Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17

What happens when a leader is corrupted by a desire for power and fame?

When the mission gets lost and they are willing to compromise everything for a buck, for a vote, for popularity, you name it. They might ride that high momentarily, but history and also current events have shown us that they will always inevitably fail.
And that is exactly what is happening right now with the modern Democrat Party. now it's not news to anyone that the Democrat Party is a mess after the 2024 election.
I mean, they are like a floppy fish out of water. They have no idea what's going on.
Nobody's working together. There is no unified message and we are watching all of that unfold.
I think for them, it is pretty heartbreaking and disastrous, but for me, you know, I've been able to laugh at it. I think we've all been able to laugh at it over the last couple of months.
I mean, they have completely lost touch with their voter base. They have lost the trust of their voter base.
The party is now run by these geriatric elites who are trying to hold on to power. And then the party itself, like the grassroots messaging, is driven by left-wing young people who are radical and who hate most of the people who are actually in power.
So it is just a complete mess. And the smart thing to do, what I would advise, is, you know, to take a step back, to take a pause, to look inward, to do some self-analysis, you know, look at their failed policies, and maybe redirect.
But of course, that strategy would just make too much sense. That would be too genuine.
And of course, the Democrats cannot do that. Instead, they have put David Hogg in charge of the DNC and Gavin Newsom started a podcast.
Apparently, those are their two big strategies to take back power in 2028. And this podcast, Gavin Newsom's podcast, we've all been talking about it.
It is actually indicative of a far broader trend that I want to talk about today that we've seen really with the Democrats for the last decade. Calculated rebrands to try to reverse engineer authenticity and trust with voters.
But I mean, come on, the gig is up. Whether it is Newsom on his new podcast or Gretchen Whitmer's recent flirtation with Trump, Hillary Clinton's innocent grandma act and how she just has hot sauce in her purse or Kamala being brat all last summer, it is all fake.
They are trying to emotionally manipulate their voters, but we are not falling for it, and neither are the modern Democrats. And on the show today to talk about how all of this happens from an insider's perspective is ex-RFK running mate and ex-California liberal, Nicole Shanahan.
Now, before we dive into this story, if you want to enjoy ad-free episodes delivered right to your device, and if you want an exclusive newsletter and a weekly advice video from me called Dear Brett, which is inspired by all of your questions, make sure to check out Cooper Confidential. The link is right here and also in the description below.
Now a couple of weeks ago I had my good friend Alliebeth Stuckey on the show and I think this is the perfect time to bring her back up because Alliebeth literally wrote the book on toxic empathy. Toxic empathy meaning the way that people demand compassion and demand empathy and inclusion over truth,

often at the expense of the hardest truths that we all need to hear, the reality checks that our society needs to face.

And that toxic empathy is the Democrat playbook.

They pull on your heartstrings with your messaging.

They even tell you that you are a racist, that you're a bigot, that you are out here killing people

if you don't support them, if you don't vote for them.

