The MeidasTouch Podcast - Defeating extremist Republicans by leading with our values (with guest Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein)

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

On today’s show, we sit down with Michigan Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein! Justice Bernstein discusses his upcoming re-election for the MI Supreme Court as well as his incredibly inspirational story making history as the first blind justice - elected by voters statewide - to the Michigan Supreme Court. The remainder of the episode we discuss the latest breaking news of the week to keep you up to date. We break down the story of Trump telling his inner-circle that he plans to run for president again to avoid criminal probes, John Fetterman’s campaign for PA Senate absolutely wiping the floor with Dr. Oz, Lauren Boebert’s bizarre book tour and much more. New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast with Ben, Brett & Jordy are released every Tuesday & Friday at 5am ET. Please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! Thank YOU for listening. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Can we talk about what's going on in the country? We got gas prices are falling. We have Lauren Boebert. She's doing a book tour and she's talking about how her husband

exposing his genitals at the bowling alley was actually the bartender's fault. This is what the Republican Congresswoman... The husband's the victim in that situation. Okay. Yeah, this is actually where she's going with that. Party of personal responsibility strikes again. People are turning on Trump. Well, most sane people have already turned on Trump, but the radical right base is apparently beginning to turn on Trump. We have Fox News doing random interviews with people just to say that they don't like Trump anymore. But we got polls in some key states. We got to talk about

this one going on in Wisconsin right now with people completely turning against Trump and saying that Trump should be prosecuted. We'll talk about that on the Midas Touch podcast today. Let's also talk about Republicans running some trash, trash, trash reality star Senate candidates and the great candidates that Democrats are running and what that really means for the parties and lessons that we can learn from people like John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, the incredible race that he's running against the Hollywood TV doctor, Dr. Oz, the fraud doctor. He's actually a doctor, but he sells fraud. He's a snake oil salesman, a total crazy person. And let's also talk about things that have been happening since Roe v. Wade was overturned. What's going on in the states itself? What are Democrats doing,

passing bills to codify Roe v. Wade, make sure people can have safe travel outside of state. We could talk about Republican radical right resistance to that. And we should talk about real people stories. People are sharing stories. Women are sharing stories on Twitter about being pulled over as they're crossing the border to another state. We talk about borders, crossing borders to another state. That GOP Handmaidids tell video that we produced at Midas Touch is becoming a reality. And one story we want to share in particular was a professor going with her daughter across state lines for a softball game and being pulled over by cops. Literally the video, literally the video. We'll talk about all this and more on the

Midas Touch podcast. We talk about our guests. We have Michigan Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein, who is running for re-election after serving an eight-year term. They say justice is blind. Well, he is the first blind justice. Actually. Actually blind justice

on the Michigan Supreme Court. And what an incredible, incredible story background. I mean, first off, in addition to becoming a Michigan Supreme Court justice, he's represented persons with disabilities in the most impactful cases of our time. We're talking about giving persons with disability access to airplanes, buses. I mean, he was the leader of those litigations, then became a Michigan Supreme Court justice. On his spare time, he just runs 22, 25 marathons and Ironman competitions. Okay. After we interview Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein, can we never have any excuses whatsoever about having to write postcards or knock on doors or do anything like that for real, for real? But Brett Jordy, how are you doing?

I'm doing good. I am officially recovered, everybody. As listeners would know, I got COVID with me for a very long time. And but I finally got the negative test. I'm feeling good. I am basically, you know, 100 percent asymptomatic at this point. I just have kind of a lingering cough and that's it. But, you know, it goes to show you I know so many people right now getting it and it affects people in a variety of different ways. So when you're out in public, you know, just be responsible, mask up, make sure to get your boosters, do all that, just be safe, protect other people. COVID is still here. We got to learn to live with it in the best way possible by keeping yourself and others safe. So that's going to be my advice because it was no fun. I would say, you know, you have all the kind of, I had kind of all the symptoms of

somebody who has like a cold, but there was something that felt different about it. Like I did not feel like myself. I felt off and it was a very uncomfortable feeling that I really don't wish upon anybody else. So please take care of yourself out there. Remember that COVID is still with us, everybody. So because we're brothers, we have to make everything a competition. I just want it to be known for the record that I won. I won. I beat you guys. I made it. I made it. And now watch, I get COVID next week. I made it a competition. I just want it to be known for the record that I won. I won. I beat you guys. I made it. And now watch, I get COVID next week. I made it the longest.

I won the quarantine games. So you two lost. I'm the champion. Still have never received COVID. And we're just going to continue to be as safe as possible. This is what you're bragging about? I mean, you don't leave that green room is the thing. Well, you guys don't let me leave this room anymore. You're stuck there.

That's why. You haven't left that room in months. I feel like 2020 bread over here. Jordy's reading some additional scripts for the Midas Touch YouTube channel. And Jordy's now Professor Jordy Mycelis over there. But you're doing a great, great job, though, Jordy, on the YouTube channel. We appreciate the rapid growth of the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Jordy is doing some incredible breaking news, some incredible legal analysis. Jordy is a very versatile guy,

very learned. Learned Jordy Mycelis is what will. So gas prices are falling. And of course, when gas prices fall, that's usually a time where Republicans move on to the next kind of distraction. So now Republicans are blaming the White House for one, taking credit for gas prices falling. They're blaming the White House for gas prices falling too quickly. And if that could impact small businesses and really the media just publishes what the radical right wing says. There's really no challenge to that. And this Washington Post, Brett, they did a great op-ed. It was a great article that basically really highlighted the media and how the media has really worked incredibly hard in overdrive in trying to

prove that they're fair to undermine the Biden administration because they thought that they went hard on Trump. They didn't go hard on Trump. First of all, the media went weak on Trump. They were cowards when it came to Trump. Occasionally, they would write an article, but Trump is a criminal fascist and the media failed to do their job. One of the reasons, and Trump played them like a fiddle and continues to play them like a fiddle. Brett, but this op-ed, I want you to talk about it. It goes on very accurately to say, no matter what the issue is, okay, whether it's the baby formula crisis, whether it's gas prices, whatever it is, the crisis du jour of the day, they make a huge deal about it, bigger than the fact that we had a criminal fascist

former president who tried to overthrow the government led by a true cabal of freaking criminals who are still out there posing with AR-15s and running around bragging about their fascism. But yeah, let's not focus on that. Let's focus on everything that, you know, crises that develop because of international economic markets, just the way the world works. Let's blame it all on Biden. And when Biden takes steps to fix it, let's not give him credit for fixing it. Let's just move on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And that op ed did a really, really, really good job talking about it. And the piece is called How Media Coverage Drove Biden's Political Plunge. It's by Perry Bacon Jr. I recommend you guys read it because it provides a lot of good context about what we've seen over these past couple of years. And I know there are some people out there that are like, why are you so critical on the media?

Why, why, why, why do you keep complaining? Because it's important. You know, someone's got to watch the watchmen out there. And I think there are a lot of incredible journalists doing such great jobs, especially at a local level. These people crush it. They're there. They're on the ground. They're speaking with people. They're doing such a good job. But there is a problem with the way the national mainstream media, when we say the mainstream media, the national media, the big cable networks, the big papers. And by the way, this isn't us calling it out here. This is a Washington Post columnist calling out themselves here for this.

