, Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.

Speaker 13 And I'm Jessica Tarlev.

Speaker 12 Today we're joined by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. Thank you for being here, Senator.

Speaker 14 Great to be here with you.

Speaker 12 So let's buss right into it. Senator, this week, Trump once again joked about scrapping the Constitution so he could serve a third term.
How should Democrats deal with this this kind of talk?

Speaker 12 Do we call it out every time, ignore it, or is this exactly the type of distraction that he wants?

Speaker 14 Well, what Mr. Trump has demonstrated from the day he came down that escalator into our lives over the last decade is that he's fundamentally an unserious person.

Speaker 14 But the office, obviously, is one that has huge consequences, and these are serious times. I think that Democrats have to stay focused on the people that we were sent here to serve.

Speaker 14 And so I focus on them every single day. I take seriously his autocratic authoritarian designs on our country.

Speaker 14 And part of what they're trying to do, and I get that in your question, is it, you know, this notion of flooding the zone. They are literally trying to weaponize despair.

Speaker 14 And so every single day, several times a day, there's some new awfulness to respond to.

Speaker 14 I think you have to pick the ones you're going to respond to. But above all, you've got to center the people their everyday needs.
Right now, there is a looming health crisis in this country.

Speaker 14 They've cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid.

Speaker 14 We're going to see the health premiums for 22 million Americans go up as a result of the game that they're playing right now, not extending these ACA tax credits.

Speaker 14 And meanwhile, folks this very weekend are poised not to receive their SNAP benefits.

Speaker 14 So the country's getting sicker, it's getting poorer, and we've got to make sure that we hold him accountable and let the people know that it's really in their hands, even as we fight for their best interests.

Speaker 12 Aaron Powell, so it's hard to argue with. Stay focused on the people, 20 million people losing health care, 40 million people losing their SNAP benefits.
I think some of the frustration is trying to

Speaker 12 transition from these statements that are hard to argue with to operationalizing it. Or put another way, what does that mean, Senator?

Speaker 12 Like, what can Democrats such as yourself do to push back and actually affect change and stop what's going on?

Speaker 14 Well, right now, we're using the tools that we have to fight on this healthcare crisis. I mean, you're right as you point out

Speaker 14 that the Republicans have the White House, they have the majority in the House, they have the majority in the Senate.

Speaker 14 And so part of the work that we have to do is remind the people of that, even as we're engaged right now in this health care.

Speaker 14 This is a Republican shutdown, and we have to make sure that the people understand that. I have voted seven times over the last few weeks to reopen the government and to extend health care.

Speaker 14 And I reject wholeheartedly this idea that it's one or the other, that we open the government and then we allow the premiums of 22 million people. 22 million people to go up.
This is their problem.

Speaker 14 They can fix it if they choose to come to the table. There's a reason why you're required to have 60 votes in the Senate.
That assumes some kind of bipartisan negotiation.

Speaker 14 And what we're witnessing right now is a Republican Party that does absolutely nothing unless Donald Trump greenlights it. And so we got to keep holding them accountable, hold their feet to the fire.

Speaker 14 And that I intend to continue to do over the next several days. Just

Speaker 13 so you broke with the party a bit in voting to pay essential workers, also John Ossoff, the other senator from Georgia, and John Fetterman.

Speaker 13 The Republicans seem very dug in, though, and not yet moving towards nuking the filibuster in order to reopen the government. If you were a betting man,

Speaker 13 how would you say this ends and when?

Speaker 14 Well, I'm always going to place my best foot to people.

Speaker 14 And I don't know when and, you know, we win, but I'm not focused on the politicians.

Speaker 14 I think part of the reason why we are here, honestly, is that too often these issues get framed as a political problem. Who's up? Who's down? Who's winning? The Republicans or the Democrats.

Speaker 14 And meanwhile, you're seeing ordinary citizens become increasingly disconnected from the political conversation, disconnected.

Speaker 14 from government because they they see a widening chasm between where they actually live,

Speaker 14 their struggles to have affordable housing, for example, in a moment in our country where young people can't buy a house. I think about, you know, I grew up in public housing, but

Speaker 14 as a young person, I was able to buy a home. Young people are struggling with that right now.
A livable wage, health care.

Speaker 14 And they're seeing a broadening chasm between what Americans want and what their government leaders are actually able to deliver.