And they parade around all of these manufactured politicians in front of you to communicate all of these insane messages, it is all driven by emotion. And another emotional tactic that they commonly use are these extremely calculated rebrands to make these political figures seem more likable or palatable in the public eye.
And this year, after their major embarrassing loss in politics and in culture, they're pulling out all of the stops, starting with Gavin Newsom's new podcast entitled, This Is Gavin Newsom. And yes, that is what his theme song sounds like.
And really, before we dive into how this is all just so awful, we do have to ask, why? Like, after everything we have seen over the last five years, after everything that we saw in the LA Fire just a couple of months ago, why? I mean, Gavin Newsom is literally the last person we wanna hear from. Why listen to him when you have hundreds of hours of Peterson Academy content that you could be learning from instead? And if you don't know, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now.
And so if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning like me, if you are a homeschool family looking to enrich your curriculum, if you just wanna learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you have ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures or his podcast, then this platform is for you.
Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new, in-depth, eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts, and they're produced to keep you fully engaged. This is not your average college course.
This is something totally different. They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy to statistics to history to psychology, science, business, complete with optional testing to further your understanding.
So if you're somebody who always enjoyed doing tests like me, then they have that for you. Plus guys, they are continuously rolling out new educational features as they continue to grow.
There is also a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world. So if you are ready to take this next step, if you're ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
It is $599 per year or only $59 a month to access all of their eight-hour courses with four new courses being added a month plus the community with a seven-day money-back guarantee. And guys, for the best part, in my opinion, for that price for $59 a month, you do not have to take out some $60,000 student loan to further your education.
Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash Brett to join Peterson Academy today. And guys, right now, pay attention because I think you guys will fit into this deal.
Right now, they are offering a 20% discount to anyone under the age of 25, any students, any teachers, and all military active and veterans. So if you've been on the fence about taking the sleep for your education, now is the perfect opportunity.
Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash Brett to join today. Now, unless you've been living under a rock, unless you've been spending so much time watching Peterson Academy courses that you have not had time to be on X, I am sure that you have seen clips from Gavin Newsom's new podcast.
And of course, Gavin Newsom is the governor of California and a potential 2028 Democrat hopeful. And he launched a podcast at the beginning of this year, actually not even the beginning of this year.
It was at the beginning of this month, beginning of March. And I totally expected this podcast to just be a liberal mess of an echo chamber, but it was actually something a lot more calculated, something that we all sniffed out immediately after his first episode.
This is his way, and his strategist's way, because this is not just something that he pulled out of his ass, it is a strategist's way to fix his image, especially after his disastrous handling of the LA fires, among a million other things that he has screwed up in California since 2019. And the way that Gavin Newsom is doing this, the way that he's fixing his image, is by talking to people on the right and trying to appear more centrist.
Now his first couple of guests were Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage, and Steve Bannon. And the entire time that he had these men on his podcast, he was compromising his alleged values.
He was walking back his opinions and taking the heat for his mistakes. He was trying to look like this casual, chill, charismatic guy that's oh so humble.
Yeah, I know I screwed up. Oh, hey man.
Just trying to be a bro, trying to engage in the bro political podcast space. I mean, Charlie Kirk, for example, who, by the way, did not let him go very long without a fact check.
He was quick to bring up Newsom's track record with COVID and school closures, and Newsom just took it. And then he continued on and didn't just continue on the conversation.
