It's a Numbers Game: The Numbers Behind What Voters Really Care About

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: "It's a Numbers Game: The Numbers Behind What Voters Really Care About"

Date: December 15, 2025
Host: Ryan Graduski (guest hosting/numbers analyst segment)
Producer: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the intersection of headline news (focusing on terrorism, immigration, and policing), and major polling data showing what voters truly care about as 2025 ends. The host provides commentary on two recent tragedies—an Australian terrorist attack and a U.S. mass shooting—and then transitions into a detailed breakdown of the latest NBC News/Social Monkey poll, analyzing what genuinely motivates American voters (economy, cost of living, health care) rather than the issues dominating media narratives. The episode’s tone mixes urgency, directness, and skepticism, particularly toward establishment media, politicians, and elite attitudes about diversity.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Commentary on Recent Terror Events

[02:24 – 14:44]

• Brown University Mass Shooting and Australia Beach Attack:

  • Expressed condolences to families affected by the Brown University shooting and the antisemitic terrorist attack at a Hanukkah event in Australia, targeting Jews ([02:32]).
  • Australia attack:
    • Two Islamists attacked a Hanukkah event on a beach, "scores of people, at least a dozen are dead...including a 10-year-old girl" ([03:00]).
    • Noted heroism of a Syrian immigrant who disarmed a gunman but was unable to operate the weapon due to Australia’s strict gun laws, which allowed the attacker to arm himself again and continue the attack ([04:00]).
    • Criticized Australian gun control policies for rendering citizens defenseless in such emergencies ([05:10]).
  • On policing and DEI:
    • Pointed out that three female officers at the event stood by as the attack unfolded, questioning recruitment priorities possibly influenced by diversity hiring policies ([05:36]).
    • “If you can’t do the job, whether it’s because you’re too trigger happy or...too trigger shy, then you shouldn’t be a police officer.” ([06:34])
  • Discussed the prevalence of Islamic terrorism in the West, connecting this to mass immigration from the Islamic world ([07:45]).
    • Referenced mass assaults in Germany, grooming gangs in the UK, and recent attacks as part of a broader pattern.

• Criticism of Media and Elites:

  • Accused media figures (Piers Morgan, Crystal Ball, etc.) and politicians of celebrating diversity while living in insulated enclaves and ignoring negative side effects for ordinary people ([10:35 – 13:45]).
  • "No one seemed to have a history in the UK that were celebrating the Bondi beach massacre going back to the 1066 Norman invasion. They were all recent immigrants." ([10:52])
  • Critiqued DEI initiatives in schools and the impracticality of extreme diversity ideals (“145 languages spoken in Jefferson County, Kentucky public schools...Do you think [they] have the adequate budget...to teach in 145 languages?”) ([11:22])

• National Identity & the Populist Revolt:

  • Argued that leaders’ refusal to reduce mass immigration is fueling “the national populist revolution sweeping the world” ([12:39]).
  • Praised Israel for valuing national identity and defending itself, stating that the West has much to learn from such an approach ([14:08]).
  • Finished segment by expressing heartbreak for families mourning loved ones lost to violence this holiday season ([14:20]).

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2. Analysis of Major U.S. Polling: What Voters Really Care About

[17:22 – 27:43]

• Methodology Note:

  • NBC News Decision Desk poll (powered by Survey Monkey), surveying all adults—not just likely or registered voters ([17:23]).
  • Emphasis: 41% did not vote in the last election, 26% not registered—reflects low-engagement citizens ([17:32]).

• Key Findings on Voter Priorities:

  • Politics as a Declining Interest:
    • “Politics...went from 25% of the public naming [it] as what they’re most interested in to 21%” ([18:06]).
    • Rising interests: personal finance and health/wellness; “Health and wellness has increased the most. It’s probably a good thing” ([18:12]).
  • Biggest Issue Facing the Country:
    • “Economy comes in well ahead of everything else at 27%” ([18:33]); followed by threats to democracy, health care, crime and safety (12%), and immigration.
  • Social Trust and Elite Accountability:
    • “54% agree with this statement: ‘...nothing really matters because powerful people will always do whatever they want.’...true levels of declining social trust” ([19:08], [19:41]).
    • Cites the Jeffrey Epstein scandal as proof elites are rarely held accountable ([19:29]).

