The MeidasTouch Podcast - Top Democrat REVEALS Truth about Bipartisanship in Congress (Rep. Dean Phillips)

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we sit down with Representative for Minnesota's Third Congressional District, Rep. Dean Phillips! During the interview we discuss the most hot-button topics of the day including gun reform, domestic terror, the economy and the upcoming midterm elections and have a serious conversation about bipartisanship. The remainder of the show, the brothers break down the latest news of the week that you need to know to stay informed! If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast release every Monday and Thursday night! As always, thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Backbone: https://playbackbone.com/meidas 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 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That rich, smooth taste you crave. That handcrafted care every time. Your summer ritual is ready at Starbucks. Is bipartisanship possible? We have Republicans calling for more guns, blaming doors and weed. At the same time, they are taking away a woman's right to choose. They are then blaming that right to choose for the mass shootings we see at Uvalde, Buffalo, and the countless other mass shootings that have ravaged this nation.

We have people at the same time who claim to be progressive, but say they're not going to vote unless Biden extinguishes all student debt for everyone. And we have a broken media system where reporters are crying about their videos being embedded. So much so you have a reporter who's crying that their video from Uvalde featuring Moms Demand Action was embedded by the founder of Moms Demand Action. Does the media care so much about their personal brands versus- Got to have that retweet, man. That's much more important than getting out the message of the

people fighting for gun reform on the ground. Much more important that you get those retweets, of course. We will give you our takes on this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast, and we are joined by Congressman Dean Phillips from Minnesota's third congressional district. Congressman Phillips has long been a proponent of bipartisanship, so much so he ran in 2018 under the slogan, everyone invited. And he claimed there there's nothing wrong in politics that a little coffee and conversation can't fix. He's a businessman and owner of a local coffee shop. Guess what? I got my coffee. I think you got your coffee and I'm ready for a little conversation. I'm curious to dig into the bipartisanship, the idea. I mean, he is on the bipartisan problem

solvers caucus in the house. I think the house has actually shown at least a little bit of bipartisanship there. And so I'm curious to get his thoughts on how he works with his colleagues there, especially the insurrectionist colleagues as we approach the January 6th hearings. Bipartisanship is elusive right now. And we're all wondering, is bipartisanship even worth it at the end of the day? So I'm curious to get his take. And I actually saw a piece earlier from Molly Jong-Fast, which made a good point about bipartisanship. She basically said, it seems like a lot of Democrats don't want to be represented by someone who wants to find common ground with people like Ted Cruz. I mean, probably because most sensible people have no common ground with Ted Cruz. And I think it's hard to argue

with that point. If those are the people we are seeking bipartisanship for, are you selling your soul to try to meet these? Honestly, in many cases, like a Ted Cruz, an evil person who is frankly a bad faith actor who at the end of the day will say no to anything you say ever. I mean, this is a guy who slandered a Supreme Court justice, a recent addition to the Supreme Court as a pedophile when she was the most qualified judge on the planet. So how do you find common ground with these despicable people? I'm very curious, very excited for this conversation. And I think this may be a bit of a controversial take, but I think we need to talk about some of these voices on the pro-democracy side. I hate labels, but on the left who seem to be taking target at the very

idea of voting in general. And I think it warrants a strong defense of this administration, of President Biden, and of the work that Democrats are accomplishing and why it's so important to actually get out there and vote and exercise your voice this November. Because I'm fired up, and I don't know about you guys, but when I see posts this November, because I'm fired up. And I don't know about you guys, but when I see posts like this, I get pretty pissed off. Well, let me just say, I'm really excited for this episode. I have to talk to you guys throughout this week. I'm here. Hey guys. Hey, I know the passion that we're about to bring to the show. And I just, I can't wait to get into it. Uh, I, the one thing I would push back on slightly bread is the folks that we're about to talk about, most of them, I know we don't like labels,

like you just said, but I wouldn't even call them pro-democracy. I would just call them troublemakers. No, I agree. I think there are a lot of sort of chaos agents who don't even consider themselves Democrats, by the way. I mean, these people often in many cases don't vote Democrat, but they pretend to espouse beliefs that align with the Democratic Party. They say that they want equal rights. They say they care about the LGBTQ community. They say they care about gun reform. But when it actually comes time to do the work, they go, wait, I'm not getting 100% of what I want. I'm out. I'll see you later. Good luck with the rest. I guess Republicans will tell you,

take it from here. How about that? Here's the thing. When we started this Midas Touch journey, we never really were political people before. And a lot of the positions we took, I just thought were common sense positions that people should generally agree with. That's why even though we are very, you know, our views would line up, I think, with what would be traditionally considered progressive, these ideas never seem to be radical concepts to me. The idea that an AR-15 shouldn't be in the hands of an 18-year-old doesn't seem to me to be a wildly radical concept. That in the United States military, we require training manuals, significant training to have the military version of the AR-15.

So our military and the use of weapons is well-trained and well-regulated, but a random 18-year-old can get an AR-15 by ordering one online without any money and without any credit and without any training and without any credit and without any training and without any regulation, and that that view is somehow viewed as a progressive idea or a democratic idea, or that that idea is viewed through a political prism, to me is just a wild concept that there are then people, and play the clip of Laura Ingraham and these Republicans, they blame doors, they blame pornography, they blame weed. And these are the things that they say needs to be banned and abolished immediately. Not

why are these 18 year olds having AR-15s? Why, you know, with 80 percent, 90 percent of the United States agreeing that we shouldn't give these guns to 18 year olds. Why do we have a whole political party that is furthering this view and politicizing an issue that should not be political? Just play the clip of Laura Ingraham. It was initially reported that he was a user. In fact, he got angry that his grandmother and his mother didn't want him to use marijuana. But again, we don't know more. It was just mysteriously taken out of an article in the New York Times. But why aren't people in general not talking more about the pot psychosis, violent behavior connection? There you go. And I want to emphasize, Ben, on that clip. She's been going on this all week.

This isn't a one and done. This is the current diversion of the Republican Party. They want you to think about everything possible. And you have to remember always with Fox, Fox is the Republican Party. Fox is just simply a propaganda arm of the Republican Party. And so you see where they are pushing the party. You see where they are trying to push the American public. They want you to think about everything other than guns. It's the doors, it's abortions, it's weed, it's this, it's that. No, it's not. And that's one of the issues that I have when we approach this idea of bipartisanship is how do you have a legitimate, good faith conversation with somebody if you go, hey, listen, no one's trying to take away your guns. issue here, right? We had an assault weapons ban that was in effect to 2004 that actually did quite a lot of good. It decreased gun violence by a lot. And when we removed it, guess what happened? Gun violence went up by nearly 300%. So can we agree that that was helpful? Can we agree to

find common sense solutions? And they go, you mean on abortion? Because the abortions called it and the wheeze caused this? And you're like, how do you have that conversation with somebody and sit down at the table and actually solve things when the other side are just a bunch of shit shitsters? And then you move that on to the like, you know, the same issue that I raised there. It's every it's like really every other issue where I'm like, this is a Democrat position. This isn't just like a people position, deadly pandemic ravaging the country. Scientists are saying we've got this vaccine. Can you wear masks in public? And Republicans saying this will be traumatizing for our children to be wearing masks. That's going to be traumatizing, wearing masks to the children and not the school shootings. That's what's going to be traumatizing the children that they have to wear masks for a few hours and we're not going to get vaccines. That's what the Republicans are

sprouting. That's just the most ridiculous view ever. And then you go to the right to choose, you know, the Republicans saying that we want to take away a woman's right to make that decision. The government is going to explain to the woman how they should treat their uterus. Like it's very hard to be bipartisan with those people. And I think that what we have to be doing, like I can't be bipartisan with those people. Let me just say, the people who take those views, I do think it is impossible to have any bipartisan views with them on those people. But that's why I think what we have to do is we have to be so out there and changing the dynamic of where these discussions are that there is room for bipartisanship like there was, though, to some degree in the past.

