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How Can the Dems Come Back?

Part Of The Problem

Tue Mar 11 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How Can the Dems Come Back?"
Podcast: Part Of The Problem
Host: Dave Smith
Co-Host: Robbie Bernstein
Release Date: March 11, 2025

Introduction

In the episode titled "How Can the Dems Come Back?", hosts Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein dive deep into the current state of the Democratic Party in the United States. They explore the multifaceted challenges the party faces, analyzing its strategies, messaging failures, and potential pathways to resurgence from a Libertarian perspective.

Democrats' Decline and Current Challenges

[10:34] Dave Smith:
Smith begins by outlining the unprecedented predicament the Democrats find themselves in. Unlike previous political downswings where a party could regroup and rebuild, the Democrats have seemingly lost not only their voter base but also their cultural standing. Smith remarks, "It's like they've made the Republicans the cool kids and the Democrats kind of like the nagging Karens."

[15:49] Robbie Bernstein:
Bernstein concurs, highlighting the ineffectiveness of Democratic leaders like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and criticizes recent attempts at edgy messaging. He states, "I think they're just floundering. They're just trying to figure out how to sell our message," referencing cringe-worthy campaign videos and ineffective social media strategies.

Critique of Democratic Messaging and Leadership

[20:05] Dave Smith:
Smith scrutinizes the Democratic response to the State of the Union, pointing out that the official response was delivered by a Senator from Michigan, a former CIA employee. He comments, "It's the CIA's conception of how to win back Democratic voters is to go, we're Reaganites now," suggesting that the party is out of touch with its base.

[25:51] Dave Smith:
Further criticizing Democratic communication, Smith mocks the style and authenticity of their messaging. He recounts a poorly received advertisement featuring a Democratic Congressman, Elon Omar, labeling him as ineffective and disconnected: "It's not like, hey, we're Reaganites now."

[30:14] Robbie Bernstein:
Bernstein adds to the critique by attacking Congressman Ilhan Omar's stance on immigration, accusing her of being both misleading and ineffective. He emphasizes that her messaging alienates potential voters by labeling opponents as racist and xenophobic without substantial justification.

Immigration Policy Debate

A significant portion of the discussion centers around immigration, a hot-button issue that the hosts believe has become a stumbling block for the Democrats.

[38:02] C (Ilhan Omar):
In a referenced clip, Omar defends her position on immigration by stating, "It is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally."

[43:18] Robbie Bernstein:
Bernstein counters, asserting, "It is a crime," emphasizing that illegal border crossings are indeed criminal acts and critiquing Omar's misrepresentation of the law.

[39:03] Robbie Bernstein:
He further dissects Omar's argument, suggesting that while it's possible to prioritize deporting criminals over peaceful immigrants, her statement that "it's not a crime" is fundamentally flawed and misleading.

[43:18] Robbie Bernstein:
Bernstein continues, "She’s saying it's not a crime to have entered illegally. That's just not true," reinforcing his stance that the administration's immigration policies are misrepresented by Democratic leaders.

Failures in Strategic Planning and Propaganda

[17:15] Dave Smith:
Smith argues that the Democrats' primary objective is maintaining control over their party through the influence of the "deep state," rather than genuinely reconnecting with voters. He states, "The goal is how do we maintain CIA control over this party and get the agenda of the CIA while winning people back."

[35:48] Robbie Bernstein:
Bernstein criticizes the Democratic use of propaganda and ineffective advertising strategies. He points out the party's overreliance on expenditures that do not translate into voter engagement or support, mentioning Kamala Harris's failed advertising campaign as an example: "She ended up spending the most money ever and still ended up in debt."

Failure to Connect with the Voter Base

[55:23] Dave Smith:
Smith highlights the Democrats' disconnect from the average American voter by comparing their attempts to appear relatable unfavorably against Republican messaging. He notes, "Donald Trump just carried the working class vote and he's never had a beer," contrasting Trump’s authenticity with Democratic efforts that come off as forced and inauthentic.

[58:45] Dave Smith:
He further emphasizes this disconnect by critiquing Democratic figures like Elizabeth Warren, whose attempts to appear relatable (e.g., drinking beer in a staged setting) seem inauthentic and out of touch: "There's cheese over the raw patties... it seems like their mentality is so off because they're so phony."

Potential Pathways for Democratic Resurgence

Despite the bleak assessment, Smith and Bernstein discuss possible strategies the Democrats could employ to regain their footing:

Authentic Leadership:
They suggest that Democrats need genuine leaders who resonate with voters’ experiences and concerns, rather than manufactured personas that fail to connect on a personal level.
Clear Policy Stances:
The hosts advocate for clear, feasible policy proposals that address the pressing issues without overpromising or resorting to unrealistic solutions.
Effective Messaging:
Rebuilding a coherent and relatable messaging strategy is crucial. This involves avoiding divisive rhetoric and instead focusing on uniting themes that appeal to a broader electorate.
Internal Party Reforms:
Addressing internal corruption and reducing the influence of entrenched interests ("deep state") could help rebuild trust with voters.