• 2025 Retrospective and 2026 Expectations:

  • “A majority of people say 2025 has actually been a pretty good year, 59 to 41...70% say it’ll be better” for 2026 ([20:04]).
  • Noted the interesting contrast—news narratives remain negative, but public optimism persists ([20:24]).

• Economic Anxiety—The Real Issues:

  • Top Financial Concerns:
    • “Rising cost of living, 44%. Number two is healthcare...13%” ([20:36]).
    • Costs specifically affecting families: housing, food, insurance ([22:50]).
  • Income Breakdown ([21:06–22:40]):
    • Households below $50k: “65%...changed what groceries they buy…64% cut back on extra entertainment.”
    • Higher-income households affected less but still feeling a squeeze.
    • “Cutting back extra entertainment has been the number one across all groups.”
  • Public Reluctance to Change Obamacare ([23:15]):
    • “46% say keep it, 24% repeal, 30% unsure...people do not like uncertainty.”
    • “Obamacare was remarkably unpopular until...attempted to be repealed.”

• Party Trust Gap:

  • “57% Democrats, 43% Republicans” trusted on health care; “53% Democrats, 47% Republicans” on rising prices ([24:33]).
  • Observes that despite inflation fears, Democrats have a polling advantage even on traditional GOP strengths.

• Tariffs and Economic Messaging:

  • “Tariffs are super, super unpopular. People believe that they are responsible for the rising cost of everything, when...consumers have not borne the brunt…” ([25:15]).
  • Encourages Republican strategists to focus on the granular, daily-life issues: “food, insurance, housing—that’s where [voters] are going to vote.” ([27:00])

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3. Ask Me Anything (AMA): Listener Questions

[30:21 – 37:13]

• Patty from Sacramento’s Question:

  • Refers to a recent interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, questions his views on AI and immigration.
  • Host responds he values thoughtful dialogue rather than “owning” guests for clicks ([30:46]).
  • Critiques contradictory Democratic rhetoric: “AI is taking our jobs and at the same time...fears that we’re not going to be so pro-immigrant.” ([31:34])
  • Agrees with listener that mass immigration strains education, especially when students arrive who don’t speak English or Spanish ([32:09]).

• Joel’s UK Politics Questions:

  • Asks about allegations of Nigel Farage’s school bullying.
  • Host is skeptical: “I kind of doubt it...you’re telling me 50 years ago...they’ve been holding on to this anger...” ([33:10])
  • On the Reform UK party’s prospects: “Farage's biggest worry is that he has to get very serious about leading this party to a national victory, which he’s never done before.”
  • Also breaks down new left parties, Green politics, and Jasmine Crockett’s Texas Senate campaign, suggesting that identity politics dominates the left in America, even compared to progressive movements abroad ([35:05]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the disconnect between elites and ordinary people:

  • “They want you to embrace diversity at any cost. Because it’s not their daughters who will be groomed or gang raped in northern England or die on a beach in Australia at a massacre...” ([13:03])

• On optimism for the future despite tough year:

  • “People are optimistic with the future, but they have been through it this last year...” ([26:11])

• On why voters shy from policy overhaul:

  • “People do not like uncertainty. And Obamacare was remarkably unpopular until the minute it was attempted to be repealed. Not because it’s working great...people...are afraid of being uncertain and not having health insurance if something happens.” ([23:35])

• On what determines elections:

  • “Where they’re seeing their day to day lives increase—food, insurance, housing—is where they’re going to vote. Anything existential outside of that is not going to mean as much.” ([27:09])

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Key Timestamps

• Brown University/Australia Attacks & Policing/Gun Control: [02:24–14:44]
• Poll Review: Americans’ Top Concerns: [17:22–27:43]
• AMA: Listener Q&A: [30:21–37:13]

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

The episode mixes news analysis, skepticism toward mainstream/elite narratives, and detailed polling breakdowns to argue that voters are driven by pocketbook issues (costs, health, security) rather than abstract cultural battles. Ryan Graduski argues that politicians and strategists need to focus their messaging on the everyday concerns that truly move votes, instead of the hot-button topics that animate online discourse and media panels.

