The Chris Cuomo Project - Listener Calls #3: COVID-19, Multiple Political Parties, Split Tickets

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

In a special bonus episode of The Chris Cuomo Project, Chris responds to listener questions about COVID-19, whether the American public can handle multiple political parties, the potential success of a split presidential ticket, and more. If you’d like to ask Chris a question, call [phone]. Leave your name, location, phone number, email address, and your brief question, and it may be addressed in an upcoming show. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

time for more feedback a little of me and a little of you you guys like these things so i'm happy to keep doing them the whole point is for this to be collaborative right that's what the chris cuomo project is about free agent gear look this isn't about me like being some huckster or hocking shirts and stuff for money. This is about raising funds that we can collectively figure out who deserves it and how to get it to them. And I've already made our first decision because it's money that's coming out of my pocket because I haven't sold enough of this yet to give meaningful money to causes that deserve it. So if you want to go on, we have the link. It's cool merch. There's a lot of different stuff, and you should want to play with this idea. A free agent is somebody who has no

team, no tribe, okay? Open mind, open heart, willing to listen even if they disagree. You know what that's called? Regular. It's a radical concept right now because we are overrun by this rabid, toxic fringe, this magnified minority that is on social media and that the media and our political class mistakenly use as a reflection of how the country feels. And that's not what social media is. Every measurement of sentiment in the country versus what we see reverberating on social media shows a gross disconnect. And no, this is not about, oh, I thought we were about empowering minorities and protecting them. Yeah, as a class of people who are oppressed or need special protection, of course that's what America is set up to do. That's not what I'm talking about. This is about an extreme fringe element in a cottage industry of Fugazi media outlets and pundits who get paid by fomenting division.

That's different than what we're talking about in protecting people on the basis of color or class or race or religion. And I think everybody knows that. And drawing that false distinction is part of the game that I want to expose and that we have to change. So get your merch. It's cool on the back or on a lot of these things that says, are you free? Because a lot of people think they're free agents, but they're not. They're playing to team

or tribe or they're hooked up on social media and addicted to that shit and playing the snark game. It doesn't get us to a better place. It gets us to where we are and where we are needs to change. So with that, let us engage in a little back and forth. Greg has been instructed many times to give me some pushback. Let's get some things that we can work on here where we disagree. Let's get at it. Let's get after it. Let's get after it. I like that. What do you got? Hi, Chris. My name is Ted. Talking about long COVID. Last December, I got my booster shot. The next day, my legs got weak. Next morning, I couldn't walk. I haven't been able to walk ever since. I'm pretty much housebound. I've been to doctor after doctor after doctor, including neurologists. They just go say, I don't know what's wrong.

We don't know what's causing it. And yet here I am almost nine months later, and I still can't walk. Doctors can't help me. And I'm looking at being crippled or unable to walk for the rest of my life. I can get around my house, but I can't go for a walk. I can't around my house, but I can't go for a walk. I can't do anything. Anyway, if you could give me your thoughts and maybe help me out with some advice or some direction for this kind of long COVID. It wasn't from COVID.

It was from a COVID booster, a side effect. And since last December, I can't walk. Thank you, Chris. First, Ted, I'm going to email you directly and I'll see, I can't walk. Thank you, Chris. First, Ted, I'm going to email you directly and I'll see if I can help. I'm very sorry to hear this. I'm no doctor. I don't have any good information for you. Obviously, the issue is going to be correlation versus causation, right?

Did they stick you somewhere where they hit a nerve that affected your legs? Was it, in fact, the vaccine? Is it about something about your blood chemistry? Was it not? Was something else going on? I don't know your situation, but I certainly don't envy it. And I'm sorry that you're in that.

I think the mistake would be to say, and this is why nobody should get vaccinated. Science is about the quest for knowledge. You talk to scientists, almost every sentence that they speak has a question mark at the end of it because things are changing.

Facts are changing. Circumstances are changing. And this was really weaponized during COVID. But I don't want to talk politics and stuff when we're dealing with something that goes directly to your reality. I am sorry you're in the situation you are. I'm going to email you directly because it's nobody else's business. And I'll see if I can help you because I know a lot of people who are in the space of dealing with maladies that

are COVID related. And I wouldn't call what you're dealing with long COVID because it wasn't the virus that did it. You believe it was the vaccine. So I'll deal with you directly. And I'm sorry for for what you're dealing with. Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from PrizePix. I got to tell you, there's a reason PrizePix is America's number one fantasy sports app. Three million members. Why?

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Prescriptions, you need an online consultation with a healthcare provider, and they will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. You see the website, you'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan. on product and subscription plan. Hey, Chris. Peter here. I've been pondering this for a while.