He went on to compliment Charlie incessantly. Just listen.
Last night, trying to put my son to bed. He's like, no, dad, I just, what time? What time's Charlie going to be here? What time? And I'm like, dude, you're in school tomorrow.
He's 13. He's like, no, no.
This morning wakes up at six up. Then he's like, I'm coming.
Also, by the way, what they're talking about here is that Charlie Kirk's 13-year-old son is a massive Charlie Kirk fan. That's why he wanted to have him on the podcast first.
His own son is turning against him. Anyway, Betts just wanted you to know that.
It's extra funny. There's hope for the kids after all.
He literally would not leave the house. Did you let him take off school? No, he did.
Of course not. He's not here for a good reason.
But the point is the point. Come on, you canceled school for like two years.
Once one year, it looks like one day. The point is the point, which is you are making a damn dent.
Thank you. I'm kidding.
When you go to these college campuses, I love watching your TikTok, which is next level. Clearly that's expressed by my 13-year-old son.
I want to meet this guy. I mean, they just kept going.
It's like you are making making a dent. You are making it.
I love your TikToks, man. This is, I mean, what genuinely, what is going on? I mean, he just kept complimenting Charlie.
In fact, somebody watched that podcast episode and was studying the whole thing. And they reported that he praised or agreed with Kirk nearly 125 times, including saying that he quote unquote appreciates Kirk or his ideas a whopping 52 times.
I mean, this is a far cry from the man that we have all come to know who has called us racist traitors for the last six years. But here's the thing.
He did not stop there. Next, in this same podcast episode with Charlie, he seemingly pretends that he is a moderate on the issue of trans women in women's sports.
Take a listen. Would you do something like that? Would you say no men in female sports? Well, I think it's an issue of fairness.
I completely agree with you on that. So that's easy to call out, the unfairness of that.
We can call out the unfairness of this issue. And guys, just that simple comment, we're going to talk about it later, it turned people upside down.
But I just want to focus on the fact that this is completely hypocritical based on everything that we have seen from Gavin Newsom. I mean, California has some of the most pro-trans laws in the entire country, and Newsom, as governor, has upheld them and strengthened them since coming into office in 2019.
So, like, what is this? Is he actually more moderate than he's ever told us and we assume, or is he strategically using this podcast and using conservatives to make himself more palatable to centrist Americans? Now, Nicole Shanahan thinks that it's the latter. She believes that he is spending more time on his rebrand than on his actual state.
And I couldn't agree more. Take a listen.
It's just total policy failures. You have Governor Newsom, who is spending more time on his rebrand than he is on our failing school system, right? Our failing health.
The fact that people don't feel super safe in these sanctuary cities anymore in spite of him telling us we should feel safe, but no, we actually don't feel safe. We are a compassionate state, one of the most compassionate places to live in the world.
But it's turning to the point where it's not compassion. It's just blatant mismanagement and a slap in the face of hardworking California taxpayers.
Now, obviously, the next question we have to ask is, is this actually working? And the hilarious thing is, guys, this shtick is not working on anyone. People on the right obviously sniffed this out.
They know that it is a political game. Charlie Kirk, actually, after he went on the podcast, he immediately turned around, did a hit with Fox News, wrote an op-ed for Fox News, and said, yeah, this is a dangerous game.
We can all see through it. In fact, he wrote, Newsom got a bit irritated when I suggested that he was slick, precisely because it's so accurate.
His show is a charm offensive, calculated play, a rebrand for a man who knows the Democratic Party took a beating in 2024 and needs a new face. He hopes by looking moderate on the perfect cocktail of issues, he can get both liberals to back him in a primary and then moderates and Republicans to back him in a general election.
It might work. One thing I learned in my podcast experience is that the governor isn't a joke.
He has a shark's instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfishes memory. It's a strategy that has worked for a really long time, just flood the field with chaos and narratives and euphemisms.
And then people just will pick up on the sound bits that they're hoping people will pick up on. But of course, as you all have seen on social media, those clips, those sound bites, they aren't working anymore.