We need to be cognizant of the fact as to what's going on here because it affects political opinion. And this also talks about studies that shows how this coverage has impacted political opinion. Because at the end of the day, what we're dealing with in the United States right now, it's not these ideas versus that ideas. It's not, oh, he's got this belief and he's got that belief. And the media is conditioned to present ideas forward in that way. And so what happens is you end up giving the same amount of balance to an insurrectionist's point of view as you do to the actual truth. And what Republicans have realized is that they could just be complete disinformation centers. It does not matter what the truth is whatsoever. They could say whatever they damn

well please, because they know that they will get a headline. They will get a quote, whatever it is they are saying will then be repeated in the media. It may not even be repeated completely favorably, but it will be repeated in a way that gives it legitimacy. And then people start asking questions. And we saw this go back. You know, I've been reading for now the second time Dan Pfeiffer's book, Battling the Big Lie, which I really recommend that you people read because it nails this exact issue right here. And if you go back, even thinking about the Obama stuff, when people said Obama wasn't born here, think about all the coverage that they gave to Donald Trump and voices like that. All the questions that President Obama was asked at that time, candidate Obama, when he was asked, well, what's your response going to be? Are you born there? Can we see the birth certificate? Oh, that's your birth certificate. What about the long form birth certificate? And they keep moving the goalposts and keep asking these questions and they get it into the psyche of the American public.

And that affects public opinion. That affects polls. And that's what's happening here. And Republicans have known, have learned how to weaponize this media against us and against itself, by the way. It's not good for the media to behave like this. So I hope that we could get past it. I think at the same time, what people like the Biden administration and Democrats need to realize is that this is how the media operates. So how do you play in that space? How do you play in the space when the media is giving more coverage to a fist bump, which is actually probably one of the ruder greetings that you could give a Saudi prince when you meet with them, but when you're abroad, as opposed to some of the other things we've witnessed bowing and the ceremonies we saw with Trump, that is all of a sudden the spicy

thing that they want to talk about nonstop ad nauseum instead of the actual substance. How many things have you actually heard about the trip itself? How many things have you actually heard about the discussions about what went on and how it's going to affect your life, how it's going to affect the world, as opposed to how much you heard about something like the fist bump? And therein lies the problem. But what Democrats got to do with the Biden administration has to do is they need to understand that this is how the media works. So they need to give the media the red meat that they want. And honestly, Republicans and Donald Trump, people like that are very, very, very good at this. But in recent weeks, we've seen somebody else rise to the occasion of this. And I want to highlight the work of John Fetterman, who understands how media works, who understands how messaging game. And he should be a template for all Democrats to explore as, oh, this is how you break through. This is how you own the narrative. This is how you get the media

speaking about you. This is how you go on the offensive. And this is how you connect with people in a values-based way. All these things are tied together. And it's important that we're paying attention to the full picture of everything. And let me tell you what Khashoggi's wife actually said, the widow of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, while all of this fist bump stuff was in the news, what she is quoted as saying is, this is an opportunity for me to thank President Biden and his administration. He did keep his promise by bringing the report of the intelligence out in February last year, and he did take action, assertive action, I guess, against those involved in my husband's

tragedy. She called Biden's visit, quote, practical diplomatically and added that, quote, Jamal would not like it if regular diplomacy was disrupted. So there you hear it from Jamal Khashoggi. As you read that. Yeah, you hear it from Jamal Khashoggi. You hear it from Jamal Khashoggi's wife of what she thought of President Biden's diplomacy there. But you're right, Brett, the media is not reporting it accurately, but it is incumbent on President Biden and the Biden

administration to realize what the media is doing. And someone who does realize it and is doing a great job is John Fetterman out in Pennsylvania. It is, you know, to some Democrats, you could look at some of the stunts that Fetterman did. And Fetterman, you know, flew the plane. He hired a plane to fly over Jersey Shore with the batter that says, welcome to New Jersey. Fetterman purchased a cameo, one of those videos from what's her name from the Jersey Shore from Snooki from the Jersey Shore. Why don't we play the Snooki clip for everybody? Absolutely.

Hey, Maymatt, this is Nicole Snooki and I'm from Jersey Shore. I don't know if you've seen a bit before. But I'm a hot mess on a reality show, basically, and I enjoy life. But I heard that you moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to look for a new job. And personally, I don't know why anyone would want to leave Jersey, because it's like the best place ever, and we're all hot messes. But I want to say best of luck to you. I know you're away from home and you're in a new place, but Jersey will not forget you.

I just want to let you know I will not forget you. And don't worry because you'll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary. So good luck. You got this and Jersey loves you. That's the most brilliant use of campaign funds I have ever. Dollar for dollar, cent for cent. The amount of earned media alone that Fetterman had picked up from that one cameo is 200x what he spent on the cameo itself.

And the fact that we're still talking about that a week later is just so hilarious. But it really plays to a bigger thing. Fetterman, to what we were speaking about before, knows how to get out of the way of all the politics and politics, if that makes sense. He could relate to people on a personal level, and he's playing with people's emotions in a positive way. And he's making his race something fun that people want to engage with instead of the more mundane, buttoned up soup and tie. The guy walks out in a hoodie and shorts every morning, every campaign rally. He's amazing. He's exactly what Pittsburgh, he's exactly what Pennsylvania wants and needs. Jordy, it speaks to authenticity at the end of the day, authenticity. This cannot

be replicated by simply purchasing another cameo, another candidate purchasing another cameo and trying to get a gotcha or flying a plane or whatever it is. It has to speak to the authenticity of the candidate and how you connect with people and their values and how they feel about you rather than how they think about your policies are going to be like it. It's almost the way you make people feel is much more important than individual policy. And for too long, we've listened to politics on an academic level where we look at the polls. We try to see, oh, well, voters seem to care about inflation and gas prices and X, Y, and Z. And so I should be talking

about X, Y, and Z. No, no. You realize Republicans never do that. Republicans set the conversation. Republicans are the ones who go gas prices, gas prices, gas prices, gas prices, and make that an issue. Republicans are the ones who hammer these home. So we need to learn from this, right? We need to learn that that's how we need to be. And so I want to read a little bit of this thread from Dante Atkins that I saw online, because I think it just so nails it. He's a progressive communicator and strategist. And he basically said that, he describes that John Fetterman has taken this one issue, and that's the issue of Dr. Oz's residency. And he has crushed a policy issue whatsoever, but it's an issue that speaks to the authenticity and character that makes a contrast between Fetterman and his opponent here.

It sets them apart. I am a real Pennsylvania guy. This guy is a fraud. He is a multimillionaire Hollywood celebrity quack fake doctor from New Jersey who came over here to try to get your vote, to try to get himself power. That's something that people understand. People read that and people could smell out a fraud. What Atkins went on to say is how that Fetterman understands that everything else kind of runs downstream from that. Once you could hook people with that,

then you get into the rest of the stuff and people go, oh, you know, this guy gets me. You know, I might not agree with him on every single policy or whatever, but this guy gets me. And that's why Dr. Oz, who is running a mundane playbook of trying to say Fetterman is the next AOC. And it just it's just doesn't ring true. It's just ridiculous. And so Fetterman is able to just stomp him every step of the way, every single day. And it's humiliating Oz. Like frankly, this next to Herschel Walker's campaign, I don't know which is worse or Kelly Lefler's campaign. This is one of the most humiliating, one of the most poorly run campaigns

that I've ever seen. It's so true. I said that last night before we toss it back over to Ben, because Ben's giving us the evil eyes that he really wants to speak. Those are just my eyes, man. Is that Dr. Oz? Dr. Oz's campaign that he's running. I mean, I can't think of a worse campaign than other just to compare it to Kelly Loeffler's campaign from 2020. I mean, it is just such, he's getting just destroyed by Fetterman. And one more thing before I kick it back to Ben, before he jumps through the Zoom and beats me up, is that I've spoken to people in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, from both sides of the spectrum.