We forget in 1970s when Roe v. Wade was passed, it really wasn't that controversial of a decision. Then it became controversial over time. It was seven. I think it was a seven to two decision. I mean, quote unquote, conservative judges voted for that. You know, when Democrats, they've moved to fascist style. So I don't think I can be bipartisan with that new style. But I think where we can be bipartisan is over these common sense ideas and try to build a coalition in America to agree. Here's a common value set that we have and just demonstrate that this 10%, 15% is so radical, we can't impact them.

But let's have a discussion with this 80% that may exist or this 70% that may exist. If you're walking down the street and you're spewing the doors, corn and pot platform, yeah, I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to that 80% of the country that actually wants to do real change and real gun reform in this country. And real change and real reform is hard. Let's not kid ourselves and let's never lie to anybody about the realities of politics, which is an incremental, boring, slow slog. It just is. And so that's why I don't mean to criticize any voters specifically in terms of their beliefs when they when they're upset.

You know, I mean, people are hurting out there and I acknowledge that they're hurting. I acknowledge that people are saddled by student loan debt. I acknowledge that people are having trouble with inflation and whatnot. But if you think the solution to your problems is to let Republicans take power, who are the cause of a lot of these problems, then I just want to tell you the stakes of what is going on and also kind of how we got here in the first place. I mean, let's just think about the abortion issue, for example. Let's start with that. You had a lot of people in 2016 who said, I'm not voting for Hillary Clinton,

not voting for her. I don't like her. Something about her bothers me. No Clinton dynasty. You have to earn my vote. Trump wins the election. He installs three Supreme Court justices. Some of them were pretty illegitimate, installed at the very last second, despite the McConnell rule, which was established. We finally get Trump out of office. Biden is elected with two right-leaning Democrats in the Senate. It's very hard to get things through, but Biden still is able to accomplish a lot. But what happens? Those Trump judges from 2016 are set to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, the reaction from many people, what are Democrats doing to stop this? Why aren't Democrats working harder to stop this when it all stems from that idea in 2016? And then you go, you know what? If Democrats

can't stop this, they can't get anything done. I'm not voting. And then in 2022, guess what could happen? The Republicans could come into power. And then the same cycle repeats over and over and over. And I think it's important that people know that politics is an incremental game and we don't live in a world of instant gratification. And the GOP actually understands that. I mean, Ben, you mentioned the Roe v. Wade decision. The GOP has been fighting for five decades to overturn Roe v. Wade, and they haven't stopped fighting to overturn that decision. But then the Democrats get into power for a year and a half, and everything is not fixed right off the bat. And you've got people who are ready to give up, who are trying to depress the vote on social media by telling people that Biden hasn't done away with all their problems yet. I mean,

we have to understand how the game is played, and we have to understand that there's not a magic wand to solve these problems, but that politics is hard. Republicans, there's a sports analogy, Jordy, that you'll like, you know, like those big market, the big market teams that like try to win the championship each year by spending like all the money. And then when they don't, the fans like rebel against the team. So the team could actually never become a championship team. Meanwhile, they're like

some other markets that just kind of build the franchise over a number of years. You know, the analogy I'm thinking of might as well just say the Yankees. Well, you know, whether, you know, I was thinking more along the lines of the of the Knicks as, you know, growing up as as a Knicks fan, but but but I take your analogy as a good one. But that's, you know, the Democrats expect all of the problems that exist all over to be solved within literally less than two years. How do I know that? I mean, Biden came into office in January of 2021. Okay, right Right now it is June of 2022. And people are saying, even though he's brought transformative changes, he's united the world in a global war involving Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine. Unemployment rates dropped from 6.2% when Biden took office to 3.9%. The single biggest

drop ever in America's history. His first year was the greatest job creation in America's history ever. This is America's history ever. He's passed the most significant economic impact in terms of his legislation for any president in terms of child poverty. It's the lowest child poverty rate ever. I mean, I could keep going on and on. Most judges, I mean, most judges appointed the most judges and the most diverse judges to the courts ever. I mean, that's a great point. And you're not even getting into the infrastructure bill or the COVID relief or the COVID program where you order a test online, it shows up at your door like 72 hours later. And you're not even talking about everything that he's done for

climate, the clean water unions. We had Mike Monroe, who oversees all the trade unions, speak about how tangible the effects of the Biden administration, the policies taken by the Biden administration were on union workers and how it was the night and day since Republicans took power. I mean, such a good callback. Yeah. Biden's done more for work, according to the guy who represents the workers in a bipartisan group. Biden's done more for workers than like any other president and was night and day to Trump. Yet we have this group right now of people who purport to be Democrats saying that they are apparently single issued issue voters on the issue of extinguishing student debt. I want to be very clear where I stand on the issue. I think that all student debt should be extinguished. I

feel very strongly about that. However, if Biden is unable to achieve that based on the political realities that he's confronted with, and he's unable to pass that legislation, I'm not going to say I'm not voting for Democrats. Biden has already done significant things on student loan debt. Let's just take the student loan debt as an issue, just that. Okay. So let's say you have student loan debt. You're in massive debt. Under Trump, he would have the collection agencies hired by the federal government harassing you every day, dinging your credit so that you couldn't afford, you don't have the ability to buy apartments. Anything else in your life affects everything. Anything else in your life, because you can't afford your student loans, making you pay 100% of your student loans, collections, you would be harassed by these loan collectors, and the rest

of your life, you're probably going to be unable to buy a home or buy a car because of negative credit from those actions. So that's the other plan that exists. Meanwhile, under the Biden plan, what he's already done is removed the negative credit reporting from Trump and from other administrations. So already under the plan, you've gotten a second chance. You've gotten a reprieve if your credit's been hurt because of these predatory student loans. Just think about that in and of itself, what he's done. He's also then extinguished student loans for people with disabilities. And so there's already been a huge amount of people who have full forgiveness of their student loans. What Biden's being confronted with now is kind of a complicated situation to figure out in the sense of if you extinguish all student loans,

are you going to be extinguishing loans for a certain income? How do you then determine though, that even if you have an income cap, couldn't like the, a wealthy kid who got his college paid for, but who doesn't have a job qualify as a lower income person. And then they get there, even though their parents, for example, are paying for their loans or someone else is paying for their loans, they get the benefit of that. Is that who this program is targeted for? Maybe it should be. Maybe it should be for everybody. And that's my view. It probably should be for everybody. It's hard to draw that line. But nonetheless, these are difficult, nuanced decisions that they're trying to reach. And so what's leaked is

that for now, they're going to try to forgive at least $10,000. So it goes from one plan to a plan of forgiving a significant amount and forgiving a lot of other people's loans and people like, oh, we can't vote for this guy. Yeah. And we also saw yesterday we saw the news that the U.S. will forgive five point eight billion dollars of loans to Corinthian College of Students, which was a fraudulent scam, basically predatory loan practices. And I think that is massive. But I think also, you know, what President Biden also has to consider is how do you not just solve the current problems that people are dealing with, but how do you prevent it from happening again? And to me, that's what I'm more concerned about is how do we help people right now, but how do we make sure that this doesn't just become a problem next year and the year after and the year after, because it's going to keep going on unless we get to the source of the issue, which are these predatory practices, these high interest rates, college that are just astronomically expensive. And we

got to figure out that issue. And the other thing that Biden has to figure out with a lot of things is what is he allowed to do via executive order? And what isn't he allowed to do? There are some people who think that he can just cancel all student debt with the stroke of a pen. There are some people who think that he cannot do that, but then there are also the political realities of, okay, if you do do that, look at the Supreme Court that we have to deal with right now. Will that executive order be challenged 100%? And what will the Supreme Court say? Will it be struck down?