Listening to Paul Manafort and Bill Richardson, when you ask them directly about another party or multiple parties, what I heard come out of both of them, first was a pause because they didn't want to answer it, or at least that's my belief with that kind of pause because I do it. The other was that I think that both of them came up with the same answer, and that was that the American public is not smart enough to deal with that, having a third, fourth, fifth, or even more choices than just the two that are basically becoming the same thoughts. Hey, thanks for the

podcast. This is like long overdue. Thanks. Bye. By the way, you are exactly the kind of person that has to stay engaged and talk with your friends and create community within your community to demand better. Make that the dialogue within your social media circles and everything. Just keep pushing people towards where your head is. They don't want to answer the question because they're in the game and they have teams. That's why. They don't want more teams. It would make it harder for their team. That's why. Now, look, I'm totally with Bill Richardson's reckoning that, well, I'd rather have a well-functioning two-party system. Two kids, one cookie.

You ever see what happens? And what does that tell you? Two things. One, when you have two people, it's going to be me or you. And the second thing is that we're not inherently and naturally good. It's taught. We are naturally and inherently self-interested and morally neutral,

in my estimation. And I think the two kids in the cookie often demonstrate that, especially if they're young enough where they haven't been conditioned yet by their parents. Now, why not just stick with what we have?

Aren't you hurting? Here's my one piece of pushback. One, I say I don't want to stick with it because it's broken. And it's been getting more broken, not less. And I think that that's a big reason we are where we are. And if you look at other established democracies, not only do they have just two parties and no satellite parties that are actually viable and part of coalitions within their parliamentary structure, which is fundamentally no different than what we have. It's not like, you know, it's less democracy or anything like that. But we wouldn't even need a

constitutional change to do this. You know, parties aren't in the Constitution. In fact, you remember George Washington in his initial farewell address, his farewell address said, stay away from them. And it was a big reason he wanted out. Now, even then, Democrats come at me and say, what are you doing this for? Third party, Yang, is going to hurt us. He might. Now, he says most of his membership are white college-educated current Republicans or from the right, conservatives. He should show the data to prove that that's true. But assuming that's not the case, right, not that Andrew's lying, but if they are Democrats, yeah, it would hurt the Democratic Party. I never called for just three parties. I said, I think you need four or five. And when you look at those structures,

I don't think the left should complain because in most societies, the liberal contingent or what you want to call the left, you know, we never used to do that in this country, by the way. Think about it. We used to talk about the far right sometimes with Christian evangelicals and some of their extreme political dispositions that are a function of their sense of religiosity. We always talked about other governments left-right because there was a spectrum. Now, that's all we talk here is left-right. We rarely talk Democrat-Republican. Think about that for a second, what that reflects. But the left does just fine when there are more parties because most populations, you know, when we poll here, most policy positions break center-left, okay? Not center-right or

far-right. So if you had more parties, I don't think you necessarily disadvantage Democrats. But it's about advantaging regular people like you. That's why I'm on it. Hi, Chris and team. Thank you for bringing the Chris Cuomo project to us. My name is Lisa. I am in South Carolina. I have sort of a question, sort of just a topic that I think would be great to see eventually on the podcast. get that. So I'm just thinking of Chris Christie, a little bit of George Conway, Joe Walsh,

Joe Scarborough, those that would have been considered on the right for the most part, as well as some in the Democratic Party who would be willing to really stand from strength and model for us that they can work together within the system right now. Not that I want it to stay just two parties. I don't. But I think it would go a long way if there was a split ticket and there was a president and vice president that were from both different parties and they ran together and they won and they modeled from the top down. I know that Joe Biden has really tried to make that a tone of his administration and I appreciate that. But I think it's going to take some different leaders, and particularly in my opinion, it's going to take some strong

leaders from the right who can stand up from strength and really consistently show we're no longer able to be like this. Because right now we have the leftovers of the Tea Party all across the Senate and the House, and they just lead by obstruction that's their town that's their matter that's their goal and that's obviously toxic to our country so that's my overall comment and i really appreciate the show thank you so much okay i love where you're coming from but you're forgetting the reason for your frustration, which is it works. The reason that you have no situation of cooperation right now

is that opposition is a winning position. And as long as that is the case, it will stay this way. You know, I just heard from a very interesting pollster that the fringes vote early and affect primaries, but it's people like you, it's regular people, it's free agents, it's the open-minded that decide them. Maybe so if they're motivated to vote, which I think that there's a significant rate of attrition right now because of how toxic the situation is and how that turns off regular people at a much higher rate than radical people. So you have to remember why it is the way it is when you're considering how to make it what you want it to be. It's like this because it works. It's not like this because it's correct. It's not like this because it's best. It's not even like this because it's natural.

