Loading summary
A
Hey, campers, it's Jan from Toyota. This summer we're headed to Camp Toyota and the fun starts now. We're kicking things off by kicking up mud. Jump in, campers. We're going off roading in a 4Runner next we're heading to the Hot Springs in Arav 4. And finally park your Tundras and Tacomas around the campfire because we're roasting marshmallows. There's summer start here.
B
Dealer inventory may vary. So your participating Toyota dealer for details. Event ends June 1st. Toyota, let's go places.
A
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Find out podcast. No guests today. You've got Tim, Rich, Zach and Luke. And we are going to dive into the big race that happened. We're recording on Wednesday. So happened last night. Tuesday night in Texas, Ken Paxton completely obliterated John Cornyn in the runoff there by. It looks like it was a 63.8% to 32.3 6.2%, which is about 20, 27 points.
C
Brutal.
A
And he was the sitting senator and he is now gone. So, guys, I have to think that James Talarico has a giant eating grin on his face this morning that he can gets to face Ken Paxton instead of John Cornyn.
B
Yeah, I think that's probably true. I mean, he was winning against both of these guys in the polls. So I think for him it was probably the lesser of two evils, though. You know, it's Ken Paxton's the giant slimy piece of shit. You know, it's that I was thinking about. I'm making a video this morning about this and like that works for Trump really well for some reason, but like nobody else. So that's why I think it's like a huge win for Telo. Yeah.
C
Agree.
A
Well, there was a, there was a. This. I'll be interested to get your takes on this because some people lost their minds over this, but Talarico put out a message last night basically saying that there is a place for Corin voters. I saw this in his, in his, in his campaign. Obviously some leftist liberals were not super pleased with that, but it's Texas and I would love to hear what you guys think about that sort of strategy. I know it looks. I'm going to start with Zach because I know what you're going to.
B
You know, I love it. I think it's fantastic. I mean, look, I saw videos of guys who were literally going in to vote for Cornyn who are Republicans saying Trump is ruining our party. Like they're, they're very much in this Realm of, like, fudge this guy. I'm done with him. So I think, like, on a broad level, why would we say no? Why would we say no to any vote for us at this point? Like, I understand the moral challenge with bringing Republicans in, whatever. But, like, who cares? You know, let's use every single vote we can. If we only get them once, let's take them once rather than zero times. Like, that's. I. I just want to win. That's how you win, you know, it doesn't mean change our. Like, I think, like, the challenge we have on the left with it is a lot of people go, oh, we're changing our morals for it. We have to change our platform for it. No, keep the platform exactly the same. Just be like, well, hey, this platform might work for you. So let me show you how that might work. I, I don't think you have to be a different candidate or a different party. You just have to figure out ways to sell what you want to do to these people.
C
Right.
B
You know?
C
Yeah, I totally agree. My, My reaction to this was like, let me go and unpack why Trump hated Cornyn in the first place because, like, he must. It must have been really bad. Like, he voted to convict or after January 6th or something. It must have been really bad for. For Ken, for him to. To flip on a. The number two ranking senator in the Senate in the Republican side of the Senate. It was not. It was because he voted to support gun reform after Uvalde, which was a natural response to Uvalde and a natural response to school shootings, and he took too long to endorse Trump before the 2024 election. There it is.
A
There it is.
C
He took too long. He still did. He voted for him three times, but he took too long to endorse him, and that was all it took. And, and so then a guy who literally is claiming right now that he has three different primary residences so we can avoid paying the increased property taxes on his homes in Texas, which is Ken Paxton, along with, like, seven other rental properties across a child rapist skate
D
with one day in prison.
A
Yeah, so let's.
B
Let's.
C
So this guy. So this guy gets the endorsement. Right? That's all it takes. Which means there is no room left for sane people in the Republican Party. It's. It's only, like, unquestioned loyalty to Trump and then everybody else. And, and that means, like, we have to either have a bigger tent to, to pull them in and, like, yeah, Zach, to your point, we're not changing our platform to accommodate them. We're just saying, hey, if you want to be one of the sane people, you belong over here. For now. Maybe you guys can save yourselves after Trump. But, yeah, we've got to find a way to claim some of those votes, because this is an opportunity that we might not see for 20 more years in Texas.
A
So, Luke, as probably our person, most of the left, what do you think?
D
I hate John Cornyn. I hate John Cornyn voters. 100% Talarico saying what he did. 100% correct. And if you can't see that you don't want to win, like, just. You don't want to win. If you wanted Talarico to come out and say, fuck John Cornyn. Fuck John Cornyn voters. Fuck all you guys. You guys are a bunch of maggot dumb asses. Like, congratulations, you don't want to win Texas. You don't want to flip the Senate.
A
Yep.
C
Sometimes being right and being. And winning, it's not worth it.
D
It's not worth it. I hate them. With the burning passion of a thousand sons, they have enabled Trump to do everything he's done up until this point. John Cornyn plays a fucking role in all of this.
C
Yes.
D
And yet I still don't want it to keep going at. Just because I hate them that much.
A
Yep. I. And I think we're gonna make it four for four. You know me as being in the political world, like, I like to win, as Zach was saying. And the reality of Texas. And we have talked about Texas turning blue for 20 years now. It's the next election. Oh, it's just the next election. And then Those races are 5, 10 points. I know Beto came within. Was less than 3.3.
C
Yeah.
A
Ted Cruz 2.8, 2.7. Something like that.
C
And Ted was an established senator. Ted Cruz was a sitting senator also.
A
Didn't. Wasn't. I mean, look, I hate Ted Cruz. He is a terrible human being, everyone. Ken Hurst. Ken Paxton is worse.
B
Oh, yeah.
C
Significantly worse.
B
Way worse.
A
Ted Cruz is, like, slimy, and the way that, like, I don't think he's actually, like. I think some of his positions, he's just. He's just cosplaying as a conservative, which is just as bad as believing it. It may be even worse. But. But Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas legislature, which has a super. The Republicans, I believe, have a super majority. Yeah, they impeached him. And as Luke was saying, he. His office cut a plea deal with a child rapist, and he got. I think it was a day in jail or 30 days.
D
And then a judge after 60 days
A
doubled it to the whopping two months. And that guy is already free. And Cornyn was hitting him on it. I mean that is like that one right alone is ripe for Catalarico to exploit or take advantage of the weakness he'll have with moderates and some right leaning independents. And I think the message is essentially like, do you want to stop the corruption? Do you want democracy? Come with us because we're the only ones that are going to stop this. You don't. That, you know, Tellarico doesn't have to be like, I'm pro death penalty and I'm anti choice. He just has to tell them, like, look, we can stop this. And like, if you elect somebody as insane as Ken Paxton, they're never going to come back to the middle, right? So if you send a message that that's too far, the next time around you probably get a more moderate candidate. So I think if he can pull 5% of them, 10% of them, and then the rest stay home, that might be enough.
B
Yeah, I agree. I think he can too. Like the, I think Telo's greatest strength is talking people who don't agree with him. That's, that's the, to me, like, that's what makes him so special as a candidate. Like most candidates can't do that very well. Like, that's usually their biggest problem is like, great at talking to their base. People in the middle are like. And people on the other side are like, go fuck yourself. But Talarico walks into a room and goes, give me a second. And he somehow gives it, you know, brings everybody. And people still probably walk away who don't agree with him, not agreeing with him, but they'll be like, that guy's okay and that's exactly what you want.
C
They're not going to come vote against him out of rage or out of spite or out of fear. You know, Obama had that and Pete Buttigieg had that, has that 100i. There are very, very few. And Bill Clinton had that. Al Gore did not have that. John Kerry did not have that. Joe Biden had that. With certain groups of people, like with the working class people, he could come and shoot the shit with regular people. But, but he was still sort of your, you know, Catholic east coast north, you know, New England elite liberal type to, to a lot of the people in like Texas. But you get an Obama or a Clinton or a Talarico or a Buttigieg on Fox News, like They don't get. There's no hot seat. They just talk. And, and people go, well, I don't like all of their positions, but, you know, I guess they're not like the worst. And sometimes that's the best. You can get 100%.