Will people get their hopes up? And then the Supreme Court says, oh, no, you actually all owe that money because we're not accepting that as constitutional, what President Biden just did. There's a lot of political realities that have to really go into this when you think about it. And it's not as cut and dry as like President Biden could wave a magic wand tomorrow and solve this issue. It's just not. It's just not. And we need to really figure out how to solve these issues by really taking a targeted approach of every single election, getting out to vote. We need to make sure that

we are able to actually compete with Republicans and that we have the numbers. It's just baffling to me how someone could just say, I prefer because I don't get 100% of what I want. I prefer that the person who's going to literally destroy my life, that who is who I will allow. And please do not criticize me for saying I want the person who's going to destroy our lives. You are therefore shaming me. And it's saying there really is no shame here. Who's shaming you? Who's shaming me? Who's shaming America are the horrible policies of these people who are trying to destroy us. And by the way, I'll be the first to acknowledge Democrats are far from perfect. I yell at them all the time. You know, there's a lot of problems there. But when you have a choice of one or two parties and one party is actually supporting democracy and is trying to help. And if you look at the legislation passed in the House, have passed a ton of bills to help Americans from insulin to row codification, you name it. You could go on and on and on and on

and on and see how these eventually get blocked. I at least see a party that's working in the interest of the people and working for democracy. And then I see a party that literally wants to bring on fascism to America, literally wants to be banning books, wants to be telling you what you can or cannot say, wants to be coming after tech platforms for trying to take off hate speech, wants to be coming after your teachers, wants to be cutting guns in the hands of teachers. That's their solutions to problems. I go, you know what? If I'm going to make a choice between the democracy party or the fascism party, guess what? I'm not sitting. I'm not sitting this one out. I'm going to do my duty. I'm going to go to the polls. I'm going to try to run up the numbers on these Republicans so ran on unifying the country and bringing things back to a sense of normalcy that frankly, he's accomplished just based on reading that quick list that Ben did 10 minutes ago. So when you have these people who, you know, will agree with

the Democrats on nine or 10 issues, we said this about Midas Touch, who agree with us on nine to 10 issues, but that one issue they don't agree with and they go, I'm done. You're not a serious person. You're not a serious person and you're not here to help. I couldn't agree more. And speaking of non-serious people too, you know, the, the, the way the, all these events are just being covered. We, we talk about the media over and over again as being broken, you know, which has given room for Midas touch though, to actually fill a void that doesn't exist by delivering the truth, by talking real to people, by having these very basic conversations that are being ignored. But there was one incident that I think really highlights this. And it was, it arose out of

Uvalde. There was a reporter who I won't, you know, my goal isn't to like specifically shame the reporter. So I'm not going to mention the reporter specifically by name on the podcast, but I do want to shame the antics because the antics are really problematic, but I think one of the key issues. On paper, this reporter would seem to be someone who identifies with a lot of the issues that we identify with. And when you look at the comments, it seems to be someone who agrees with a lot of the issues. A smaller account, but a blue checkmark account for the reporter. And the reporter was in Uvalde and the reporter was filming in Uvalde

and filmed the scene with Moms Demand Action where there was an NRA supporter who was in the crowd, where the moms approached the individual and basically said, get out of here, get out of here, get out of here. A number of other people shot that same video. It wasn't like the most unique video, but this was a very good angle of the video that was shot by this reporter and a very memorable video. And the video began by having a few thousand views when it was released on social media. And then it was amplified by a lot of really big accounts and the big accounts embedded the video. And when you embed the video,

you basically take the video, you post it on your own social media, but the embed function has something where the individual actually does get credit for the video under the video. And it's a Twitter feature. It's not like you're downloading the person's video and re-uploading it as your own. You're sharing using a common Twitter feature that you could do. Yeah. And the individual gets credit for it. The name is listed under the video. So there is attribution there. And then after the video was released, this reporter used his platform as a reporter to then attack these larger accounts that amplified his video from the thousands of views it had to the millions of views that it got. The video got

noticed because these larger accounts amplified it to their hundreds and thousands or millions of followers. And one of the individuals who were attacked by the reporter was Moms Demand Action. The very group that he was filming, he yelled at for embedding the video of them. And I want you to think about that. And his point was, you are basically ripping my content without personal attribution. His video didn't even reference it was mom's demand action, but he said, you're ripping my content without personal attribution and you're harming my journalistic integrity here. And this is harmful to me as a journalist. Now, I view that journalists should get credit for their work. And we make it a point at Midas

Touch to always do our best to give credit to all of the journalists where we're using sources and such. And we make that a priority and a policy here. But this has nothing to do with that. Here, you've basically had someone, whereas Fox is spreading all of these lies and conspiracies with a concerted effort to undermine Democrats, right? Here you have a journalist who would seemingly identify with principles and policies espoused by Democrats and progressive, but who's now used his platform to attack the group that he's covered, undermine them, alienate them, and push them away. Think about that. And think about what that does to Democrats and progressives who are on the receiving end of a journalist attacking them. For doing something again, that's a common Twitter feature, like a retweet or like,

that's like being like, excuse me, miss, never, ever retweet my post ever again, or I will come after you. And this guy was not only yelling at people, he was filing legal DMCA takedown requests with Twitter's legal team and was having these people penalized and having their accounts temporarily suspended because they used a Twitter feature that's built in that credits him to share a video of their event. I mean, it's ridiculous and just abhorrent behavior. It's really just horrible. He reached out to all of these retired Twitter engineers and all these people. He made it his mission to prove that the embed function was somehow not appropriately attributing the video of him.

Like then talk to Twitter. Like, why are you yelling at the founder of Moms Demand Actions? And here's our view. I mean, as we grew the Midas Touch account, I was grateful when people would embed our videos. Honestly, it's the number one thing. It's honestly the thing that I value the most. Actually, when people share our stuff that way, it allows people to put their own twist on

it. We still get the credit. We get views. I always retweet those people and I thank them for sharing our content. I think it's like the gold standard, in fact, of sharing videos on Twitter. Exactly. Because you also, when you do that, you reach a different audience. You reach people that, hey, when someone does that with our videos, they might not be Midas Touch fans. They might be turned off if they see our logo. But if they're Ben Micellas fans and Ben embeds the video, then all of a sudden we're talking to another audience in a very nuanced way. It's really new media journalism meets very old school train of thought journalism that the two worlds don't mesh well.

And this reporter just has a total lack of awareness. And it's so pathetic and sad and disturbing. If you're finding yourself attacking the people who you are pretending to uplift, then I think you need to reconsider your journalistic integrity and your humanity, frankly. And so I want to tie these concepts together, though, because you have these Republicans who we talked about at the beginning of the show who are incredibly radical and extreme, such that the views that I've espoused, which is like, you know, as I said earlier, that the 18-year-old shouldn't have the AR-15, that that becomes a controversial position. But them, through their media arm and through other

tactics are trying to reach out to people and bring more people into their orbit and thus further radicalize the country. And Brett, we had talked about this, the RNC is building these community centers where they're offering people the ability to watch movies and have dinner there, and they're not publicizing it, but they're making these olive branch approaches within communities just to try to get people hooked in through these kind of cultural issues and trying to build those, even though their policies are so radical and extreme. When you think about it, think about it. It's like one of the ultimate kind of cultish behaviors to hook people in. And when you think about the cults of the past and even now of the current, it was always trying to find common ground. And we spoke to Dr. Hassan,

one of the cult- Culti-programmer. Yeah, the famous culti-programmer. One of the tactics that are ultimately utilized are the way he said it was a woman approached him at a library and said, hey, let's talk about these topics. That was interested. That was in the Moonies in the 70s, and that's how he got hooked. But that's what they do.

