The MeidasTouch Podcast - Lessons from Virginia with Joe Lockhart

Episode Date: November 6, 2021

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the brothers sit down with Joe Lockhart! Lockhart is a CNN Analyst and Bill Clinton's former Press Secretary from 1998-2000. During the interview, we discuss the Virginia gubernatorial results and why the outcome may be a warning sign for 2022. The brothers shift gears and discuss the more positive results from election night and highlight the big wins for Democrats across the country. To round the episode out, we chat about Joe Manchin and how he continues to be the thorn in the side of pushing real progress forward. If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. Support our sponsors: Wild Alaskan Company -- Go to WildAlaskanCompany.com/meidas for $15 off your first box Adam & Eve -- Go check out AdamandEve.com today, select one item and get 50% off including FREE shipping when you enter offer code MEIDAS Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, 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. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy joining the podcast with me today. We've got guest Joe Lockhart, CNN analyst, former press secretary for Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2000. A Lockhart bomb? A Saki bomb? A Lockhart bomb? I don't think that works. Lockhart bomb doesn't work.

And I do want to say at the top of the show that I made a concerted effort not to do anything before saying welcome to the Midas Touch podcast because Brett, who has full editing capabilities on the last podcast, if you turn it on, you see me like scratching and picking my nose before the podcast starts. I was confused about that too. Well, here's the thing. I tried cutting it as close as I could, but the reality is, is that the show has a format. The show always starts on all three of us.

And you decided to pick your nose when the show was starting. So I cannot control- Just for everybody watching and for those those listening just do the replay because you could have cut it right before but just i was confused you did it on purpose you did do it on purpose he did it on purpose to fuck with me he's laughing i did not i know exactly what you're talking about but it was not like on purpose i was just like i guess i to keep it in because Ben's a little bit of a nose picker today. Just play the video and see if we can have any sound. Have people who are listening, go and watch the Twitter feed. Three, two, one. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Okay. You're

telling me that you couldn't have clipped it right when I started. There was at least a half second gap. I was confused too. It's like, I started. There was at least a half second gap. I was confused too. It's like, I'm not even focused on the scoreboard. Listen, the podcast starts with the song. That's not America. And then it gradually, after a few seconds, goes into the show, right?

The song isn't actually playing in our studios. Yeah, it's not like it's live. Like they're not playing when we start the show. I'm so confused. Listen, all you're doing right now, Ben, is drawing more attention to this moment of the show that most people probably didn't even pick up on. Have you heard of the Streisand effect? This is the Ben effect right now in full force. I don't know if hashtag Ben Nose Pick is trending on Twitter as we speak.

I don't know. All I know is that this is now the focus of our conversation on the Midas Touch podcast on a episode where a lot of people are tuning in to get our thoughts on what happened this week on the elections. This has now become the focus. And if that's where you want the focus to lay, then okay. You look, there may need to be a little smoke and mirrors after some results that weren't the outcome that I think everybody wanted, as we especially look at Virginia. But I think there are lessons that can be gleaned from this. And I think what's actually helpful about assessing what happened

in Virginia is that it is a wake-up call for Democrats. And there's lessons about how Republicans are going to run. So who was the big winner? Let's be clear. Glenn Youngkin was the big winner. You know, one thing you don't hear, you don't hear Democrats saying, oh, voter fraud, it was rigged. You know, we accept the results of- I was looking for my nearest insurrection, my nearest state house or Capitol to attack, and I just couldn't find the Facebook groups to do it. There was nowhere. I mean, you notice that on all of the kind of GQP social media immediately. They go from it's rigged to then when the results are not announced right away, they go.

The media is rigging it. The media is being unfair. The media is shit. And it's like, no, this is a process that happens. These are actual elections. They don't understand the process of counting. It's called counting and things take time to count. Like literally, they don't understand counting.

Like New Jersey was a race that took longer to count because they weren't able to count those mail-in ballots right away earlier before the polls closed. And so things were taking a while to come in. There were some confusions with the precincts. And literally, the Fox News and Breitbart headlines on the night of the election were, why doesn't Phil Murphy concede? Because they didn't count the votes yet. No one's called the election. And Phil Murphy ended up winning the race. Why would he have conceded? And they try to weaponize this because they know that Democrats, it's this Russian kind of propaganda, both sides-ism. They try to push back onto Democrats and to the media what people say that is true actually about them.

And so they were like, oh, look, they're not conceding because we know that Trump still has not really officially conceded the 2020 election. And so they're like, why won't McAuliffe concede? Why won't Murphy concede? Well, you were saying that when the race wasn't even yet called in Virginia. And then you were saying that when the race wasn't even called in New Jersey and Phil Murphy won the race. So why would he have conceded? That's the thing. They try and bully us into believing their bullshit. And maybe that shit would have worked in 2016, but not anymore. We have the receipts. We know what y'all are doing. Fox News is OANs. We're hip to your game. It's not going to fucking work. Exactly. So look, the big winner was Glenn

Youngkin, Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor in Virginia, Jason Mayers, the attorney general, the GOP in Virginia who picked up seven seats. And so a big victory for Republicans in Virginia. We'll break down exit polling data in a little bit. Let's be clear, though, Democrats did do well in other states. The Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, won in New Jersey. This was the first time since 1977 where a Democratic governor was reelected in the state of New Jersey. Democrats won mayoral races in New York, Boston, Seattle. Democrats won a special election in Ohio. Lots of the Trump GQ peers who ran for school board races were defeated.

And by all means, I guess we should just talk about Virginia, Virginia, Virginia, based on all of the news that you're hearing. And Democrats go into their normal pointing fingers at each other. It's the centrist fault. It's the progressive. Oh, my gosh. The one thing I said the night of, I was like, my only take that I'm going to give right now is that all the takes where this is turning into a circular firing squad is unhelpful. You had all the progressives blaming, oh, well, if just Manchin and Sinema helped us pass the bills, you had all the more moderates blaming the progressives. Well, if they didn't just compromise, and that's totally unhelpful for the party, because if we're not a unified front, if we're not a true coalition of voters who understand

truly what is at stake in our country, then guess what? The GOP runs right over us. Guess what? Instead of getting 60% of that bill, you get 0% of that bill. In fact, you get 0% of that bill plus fascism thrown in the mix. You get your rights taken away. You get your kids indoctrinated. You get books banned. That's what happens. You sit out. That's what happens. And that's why we need to stay united and rally around things that we can agree on. And we need to get shit done. And I have a lot of thoughts about the race that we'll get into a little bit, but I mean, guys, let's stop turning this into a circular firing squad. It's unhelpful to everybody, everybody. It's so unhelpful. So let's get your take Brett

on Virginia. Let's first examine some of the exit polling data. I think one of the most significant exit polling data is if you look at white women college grads in the Biden versus Trump, if you look at white women, non-college educated voters in 2020 and Trump Biden, you had 58% of white women college grads vote for Biden, 41 percent Trump. In 2021, you had 62 percent go for McAuliffe and 38 percent go for Youngkin. But here was a major, you know, here was a major difference, though. White women, non-colle. And here in 2021, 75% to Youngkin. Massive shift. 25% to McAuliffe.