Speaker 14 And so so I don't want to frame this whole healthcare fight about who's winning Democrats, Republicans. The irony is there are more red districts and red states that are going to see devastation

Speaker 14 as a result of the ways in which they are waging war against the healthcare of ordinary Americans. It's really the red districts in Georgia.
I was down in Evans County a few weeks ago.

Speaker 14 This is a district where I don't have a lot of votes, to be honest. They voted for Donald Trump.
You know, I'm the senator from Georgia, but it's a red district.

Speaker 14 But their hospital is teetering because of previous cuts. They had to close their labor and delivery unit.
Not only them, but the other three hospitals that are in the region.

Speaker 14 So here you are, a rural citizen, and out of the four hospitals that are in your region, not one of them has a labor and delivery. unit.
So even if you have insurance, you're in trouble.

Speaker 14 And now they may have to close their ICU. These are red districts.

Speaker 14 I don't know why the Republicans are waging war against their own people, but I'm going to stand up for those people in Evans County, whether they voted for me or not.

Speaker 13 Well, I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 13 And that brings me to the second question I wanted to ask you, which is as somebody who has to win tough races to stay in the Senate, represent a red state, what do you think the Democratic Party is missing about how to win over swing voters and even some disenchanted Republicans.

Speaker 14 You have to show up for people. You know, long before I came to the Senate, you know, I've spent the bulk of my adult career as a pastor.

Speaker 14 I knew early on as a kid that that was my route, that ministry would be my path. And my work in the Senate,

Speaker 14 not in the sense of creeds and orthodoxy, but values and love and commitment to people, my work in the Senate is an extension of that ministry.

Speaker 14 And so one of the things that I often talk about is the ministry of presence. You can't always solve people's problem on a dime.
I think you got to keep working at it.

Speaker 14 There's no easy solution, as you point out, to the crisis that we found ourselves in right now. I mean, I think there is an easy solution.

Speaker 14 It's politics that makes it hard. But it's important to show up for people.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Speaker 14 There's something to the ministry of presence. I committed to the people of Georgia that I would walk with them even as I work for them.
You can't serve the people unless you love the people.

Speaker 14 You can't really love the people unless you know the people. Can't know the people unless you walk with the people.
And so I spend time all over Georgia.

Speaker 14 I won five times in a red state in less than three years because I didn't write off any districts.

Speaker 14 I went to those rural places and I talked to those farmers and I talked to those people in those communities who right now are seeing devastation because we've had more than a dozen hospitals to close in Georgia over the last several years with these severe cuts to SNAP.

Speaker 14 You know who that hurts disproportionately? People in rural districts, people in red districts. And not only the people who depend on SNAP, but it's a gut punch on those rural economies.

Speaker 14 You think about the small stores

Speaker 14 where they take SNAP. It's a real gut punch.
And the question that I think we have to keep asking those voters is who's looking out out for you? Who's fighting for you?

Speaker 14 I think the question is important about why Democrats are struggling with certain voters. But the truth is both parties are.

Speaker 14 And I think while the question is important, part of the reason why we're here is the obsession with the politics, the obsession with the party.

Speaker 14 I think a sure way to death for a party, is to be obsessed with self-preservation.

Speaker 14 I think voters they can sniff that out when politicians are thinking about themselves rather than the people that they're sent there to serve.

Speaker 14 I think if we center the people, we provide hopefully for them a path to thrive, a path to employment that gives them a livable wage, that they can have health care, retire in dignity.

Speaker 14 And I also think that you give the party a chance. But if you center the politicians, that is a sure path to death.

Speaker 12 Senator, what do you make of candidates like Zoran Mamdani and Graham Plattner? What do you think it says about the future of the Democratic Party?

Speaker 14 Look, I think

Speaker 14 the ideological questions are important ones. We'll have honest conversations and debates about that.

Speaker 14 But what a candidate like Mondami has done, and I lived in New York as a seminary student for a decade, a long time ago, but I know a little bit about living in that city.

Speaker 14 He's speaking to the affordability crisis. While, you know, talking heads are having arguments about ideology and

Speaker 14 labels, he's put his finger right where people hurt.

Speaker 14 They can't afford to make their lives work.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 I think that's the beginning of an important conversation.

Speaker 12 Okay, let's take a quick break.

Speaker 14 Stay with us.

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Speaker 12 Welcome back.