B
And also the Christian factor is huge in this. Like, the fact that this guy is so embedded in that culture. And in Texas, that's incredibly valuable. I mean, it's just, it's feels like he can understand what it's like to be a Texan and still be a pretty progressive Democrat. That's a weird combination, and I think that's what's going to set him up to win.
A
Well, his, his, his Christianity is basically unimpeachable. Right. He was a seminarian, so, like, he, like, it's hard. I mean, I know that I, I saw this thing. They were trying to attack him as being like a vegan or something.
D
He says he's a vegan. He didn't know how to pronounce it. And he.
A
But I assume he is not a vegan.
B
No, he's not. He's like eating barbecue.
D
Trump's attacks are. He's a vegan. He believes in 6 genders and he thinks God is 9 non binary, 6 genders. I don't know where he got that.
B
The video I was making this morning has a clip of Paxton in his speech, I think, right after he won. And he used six. It's called him six gender. Jimmy was one of the names. Low T. Talarico, was it? And then. Oh, yeah, one of the vegan one. I can't remember what it was, but they're all these names where you're just like, all right, they're good. They're like good names. But these are like, this is Trump. You're 13.
C
Right.
B
You know.
A
Right. Like, it only works for Trump. And like, I just think it's, it's telling that they're worried because they're using that stuff. Right. And they can't hit. What are they, I mean, like, what are they going to hit him on?
B
Right.
A
The economy?
B
No.
A
Well, he was in the minority in the, in the Texas Senate. Not his fault. Like, I, there's nothing to hit him on. And I think, like, they know that he is, frankly, kind of a, for lack of a better word, square white guy. Yeah, that isn't, it's very obvious. He's not like some, like, I, I live in New York City. He is not a New York City liberal. No, he is not. Zoram and Donnie in His positions. He, but like, I, I just, they don't have anything to hit him on, so they're gonna like, they're gonna try to make him as feminine as possible. Right? And that is going to be how they try to turn off conservatives from either staying home or, or, or coming out and voting for Paxton by like basically saying this like effeminate guy is going to create six genders and God is now non binary. Which I don't know how you can that like nuts.
B
But I, I think unfortunately it's the right approach. If I'm a Republican strategist, a thousand percent.
A
Yeah.
B
What I'm doing, you know, like, it's, it's, it could work. Like, that's the scary part is that, you know, so much of voting in Texas is based on like maintaining the Texas. They have the pride of Texas.
A
Right.
B
That going like, hey, this essentially going, this guy's a, you don't want a right. Like that's really what it is. Like, yes, that's, that's the whole approach. And like that might work.
C
Did you guys hear Talarico's response to the vegan claim though?
B
What do you say?
A
No.
C
He said, I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.
B
That's good, that's good.
C
They, they can't handle a smooth talking guy who's witty, who can crack back like that. That's, that's going to be like Kamala Harris, I think she had that for the, like the liberal elites, like the academic elites, like we, we, we all spoke the same language. Right. But, but James Talarico, what is he? I think he's like a sixth generation generation Texan. Like. Oh, yeah, yeah, he's, he's a good old boy. He's just, he's just on the left and they are, they're not going to know what to do with that. Especially when you've got Ken Paxton who looks like a walking billboard for Viagra and, and he's trying to come at a 37 year old, 37 year old, you know, well spoken, handsome young man. I mean, like it's, it's. Everything he does is going to backfire. And that wasn't the case with, you know, Trump and Clinton were both kind of old. Trump and Biden were both really old. And you know, and Kamala Harris, you know, we don't need to unpack the obituary or the, the, what do they call it? The postmortem. Yeah, more, lot more things working against us, you know, than just appearance.
B
No, it's it's, they're set up. The only thing they're that's working against them is the institution that they're up against. That's it. You know, Texas is a fucking institution. That's very red. But, you know, I think Lucky's winning in every most recent poll or tied. Yeah, it's a, it's a very good start, let's put it that way.
C
So. Because I think the one thing that we haven't talked about is the Latino vote in Texas. And I was just doing some quick research and to, to refresh the numbers, but Texas public opinion research did a poll in late April, so about a month ago, and Talarico led John Cornyn by three points. He led Ken Paxton by five points. But in that poll, Latino voters. Let me pull up the number, but it was like 20, 25 or oh, Latino voters. Talarico leads Cornyn by a 32 point margin and Paxton by 27 point margin. So Paxton outperformed, but still basically 2 to 1 and independence. Talari goes up 51 to 29 against Cornyn and 53 to 28 against Paxton with Independence. So. Oh, and by the way, our, our guy at Garcia, he won. He did last night. That was nice. See, Johnny? Latino voters. I'm not going to claim to be an expert on Texas, Texas Texan Latino voters, but from what I can see in the data, you know, they are obviously a little more socially conservative, they're more religious, they're a little more traditional, more loyal. And I think all of those things in this case actually support Talarico because there's not going to be an incumbent on the, on the, on the, on the ballot. And so even though we were already looking at a wave election for Latino voters, I think it's going to be even worse for Republicans without corn on the ballot.
B
Oh, for sure. And Paxton's also not that smooth. Like to deliver this shit message that they have, you got to feel like the bully nobody can with. And he does not feel that way. He feels like a slighted used car salesman who had a fight with his wife the previous night. Like he just feels like a piece of. And like that doesn't work.
C
Yeah, you.
A
I mean, if you look, there were 20 indictments in the impeachment.
B
Yeah.
C
Jesus Christ.
A
Which were all based on the fact that there were whistleblower complaints about Ken Paxton in his office, which he then went to the Texas legislature, was like, oh, hey, can I have 3.3 million more dollars and I'm not going to tell you why. And they were like, what? And then they figured out it was based on his own behavior.
B
Right.
A
Then during this he accused the speaker of the House in Texas House, a Republican by the way, of being drunk while overseeing the, the, the, the, the House votes. Yep. Then it came out that he was having an extramarital affair.
B
Yeah.
A
Which he's Mr. Christian, man. Four kids. And his wife did leave him two years ago.
C
Yeah.
A
Good for her.
B
Yeah.
A
And like all of it's like about embezzlement and all of this. And then he was like this is a witch hunt by Democratic lawyers. And again, again the Republicans have a super majority in the House and in the Senate in Texas. And then they went and looked at the attorneys and, and some of them had given money to Democrats, but they as a whole gave like exponentially more to Republicans.
B
Right.
A
So like he just like did the whole Trump playbook, but against his own party. So like these people don't like him. Like the, he's not going to get a lot of help from the legislature or any of that. And I can't imagine that Governor Abbott is going to want to campaigned in lockstep with him because he's got his own fight on his hands.
B
Yeah.
A
Because he is also a shitty elected representative. But Ken Paxton is just. Nobody likes him. Which I guess is like Trump, except anybody close to him hates his Trump.
C
Yeah, Trump, like there, there are no coattails to be had in Texas. And it's also like what, the second third most expensive state in the country, Maybe the most expensive to run a campaign. So you look at like I, I was just look at Talarico got hauled in 600,000 in donations in the first. In the two hours after the Ken Paxton's primary. One best two hours of his campaign. And their internal polling, this was shared with Politico. Their internal polling shows that he has got a seven point lead on Paxton right now.
B
Damn.
C
So you know it's not in. Paxton is intensely unpopular among Texas Republicans, among the broader Republican Party. John TH hates him. This is going to cost them an estimated 200 to $250 million now to defend his seat where they were expecting to only spend about 100 million, 50 to 100 million to defend Cornyn. So this makes the Republican machine have to live their worst nightmare.
B
Yeah.
C
And, and Cornyn was also really popular. And so who's going to come out? Is Trump going to come and campaign for Paxton and then his name won't be on the ballot. Everybody's just going to have to. Paxton is the name that needs to carry. I mean it's the ballot right now
A
in Texas it's a perfect storm because first of all they did the gerrymandering which has infuriated black and brown people in Texas as it should because it took power away from them.
B
Yeah.