It's like this because of advantage and a system that is binary, you know, two sides, that sets up perfectly for zero sum and to cater to our worst appetites, which again is why President Washington was against parties and said, just be a nation. What unites us?

What unites us? We have to be reminded of that. And that will create the energy for the cooperation and something better that you crave. Now, some of the names you throw out, I do not see them as brokers of anything better, by the way. Where are those people? Well, some of them are in there right now,

but most of them don't want anything to do with it. It's too ugly. It's too personal. People are going to tear you down. That works too well. And it's not worth it to them. And that is the great shame. We don't fake the funk here. And here's the real talk. Over 40 years of age, 52% of us experience some kind of ED between the ages of 40 and 70. I know it's taboo, it's embarrassing, but it shouldn't be. Thankfully, we now have HIMS, and it's changing the vibe by providing affordable access to ED treatment, and it's all online. HIMS is changing men's health care. Why?

Because it's giving you access to affordable and discreet sexual health treatments, and you do it right from your couch. HIMS provides access to clinically proven generic alternatives to Viagra or Cialis or whatever, and it's up to like 95% cheaper, and there are options as low as two bucks a dose. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers. So if ED is getting you down,

it's time to pick it up. Start your free online visit today at HIMS.com slash CCP. H-I-M-S.com slash CCP. And you will get personalized ED treatment options. HIMS.com slash CCP. Prescriptions, you need an online consultation with a healthcare provider, and they will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. You see the website, you'll get details and important safety information you're going to need a subscription it's required plus the price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan the chris cuomo project is supported by cozy earth why

because i like their sheets that's why a lot of people don't get a good night's sleep for a lot of reasons one of the ones that you can control is bedding. One out of three of us report being sleep deprived. Okay, well, what is it? Well, it stresses all kinds of things. But the wrong sheets can make you hot, can make you cold. I'm telling you, I don't even believe it either. But Cozy Earth sheets breathe. And here's what I love about them.

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Hey, Chris, it's Rae Still. And Rhea. Well, we watched your most recent episode with Evan. Love the first part. We could listen to you talk all day. You're a very interesting person. Evan, on the other hand, not the most interesting. Yeah, he was kind of dry.

And, you know, from doing this for a long time, and, you know, I know you did news, is that you really need to find a way to make your podcast pop and sizzle and sparkle and stand out. There's got to be a flair of drama. Like on your old show, you bring on a politician, talk some law, okay, and then you bring on someone who fucked an alligator. Like, there's got to be something that's like, whoa! Your podcast is good

and it's almost there, but it's just a little too dry. We're not trying to be mean. We're trying to help you. And of course, we'll never stop watching. Never. Love you. Bye. Bye. Is there blood under my nose?

Yeah, you got really punched in the face there. Boy. By two of them. You know what? I don't think that I disagree with anything that you just said. I mean, I'm not going to have guys on of Ford Alligators. That's not the point of this podcast. I want to talk about things,

but you know what? Maybe I'm selling myself short or maybe I'm giving myself too much slack for not making it more provocative and interesting. It is new, but this isn't new for me, being in the business of communication and trying to get you involved in things. So I'm not with you about the guy fighting the alligator, although on the new cable show, I'll have more of that. I am gonna spend, not time with like dumb things, but situations that show Americans at their best. Nobody talks about what is awesome in the country, right? You would think that everything is terrible

in here all the time. And yes, you should focus on your problems. Yes, this is an experiment and we need to get better on so many levels. And yes, there is a lot of negativity. But we're also like fanning the flames of that all the time. Everything is looked at through that lens. It's like what one side of a hot dog you bite is a problem for somebody, you know? And so I'm going to be talking a lot more about Americans, you know, people who are doing things,

ordinary people creating extraordinary outcomes for others. And just what's really cool about this country, what makes me love it so much. I always say, I think there's nowhere else in the world I would even consider living. And it's not because I'm not traveled. So many people in this country are very parochial in their interests. I have family in Italy. In a little bit of time, my adaptability to the language would be good. I've been a lot of places in the world that are beautiful, and I would love

to spend extended periods, but I'd only want to live here. And I think it's important that we remember that and we remind each other of why that is. But I will try to spice it up a little bit. Bam, bam, push, push, push, push, push. That's all I got right now. That's perfect for the audio too. Oh, I was just flexing. I was flexing and peck popping. Yeah, we couldn't hear your pecks pop.

Maybe get a little closer to the mic next time. How's that? You made that noise with your mouth. What? I think the audience gets it. Damn. Thank you so much for giving me your questions and comments. Please continue to do so and consider the free agent merch so we can get our money together and we can

give back. Appreciate you very much. I'll see you next time.