Speaker 12 We on the pod here, we talk a lot about the struggles of young men in our country. And we're curious as a pastor

Speaker 12 what role you think religion and the church and other religious institutions can play in helping to address the problem of struggling young men

Speaker 14 well you know churches provide for us a community

Speaker 14 and we live in a country and at a time

Speaker 14 where people are isolated in a world that is teeming with hyper connectivity. I mean, that's the irony.
There's that people are isolated in a deeply connected world, virtually connected world.

Speaker 14 And churches and other communities of faith, temples, mosques, provide spaces for people to live out a sense of community and common cause. We try to do that every single day in my church.

Speaker 14 I continue to serve as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. I return to my pulpit.
Every Sunday, it's the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaker 14 And it's a place place where we have an intergenerational conversation and congregation. And I think it's because young people see us engaged in issues that they're concerned about.

Speaker 14 I've been working on a whole range of issues for a number of years, long before I came to the Senate. I was focused on this issue of mass incarceration.

Speaker 14 The issue with men in general in our country is a major problem. But, you know, black men have been literally siphoned out of our communities

Speaker 14 over the last 40 years or so.

Speaker 14 Through Republican and Democratic administrations, we've seen politicians, particularly in eras gone by, we're seeing this now, politicians sort of elevating themselves and their career by engaging in the politics of fear and division and notions of criminality and connecting that to dangerousness in black men.

Speaker 14 And as a result of that, we're literally seeing black men siphoned out of their communities.

Speaker 14 And the impact of that in places where I have served in Atlanta, in Baltimore, in Harlem, has been devastating

Speaker 14 on those communities. And so the question is, who's going to speak to that? Who's going to give people a path to hope?

Speaker 14 I do a lot of work on workforce development because I think jobs, I think work gives people a sense of dignity. a sense of pride, a sense of purpose.

Speaker 14 I had a father who was a Pentecostal preacher, small church I grew grew up in, but he was also a small businessman who literally fed his family by picking up old junk cars that he loaded on the back of a rig, the mechanisms of which he constructed himself.

Speaker 14 I don't know how my dad did it without a degree in physics or engineering.

Speaker 14 He'd literally draw it on the paper, and I watched him load these cars on the back of a truck, pick up these old junk cars during the week. But on Sunday morning, he was a preacher.

Speaker 14 And the man who picked up old junk cars picked up broken people and reminded them of their value he had this sermon that he would preach to me every sunday morning and this guy that my work in my life basically was every morning he would tell us get up get dressed put your shoes on putting your shoes on was a sign of readiness and and being prepared and and that has informed uh my life it's given me a sense of purpose uh and passion both for ministry and now the work that i continue to do i think we got to find a way to awaken that i think every kid has that light in their eye and i love love to see kids come alive when they find that thing that they really want to do.

Speaker 14 And so much of that is slipping away from us. I grew up in public housing, and here I am, a United States senator.
I have a Ph.D.. I'm the pastor of Dr.
King's Church.

Speaker 14 The truth is that kid who grew up and graduated high school in 1987 would have a harder time now doing what I did.

Speaker 14 way back then. And that's what wakes me up every morning as a senator.
I want to give that kid a chance.

Speaker 13 I love that. It's an incredible success story and a real tribute to America that this is possible, that you're sitting here in the United States Senate, especially from a state like Georgia.

Speaker 13 And I'm curious as to what you think are the policies or what you are personally championing that you think can get us closer to that goal of getting more kids who grew up.

Speaker 13 like you or in worse conditions, you know, a chance to thrive and have, you know, happiness, a good marriage, good job, all of it.

Speaker 14 Yeah, absolutely. And again, it gives people a sense of dignity and purpose.
You know, as I said to you, my dad had a fierce work ethic. He told me to get up.
Didn't care what day of the week it was.

Speaker 14 You had to get up. One day I asked him, get up.
He said, get ready. I said, get ready to do what? He said, I don't know.
I'll tell you later. You just make sure you're ready.

Speaker 14 Right. So that's, that's the personal responsibility piece, right?

Speaker 14 But then there's also the public policy side.

Speaker 14 And sadly, in politics, we see people engage in these foolish arguments about left and right. Is it personal responsibilities? Is it public policy? Is both.

Speaker 14 My dad had a fierce work ethic, but guess what?

Speaker 14 I'm the beneficiary of his teaching, but I'm also the beneficiary of Head Start, a good federal program, which instilled and inspired in me a sense of learning as a kid, narrowing that word gap that we see between poor kids and middle class and affluent kids.

Speaker 14 I'm a product not only of Head Start, a good federal program.