He criticizes political and media elites for championing diversity while remaining insulated from its downsides, warns that mishandled immigration policies invite backlash and fuel the populist right, and repeatedly anchors his arguments in hard polling numbers about what voters actually care about as 2026 approaches.

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Transcript

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Welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Graduski. Thank you guys for being here. I am so excited to tell my listeners that I I have some new news. Exciting new news. Starting January 1st, this podcast is going to go from two days a week to three days a week. It will be out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am I felt like I could only do this podcast correctly in the midterms if I had more access to you guys and more time to do it. So I'm really excited about that. I hope people all will like and subscribe and follow me on on all the platforms, including YouTube to really get all the breaking data coming into this midterm election. And I promise to give it to you guys as fresh as I can with new perspectives every single week with great new guests. So please like and subscribe and join me. I'm very, very excited about this. So I want to start off this podcast by one giving my condolences to the people at Brown University who were murdered in the shooting, the school shooting, and to the Jewish community in Australia and speak specifically about that issue. Because the Brown shooting, they still haven't even caught a suspect. I don't even know if they have a suspect yet. But we know what happened in Australia. Two Islamists targeted. They went to a Hanukkah event that was on a beach and they targeted Jews and they shot into the crowd. They shot at the crowd, killing loads of people. Scores of people, at least a dozen are dead. It keeps climbing. So I don't want to give you an accurate number or a total assessment because it's unfortunately likely to go into several dozens who will have been murdered, including a 10 year old girl who lost her life. The gunman used scopes in their guns, so it's very likely that they saw this little girl running and specifically targeted and shot her and murdered her. In the midst of this violence, one man at the event, an immigrant from Syria, worked to try to disarm one of the two gunmen. He was shot twice and he was extremely brave and extremely heroic. But because Australia has such strict gun laws, he had no idea how to work the gun he had confiscated from one of the gunmen. So rather than shoot the terrorist, he let him get away. And that's not his fault. I'm not blaming him. I'm sure the rush of adrenaline in the second, who knows what anyone would have done. But the gunman ended up going, getting by another firearm and going back to shoot into the crowd at the beach. There are a lot of lessons to take from this terrorist attack, as I think that there are with most terrorist attacks. None of them are being learned by people in the media who are focused on this. People like Piers Morgan. They are. They're honoring the immigrant from Syria who did the right thing, who tried his best, who showed bravery in the moment, but they're not willing to learn any hard lessons. One first, being on policing. There were three police officers there when the shooting happened. They were all female police officers. I've heard rumors, but I cannot confirm that they were not even armed at the time. And according to live footage, to footage and to witness testimony, police officers just stood by as the gunmans were shooting. Now, I'm not saying that these women were hired because of DEI policies, but it's clear they should not have been police officers. I come from a cop family, I have a lot of police officers. You know, my family, generationally, my dad, my dad and his brothers were all cops. It's a tough job. And policing, unlike other civil service jobs, you never really know what you're going to face on a day to day moment. It could be a gunman, it could be a, you know, a lost child, it could be terrorism, it could be a million things, it could just be a random mugger, it could be a mentally ill person. Being a police officer is a very, very difficult job and most do the job well, but it's incredibly stressful and it brings immense scrutiny. And if you can't do the job, whether it's because you're too trigger happy or in this case because you're too trigger shy, then you shouldn't be a police officer. These women should not be police officers. And police departments that mandate they hire girls for the sake of hiring girls are doing a disservice to every single person in their community. Right? I mean, these women clearly could not stop these gunmen even if they tried to tackle them, even if they couldn't shoot them because they didn't have arms, which I don't understand why in parts of the world, like in the uk they don't have guns. Secondly, while the man who disarmed the terrorists briefly was, and he was immensely brave, he didn't shoot the terrorists in part because his family said he had never held a firearm before. He didn't know how a firearm worked. Now there's no telling if he would have been, you know, worked better if he had a gun or if he had had or, you know, he would have actually been trained if gun ownership was easier in Australia. But Australia has disarmed their citizens for decades and this still happens. Stricter gun laws did not prevent this act of terrorism. And more gun laws, which is what Australia's leadership is proposing, won't. And lastly, and there's no getting around this, the west has a problem with Islamic terrorism. And because of mass immigration, we're importing more people who are susceptible to become Islam Islamic terrorists. If elected leaders of the west cared about their civilization, their liberal democracy, their Jewish population, women in their society, gays and minorities in their society, protecting Western philosophy which maximizes personal, personal and economic liberty. You cannot continue to import millions of people from the third world, especially those from cultures that are heavily influenced by Islamic ideology. We have seen this all over Europe for over a decade. And the elected leaders of the West's answer to this threat is to continue to import more people and hope that we don't notice things like the mass assault of German girls in New Year's Eve 2016, the Backland Theater, mass murder and torture in Paris, the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of British girls across the UK who groomed and gang raped by Pakistani men, and now the murders