They try to find, hey, you like sports. Hey, you, you, you watch it. You watch in the Johnny Depp trial. It says innocuous says, Hey, you like cute puppies. Here's a cute puppy video. Oh, you like that cute puppy video. Hey, you like that? You might like this also. And they gradually pull you in and all these companies do it by the way, you could look at, look at the content. I mean, I actually don't look at the content, but, but look at the content. I mean, actually, I don't look at the content, but look at the content on what Ben Shapiro posts on his Daily Caller website, okay? Check out the Epic Times, which is a crazy batshit conspiracy tabloid paper, right? You will notice they have sections and they produce a lot of content that's like, cute puppy does X, Y, and Z, and you're never going

to believe the owner's reaction. They pump out a lot of stuff like that and a lot of stuff about cultural issues that has nothing, zero to do with politics. And you're like, how is that related? Because once they get you to agree on these little things, they pull you in. And once they pull you in, they could get you to believe just about anything. And so I need everybody to have media literacy out there. I think it's so important when you're following any of these things. And so I need everybody to have media literacy out there. I think it's so important when you're following any of these things. And Ben, you mentioned like the Johnny Depp, I'm mentioning these, regardless of what you think of the case, by the way. And I'm mentioning the puppy videos and these sort of viral little cutesy videos that are out there. Understand why these people are pushing these narratives. They're for nefarious reasons. And it's a way

that they could pull you in and then really warp your mind, deprogram you from believing in democracy and bring you into this fascist cult. I mean, you have to understand what their end game is here. And it's very devious. It's very devious. But just think about why the cards are stacked and why we need to change it, because that is organized and concerted. And it's not that complicated to explain. We just explained it. Then you go to the Democratic side and we have a president who's actually implementing the policies he said he was going to implement. I spread to you all of the stats.

And then you have, though, the group of the voters who are trying to outwardly undermine it by saying, hey, we're not going to vote unless you do this one thing. I don't care about all the other things. Here's the one thing I need you to do. And even if you do it, I may still be against you on the next issue. It's kind of like a whack-a-mole. And then you have the media. Brett, you mentioned the media propping up on the right wing all the crazy stuff that they're doing. On the pro-democracy side, what you have is how dare you embed my video of you? How dare you do that? And I'm going to give you a DCMA takedown notice and get rid of you and try to get you off of Twitter.

I mean, that is the debate right there and where we have to come in. So everyone's like, wow. I mean, I think if you're listening to this podcast now, I'm like, wow, that's a real problem. What do we have to do? The solutions right here, though, is what we're building right now of community, of networks, of bipartisanship in a way that we've tried to stylize at Midas Touch that you who are listening have championed because our listeners are like, yeah, I just want to have normal conversations. I just want to be able to go about my life and not have to deal with the crazy shit and the crazy shit's coming at me. But there's more of us if we recognize that. And as we spoke to Mike Madrid

about this on the last podcast, we may not have billions of dollars or even millions of dollars to build a network. And we rely on the YouTube donations. And so it's not exactly the, thank you. It's not exactly- It's not about your symmetrical warfare here. It's not exactly symmetrical. But sometimes a Ukraine can stand up to a Russia. Sometimes there is an ability for us at Midas Touch

and you and the pro-democracy networks out there to combat all the batshit crazy disinfo used by really an international class of oligarchs to try to control people so they can empower themselves through the chaos that they create. I want to have this conversation now about bipartisanship with a member of Congress. Oh, I'm fired up. His essential platform is bipartisanship, bipartisanship, bipartisanship. I want to ask him, how is bipartisanship possible? How do you think it's possible? How do we, should we be fighting for bipartisanship right now, given the climate?

Let's bring in Congressman Dean Phillips. And before bringing in Congressman Phillips, though, want to talk about one of our sponsors, Backbone. Now, you got your backbone there holding it up, Jordy. Why do you think I've been so quiet this episode? I've been playing it in between breaks. This podcast is brought to you by Backbone. What's holding you back from the ultimate gaming experience? It's the hundreds of dollars it costs for you to set up, or are you too busy? Are you this on-the-go type with only minutes to spare? Well, level up your game with Backbone, the universal gaming essential that lets you instantly play hundreds of console games on your iPhone, no console required. And really,

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I go back and forth. When I don't respond to your guys' texts, that's what I'm doing. I was going to say, I love to play. Madden was the most fun that I have. And look, this is a really good gift. And so I got this for like all my friends' birthdays. I've given them as gifts for my friends who have kids. I get it for their birthdays. Everybody who's played it said that they absolutely love it. It's really, really, really easy to use. And you know, just something that you could have, you know, you can give someone that they'll actually use, you know, when you're trying to think of like what gifts to get them. Here's what you got to do. Go to playbackbone.com slash Midas. So you go to P-L-A-Y-B-A-C-K-B-O-N-E.com slash Midas now

and order your Backbone until June 30th and get free access to over 350 console games and perks. And here's the great thing about this deal. When you go to play backbone.com slash Midas, you're going to get one month free Xbox game pass ultimate. So you'll get a free Xbox gas pass ultimate one month free Apple Arcade, two months free of Google Stadia Pro, and three months free of Discord Nitro. It's incredible. Yeah, it's a really good discount. It's a really good free. I love free stuff. Find your next adventure at playbackbone.com slash Midas. That's playbackbone.com slash Midas. Let's bring in Congressman Dean Phillips. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Really pleased to be joined by Congressman Dean Phillips, Democratic Congress member

representing Minnesota's third congressional district and vice chair of the bipartisan problem solvers caucus. Representative Phillips, welcome to the podcast. It's great to be with you. Thank you for the invitation. So the Problem Solvers Caucus and a bipartisan caucus, nonetheless. I recall when you were running for Congress, of course, your background as a businessman, owner of a local coffee shop, Penny's. And in 2018, as you were running for Congress, the campaign slogan or one of the slogans was, quote, everyone is invited. And then you were quoted in 2018 as saying there's nothing wrong in politics that a little coffee

and conversation can fix coming from a coffee shop owner. You know, a thing or two about that. Do you still feel that way today, especially after we hear these horrific things coming out of things like the Republican NRA convention? Can we still solve these problems over a cup of joe? I happen to think yes. I know it sounds trite. I know it sounds kind of trivial and kind of old fashioned, if you will. But yeah, based on my experience, and by the way, it wasn't just coffee. It was vodka and ice cream before then. I see the power of community, of convening. And I can't tell anybody listening or watching that I have all the answers to the disease that ails us. But I can't help but think and believe and frankly have seen played out in front of my eyes that when we actually bring people a very disparate life perspectives and experiences and politics together. Yeah, we can do better and we can find common ground.