Conclusion

Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein conclude that the Democratic Party is at a critical juncture. Their failure to effectively communicate and connect with voters, combined with misguided policy stances and ineffective leadership, has significantly weakened their position. For the Democrats to recover, the hosts emphasize the need for authentic leadership, clear and practical policies, and a strategic overhaul of their messaging and internal structures.

Smith remarks, "The Democrats are in a situation now where it's in order for them to actually play cards that are gonna win, they kind of need Trump to make a mistake and a really big one." This underscores the precariousness of the party's current state and the challenges ahead in reclaiming their influence in American politics.

Notable Quotes:

Dave Smith [01:40]:
"It seems like the only good people in Canada come out to our show. So we support those people. We'll get them out of there before the massive bombing campaign. That's inevitable."
Robbie Bernstein [25:55]:
"The Democrats are just floundering. They're trying to figure out how to sell our message, and it's not working."
Dave Smith [38:09]:
"Donald Trump's position was never, none of them should have been here to begin with."
Robbie Bernstein [51:59]:
"When you make me do this, I swear I will run away. I will go on hunger strike. I will run away and I will never go to school again."

This episode provides a critical Libertarian analysis of the Democratic Party's current struggles, offering insights into the systemic issues undermining their effectiveness and suggestions for potential recovery strategies.

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Transcript

Dave Smith (0:00)

Bombas makes the most comfortable socks, underwear and T shirts. Bombas are so absurdly comfortable, you may throw out all your other clothes. Sorry, do we legally have to say that? No, this is just how I talk. And I really love my Bombas. They do feel that good. And they do good too. One item purchased equals one item donated. To feel good and do good, go to bombas.com wondry and use code wondry for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M B-A-Com wondry and use code wondry at checkout. What's up? What's up, everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. We are back from up north. How you. How you feeling, Rob? Being back in the free country of America, I.

Robbie Bernstein (0:53)

It's nice being back here. You don't realize how much we have until you have to see Canada. An entire country designed to look like Newark, New Jersey.

Dave Smith (1:02)

It's all right. Listen, Rob hasn't been to Canada that much and we. Where we went in St. Catherine's is not necessarily representative of the full of Canada. Nice people out there, though. We did have a very nice time. I like it's. We had a great time in Buffalo, Great time in St. Catharines. It does when, when, when we go to Canada, it does feel like the audience that we draw to our show are the best people in Canada. I'll go a step further. It seems like the only good people in Canada come out to our show. So we support those people. We'll get them out of there before, before the massive bombing campaign. That's inevitable.

Robbie Bernstein (1:40)

I told a lot of Canada jokes that were doing very well. This one got nothing. But I still just think it's true of the country, is that every time I meet Canadians, they're very nice people. I don't understand how they seem to all come together to forge that socialist shithole. Like there's something odd about when Canadians combine. It's like a bad Power Rangers or something.

Dave Smith (2:00)

I know what you mean. I know what you mean. Well, there is something. I mean, there's got to be a connection. I don't have like a fully worked out thesis or anything on this, but there's got to be some connection between like, socialist the way socialism is sold and taking advantage of like people's kindness because it is always sold that way. It's always sold as like. But don't you just want to be a decent person? You know, I mean, come on, like that's be. Be good. I mean, I was. I don't know. By the way, I don't know if you've seen this, Rob. And I haven't been like, I. I am. I'm. I don't pay very close attention to, like, local politics in general, even when I'm talking about, like, New York City. But I have kind of been paying attention a little bit to the. The New York City mayor race. Just because Cuomo announced that he was running again and that, you know, obviously, for obvious reasons. Right. Like, he was such a major figure in the whole covet insanity. But there's, like, of the. I'm blanking on his name, but of the, like, progressive candidates. The guy who's leading is, like, a Democratic socialist. And I was. I saw he had, like, an ad for his. His candidacy for mayor. And it's all just like, it's all, you know, it's like, hey, you know, you guys think it's expensive here, right? Why don't we just make it free? Why don't we. Hey, you know, we got all these slow buses. I say we make them faster. And free daycare. That's one of the biggest costs, you know. What? No cost for daycare. You're like, oh, all right. Like, it really is, like, it's wild to watch it where you're like, what a. What a huge advantage it is just in terms of, like, selling to normies your policies when you get to just. I mean, look, I'm not saying, like, he. He act, but it's like when you just. He just says, it'll be no cost. The buses will be free. Childcare will be no cost. And if that's the world you're playing in, like, if the world were the game we're playing is that I get to pretend I just have, like, a magic wand that can, like, poof, make things free. And then you're just like, why wouldn't we do it? Oh, you're saying we shouldn't do almost, like, without saying this extra step. It's just kind of implied, but it's almost like going like, hey, Rob, you have a magic wand and you won't even wave it to make everything free like it does on some level. It just plays on, like, I'm a nice guy and you're like a bad, mean person who just doesn't care. Of course that's, you know, I don't know. I guess it's. It's a little frustrating because you're like, wouldn't. Wouldn't almost every person like, immediately go to the question of, like, wait a minute. But we can. We can do that. That's an option. We can just make things not cost anything.

