The Republican Brain Drain

Last time Tim Alberta, Politico’s chief political correspondent, was on the program, life in America ...

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Last time Tim Alberta, Politico’s chief political correspondent, was on the program, life in America was crazy, but in a typical, everyday, post-2016 kind of way. We figured that it was time to have him back now that we’re in the process of rushing towards a new form of crazy at Spaceballs-levels of ludicrous speed (“They’ve gone plaid!”). Tim takes us through some of the issues that voters in purple states actually seem to care about (Hint: The Hunter Biden drama isn’t one of them) while also touching on the confusing lack of a substantive foreign policy debate in this election cycle, the simpler times of the Christmas Tree tax and the Dubai ports deal, and the shocking value-add provided to one’s life by the purchase of an Arby’s gyro.

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    too hot!!!!!! *dark helmet spits up coffee*

    (my seven year old typed this second spaceballs quote)

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    Jason Gibson

    what's the matter colonel sanders? chicken?

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    Jason Gibson

    I have had 7 breaded pork tenderloins at culvers since my birth day. So culvers definitely gets my vote.

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    TimFrank Ryan

    Living 10 miles south of the world's first Culver's I can attest to the rigorous hiring requirements you discussed!!

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    Angie

    I really enjoyed this, and as I have never heard Tim speak, I enjoyed him also...I have "met" so many new people on the pods...it is way cool...

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      CynthiaW

      I often check out the books the guests have written.

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        Angie

        Me too, well, I write them down till I can get them if I find them interesting..I did read the Dinosaur one from Advisory Opinions

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          CynthiaW

          We got the dinosaur one on audiobook. I recently read "Front Row at the Trump Show," by a guest from some time back, and I read "American Carnage" after Tim Alberta's first Remnant visit.

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            Angie

            Yeah, I wrote Tim's book down...

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    Luke Thompson (not that one)

    I've listened to and read you for years (I'm pretty sure Liberal Fascism is the first political book I actually read), and I'm not sure I've disagreed with you more fundamentally than in this episode. And that's on two points.

    First, you said that Biden could/should (possibly debatable) say that he would decide on court packing legislation when it reached his desk. I've been dumbfounded by everything you've said on this issue, including the compromise you and Mr. French proposed, but I can't even fathom how you reached that conclusion. Aside from most foreign policy and a few regulatory things (neither of which are actually significant parts of the debates), literally every issue could be answered that way. "How do you feel about a law mandating that every second puppy be slaughtered and eaten?" "Well, until that's on my desk, I won't know for sure what I think."

    It seems to me that a fundamental question in presidential elections is "if this issue lands on your desk, what will you wish?" Or, more importantly, not wish [veto].

    Nonsense about "I'll do this on day one" given, there are hardly any policy positions (especially if we exclude ones most people don't care about) that your proposed response wouldn't work for. Quite obviously, it's important to know what the president would do if we DID have the votes for it, especially if there are people in his party advocating for it. If nothing else, we should know if he's going to try and move there incrementally (as there's a solid argument that Biden intended with Obamacare and single-payer).

    Second, Culvers? Really? Thinking through actual fast food restaurants, I'm not sure there's anything but In-n-Out that I'd put below it in terms of actual food. (Their custard is great, which some people let overshadow the food quality.)

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    CynthiaW

    Excellent discussion.

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    Tiffany W

    It seems an easy assumption that if Trump wins the Electoral College but loses the popular vote by a larger margin than he lost it by 4 years ago, that talk of abolishing the Electoral College will grow exponentially. That said, if we expanded the House, wouldn't that allow for an Electoral College course correction that would allow for the continued existence of the Electoral College and a more original weight for the populace in the overall calculation?

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      Nick

      I'd say the main problem with the Electoral College isn't the number of votes afforded to each state (and the way it slightly weights smaller states higher) but rather the winner-take-all nature of each state. It just makes the race flip wildly and randomly based off the whims of a few states where the populations happen to be closely aligned between candidates in any given year.

      2016 was somewhat unfortunate, but the 2000 election was just the maximum absurdity of the EC on display; just a few hundred more votes in Florida would have made more of a difference than 2 million more votes in California.

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    2. Maddmac

      There is an interesting history of the attempts to dismantle the EC on today's "The Daily". You can pick it up as a podcast. The episode is called "A Peculiar Way to Pick a President".. Regardless of how one feels about the EC, I found the episode interesting because of the history.

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    Tracie

    Many of the Reagan Republicans who I grew up around, whose spirit now appears to have taken over the party, appeared to believe that their lack of education made their outlook purer and realer. There's a certain sort of person who is insulted by the suggestion that their unearned expertise on all matters is lesser than that of "experts" corrupted by elite educations.

    Shia vs Sunni? Why does that matter? They're brown foreigners who we need to show who's boss. While that is an oversimplification, it captures the sentiment.

    I know live in a northern, liberal metropolis vs the small town red county in a red state whence I come. Growing up, I never met conservative intellectuals. The only people I met who had something to say, and didn't parrot right wing talk radio were schoolteachers and professors who overwhelmingingly trended Democratic.

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    Butch Earl

    I share the frustration about the lack of interest in foreign policy and national security interest in the campaign. It is one of the main reasons we have an executive branch in the first place. One of these guys debating tonight is going to be my representative in the room in discussions with the intelligence community, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and foreign dignitaries. It's a shame I won't get any help from NBC tonight.

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