The Problem Solvers Caucus that you just referred to, that's kind of my home base in Congress. I do so because I so believe that if we bring people together and share life stories and build a little bit of trust, we'll find common ground. If we don't do so, I know one thing is for certain, we're going to continue down this terribly dangerous path, the outcome of which I don't think any of us want to see manifest itself in civil unrest. And that's where we're heading. If we don't at least take some steps towards each other instead of further away. So role play it with me. I pretend that I am the individual who attended the NRA convention. I saw what happened in Uvalde and I said, you know where I want to go? I want to watch Donald Trump dance at the NRA convention because the Democrats and independents are trying to take away my AR-15s, which I have mounted on my wall and

I put it in designs. I take photos with my three-year-old holding it. How do you, over a cup of coffee, get through to me? What do you say to me that makes me change my mind? First and foremost, let's acknowledge that the people to whom you're referring are a small minority, and they do exist. There are people that I'll confess it's probably impossible to find bridges to and find enough common ground to make progress. But I do believe the overwhelming majority of Americans, given the opportunity and the space and place to get to know each other a little bit, can find some solutions. There's not a parent in America that I know of that wants to see more mass shootings. So that is my contention, that at the end of the day, if we simply get together, we can do so. The Problem Solvers Caucus is doing that right now. There is common ground. There is a distinct possibility that we will pass at least some incremental measures to improve safety and reduce massacres. expeditious. But the only way it will get done in light of how our founders set up our system of governance is if we do some form of cooperation, particularly in the Senate. It doesn't

matter what the House does, as you guys well know. So again, I'm not so foolish to think that everything is solvable, every human relationship. But I do believe we all have a little bit of a responsibility to open some hearts and minds and at least find that common ground. For if we don't, the end game is atrocious. Yeah, and my example was a bit extreme, but the example that truly happened to you in 2018 was someone approached you with the MAGA hat, probably very frequently, but this was one of the ones that the media talked about. And the individual approached you and said that he had voted for Senator Klobuchar and said, what I'm very concerned about, look, I voted for Senator

Klobuchar, but people are calling me racist because I wear this MAGA hat. I'm not racist. Then he proceeded to list other races that he claimed were racist, which was racist. But you sat there and you listened to him and you did find common ground and you said it was difficult. But I think that is an example where lots of Democrats in your position wouldn't do that. And you stood there and listened and maybe did change a mind or two there. Well, we all know in our personal life experiences, when we're not validated, when we're condemned for who we are, what we think, what we want to be, it's never been productive. It's never been accretive to relationships. You know, when people feel heard, by the way, to me, Trumpism is a manifestation of people's anger, anxiety, and fury about not being heard. Plain and simple. And if we simply dig a little

bit deeper and recognize that, you know, the human condition is the human condition, we Democrats should be doing a heck of a lot better job of creating invitations to more people. And by the way, on the Common Ground theme, we do a monthly series where we bring five Democrats or six Democrats, six Republicans from my district to a table for a two hour facilitated session with a great group called Braver Angels. And we sit there for two hours. We start by sharing our life stories and we talk about some policy issues. It could be gun violence, could be health care. And then at the end, we take about 30 seconds and round the table. We talk about how the two hour session affected us. And just last month, a young woman says, you know what, I came to this event, really hesitant. I drove up into the

parking lot. And you we points, she points to a guy across the table, you drive up in your F-150 with a Trump sticker. And I wanted to vomit and leave. And she said, but you know, I got to tell you, after a couple hours with you, Scott, you're actually a really decent guy. And I appreciate you. And then I got around to Scott and he looks at her, Emily, I'll call her. And says, Emily, when you drove up in your freaking Prius, I wanted to barf, too, just so you know. And at the end of the session, they stood up, approached each other and hugged. And I have to tell you, these were people who despised what each other stood for simply by the car they drove. And I know it's this tiny little story,

but you know, the truth is, if we all practice politically and communally and collectively, kind of what we do in our own personal relationships, I do think change could occur. We need that leadership. We need that inspiration. And I'm not saying it's the end all be all, but my goodness, if we don't do that, all is lost. Do you think we can do that at a national level? How would that look like what the Problem Solvers Caucus is doing and encouraging more of that writ large? And like, how do we get that message out to people that that needs to happen? It's one of the themes we've talked about on the on this podcast earlier today that I think the main issue that drives people away. This is what we said. The number one main issue that drives people away from Democrats is sometimes Democrats, not sometimes frequently. Democrats kind of condemn people and don't and don't open up the tent.

And if you just say the one thing wrong, it's just like, get out of here. And then it's like, I need to find community somewhere. Exactly. Exactly. That's human nature right there. Political parties are communities. And when you're condemned, you try to identify with people who support you or your perspective. It's not rocket science. And do you ask the question, how does this change leadership? We need fireside chats from President Biden right now. You know, we need a grandfather to the country, someone who expresses possibility and security and safety and invitations. Instead, we send out

condemnations. Look at Twitter. You know, look at MSNBC, Fox News at night. You know, we have a perverse incentive system when you really get down to this. We're rewarding the characteristics, the lack of civility, the mean-spiritedness, because people are seeing it works. Get more Twitter followers, raise a ton more money, and become a national figure in politics if you're mean spirited, leaving those who are voices of decency, which is the overwhelming majority of members of Congress and countrymen and women, the quiet ones. So there's a there there. And I'd like to think a leader might exist. And by the way, I know plenty of Republicans and probably the Democrats that if they were in positions of power, both in the Congress and in the White House, would set a completely different tone for the country. But the likelihood of those types of people elevated in their respective caucus or conference or in parties is almost zero, because we are elevating fighters, dividers, and bomb throwers, politically at least. And that's true on both sides. And I'm afraid

that means we need some political competition. Well, I get what you're saying there. I feel like there are far more bomb throwers, so to speak, on the right. And President Biden came into a war zone in a way. I mean, he literally came in on the heels of an insurrection where one party was trying to overthrow the government. And I think he tried to find common ground a lot early on. I think he did extend his hand. I think he did try to reach out and speak to the Mitch McConnell's and the Kevin McCarthy's. And they all spit in his face and laughed.

And they've done everything possible to try to block his every move. So, you know, at the end of the day, you have one party who refuses to give an inch on any issue whatsoever to President Biden, to Democrats, because they want to see President Biden and they want to see Democrats fail. Well, like a lot of things in the world right now, it's not either or it's and. And yes, we have a very obstructionist Republican Party. There's no question that is their mission. It works for them. Remember, conservatives, by definition, are rewarded for saying no. Democrats are rewarded by progress, progressivism. I mean, that's the whole point. That is what makes this so difficult. It's a lot easier to say no and stand in the way and obstruct than it is to actually affect change, incremental or otherwise. But with that said, when I think about what the country needs, I'm thinking coalitions. You know, I'm thinking about the notion of invitations to some

conservatives in a Democratic administration. Conversely, some progressives in a conservative or Republican administration. I want to see, I'll tell you right now, next Congress, if Democrats lose the majority, if someone like Liz Cheney can make it through her primary and come back, I want to see the Democratic caucus, instead of wasting their votes on a minority leader, 200 votes, 195 votes, whatever it might be, why don't we unify and find an alternative to Kevin McCarthy in the Republican conference with whom we could negotiate some kind of a power sharing agreement and throw 195 votes in the House to a different Speaker of the House. These are the kinds of ways that we should leverage power that we're not even thinking about right now. And progressives, unfortunately, way too often waste the power, pull the wrong levers, and instead of consolidate, alienate. And it's not rocket science. So when I think about that's the style of governance that we should be affecting, considering that we cannot achieve a majority,

a meaningful majority right now, I think that's the way to proceed. We should leverage our power differently. So let's try to consider maybe some specifics then, like what are some specific bipartisan pieces of legislation, bipartisan policies that you think that we could get Republicans to actually vote on and pass today? So in the Problem Solvers Caucus, we have not published much of this, but we've got propositions on immigration reform. We were a big part of getting the bipartisan infrastructure bill done. We are now meeting relative to gun violence. We have a working group, a bipartisan working group, along with the Senate infrastructure bill done. We are now meeting relative to gun violence. We have a working group, a bipartisan working group,