of dozens of Jews on the beaches on Australia. I'm not saying this case is the only example of anti Semitism. We know that it exists in the Islamic population. We know that it's not exclusive to the Islamic population. Right. It's, it's a broad thing, but it's very real among these people. And when it came to the footage of who was celebrating the Bondi beach massacre, the ones I saw from across the globe, the ones in the uk, they were all waving Palestinian flags, they were all wearing Palestinian, Palestinian scarves. No one seemed to have a history in the UK that were celebrating the Bondi beach massacre going back to the 1066 Norman invasion. They were all recent immigrants. It is an existential emergency and has been this way for decades, for at least two decades. I'll give people the benefit of the doubt that maybe they missed this in the 90s when the populations were much smaller by the 2010s, the and 2000, especially by the 2000s, it's very clear what is happening across the West. It is an existential emergency. And if only leaders of the Western of the west clamped down immigration, if they only did that, they could probably end the entire national populist revolution that is sweeping across the world. They just won't do it. They can't do it. Mass immigration is so key to their global experiment. It is like oxygen to creating water. You can't have one without the other. They think that it's noble and wonderful to change your society into a something that is unrecognizable and that diversity at any cost is worth it and ethical. And it is Proper to sit there and rub noses of diversity in front of people that, you know, don't like it, but they don't live among those people. Over the weekend, I was tweeting with Crystal Ball. I was tweeted at Crystal Ball because she. She's a progressive commentator. She was on MSNBC. She's got a big YouTube show called Breaking Points. I've been on it many, many, many times. And I personally really like her. She's not, you know, one on one. She's a very lovely person. But she was tweeting how the best thing about America is the cultural mixing and feeling differently than that is un American. Well, guess what the demographics of Crystal Ball's neighborhood in Virginia are. Take a wild guess about how diverse this neighborhood that she lives in it. Or Kentucky Representative Sarah Stalker, a Democrat who during a committee hearing last week said she felt guilty about being white and said we need DEI in schools to make white kids own their privilege. She backpedaled a little and said it's not about making them feel bad about their race, but we kind of know she left the cat of the bag. It is about feeling bad about your race. It's not just about knowing their privilege through history. And she said how much pride she has that 145 languages were spoken in Jefferson County, Kentucky public schools. Do you think that Jefferson County, Kentucky public schools have the adequate budget, the adequate number of teachers to teach in 145 languages, even with all the technology that's easily available for them? Stalker, the. The representative, of course, she lives in an area called St. Matthews in Louisville, which is 90% Caucasian. She doesn't live in a diverse area. And then of course, there was Piers Morgan. Piers Morgan, who I mentioned at the beginning of the, you know, he was on a. Tucker Carlson's podcast, or vice versa. One of them were on each other's podcasts, maybe. Tucker was on his podcast and he said that it was great that the UK will no longer be majority English by middle of the century because the food is better now than it was 30 years ago. And we should celebrate that diversity. And he said that we should celebrate the hero in Australia. We shouldn't talk about the fact that immigration brought terrorism to Australia. Just talk about the good immigrant, not the bad ones, that they are random, that it's randomly happening. So a few people, such a few people massively raping British girls. There's just a few people committing acts of terrorism or plotting acts of terrorism. You know, it doesn't matter the fact that there have been Four Afghani nationals and five Palestinian nationals in America in the last year who either successfully or unsuccessfully plotted terrorist attacks in this country. They're outliers, so therefore ignore the bigger problem of immigration from Islamic countries. Guess what? The demographics of Piers Morgan's kids schools. Guess how lily white the schools he sends his kids to are. It's called Thomas London Day School and it's where Prince William sends his kids. There couldn't possibly be a wider place on this planet. No, all of these people that push and love diversity, they want you to embrace diversity at any cost. Because it's not their daughters who will be groomed or gang raped in northern England or die on a beach in Australia at a massacre or assaulted throughout the streets of Berlin. No, they will live in America or Australia or Germany, of Britain in the 1950s in their own little enclaves. They'll get to go to the best diversity cuisines, because that's apparently all that matters, is that there's diverse food. You know, we can't just import a chef, we have to import an entire village. It's the poor people, it's the working class who will never live in that level of comfort, live with all the chaos that comes with declining social capital because of mass population increases, of immig all the people who spent their lives, and it's not their whole lives, but maybe the last 10 plus years, hating Brexit, hating Trump, hating Farage, hating Le Pen, all of those people who have made their whole lives focused around hating those people, hating the national populist revolution, they're responsible, they caused it because rubbing everyone else's nose and adversity made people rebel against their whole experiment, all while they choose to live as far away from it as humanly possible. And say what you want about Israel, which is pseudo non grata in a lot of circles, even on the right, say what you want, but the fact is that they're nationalistic. They, you know, they sit there and they know the time of day, they value their national identity and they're willing to do anything to preserve it. And there's a lot to learn with that. That's all. And I truly am feeling heartbroken for all the families who are going into both Hanukkah and Christmas, burying somebody, it is senseless, it is reckless. And I hope that somebody can possibly wake up and do something. Next up, I have some polling to show you really where how America feels going at the end of 2025, going into the new year, on politics, on the economy that's coming up next.