A
So they're, they're going to vote and they, as we know, they stole five seats. But like some of these are now single digit Republican advantages which we have seen Democrats double digit overperforming across the country. I, you know, even, even if James Talarico doesn't win, let's say he comes within one point, I bet he pulls a House seat or two over the finish line because he's at the top of the ticket and that's why that shit matters. People like, oh, I don't know if these people could win. And you know, there or Iowa or Ohio or whatever, it's like, yeah, but like if you have some at the top of the ticket over performing, they can help us in other ways, whether it's in the House or in the state level. And I think Iowa is a perfect example of that too.
C
Yeah, I think the state level is going to be, I mean we, we should do probably several whole episodes about state legislatures because there are Republican super majorities all over the place where they don't even deserve, they don't even, they haven't even earned it. Like Wisconsin, they had a Republican super majority for a long time. That's how they got the right to work through. That's how they got Scott Walker's agenda all forced down everybody's throat. And that's why Wisconsin is now, is now struggling. Having people like Talarico and having people like Paxton on the ballots are going to help break Republican super majorities everywhere, which is going to mean when we redistrict in 20, after 2030, Republicans are going to have a lot more trouble forcing through the kinds of maps that we're seeing them force through right now, which are the product of 15 years of fighting at the state legislative level. So yes, 100 agree. Talarico is going to, is going to pay dividends in all sorts of ways that we haven't even explored yet.
B
Yep.
A
Yeah, definitely. I mean I think like the money thing is really important too because they're actually. So they're going to have to play defense in Texas.
C
Yeah.
A
Already talking about potentially a quarter billion dollars there. They're going to have to defend in Iowa where there are strong Democrats up and down the ticket there. Sherrod Brown is running in Ohio. They're going to have to at least pay attention to that race. Alaska, Mary Patola has been leading in every poll. Like, they're gonna, I mean, that's not an expensive media market, but they're gonna have to spend millions of dollars there. We already know Maine, North Carolina, these are all defense. None of this is offense at all.
C
They don't have offense. I think Ossoff is, is like, that's, that's their best chance is a guy who, in a, in a, in a, in a wave year, like.
A
Oh, New Hampshire too. New Hampshire.
C
But that's an open seat, right?
A
Well, yeah. Gene Shaheen retiring. And so it's Chris Pappas on the Democratic side. And I think that the governor.
B
Sunu. Sununu or whatever I think is.
A
But I think Pappas has been, I mean, look, this New England, like, in a bad year for Republicans, I'm not like, as worried. If Sununu had run two years ago against Maggie Hassan, it would have been a harder race. But, but he's also gone full maga, so, like, his whole appeal is kind of washed away. So, yeah, there is no offense. There are some House races. I think that they may think that they've got some advantages. Maine, 2nd district is one. But, but in the Senate, nothing. Yep, nothing. It's a market.
B
Yeah.
A
It's almost as if coming in and doing literally the opposite of everything you should be doing is a bad midterm campaign strategy.
C
I don't know. I'm liking it. Yeah. I'm deeply appreciative.
A
Oh, I think it's great.
B
I mean, mine's the better, you know,
A
minus the, the pain that it's causing people. But.
B
Yeah, you know, I think people are like, are. Because I was, I've been saying this for the whole time, you know, like, I want it to be terrible. And I think in the beginning people are, well, it's going to hurt people. Now they're like, who gives a. Like, we need this to be a throttle them situation. And the only way that's going to work is if keeps getting worse. You know, people have to feel how bad it is. Like, because I think so much of politics is theoretical to people. And it's like, you gotta feel it if you want people to change their mind. You can't fight theoretics with theoretics. You have to fight theoretics with reality. And that's unfortunately going to hurt a lot of people. But those people will then never forget the hurt and they'll probably never vote for somebody like Trump again. If they literally went from, like, I voted for Trump to fuck this guy, That's a tough thing to swing back from.
C
You know, I mean, I. I think this is what happened to us millennials after. After Bush. I mean, there. I remember the early 2000s, like, things were pretty good. And so a lot of people were like, oh, Bush isn't that bad. Like, he's kind of a good guy, you know, Oh, I could have a beer with him. He's a cowboy. He's a good old boy. And then the recession hit, and the, you know, then the war got really bad, and then the housing bubble went so ape. You. I remember it was like 2006. The average house in the United States was, like, $250,000, which at the time was an absolutely unfathomable price. This is like 20 years ago now. And. And so then people started resenting him because it was. You couldn't buy a house anywhere, and the housing market was going apeshit. And then, of course, then everything popped and everything failed, and then there were a million jobs a month getting lost, and it was all because of George Bush. And now millennials are the most consistently progressive generation because we got burned. It's like, 9, 11. One bad war, another bad war, recession. And in 10 years, it's like, never again. And millennials are like, 65, 35, I think, like, Democrat pretty consistently right now. So including. Including males.
A
So it's almost as if we should not let Republicans be in control of the government because they break everything.
B
Yep.
C
Everything gets nice for, like, two years. And then we're like, let's give Republicans a try again.
A
I know.
C
And the Democrats are doing that.
A
The Democrat comes in and fixes some stuff. Not everything. And then it's like, oh, well, but prices are too high. Let's bring back those guys who fucking torpedoed everything 10 years ago. I mean, like, there is, like, very little that you could look at in George Bush's presidency and be like, more of that, please.
C
Right.
A
More of that. Yep. Especially since he inherited surpluses and then he went massive tax cut for the rich. Oh, what happened six years later? Oh, we almost ended up in a depression. Yep.
B
It's not great, but people like, it's. Republicans are just such good marketers, man. That's really all it comes down to.
A
I know, I know.
B
They're so good at it. It's so annoying. I fucking hate it. If Democrats are even, like, 50% better than they currently are, they'd be fine. But, like, they have such a huge advantage. It's like, it doesn't. Democrats could literally be pitching like, hey, I'll just give you $100,000 each. And the Republicans, somebody be like, they are just going to fuck you over. So, like, and it would do. And they'd be like, yeah, you're going to fuck me over with all this free money. Like, they're just so good at it. It's amazing.
A
They are the masters of. Of getting low information voters on their side.
B
Yeah.
A
Because they simplify their very simple simplification of messaging. And Democrats need to be better at that and basically be like, no more crime. And they're no more like, you know, 3, 700 stock trades in the first quarter of this year by the President.
C
Yeah.
B
It's.
A
Which is insane astronomical. The grift.
B
It's and everything.
A
It's just unbelievable.
B
That's the reason why Republic, like, it's the reason why people are so averse to like, taxing billionaires and taxing corporations because they had the most effective marketing campaign ever around it being like, hey, if you do this, jobs are going to fail. The end. Like, it's one sentence. We're going to lose jobs done. And everybody goes, oh, well, I don't want that then. And they just move on. Like, we just need to adopt that, like, one sentence response to shit. And we're not doing it, which is so frustrating. Like, we could be pressing so much harder right now. And we're all kind of like, I don't know, you know, Are you so risky, Zach?
D
Are you saying that Democrats don't have the messaging down?
B
Definitely saying shocker. Messaging, shocker. Which is so painful because, like, it's just risk aversion. That's all it is. It all comes down to fear. And it's like, what are you afraid of? What the fuck are you afraid of? Just press. It's not hard to press, you know, and the ones who are pressing are winning. It's not all like, that's the thing. It's like, institutionally that's the problem. But there are individual Democrats who are not facing that problem. Like, Mom, Donnie, I keep going to Mamdani for shit. But he didn't have that problem. He pressed and he fudgeing, crushed. It's. The evidence is there, you know, and
A
he hasn't let up, you know, like, it's not like he got in there. He's like, now I'm going to pump the brakes. He's going. Which is. Which is right.
B
Yeah.
A
Also like, Democrat, like, every time the minimum wage has been increased in this country. Do you how many times it's caused job losses? Zero.
B
Zero, right?
A
Zero. So like this, this notion that cutting taxes, trickle down economics is the way to flourish. We've done it like four times. It doesn't work. And so I don't know why a Democrat doesn't just come out and say this shit doesn't work.
