Part of the Problem – "The Best the Dems Have"

Podcast: Part of the Problem
Host: Dave Smith (with co-host Robbie “the Fire” Bernstein)
Date: October 22, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein dissect recent political discourse among leading Democratic voices, namely Jon Stewart and Bernie Sanders, and reflect on the broader crises within the Democratic Party. The hosts also delve into shifting U.S. foreign policy, highlighting increasing tensions and interventionism regarding Venezuela. Throughout, the libertarian perspective is front and center, critiquing the flaws of interventionist and socialist approaches in both domestic and international realms.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Democratic Party's Existential Crisis

• Dave’s Thesis: The Democratic Party is in disarray following a series of catastrophic missteps and realignment in U.S. politics, leading to extraordinary low approval ratings. Figures like Jon Stewart and Bernie Sanders are now the de facto leaders, reflecting a lack of new ideas or credible alternatives.
• Quote [09:04]:
  “You’ve got this party ... collectively as a party in a pit of despair with their approval ratings in the basement.” — Dave Smith

2. Jon Stewart & Bernie Sanders: Old Solutions, Old Problems

• Clip Analysis: Dave and Robbie examine a recent viral exchange between Jon Stewart and Bernie Sanders where Stewart questions why Democratic subsidies lead to out-of-control costs in sectors like healthcare and education, and Sanders falls back on standard slogans about rights and "the best quality."

• Key Clip [11:47–12:54]:
  Jon Stewart: “But what happens is when the government promises endless funds to insurance companies or private universities without any cost controls ... prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation. ... Will Democrats recognize the poison pill that they've often placed into well intentioned policy?”
  Bernie Sanders: “...We have got to make it simple. In the wealthiest country ... should healthcare be a human right? Yes...”

• Critique and Satire:
  The hosts ridicule both Stewart’s “late” epiphany and Sanders’s empty promises.

  • [15:01] Dave Smith:
    “These socialists, like, act like that wins the debate. Everyone’s for the best quality. The question is, why should we believe that your government provided anything is going to be the best quality?”
  • [15:41] Robbie Bernstein:
    “And we have to simplify it.”
  • [16:19] Dave Smith:
    “Every level of this is remarkably stupid.”

3. The Real Issue: Government Intervention Makes Things Expensive

• Dave’s Argument:
  Subsidy-driven interventions drive up prices—government’s “help” is the root of the cost crisis in education, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. Yet, establishment Democrats (including their “rebels”) never admit this foundational flaw.
• [18:31] Dave Smith:
  “If the problem is that the prices of all of these things are just too out of reach ... was it the intervention that caused that to begin with? Maybe if we weren’t even intervening, this wouldn’t even be an issue...”
• [24:24] Dave Smith:
  “...one of the problems with saying that health care is a right or we should just have the best quality is it’s this infantile idea that resources ought to be provided for you when ... it takes work to provide those resources.”
• [27:31] Robbie Bernstein:
  “If you create price controls, you will have less of it. If you make money available for it, it will only be more expensive.”

4. The Free Market Alternative

• Summary of Solution: Rather than expanding a failing system (Obamacare, subsidies, mega-programs), libertarian logic advocates scaling back government distortions and letting markets restore affordable pricing through competition.
• [28:21] Dave Smith:
  “...let markets work and let people find healthcare alternatives. ... It’s such a shame that this is like seemingly all the fresh energy the Democrats have.”

5. U.S. Regime Change Addiction: The Venezuela Case

• Context: Amid U.S.-Israel-Gaza focus and post-Afghanistan/Ukraine fatigue, the U.S. (under Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others) appears to be gearing up for regime change in Venezuela using narco-terrorism as pretext.

• [33:10] Dave Smith:
  “...We seem to be closer to a regime change operation of some sorts in Venezuela than we’ve ever been... The level of addiction to war that the US government has is, it is just crazy.”

• Robbie’s Critique:
  The U.S. targeting Venezuela doesn’t make sense even on its stated terms—the Venezuelan drug menace is dwarfed by those from Colombia and Mexico; “narco-terror” is a manufactured justification.

  • [37:13] Robbie Bernstein:
    “If you’re in the business of just taking out one drug dealer and not the other drug dealers, then you’re just in the drug business.”
  • [39:29] Robbie Bernstein:
    "When you just blast people out of the open water ... you don’t do a great job of presenting the case..."

6. The Trump Approach: Negotiation or Bullying?

• Clip Discussion [40:33]:
  A recent Donald Trump statement claims Venezuela’s Maduro "offered everything" because "he doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States."