And I know there's also Philadelphia, but I'm not going to relate to that because I'm not in Philadelphia, is that everybody here who I've spoken to, they don't like Oz. They know he's a phony. They know he's a carpetbagger who moved here from New Jersey to try and steal the Senate seat. And they would rather vote for one of their own. It actually, though, works. That template works really everywhere. And Democrats need to replicate it. That idea, Jordy, that you bring up of phoniness, because this radical right fascist Republican are some of the phoniest gaslighting liars and so disconnected with the actual polls out there of what the American people want. They just try to latch on to scare people and latch on to some cultural issue to try to

make up something. That's why they talk about Mr. Potato Heads and Sesame Street, because they're actually big liars and they're trying to distract. If you think about what a liar does, when you try to cross-examine a liar, right? What's the first thing they do? They try to just bring up some other topic. And if you let them bring up the other topic, which the media does, sometimes that becomes a narrative, but call all of these phonies out and you go over Geordie to your other state. It's a big Geordie election this year because you got Geordie's current residence in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. You got Geordie's college

alma mater in Ohio, where you have the Tim Ryan, JD Vance race taking place. And Tim Ryan is running a similar playbook there of being an authentic Ohio person against JD.D. Vance, who's an outsider viewed as this Hollywood San Francisco plant that's been put in there to be fun with this radical right-wing Peter Thiel Hollywood agenda and is just a puppet to Peter Thiel versus I'm running as an authentic Ohioan who's representing the people over here. So you see that taking place there as well. And then Herschel Walker is just a disaster as a candidate. And there in Georgia, we just have to wait for those debates. Like, I cannot wait for the perspective of content creators.

Jordy, you think you're busy now? Every one of Herschel Walker's answers are going to be a clip. But the overall point here is that Republicans are picking really unqualified reality TV type people who mimic the image of the incompetence of Trump. That's where they're leaning into versus kind of competent style leadership. And it's clearly rubbing off in the sense that you even have Fox that's running. We should play this clip that they're running just randomly. It's not really tethered to even a real story other than them basically showing this clip of them interviewing people outside of supermarkets and asking if these purported Republican primary

voters, if they would continue to support Trump in the primary and just them saying, no, I think he's too divisive. I mean, these people are still out of there. When you watch this clip, it's still like, oh, it's a very scary clip to watch in and of itself. But just play the clip, though, that they're running on Fox. I like what he stands for. I like what he does. But he upset too many people. And he upset them really bad.

So I don't think he's good for the party. He needs to get back in that he already had gained that respect from all the world leaders and finish what he you know started. It's too bad that he did what he did do and was fought the whole way along on darn near everything that he did but that's what happened so I'd like to see him not run. If he did I would vote for him but I would not recommend he runs. I voted for Trump both times and I love him. I think he was a good candidate, but I think his time has passed. I couldn't care less about President Trump personally.

I prefer somebody different, but if he is the nominee, I'll probably vote for him. You know what? I voted for him for my very first time I voted for him. I don't think it'll be best for our country for him to run for re-election. You know, I'm thankful for everything that he's done, but I think that our Republican party needs to be united. At this point, he's a little too polarizing, And I think that there are candidates out there, Republican candidates, obviously, that maybe be able to pull in people

that he would lose to be able to change this. But I want you to notice some of the things that the people say, though, because there is a, but there is some important insight that can be gleaned. People aren't saying any specific policy, but they're basically, what they say though is, I like what he does. I like what he stands for,

right? At the broadest level. They're not going into any policy. And we've seen the clips over and over and again with the people who interview the Trump supporters and they ask him, well, tell me about the policy. Tell me what it stands for. And to short circuit all of those videos, mostly all Republican voters never know what he supports, never knows what he stands for. And when you actually ask the Republican voters the questions, they actually believe things that he doesn't believe when you actually, and it doesn't really take a lot of questions, takes like four questions to get them completely to admit that they support policies against Trump.

But usually on the first question, you could ask him, so you can name the policy, you know, and they'll say things like, oh, well, he loves America. He loves America. But there's an important point there too, that's important to people to love America, you know, and to stand. We can talk about where America needs to be fixed. We can talk about how we can improve America, but we also have to be very cognizant of the fact that America is a great nation. And there's a reason that we all still love the United States of America. And when Democrats run, we shouldn't let the radical right wing co-opt the flag. We did a

great piece on our Midas Touch YouTube channel, third generation Navy fighter pilot, Ken Harbaugh, who did this great clip. You'll see behind me for those watching, I got a sombrero over there with an American flag on it. I got the American flag sombrero to go along with my sombrero over here. But what Ken Harbaugh says in the video is that he always had an American flag as a third generation fighter pilot in his house. But now when he goes and he sees the flag on a pickup truck and he's with friends as well, he knows that it has a different meaning as it was co-opted by insurrectionists. But we shouldn't let it be co-opted by insurrectionists. We shouldn't let it be co-opted by these absolute phonies. I even think too, Brett, about that Steve Bannon clip. We put it on the Midas

Touch YouTube channel, and it was Steve Bannon talking about how, this was in October before the election, where he told this group of people, no matter what the results are, Trump is going to claim that he wins the election. Why don't you just play that quick part of that clip for a second? And what Trump's going to do is just declare victory, right? He's going to declare victory. But that doesn't mean he's the winner. He's just going to say he's the winner. Okay, you know the room that he was in?

He's in a room where it's a group of people, like his main financier, someone I think who's declared bankruptcy recently, but at that time was a Chinese billionaire who was funding the Bannon operation. So you think about all of the language that they use talking about China and this and that, the guys in a room talking about overthrowing an election days before the election with the Chinese billionaire who's now bankrupt, who's the main funder of right wing disinfo at the time. Just think about that. Just think about that. Democrats need to focus on things like that and they need to hammer it over and over and over

again. And Ben, that's why that we here on the show try to highlight those Democratic voices, because we got to be positive about this, too. And we got to uplift people in the space, you know. on the show, Joanna McClinton, who gave a passionate speech about abortion rights the other day, John Fetterman, Beto O'Rourke. I mean, you name it, Gloria Johnson, Eric Swalwell, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Val Demings. We are seeing a lot of good messaging out there. So I don't want to hear these messaging excuses from people, but it's up to us to uplift those messages and to show others that this is how it's done. You don't just have to tell people what you're going to do. You have to make people feel a certain way. Couldn't agree with you more, Brett. And then what else I would talk about too, goes back to the media, right? With the media saying, what's your view of the Democrats since that they haven't been able to pass any legislation or they

haven't done anything since Roe v. Wade has been overturned? You hear some semblance of that in different media channels. Oh, the Democrats haven't done anything. It fundamentally doesn't understand what our political system is, how our system works, or what the Democrats are doing. I want to talk briefly about what the Democrats have done since Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Democrats have passed the bill in the House to codify Roe v. Wade. Every single Republican voted against that bill. It goes to the Senate, where it will be filibustered by the Republican parties. The Democrats have passed a bill to allow and to protect women who travel across state lines, who cross the border, to make sure that they're not arrested as they're crossing the border from one state to the other, where from a state where abortion is illegal to

a state where abortion is legal. Every Democrat voted in favor of that bill. It finds its way to the Senate. The Republicans are going to filibuster. All but three Republicans voted against that bill. One of the Republicans who did support that bill, though, who I should mention is Adam Kinzinger. Democrats. I just got to say how sick it is that essentially, I mean, they want to ban women from crossing state lines. They want to tell you that you are actually not allowed to travel from state to state. They think they have that kind of say over your body. They think that you are their property. Think about what that

means when they say you are not allowed to travel freely throughout this country. If you meet these certain conditions, if you are a woman. Think about it. That is so twisted, so messed up. And it's against all human rights, all sense of decency, all sense of freedom. It's just so abhorrent. Then you even go, Brett, we could just go into the abhorrent category that it's all abhorrent, but digging into that abhorrent category, part of the executive order that President Biden signed or he signed last week or two weeks ago, part of its implementation was to give guidance to hospitals under an emergency, hospitals that treat people for emergency conditions. A law was passed in 1986 saying emergency rooms can turn people away.