And even worse, people on the left are watching Newsom and they believe that this is an utter betrayal.

Now, the same report that I referenced earlier that was tracking the compliments of Charlie in that first episode,

it is from California's Capital Weekly publication, and they actually ran a survey on the whole podcast,

and they found that the initial response is probably not what the governor would want. The negative impact on Newsom's popularity with voters is clearly visible in this survey.
Newsom's favorability in our last survey done the first week of February of this year, so literally just a month prior, had his total favorability at 52% with 48% unfavorable. For a net favorability, favorable minus unfavorable, of plus four.
Notably, his very unfavorable was at 25%. In this survey, so now post-podcast, his favorability has dropped to 47%, with his very favorable dropping to 18% from 25%, and his net favorable going to negative six for a 10-point drop in negative favorability.
Among self-identified liberals, 37% of these said that the snippets of the Newsom podcast harmed their perception of the governor, and among these voters, the governor's very favorable number has dropped from 46 to 30%. Now, additionally, the podcast only made 13% of voters have an improved perception of the governor, with 26% saying that it harmed their perception and 58% saying it made no difference, because we all know that he is a bag of crap, to be honest.
We know that he has slick hair and shiny teeth. We all see through it.
One in five voters said that these snippets made them want to watch or listen to future Newsom podcasts. Guys, this was a 10-point swing in the wrong direction.
Moderates and people on the right are not buying this, and more importantly, his own base is betrayed. And nothing has been funnier than the meltdowns, except maybe the meltdowns from the vegans whenever I do a Good Ranchers ad, which I'm about to do right now.
And guys, it is time to spring into action and put American farms first, because nothing beats American quality, and that is why I love Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers puts family values first just like you do.
Their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms so you know exactly where your food is coming from. It is free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils in their amazing chicken nuggets, just simple trustworthy ingredients so you can feel good about eating and feeding your family.
And of course where they really make life easier is because it is delivered straight to your door. No last minute grocery runs, long lines, or wondering if you're getting the best quality.
With GoodRanchers.com, everything you need to create delicious meals is just a click away. And right now, if you go to GoodRanchers.com slash Brett, you will find my personal curated box with all of Alex's and my favorite Good Ranchers products.
These are the things that we eat on a daily basis that are the staples of our home, and I hope that you love them as much as we do. Now, in addition to checking that out, Good Ranchers is currently running their spring into action promotion so that you and your family can support local ranchers and easily get American quality delivered right to your door.
All you have to do is subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably the Bread Cooper box, and you will get free bacon or ground beef or seed oil, free chicken chicken nuggets or salmon in every single order for a year. You'll get to pick whichever one you want.
That is free meat for an entire year. Plus you will get $40 off when you use my code Brett at checkout.
And seriously guys, this is the best offer Good Ranchers has ever given and you won't find it anywhere else. So to spring into action and help American Family Farms with every purchase, just visit goodranchers.comcom today, GoodRanchers.com slash Brett if you want to check out my box, and use my code Brett to claim your free meat and $40 off.
Now, back to all the non-vegan meltdowns, what is actually funny about all of these responses is that many of them, like Jane Fonda, famous actress, famous activist, I feel like I know her more as an activist than an actress these days, she seems less worried about Newsom becoming squishy on the issues that they care about and more about the fact that he has the gall to even speak to conservatives. Take a listen.
You know, what's going on? Cozying up to Steve Bannon is not a way to, uh, what he does by doing that is he forfeits his ability to inspire and protect his very people that elected him. We need leadership, you know, and it's a cause of concern to see him, this brave governor, suddenly get silent and not step up, not immediately come to the rescue of the people here and say, no, this isn't going to happen.
We have laws to prevent this from happening. He would say that sitting down with Bannon and Charlie Kirk and all the rest of it, we have to talk to each other as a country, and there's lessons to be learned from why Democrats lost.
You don't buy that? No. You're not gonna learn any lessons from Steve Bannon about why Democrats lost.
Jane, that is literally why you lost. I mean, we could just do an entire episode just on this.
It is the lack of self-awareness. It is the refusal to listen to your own voters.
It is the refusal to listen to the people who are winning, who took a different strategy than you, who focused on different policies, who actually took policies that you guys used to promote, but you went so crazy that you left them. I mean, it is a total cognitive dissonance.