Dave Smith (5:44)

All right, well, I don't. I don't know. I don't know if he's still out there, but this guy is also complaining about the rent being too damn high anyway. I always just found it. And this is true in general. It's not just with socialists. I mean, it's true with Democrats in general, but to the extent that they borrow a little bit from socialism. But there is like an interesting thing, and it's such a. It's such a. Like a comment on either the intelligence of the people who are pushing these policies or their perceived intelligence of the people of the voters who are listening to them push these policies. But the idea being like, look, if we're going to. Let's just say there's a thing that. That's got to get funded or whatever, you know, for example, childcare. Just because that was the. The comment in this. In this ad that I saw. So, like, there could theoretically be an argument where you go, like, okay, so there is this service that is child care, and there's this one model where, like, people do it privately. Basically, the model is that you have to voluntarily come to an agreement with the person who's going to be charging you for. Is going to be providing you the child care, right? So if someone wants to watch your kids, then you have to ask them, how much do they charge? If they say they charge X, you can say, I can't do X, but I could do X minus 10. They go, I can't do X minus 10. I could do X minus 5 and you can't. You know what I mean? Like, that's the model, like a free market in child care. The other model is that we all, we, the government, force you at the threat of imprisonment to send us money. We then take that money, we hire the child care, and you don't have to pay for it at that point because you've already paid for it through us. Okay, now these are two different models and you could have an argument about those models which one you think is better. Now when you just describe it the way it is, I will admit that the free market model already sounds more attractive because like, already you're like, well, I don't know if I like the group with a violent, with a monopoly on aggressive violence, threatening to imprison me if I don't fund the thing that, that seems like a worse model. But like, okay, those are the two models. I'm, I'm describing the way they actually work. But like, when isn't it just something like what a mind it is that the people who support the forced monopoly model get to just describe it as free? You just get it. You know, there's stuff you want, you just get it as like as if. I mean, I know this is like the most basic observation, but it's like I'm still saying it because they're still making this claim that it's like, okay, if the people doing the child care are getting paid at all, then it's not free. It's just a question of who's paying it and where is the funding coming from. No one gets to just say no cost. Unless, unless we get to a point where you can like either through slavery. I mean, I guess there'd still be costs associated, right? Like that person still has to live and eat in order to show up for work the next day. But either you could enslave them and they, they just work for free, or you get into the realm of magic. Those are the only ways that things don't have a cost.

Dave Smith (10:34)