along with the Senate, of course. We have at least the 58 of us, 28 Democrats, 28 Republicans in the House on the Problem Solvers Caucus. We can solve a lot, I guarantee you. And I do it every day. The problem is more broadly, leadership on both sides of the aisle do not empower us. We are, you know, we're gadflies, of course, to both sides of the aisle do not empower us. We're gadflies, of course,

to both sides of the aisle, but we think that's important. I know if empowered with the ability to bring bills to the floor and socialize them to some degree and market them, we could achieve a lot on just about every policy area. And I believe in that. The problem is, again, the reward system does not reward cooperators. In fact, on day one of Congress, when I arrived in 2019 with about 75 new members of Congress, I thought we'd get to know each other, tell our life stories, do a ropes course, do a little bit of trust. But we are separated and segregated almost immediately, put on different buses, going to different events. And this culture of separation manifests itself in every negative form you can possibly imagine. So I'm not saying that this will solve every problem, but leadership matters. And in the political arena, at least, I've not seen many leaders that have these skill sets that I think are really necessary and important in this type of system of governance at this time in our history. They're out there, but instead of

running to office, they're running from office. And that's part of our problem too, is getting the right people in the right positions and recognizing, frankly, that you've got to inject a little bit of pragmatism into progressivism if you want to succeed. That's what I'm getting at, plain and simple. Yeah, I think pragmatic progressivism is something that we should all strive for. And I think bipartisanship is in general something we should strive for, especially when we don't have the votes needed to pass stuff on our own. But Molly Jung Fast made a good point in a recent piece there. She wrote that it seems like a lot of Democrats don't want to be represented by someone who wants to find common ground with Ted Cruz, maybe because sensible people have no common ground with Ted Cruz. And I thought it was a

funny comment, but I think it speaks to the problem with bipartisanship that on the other side, it's not good actors. It's Ted Cruz's who, when you have the most qualified candidate for the Supreme Court ever go in there to the stand, they call her a pedophile. They call her a child sex trafficker. And that's sort of the new lane in which we're trying to engage in bipartisanship. Isn't that kind of a huge barrier to all of this? Sure. It is a barrier. But once again, we're talking about the handful that generate these national brands because they have picked up on this perverse incentive system. Ted Cruz is a perfect example of that. He knows how he builds his national equity. But what we don't talk about is the other 40 members of the Republican conference in the Senate and the overwhelming majority of names you don't know, faces you've Republican conference in the Senate, and the overwhelming majority of names

you don't know, faces you've never seen in the Congress, that still are relatively decent people. And we may diverge on our perspectives and politics, but I'm telling you, because I've experienced it, they're there. But they need to be led in a different fashion. And we've got to create some spaces and places and reward systems for people willing to do it. Of course, we can talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ted Cruz all day long. And by the way, many Democrats think of the Republican Party as being represented by those two. And conversely, you know, we know who the Republican Party, you know, thinks represents Democrats. I got to tell you guys, the other day we had a communications call for the Democratic caucus. And what I realized is we are defined by a handful of individuals on both

sides of the aisle. And then we spend, each side sends hundreds of millions of dollars propagating these images. And I asked a simple question. If you Google right now, Democratic caucus photograph, you will not find a picture, a photograph of the 220-some of us Democrats in the United States House caucus. And what I'm trying to express to my colleagues right now is if America really saw the diversity and breadth of experience and professions and backgrounds, religions, races in our caucus, they would actually see America. They would see a party that really does represent pretty much everybody. But instead, we platform just a handful of people, so does the right, that frankly turn off those middle-of-the-road voters all around the country that unfortunately

buy into this whole propagation, if you will. So I'm trying to encourage us to kind of broaden our platform, expose more of our members and demonstrate to the country that, believe it or not, the Democratic caucus has business people. You know, the Democratic caucus has a diversity of people that actually do represent you, including farmers, including rural Americans that really understand these things. But instead of elevating them, you guys, you know, we're diminishing them. So look, I'm a realist. I'm shocked and dismayed that Democrats can't generate a majority that's sustainable. I'm amazed that this is even a competitive political environment right now, considering the issues

at hand. Right. But it's not. So let's wake up and recognize if we've lost rural America. No, we're going to risk losing democracy. Yeah. And it's time to wake up. No doubt about it. Another thing I want to talk to you about is the January 6th hearings. We're now one week away from those hearings. And correct me if I'm wrong here, Congressman, but I believe during the January 6th insurrection, while everything was going on, I believe you screamed at Representative Paul Gosar while you were on the floor. Gosar, of course, has been somebody who has been pushing these baseless election conspiracy theories. What was it that you said to him and what's your relationship been like with those insurrectionist colleagues of yours? Well, I'll tell you that I pride myself on an ethos that's welcoming and friendly. And I love people of differing opinions. I make a point to seek them out and build relationships. I do it all the time. I've count many Republicans amongst my friends. The ones you're talking about right now, zero. I don't afford them the time of day. I don't greet them in the hallways. I find them to be dangerous. I find them to be unpatriotic.

And I find their behavior to be repulsive. And I don't congregate with them or enable them or give them oxygen. The day on January 6th, moments after we heard the sirens and the announcement from the Capitol Police Sergeant that the house had been breached and that they were on their way down the hallway. And Paul Gosar was still at the microphone objecting to the 2020 election. I was up in the gallery, the mezzanine level, and I stood up and screamed at the top of my lungs right to him. This is because of you. Okay. Because it was. And I was speaking for tens of millions of us who had watched the slow motion train wreck for the, over the course of

many weeks, come to a conclusion at that very moment. And by the way, my colleagues up in the mezzanine told me to quiet down because I was breaking decorum. And Gosar and Steve Scalise turned up and looked at me and yelled, shut up. And the next moment after that, hell broke loose. But I don't regret it. And I think I spoke for a lot of us. And by the way, I think the January 6th commission hearings that are forthcoming that will be televised are going to demonstrate facts and build a narrative that are going to shock even the most jaded clinical observers. I do believe that. It was a conspiracy, I believe. I think we're going to find that out shortly. And Paul Gosar and some of his minions are responsible for undermining the very country that they claim to love so much. How important do you think these hearings will be for restoring faith in government, restoring faith in Congress and restoring faith in American democracy just in general?

Well, sadly, the nation is a very different one than it was during the Nixon era, during the Watergate era. Then you had a Republican Party that predicated its position on fact and recognized implications. Many Republicans who were rabid supporters of President Nixon turned against him when the facts were out. Now, when the facts come out, we have leadership, people in positions of power in the GOP that demean the facts, that distort them, and then misinform their base of voters. And I think we're going to see that again. So if you ask what the outcome will be, I think it's important. We have to do so. It's a responsibility to demonstrate facts, to ensure the historical record knows what happened. But do I think it will actually do

anything? Actually, no. There are too few people whose minds are not made up about what happened that day and its relevance to the future. And what I'm afraid a lot of my GOP friends don't recognize is that if they don't condemn this, if they don't address it and hold people to account this time, this could happen from the left someday. This could happen from anarchists. This could happen from any side of the political spectrum. And it's more likely to happen if we don't hold people to account this time. And I'm afraid some of my friends have created a monster that is going to be awfully difficult to get back into the cage, no matter their values. And that's something time will tell, but it's important that we demonstrate what happened. And the fact is, most American voters

have moved on. That's the truth. And again, we Democrats have to be cognizant of what's really on people's mind right now. We've got COVID still, we have crime. The most important is cost, which is inflation. You know, we should do January 6th, but we can't do so at the exclusion of what's really affecting Americans every single day. And when their costs have gone up $3,000 a year between gasoline and groceries, believe it or not, even if they care deeply about democracy and they believe that there was an insurrection, they want to see Democrats actually doing something about their day-to-day lifestyles and what's impacting them, you guys. So I'm a voice of reason in this respect that, yes, we have to do that, but we also have to address, at least acknowledge, recognize, understand, empathize, and try to act

on what's hurting people right now. If we do so, we might just build a case for even a better midterm than we're expecting. I want to just take a quick step back because I couldn't agree with you more on this point that people and the media specifically are rewarded these days by outrage culture. The more outrageous you could be, the more clicks you get, the more followers, the more money. You look at a Fox News though, very specifically, you look at how they're covering these shootings. They seem to be blaming everything under the sun, except for the real issue in the room, which is common sense gun reform. I mean, latest is Laura Ingraham on this tirade about how pot psychosis is leading to these mass shootings.