This, in fact, is why you lost. Maybe if you listen to Steve Bannon's show, maybe if you listen to anybody on the right, you would start to understand that.
But of course, that's not the only reason the Democrats lost. They also lost because of a terrible case of bad inauthenticity and a lack of connection to their voter base, which, to her credit, Sonny Hostin on The View did point out.
I actually did think that he was one of the leaders that would come out in terms of 2028. I remember watching his annual State of the Union Address in California and he criticized Republicans and he promoted California as an anecdote to the poisonous populism of the right.
And I believe that, you know, if you are going to be a public servant, you better be unapologetically authentic because voters can sniff out inauthenticity in a second. And I thought that that was one of the most inauthentic things I have seen Gavin Newsom do.
Wow. Terribly, terribly.
So you don't believe in the let them hang themselves theory? No, I'm terribly disappointed. I think you meet energy with energy.
And what he did was he showed his pretty white teeth and his cute face and did nothing other than that. And I think it's despicable.
I mean, that literally might be the smartest thing that has ever come out of The View. Because she's absolutely correct.
As ridiculous as this woman is, she's correct. Voters can sniff this out.
And to be honest, I think that his voter base would have respected him a hell of a lot more if he did have on Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and then pushed back and fought rather than sitting there going, oh yeah, I did that. Yeah, let's not be friends.
Let me just smile. Let me like slick my hair back a little more.
We'll have a great time. No! Obviously your net favorability is going to drop 10 points because that is ridiculous.
That is a betrayal. It's not just right-wingers that want somebody real.
Obviously, the left is craving that too. And Newsom's Failed podcast, or it's, you know, failing as of now, is just the most recent example of this calculated pandering because it's been going on for years.
I mean, just last year, we watched Kamala's team desperately try to re-brand her to appeal to moderate Americans. And we're like, oh no, no, she never wanted to fund medical transitions for migrants.
No, she was never the border czar. Let's like wipe that off the White House website.
She never did that. She never wanted to defund the police.
She never put people in jail on marijuana charge. That never happened.
I know that she was a failed vice president, but actually she is incredibly moderate. They literally spent months doing that.
But obviously, the internet lives forever, and thankfully now politicians' words live forever, they are constantly being recorded, and we knew immediately that all of that was BS. And most importantly, that strategy meant that Kamala Harris was not having integrity with herself.
And that only hurt her with her own base because she compromised on all the things that they knew she once supported. And instead of leaning into that, no matter how ridiculous all of those things are and her terrible track record, which to be honest probably would have just helped her with that voter base, she instead backtracked and then just decided to brand herself as brat for the entire summer, thinking that that would win with Gen Z.
I'm sorry, viral moments might help you with Gen Z. We might make videos about them and we might talk about them on TikTok, but obviously, like I said, back in July, back in August, that virality does not translate into votes.
And it didn't. It didn't work.
Now, another great example, and one that is actually a lot more recent, is that post-2024 election, post this catastrophe, Michigan governor and radically left-wing Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tried a similar strategy. This literally only happened a couple of weeks ago, and if you have followed her career, you know that her track record is simply insane.
She issued in some of the worst lockdowns in the country. She calls women people with a period, and after all of that, just a couple of weeks ago, she decided that now was the time to try and cozy on up to Trump, much to the disdain of her voters and her colleagues.
Now, in a recent address, again just back in February, she lauded her relationship with Trump and the importance of bipartisanship, which of course is ironic considering that she spent years calling Trump deranged and calling our towns, our voters, racist. Now, unsurprisingly, the right is not too excited about working with her.
Nobody is ready to extend the olive branch to Gretchen Whitmer, and her peers are similarly disgusted. The Michigan attorney general did not mince words when she slammed Whitmer for not calling Trump out because he is, quote, a wannabe petty dictator who thinks and fashions himself to be a king.
That was her response to Whitmer's recent address. I mean, guys, there's so many other examples I could go on and on, like Pete Buttigieg and his documentary from a couple of years ago trying to paint him as some really sweet, innocent, moderate centrist, which just pissed off all the socialists because they know that that is not true.
One article about the documentary reads, the almost comical absence of a program or ideology in a documentary about a man running for president has far more to do with Buttigieg himself than it does with the quality of the filmmaking, and albeit accidentally, Mayor Pete, that's a documentary, does tell us something very real about the way that centrist liberalism increasingly seeks to cloak its pro-corporate vision with the politics of personality. That really is what this entire episode is about, the politics of personality.