All right, well, that's, that's awesome. Go make sure to go see Rob there. Make sure to go check out Run youn Mouth. All right, so I got, there's, there's a couple things on my mind for today's show. And I guess broadly speaking, like there's a couple of things going on in foreign policy related that I thought were pretty newsworthy events. And then there's also, you know, just kind of one of the things domestically, I guess that is perhaps the most interesting dynamic right now. I mean, maybe it's number two behind the stuff Trump's doing. But, but it is really interesting watching the Democrats trying to grapple with the position that they're in. This is kind of the, the topic of discussion amongst almost every person who's either on left of center, liberal, leftist, everybody kind of in the left half of America. Whenever you see, these days, if, if you see a show, whether it's like Bill Maher or the Pod Save America guys or just any, anyone kind of nominally on the left, this is the talk. It's like, what do the Democrats have to do to come out of this? And it's, it's appropriate. I mean, I've, I've seen different times in, in my life now that I've been around for a little while. I've seen times where one party was up big and the other party was down and out. You know, there's a few that come to mind. You know, there was. Well, when, when Barack Obama first won and, and won a pretty dominant victory, people were saying, well, the Republicans have really been defeated. You know, at the time George W. Bush was going out with the lowest approval ratings for, for an incumbent president, Dick Cheney had the lowest approval ratings for any vice president. Then here comes in this extremely popular Barack Obama had some of the highest approval ratings in polling history in America. And now, ok, it seemed like that party had been pretty soundly defeated when Donald Trump won the first time, people were saying the Democrats were down. It does seem to me that this is different in scale and kind than any other situation like that. I've just never, I've never really lived through something quite like with one of the major two parties being as devastated as the Democrats are right now. As I've said before on the show, it's to lose your voter base and your propaganda apparatus all in one election is quite a loss. And they've also just lost a, a kind of cultural factor that's hard to put into words. But I guess to say it the, in the simplest terms, it's like they, they made the Republicans the cool kids and the Democrats kind of like the nagging Karens, which is really like. It is for someone my age. I'm going to be 42 next month. For someone my age who was born in 1983, it's hard to overstate how impossible that would have seemed. Like the idea that the Republicans could ever be the cool ones amongst 17 year olds or something like that just seems like un, I mean that would have been like unthinkable as, as, like, as unthinkable as like if you were like, okay, like if you had a bet with someone in like the, the 11th grade or something and you were like, I got to turn someone into the coolest kid in school. And I was like, all right, you got to turn the principal into the coolest kid in school. And you'd be like, okay, well that's impossible. That cannot be done. That was making the Republicans the cool guys is like on that level. So anyway, all of this is going on and while this is happening, it's, it's interesting to see everybody kind of give their own thoughts on what exactly it is that the Democrats could do Some say you gotta like go harder against Trump. Some people say you got to abandon the woke stuff. Some people say you, you got to, you know, get the working class vote again. It's, you know, it's interesting even though nobody seems to have an actual plan to put into action. And so anyway, this is kind of just one of the things that I've been thinking about and while everyone is talking about this, you see like these, these different wings of the Democratic Party and you know, like what their vision for how you're supposed to do this is. This, I guess, is leading to some of the stuff that we're talking about now in this kind of vacuum, it does seem like there's some, there's different Democrats who are kind of like starting to make some noise. I still have not seen anything yet that I think has a chance of being successful. I don't know what you do, Rob, if you think there's one wing or another or one strategy or another that could rise back to be successful, but I'm not seeing it.

Dave Smith (17:15)

You know, you're exactly right, dude. And I think really the key is that you have to recognize that it's not. The way the issue is put out is like, well, what can the Democrats do to get the voters back on their side? Or what can they do to get the working class back on their side or minorities back on their side or something like that? But that you realize if that was just the case, then the Democrats would have been operating in a different manner for many years now. Like if. If the idea was getting enthusiasm and fundraising and votes and getting back, well, then they would have been embracing Bernie Sanders back in 2016. If the goal was to stay relevant and dynamic and win voters in this ever changing culture, well, they had figures like Bobby Kennedy Jr. Or Tulsi Gabbard or people like this. They ran all of them out with the exception of Bernie Sanders. They attempted to run Bernie Sanders out. They just didn't realize that Bernie Sanders is such a pathetic, loyal dog that he was like, I'll just wait. That's cool. I'll just wait here in the yard and wait till you give me some scraps. I don't care. The. The real key there is like what you said about the deep state. The goal isn't how do we get everybody back? How do we become popular again? That's actually fairly straightforward. The goal is how do we maintain CIA control over this party and get the agenda of the CIA while winning people back? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Tax Network usa. Do you owe back taxes? Are your tax returns still unfiled? Did you miss the deadline to file an extension? The IRS may be ramping up enforcement. You could face wage garnishment, frozen bank accounts, even property seizures if you haven't taken action yet. But there is still hope, and that hope is Tax Network usa. They've helped taxpayers save over a billion dollars in tax debt. They've filed over 10,000 tax returns. They specialize in helping people like you reduce their tax burdens. And they can help you, too. Don't wait any longer. Visit them at tnusa.comsmith or call them at 1-800-958-1000 for a free consultation. Their experts will walk you through a few simple questions to see how much you can Save act now before the IRS takes more aggressive steps. Take control today. Visit tnusa.comsmith or call them at 1-800-958-1000. All right, let's get back into the show. And look, I'm not, I mean, that might sound a little kooky or whatever, but like, did you see Rob, by the way? I don't know. We didn't talk about this on the show at all. Did you see who the Democrats had give their official response to the State of the Union speech?