So Biden gave guidance that said that also applies to abortion care. If a woman shows up at the hospital and needs an abortion and it's an emergency condition, we don't care what state you're in. Even if the state bans abortion hospital, you have to provide emergency care for that woman. Texas sued President Biden, Republican AG Ken Paxton sued President Biden and basically said, no, it's still banned. The federal law that protects patients in emergency conditions doesn't apply in Texas. That woman can't avail herself of the

emergency room. Sorry, President Biden, and has filed a lawsuit against President Biden. And sorry, you woman who is pregnant, you have to die. Sorry, you got to. Texas law means you die. Yeah, that's what he's saying there. You die. And that's why, you know, I don't use you have to be very careful of using labels to refer to people as things when they're not those things. You don't refer to Republicans as conservative when there's nothing conservative about insurrection, about spreading viruses, about eliminating the right to privacy. They're the biggest deficit creators. Biden's the one who's reduced the deficit by trillions. They increased the deficit by trillions. There's literally nothing conservative. So when a media is like, oh, the liberal group might as pack, I'm more conservative than the right wing conservatives because I believe in conserving democracy. That's a liberal like brushing my teeth in the morning

is considered liberal, I guess. Using deodorant is liberal, like, you know, basic hygiene is, you know, and that's also the problem then, right? Because the fact is, if you are covering the issues that are happening in our country fairly, it's naturally going to have a quote unquote liberal bent because right now there is literally an entire faction of the country, a political party that is trying to destroy the country that is trying to take away your rights. So if we were actually being fair about how these things were covered, what true fairness and coverage is would be highlighting that threat every single day, all day, letting people know the danger that is going on. What it is not, it is not saying, well, you know, President Biden wanted to do this.

And the attorney general of Texas said that, you know, we will stand for life at all costs and we will protect life here in Texas. That's not doing anybody favors. Tell them the stakes of what happened. The stakes are is that women will die if this is implemented and they cannot get emergency care. That's not a liberal belief. That's the facts. That's the facts of what is going to happen. So if that's going to make us a liberal pack or a liberal show to say it, sure, call us that if you want to. But the fact is that is the objective reality. And we all need to be speaking in harsh, objective terms because the stakes are too damn high. And let's contextualize this conversation a little bit more and put it in a real world situation that we all know just happened.

The little girl, the 10-year-old girl who was raped from Ohio and had to go to Indiana for the abortion, Texas is saying, no, you have to have that rapist's baby. There's nothing you could do about that 10-year-old girl. And you know what? We're going to give that rapist more rights than we're going to give you. It's so pathetic and just infuriating, and it should make your fucking skin crawl. Yeah. And in the example you gave, Jordy, that would be Ohio once you went to Indiana, but Texas would indeed be saying the Texas would be saying the same thing. But we'll also with these labels, you know, Oh, the pro-life movement, they're not the pro-life movement. They're the pro-death movement. They want women to die. Their policies are to kill women and all of their bullshit about their pro-life because they're trying, they're saving

babies. No one's killing babies. I mean, we need to rebut that right away and basically say, absolutely no one is killing babies. That is a crime to kill a baby. Okay. And even what Roe v. Wade said and what Casey said was that they're actually what the law was, was that at viability. And this is what like, you know, when you ask people like they don't even know what the law was at viability, there could be regulations. laws and laws like murder that prevent you from killing babies and federal laws that dealt with third trimester abortions. So that wasn't going on. And in the cases where it is happening, it's either the baby's about to die, the mom's about to die, and it is the most difficult situation for someone to ever have to go through and the most difficult thing in their life, and they're about to die. And people want to use those people as propaganda tools for their agenda.

That is not a pro-life agenda. That is a pro-life agenda. That is a pro-death agenda. We just have to talk about it in truthful terms and in truthful ways and rebut all of this BS. So I don't want to use any of these labels. And horrific story, someone named Sarah Gate, who is a professor who wrote this on Twitter, she talked about, this is the quote, my 15-year-old and I were traveling yesterday and we were pulled over for speeding, five miles per hour over the speed limit. Ridiculous by itself. Cop asked us where we were traveling and why.

Daughter said to play lacrosse. He said we were going a long way to do that from Indiana to Utah. Is this the future we face across state lines to travel? Is this the future that we face? And that is the video that we produced. Exactly the video. Literally, that is the video. Except in the video, the young girl's actually taken out or is about to take a car. That is what is going to happen. Absolutely. 100%. That's what Republicans are fighting for. And that is what is at stake right here. And look, nowhere is this more at stake than in the state of Michigan.

And I want to talk about, we think about governor's races. We think about secretary of state races. We think about attorney general races for the big state positions, right? And then the state senators or state representatives. We think about that. Then we think about federal. We mostly think about federal, but we need to be thinking about state. But we think about members of Congress, members of Senate, of course, the president. Very rarely do we think about, in many states, the Supreme Court is an elected position and the decisions being made by Supreme Court justices are really the critical decisions that are ultimately being made in a state. How a Supreme Court justice rules on voting rights?

How a Supreme Court we saw in Wisconsin recently, there was a 4-3 Supreme Court, four Republicans, three Democrats there. And they basically all but completely banned the ability of drop boxes. And so just think about one, how secure drop boxes are in the first place and how ridiculous it is to remove, to make elections convenient from people, number one, where you have to sign under penalty of perjury. But number two, just think about from persons with disability perspective of how persons with disability can they have to show up to a location when they can't either see or walk or they're immobile. How they require help to vote And what they did in Wisconsin basically makes it impossible for elderly or persons with disability to even vote there. And now we have a seat up for election in Michigan, purple state, in many ways where Michigan goes, so goes the country when it comes to elections. And we're going to be interviewing now

current Michigan Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein, running for his second term, Democrat. It's a four to three Supreme Court right now in the state of Michigan. And it's a vital election. I want to bring you Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein's story. One, because it's incredibly inspirational. I mean, what Justice Richard Bernstein has been able to accomplish in his life from marathon runnings to Ironman competitions, to passing the bar exam, to graduating from a top law school, to becoming a Michigan Supreme Court justice, to leading the major disability cases of our time. I mean, I'm surprised a movie hasn't been done about him already, but we should probably ask him if that's even a possibility because, oh my gosh, is his story incredible. But also the stakes couldn't

be higher. So let's bring in Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein for our interview with him. And we'll see you at the end of that interview. The Hot Honey McCrispy is so back at McDonald's. With juicy 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken, shredded lettuce, crispy jalapenos, and that completely craveable hot honey sauce, it's a sweet heat repeat you don't want to miss. Get your Hot Honey McCrispy today. Available for a limited time only at McDonald's. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by our guest, Michigan Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein. Justice Bernstein made history as the first blind justice elected by voters statewide to the Michigan Supreme Court in November of 2014. He's serving

an eight-year term and is up for re-election. Justice Bernstein, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be with you today. Justice Bernstein, I have to ask you, if you can tell our listeners and viewers just a little bit about your background before being a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, which is an elected position running, of course, as a Democrat, quite the history representing disabled persons in some major litigation in Michigan, working with the Department of Justice. Can you tell us just a little bit about some of those major cases you handled when you were in private practice before running and how significant they were?