And there's a lot of votes right there that could change the tide of an election, and which did change the tide of the election. The exit polls also suggested that the economy was the number one issue on voters' mind. The number two issue on voters' mind in Virginia was education, was education. And, you know, in terms of popularity, Trump's exit polls showed that Trump's popularity was about 41 percent and McAuliffe's popularity, he was a governor before, was around 45, 46 percent. But Trump was clearly a very unpopular figure in the state of Virginia. But Brett, what's your

immediate reactions to what happened in Virginia? Well, first, just to start off on the Trump front, I'm going to say that I think this is actually a horrific night for Donald Trump. I think this actually proved that the Republican Party has a path forward should they want to stop using Trump all the time. I mean, I think Youngkin had to play to Trump's voters in a way that often used race and weaponized the same sort of Trumpist tactics. But he did it in a way that was palatable for voters. And that's what's dangerous. And that's what we need to really look at. And Youngkin did a great job.

We tried our best to get that Trump stink on Youngkin. And we almost made it happen. We almost had Trump actually appear in the state, which I think would have been extremely beneficial for the McAuliffe campaign. But Youngkin kept him away. Youngkin kept him to doing these phone calls, calling in. And so I think Youngkin did a really good job at keeping him away. And he was able to push forward this image of himself as more of like a Mitt Romney style kind of money Republican who's

going to cut your taxes. And he ran a platform that really spoke to local issues at the end of the day, regardless of whether the issues he was speaking on are true. And I don't think for the Democratic side, I don't think this was necessarily an issue of voter apathy because we actually had a super high turnout. Just Republicans actually turned out more voters. This also totally slaps down the whole Republican notion that when voter accessibility is higher, that it benefits Democrats because that wasn't the case here. So all their attacks on voting rights, this kind of proves that they're all bullshit, right? Because more people were able to vote here. There was long early voting periods, but guess what? Republicans were the ones who showed up in bigger numbers.

As you said, the biggest, most glaring example, Ben, was that the polls you read about the shift of non-college educated white women. I think it's easy to blame race. And race is definitely a factor in the whole thing. And race has been a factor in American politics since before America was America. But I think if you're going to single out race as the issue and you're going to call the voters who voted for Yunkin racist, especially when they voted for a lieutenant

governor who's the first African-American female lieutenant governor in the Commonwealth, I think you're going to lose those voters for a generation. I really do. I think if you're blaming the voters for their choices, I think as a politician, you're losing. And CRT became this hot button issue despite not existing, but Democrats kind of failed to adequately respond to it. I mean, if you're responding to the CRT issue by saying, but CRT isn't even a thing, but you're not giving a point of view that is empowering parents about their children's education, I think you're not offering anything when there is something being offered by the

other side. And you're already on the defense if you're arguing, babe, but that's not even a thing. You're already playing defense when in elections, you need to be playing offense. So I think McAuliffe really needed to put forward something. Democratic Party going forward needs to put forward a platform that empowers parents about their education. And when McAuliffe was given the opportunity at the debate, he told parents, yeah, you know, and it was taken kind of out of context and played over and over. But he told parents, yeah, you shouldn't have a say over your kid's education. And that resonated throughout Virginia, you know. And so I think we really need to speak to the conditions that are motivating people on the ground. And I think a lot of it is this fear at a micro level. I don't think these voters are sitting back every single day watching the news like we are watching the news and following Twitter like we are following Twitter. I don't think they're

thinking, oh, well, what did Joe Manchin have to say about the Build Back Better bill today? What did Kyrsten Sinema have to say about the Build Back Better bill today? I don't even think they worry so much even about democracy, I hate to say it, or the January 6th committee. I just don't think that's really on the mind of voters when they're going to the polls, which doesn't mean we shouldn't be focusing on these things. These are existential crises to our country and we need to stay on it, and we need to stay motivated about this and pushing our elected officials to hold those people responsible. But I think we need to understand that voters aren't voting from 30,000 feet. And we are often viewing politics from a 30,000 foot

view. They're viewing politics from the ground level. They're viewing politics from the kitchen table. And right now people are going to supermarkets and, you know, whether this stuff is true or not, they perceive their, you know, their grocery bills are higher. We're almost two years into a pandemic. They still have to wear masks despite having two vaccinations, in some cases, three vaccinations. Their kids have had their school years interrupted. They've had their extracurricular activities canceled. And when people go to the polls, I don't think they take a nuanced view and say, okay, well, who is to blame for all these conditions and all of the problems that I am feeling right now? They just are going to blame

the party that's in power. And that's the Democrats. And by the way, this is a trend that I think has been going since like the 80s. You've had Democrats lose all the governorships in this race, but this time we actually kept the New Jersey race. So I think that's a positive. But this also, this follows all the trends kind of as elections go, but we need to adapt quickly. But also while all this stuff is going on, while all these kitchen table issues are happening and people are struggling to buy groceries and are still worrying about COVID, they open the newspaper and what do they see the headlines in the newspaper? They see Democrats arguing, do we want to spend $3.5 trillion? Do we want to spend $1.5 trillion? And to the person who has been living on a $1,200 check from, that's what they got from the

government and who is struggling to pay the bills and is struggling to get groceries, when you see just this bickering back and forth about one and a half trillion, three and a half trillion, I think people just see those top line numbers and they get scared. And so that's why we need to lead with policies and not by like, okay, we're releasing

the biggest, most expensive bill in the world. Like let's lead by actually telling people how we're gonna improve their kids' education people how we're going to improve their kids' education, how we're going to improve their lives, and speak to them on a ground level. We also voted for Biden. One of our closing ads was, end the chaos, because the Trump administration was in chaos. We're not seeing that Trump chaos, but there's chaos in America every day, a lot caused by the GOP. Unfortunately, Democrats are going to be blamed for whatever chaos we see here. So it's almost like Democrats need to stop focusing so much on that chaos, and we need

to stop having our own chaos within the party fighting amongst each other. We need to start passing stuff that helps people. And I think if we take this as a learning opportunity, I think if in a year from now, we go on the ground, we have grocery prices coming down, we have gas prices coming down, we have the inflation problem under control, we have less unemployment, people seem more positive about the future of the country. I think we're in a much different place than from right now, where people are still worried and panicked about COVID and their next paycheck and how they're going to pay the bills.