B
Right.
A
We've done it over and over and over again. Like maybe we should try the taxing the billionaires one.
B
Right?
A
What do you think about that? The money that they'll never even notice is gone, can help fund pre K or health care or climate adaptation or whatever.
B
Like, they haven't drawn that line. That's the problem Democrats is they just go, well, we should tax the rich. It's like, okay, for what and why? And like, where are you going to like? Because the biggest problem Democrats have is they're essentially selling a bigger government and people are going, well, I don't like the government. The government has not been effective. And you're telling me that now? It is. And it's a very difficult line to go. Like, sure, let me cross over and trust you now. So it's like Democrats have to do again what Montani did, which was be explicit about what he wants to do. Like, you guys are suffering, I'm going to do this.
C
Well, that's it, you know, it's selling the benefit and not the, like the problem. The. Right, exactly. You're selling the solution, not, not the how. Like, nobody cares how the sausage is made. You don't want to fund science because you have to fund science. Like a handful of people will vote just to fund science and fund health research. What they're actually funding is cures and treatments and accessible medicine and affordable medicine. You have to sell on the benefit and not get hung up on the academic part. And that's where, that's where the left has the most trouble. We, we don't, we don't just say the simple message because we know how many layers of nuance and context there are that make that message like that, that are, that are necessary for that message to become true. So we don't, you know, well, everybody deserves universal health care. Okay? You shouldn't have to pay anything for health insurance. A Democratic, a Democrat will rarely just say that and then leave it alone. They'll say, and I have got a 72 point plan that, that makes sure that it's deficit neutral. And then you spend the next six years arguing about three of those 72 points and whether or not they're Deficit neutral and like, and then you're talking about nerd shit and regular people are like, wait, I thought I was, I thought we were talking about me not paying for health insurance anymore. That's what they actually want to still talk about. We just have to not overthink it because regular voters are not thinking and they just frankly don't care. At the level that Democrats do that the, especially the insider policy types.
B
Yeah. I mean most people don't know. Go ahead, Tim.
A
No, I mean, and if you look at, I would argue two of the most successful Democrats in the past 20 years, there's Barack Obama, generational talent and even Zoram Abdani in his early phases. Now you know what those guys don't do? Apologize.
B
Yeah.
A
Or like be mealy mouthed about their positions. They say, this is what I think, this is what I'm going to do. And if you don't agree with me, I'm sorry, but this is what I'm do. I guess I just apologize in that description.
C
I will never apologize for fighting for the average American.
A
But like, and they got huge. Well at least Obama got huge crossover.
C
Oh yeah.
A
AOC is kind of similar too. She's getting Republican votes and she's as progressive as it comes, but she's strong and she's forceful and you could tell that she means what she says.
B
Yes.
A
And it's like the mealy mouth, like, well you know, it's the 72 point plan. Everyone's like, fuck off, just tell me what it means. I don't have time to listen to this. Am I going to pay less for help? As Rich said, am I going to pay less or am I going to pay more? Yeah, what is it?
B
I mean the systemic challenge I was talking to Brad Doggett about this the other day is because he was arguing like, well we should just lie like Trump does about like how much we can do. And I was like, I don't think that's going to work. Because I think in the end the challenge that we face compared to what Republicans do is we're trying to sell a whole new system. Like Republicans aren't selling a new thing, they're selling an old thing repackaged as like it's old but you want to go back to it. You know, this product. Right. You just don't like the changes that have happened. But we can just fix it to go back to the way it was. Democrats are going, no, no, no, we need a whole new system. Trust us. That's a very psychologically different argument to go hey, we're going to do something totally new. People like, oh, shit. Really? They get very nervous about it. So, like, we're disadvantaged in how we have to sell. Like, conviction is the only thing. Because, like, essentially what you're saying is, like, trust me, it's going to work. And you have to be confident when you say that. And if you're not, because you have to believe it.
C
You have to believe it. Not. Not just because your analyst or, you know, the panel on MSNBC or Ms. Now or whatever said that it, you know, that it plays well with independent Hispanic voters in Ohio. Like that. That can't be your North Star. Donald Trump has never cared about a poll. He just makes it up. He looks at whatever number is favorable,
D
whatever in his head.
B
Yeah, right. 90% approval.
C
It might be a news.
D
99% in Israel, don't you know?
B
Exactly.
A
99.
B
King of the Jews.
A
That's what he said.
D
He said he's going to go run there after he's done it here.
C
That's amazing.
B
Run from the grave.
C
That's a fair trade since Netanyahu's been our president for the last year and a half.
B
That's a clip right there.
A
Yeah, we go. There we go. But, yeah, I mean, but like, even, even Graham Platner, which he has plenty of detractors. Right. For legitimate reasons, he crushed Janet Mills. She dropped before they even voted.
B
Yeah.
C
It wasn't worth it.
A
And, and she. He's leading Susan Collins and all. And it's like, people, because he stands up and he says these things and like, the, the past for people, they're kind of like, well, like, Donald Trump was a Democrat and was like, all these things and like, no one gave a. So, like, maybe we don't need to give a shit either. And I think he's got a legitimate shot at flipping that seat. And it's because people stand up. People, people want to follow people who believe in the thing. Like, I couldn't go, like, into, like, business world and sell a product that I don't care about, I don't use.
B
Right.
A
I would be terrible at it. But if it's like talking about this show or talking about our company, I can go out there and pitch all day long because I believe in it.
B
Exactly.
A
But it's the. It's the same with a politician. Like, you don't want somebody who's just mouthing the words. You want them to feel it.
C
And you want to feel it because you know that. You know that they're going to encounter surprises. They're going to, you know, wrinkles, budget surprises like 9, 11, like shit happens in the world. Some of it's, some of it's out of your control, some of it's your control. People don't need all of the answers and they really don't want all of the details and all of the data. Like they know that you're, you're, you're pretty much guessing when it comes to the future. It's a really sometimes well informed, I guess. But what they want to know is that when you confront one of those obstacles or one of those surprises or barriers, that the reason you're going to drive through it and get to that benefit you promised is because you actually believe that that benefit is a thing that has to be true, it has to happen. And that's what gets you through those things, those surprises that come up instead of just saying, well, we research showed that actually blah, blah, and then, well, okay, well, we're going to cut, you know, the Obamacare, you know, ACA in half or down to 10% of its original plan. Like so much of the worst stuff that has frustrated people with Democrats has come because they haven't had the conviction to just push through and do the thing. You know, we lost a lot of votes on Obamacare, for example. And that in that lack of perceived conviction, that passion is what is driving people crazy. And I wanted to pull up just before we pivot away maybe from this topic, Washington Post just published this morning that they asked 1200 people what they love and hate about both political parties. And half of the things on this list are exactly what we're talking about. But I, I need people to, to think about it just for a minute. Because yes, like Republicans said, oh, they're too liberal or socialist. But then the next reason, 10% of people said too weak, too spineless, they don't stand up to Trump. And then you've got favoring corporations, you've got out of touch with everyday Americans in the working class. That's 4%. You've got poor slash old leadership 3%, no clear policy agenda, no principles and pandering 3%. So you start adding these up. You've got about 20% of people, which includes Democrats and independents in this poll saying essentially there's nothing inspiring. They're not saying anything. They're not fighting. They're not fighting for the something that I believe in. And I, you need to ask yourself, what do you think the voter turnout is among people who believe that about Democrats when it comes time to either, like Go to the movies or go vote for a Democrat. And they think, right, they're all pro corporation and they don't fight for anything. Maybe I'll sit this one out.
B
It's crazy too that they think they're pro corporation when Republicans are like the whole reason that this is structured the way it is, you know, like the corporate tax rate under Obama at one point was 35% and now you have the one big beautiful bill act making it so you can. Corporations can defer pretty much all their taxes forever essentially over and over and over again. You know, like $50 billion wasn't paid last year between fucking Google Meta, Tesla and fucking one. One other one, I can't remember. But Amazon, $50 billion just because of the, of the big beautiful building just pushed it down a little bit right now. I was looking into it. It's like, so when do they have to pay it? And it's like, well, kind of never my go sick. That's great. So they could just like over 10 years, $500 billion just gone. Great, that's cool.