Well, sure. And I think it's important to point out I'm actually blind. So as a blind person, I think that I ultimately believe I really represent the idea of blind justice, that justice should ultimately be blind, right? And the campaign slogan is blind justice. And you can't get more corny than that, right? But the thing is, when you emphasize the fact and let people know that you're blind, they ask questions. And it allows for barriers to come down. It allows for stigmas to be erased. But my entire passion has always been to represent people with disabilities and special needs who otherwise didn't have representation. And I'll just tell you a very quick story. When I was in law school, I went

to Northwestern and it was an incredible struggle just to stay in school because if it takes you an hour to do something, it takes me five hours to do the same thing. So I was struggling and I just wanted to desperately graduate because I knew that if I could graduate from law school, then I could dedicate myself to really trying to make life better for folks who otherwise don't have a voice or who have to struggle the same way I do. And ultimately when I was at Northwestern, it was a kind of a cold, brutal night. I remember I'm kind of a religious, spiritual person. I remember praying to the creator and I said, God, if you give me the chance to graduate from law school and pass the bar, I will dedicate my entire professional career to representing

people with disabilities and special needs who otherwise cannot afford legal representation. And miraculously, after graduating from Northwestern and passing the bar exam, I went back to my family firm and I said, look, a promise is a promise. And miraculously, my family, my brother, my sister, my parents said, okay, you know what? If this is what you believe in, if this is what you want to do, you can establish a public services division within the law firm. Basically, what we would do is the cases I took on, and they were David versus Goliath cases. It was myself and I had two wonderful college students that I would work with. And we would take the cases that nobody would take. But a promise is

a promise, right? Like if you promise that you're going to do something, you have to honor that promise. My first case was I sued the Detroit Department of Transportation because I represented paralyzed veterans. And the city was operating a bus fleet that had about 60% of the buses were operating with broken wheelchair lifts. And the problem with that was you had veteran who couldn't get to medical appointments or couldn't get back home after treatment. And they would wind up in bus shelters because they get stuck in transfers. After about seven years of litigation, ultimately this case, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, set the standard for all transit providers across the country as to provide accessible transit so that people with disabilities can access fixed-route systems. Speaking about being in it for the long haul, how many marathons have you run, Justice? Well, I have been blessed.

I have completed 25 marathons. Oh, my God. I also completed a full Ironman competition, which is, for those that are not familiar, is a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. And it took two years of training in order to do the Ironman. But I just really believe that we're here for something bigger than ourselves. And I just believe that you have to use the time that you're given to do something that's going to have an impact and that's going to result in making change for other people. Endurance competitions are the absolute greatest thing that you could do as a blind person, because really what it does is it translates into every

other aspect of your life. And no matter how challenging or painful or difficult it ultimately becomes, what you really come to realize is once you get through an endurance competition and you're blind and you're facing these kind of challenges, it really gives you that energy and that spirituality to kind of do everything better because you realize how resilient you are because you have no choice but to finish. Let's talk about the endurance in those other areas of life that that prepares you for. And I think no one's been more prepared than you sitting on the Michigan Supreme Court as one of the elected justices, starting with being elected in 2014. You know, we mentioned this before the interview on the Midas Touch podcast, just how significant the Michigan Supreme Court is in making critical decisions

that will impact our democracy. But I'd like to focus on three issues, you know, in particular, you know, and I understand there are, given that you are a sitting Supreme Court justice, just so our viewers and listeners know, I definitely understand there are limitations on what can and can't be said. But at the highest level, I think our people would love to know some insight into just what's at stake and the decisions that come before you. So one of the most important issues that will be becoming, you know, that or that the Michigan Supreme Court justices or all Supreme Court justices across the country will have to deal

with is voting rights and the importance of voting rights. So at the highest level, what can you share about your election in connection with what's at stake for voting rights? Absolutely. So I just want to say, I'm just going to quote the canons because all good judges always quote the canons. And ultimately, just simply say that what we're going to be talking about now is solely and exclusively procedure. We're not going to be in no circumstance or situation will I be stating any position on any matter. So no position on any matter or any, you'll never hear from me a position on any merit or any issue that's coming before the court. But what we will engage with is a discussion of procedure. So everything we're

talking about right now is procedural. And in no way, we'll discuss the merits of any pending or activities that are currently before the court. But I think it's fair to say that the road to the White House will go directly through the Michigan Supreme Court. Basically, a presidential election, for all intents and purposes, is 50 state elections. What that means is that each individual state will determine its protocol and policy and procedure for how an election is ultimately to be run and how an election is to be administered. So what does that mean? Basically, this is a question that is for the state courts, because again, the state decides off of its own kind of rules what is appropriate or inappropriate for how an election within that state is going to be administered. So what does that mean? That means that the

constitutional questions have to be determined as follows, right? Constitutional questions about elections within the state of Michigan have to basically be things of this sort. Who votes? How they vote? Where they vote? The process of voting? Are you allowed, is it constitutional to have drop boxes? Is it constitutional to have, you know, elections that go for a certain period of time? Is it constitutional to have early voting? Is it constitutional? Every element and aspect of the way that an election runs is going to be decided by individual state Supreme Courts. The reason that that is so critical is that in certain states, like the state of Michigan, which is a purple state, and again, without stating a position, I'm just simply stating a fact as it pertains to how the last elections went, is in the state of Michigan, I believe, and again, I'm not stating a position

as to what's better or worse. I'm just stating what it is. Here in the state of Michigan, I believe that Biden won Michigan, I believe it was by one-tenth of one percent. So it's a very close race. So what's going to happen in races that are as close as that is that you're going to have litigation that is going to have to determine every facet and aspect and attribute of how the election is going to be run. I will give you a very quick example about what happened in Wisconsin. Just, I think it's a good example to kind of show an example of litigation that has already been concluded. So this litigation is over. Wisconsin does it the same way we do it, which I believe that it perhaps is a 4-3 Republican court. Michigan, you have four Democrats, three Republicans. That's how the courts go, right?

My race or my seat, I'm a Democrat, so my seat is up. So ultimately, basically what would happen is it would be 4-3 the other way. But looking at the Wisconsin court, which is that 4-3 margin that we were talking about, they basically held in Wisconsin, it's going to be next to impossible to access drop boxes within Wisconsin. They basically, the court basically determined that drop boxes posed a security to voting integrity. And as such, drop boxes are now going to be limited at best for residents within the state of Wisconsin. Also, one of the things also the Wisconsin Supreme Court did was made it very difficult for people in many situations who need assistance in terms of voting. A lot of folks need that

assistance. You know, they need a little help, basically, you know, like someone like myself, who is blind, again, not stating a position, but just stating a fact about my situation. As a blind person, I would need some assistance in having someone help me to fill out the ballot or assist me with that. And then perhaps, you know, if I'm in a nursing home or in a situation where I can't drive, that somebody could help me to gather my ballot and turn my ballot in for me. That will no longer be allowed in Wisconsin. The stakes are incredibly, incredibly high. I want to also talk about reproductive rights. You know, obviously with Roe v. Wade being overturned in Dobbs. We've actually had in Michigan, we've had the Attorney General and Secretary of State,

both were on the Midas Touch podcast as previous guests. So, you know, we've learned, you know, in talking with them, the trigger law that's in place in Michigan from the early 1930s, I believe a 1932 law that's on the books that would basically make it a serious crime for both the woman seeking the abortion and the provider. And in this purple state currently, even right now, you have prosecutors, you know, some prosecutors, and again, in the different areas, who are actually looking to enforce this trigger law. is that there's a law being sought by the governor and the AG, an injunction that would basically stop this law from being enforced. And I know we can't get into the very specifics of these cases or get into the cases at all, but at the highest level, without getting into the cases, maybe telling us about the procedure justice, like what's at stake here in terms of what the Michigan Supreme Court will ultimately rule on as it relates to reproductive rights in a world where Roe v. Wade was overturned. So the reason that this is so intense and the

reason that the stress is so high and the reason that I don't really get to sleep and the reason that I have never felt intensity like this before is every other office holder is able to advocate for their position. And for example, of course, the, you know, the governor can advocate, the attorney general can advocate, the secretary of state, that's a separate matter. And we can get into that as it pertains to elections can, can do certain things. But at the end of the day, when it comes to reproductive rights, they can advocate. They can advocate as passionately as they wish to advocate. But really, the decision as it pertains to reproductive rights within the state of Michigan

will be made solely and exclusively by the Michigan Supreme Court. This court, my court, will decide. People can argue and make argument and let their positions be known. But really, at the end of the day, and I think that's why this podcast is so incredibly important, whether it's Michigan or Wisconsin or wherever you're talking, but now we're focusing on Michigan. rights within the state of Michigan will be made solely and exclusively by the seven justices that are serving on our state's highest court. One other quick thing. We are the last word. There's no appeal because the question that has to be answered procedurally, and again, in no way am I stating any position whatsoever. The question that has to be answered is the United States Supreme Court held that there is no longer a federally constitutional protected right. That's what the U.S. Supreme Court said.