Now another example is that in 2016 they tried to repaint Hillary Clinton as this docile sweet grandma. She was in her grandma era while simultaneously having her use pop culture to pander to young black Americans and again it never worked, even with her own base.
And after running through all of these examples, I asked Nicole, you know, after all of this time, all of these years, going back to 2016, maybe even earlier, why? Why are the Democrats still trying to do this? We know that it doesn't work. And unsurprisingly, she said that it goes back to money.
Take a listen. I think the Democrat Party is surrounded by individuals still playing the old game.
And the thing is, is they can get away with it because they have so much money. They have so much money because they have Silicon Valley top donor money and they have Hollywood top donor money.
So that's why they're just kind of spiraling out because they don't have they're not forced to change yet financially the financial incentives to be better and to be more honest and truthful aren't there so based on Nicole's experience and her insight it goes back to money but it also goes back to the quote unquote pyramid scheme of political consultants who are similarly out of touch with normal Americans this is what she had to say about that they're still just relying on these top donors that are so out of touch with the average American I mean I was one of them for many years and I was so blind to what was going on in America and I was seeing just a very superficial version of everything that was being presented to me through you know this world of political consultants and politicians and the party itself. There's this whole world of political consultants and they think they know politics better than anybody.
And they will sit down across from a politician and like tell you how it is. And as a politician, if your goal is to become a career politician and to win, you listen to these folks and they'll connect you with X, Y, and Z.
And it's this whole pyramid scheme. They're calling for change.
And the change is going to happen when we take down this pyramid scheme and we start finding individuals to vote for who are outside of that scheme entirely. Now, in all of these examples we've talked about, from Pete Buttigieg and the Mayor Pete documentary to Hillary Clinton to, you know, Gavin Newsom on his podcast right now, these attempts do not work because they're not about principles.
They're about emotional manipulation. And it is insulting to everyone in every party because we know that it's not real.
We know that you are trying to play us for our money and our support and our votes. It is why Trump and J.D.
Vance dominated last year, because somehow we as normal Americans can relate to both of them in different ways. Like Donald Trump is one of the most powerful businessmen in the entire world.
He is more wealthy than any of us could ever imagine. And yet Americans can genuinely see themselves in him.
He doesn't talk down to us. He doesn't play with us.
Like love him or hate him. He's always going to be completely unapologetically himself and we love that.
And on the polar opposite end of the spectrum, J.D. Vance built himself up from nothing.
He is the embodiment of the American dream. We are inspired by him as Americans.
We respect his honesty. We feel respected.
There is a massive difference between these two men and between the modern Democrats, and that is why they won. So the point is, the point of this entire episode about emotional manipulation, about the politics of personality, is that authenticity will always win.
I feel like I could sum up every episode I've done of the Rhett Cooper show over the last couple of months to that point. Authenticity will always win.
I mean, think about the people who have made very public transformations in politics in the public eye with grace and authenticity, like Nicole. That is why I wanted to talk to her today, who, you know, she left the Democrat Party, she ran for office as an independent, and ended up voting for Trump all in the span of like 18 months.
She was tarred and feathered. People were throwing death threats at her.
The entire board of her foundation walked when she became an independent. And she faced all of it with honesty and grace and transparency.
And people felt that. We knew that what she was going through was real.
And Tulsi is another great example. And Nicole pointed to her directly.
Tulsi's journey is really incredible. I have nothing but respect for her.
And I think that what we've seen even is only the half of what she's actually experienced. Her lifetime career legacy is going to be one that we're going to look back on and say, you know, they threw not just the media because they turn it up.
It starts with the media, and then they start using institutional levers, and they just kept turning it up on her, and she kept persevering. And so framing her as, you know, like an enemy of the country or Putin's puppet, I mean, all of these things that they've tried to frame her as, which, and she's not, but she's overcome each of them with such a steady hand and so much grace.
And every time she goes out and talks to the public, there's not a waiver or shake in her voice. It's really, it is, it has been something for me to look at and admire from afar.
She really did it step by step and very intentionally. And that really worked in her benefit.
Now, in my mind, and I think in the mind of the American populace, Tulsi and Nicole are both different because their transformations were real. I mean, it really is as simple as that.