A
Oh, and I'm sure they're adding tens of thousands of jobs, right? Right.
D
Oh yeah.
A
Actually I think Amazon just laid off. She met it laid off 8,000.
D
I read that we're losing 16,000amonth because of AI alone.
C
Yeah, it's great.
A
Or they're at least using that as the excuse.
D
That's the excuse anyway.
B
Yeah.
C
Yeah. Because AI is not doing the job. AI is, is eating up their margins. And so they're. Yeah, and so they're. And that's, that's what everybody's like all the think pieces are finally coming around to the fact that AI layoffs are not because of AI replacing worker productivity. AI. No, AI layoffs are because of the massive expenditure on data. Data centers. And so they're all spending 2, 3, 4, $500 million per year to invest in all of this infrastructure and energy and share of attention from anthropic and, and open AI. And, and that comes at the expense of the bottom line. And so to keep those attack, you know, so the shareholders happy, they have to, they have to find the money somewhere.
A
They got a bigger tax cut then that's eating into their margins. Right. If they're. This is like $50 billion in one year that we didn't get. They're not spending $50 billion this year on data centers. Using that as an excuse to shed people staff.
B
Yes.
A
While telling investors shareholders that we're still fine. We don't need these people. But I have A. I have an idea. I'm curious what you guys think on the health care stuff because I thought about this a lot. It actually could have helped, helped me is the, the fact that so many people in this country hate their jobs. Right. They hate their jobs. And like, why has no Democrat been like, you know, if we pass, if we have a universal health care bill and it comes becomes law, you can quit that job you hate because you have it for health care and you can go try to do the thing that you've always wanted to do yourself. Oh yeah, like that. Like, I mean I. Luckily my wife had insurance which is how I was able to start my own thing before this happened. But, but like my dad for example, like hated his job his entire life. Hated every. It's, it's every bit of it. And that's why partially I think I moved out and I did something completely different because they were like, he was like so miserable. Yep. But like if there had been an option, you know, maybe he would have done something. He was always what loved like to do like woodworking and things like this. And like my mom and I were even talking last that he probably shouldn't even have gone to college. He should have done something like that because it was what he was good at and he loved and like with a bill like that and a law like that, there's opportunities for millions of people to get out of those shitty ass jobs and do the thing. But we never talk about that. We say healthcare is a human right.
B
Right.
A
Well what the fuck does that mean other than like, okay, yes, you deserve it all right? Now welcome to reality.
C
Right.
A
And it costs money. Like how are we going to pitch this other than just saying like you deserve it.
B
Right.
A
And to me like the economic part.
B
Oh, it's.
A
We just don't, we just don't do it.
B
It's, it's. So it literally should be sold as the biggest economic stimulus package in the history of America. That's really what it is. Unquestionably. Like it would Think about it from this perspective. How much money do corporations spend paying for these employees health care? Way the fuck more than the additional payroll tax would be if you take that off their books. So the, all these corporations are saving billions of fucking dollars on this shit every single year. You don't think that that's going to benefit people? You don't think that people not having to pay those premiums isn't going to benefit the economy down the line? There's so many ways to pitch this. Right. And it's all just like, well, it's a right. It's like, it's not a right. These motherfuckers who are giving you this health care had to go to school for eight years and learn how to do this shit. They're in mountains of debt, they don't owe you shit. They're fucking like, it's one of those things where like, I hate that rights argument. Like, like somebody like me, I'm just like, man, why do you feel entitled to this? These, these, these people who are providing you this work their fudgeing ass off to get there and they're just supposed to hand it out to everybody like it's a free product. That's ridiculous. The government's job to make it free, not their job to fudgeing, be burdened by the shit. So like there's so many layers, there's so many layers to. It's frustrating.
C
We lose that whole libertarian side because there are a lot of people who don't believe that health care is a human right, who don't believe that food and shelter is a human right.
B
Right.
C
There are, it's a, it's a diminishing population, but there are probably millions to tens of millions of people who believe this is a free country, you should go work for what you have. You know, they usually believe you should work hard and get paid fairly and if your employer wrongs you, that like that should be rectified. But mostly they believe in personal responsibility and you just trying to change their mind is stupid. Instead. Yes. Find a way in and say I was looking up some, some stats while you were, when you mentioned health care spending because yes, healthcare spending, not healthcare, but health insurance spending is around 1.5 to 2 trillion dollars per year and about 2/3 of that is paid by employers. 72% is paid by employers and which means only 28% has been paid by the employees. And so it's actually a 1 to 2 trillion dollar tax cut on small, especially on small businesses which disproportionately pay more because they don't get, they can't compete for the good rates and, and they can't grow as fast. They don't have as many options, they don't have leverage tax loopholes and big lawyer teams. You can, you, you go to the market and you say, listen, we're trying to unlock innovation, we're trying to unlock entrepreneurs. This is going to create a massive number of jobs because now you can go and make pizzas for a living if that's what you want to do. And you're just scared to leave your. Your big job, your stable job that you paid because you got good health insurance, 100%. You have to frame it for the audience. Not for. Not for the politicians or the policy writers or the budget people, because those people are not.
B
And you can double down on that, too with like, if you want to go further into education. It's like, so many people don't do exactly this because they're like, well, I can't afford to do the education for it anyway. So it's like, if you free them up, they get blocked by other things. So it sells the suite of products. It's like, hey, this. If you want freedom. Talk about freedom, you can come out and go to school for whatever you want to do.
D
Do whatever the you want, you know?
A
Right.
B
Yeah. It's.
A
The other part is that if it actually incentivizes shitty companies to up their game, because if everybody is like, all of a sudden like, I don't need this anymore.
B
Right?
A
And they go do their own thing, and then they're like, I can't hire anybody. Oh, well, then maybe there is something else wrong here. Yeah. So, like, there's just so many good. Yes, it is expensive, and yes, it is a massive shift. And Zach, you've accurately pointed out before, we actually don't have enough doctors and nurses.
B
No, we don't.
A
That.
B
Yeah, we're not.
C
That's part of this. That's part of the expense. That's part of the funding. Right? That's part of the solution.
A
Exactly. Yeah, well. But, like, there's really a much of a lag.
B
Like, there's a tremendous amount of lag.
A
I mean, like, in the end, doctors, like, eight years.
B
Yeah. I mean, the truth is, like, if you aggressively pursue this, it wouldn't really be optimized for about a decade. But that's okay. Like, that's still. You should still do it. I'm just saying, like, I think that that's the reason I get so mad at, like, people like Bernie Sanders and, like, get really pissed off because he's lying to your face. Like, Bernie Sanders is lying to your face when he tells you, like, hey, we can have universal healthcare. This country is going to be like this. All we got to do is bam, bam, bam, and we're there. It's like, that's complete. You can't do that. Like, it literally functionally is impossible. So, like, don't lie to me. Tell me what we actually have to do and let's go and we'll do it. But like don't set. Because that's how Democrats get fucked. They make these huge promises and then people go, where is it? What you said this and where the fuck is it? It's like it's not here because it couldn't, it doesn't work. Too many things are built the opposite way.
C
I think that's the hard part for us is we're trying to be intellectually honest about everything as we pitch it.
B
Yeah.
C
I, I think. And, and, but we're also trying to over promise, you know, which is, that's a really dangerous.
D
Because if you under promise, nobody votes for you anyway.
C
Exactly.
A
Correct.
B
Yeah. It's a balancing act. There's no question.
C
But like Donald Trump comes out and he over promises times a thousand on everything. I mean he said he was going to like decrease prices. He was basically saying I'm going to give you stagflation and, or the inverse of stagflation, like runaway growth, decreasing prices, which. That's supply and demand, buddy.
B
He literally is not delivering on that at all. The opposite. And it's fucking him just like in a huge percent. But it's the same thing. It's the same risk on the other side.