I think we've seen a seismic shift in the past 10 months. Imagine the shift that we're going to see in the next year. We got to make sure that shift is in our favor and that we're doing things that are that people are actually feeling it because people are going to vote with emotions, right? They're not going to vote based on policy or the minutia of politics that was an a plus bread right right there a plus bread rant you talk about unemployment uh new weekly claims for unemployment are down 75 percent and add to that the incredible jobs reports out this morning i mean over 531 000 new jobs added in the United States in the month of October, showing a booming economy in President Biden's America. Over 80% of the jobs lost during the pandemic have come back.

The unemployment rate right now sitting at around 4.6%. The Congressional Budget Office didn't think that the United States would be able to get there for another few years. So we are a few years ahead of schedule on this economic recovery and the stock market, which Democrats don't really talk about, but you know, the GOP would be spiking the football on this one. You know, Trump would be spiking the football on this one. The Dow is over 36,000 points for the first time in history. People's investments are doing incredible. People's portfolios, people's 401ks are doing incredible. So the Biden economy is booming. I don't think most Americans know that or feel that or give Democrats credit for that. Because also, Brett, everything you said, I don't even want to change your rant. OK, your rant was perfect.

The only thing I would add to your rant is Democrats need to message these in very simple ways to the public of what they want to do. And I think what it boils down to is economy, your health, your education, and the American democracy. That's the democratic platform right there. Better economy, healthier, better education, democracy. And you could break down each. Health, we hear you. We have to sympathize with people. We have to let them understand, look, wearing masks is uncomfortable. We hear you, that it's uncomfortable.

But we are trying to save lives and the vaccine saves lives. And look at the efforts that the Democratic Party has done to lead in getting vaccines to people on health. And we don't want your kids to die. That's it. But we totally relate and understand the frustration. We want your kids to smile in school, but we don't want your kids in a casket. That's the Democratic platform there. You know, on the economy, the Democrats care about working class, middle class, all classes of people.

And we're not anti-capitalism, okay? You know, we just believe that capitalism shouldn't be rigged. And too frequently, what Republicans want to do is create a social welfare system for billionaires and give billionaires the benefits. And we want to fight for the working class people. You have to talk to working class people. I don't know. I didn't see it. It's possible Terry McAuliffe went into factories and spoke to people who were making minimum wage. But I think you got to go speak to people and truly identify with their- Ben, I watched Glenn Youngkin's victory speech that night. And I understood why he won when I watched it honestly because you

know ice the things that he highlighted was you know when grocery prices are high and people are struggling to pay their bills he said on day one you know I'm gonna get in there I'm gonna work to repeal the tax on groceries like that's immediately gonna be a super popular thing you know you're paying a lot for groceries guess what I'm gonna give you some economic relief there he goes I'm gonna bring excellence to your schools. I'm going to make sure that you are empowered to make decisions for your kids and put you in charge.

I mean, that's an empowering message for parents. It is. And then if you go to like the McAuliffe campaign and you're looking at what Democrats were messaging, it was, you know, Yunkin is Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump insurrection, which I think was a valiant attempt. But I think I think that strategy can work if there actually is an extremely Trumpist person. But I think Youngkin really, at the end of the day, was not that guy. He was not as abrasive as Trump. And you can say that, yes, his policies are Trumpian.

Yeah, it's true. Guess what? Those are GOP policies. GOP policies have always been damaging. They've always had racist undertones. They've always been to the detriment of the American worker and to American families. Trump was just the symptom. Trump was just the vehicle by which the GQ, you know, he latched onto that and exploited that to his own gain. So yes, now that Trump is sort of on the side, those policies are still there, just not in the Trump form. They're in fleece now, right? They're in a, they're in a sports jacket and we're going to have to deal with the laundering of these policies through palatable candidates. I mean, that's, that's kind of it. But I think they've set a model that I'm not sure is totally repeatable with all these crazies that they have throughout the

country who are very much Trumpists and are the most deranged QAnon psychotic people in the world. Josh Mandel. Yes. But I thought you were actually coughing at first. I was like, damn, you're right. But if, you know, but if you have a guy like Youngkin and voters that doesn't pass the sniff test for voters, they're like, why are the Democrats talking Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump? This guy is nothing like Trump. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of- You know what? I just think about this, Brett, go make it even simpler. Go back to student government elections, right? And in a student government election, who's going to win? The person who says no more homework, no more tests, and we're going to do more field trips or the person that just basically, you know, at the end of the day, you got to just, you got to deliver. You ultimately, you know, to be determined is here. Democrats are the ones focusing on, well, how are we going to get you better health

care programs and get you health care? How are we going to get you these types of things and are actually putting it into policies and not talking about it to the voters? The Republicans are lying. And they're the kid who goes in front of the stage for student government and talks about no more homework, no more tests. But voters want to hear some of that shit. Like you got to talk to voters about what what are they going to get?

I'll give you another analogy, too. It's like when when you're in the classroom growing up and you make a funny joke to the class, but nobody else hears that funny joke. And then some asshole just repeats it louder. And all of a sudden everyone starts laughing and say, hey, man, that was such a funny joke. That's kind of the issue here is because we don't talk about our wins. We don't, as Democrats,

spike that metaphorical football enough. And it's infuriating to see because we have done a lot of good throughout the last months with Biden in office. But for whatever reason, that messaging isn't getting across to the daily American. And I think also, I think we kind of sanitize our messaging a little bit behind what feels like marketing campaigns by like the marketing, you know, by like polished

marketing firms and stuff when it's oftentimes like a lot more simple than it is. Like, I think Speaker Pelosi is doing a best job. I think she's maybe one of the best speakers in the history. She's extremely incredible at passing legislation and getting shit done. She is a boss. She does a great job. But she made a statement. She wrote today, talking about the bill, she said, for Democrats, our budget is the statement of our values. President Biden's Build Back Better agenda is historic, transformative, and the right thing to do for the children. I just don't know if that really resonates. I want to know the specifics of it. I think hiding behind build back better, build back better, build back better, I think that sort

of sounds like marketing lingo when it's just like, we're going to give your kids free pre-K. Your kids are going to get free preschool. You never had that before? Guess what, mom? You're going to be able to send your kids to preschool without having to worry about getting a second job. Like, can we just say and focus on those sorts of things that are really going to resonate with people instead of I bet if you asked 10 people, what's the build back better agenda? I bet you may be one out of 10 is going to be able to answer it. But if you ask them, would you like to have free pre-K for your kids? Would you like that expense being taken off the table?