There is no federal constitutional protected right any longer in the United States. The question that has to be answered by each individual Supreme Court is that every state, as we all know, has its own constitution. Michigan has its own constitution. The question that my court will have to determine is seeing that there is no longer a protected federal right. Is there a protected state right? So does the state of Michigan within its constitution

create a protected right that is not found within the federal constitution. The federal courts are out there done. It is all up to the state courts right now. And that's where this has to be litigated. Very quickly on a kind of a procedural note, this is unbelievably difficult because without stating any position of any kind whatsoever, these cases are not just limited to the question or issue of abortion. They are also dealing with issues like in vitro fertilization, assisted pregnancy. They are also dealing with scientific discovery as it pertains to Parkinson's research and MS and CP, all these things. And what's happening is, is ultimately the hospital systems here in the state of Michigan

are basically stating that they are, for all intents and purposes, waiting to hear from the Supreme Court as to how and what they can or cannot do. Something that I want to ask you is something a little bit more just structural about our government, about the way things work, and about the way the Michigan Supreme Court works. So you yourself are serving an eight-year term. You're running for another eight-year term. How do you think term limits affect a Supreme Court justice? And just what's your thoughts on term limits for Supreme Court justices in general? Well, we don't have those in Michigan. So my hope is that I'll be able, you do have to retire once you, you can't run past 70. So I'm 48. So my hope is to be on the court for as long as possible. So you have an age limit, but, but you're, but you're serving an eight year term, right? basically, I'm on the ballot in November. So this November, the voters of the great state of Michigan will decide whether or not they wish to allow for me to continue in this position. Getting into the process structurally about how this all works. So basically, I'm a Democrat.

I will be running against a Republican. It's a unique system that Michigan uses. Every state does it a little differently. Some states do it like us, but others don't. But the way it works here in Michigan is I'm a Democrat. I am running as a Democrat, right? It's that simple. The Republicans will be nominating a Republican. And what happens in these races, which is something that I imagine a lot of your viewers will be surprised by, is it's very much analogous to running for Senate, or it's very much analogous to running for Attorney General. It's very much analogous to running for a position like governor in a lot of ways. It's fascinating to watch. Absolutely. Because here's what happens. Basically, you run a regular campaign. I'm a Supreme Court

justice, but I'm going to be engaged in probably without question what could only be defined as the most brutal, most intense, most vicious contest that you will possibly ever see. And the amount of money that goes into these races and, you know, what we're going to have to face. And basically, I can tell you what the Republicans have already said they're going to do. They're going to be spending millions of dollars basically destroying my reputation. That's how this is going to be. So if you're. Oh, it's going to be spending millions of dollars, basically destroying my reputation. That's how this is going to be. So if you're- Oh, it's going to be brutal. It's such a wild card.

Yeah. If you're in the state of Michigan and you're watching television, you're going to be like, oh my God, who is this Richard Bernstein? He sounds like the worst person I've ever- Oh my God. You're going to say to yourself, I can't believe we had this guy on our podcast because you're going to say like, oh, my God. Like, I didn't know that he like, you know, I didn't know how horrible he was. I didn't know that he was like the worst person. That's the thing, Justice. Right. Because, you know, I think for a while and I don't know if you feel this also, but it seems like Republicans have put so much focus into these races.

And while a lot of Democrats are very focused on, you know, like the other positions that you were saying, more focused on the governorships, more focused on Senate, the justices often get ignored in the process. And that's really at the basis where kind of our policy is solidified in the United States. Thank God for you saying that, because seriously, you've just basically said the most important thing that you can possibly say, which is at the end of the day, whether it's Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, I don't whatever it is. Right. But it really where it comes to play is in divided government. Right. So in Michigan, we have a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature, right? So when you have a state that's purple, and when you have a state that is divided government, for all intents purposes, all of the major decisions that people care about is decided by the state Supreme Court.

It's just that simple. Ultimately, the only thing that the Republicans can do is if they want to flip the court is they've got to take me out. Let's say the Republicans lose everything in Michigan. Let's say that they lose the governor, they lose the attorney general, they lose the secretary of state, right? The Democrats carry all those. If they can take the state Supreme Court, that's a bigger win. Because ultimately, if they can take the state Supreme Court, what they believe, you know, I'm just saying what they believe, what they believe is if they get that state Supreme Court, they can affect policy on a national level. So basically, my race, for all intents and purposes, is a state race. But you really can't look at it that way.

You really have to look at it as a national race. And that's why God bless you. You're such good people for doing this because a lot of this really just comes down to allowing for folks to realize and understand how the system actually works. Right. That like, you know, you can, no matter what your position, you can say, well, I'm going to advocate for X, Y, and Z.

And that is very important. And that's a critical element of it. But at the end of the day, you know, what people really have to look to is really on these issues, you know, who's going to be the ultimate decision maker. Well, here's the thing. You pass whatever policy you want. Great. You know, you think you succeeded, then you get sued. It gets kicked up to the Supreme Court and it could get struck down. So that's why these positions are so incredibly important. And that's why we urge all of our listeners and viewers of the Midas Touch podcast to pay attention to all races up and down the ballot, especially races like, you know, judgeships, especially races like secretary of state positions, because you got to understand where this, where the sauce is really being made in government. And it starts

right here. Do you think that being elected rather than being appointed, do you think it makes for a healthier court when you have more of a direct vote, you know, rather than being appointed by somebody, does it make it too political? What's your thoughts on that? Because I could kind of see both sides on that issue. I have to say, I love this podcast. These are the best questions. I just want you to know, these are like the best questions that I have ever been asked. I just, I can't even begin to tell you. I'm going to write that on my bio, Justice. I'm going to write that on the bio of the podcast. Without a doubt, these are the best. They're just fabulous. So even with all the faults that come with the election, I think it's the absolute best way to do it. I am an absolute supporter of the electoral process. And I'm going to tell you why.

Look, this is a stressful, difficult, intense situation that I'm going through. And then, but you have to also understand is it's never been like this before, right? We've never been dealing with issues at this magnitude and with this level of intensity. So this is like a whole new thing. But even with that, I am an absolute supporter of the electoral process. And the reason that I'm a supporter of it is, as we were saying at the beginning of our time together, I'm blind. And I'm just going to be very direct about it, right? If I had to go in front of what they call a merit selection committee, I can tell you exactly what would happen.

I would go in front of that committee and they would say, oh, Richard is so quote unquote inspiring. I'm so inspired. He's so inspiring. Oh my God. I don't know what to do. He's so inspiring. He's so inspiring. Oh my God. I don't know what to do. He's so inspiring. But then I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen.