C
But he's still one.
A
I also think that whoever, like if, if somebody was going to get creative about this, I think that like one of the things you could do is lower the age. If you pass a bill for universal health care and there's a 10 year leg, you could lower the Medicare.
B
Yes.
A
Age to 62 or to 60. And then all of a sudden you're going to have at least thousands of people retiring which is going to open up jobs. Right. For other people. And then it has this like you're giving these people the health care that they need, you're opening all these jobs up. So. Because I, my worry about a decade long transition is that the Republicans are just halfway through it 100% and we have never shown the ability to hold the White House for more than eight years at a time.
B
Yeah.
A
So like that would have to be like past it day one and then,
C
but if you start, if you. We talked about this at length was a couple months ago in an episode about like how maybe you could do this. But if you start with lowering the Medicaid or the Medicare age and then you also add a low, low bracket because, because young people are relatively healthy, you also start, you also start winning over the young voters then. And then you say it's kind of like the opposite of the military trap. You say like, hey, if you're 35 in three years you're going to be eligible for universal health care. We just need like, we need doctors, we need the infrastructure. This is how it needs to go. You could also have a cap. You could like, you could have a deductible. You could, you could phase it in in a lot of ways. But then people have to go and vote against their own future benefit. Even if they don't have it yet. They would have to go and vote against it if they're going to vote for somebody who's saying, I'm going to dismantle it. If anything, what would really happen is somebody would come in and say, this is my idea now we're going to double it. It's not going fast enough. I'm going to triple it, I'm going to accelerate it, I'm going to speed it up. You deserve it now and then.
B
Yeah.
C
Bam. Well, suddenly we have universal healthcare.
B
The challenge, like that all makes sense structurally. To phase it in, the challenge becomes an access challenge. Because in the end like people are going to look at it and go, well hey, like, look at Canada. Like people, you know, in Canada's healthcare system is very good, but like for regular shit you gotta wait a long ass time. They triage the whole thing. So like, and it's only, you know, one tenth of our population. So essentially what's going to end up happening is if we phase this in fast, tons of people who could have previously gotten shit pretty quickly done will be waiting on a list for a super long time and the Republicans will go, see, it sucks and it'll be dead in a second. So that's the reason why you have to look at it and go, we've got to be smart about how we phase this in or it will get killed immediately. Not because it's not a good idea, but because you can't just flip a switch and holy shit, it doesn't magically happen.
A
Well, I also think, I also think you're going to have to either severely discount or make medical school and nursing school free.
B
100. You have to, has to.
A
Because you're going to need all those people. I mean you can go into a hospital now and they'll tell you that they're always short staffed. You don't have to watch the Pit to understand this. Like you could you go anywhere?
B
Oh my God.
A
And so then all of a sudden just, you know, say you're going to add tens of millions of people who now have no financial disincentive to not go correct. So then they go more often. Right now hopefully you're pushing them to offices.
C
Exactly. They're not going to be rushing to the ER because the ER doesn't, isn't going to be required to take care of you and pay and kick it off to Medicaid or close the hospital, which is the right, that's what, that's the Republican healthcare system right now in a nutshell.
A
Yeah. The problem though is that to pay for gift free school for doctors, it's like you don't see the return until eight years down the road or six or whatever. Well, nurses is different too. One or two depending.
B
Yeah. Nurse practitioners especially, like because I mean most offices now, especially specialty offices run with an NP as the front of the whole thing. And then if you need to go see the, the specialist, you will. But like, yeah, if you just like really heavily invest in nps, that's a gigantic step forward. There's no question about it.
C
Yeah.
A
What is that? Four years?
B
Is that four years? I don't know.
A
Three.
B
It's, I think it's, my brother in
A
law is, is a physician's assistant so I should know this, but I think it's a, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's significant.
C
You know, you know what you also do when you, and this is the thing that like an independent low information voter who spends most of his time at like a karaoke bar in Iowa, they, they don't care about this conversation. This is the, this is not the conversation we have on the campaign trail. No, but, but when you're in the weeds you think of, I fully, like, I fully hijacked my brain with that like karaoke bar reference and now I'm like, where was I going with this? I know you, you, you go out and you say, you know, here's what you're entitled to. I found it. You, you say here's what you're entitled to. Like that's how you sell it on the market. But what you're actually doing in the health, in the healthcare industry is you're what, 10xing demand for doctors and then what are we talking about? Nurses and doctors who are overseas. Then you can start talking about attracting talent because the world's most wealthy nation that has ever existed now is paying more and needs more doctors and nurses.
D
Right.
C
So you know, now we're talking about every doctor in the world thinking maybe I should go to the United States. They've got a, they got to.
A
But there is A problem with that, as I actually was a roommate with someone who had a medical degree from another country.
B
You got to do it all over again. A lot of time. Yep. Yeah.
A
Because you could change that law, though. You could change that law.
C
But figure out a lot of these guys don't train them. You don't.
A
They don't go to undergrad. They just go.
B
They just go straight to medical school.
C
Yeah, no, it's that four years, so that's fine. So then you. Then you have them pass a test. When they. When they get to the board order, you just give them a random, you know, Republican to. And just be like, here's here. Operate on this person and we'll see if you can do it.
A
Like the Trump test.
C
Yeah.
A
Square elephants.
B
Yeah.
D
Proud of.
C
He posted this stuff this morning while. While we were talking. He's like. He puts it a graphic. I love that we pivoted to this.
A
We gotta. There was something he wrote, he put out about a perfect. A perfect.
B
The Montreal score. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course it's perfect. Have you ever taken it before? Like, you can take it online. It's easy.
D
It's not to be proud of.
B
No, it's like the. The only thing that was like, I took it the other day just out of curiosity. The only thing that was subtly challenging was like, in the beginning, they say five words, and then like, later on they'll be like, okay, what were those five words outside of that? It's like, which of these animals has tusks? And it's like, Christ, you know, it's the easiest ever.
C
While we were talking, he posted an image of Barack Obama with a 0 and an X, Joe Biden with a 0 and an X, and then. And then Donald Trump with a three and a green check. Maybe they didn't need to give Obama and Biden cognitive tests. Did they. Did he ever ask himself that, well, why is he getting tested? Why is he going to Walter Reed
A
every three months when he was sworn in? Or something like, I know it wasn't even 50.
C
Obama could still tell you a lawyer. He could still articulate probably half. Half of the things that he wrote here.
A
Okay, I want to read this. This from. From April 30th, which apparently he posted yesterday. Again, which exactly word for word, because he forgot. Not exactly the greatest way to brag about your acing the cognitive test.
D
Nope.
A
Anybody running for president or vice president should be forced to take a cognitive examination prior to entering the race. By doing so, we wouldn't be surprised that people like Barack Hussein always. For some reason, I don't know why they're in quotes.
B
As if that might not be his middle name.
A
Or Sleepy Joe Biden.
B
No.
A
Quot Sleepy Joe Biden getting elected. That's in quotes. He actually used that correctly because he's. But like, our country would be much better place. I took the exam, by the way. The exam. Capital Exam. Capital E. It's the only exam during my. Then, then in brackets quote three exclamation point terms as president. Three terms as president. Yeah. And. And then in all caps, aced it all three times. An achievement that even on a single exam, according to the doctors, has rarely been done before. President John Donald J. Trump rarely been done before.
B
It's a basic fucking. Because none of them have to take
D
it because they don't have fucking dementia, you ignorant fuck.
A
Yeah. And also, Donald Trump weighs 220 pounds.
B
Yeah.
A
That's what he also said.
B
Insane that they.
C
I mean, above the belt.
B
He's got away at least 280. There's just no minimum.
A
Oh, well, he's also six, two or three. Right. So he. Like, it's so funny. They show NFL players who are 220 and they're just cut like six about same size, just ripped his.
B
Yeah.
A
And like not an ounce of body fat on them. And then this loving tub of shit comes blubbering out there and like wear suits that are so big partially to cover.
B
Oh, yeah.
A
The disgustingness underneath.
B
Yeah.