I bet 10 out of 10 would say, fuck yeah, absolutely. That's exactly what I would want. It's a great point, Brett. Build back better, as you say it, and as I hear it now, is actually terrible branding, right, Jordy, from a marketing perspective? Build back better. One, it sounds like it's a lot of work for the person, right? Sounds like, am I going to have to build? Let me get my toolbox.

I got to build something back and then it doesn't- Then I got to do better? Better, build back better. And then what am I building? But you're right, Brett. I mean, just message it. We're going to be saving lives. You know, that's at the end of the day. We're going to be getting more money in your pockets. We got to talk to an expert. We have an expert on the podcast today. I mean, probably one of the foremost experts in the country right now, Joe Lockhart, who was Bill Clinton's press secretary.

So we'll bring Joe Lockhart on in a second. But first, I want to talk about Wild Alaskan. This podcast is brought to you by Wild Alaskan. When you defrost seafood, the countdown for freshness has begun. And who knows how long that fresh grocery store fish has been sitting out for. And I put fresh in quotes because- Oh, we heard it in your voice, Ben. We heard it in your voice. Wild Alaskan Company freezes their fish right after it's caught so it's perfectly handled and delicious when you are ready to cook wild alaskan company delivers high quality sustainably sourced wild caught seafood right to your door each shipment contains premium cuts of individually wrapped portions of delicious seafood that are ready to prepare and easy to cook.

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All the Midas Touch podcast listeners know. Ooh, that mahi-mahi. You know how much I love my Wild Alaskan tacos. Let's bring in Joe Lockhart, CNN analyst, currently with the communications PR firm Rational 360, former press secretary for Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2000. Also the press secretary for a number of Democratic politicians, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and former VP of communications for the NFL from 26 to 2018. I think most

importantly, a Georgetown grad. I'm wearing the Georgetown sweatshirt for you, Joe. This is how Ben butters up the guests before we even get started. This is what he does. Welcome to the Mid-Stage Podcast, Joe Lockhart. Now you're talking, but next time I want all of you wearing it. There you go. That's right. I mean, we got Jordy over there at Ohio State.

We got Brett at USC. We all know Hoyas lead the way. Let's get into it, Joe Lockhart. As long as there's nobody from Syracuse on the line, I'm totally fine. There may be a Syracuse connection with Brett, but I won't start us on a bad note. Joe, you wrote, Joe, lots of tweets coming from you in the past day. You've had a lot on your mind. I think we start there. The most recent tweet that you wrote is you wrote, trying hard not to And it's not that case. It's a lot of reasons. And, you know, at some point, people in the party are going to have to stop pointing fingers at each other and figure out how to fix this. So, you know, there is an overreaction

in the party. There's an overreaction in the media. This happens every four years in off year elections in Virginia and New Jersey. There's a reason Democrats or the party in the presidency has lost 12 out of the last 13 races for governor in Virginia. No Democrat has been reelected in New Jersey since I think 1970. Phil Murphy has done that. So there are a lot of historical precedents for the Democrats having a hard day. They did have a hard day. And what's most useful is for Democrats to look at why it happened. And it's, again, multiple reasons, not because the progressives screwed up or the moderates screwed up or Terry McAuliffe screwed up. I mean, there's a little bit of everything in there. Yeah. And that is one of the problems, though, that we see, though,

with the Democratic Party, which is different, though, than the Republican Party or the Republican Party for better or for worse. And usually it's for incredibly worse. Stay unified and stay at least together. You know, Democrats have overall, you look at it, it was a bad result in Virginia, but a good result in New Jersey, a good result in some other local elections across the country as well. Some of these QAnon people who ran for school board lost, you know, you follow the map around. But ultimately, the next day you wake up and Democrats are saying, like pointing fingers and saying basically who needs to be, you know, removed from the Democratic Party versus like, what can we do to work together?

Like, is there a way to really kind of unify the Democratic Party or because we engage in honest and intellectual discourse and we have strong debates, you know, versus just spreading disinfo, it's just kind of hard to corral that unified messaging. Yeah. First, I'd say that when I talk to my Republican friends, they say to me, we're a mess. How do you Democrats stay so unified? And then I laugh heartily and we move on. So there is a sense among both parties that there is some confusion. You know, I think I'll give you an example. We really need to dig into what happened. And New Jersey showed us more than Virginia vulnerability of Democrats going into 2022. There's a lot of talk about critical race theory. I don't think that's what moved voters

in Virginia and New Jersey. I think what moved voters had more to do with COVID than anything else, that parents were pissed that their kids couldn't go to school. And you had a Democratic governor and a Democratic governor in New Jersey and in Virginia, and they were paying them back. Because as much as people were concerned about COVID and a lot of people were responsible, they couldn't handle their kids not going to school. So there was a lot of blowback. And the irony of all of this is Republicans viewed this from the beginning as a political issue, COVID. Democrats viewed it as a public health issue.

Democrats won. COVID is largely defeated. But because Republicans viewed it as a political issue, they were positioned to take advantage of their ridiculous and dangerous position. And, you know, there's no dividend for being responsible. And, you know, that's often the case in politics. Yeah. And you wrote there's a political upside to criticizing the very things that are beating COVID, like masks and mandates. And we shouldn't overestimate voters

knowing their self-interest. And so what do we do there? And those are your words. So what do we do there? Do we need to keep reinforcing to voters that like, hey, this is what is in your self-interest. We appreciate that you want your kids to go to school, but we don't want your kids to die. And it seems that Democrats somehow shy away from that

very direct message, like the Republicans want to kill your children. I mean, that's kind of what Midas Touch has done in the absence of that Democratic messaging is saying, look, Governor DeSantis, he wants to kill your kid. Oh, wow. Why are you saying it like that? Because that's the only way we can look at the issue. And Republicans message it like that. That's the problem, I think. Yeah, well, listen, on self-interest, American politics is built on people not understanding their own self-interest.