Right after I leave that meeting and they close the door, I'm going to tell you what they're going to say. They're going to say, you know what, as exciting and as inspirational as he is, we need to go with someone who is more like us. We need to go with someone who looks like us, who talks like us, who sounds like us, who is us. And we don't want to take a chance on someone like Richard Bernstein, this blind guy. We don't want to take a chance on that. You know, that's not someone we want to deal with because what if it doesn't go well? And, you know, let's stay away from that and let's just go with the safe candidate and just go and just make it easy. Why take a chance on this blind guy? Let's go off and find so many other people that we can use. The reason that

I love the electoral process is I've just, you know, I've been through this before, right? This is like my second election, right? All the same stuff happened when I ran. It wasn't maybe as intense, but I did this already. So I ran for this eight years ago. And you know why I love my state? You know, I love Michigan and you know why I love my job and you know why I love our system. You know why I love the whole thing. I'll tell you why I like it because you know why I love our system. You know why I love the whole thing. Tell us justice. Tell us. I'll tell you why I like it. Because you know what? I know I have to be steadfast and serious and the whole thing. But the reason why I love this state is because I went around this state eight years ago.

And honestly, there wasn't a county I didn't get to. Oh, there was only one. I didn't get to Houghton. And that was only because the road was washed out in the upper peninsula. And I literally physically couldn't get there. But other than that, I got outspent literally. I mean, it was pretty brutal. I got outspent 10 to 1 on the last election. But here's the deal. I just love people. I love people. I enjoy being with them. I don't expect time with them. I just love people. So I actually love going to county fairs. I love going to factories. I love going to, and in Michigan, what I love about our state, because we have the best state, we really

are the best state in the union. I'm just going to tell you why, right? We have a festival for everything, like every possible thing you could imagine, every fruit, every vegetable. And I'm going to tell you something. I love those festivals. I love the factories. I love all of it. So you know what? In answering to your question, you know, here's the deal. I loved getting out and going out and being with people and spending time with people. And you know, here's the deal. I loved getting out and going out and being with people and spending time with people. And you know what? The reason that elections work and work well, even though they've got their flaws, yes, am I going to love that everybody in the state is going to see horrible ads about me? That's not great. Am I going to love the fact that I'm going

to walk around and people are like people like oh that's that guy oh that's that and just so you know being blind everyone recognizes you because like i'm the only blind guy so it's like people oh yeah that's that guy so the thing is even with all of that the thing that happened the last time that i ran which is so incredibly life affirming about our state is, you know, there were all these different reporters and people were fascinated by this race because I didn't have any money. You know, I got nominated by the democratic party and like, you know, it was one of those situations where people were like, they were doing polling and they were like, why is this like blind guy doing so well in the poll? Like what is going on? What is happening? He's getting

out spent 10 to one. And we don't really understand like what is going on here. And they would go and they'd talk to people and they'd sample people and they'd go all across the state and they would ask people and people like, oh yeah, I'm voting for that blind guy, the blind justice. I'm voting for him, Richard Bernstein, the blind justice. And they would poll them and they would say, well, well, why? And they would go, they would go to allstein, the blind justice. And they would poll him and they would say, well, why? And they would go to all different parts of the state. And what people would say, whether they were liberal or conservative or whatever it was, people would say the following thing to the newspapers and to the interviewers or the pollsters.

They would say, you know what? I don't agree with him on all of his issues, but I've got to tell you, I connect with him personally. They would say, you know what? My dad has to go into assisted living or my mom is struggling or you know what? My kid gets bullied every day at school. Every day at school, he gets bullied. And they would say, you know what?

I know that they're running some, you know, silk stocking person against him and this and that. But they would say, you know what? He understands, like, I would rather have, as a high court judge, I would rather have someone who is able to understand and appreciate the challenges and the struggles that I go through

than someone that can't relate to me. And literally what would happen was what the general consensus was, hey, someone that can't relate to me. And literally what would happen was what the general consensus was, hey, I might agree or disagree with them. But at the end of the day, I really believe that he understands what it means to struggle. Like he really gets that concept of struggle. I think you're really touching on something here, because I think that's something that could be applied to Democrats running all races throughout the country. Because I think at the end of the day, it's more than just policy to people. It's about identity. It's about values. It's about, is this person authentic?

Are they like me? And are they like me? Doesn't even get into the minutia. People aren't following policy in that very granular way as so many people online are, but they know a BS artist when they see them and they know when somebody's real and when somebody actually is like them and cares about them. So I think that lesson right there is something that all Democrats, and I think we're seeing that like in Pennsylvania with the John Fetterman versus Dr. Oz race, we're seeing the reason why Fetterman is kicking his butt. And I'll say that. I know you probably don't want to say that. I have no opinion. But it is this idea of authenticity and this idea of connecting with people on a real human level. And I think that's the lesson that we got to take away from that. What you're saying is absolutely correct. Because really what we found at the end of the day,

it really comes down to, are you able to connect with people? And really what it comes down to is, do you care about people? Do you like people? And Justice Bernstein, we may be running out of time here, but I wanted to ask you this quickly before we let you go. And thank you so much. You've been so generous with your time. You guys are awesome. Your questions are great. Your energy is great. All right. Let's hope this one lives up to how well the other two brothers did. With everything, you know, we're going through as a country, you know, do you still have

faith in our institutions? Oh, absolutely. Without question. Because, you know, look, I can just tell you, and I can speak for Michigan as we were talking about before. I mean, here's the deal. As intense as this gets, you know, we have eight-year terms. So when you have an eight-year term, what I will tell you is, yeah, are things intense right now? Yes. But what I will tell you is, on my court, the level of conversation, the level of discussion, the academic discourse is just incredible.

Are there problems? Are there challenges? Are there difficulties? Absolutely. But in the end, what is it that usually happens? That people are good, people are kind, and people want to do the right thing. And I usually have found in my experiences, and I think in our country's experiences, that we might come close in certain situations and in certain circumstances, but usually what usually winds up happening is that the right people are in the right places, doing the right work at the right time. And when it really matters, they step up and things usually find their way to working out no matter what the sacrifice, no matter what the hardship, no matter what the challenge, no matter what the difficulty, nor the danger, because people's

spirits and people's souls will always rise and will, for the most part, allow most people to do what is right and what is just. Justice Bernstein, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the program today. I mean, your energy is infectious. I really admire your optimism. You are so incredibly inspiring. And what I really love about you is that you're in it for the right reasons, which is to help people. And that seems like such a foreign concept at the moment. That's what government is supposed to be about, people. It's supposed to be about helping others, not fighting others, not dividing others.

So I want to just thank you again for joining us today on the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you. May God bless you. And now I got to go back to work. Sounds good. All right. We'll be right back after this.

Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. What an incredible individual, incredible accomplishments. And I hope everybody understands just how important that race is. These elections are so important. Pay attention to every race on your ballot, please, especially secretary of state races, judge races, pay attention. That's where so much is going to happen in 2022 and 2024. Some quick news I want to talk about. I see the focus group, this Wisconsin focus group, 10 of 14 Wisconsin swing voters are saying that they believe Trump should be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election and his role in it. That's pretty significant. What's they been? 10 of 13 Arizona swing voters said the same thing as well. Wisconsin and Arizona. That's a big seismic shift. I mean, it's actually

really interesting right now to see this position where you have so many people kind of running against, running away from Trump at this point. And make no mistake, if Trump were to get the nomination, which he could get the nomination if he runs in a crowded field, because that's how these things work, all these people will go and back him happily. So don't get anything twisted. But it is interesting to see that they are trying to do their best to make him not the nominee right now, and are really shifting to people like DeSantis. And I think it's going to be interesting to watch them sort of eat their own here. I mean, you see now the talks of, there was that report that Trump is now considering throwing his hat in the race to try to avoid criminal prosecution. I mean, give me a break here. I fully believe he's going to run for that exact. I buy that report. A hundred percent.