  • [40:56] Dave Smith:
    “If you’ve already got everything offered to you, why is it that you’re still trying to play hardball with this guy? ... That just seems like needlessly flirting with yet another catastrophic regime change war.”
  • [46:35] Robbie Bernstein:
    “If you just threatened Venezuela into giving us everything ... then great. God bless … let’s not have a war with them and I guess let’s take all their oil ... But ... if you’re telling me they’ve capitulated and they’re saying, give me everything, we still move to overthrow them, there's just something being said here.”

• Moral Disgust:
  Dave denounces both the bullying posture and real embrace of endless war:

  • [48:20] Dave Smith:
    “We just kind of feel like it’s almost like we’ve just accepted that we’re these bullies... This is just not the way anyone with integrity or any nation with integrity ought to behave.”

7. Lessons Not Learned: War, Blowback, and Political Psychology

• Reflection:
  Even after failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond, U.S. leaders—and much of the public—fail to process that regime change rarely yields freedom, prosperity, or even security.

  • [51:13] Dave Smith:
    “Have we learned anything if not that what comes after might be a lot worse?... If we just start bombing another country, that might not be the moment where they go ... 'Maybe we ought to give that [American values] a shot.'”
  • [53:10] Dave Smith:
    “...He didn’t go down by a single point for what is objectively a giant failure. He goes way up, he gets a 90% approval rating. ... Because we’re human beings and we got attacked and we went, hey, we’re at war ... That’s probably not going to be the way this thing goes. Call it a wild guess.”

• Final Warnings:

  • [56:28] Robbie Bernstein:
    “Well, I guess we'll see how this Venezuela thing escalates because they're definitely channeling that. They're looking for some more war in action in the area.”

Notable Quotes and Moments

• Dave Smith on Democratic Self-Sabotage [13:07]:
  “Man, that got Jewish. All right, I, I don't know why. I just find this so fascinating ... liberals—are allowed to discuss this now? Good point, Jon Stewart. I've never noticed this phenomenon before ... All the areas that government hyper-regulates ... get more expensive.”
• Robbie Bernstein on Socialism’s Childish Logic [15:49]:
  “To boil it down, it's John going, hey, we got a problem that when government spends money on something, it seems to just get more expensive ... And then Bernie Sanders going, well, we have to make sure everyone has it and that we can simplify how they get it, which would equate to we'll spend more money on it ... Every level of this is remarkably stupid.”
• Dave Smith on Moral Hazard [24:24]:
  “...it's this infantile idea that resources ought to be provided for you when ... it takes work to provide those resources.”
• On Trump’s Venezuela Negotiation Strategy [40:56]:
  “If you’ve already got everything offered to you, why is it that you’re still trying to play hardball with this guy? ... That just seems like needlessly flirting with yet another catastrophic regime change war.” — Dave Smith
• Closing Thought [51:13]:
  “If we just start bombing another country, that might not be the moment where they go, ‘Maybe we ought to give that [American Bill of Rights] a shot.’ That’s probably not going to be the way this thing goes.” — Dave Smith

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [09:04] – The Democratic Party’s decline and the emergence of Stewart and Sanders as figureheads
• [11:35 - 12:56] – Jon Stewart & Bernie Sanders discuss the “poison pill” of Democratic subsidies
• [15:00 - 16:19] – Dave and Robbie skewer the empty promises of government “quality”
• [18:31 - 24:24] – The libertarian critique: Government intervention causes price inflation
• [27:31] – Price controls and subsidies: why they fail
• [33:10 - 40:03] – Venezuela regime change: context, critique, and the problem with “narco-terror” justifications
• [40:33 - 46:58] – Trump’s “negotiation” posturing with Venezuela, and why it makes no geopolitical sense
• [51:13 - 56:36] – Lessons of blowback, regime change, and mass psychology in war
• [56:28] – Final thoughts on the potential for escalation in Venezuela

Tone & Style

Irreverent, hard-hitting, at times satirical, and always grounded in libertarian analysis, Dave and Robbie deliver a brisk, skeptical, and often caustic take on politics. The episode is rich with off-the-cuff jokes, cutting analogies, and palpable exasperation at mainstream political thought.

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

If you want a candid libertarian critique of why the Democratic establishment is out of ideas, why praise for Stewart/Sanders is misplaced, and how U.S. foreign policy is repeating the same old mistakes from a position of shocking power imbalance and moral blindness, this episode delivers. Expect sharp wit, a dose of righteous indignation, and a reminder that the “solution” to government-made problems is rarely more government.