The people who are most against the federal government and spending money are the people who receive the most of it. That's largely in the South. If you look at the states that depend on, you know, it's this, you know, let's bring up Joe Manchin for a second. His state ranks almost worse in almost every category and gets way more money in that they produce in taxes. But Joe Manchin wants to hold the line on federal spending. There's a lot of nonsense built in to our politics. I think what Democrats have to do is, and COVID's a good example, they've got to go out and be much

more aggressive in selling the fact that they won this battle. And hundreds of thousands of lives were saved. And once they establish that, they can go after Ron DeSantis and say, and you didn't care. You sacrificed lives in your state to win a political point. But that doesn't work until Democrats, starting with the president, go out and say, we beat this thing. You know, it was out of control. And, you know, we we forced sacrifice on the American people. And now we're on the other side of it. That's, you know, not Democrat or Republican, but the American public doesn't like sacrifice. And you can't get to good public policy without some sacrifice. So Republicans have figured out how to exploit that better than Democrats,

but we have to be much more aggressive in taking credit for the fact that we're getting back to normal. You also wrote today that Saturday will be 10 months since Trump Republicans, I like that phrasing, it's Trump Republicans tried to overturn an election by launching a violent attack on our Capitol. Yet not a single plotter who was significantly involved has been brought to justice. This is not justice and it rewards a coup. And look, we were all excited about Merrick Garland taking on this role as attorney general. But you've had a number of these insurrectionists get maybe minor slaps on the wrist and the plotters have gotten away with it totally. So what do you think is going on here? And are you critical of what's going on at the DOJ? Yeah, you know, listen, I think if you look for a reason that Democrats, particularly progressives, are discouraged, you don't have

to look much further than the fact that the coup planners are still walking around free. And it looks like the Department of Justice is not taking it seriously. Now, we don't know whether they're taking it seriously or not. That's the problem. I think Merrick Garland has to communicate on a regular basis where we are on this problem, because for God's sake, they tried to overthrow the government. This wasn't voter fraud. This wasn't a misdemeanor. This is sedition. This is as worse as it can get in this country. And for 10 months, we haven't heard anything from the Department of Justice. We don't know whether they're taking it seriously or not. And I can say the same for the congressional committee.

You know, I understand you have to build your case and you don't want to undermine your case by being public. But the message that's being sent, particularly to progressives, is you can try to overthrow this government and it doesn't matter. You'll get away with it. Yeah. And you would think that trying to overthrow the government as a political party would be the death knell for that political party and make them totally toxic. But in fact,

it seems like it's emboldened them. Yeah. And the fact is it has energized the far right and discouraged the far left. So again, it's one of these things where doing the wrong thing is rewarded and doing the right thing is penalized. Right. Joe, you're an expert in communications. You've been doing this for a while. And one of the things we hear over and over and over again is that Democrats don't have a policy issue per se. People love democratic policies. They impact people's lives positively. And when put on the ballot on their own, they typically perform very well on polls and on the actual ballots. So people say the Democratic Party has a severe messaging issue.

So do you agree with that premise? And what would you what would your advice be for the Democratic Party regarding messaging? I know it's a broad question. Yeah, I think broadly it's a problem and it has been for for a while. I'm not sure it's as bad as some of the people think. But listen, I've done a dozen campaigns, and they fall into two categories, a campaign that relies on hope and delivers a message of hope. I think Barack Obama is the best example. I think Bill Clinton comes close. And campaigns, which are most of them that are built on fear.

You know, what what are you afraid of? You know, what do you what keeps you up at night? And then attaching that to the party opposite. Hope is dead. Hope is dead in this country right now. We are so polarized that there's no chance of a, you know, remember Republicans said, you know, hope isn't a strategy. Well, I agree with them right now. You know, they're right, even though Obama prevailed. We have to couple what we're doing with for the American people with how

Republicans are trying to screw them at every level. Everything that's in this Build Back Better bill, and there's an example. I don't think anybody really knows what that means. Everything that's in that bill, it's not enough to say, we gave your children a tax credit. You have to say, and the Republicans opposed us, and they wanted to screw your children, and they wanted to take away your right to say, we gave your children a tax credit. You have to say, and the Republicans opposed us, and they wanted to screw your children, and they wanted to take away your right to vote,

and they wanted to, it goes on, they're against paid leave, they're against all this. And we have to attack them in language that's aggressive, that's not just about policy. I mean, they call it politics for a reason. They don't call it policy development. And politics is about persuading and motivating voters. And right now, the way voters are motivated and many persuaded is by scaring the hell out of them. And we got to start scaring the hell out of some people. On that note, you wrote something recently that intrigued me and that I completely agree with. And we actually recently had Steve Schmidt on the show and he said something along the same

lines. You said, hopefully we fight the culture war with an aggressive attack on our own. Not a single Republican did anything to address the economic challenges our country is facing. And so what does a democratic culture war look like? We know what the Republican one looks like. It's full of lies. It's CRT. It's the caravans are coming to get you and your kids. So what does the democratic version of that look like? And how do we do that while still maintaining truth in the process? Yeah, well, I think we got to give most voters a little more credit than we give them. There's something like CRT out there and Democrats just want to make it go away. Well, what might make that go away and neutralize it is let's start

talking about banning books because that's what they're doing and they're taking it. If you get to ban books, you can do a direct line from banning books to Jim Crow to the worst offenses in this country's history. And it's the kind of thing that people can understand. They can't understand where we don't teach critical race theory. You know, this is ridiculous. Go away. We need to remind them of what our country looks like if the Republicans continue moving in this Trump direction. You know, on the economic stuff, I didn't hear anybody talking in Virginia or New Jersey, talking about how the Biden administration basically turned the economy around. We've got the best job numbers. Of course, there's inflation, but that comes with economic activity. But right now we've got, what, 3.8%

unemployment in the state of Virginia. We've got numbers came out today on jobless applications that are at like an all-time low. There are a lot of good things out there in the economy. And I'm going to repeat myself, Republicans stood in the way of all this stuff. And if the Republicans were in power, and they may very well be in power. None of this stuff happens. We go back to a time where the tax cuts for the very rich and the rest of us are just on our own. And we've got to remind people of that. I think we're I think Republicans are really good at causing chaos. I think they are chaos agents. And I think, unfortunately, voters feel chaos and they blame the party in charge, not necessarily the party that's that's actually the one behind it. They don't necessarily look at the nuance. And meanwhile, the Republican Party is completely inventing their own reality to the point where this weekend there were QAnon followers in Dallas looking for JFK and JFK Jr. So, I mean, how important is it?

Did they find him? Apparently, he was going to go to the Rolling Stones concert that night, open up for the Stones. I don't think that panned out. And now I think the goalposts have been moved to a later date, of course. But that's who we're going up against here. How do you say, yes, we want to make life better for you and we want to give you paid leave and we want to give you universal pre-K and they're going to Dallas to hang

with JFK and JFK Jr. It's a great framing of the question, Brett. I mean, maybe they're right. I mean, and that's a pretty powerful message that you can bring someone back from the dead. I don't know how to fight that one. JFK would be a 102, 104 right now. It doesn't even make sense. Yeah.

Listen, I think you can underestimate a couple of things. One is the instinct for voters to want change, to look at the people in power and say, you just haven't done what I wanted, let's change. The second, and these go together, is politics is entertainment. You know, we look at, I mean, look at the coverage of the budget bill. It is mostly about who's winning and losing rather than what's in it. And Democrats have to do better. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, if politics has become about entertainment, then let's be better entertainers.