A
And he's like, oh, wait, I'm 2, 6, 3, 2, 20. I'm like, dude, I bet you couldn't run 10 yards.
B
Imagine seeing him shirt.
C
I would love.
A
I don't want to see him.
B
I pay for that.
A
I need a sound for that. I need a sound for that. I don't know what it is.
B
I would pay so much money to see that. It would be so funny.
A
I don't think we have a sad one.
D
I'm gonna have to hate that. Zach.
A
Oh, wait, are there more here?
B
Wouldn't it be the funniest thing you've ever seen? Because it' so sad. Like, it'd be this old droopy old fat. Like, it'd be so good to see.
C
That just reminds me of that. That meme that was going around. I can't remember. It's probably 2020, 20, 24. They're like, this could have all been over if somebody had just told Trump that Barack Obama could run a faster mile than he can.
A
Do you think that Donald Trump has ever run a mile in his life?
C
No, No.
A
I mean, he went to military school.
B
Yeah, maybe when he was a kid.
A
Yeah, but have you ever seen the photo of him playing Vol or the video of him playing volleyball?
B
No.
A
Oh my God.
B
I gotta see this.
A
He looks like a idiot.
B
Let me see.
A
And he's like, shirt tucked in, of course. And he's like, this is like 30 years ago. So like it's. You know, you can make fun of him because he was in his 40s probably or 30s, and he just like, he just looks so unathletic.
B
Let's see. There's no. On YouTube. I don't see it. Oh, here it is. Here we go. Let's see.
A
It's not good. Yes. That falls off. He falls down. Holy. This is the guy that always like
C
Ken Paxton 30 years ago.
B
Yeah.
A
I mean, this is the. This is the guy that everyone's like, this is the big man that I love to support. And it's like he is the softest little baby in all areas. He's not athletic.
B
No.
A
He's not smart. He is disgusting in all facets. And they're like, yeah, man, that's my guy. And I'm like, dude, maybe, maybe Hillary should have just played the volleyball clip over and over.
B
Like politicians need to start just saying like being super mean to him. Like that's really all it is. Like, I agree. Just fucking fat fuck. Like, that's what is.
A
And what is the thing that he is most afraid of? Your life, Right? Yeah. Look at that fucking. He was a tub of shit. Then to look at the tucked in, tucked in white collared shirt, Seinfeld jeans into the mom jeans.
B
That looks like. If you didn't show me the top, I would think that was a woman. If you just show me the bottom. Yeah, for sure.
C
It's not bad.
A
They couldn't wear that.
C
Now that I'm thinking that way, I can't get it out of my head.
A
I would, I would love to see a feats of strength between him and Barack Obama.
C
Wouldn't that be the funniest thing?
B
I'm. I'm really like, I'm stuck on that thought though, of like, I want some politician to. All they do is just like literally make fun of him like it's high school.
A
That was newsome, right? Kind of.
B
But like Newsom, it was more like a gag.
A
You want it meaner?
B
I want it so I wanted.
D
He wants it like drag show roasting level roasting.
B
Yes, I want it. I want it like literally like he goes home and contemplates killing himself. Like, that's, that's the level of like,
C
of like Glazer, Nikki Glazer or Jeffrey Ross or somebody.
B
Like, you know, that's what I want because I think he can't handle it. He hates it.
A
I don't know if you guys saw the roast of Kevin Hart or any of the clips. The Chelsea Handler joke of going after the guys who did the Riad.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
Comedy festival was so good and they were so mad. They were so pissed. That one guy that made that horrible. The like thing where he's yelling about Latinos at the Trump rally. Oh yeah, he was the one that was mostly directed at. And he's just like, he's not even like the smile to be like, haha, I'm at a roast. He was legit pissed. And I'm like, good.
B
He's not even funny. I don't know how he got. He's not a funny guy. Like, there's some guys on that side that I think are really funny. Like, Shane Gillis is very funny, but
C
he's not really right.
A
I think he's really right.
B
I think he's kind of a dumb,
A
A dumb guy that really like killed Tony.
C
Right? Isn't that guy. Yeah, he was sitting there and he got, he got torched. I mean, that was, that was amazing.
D
Davidson murdered that man.
B
Yeah. Yeah, he did. I like Pete Davidson. He's good.
C
I, I wanted to watch that now.
A
He's got some problems right now too, but.
B
Does he?
A
Yeah, he's got. He got separated from the woman that had. He had a kid with and then she said he wasn't paying any child support, but then he was like, yes, I am. And it's like this whole stupid, like, fight. And I'm like, maybe you guys shouldn't have had a kid after dating for three months. Just, just the concept.
C
Hey, we are under babied as a country. Don't you dare say that people should population.
A
Thank you, Elon Musk, for your PSA on us.
C
That was underpopulation. That was. I don't get Dr. Oz.
A
Oh, I can tell you exactly what it is. It has nothing to do with how many people are in this country. It has how many. How much to do with how white people there are in this country. And they are worried about, hey, if we want to have them becoming a minority. I mean that. Why else would Elon Musk talking about this?
B
There's.
A
I don't know.
C
So there's no, there's two groups.
B
Yeah.
C
I did a video about this. Do you Guys not watch my videos. No, there's. God damn it.
D
You never show up in my feed.
C
To be honest, that's true.
A
You haven't.
B
You have. Not recently for me either.
C
I don't make you do.
A
I just keep swiping.
C
Yeah, Tim is. Tim is the reason that you guys don't see my videos. He dismisses them so fast. They're like, nah, this is a bad one. There's the JD Vance crew, the we don't have enough. And Stephen Miller. We don't have enough white people. But then there's also the Peter Thiels and the Mark Andreessens and the Elon Musk's who are saying we don't have enough cheap workers. They need. They need the market flooded with cheap ass labor so that they have no bargaining power. That way they have all of the workers they need. But then they all believe that. Well, if you're a good Christian, you don't need more than $25,000 a year. You can work hard and have 15 kids and be a homestead and then, you know, your kids can go off and work in the factories. Like that is the dream marriage of convenience between biblical evangelicals and billionaires.
A
I have a solution to the no worker problem. Robots, it is a really great. Yeah, maybe we don't kick people out of the country.
D
Maybe that's a good idea.
C
That was a solution for like 30 years.
A
To be clear, violent criminals buy. Like, everybody thinks so Maga.
C
So Magas.
A
The rest of them. Yeah, so the magas.
D
The ones all of the.
A
You voted for. Yeah, I would support all of those. January, six years.
C
See caught. I don't.
A
Yeah, see caught. Yeah, go.
C
I'm good with that.
A
Like, you guys not get $1.8 billion from the government.
B
Right?
C
That's how you actually pitch it to him too. You say, hey, Maga. See caught.
A
Ooh, Clever.
B
Clever.
A
I love it. It's in Florida, guys. Your bastion of like, whatever. Of bullshit. It. I'll go there. You know I would.
C
No.
A
I don't know.
C
Can't help with the dad joke anyway.
A
I'm not gonna say that. Yeah. Okay. Hey, we made it an hour.
B
Nice.
A
I have to say, when we were starting, we were like, we don't really know what we're going to talk about. Paxton. And then we just keep going.
C
Yep.
A
I'm trying to think if we got anything we got to announce, but people are going to ask us to have James Talico on the show.
C
Already working on ribs. I want to eat barbecue with James Talarico.
B
That's a good idea.
C
Like, we're probably not famous enough to. To earn that media spot, but, like, James Talarico eating a steak or eating ribs.
A
Definitely don't have the money, but we should go to Texas to do that.
C
Yeah, that would be pretty fun.
A
And film it.
B
He should just make a campaign ad of that. Like, all it should be is just, like, them on him. Like, he's a vegan. Is the vegan.
A
One's the size of a. Yeah. And he just throws the bone to the side. Just wipes his hands on his shirt. He's like, let's see you do that. Ken Paxton.
C
Ken Paxton eats and then just has a heart attack.
A
I have had barbecue in Texas, and it is. It is quite fantastic.
C
Fantastic. That's why everybody.