I've been saying totally agree. You have to, you know, here's the thing. He is, this is what people don't like learn about it. It's just such a strange thing because he throws everyone under the bus. He destroys everything he touches yet. Everybody kind of thinks, Oh, I can, I'm going to use him. I could take, I could handle it. Like, and I know what I'm getting into. I'm just going to hang around the orbit so that I can, you know, try to, you know, get that MAGA based support and, and then I'm gonna, you know,

extract myself from it, but they're full fledged ultra MAGA right now. I mean, they're full fledged. And that is out of touch with the American people. But going back to my point from the beginning of the podcast, the media still treats the Republican Party like they're a normal group. versus normal Democrats and that one party is conservative and one party is liberal versus the voters get it. The voters actually get it. You see it in the polling data that the voters get it despite the media efforts. By the way, that was a Axios poll that I wanted just to mention. That was an Axios poll. And I also want to talk about Lauren Boebert. I mentioned that at the beginning. I just think it's worthwhile just knowing what the Republicans are doing right now, like she's one of the most prominent Republicans. You got her, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you got Marjorie Taylor Greene out there. I don't want to repeat the words that he said, like went over to her, harassed her, talked about her body, like just like disgusting and despicable cat call, just heinous, ridiculous behavior. Then he goes on Marjorie Taylor green and they like laugh about it and basically act like it was a radical liberal agenda to not want to be

sexually harassed at their workplace. Liberals have no sense of humor. Sexually harassing people is just not fucking funny. So that's what they're doing and where Marjorie Taylor Greene's doing. And Lauren Boebert's out there on this book tour where she's very heavily focused on talking about this incident where they were younger. I think her husband was like 24 and he exposed his generals. He was arrested for this. He pled guilty. He exposed his generals to two underage girls and Lauren Boebert's out there saying that it was actually- Boebert was there, I think too.

She was there. She doesn't mention that in her book though. Speak about, talk about grooming. Yeah. I don't think she was, she doesn't mention that in her book or Talk about grooming. Yeah. I don't think she doesn't mention that in her book or she glosses over the fact that she was present there. And her story, this is what her story is, that her husband was talking to the bartender that he has a tattoo on his genitals. And the bartender said, let me see, let me see. And he was getting uncomfortable with the bartender asking to see the tattoo on his genitals. And so he went to pull out his genitals to prove because he was getting uncomfortable based on the questioning. So I'm not just so you know, this is a congressperson.

This is literally what they're saying. And so he had to take out his genitals to show the actual tattoo to give proof because the bartender was being rude to him. This is ridiculous. I can tell you that this is the exact opposite of what's said in the police reports, that he pled guilty to not doing that, but actually doing what he was accused of doing, that even if he did what he said he did, it's still incredibly wrong. And that she's out there on a book tour as a member of Congress, as a member of Congress. Not here are ways that I'm going to help Colorado,

not here are ways that I think we can improve the country. But speaking about her husband's genitals, when he exposed them to underage girls and trying to defend, that's her focus. Because they don't care about real issues that Americans care about. There is a void here that we all need to step into and say, listen, let's talk to people like people again. Let's talk to people about normal things. These people are wackadoos. These people are crazy. Let's speak to people on a human. These people are wackadoos. These people are crazy.

Let's speak to people on a human to human level, connect with them the same way Justice Bernstein wants to connect with people and actually help people. Have you subscribed to the Midas Touch audio channel where you get these podcasts? If you haven't, make sure you subscribe to the audio channel, to all our YouTube listeners out there. We love our YouTube listeners and viewers out there,

but do me a favor too. This helps us in the algorithm. Right now, I want you to go over to Midas Touch where you can download the audio and just click subscribe to the audio. Do me a favor. When the episodes come up, can you please just click the episode as well? Midas Touch, I mean, we're crushing it on YouTube. It's crushing it on the audio. This message is really resonating. We just want to make sure that we're on multi-platforms. You could always check us out on both and make sure you're recommending this podcast

and you're leaving five-star reviews. That helps with the algorithm as well. Also visit store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com for the best, most fashionable pro-democracy gear out there. That's store.midastouch.com. Check that out. Our coverage of the January 6th hearings continues this Thursday on primetime. Primetime, baby! On the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We'll have the usual panel, maybe some surprise guests as well, that you know and love on the Midas Touch network.

We will be broadcasting live. I have a feeling that that primetime is not going to be the last hearing. I think that with the Jan 6th. They're going to do more. I that with the info that they're getting, there's definitely going to be some more hearings. And there's a thirst and an appetite for more of these hearings. You know what? The same way we're exploring January 6th, I want to explore other areas, too, because you know what? The moment these radical right extremists, they're going to focus on all BS, fake stuff, by the way, stuff that they had the opportunity to investigate when they were

in control of both the House and the Senate, but didn't because they're completely made up and fake stuff like the Hunter Biden stuff they're going to focus on. They're going to go after Dr. Fauci. They're going to go after they're going to try to turn America into you're going to see some of the most foul and disgusting, ridiculous hearings of these radical right extremists take power. So we should actually do real hearings on real issues and ask how it was. We should call Jared Kushner. I want to see why Jared Kushner hasn't yet sat at any hearings. I want to see Jared Kushner explain why after he left the White House, he got two billion dollars to be a money manager for the Saudis. Democrats need to talk about those issues. We know we get two billion dollars. Is the number just so big and so outlandish and so outrageous that we're like, oh, we can't even ask questions about that. We literally got $2 billion. Steve Mnuchin got $1 billion. That was buried in the Jared Kushner story.

Second to last paragraph. Oh, and by the way. Mnuchin got a billion from the Saudi fund. And meanwhile, these were Dems all from page headlines on all your favorite magazines and newspapers. But that's why we need to make it the story. Don't say like, oh, voters don't care about Kushner and the Saudis. He's not in government. Talk about it every second. Pick an issue and hammer it home. Hammer it. Say, this week, we're going to talk about this corruption. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. This week, we're going to talk about this. Boom, boom. Relentless. Be relentless. Be honest. Be human about it. Be personal. Don't get lost in the

weeds of policy. Try to connect with people on a more visceral level. That human about it. Be personal. Don't get lost in the weeds of policy. Try to connect with people on a more visceral level. That's the key. That's where we've seen success with the Democratic candidates we've highlighted, who we praise, who we continue to amplify, who we hope you amplify. And that's what we have to do as a party and as a country, really, to help save democracy. Look, Republicans do performative politics without principle. And perhaps what's worse than being without principle is that they actually actively are working against the principles and values that Americans actually truly care about. Democrats are afraid to do any forms of performative politics because they just think it's beneath them. It's not

performative politics if the performance aligns with the principle. When performance and principle align, you just have an announcement. That's what it's called. It's an announcement. And we should be announcing every day what we're doing great and what the Republicans are doing bad. That is what we are doing right here on The Midas Touch. And here's an example. You see the Republicans. doing bad. That is what we are doing right here on the Midas Touch. And here's an example. You see the Republicans, I know you were going to close the show out, but you see the Republic, and I'm not letting you, you see the Republicans go to like the border every single day, every single week, right? They're standing on the border. They're taking pictures. You see Ted Cruz looking through leaves and taking pictures. He looks like an idiot,

right? Why aren't we sending people every time Ron DeSantis does one of those press conferences and holds a big giant checkup and says, look at the money that I brought in for infrastructure for this city, which is money from president Biden's infrastructure plan. Why aren't people sending, why aren't we as Democrats sending somebody to that press conference with a big thing of Biden that says I did that or something, you know, like we need to try to own the narrative here, disrupt those events, you know, make it, make it about us, go there, tell the story, call them out the way Beto O'Rourke did in Texas, call these people out, make a spectacle of it and do it in a way that aligns with your values and gets out the message.

And that right there is the key. Couldn't agree with you more, Brett. Great joining everybody on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Special thanks to our guest, Michigan Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Justice Richard Bernstein. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett and Jordy with a simple message for you, Jay.

Shout out to the Midas Mighty.