And we've got people in the party who can do it, you know, and let's put them out. You know, some of you know, you look at Obama, Clinton, these were guys who could go out and sell and in a way entertain. It's, you know, President Biden is not that person. I think, you know, and again, I think they're doing amazing things. But the one thing that worries me is we're in an environment now, we're trying to convince a Republican to help you, is absurd. And I think Biden is still a little bit stuck in the past when he could go sit down with a Republican and convince them to come his way. And that's just not going to happen. And, you know, I think they're finding out that that's true, and I hope they change. But I think that, you know, I think they're finding out that that's true, and I hope they change.

But I think that, you know, when we talk about a big change, we need the president out there. And listen, the president couldn't go out and sell his program because of COVID. You can't do a rally of 10,000 people, you know, in a time of COVID. But in 2022, he's got to be out there as, you know, the chief cheerleader of the Democratic program and the chief critic of the Republican Party. This is a non sequitur, but it's something that I also believe in. It may not come up. But I think one of the most important things that Democrats can do is to go Donald Trump into getting back in the middle of this. The biggest reasons the Democrats lost in Virginia, and it was close in New Jersey, was Democrats or voters who voted for Biden, not for Biden, because they wanted to vote against Trump. And Trump's, we know Trump

can't sit something out when he's being attacked and he's not getting credit for something. So we need to bring him back to the middle. And I don't think it'll be hard to go to him in. And we came close, Joe. We came close. Yeah. There's no chance he won't get in and he's the Republican's nightmare. I mean, one of the biggest losers on Tuesday was Trump. Yeah. That's what I've been saying. I agree so much. Yeah. Republican Party showed that there's a way to do this, to win back independence. Republicans who aren't crazy do better in the suburbs than they had done in 2020. And we need Trump back in the middle. And we so I completely reject the people

who say we concentrated too much on Trump. We haven't. What we need to do is go back into the middle of this. And and he'll come. I i mean if you build it he will come yeah well to that point i think the fact is that yunkin i i don't think you know we we all tried to get that trump stink on on yunkin and yunkin avoided it very successfully and trump almost came there multiple times and then was a shoot away by the party and they were very smart in that respect but i don't think that is necessarily repeatable when you have a candidate like a josh mandel who truly is somebody who may even be crazier than than donald trump you know like i just don't think voters at the end of the day bought the fact

that yunkin is trump and he was able to keep enough of a distance i guess you know yeah and the the difference between uh the off-year and the midterms, while they're always very challenging for the party in power, is most of these guys who are running were with Trump all the way. Some of them even more Trumpy than Trump. You know, when what's going on in Ohio and it's likely a Republican will win there because it's just become a Republican state between J.D. Vance and Mandel is completely nuts, completely. I mean, they are off the wall crazy. Yeah. But they know that in a primary off the wall crazy is where Republican base wants you to be. You's somewhere between Trump and Q, skewing towards Q. Absolutely. I'm terrified for my Buckeye State. I lived there for four and a half years, and it's crazy to me to see what it's become from when I was living there to what it is now. But I want to go back to what you were talking about around politics and entertainment, because

what I think the GQP, as we like to refer to them as because of their affiliation with QAnon, they do so well as they have this entire propaganda arm of the Newsmax's, the OAN's, the Fox News's. And Fox News specifically, you know, how have you seen sort of the evolution or de-evolution of Fox News from your days with Bill Clinton to where we are now, as far as how they report and cover news? Well, listen, I don't think you can overestimate the power and the damage of Fox News. There's a lot of discussion about disinformation and all on social media platforms. It all starts at Fox. They send out the signal to here's what we want.

I mean, Tucker Carlson might be the most influential person in American politics right now. As hard as that is for me to say that sentence, but he might be because- Tucker and Q. Yeah. Well, and it's hard to separate them now because Tucker has lost his mind over the last- Especially with that new special. Yeah. So they are sending very strong signals to their base, unfiltered. There's never any criticism and truth absolutely doesn't matter.

And the rest of the mainstream media, and there's differences within it, are caught up in what a lot of people are calling both-sidism, which is this formula that says on every issue you need to present both sides' idea. Even if one side is completely false and dangerous like you know uh on the coup attempt they we they attacked the capitol but let's put in a sound bite of a republican saying it was a walk in the park because and and we're just not built yet to deal with this sort of insurgency politics where republicans will do anything. I was calling it for a while asymmetrical politics, which is we're dealing at different levels. And one of the generals who I used to see in the green room at CNN wrote me and said, it's not asymmetrical, it's an insurgency. It's people who will do anything to tear a government apart,

no matter what the cost. They'll sacrifice their people. They'll sacrifice other people, but they'll do whatever it takes to not do the bidding of the American people, but to destroy government because they think in that environment, they have a chance of getting ultimate power. And that's what they have a chance of getting ultimate power. And that's what they want. The Republican Party has become an authoritarian party. And we're on the edge of this, you know, and it's not I'm not trying to scare people or being hysterical. There's nothing inevitable about democracy in this country. There's we have not seen anything like this in a long time. But there's nothing that says the American people are going to stand up to an authoritarian figure. Because the fact of the

matter is Trump got 74 million votes. You know, and, and he was basically saying, we should get rid of Democrats and progressives. We should, you know, we don't need voters and voters don't matter. And, you know, don't count the vote. I mean, he literally said from the White House with that podium and that seal there, stop counting the votes. Yeah. So anyone who says that it's just rhetoric is wrong. One thousand percent. He may not be president anymore, but Trumpism is still alive and well in this country. And we see it take many shapes everywhere throughout the country. Yeah.

And I think the lesson that we have to learn from Youngkin is smart Republicans like him, also people who have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, have a formula now for selling Trumpism without, I said it, without the stench. Yeah, it's Trump-lite, right? It's like the Diet Coke version of Trump. Yeah, they sell the same policies and ultimately are okay with being authoritarian, but they use better language and they're not as combative. It's terrifying.