Dave Smith (21:38)

I'm not sure that, I'm not sure. I don't think I saw that. But it typically, the, the kind of, the, the traditional wisdom would be that if you, on a presidential election day where one candidate wins, if you're from the other party and you won, that would indicate that you must have carried some of their votes because that's who came to show up. So, like if Donald Trump wins, you know, 52% of the vote or whatever. But that means 52% of the people coming out there voted for Donald Trump. If you won, you must have at least won some of his votes. Now, that's not technically, necessarily true because people could not vote for president and just vote for their senator, but it's, it's generally probably true. But the woman literally worked for the CIA. And she comes out and her, it gave like a Cold War speech. Literally in the speech, she goes, donald Trump is cozying up to Vladimir Putin. Ronald Reagan was president when we won the Cold War. If Donald Trump was president back then, we probably would have lost the Cold War. So, like, that is the CIA's conception of how to win back Democratic voters is to go, we're Reaganites now. Like, it's just as if that's, like, that's where the Democrats, the voters are at. But. So that's it. Just to your point, this is literally what they're attempting to do. Well, let's put our CIA woman out there. Maybe she'll want him back over and shows you that, that it's not again, in the same sense that it's like, it's not like, hey, how could MSNBC get higher ratings? How could CNN get higher ratings? Well, we all know lots of things they could do to get higher ratings. That's not really their issue. Their issue is how do we keep pushing this agenda and get higher ratings. Now, that's much trickier because the agenda has been rejected. But like, you know, like we've said before, like, there's a million ways that you could figure out how to get the number one show in cable news if you were unencumbered by what topics you're allowed to talk about. I mean, come on, do, do it here. I got, I got a new show for you, msnbc. It's called the Epstein Files. And every single day, this show is dedicated to one news story and one news story only. And that is getting to the bottom of the Epstein story. We are going to, hey, there was a pedophile ring that was, you know, with American girls being molested and systematically abused. And this involves so many of the most powerful people in our media, in our culture. He had shady. This guy Epstein had ties to some country in the Middle East. As Dan Bongino would say, we have no idea which one. But so, okay, do that. We're going to interview victims. We're going to interview. We're going to get all the people who were around him and grill. Then we're going to put all the best reporting together and Every night we're going to give you more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case. Are you telling me there's a chance that wouldn't be the number one rated show at msnbc, do you think? I mean, like, the, the video clips would be getting 20 million hits online every single day. Everyone would be driven to, okay, they could do that, but why can't they do that? Because they're not just in it for the ratings. That would defeat their entire purpose. They're there to prop up the regime and, you know, through like the deep state or what, you know, like that's what they're there to do, so they can't go after. So anyway, what's really interesting about the Democratic situation is that, like, there will be, occasionally you will see some, some people, like real left wingers who will kind of point stuff like this out. They'd be like, I mean, we could be opposed to the military industrial complex that's very popular, you know, and they're like, yeah, but the whole point is we're trying to figure out how we can support the military industrial complex. So that one doesn't exactly work anyway in this absurd vacuum, some of the more colorful figures in the Democratic Party have, have been out there kind of giving a lesson on, in my opinion, what not to do. But we've got a few of those today. Let's start with. Let's do the Elon Omar one first. Rob, I think you haven't seen this yet, but I did find this to be just pretty, pretty damn entertaining.

Dave Smith (27:40)

Is there something, Rob, that's it. We're done with the video. But isn't there something amazing? I know I like to point this out all the time because I do think it's like a subtle thing that sometimes people don't even notice. But the, it's now again, of course, most people do, or they at least like know it on some level. But they, when I say they don't notice, they may not notice the tactic. They, they notice overall that CNN is completely like corrupt and on one side of the issue. But like, you know how we, we've talked about this a lot before. Whenever they're like, if they're interviewing Donald Trump, they'll, or J.D. vance or someone like that, they'll do this thing where like you say something, I ask you your opinion, you give, you give the answer to the question. And then before I, I start the next question, I just go, we already know that that's not true. Moving on. Do you know, you know what I mean? Like, they don't even give you a chance to get back. They're just, but then what does Wolf Blitzer do when she's got, he's got Elon Omar here, she just says her piece. And then he's supposed to be playing neutral journalist, but then he just turns over and goes. And she was elected by her constituents. As if that ever needs to be pointed out about a Congress person. Like, yes, that is, isn't that the default assumption of anybody who's in the member is a member of Congress, that they won an election to get there, but yet he just turns over to go, she got, and she got votes saying that like what? Anyway, that's just interesting. But here, so here's a strategy that maybe the Democrats could pursue. How about this? Anybody who, who objects to her, in her words, giving resources to illegal immigrants so that they can evade ICE must be a Racist. There's one strategy. It's like, what, by the way, as I've, I've gone through the polls, you know, before, it's not. It is. It was a 50, 50 issue amongst Democratic voters whether they support mass deportations. Super majorities of the American people support it. So she's talking about 50% of Democratic voters. Like 50% of the people, of the minority, of the American voters who even still voted. Kamala Harris. 50% of them, I guess, are xenophobic racists, according to Ilhan Omar. So, like, just saying, of all the strategies, this one doesn't seem to be the best. But maybe I'm missing something. Rob, what do you think? Maybe I'm just racist.