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NBC News decision desk released a massive poll on Sunday discussing Americans feelings on Trump, the economy, which party had was the best on the cost of living. A lot of different questions. And this poll was powered by survey Monkey. That is an Internet poll. I normally don't bring up Internet polls that are exclusively Internet because I don't really trust them. But NBC is the one that sponsored this poll so they're covering it. So because NBC is covering it, it's kind of making its way through the ether. You're going to hear about it either in traditional media or on social media. So it's worth covering and really breaking down what this poll says. Now this is different than a lot of other polls that ask registered voters or likely voters. This is asking all adults who 41% of respondents of the 20,252 respondents did not vote in the last election, right? They, they did not vote. 26% are not even registered to vote. So this is a broad section of people who I don't want to call ill informed. That's not correct. But they are low engagement. That's the way to say they're low engagement on facts, on news, on information. So first question of they sit there and they say what are you most interested in? Interestingly enough, politics is a declining interest to most American went from 25% of the public's name is what they're most interested in to 21%. I think that's actually kind of healthy. Personal finance and money and health and wellness have increased. Health and wellness has increased the most. It's probably a good thing than a bad thing. Biggest issue facing our country is obviously the economy. Economy comes in well ahead of everything else at 27%. That basically stagnant the entire year NBC is doing this poll. Second is threats to democracy. That's declined a little bit. Threats of democracy are both people who are like at the no Kings rally and people who are at QAnon stuff. It's two different side of the crazy, same crazy coin. And then lastly is health care. Health care has been pretty consistent for a while now. Lower level is crime and safety. That's a 12%. And then immigration is number five. So 54%. This is what I find very interesting. 54% agree with this statement when asked when it comes to politics in society nothing really matters because powerful people will always do whatever they want. This is, I'm sure this has been this way for a very long time. But this shows true levels of declining social trust, that the elite, that the wealthy, that the politicians can be held accountable. Which is why the mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein story was so detrimental, because it was such a closed case of this is a very bad person. But so far, aside from Prince Andrew, who was really held responsible, he's lost basically everything. Although he didn't go to jail, but he's lost all of his titles. He, no one else had any accountability. Only 25% of people disagree with that, by the way. So also very, very interesting part of the poll is when they said, how has 2025 been for you and your family? A majority of people say 2025 has actually been a pretty good year, 59 to 41. 2025, they say 2025 has been a good year. They ask how do you think going to 2026, how it will be for you and your family? 70% say it'll be better. People are genuinely optimistic, which is interesting given the news narrative now when they ask people what economic issues are most important to them. Number one by, by far is the rising cost of living, 44%. Number two is healthcare all the way at 13%. When they ask people about that, how their personal finances have changed better or worse. Interestingly, 31% of people who make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year say it has been better. 44% say it's the same. Plurality of every group except for people with household incomes under 50% say it is the same, 39% say it's the same, 45% say it's worse for people make under $50,000 a year. And when they ask you what what are you doing to change? What personal decisions have you change because of the rising cost of living? 65% of households making less than 50 grand a year say they've changed what groceries they buy to stay within budget, and 64% that cut back on extra entertainment. Cutting back extra entertainment has been the number one across all groups. But it goes from 64% among people who make less than $50,000 a year to 57% for people who make between 50 and 100. And then 43% by people who make over $100,000 a year. That's very, very interesting because the there seems to be a clear break line around 50 grand of what how severe the inflation is, people making over 50 grand or households making over 50 grand doesn't seem to be as intense what they're talking about as far as things go, as far as cost of Living goes and what they're doing to change the cost of living is dramatically different. Right? Cutting groceries is 53%. For people making between 50 and 100 versus 65%, that's a big drop. And when you go over 100 grand is down to just 39%. So I found that very fascinating. Next up, when they sit there and say, what is your biggest economic problem facing your family? Cost of housing is 1, cost of food is 2. Cost of insurance, health insurance is 3. That is the entire ball game for the Republicans in 2026. Those three things, housing, health care, food. And obviously they only have so much to control those things. Rents are going down for four straight months. Housing costs seem to be stagnant, which is good. Food is still very expensive in certain things. And health insurance is still a disaster. And I it's been a disaster since Obamacare. But speaking about Obamacare, they ask voters, would you rather they repeal and replace Obamacare? Keep it or unsure? 