And it was proven to be effective both in New Jersey and especially in Virginia. And again, I go back to this. We got to get Trump back because that is the formula for the Democratic coalition going forward. In the longer term, there's a lot of demographic changes that should help Democrats, but we are where we are. We may get to the point where we're no longer a predominantly white country, but we may have a king. So it doesn't matter. And I want to go back to what I think has become almost a central theme of this interview, and that's Dems sort of shying away from talking about their wins. Dems, they do have to spike the football more and clearly and loudly explain their victories because all of a sudden the Cawthorns go back to their districts. They're like, hey, look what I brought you. And meanwhile, these lunatics from the right voted against these policies that would have never been possible if it wasn't for

Democratic and Democrat politicians. What's the hesitancy? Why aren't Democrats owning these wins? Well, you know, let me, before I get there, bring up one important factor, which is our entire political system is not on the level. Through gerrymandering, we have the overwhelming number of safe Democratic seats and the overwhelming number of safe Republican seats. So Cawthorn can go back and say anything he wants, but a whole bunch of Democrats don't have to say anything. They just have to show up in some of their districts. But you're right. Again, and I'm repeating myself, but Democrats have to attach the policy wins with Republican obstruction, that if Republicans were in charge, you wouldn't get this tax credit for your children. And they'll take it away. It's not just that they blocked it. They'll take it away. Since the real theme of the story is you

guys read my Twitter feed, I will repeat another one, which is the Republicans will get rid of the filibuster on day one. They now have the predicate for it, which is Democrats wanted it. So they're going to say if they take back the Senate, they're rid of it. And then Roe v. Wade is dead. If we lose the House and the Senate, it'll become codified. It won't matter that Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court. It'll become law. It may take till 2025 because I don't think they'll have enough votes to override a veto but we have to we have to do what republicans do which is take something find the most extreme way

of uh presenting it and then present it and stop worrying about are we misleading people the fact of the matter is what Trump told us was we're not misleading them. It's worse than we thought. It is much worse than we thought. And we've got to start talking about it that way and stop sort of, you know, just sort of talking about, hey, this is a good thing. And you know what? People are smart and they'll figure it out and they'll vote for us. They won't. I mean, they I'm not saying people are dumb. I'm saying that people like the game being played in front of them. It's entertainment and we're dull. And the Republicans right now are interested.

I mean, they're crazy bad for the country, but they're they're more interesting. And just lastly, how do you think of Jen Psaki? How do you think she's been doing? She's terrific. And she's terrific for a reason. One is she's really smart, but the other is she didn't walk in there like a lot of new presidents, press secretary, and have no idea what to do. She stood at that podium at the State Department. She was the communications director for Obama. She knew exactly how to do this. And, you know, she's got a near perfect temperament. Even when she's destroying whatever Ducey's first name is. She's little, little Ducey.

Yeah. Little Ducey. You know, you know, his dad is a lot of, maybe people don't know. It used to be the weatherman. The big Duce. And has turned into this, you know, ridiculous, but important political figure. Even when she's, you know, slapping him across the head, you don't feel like she's being aggressive. You don't feel like she's being aggressive. You don't feel

like she's being mean. You just feel like she's politely telling someone, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. So I think it's a combination of good temperament, but deep knowledge of how this all works. And you can't replace that. And, you know, I think, I think where some press secretaries have fallen down is they never catch up. You know, they don't, it's just such a new environment for them. At the beginning, they never catch up and end up getting replaced. Jen is the exact opposite of that. And it's funny, when there was all this speculation about who's going to get the job from within the campaign, you know, I sort of looked at the people and I thought, yeah, they might be able to do it, they might not do it. And when they announced Jen, and I had seen

her, you know, around and, you know, in CNN green rooms and stuff. And I didn't ever think, I didn't ever connect to that. I looked at the story or the tweet and I thought, that is the best idea I've heard in a long time. And it was, I couldn't, I can't compliment her more. Not because, you know, she's someone I'm friendly with, but because of the job she does. It is really, really good. Bill Lockhart, thank you for spending this time with us today. We appreciate you so much. Hope you'll come back as a guest in the

future. And again, appreciate you for joining the Midas Touch podcast. Well, I appreciate you having me. And this right now, right now is probably the coolest I'm ever going to be because I go back to being my normal person in a half an hour because you guys just emanate cool. And it's like, thank you for bathing me in that for 45 minutes. We appreciate it. Joe Lockhart. I think he gave some real good advice there about. Great guy. Great guy.

I love what he said about Saki. Great. And look, I think he gave great advice on democratic messaging and messaging that's needed for our democracy. Brett, did you hear? Hold on. Hold on one second, guys. I'm just really curious.

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Everybody should go use our promo code Midas. Get that 50% off. I mean, why not? Brett, talking about Joe Manchin, did you see this interview that he did? They were asking him, I think, about some of his priorities and what he wanted to see happen. Just play the clip of what mansions what's on the top of mind for Joe Manchin right now. You want to know what's wrong

with the place? I go to work in a hostile working environment every day. If you're a Democrat and a Republican is up for election, you're supposed to be against that person. If Donald Duck's running against that person, you're supposed to give money from your pack to help the other person beat the person that you've been working with. And even sometimes they'll say, can you come campaign against so-and-so? And then we come back on Monday and here's the person that we've given money against and here's the person that we're supposed to give basically out and work against saying, hey, could you stand on this amendment for me? Could you work with me on this amendment? How well do you think that's going to work, John? And I've never

done that. If we ever do anything to change this place there should be an ethics law against us campaigning against each other against us basically sending money to the candidate against a setting colleague these are people you're working with you have an obligation and responsibility to get something done and you can't get something done if you're the enemy on the other side every time there's an election oh i just had a brilliant idea but you got oh i just had a brilliant idea this ethics law that he's talking about let's throw that in the reconciliation bill joe you know joe manchin you want so you want that ethics law huh we won't be mean to republicans if we want that ethics law we won't be mean to the gqp but you gotta pass

infrastructure it so fundamentally doesn't understand like what politics is like of course the political party you work for is going to want others in the political party not that you work for to win that's not that's not called a hostile work. What if Joe Manchin just has no clue what it means to be a politician? Maybe there's a deeper issue at play here with Joe Manchin that he fundamentally doesn't even understand what politicians do. At the end of the day, here's what I think people actually care about. I think people want fighters. I think that's why the right likes, because even though he didn't get shit done, even though he's a fucking bully and disgusting and corrupt, he is a fighter. He's viewed as a they just want to see somebody who can engage you and who could fire you up and who could get shit done.

I think at the end of the day, people want politicians who get shit done. And the fact is we've now had these infrastructure bills sitting there on the floor now for a while going through all these changes. People just don't see the Democratic Party as getting shit done. And a lot of that responsibility does fall on Joe Manchin for not getting shit done. And if he thinks this is an ethics issue where, oh, people are being too mean to one another, no, it's like, let's just fight for our constituents. Let's do whatever we can and just start passing bills. Let's start holding people accountable.

Let's just do things that show people that we're not sitting on our asses all day doing nothing. Because when you are caught up in the sausage making of legislation and everything else that's going on, what you do is you create this messaging vacuum where the Republicans come in and say crazy shit about you and start making up lies about you. And then they own the narrative and they get to come in with a left hook on the CRT bullshit and whatever else they're peddling. Because we can't get on a consistent message because we don't even know at this point what's gonna make it into the final bill of these bills. So I think that's our real issue. Like we need fighters, we need people who are gonna stop, just hesitating and equivocating.