Dave Smith (30:41)

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Go check them out@smallbatch cigar.com Most people click new first to shop their newest arrivals. And make sure to use the promo code problem that will get you 10% off. Plus you get those 5% reward points that I mentioned before. Smallbatch cigar.com promo code problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the Show. Well, isn't it, isn't it wild too, that it's like if you're, if you are making this argument and like, I, you know, I, I'm doing a debate on immigration at the soho Forum, as I mentioned, coming up soon, and maybe some of this stuff will come up there. But it does seem to me that unless you're arguing for open borders, like, unless you're taking a pure, like a pure position of there should be absolutely zero restrictions on anyone in the world if they want to come here, if you're not, which is, look, there are some people who take that position. I, you know, vehemently disagree with it. It is wildly unpopular. I, I don't know. You know, again, like, I haven't seen. I've, I've tried to find numbers on like, what percentage of the American people support open borders. And the truth is that it is so unpopular that no one even ever asks the question. And I look at all these immigration polls and it's very hard. I found one ever that I think it got like 4%. And this was from many years ago. The truth. They never even asked that question. They asked, like, would you like higher levels of immigration or lower levels of immigration? Do you support mass deportations or only deportations of violent criminals? Do you, like, these are the questions asked because I, at this point, when super majority is, you know, support mass deportations, I, I really doubt you could get 2% of people to say that they support zero restrictions. But if you want to make that argument, whether people support it or not, you could make the argument. Again, I don't agree with it, but you could make the argument. But short of that, short of arguing that there should be zero restrictions, I don't see how you get to go on your moral high horse here of like, you're a racist, xenophobic, if you think that people who came here illegally should be forced to leave, it's like, well, then that's the whole, then that's the whole thing is like, if you believe in any immigration restrictions, well then obviously at some point you got to restrict people, right? Even if you were to say that, you know, Americans, we take in more immigrants than anywhere in the world, both legally and illegally. But I think we should take in a lot more, you know, like, whatever the exact numbers were with under Joe Biden, we're taking in like a million legal immigrants a year, then they were having hundreds of thousands, you know, to millions pour in every month. We don't exactly know the numbers, but let's just Say you were like, I think the number should be way higher. I think we should take in 10 million immigrants legally every year. It's like, okay, well, then those 10 million come. And what happens when more come on top of that? I mean, unless you're just for open borders, you'd have to believe in restrictions at some point. Okay. Then they have to be restricted. And then. But then to turn around and say that makes you racist or xenophobic or something. It's like, is your argument that if. If anybody in America does not believe that anyone in the world has a right to come here, whether they follow our laws or don't, and if you don't believe that, you're a bad person somehow? Again, the reason I just mentioned this is just because it's like, you see these Democrats struggling to figure out how to deal with this moment, and then it's almost like at least one of them. Not that she's representative of all of the Democratic establishment. She's certainly not. But you have one of them out here who's like, hey, here's my idea. Let's lean into this very popular policy and say that you are an evil person if you support it. It's just wild to think that anyone would even, like, anyone in the game of politics would think that this is something you could say out loud. But of course, when you do that, you can count on Wolf Blitzer to nod along and remind everybody that you were elected.

Dave Smith (39:47)

Yeah, illegally crossing the border is a crime. Yes, yes, but right to your point. I mean, look, like, first of all, I don't even disagree necessarily with, like, look, there really should be an order of operations if you're talking about deportations. And as I've always said, the first most important thing was stemming the flow of illegal migrants coming to this country, which seemed. Donald Trump seems to actually be correct in what he said about his State of the Union, which, it turns out, just meaning business about it, pretty much takes care of that. I personally have been shocked at, like, the fact that there are record low illegal border crossings. It's really amazing how much of that is a result of just who's sitting in the Oval Office and what does their messaging sound like, which, you know, I guess kind of makes sense in hindsight, but that it's like, you just. It's quite a journey to go on, and people aren't going to do it if they think they're just going to get turned away when they get there. And so when Joe Biden's in, you have record high illegal crossings. When Trump's in now, you have record low. Pretty incredible juxtaposition there. But if you want to argue, like, hey, we should go after the violent criminals first, I don't think you're going to get much of an argument out of me and you on that. But the thing is, like, again, this. This almost, it becomes more of like a philosophical conversation when you're just saying, like, okay, fine, but then, like, but listen, do the people who illegally came into our country, do they have the right to not be kicked out? And I don't really see a compelling argument that they don't like, you know, it's like, no, you don't. Like, look, there are places you don't have a right to be. And like, in. In a libertarian sense, this is like, essentially impure libertarian theory, right? You'd be like, okay, there are basically two types of people, or maybe you could say three types of people who enter property. Okay? There are the people who own that property, they can enter at any time they want to. Then there are the people who are invited onto that property, and they can enter it as at the owner of the property's discretion. And then there are people who are not invited onto that property who enter it anyway. And that is known as trespassing. And trespassers can be removed at the owner's discretion. And so, like, I just don't understand exactly why that theory doesn't scale, you know, like why, why that shouldn't ultimately scale up to a nation and that if there are people who were not invited by the domestic population who came in against the rules, why is it exactly that they just cannot be removed? It's a very, it's an interesting. When you really think about it, Rob, obviously without just getting the detail of like the criminality of illegally, of illegal border crossing wrong, really what the implication from this view is is that if you ever make it here, no matter how you made it, this should be home base. You should be safe. Like in a game of freeze tag. I'm, you know, can't get me now. I'm on base. And that is just nutty. It makes absolutely no sense. And it is so distant from where the American people are on this issue at the moment.