46% say keep it, 24% say repeal it, 30% are unsure. So why, if health care is failing, do people want to keep it as is? Because people do not like uncertainty. And Obamacare was remarkably unpopular until the minute it was attempted to be repealed. Not because it's working great. It's not working great. Everyone sits there and says it's not working great. Why are they afraid of repealing it? Because they're afraid of being uncertain and not having health insurance. If something happens, that's really where it is. So any kind of transformation when it comes to health insurance market has to work within consistent framework. So people don't feel like there's going to be a moment that they don't have anything to grab onto. They're worried tremendously about that. Which party do you trust more to help handle health care? This is devastating for Republicans. 57% Democrats. 43% Republicans. Who do you trust to sit there and handle the rising prices of everyday things? 53% Democrats. 47% Republicans. I mean, Republicans should not be losing on the economy, maybe because the tax cuts are coming next year and hopefully prices are reduced. This may be okay in the end. Like this may stabilize in the end. It's not that far off. Republican, Democrat. But it really has to be emphasized that, that that's things are getting better. The problem for Republicans is that the media has done a very good job about branding Trump's tariffs. Tariffs are super, super unpopular. People believe that they are responsible for the rising cost of everything, when in fact, when they've looked at this time and time again, consumers have not bear the brunt of rising costs. There's a lot of things that are making those costs rise. It's not just tariffs. Tariffs are helping a little effect, but things like health insurance or auto insurance or home insurance. These things have nothing at all to do with tariffs. How much will you spend on Christmas this year? 55 say less than last year. 9% say more. This is a really bad sign. People are not. People are optimistic with the future, but they have been through it this last year and they thought that it was going to get better. Question 23. I'm reading these as they go along. Question 23 how would you feel the stock market crashed by 30%? What a stupid question. These people charge by question. So imagine wasting one of your question how would you feel if the stock market crashed? Oh, I feel wonderful. Do you support or oppose the building of the of the ballroom once again, the thing that doesn't affect anybody's life. 33% of support, 67% oppose. No one cares. Like this is not what anyone's going to go vote. The handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files with the Trump administration. 71 disapproved 29 approve. This is not a question for me because I don't watch sports and nor do I gamble on them, but I think it's a fascinating question. We've talked with this during the podcast over the last year. Do you think that sports betting is losing, is lessening the integrity of the game? 70% say yes, 30 say no. How far, how concerned are you that the increase increasing availability of sports betting will lead to the game becoming rigged? 63% say yes, 38 say no. Okay, that's basically the poll. There's, I mean they're gonna make a big deal if they asked are you more of a MAGA supporter or Republican? It was 50, 50. Are you more of a progressive or a centrist Democrat? 50, 50. When you're dealing with such an un undecided population, so many people who have never voted as this poll is, you're going to get numbers like that. It doesn't really mean anything. I think the biggest thing that you could take from this poll, which I mean it probably isn't covering that extensively, is people are optimistic about the future, but where they're seeing their day to day lives increase, food, insurance, housing, is where they're going to go vote on those three issues. Anything existential outside of that is not going to mean as much. Those are the three things that if you're a Republican consultant, even figuring like like I am. But if you're a consultant for campaigns, you have to spend your days thinking, how will I address these three issues? How will I talk about these three policies that or how I feel about policies that will make these three things better and correctly address what's affecting their rises, what's affecting their cost increases, and how best a politician can answer them. All right, coming up next is Ask Me Anything. Stay tuned.