A
Yes.
B
If.
A
James. James. Mr. Talrico. State Senator Talrico, if you would like us to come, we will show up and we will eat ribs with you.
C
Tim, I just had an idea. So barbecue with Talarico in. In Texas. Then we go to Maine, and we have lobster rolls with Graham Platner. We do a food Senate tour.
B
I like it.
A
I don't hate that idea.
B
It's actually a really good idea.
A
Also, I could go for a lobster roll.
C
Everybody always wants a lobster roll.
A
Yeah. Yeah. Also the main ones, not those stupid Connecticut ones.
C
What do we got then? Then we go eat, like, well, like salmon or something with, like, paltola.
A
Yeah. Salmon, crabs.
C
This is starting to come together. Yeah.
A
I love this.
D
I love this idea.
A
What do we. What do we. What are we eating? Well, I guess. What do we. With Zach Walls? Do we eat corn?
D
Sweet corn. That's the only. That's the only logical thing.
C
I mean, you can have. You know, you could also do bacon,
D
given that we're outnumbered pizza pigs four to one here.
A
Don't you also eat fried stickers? Isn't that, like, a thing?
C
I mean, that's the whole Midwest. Yeah.
B
What is that?
A
You don't know what this is?
C
It's a corn dog. It's a corn dog with a candy bar in the middle of the bread. Again. Actually, it's like a pancake with melted Snickers in the middle. It's bad for true facts.
A
If you eat one, you instantly get diabetes.
B
Yeah, that's pretty probably accurate.
C
Pretty true.
D
Yeah.
A
Again, let's go pitch that healthcare plan at the. At the Iowa State Fair.
C
Hey, free insulin with your snack, and
A
you're gonna get free insulin.
B
We'll just walk you right in the door. It's gonna be great.
A
What else what other foods? Like North Carolina. What do you. I guess that's barbecue too. With. With Roy Cooper.
C
Totally different barbecue, though.
B
Yeah, Same with Georgia too.
C
So also defensible Georgia.
A
Yeah. If we go to. So, guys, for those listening, we are talking about possibly doing a tour in the fall, but I don't want to give too much away because I don't know. So it's not.
C
It's not definitely. Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
And actually I did a poll on Find out. On Find out social if we should go to a tour, if we should do a tour or not. And we got like 50. Then the other half is like, well, it depends on where it is. And I was like, oh, yeah, of course. Like, I'm not going to ask you to go. 500.
C
If we came to a city near you, would you attend? That's the question.
A
But I would love to know. Tell us in the comments, what would we eat if we did a show in your. In your neck of the woods?
C
And should we come to your neck of the woods?
A
Yeah. Is there a reason. Also, can you fill like a 25,000seat venue for us so that we can.
C
For us?
A
Yeah, we can make money on it if you can. We will show up.
B
Yes.
A
We will do whatever you want. No, but anyways, I mean. Yeah.
C
Well then Luke's keeping shoes on.
B
Come on.
D
Yeah, they are not coming off.
A
No chance. The shoes stay on. Oh, maybe if we do a tour when you're on stage you could take your shoes off more people do the first two. The first two rows will charge more.
C
Yeah, you have to buy the premium ticket.
B
A bunch of foot fetishes just sitting in the front row.
D
I hate this idea thoroughly.
A
Yep. Or maybe a little backstage like meet and greet.
B
Feet and greet
A
is not nice.
B
I don't like that. There you go.
A
I like that.
C
First it's the feet and greet and then it's the beast.
A
Are you still getting those requests or is that died down?
D
Oh, no, it's always.
A
It's ever present.
C
After the watermelon one. I heard some really bad. I got some really bad texts after Luke's watermelon video.
D
After the watermelon video went out. That was. That was. That was bad.
B
I'd be curious to see what those are. It's funny.
D
Oh, my God.
A
I mean, you don't. You probably could just close your eyes and imagine and it's probably happened.
B
I'm sure.
C
Let's just say if a woman got these texts, it would be sexual harassment. Yeah.
D
I think I did receive a Video of someone.
C
No.
D
Pleasuring themselves to my video.
B
Oh, that's great. Yeah.
A
Like I said, like, they sent it directly to you. Just.
B
Just like a DM of like. Here you go.
D
It was DM and email. He really wanted me to see it.
B
Damn. That's. That's.
A
Oh, you got it in two. You got it in two different.
D
He sent it on every platform, plus the email. He's like, is that illegal?
B
Like, is. It. Could.
D
That feels illegal, but I'm not gonna go through the problem.
B
That's exposure. I mean, you're sending your dick to this.
A
Yeah, but you're not. Not in public. It's not like you're like.
B
No, it's got to get some kind of decency.
D
I'm pretty sure it's illegal.
A
Well, I think. Is that considered harassment?
D
I feel like I could say that's probably sexual harassment.
B
I would agree with that.
A
Yeah.
B
I mean, if you sent that to a female, it would definitely could be construed that way. Right? I mean, so why not to Luke. Luke. Luke.
A
So, Luke, I assume you thanked him for such a generous gift.
D
Oh, yeah. Yeah, Big time.
B
A big heart on it, you know?
A
Heart on it, or. What were you saying?
D
I hate.
B
I wasn't saying anything.
A
Anyways, guys, that's a wrap. We are definitely done now. We always. Anytime we don't have a finish, it just. It just.
D
It gets bad.
C
Someone had a finish.
A
No, that guy definitely had a finish.
D
Don't worry.
B
You watched the whole thing, Then you
D
waited till it wasn't very long.
B
Oh, God.
C
Oh, okay.
A
Don't tell people you watched it, because then people are going to be like, well, then I'll send you one.
B
That's true.
D
Oh, God.
A
They're going to be the guy that.
C
Everybody watch it to completion.
B
I hate you.
D
I hate you.
A
Well, everybody, thanks for sticking with us. This has fallen completely apart. It's great, but you know what? I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna just give.
C
Like.
A
This is what the crowd thought of today.
C
Yeah.
A
Oh, I can't get it.
C
No, don't do it.
B
Well, what's it called?
A
It's just. It was just cheering.
B
All right.
A
But I can't get it to work. Why do some of these work? It's. Oh, wait a minute.
C
It.
A
Oh, it's broken. Okay, good.
C
Zach finally got it broken. Yeah.
A
All right, I have to go, so thank you, everybody, for listening. Everybody, you know, check us out. Cross platform. Sign up for Find out social videos.
D
No, don't send me those. Keep that shit away from me.
A
That's an optional, optional puppy video. Not recommended, but optional. Thank you, everybody. I hope it's not just the feet people are still listening. We appreciate all of you, even the feet people. And, yeah, I think what this comes out on Thursday. So we'll be back next week. Actually, we're going to have the. The CEO of NextGen America, who's just done some recent polling on how to get young people interested and excited to vote and the issues. So we're going to dive into that for Tuesday's episode. So with that, have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you next week. Bye, everybody.
Episode: "We Like to Win"
Date: May 28, 2026
Hosts: Tim, Rich, Zach, and Luke
Main Theme:
An irreverent, unfiltered analysis of the Texas Senate Republican runoff (Ken Paxton vs. John Cornyn), implications for November, MAGA absurdities, progressive messaging, and the real barriers to Democratic victories—served with plenty of humor and candid opinion.
This episode centers on the political earthquake in Texas: indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton trouncing incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff. The crew digs into what this means for Democrat James Talarico’s chances, the shifting GOP, the perennial problem of left-wing messaging, and the surprising roles of identity and branding in American electoral politics. Light-hearted, biting jabs at Trump and the Republican machine are balanced with frank introspection about the challenges progressives face, especially when it comes to selling big ideas.
If you want a snarky, real, and insightful breakdown of the American political circus—with an unfiltered progressive lens—this episode delivers. It’s for people tired of cable news, suspicious of easy talking points, and hungry for a politics podcast that feels like group therapy with sharp, funny friends.
Next Episode Teaser:
Next week: The CEO of NextGen America joins to discuss new polling and how to get young people actually excited to turn out and vote.