And what do you even make of that? That's nonsense. But look, to answer your question, you know, we are living in an anger attainment industry era. That's the best way to describe it. You know, you guys know full well, you know, you get more clicks, you get more eyeballs, you get more likes. If you're provocative, you know, if you ask the impossible question, you know, the antagonistic perspective, I mean, geez, you guys, that's how it works. And the truth is, every time members of Congress or anybody in the country post something thoughtful or, you know, meaningful and friendly and hopeful. Yeah, people like it. But if you post something really angry and bitter and witty, that's when

the love really comes. So we're making mistakes, I think, all of us in that respect. But yes, Fox News, unfortunately, a horrible part of the problem, have created the problem. The great irony of Fox News, if you ask me too, is that this is a business owned essentially by Australians, you know, that have so deeply affected and poisoned the national discourse. And I'm not saying that every left-leaning news organization is angelic, but I do believe Fox News is propagating people and ideas that are literally poisoning the very country again that they claim to love so much. But let me tell you, on gun violence, I do these common ground convenings all the time. People all agree, gun owners and non-gun owners agree we have to do something.

Let me tell you, guys, the answer is not just addressing guns and controlling guns. The answer is not just investing in emotional and mental health and finding ways to intervene. It is absolutely a combination. But to everybody listening who's burned in the wool, died in the wool progressive, remember, we have a constitution that is unlike any in the entire world, that the Supreme Court has read as one that guarantees our right to own firearms. So we're not Canada. We can't be Trudeau and ban handguns tomorrow. No, we can't be Australia or New Zealand. We can't. We're paying a price for an interpretation of a

document that has served our country fairly well. But there is a way, by the way, in fact, I actually encourage you and people listening to visit a website called the Violence Project. I think it's the violenceproject.org. Two Minnesota professors here in my backyard have been studying mass shooters for the past 20 years, interviewed survivors, their families, the ones that are imprisoned who didn't commit suicide or weren't killed during the course of their massacre. They've developed the most comprehensive understanding of the motives and the psychology of mass shooters. Nobody in the country knows them. And the fact that we're not using that as the template, as the source data

to make thoughtful decisions as we proceed is really disconcerting to me. And the fact of the matter is they would argue that the real solution here is to intervene by identifying the kids, the young men mostly, most at risk, ensuring that we have counseling support in schools, which would probably be a $35 billion endeavor. Mind you, we just sent $40 billion to Ukraine last month. But to intervene at a stage where we can prevent this nonsense. And yes, I think we should raise the age. And yes, we need red flag lots. I think Republicans actually will come along on maybe those latter two. And Democrats should come along on the mental health element. These guys were not diagnosed necessarily with mental health issues or

multiple personalities or the like, but they all show signs that are easy to identify before they do what they do. So if we focused on the data, we can do this together and we will, I really believe we're going to do something. That's my hope and expectation. And so to that, Reptileps, I just want to say I really do appreciate your energy. I love the motivation behind the Problem Solving Caucus and all the work you're doing there. And I think a lot of people right now, rightfully so, are scared for the future of this country. Where do you see America in four, eight years? How are we doing? Well, you know, first of all, bipartisanship is not in vogue right now.

Cooperation in many corners is demeaned and diminished. But I got to tell you guys, best way to answer the question is last night. I'm on my way to a town hall, one of my regular town hall meetings. And I pass a McDonald's and I had a sudden urge for a McDonald's chocolate shake of all things. And I go in the drive-thru line and order my shake and I had a sudden urge for a McDonald's chocolate shake of all things. And I go in the drive-thru line and order my shake and I'm sitting at the window. My order's not ready yet. And the guy behind the window says, how's your day going? I said, my day is going great.

How's yours going? And he said, well, it was going really well. But this guy just came to the window and said to me that the world was coming to an end. And I said, he said, the world's coming to an end. I said, what did you tell him? And he said, I don't think the world was coming to an end. And I said, he said, the world's coming to an end. I said, what did you tell him? And he said, I don't think the world's coming to an end. He said, I just think we all have to do something to make a little bit better. And this guy was a McDonald's, you know, window staffer. And he said to me after that, that, I have a job, I have a place to live. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

And I realized, you know, that it's these little moments and these little discoveries of extraordinary human beings all around us every day, who aren't the ones on TV and aren't the ones you follow on Twitter, but are going about their lives and are people of decency and people of friendliness and of thoughtful worldviews. That's most people. So when you ask me where the country's heading, that's up to us. I can guarantee you right now, you're probably not going to find the answers in Congress, probably not going to find the answers in Washington. But in all of our communities, in our backyards, in our cul-de-sacs, in our apartment buildings, you know, the answers are there. And I've, I'm falling in

love with our country again right now, because I'm making a point to get out after two years of masking and quarantining. I'm realizing how damn lucky we are. And I think if we just convert maybe our attitude to a little bit more gratitude, a little bit more open-mindedness, by the way, that means the right more open to the left and the left more open to the right, we can solve these problems. And I'm remarkably optimistic. And that's why I'm doing this. And I always remind people, keep the faith and be a participant, not an observer. It's that energy right there, which I think so many people can agree with and truly appreciate. And it's really why, you know, I've fallen in love overwhelmingly with the Democratic Party

is because it's the party of unifying, in my idea. So do you think, how do you think the Democrats will do in these midterms? Look, I'm pragmatic and I'm a realist. I think it's going to be awfully difficult. And I understand why it's going to be awfully difficult. You know, politics is a combination of strategy and luck. And I remind my colleagues all the time, politics is not about what's real. It's about how people feel. And right now people are anxious and they're scared. They're wondering if the world is coming to an end, if democracy is coming to an end. They wonder if their lives are coming to an end with the violence and the discord. And, you know, that's complicated. You know, that's complicated. But we're going to persevere. And, you know, that's, that's complicated, you know, that's, that's, that's

complicated, but, but we're going to, we're going to, we're going to persevere. And I'm proud of the Democratic Party of representing the country, I think in a really thoughtful way. And I think it's going to be better than we feel right now. Do I think we're going to maintain the majority? I think it's going to be awfully difficult in no small part, because gerrymandering has crushed the ability for Americans to be represented the way I think our founders intended. I think it's awfully difficult in no small part because gerrymandering has crushed the ability for Americans to be represented the way I think our founders intended. I think we need a little bit of political competition. Competition makes any product of higher quality, more available and a little bit lower cost. And I mean it sincerely in all three points. And I think we need ranked choice voting. I think we need to encourage more participation. I think we need ranked choice voting. I think we need to encourage more participation. I think we

need to reward moderation. I think we need to inspire candidates to be rewarded by broadening their base. Ranked choice voting can do that. I think these things long term will be helpful. In the near term, I think Democrats have to be much more intentional about recruiting candidates, especially in rural areas, that represent the people they want to serve. You know, we can't nationalize everything in the Democratic Party because it doesn't fit. We are a tale of two countries. There's urban, suburban America, and there's rural America with very different cultures and needs and views and perspectives. So I'm a business person.