[A]

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Now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you want to be part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me. Ryan numbers game podcast.com that's Ryan numbers game podcast.com I will either answer them personally if they're just, you know, one on one thing like I did, actually two of them today, or if it's a question for the that the whole audience will like, I will talk about it publicly on the air. So this one comes from Patty from Sacramento. She said, I really enjoyed your interview. Representative Ro Khanna. I'm in California, not in his district, but interested in what he says. I caught some disconnect in his ideas and plans to move forward regarding immigration and AI that concern me. I like that he's actually interested in you and your opinions. Patty. Thank you. And that's why I tried whenever I have a guest, especially I know who I am, right. I know Democrats don't want to talk to me. I was the guy who made the beeper joke. I get it. Right. So I always want to make people when they come on the podcast feel comfortable, have a conversation. I'm not here to own you. I'm not here to sit there and yell at you. I'm not going to try to make a viral moment for myself because it doesn't, it doesn't make the audience more interested or smarter. Right? Yeah. That's just clicks. That's what everyone does. I'm not interested in that. I want to have a real conversation over ideas because there's things that a Democrat or a Republican could say that you could disagree with or that you could agree with and we can all become more intelligent for hearing each other out. I loved Representative Conor coming back, but he did not make any sense when he said that because he's saying AI is taking our jobs and at the same time he's talking about fears that we're not going to be so pro immigrant to bring in the whole world. That's why I said to him, I was like, you're going to run out of time. He wanted to do this AI New Deal where everyone was getting checks from all these companies. And I was like, you're gonna run out of tax dollars if you're bringing in the whole world. And he kind of. He didn't have an answer for it. And I think that maybe it kind of. I hope it made him think. I really do. I don't know if it did. Anyway. Patty, you say your niece teaches in LA and the kids don't speak English or Spanish at the home. And it's very, very difficult. This type of mass immigration is changing the fabric of our state in our country and not in a. But we do not take care and educate our citizens in our own country. We will fail. We cannot help any other parts of the world if we are a failure. Patty. I could not agree more with that. And yeah, and I have. I have in laws. Oh, and. And relatives over in different parts of the country in small town America. Small town red America. And they're like, oh, yeah, we have kids in esl. They're teachers. They're like, we have kids in esl. They don't speak Spanish or English and they don't. We don't know. We don't know how to communicate with them or using apps and stuff like that. And I'm like, is that helping? They're like, well, kind of. And they're making like shadow puppets. Who the hell knows? They're trying to communicate to any which way possible. But if you are not literate in your own language, the chances of you picking up a second one from just a few hours of school a day, not high, likely. Okay, second and last question for this episode. It comes from Joel. Joel, thank you for writing me again. He says he's keeping an eye on the UK politics, especially the Guardians Today in Focus podcast. I've not listened to that podcast podcast, but maybe I should check it out. He says, have you seen the reports alleging Nigel Farage bullied and tormented Jewish classmates in high school? I have. I know that they're making a big deal of this. I kind of doubt it. I mean, the man is like 65 years old. So, I mean, you're telling me 50 years ago that they've been holding on to this anger that he made fun of a Jewish classmate 