They were not out of political necessity or for financial gain. Like, Tulsi did not want to be put on the no-fly list because it was going to make her money.
No, she got put on the no-fly list because she didn't compromise her values. Voters saw that.
We saw the genuine nature, the authenticity in everything they were doing. They took us on their journeys, and we care about them because of that.
We trust them because of that. I mean, literally, it is as simple as the fact that they were authentic and the Democrats have not been.
Now, of course it would not be honest of me to just slam the Democrat party as a whole, even though I do think that they obviously have some big problems, but on the left, I do have to give some credit to AOC. And listen, I know, I know you're gonna be freaking out, but just bear with me, hear me out.
You guys might've seen this circulating on social media this week, it was going super viral, but there was a recent poll about AOC this month that found that she is the leader in the Democrat party that best represents the party and its values, that best represents the values of American Democrat voters. Here's the headline from The Hill.
Ocasio-Cortez leads poll of Democrats on which leader best reflects party's core values. And this went viral because conservatives were making fun of her.
Everyone was howling and laughing and saying, oh my god, we're gonna run this country forever if she is the leader of this party. But guys, I wouldn't blow her off so quickly.
I mean, AOC is different than a lot of these other Democrats. She does not play the pandering games like the Newsoms or the Whitmers or the Kamala Harris's and Hillary Clinton's of the world.
Like, she has never hidden the fact that she is a radical socialist. She has never tried to hide that.
She has never walked it back. She has never wavered in the slightest.
It is why I can't stand her, but also why I kind of have to respect her a little bit. And of course she has all of the strategists and all the consultants because every politician does, but they seem to get her and they get her people and the people who love her.
And she's young. She doesn't trade stocks and try to get rich off of corporation like her peers.
She even rips into them constantly for doing so. This was a headline from just last month.
AOC rips into her colleagues for insider trading. It says Republicans are far more honest about it.
Like she's willing to come over to the other side and work with Matt Gaetz to stop insider trading while still saying, I disagree with you on everything. I hate you, but I am principled and I do want to get this through.
Like, yeah, that is worth respecting. And so yes, we might find her ideas to be insane and terrible and awful for the country, but she is honest with Americans about herself.
She is honest with her voters. And that is why so many people love her.
And that is why as ridiculous as she is, she can't be laughed off. She cannot be written off because I think that she and people like her are probably our greatest threat.
And so Democrats, the point is that your rebrands are a bust. They are failing because you are trying to manufacture authenticity and pander to voters who see right through you.
It's not just the conservatives who are mocking you and saying this is not working. It is your own people who are calling you out more than us.
This is why you lost power. This is why you are actively, consistently losing your own party.
Conservatives laugh at you. Your base is betrayed by you and it helps none of the people that you were actually elected to represent, which at the end of the day is the most important part of your job.
The most important part of your job is not starting podcasts. It's not getting media hits.
It's not getting more money from lobbyists. It's representing the people who put you in office.
And you seem to forget that. So all in all, if they want any chance at power in the next couple of years, the next four years, they must make a change.
And if Nicole had to give them one piece of advice, she said it would be this. I mean, my advice is, you know, go back to first principles.
What is it to be a leader? And when people get fixated on a campaign to define who they are, both politically, personally, and professionally, that's so shallow. And you will be a fractured human being as long as you live your life that way.

Yes, you can pivot your attention from one thing to another.

But, you know, put policy before politics.

Put people before politics.

If you're not someone that can do that, you are not a leader. You are a puppet.
So be a leader. People really want leadership right now.
And to be honest, guys, you know, those of us who are not Democrats, who are not politicians, I still think this is incredibly important for all of us to hear. Because being a leader is not about power or fame or money.
It is about people and about integrity, especially in politics. And when you go against that, when you compromise that, people will know, they will sniff it out.
Your employees will walk away. Voters will abandon you.
The media will laugh at you constantly. That is what we've been seeing.
You will be pushed out. You will be replaced by somebody better, which is literally what we are seeing every single day.
In every industry. So buckle up guys, because unless the strategists and the elite donors catch on, I think we are in for a lot more of these pandering attempts.
And keep your eyes on AOC, genuinely, because we might laugh at the absurdity of her and her ideas, but there is an authenticity and a commitment to principles that is worth respecting and acknowledging, and so just know, if they catch on, winning won't always be easy for us.