I don't market a product hoping people will buy it on my own intuition. I study what people want, what they're asking for, and then you make it. And I think it's time for Democrats to maybe start turning the table a little bit on our perspective. Listen first. Representation begins with listening, listening to people, what they want and need, and then formulate a way to address what they want and need. That's how democracy and representational government is supposed to work. And I think it's time that we start elevating leaders that share that view because it's achievable. I don't think we can do it before November, but that might actually be the impetus to start making some reformations thereafter. And I hope to be part of that team.

Hearing you say that, Congressman, one of the things that we'd love to offer is our platform to showcase, one, any candidates you know who are like that, send them our way. But two, the Problem Solvers Caucus. I'd love to showcase if there's anything that's ever public that the Problem Solvers Caucus is doing. I'd love to just show people conversations between Democrats and Republicans that reflect civility and then talk about these ideas in ways that they don't see on traditional media. So there's always an open forum here where we'll show any of that kind of conversation going on.

So let us know about that. And if there are any, you know, members across the aisle who you think would want to come on with you or with the Democrat and showcase that to the public. I'd love to show another side to people that that exists versus the traditional split screen yelling past each other and showing that there is another side. That's what we try to do here. Thanks so much for joining us, Congressman. Let me say yes and yes. Can I say yes and yes to that? I've already accepted it as a yes without even all right yes and yes i'll tell you dusky johnson my republican buddy from south dakota uh a gentleman a man of compassion decency principal conservative i brought him to minnesota last summer went to the minnesota state fair he's bringing me to south

dakota uh later this month we're going to the corn palace he stayed in my house i'm staying in his house we're both problem solvers we have affection for each other. We cooperate and we've come together on things that are awfully difficult. It's possible. And I'd love to have him on, maybe somebody else. And as for a candidate who I think embodies what I'm talking about, Jeff Ettinger, who is the former chairman and CEO of Hormel, the spam company. He's running for Congress right now in a special election in Minnesota's first district for the seat that former Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who passed away unfortunately this year, had vacated. He's not your typical Democrat, but he's the kind of

Democrat that can win in the part of America that we need. And I encourage you to take a look. That's the kind of race that if we could surprise people in the special election, not to mention November, could change the whole narrative. And we need to start recruiting Democrats who might not be mainstream in terms of the progressive movement, but that can win the districts we actually need to build a majority. If we do that, everything can change and it's not too late. Like the food spam or the, or like the, or like spam. Like the food spam. I was going to say, I don't know which one you'd rather be known for, but nonetheless. He's the guy who emails you all the crazy shit that you don't want in your email.

Exactly. In this case, it comes, the crazy shit comes in a can. I like it. That's great. But we'll definitely have them on as well. And thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Hey, keep the faith, guys. Thanks for the time. Thank you, Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District. We'll be right back after these messages. Download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver.

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I think here is my take on it. Well, you heard my take on it before Dean Phillips, but before I brought him in, but I'll just give you, I'll give you my take on the backend. What we have to avoid right now and why this is all very pivotal and why the stakes are so high is the same reason Dean Phillips yelled at Paul Gosar on the house floor, right? The same reason that he was outraged by Paul Gosar is how a lot of Americans feel with a party that exists, a political party of Paul Gosar's. Paul Gosar, his views are at least the mainstream view in the Republican Party. And that's Matt Gaetz, that's Marjorie Taylor Greene, those aren't fringe characters with influence in the party. You know, to me, these quote, the people who Republicans try to claim are fringe Democrats. One, I don't even believe their views are all that radical. The people who they try,

I may disagree with them on certain foreign policy issues. I may disagree with them on a certain approach, but overall what people are fighting for on the quote unquote fringe on Democrat aren't really fringe issues. It's how do we get more healthcare to people? How do we make education more accessible? Those are not bad ideas. Those are not radical concepts. Whereas overthrowing the government is a radical concept, you know, having the government literally overtake businesses the way Republicans do because the corporations don't want to discriminate against gay people.

That is a radical idea and a radical concept that's espoused by the right. And so what we have to make sure, we can't be bipartisan with the Paul Gosar strain, which is the prevailing strain of republicanism. But where I welcome Dean to and bring on a guest, I want to meet some of the republicans he's talking about. And I don't want to try to, you know, I want to elevate Democrats on our show and progressives, but I want to elevate also common sense discussions. And if there are Republicans out there who will find solutions to these issues, like gun reform, and say, 18 year old shouldn't have AR-15s, I'd like those views out there. That's great for the country. We want solutions for the country. As we've said on the show constantly, I would love

to have a conversation with Republicans about tax policy or about the best way to get people healthcare or things like that. But the issue is they've taken the conversation so far to the right, to the point, like you said, Ben then of their discussions about overthrowing the government and how do we toss votes and elections and Jewish space lasers and all this batshit crazy stuff that you can't even talk to those people. And Representative Phillips acknowledged that there are people like that who you can't even engage. And I'm happy that he acknowledged that, but we need to desperately try to find the small sliver of people who we could actually kind of have those old school conversations with and actually push the ball forward because, hey, we got a lot of problems that we need to solve. We have a lot of problems that we need to solve, and we're going to need all of us in order to

make this happen. And one of the things that's interesting too is when you look at the Problem Solvers Caucus that Representative Phillips is a part of, you're not going to recognize many of the names on that list, especially from the Republican side. They're not the names who are in the news every day. So these are the people who are just in the house who don't get the national attention all the time. So I think that's actually an interesting thing when you look at the names in that group of who's actually trying to actually at least trying to get stuff done. And it gives me some hope. But what also gives me hope really is seeing the amount of activists who are out there, seeing the people who that reporter was criticizing, ignoring the noise of that reporter criticizing the founder of Bombs to

Man Action and the activists fighting for gun reform, but looking at the crowd who's actually fighting for gun reform out there, looking at the size of the crowd, looking at the passion of the people showing up for protests around the country to protest the Roe v. Wade decision. When you see that, you see the numbers that really exist out there and you see how many people are really on the democratic pro-democracy side. So it's important for all of us to try to mobilize this effort, to try to do everything we can to keep power and grow our majorities in the midterms, because that's really how we're going to get stuff done. Little by little, we're going to work our asses off. We're going to build these

majorities and we are going to usher in a better America for everybody. And I think that's what we should all want. Couldn't agree with you more, Brett. Thank you everybody for listening to this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. Special thanks to our sponsor, Backbone. Make sure you check out store.midastouch.com. Make sure you subscribe as well to our YouTube channel at Midas Touch. If you're searching on YouTube, if you're watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button right now. If you're watching on YouTube, also make sure you subscribe to the audio on wherever you get your podcasts. And let's just do the swap that we always say. If you're listening on podcasts, subscribe to YouTube. If you're on YouTube, subscribe right now to the podcast where you get the audio, wherever you can download audio podcasts. And make sure you leave a five-star review. The five-star reviews are very helpful to our rankings and being able to continue to do these podcasts

each and every week, multiple times with you. We're so grateful for you, the Midas Mighty community. None of this is possible without you. And we will continue to keep on building and growing this together. Because together, I truly believe we can change and make this country and Because together, I truly believe we can change and make this country and the world a better place. What is the solution to all of these problems, to all of these issues?

It's actually a very simple solution. You're looking at that person and those persons. When you wake up every morning, when you look at your family, when you look at the mirror, the solution really is you. And it starts with you and your ability to push back against these false narratives and to truly create the United States of America that we all want to live in. One that's peaceful, one that's normal, one where we can all rest easy at night, wake up in the morning and enjoy this beautiful time on earth together. Thank you so much. And special shout out to the Knights of Antioch.