Speaker 14 When I was in high school, I was a part of Upward Bound, another federal program, which put a kid who was growing up in public housing on a college campus during the summer where I lived in the dorms.

Speaker 14 And I went to Savannah State every Saturday, part of that same program. So I didn't have to ask myself if I belonged in college.

Speaker 14 Heck, I was already there because of a good federal program that creates dividends. For a time, my family needed SNAP.

Speaker 14 And then when I got ready to go to college, the tuition room and board at Morehouse College, private school, but I was determined to go there. Why? Because that's where Martin Luther King Jr.
went.

Speaker 14 And he just captured my imagination as a kid. But the tuition room and board was equal to my parents' income.
I couldn't go to Morehouse.

Speaker 14 But through Pell Grants and low-interest student loans, at a time when it was difficult, but it was doable,

Speaker 14 I was able to get through college. So I'm a product of good public policy, and that informs my work every single day.

Speaker 14 It's what informs my work on workforce development, for example.

Speaker 14 A couple of years ago, I was at the DeKat Peachtree Airport, and we were in the midst of working on the FAA reauthorization, which we do every five years in the aviation space.

Speaker 14 And I met a young man there. His name was Ezekiel.
I'll never forget him.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 this young man in his 20s, maybe 30 or so, he had that light in his eye that you want to see in the eye of every young person.

Speaker 14 He had found that thing that he would do for free, except that you got to make a living. He wanted to be a pilot.

Speaker 14 And when I think about him, I think of Howard Thurman, who said, Ask not what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go and do that, because what the world needs is people who would come alive.

Speaker 14 Ezekiel wanted to be a pilot.

Speaker 14 But 10 years later, 10 years later, and having spent $100,000 of his own money, this kid who clearly was capable because he was training others still had not become a pilot.

Speaker 14 We have made the path for that kid way too difficult.

Speaker 14 And so I got busy writing a piece of legislation called the Airways Bill, which seeks to ensure that kids, no matter what zip code they grow up in, have a path. to an industry where we need pilots.

Speaker 14 Not only do we need pilots, we need aviation mechanics. I mean, there are a whole range of good paying menu.

Speaker 13 We need a lot of stuff.

Speaker 14 We need a lot of people. We need a lot of stuff.
We need a lot of kids. And we made that path too hard for them.
And so that's part of the work that I try to do every single day.

Speaker 12 So just as we wrap up here, I think some of us are hoping that the Democratic Party

Speaker 12 reflects less indignants and more ideas. You know, a lot of us are outraged and upset about what's going on.
And

Speaker 12 I hope at some point we move to big, bold ideas. So, Senator Warner, give us a big, bold idea.

Speaker 12 If you wanted to bring something to the Senate floor and thought this would be a tectonic shift or really be beneficial for Americans, what's one big idea you would like to see enacted in America?

Speaker 14 Well, I agree with that. And I think part of it is people have convinced us that we suffer from a lack of resources.
What we actually suffer from is a lack of moral imagination.

Speaker 14 And I think that there are a whole range of things that we need to do.

Speaker 14 But at the end of the day, what I want to do is build an America, as I think about my own story, where a child's outcome is not based on their parents' income.

Speaker 14 So one of the things that we could do right now is we could really lean in on the child tax credit.

Speaker 14 We did that in 2021, literally cut child poverty in our country in half, but because we couldn't extend it, it was only for six months. We went back and

Speaker 14 doubled doubled poverty. And so I'm interested in the kinds of things that give poor families a chance.
I'd like to see us do some real investments in housing and in infrastructure in this country.

Speaker 14 Literally invest in America, put people back to work. Part of the reason why housing is unaffordable right now is we don't have nearly enough units.
And so we need to invest a whole lot more there.

Speaker 14 I think we need to invest in getting young people to engage in public service, a public service program.

Speaker 14 I think work and purpose and a path gives people a sense of meaning. I think we've been at each other's throats, if you will, so much over the last few years.

Speaker 14 There are demagogues who want to keep us obsessed with the culture wars.

Speaker 14 And I'll tell you this, I guess what I'm saying to you as a pastor, sometimes a family comes into my study and they've been at each other's throats so long, they don't even remember what the argument was about.

Speaker 14 And sometimes what I tell them they ought to do is find something to do together. Like go

Speaker 14 back to your house and,

Speaker 14 you know, work on the kitchen or paint the fence. Do something that gets you all focused on the house that you live in together.
And here's why I like infrastructure.