And we need people who are going to just be like, look, we're gonna get this done. This is how we're gonna get it done. We're in control. We're going to help your life and we're going to help your life on a micro level. We're going to help your life so that your family feels it, so that your kids feel it, so that when you go to the grocery store, you have extra money in your bank account, so that when you send your kids to school, you're comfortable that they're going to be safe. You're comfortable that they're going to get taught an elite education. We need to be speaking to people at a face-to-face level and not from 30,000 feet while we're twiddling our

thumbs and arguing with one another. Like we need to cut that bullshit now. Yeah. And that's what we need to do, Brett. We need to, the last thing you said, I think is most important. We need as democratic leadership to speak to people, to go into the communities, you know, to actually be, we need democratic voices and messages amplified at school board hearings too. You know, not just the absurdity of what these GQ peers are saying. We need to amplify voices of our own supporters who are at school board meetings, who are saying, you know what, we don't want you to kill our children. You think about in Ohio, Congressman Tim Ryan, those videos of him on the House floor, they go viral every time he speaks on the House floor

because he's doing exactly what you're saying, Brett. He's speaking directly to voters. He's speaking directly to people. I want you to play this clip. David Pepper, who used to be the chairman of the Democratic Party in Ohio, he put a book out recently. It was a Midas Touch podcast guest. The book was called Laboratories of Autocracy. He did a video recently where he went to Manchester, Ohio.

And he, well, anyway, play the video and then I'll comment on it. Hi there. Welcome to Manchester, Ohio. We're about a block from the Ohio River, actually a block from one of the cleanest parts of the Ohio River. And I want to take you on a quick tour. It won't take long. This is one end down the main street of Manchester. Empty street. And I'm going to walk you over here to the other half. And what you're going to see in Manchester is a perfect example of what happens when your state has engaged in decades of trickle-down economics. You'll see empty storefronts. You'll see potentially broken glass, including in buildings down the street here

that are beautiful old buildings But there's, for the most part, nothing inside them It's pretty much empty here Again, a block from the Ohio River Every time I come here, at least, it makes my blood boil This is United States 2021 And towns look like this Now, it made the citizens of Manchester's blood boil as well. And so one day

they actually called their state senator who voted for all these policies and asked him, what was he going to do to help? What was he going to do differently? And his answer to them was, sometimes you just have to move. He said later it was best for people's family sometimes if they just leave. And I ask you, what kind of system of politics leads to that, where the elected official gets to tell people who vote for him to move for his failures and not the other way around, them telling him it's time to go? Well, that's the result of a system like we're stuck with in Ohio, where for a lot of reasons we essentially have no functioning democracy anymore at our State House. This is what happens. Terrible results and politicians who are so confident in

their re-election they tell their own constituents that it's time for them to leave. Sadly though this is just a symbol. There are many towns that look like Manchester. The results of a lack of democracy in states like Ohio are here and they're terrible. But this is also a symbol of our overall democracy. Because what happens when you have state house after state house without democracy is it risks the entire national democracy. In this moment in particular, we're seeing that happen. There's a way to fight back, but it starts with waking up to the problems of places like Manchester. to really convey what's happening on the ground in these towns, in these cities. And I think that's exactly, I mean, Tim Ryan is from Ohio, of course. I think that's exactly

what Tim Ryan is speaking to when he delivers his passionate messages on the House floor. And I think these are the people, this is how you message it, right? These are the people who need to be understanding that Democrats are fighting for them, that Republicans have shipped their jobs overseas, that Republicans are lining the pockets of billionaires and they're firing all the workers who work for them. That's who we need to be messaging it from. And we are losing that messaging war right now to the GOP. When have you seen a video like that? When have you heard Democratic politicians talking to people like that and all communities. You know, you look at black Latino communities as well, and you're starting to see voters look to the Democratic Party and say, what are you doing for me?

What is the Democratic? I'm I'm I'm loyal to the Democratic Party. But why? Because what have you done for me? Who's fighting for me? And the Democratic Party needs to fight for its base, needs to deliver for its base, and needs to grow its base by focusing on workers, by focusing on the middle class, by focusing on bringing people to the middle class, and by making the middle class something that has security so people don't have to go paycheck to paycheck anymore. And people can go to the grocery store and buy milk for their family and not be worried that they're not going to be able to afford the next gallon. Democrats need to talk like that. Democrats, the policies are fighting for it. When you look what's in Build

Back Better, you know, which we've already established, the title needs to probably change. But when you look at what's in there, there are a number of mechanisms that would actually help people on all of these issues, from healthcare, to to giving them tax credits to, you know, to helping them across all these things, making things better for them. And Democrats just need to message that, you know, I think the right way. And I'm glad we had Joe Lockhart on this podcast today to really talk about it. Before we close the podcast, I want to thank everybody who's watched our first movie. It's a big hit. The supporters. Let's go. We are filming It's a big hit. The Supporters.

Let's go. We are filming this. We're recording this and filming this on Friday today because we wanted to let yesterday the Supporters. It's already getting incredible reviews, and we thank you all for your feedback on it. If you haven't watched The Supporters, go to supportersmovie.com. Go to supportersmovie.com. You can download it. Many of you have seen that we put it and made it available for free on social media. If you like the movie, I would suggest pay for it. You don't have to pay for it. We want to make that optional.

It's kind of a weird experiment that we're doing because we think that if people like something, they'll want to pay for it versus feeling ripped off by power to the people, empower the people, power, power, the people. So that's what we're talking about. All episode, empower the people. If you like the supporters go, when you go to supporters movie, it tells you pay whatever you want to pay for it. You want to pay a dollar, pay a dollar. You want to pay $10, pay $10, whatever the experience was worth for you pay, you know, and a direct link to that would be, if you go to the supporters, movie.com slash support, you'll go right to that page. But if you go to the website, you'll see it there.

Don't worry. It's it's easy. Thank you so much. And look, don't be defeated by the loss in Virginia. As we talked about from the outset on the podcast, there are a number of victories that Democrats can point to in this most recent election. But we should use this as a warning sign of what can come in 2022. And rather than be fearful to bury our heads in the sand, we need to take action. We hope we've given you some ideas on the Midas Touch podcast that Joe Lockhart's given you some ideas on the Midas Touch podcast about what it is that you can do, but we need to calibrate the message. Fluidity is always a major mantra of mine. You can't just be stuck to one plan. Ultimately, we're fighting for the people. We're unapologetically pro-democracy.

We got to go out and tell that story. And we can't let the GQP take our narrative. Thank you so much. Brett, any final words? I think you summed it up perfectly, Ben. We will see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Go check out our movie, The Supporters with the Good Liars. See you next time. Shout out on the Midas Touch podcast go check out our movie The Supporters with The Good Liar see you next time

shout out to the Midas Mighty