Dave Smith (44:03)

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think honestly the, the Democrats are in a situation now where it's in order for them to actually play cards that are gonna win, they kind of, and this is what, it's the kind of the nature of these things. They actually need Trump to make a mistake and a really big one. Like they kind of can't. You know, it's like that's, that's a challenge in politics. I understand, but you've just, they've, they've. Boy who cried wolfed themselves into a corner. They can't just, they, they can't pretend that something is a huge outrage if it isn't because They've just like, that card has been played. And even if Donald Trump does say something that's fairly outrageous, they can't make a big outrage of it because it's like, yeah, you do that with everything he says. So it doesn't matter. You just, you have no, you, you're, you have no currency in this exchange anymore. You're going to have to wait for him to really up. You're going to have to hope that he really blows it. And so maybe your strategy could be to try to lure him into making a really bad decision and then exploit that. But that seems to me to be their hope that he can really, he really up and then they can be like, ah, this is a goddamn disaster and we wipe our hands of it because we were against it or something like that. But I just don't think like the. Look, you can, they can hope that if Trump proceeds with mass deportations, the implementation of that is really ugly and brutal and people are like, shit, I just can't support this. And then they could maybe, but, but to just try to get ahead of the issue when Donald Trump, because again, look again, leaving aside, like all the, you know, aspects of politics and how Trump actually governed compared to how he, how his rhetoric is, the bottom line is that in the perception of the American people, and somewhat fairly, Donald Trump was saying he wanted to build a wall Back in 2016, Donald Trump was saying these people shouldn't be let in back then. And now you're going to bitch and moan that after we let all those people in that some of them are getting kicked out. But Donald Trump's position was never, none of them should have been here to begin with. And so he can almost play in this way that like, yeah, it is unfortunate, you know, the borders are, what's his name? I'm blanking on or something? Horman. Yeah, Harmon, Tom, whatever. You know, even he said, even the most tough talking immigration hawk in the nation, he said at one point, he goes, yeah, it's tragic that we have to do this. He goes, it's a tragic, this is how, this is why it's so bad when you don't have a border. Like, this is why it's so bad when you let people flood in illegally by the millions. Because now we got to round people up and kick him out. And I gotta say that, to me, when I heard him say that, I go, that is a winning kind of compelling message. You know, that it's like, yeah, that's right. We, we quite literally in this case have to clean up the policies of the previous administration. And it sure does suck that that falls on us to have to do. There's something about that that I thought was, like, that's kind of hard to argue with, because otherwise, if you don't accept that, then you, no matter how much you're against the illegal immigration or you could say you're against it, your position is that once it happens, we just have to accept it. Once it happens, it's like, okay, the demographic makeup of our nation has been changed by the last administration, and we cannot change that. We have to accept that going forward. And that's going to be a tough sell. That's going to be a very tough thing to convince anyone of because it'd just be like, well, no, we don't. I mean, we have the legal tools to deal with this. So why is it that you're just asserting it's incumbent amongst us to just accept that Now? I don't. I. That. That just doesn't make sense to me. In the same way that it never made sense to me, that if there is a giant caravan of people coming from South America that are just uninvited people that are not coming in through the legal process of our immigration system, but they're just coming here, why is it that America has to accept them? That just doesn't make sense to me. It's like. It's not. It's like, what. Under what obligation is the principle that America belongs to everybody in the world equally? Because if that's your principle, and yet only American citizens can vote in elections, for the most part, it seems that you're going to lose elections to anybody who says, I think America belongs to the American people, not the world equally. Which is, by the way, essentially the core of Trump's message. Since 2016, that's the reason why he's been president twice. He's won two out of three elections. Three out of three. If you ask Trump, I'm not sure I'm with him on that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Stash. Brand new sponsor. We're thrilled to have them on board. Saving and investing can feel impossible, but with Stash, it's not just a reality. It's easy. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. And if you want to just sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 a month. Don't let your savings sit around. Make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.com/problem to see how you can receive $25 toward your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures. That's get.stash.com/Problem paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment Advis offered by Stash Investment LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Investing involves risk offer is subject to terms and conditions. All right guys, let's get back into the show. All right, we got, we got one more video here. You want to play that one? All right, Rob. Well, I started the show saying that Democrats are searching for, for their way to get out of this hole. And, and I think they found it. So there we go. That's good. That's going to turn people around, right? Jesus Christ.