Speaker 14 I think in America where we've been engaged in these culture wars, we've got to remind ourselves that at the end of the day, we all live in this house. And I'd like to see us do more of that work.

Speaker 14 I'd like to see us focus on both the possibilities and the perils of AI

Speaker 14 and really capture the imagination of young people and get them focused on the jobs of the new century.

Speaker 13 That's exciting. And I look forward to seeing you hitting the links maybe with Ted Cruz and then co-sponsoring a bill to make some of that magic happen.
Thank you.

Speaker 13 Senator Warnock, it was such a pleasure to have you.

Speaker 12 Thank you, Senator.

Speaker 14 Thank you very much.

Speaker 12 Should we do a debrief? Jess, what did you think?

Speaker 13 I think that he is a potential VP candidate for someone, and I think he's very impressive.

Speaker 13 I mean, show me a guy who can win Georgia, and I'll show you someone that I like. And on top of it, he's incredibly compelling.
I didn't know his backstory.

Speaker 13 I mean, I knew that he had taken over Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. So I knew that about him, but I didn't know about growing growing up in public housing.

Speaker 13 And I loved how he talked about the federal programs that got him to where he was going and his dad saying, you know, get up, put on your shoes.

Speaker 13 I don't even know where we're going, but we're going somewhere. This is a guy who's been working since the beginning.
And I thought that he embodied this kind of positive vision that we've been.

Speaker 13 chasing. Like there was nothing about him that was talking down to anyone, which you wouldn't want in a pastor anyway.

Speaker 13 But if that is the main complaint about Democrats that were kind of, you know, bossy and judgmental and not salt of the earth, this guy completely blows all of that up.

Speaker 13 What'd you think?

Speaker 12 So, of all the people who you hear mentioned a lot as presidential candidates or potential nominees for the Democratic ticket, he's the one I know the least well.

Speaker 12 And I agree with you. I think it's super impressive.
I think any Democrat who wins in a, it's kind of a purple/slash red state is impressive, and you have to keep your eye on them.

Speaker 12 It means they know how to win elections, right?

Speaker 12 He's got great presence, a really compelling backstory, which I think counts for a lot.

Speaker 12 My issue is a broader issue, the same issue I have with him, or the same reservations I have with him, I have with the Democratic Party as a whole.

Speaker 12 And that is we're so long on the Democratic side with rhetorical flourish, and we're so short on actual ideas, actual actual programs.

Speaker 12 And I don't know, maybe this is somewhat naive, but I think the person who wins the nomination is going to come up with a series of actual big ideas and programs.

Speaker 12 You know, Andrew Yang didn't have that rhetorical flourish, but he went much further than anyone thought because UBI is a specific program.

Speaker 12 The moment you start asking any questions about how to fund it, it falls apart. But people can understand it, and it's a big, bold program.
And he was proposing it. And I think people were compelled.

Speaker 12 I was just at this event where I saw two governors who were kind of leading or right at the top in terms of their party's ticket. And I feel like everyone wants to cosplay Obama.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 And nobody wants to actually say, okay, yeah, we know young people can't afford a house. So what do you do such that they can afford a house?

Speaker 12 Is it tax credits that unleash the private sector and encourages builders to build 8 million new units? Is it manufactured homes, not on-site homes, buildings on site, which are more expensive?

Speaker 12 Is it federal legislation to get rid of NIMBY laws like they've done in adopting best practices from Minneapolis and Austin? Like, I want to see actual fucking programs. I don't.

Speaker 13 Yeah, you know how the Republicans are always saying, like, you should be able to do your tax returns on a postcard?

Speaker 13 I feel like all of the contenders should have a postcard with their agenda on it. Love that.
And it should fit. Love that.
Right. Like, this is my main economic policy.

Speaker 13 This is my main education policy. This is my healthcare policy.

Speaker 13 And it doesn't have to be the biggest picture idea, right? But it has to be something that people can remember you by.

Speaker 13 So when they think Josh Shapiro, oh, he, you know, he's one-on-one AI tutoring for every kid. I'm just making this up.

Speaker 13 Or if it's Raphael Warnock, it's, you know, 8 million new housing units. Whatever it is.

Speaker 14 Yeah, man, whatever.

Speaker 12 National Service, lower menu.

Speaker 13 Which he definitely was talking about. But I think part of that comes from his background of being a pastor, right? That he, he's used to talking that way.
Um, and he did have the legislation.