50 years ago. I mean, unless he, like beat them to a pulp, I would say probably get over someone saying something mean about you. Especially considering he's been probably the most pro real person, pro Jewish person running for office in that country. What do this means for reform UK's trajectory? Especially if Farage continues to Lead it. Can a populist party absorb something like this and survive? So I think that, listen, the way it kind of works with a lot of these populist parties is they kind of worry about peing too early. And I think that's more of a Farage is worry that he's peeking too early. Labor's putting out a lot of good press stuff saying, look how much we're reducing immigration, we're reducing immigration, we're reducing immigration. That may not be enough to sit there and save Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, but it could lessen the blow, especially as progressive voters. They're not labor voters, rather they're not looking to maybe Farage in many places, but they're looking to the Green Party or the Lib Dem. So Starmer, so Farage Reform UK is definitely still leading the polls. Farage's biggest worry is that he has to get very serious about leading this party to victory. A national victory, which he's never done before. A national victory. That's not, that's not for the EU Parliament before the, the parliament in, in London and not be a victim of his own success. And their numbers have gone down a little bit, but they're still large and in charge. Second, there's a new leftist faction called your party coalescing around former labor figures like Jeremy Corbyn. It looks like a socialist alternative to labor, emphasizing trans everything, housing redistribution, anti war and protest rights. Do you think they'll pull votes from Labor? That is simply yes. That's an easy answer. And finally, have you followed Zach Polanski's rise as leader of the Green Party? He seems like he's pulling towards a kind of left wing eco populism similar to the young progressive circles in the U.S. curious if you think the style politics could gain traction here too. It already has. You know, I mean the Green New Deal was everyone's, I mean everyone gravitated towards it. It. But I think that part of what left wing populism in this country is is a lot of it is racial identity just because of how the left views everything even more so than the environment. If you guys watched Jasmine Crockett announced her run for the US Senate in Texas. It was a bit of a disaster. Her ad was weird and her video, or her. Sorry, her opening speech rather was strange where she, she kind of said that we need illegal immigration because black people stop picking cotton. Okay, Jasmine, I don't think that that's really what Hispanics want to be compared to. I know a few Hispanics who live in South Texas, they're usually very proud people. They're been here for generations. A lot of the Tejanos always say, like, the we, the border moved. We didn't. They've been here longer than a lot of other people have. They don't really view themselves as slaves. And it's interesting that she does. And it's interesting the way she talks about illegal labor. Very, very, very curious. I don't know if she's gonna win. She might win the primary, but my guess is she's probably gonna burn down. And she also said she doesn't want the support of anyone who voted for Donald Trump in Texas. So that'll go very, very well because it's not like he won the state by 15 points or anything like that. It's gonna go extremely good. She's so smart. All right, guys, that is my episode for today. Thank you guys for listening. I really, really appreciate it. Like, and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, wherever you get this podcast and I will see you guys on Thursday.

[A]

Season two of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season. This is unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher, and every athlete shines. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.

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