Dave Smith (51:59)

Yeah, it's also like, isn't it funny because look, 2016, a bigger nerd than us swores. You really should have waited like at least 30 seconds. So it seemed like you googled that. There's, there's something funny because, like okay, it's eight years, a little over eight years since Donald Trump won the. His first presidential election in 2016. And okay, eight years, especially in our current political environment, is a fairly long period of time, you know, in the 24 hour news cycle or whatever. And a lot of stuff's happened since then. But it's kind of wild when you zoom out that so much of the criticism of Donald Trump when he first came on the scene was that he lacks decorum. He's not serious. This is kind of immature. This isn't presidential. This isn't how important people are supposed to speak. And then it's like you just get so quickly to a point where it's like, well, what are you guys doing? Like, this does. It seems like it's like an imitation of what 20 year olds do on TikTok or something like that. Like, this is our. And it's also on top of that, just so unappealing, this kind of like serious women in pantsuits doing cringy fucking. Like, what. What world are you living in? Like, it's amazing that somehow the Democrats managed to hand Donald Trump the adult in the room Persona, you know what I mean? Like, somehow he actually does. And this was the case. It was. One of the things that was so startling about this last election was that Donald Trump, when compared to senile Joe Biden or cackling Kamala Harris, seemed like the serious alternative. Like, at least this guy is here and he means business and he's got a little bit of an agenda and he's got some thoughts of his own. And it's not just whatever some big corporate donor told them to say or whatever. The popular thing at the moment is like, he's got some ideas that just seems more serious than anything that the Democrats are putting up against him. But my God, I just, I. It's hard, it's genuinely hard to even put into words how unappealing that video is. There's just like a disgust impulse that comes from watching that that you're like, what the fuck are you ladies doing? Like, what drugs are you on that you thought this might resonate with anyone? It seems like something that you'd like. Like you're like adult children would be like digging through their parents stuff and find a video from college when they did something like that. And you go like, the whole family laughs at it. And they're like, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing in hindsight, but we were 20, you know, and it seemed cool at the time. They're sitting members of Congress are doing this? I don't know, Rob. I don't think it's going to work.

Dave Smith (55:46)

It's like the thing. It's like the thing like when you're a third grader and you have no real power, but it's like the thing that one of the, like, moms would suggest where you'd be like, I will run away. Listen, I will run away. Like, if you make me do this, I swear I will run away. I will go on hunger strike. I will run away and I will never go to school again. I cannot be seen doing this. And they're like, no, come on, it's cute. And you're like, you don't get it. You don't get it. I cannot be seen doing this. Like, it's genuinely bad. That's where the Democrats are at. It's look like the interesting thing here, right, is that in order, really in order for the Democrats to survive, in order for them to have political success in the future. And this is, barring, you know, it's hard to predict the future. And, and the truth is that nobody, Donald Trump, is not going to run again as, as scared as the Democrats are. This is, this is his last term. There is nobody in line who has what Donald Trump has now. We'll see what happens over the next few years. JD Vance has obviously risen tremendously in prominence. He has the sitting vice president now, and he's doing a good job in moments like the moment with Zelensky and moments like with Dana Bash, where he's, like, showing that he can kind of, I can go to war with the people who you think of as the other side. And so. But. But he's not Donald Trump. You know, he has never demonstrated that he has a cult of personality following the way Donald Trump does. He's never demonstrated that he has tens of millions of people who will go to war for him the way Donald Trump has. Okay, so there's that. Someone else has to rise up on the Republican side as well. But it seems to me that almost what the Democrats need is, to some degree, their own version of Trump. And what I mean by that is not that they have to be anything like Donald Trump. In fact, that is the complete wrong mentality. I think that's the mentality that a lot of Democrats are almost like, going with here. Well, we got to find someone like that. You know, it's like the day after the election, they go, we need our own Joe Rogan. We need our own Donald Trump. That's not how it works. Joe Rogan didn't become Joe Rogan by trying to be anyone else's thing. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn't like he was going, hey, we need the podcast version of Dan Rathers. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's not how these things happen. And in fact, you know, like, one of the things I was thinking of earlier is something you said that just reminded me of that. But do you remember the. When Elizabeth Warren was doing that. That video in her living room, and she's drinking the beer, but she drinks it in such a weird way that you can tell she does not usually have a bottle of beer, but, like, she's trying to do the like. And.