Speaker 12 It's not just him, though, it's everybody.

Speaker 13 No, I was, we agree about this.

Speaker 13 I'm just saying, I think probably when you get down to like the dollars and cents of it, you know, you talked about the policy that he had for the kid who wanted to become a pilot, but couldn't get there.

Speaker 13 But I think you're completely right because they are Republicans are just lapping us in the bumper sticker wars, right? Like everything that they stand for,

Speaker 13 we know what it is and it fits nicely on, you know, like one side of your car. I love that.
And we, you know, we talk too much, which is perhaps a podcasting problem.

Speaker 13 But I was really excited to have him. He's someone that I've just admired and winning those elections, him and John Osoff.

Speaker 13 And I feel like Osoff gets a lot more of the press, you know, and he's really hit on so well this argument about how it's us versus them.

Speaker 13 And he's going after, you know, corporations and the billionaires and talking about the oligarchy.

Speaker 13 I mean, he has similar messaging actually to Bernie and AOC, but in a moderate guy who represents Georgia.

Speaker 13 And I feel like Warnock doesn't get as much of the shine, but is very much worth our attention.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I find it really, I was supposed to go address the Democratic Senate caucus.

Speaker 13 Oh, yeah, is that not happening anymore?

Speaker 12 Well, no, because the shutdown.

Speaker 14 Oh.

Speaker 12 Because of the shutdown, it's been canceled. I've had this whole deck, and I was all excited to get in front of these 47 individuals.

Speaker 12 The reason, one of the reasons Project 2025 was so effective effective is they actually wrote it down.

Speaker 12 Eisenhower said, the wrong decision is bad, no decision is worse. I feel as if the Democrats have no plan.

Speaker 12 And it's such a huge opportunity and frustrating they haven't done it so far.

Speaker 12 Project 2026 or Project 2028, what series of programs are you proposing for the American people and how are you going to pay for them?

Speaker 12 And instead, everyone says, we asked Leader Jeffries this when we interviewed him at 92nd Street Y.

Speaker 12 They say, well, there will definitely be a time to talk about entitlements and reform and the deficit, but no one, you know, when does tomorrow become today?

Speaker 12 And the takeaway I get from Project 2025 is these people are really fucking scary, but guess what? A lot of it's being implemented because they actually took the time to write it down.

Speaker 12 And for people who are of like minds, they now have a playbook. I think it's a frightening playbook, but at least they have a plan

Speaker 12 and they're executing against that plan. And the Democrats, right now, as far as I can tell, they're the party of just we are going to show how terrible Trump is.
And there's a lot to play from there.

Speaker 12 And it gets a lot of TikTok views. It gets a lot of Instagram likes.
It probably gets a lot of donations.

Speaker 12 But at some point, we have to get off our heels and onto our toes and say, okay, well, what the fuck would you do, boss? That's what I would be asking the Democratic Party right now.

Speaker 14 Okay,

Speaker 12 we know young people are struggling. We know that housing is unaffordable.
We know that healthcare is a disaster in the U.S. We know that the deficit is a huge problem.
Okay, now what?

Speaker 12 You've convinced us. Now what?

Speaker 12 You've convinced us that the current administration is not good for America, that they're hurting the people most probably that put them into office, that they're attacking the very foundations of America, that there's a lot of opportunity in America given we continue to be the most innovative place on earth.

Speaker 12 We continue to have,

Speaker 12 I think, a general populace that is high character, risk aggressive. Okay, now what? Yeah.

Speaker 12 What are you running on instead of what are you running against?

Speaker 13 Well, this has been the problem. And the generic ballot has been shifting much more in Democrats' favor, which I think is just a reflection of how bleak it is, what the Trump administration is doing.

Speaker 13 And they've accomplished over 50% of Project 2025 in record time. But a lot of people, especially young people, have soured on the right, but haven't necessarily been taking a shine then to the left.

Speaker 13 And you don't want to spend every cycle having to start from scratch, right? And winning them back over and over again. You want to breed lifelong supporters of your political party.

Speaker 13 You want to create that kind of environment where they feel secure and that you're looking out for them on a long-term basis and that you will follow up and that you will know if they were able to buy that home or they got that job or they were able to get married and send their kids to a good school and get to Disney World.

Speaker 13 And we haven't landed that plane yet. Optimistic, but the plane is still circling.

Speaker 12 There you go. The plane is circling.
All right, we'll leave it there. Thanks, Jess.

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