Democrats blame messaging for losses (02-03-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content, like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] Alrighty, so Democrats prepared to not learn anything in the next election cycle, apparently. They're going back to their roots and blaming for their loss in the last election cycle, blaming messaging. They always blame the messaging. Always. We just didn't do a good job of getting our message out. That's not it.

[00:00:59] I take it back, actually. No, that's it. That's totally it. You guys just keep doing, just keep doing that. Holy smokes. So in case you hadn't noticed, over the weekend, the Democrats sought to elect their party leadership for the DNC, the Democrat National Committee. And the guy that was in charge, Jamie Harrison, he was a failed candidate down in South Carolina.

[00:01:28] And he was the head of the DNC. And well, the results speak for itself. And so he's out and they've got a new guy, Ken Martin. Ken Martin. He is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party, which is like to the left of the Democrat Party.

[00:01:53] Like the Democrats were not socialist enough. And then they went out and created this DFL party like decades ago. These guys are leftists. It's the Democrat Party. Basically that like that's the party up in Minnesota. The Democrat Party is the DFL. It's like a fusion of left and further left. And they picked that guy to be their chairman. Oh, it's going to get fun.

[00:02:20] And a lot of attention has been paid to one of the I think they I think they elected. What was it? 82 vice chairs or something like that. They know it's like three. They have a bunch of vice chairs as well.

[00:02:38] And one of the people that they named as the vice chair is this. Proponent of abolishing ICE, defunding the police designated the designating the NRA as a terrorist organization.

[00:03:01] And I don't know what this tweet is. If this election is a matchup between Taylor Swift and Ted Nugent, I think it's safe to say I've seen enough. Biden wins the 2024 election. So very politically adept as well. And this individual's name is David Hogg. David Hogg, the kid who was a student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School.

[00:03:27] When that maniac who was known to authorities went in and shot the place up, murdered a bunch of his classmates. And David Hogg, who was not at the school at the time, showed up with a video camera and then somehow got turned into a school shooting victim or survivor, I should say. Even though he wasn't there at the anyway. So then he parlayed that along with, remember, there were two other people. There was a girl and another guy.

[00:03:55] And they became like the three of them became like the, you know, March for Our Lives leaders. One of whom, the dude, the other dude, not David Hogg, the non-Hog. That guy, like he went out and in an effort to educate himself about guns, he actually went out and went to a range and got some instruction and learned about guns. And then he was like, yeah, this like, I'm out. He abandoned it.

[00:04:23] So I don't know what happened to the girl. Last I heard she was, she was like non-binary or something. And then like, I think she went to the LGBTQ plus two IASL. I think she went that route. And David Hogg, he maintained, you know, figurehead status at the March for Our Lives. And like, I don't, I don't make fun of people's appearances.

[00:04:50] They, they really, you know, people, a lot of times people don't have any, you know, control over some of this stuff. But for the love of me, like just, you know, eat some, eat some bread, dude. You look like a Q-tip. The guy, he's got no body fat or muscle mass. He looks like an x-ray of a skeleton. You know, it's, I don't think it's healthy. I don't think it's healthy.

[00:05:20] Anyway, yeah, so he's, he was a defund the police kid. And, and so now he's going to be helping the Democrats get their messages out to the youth because he's 28. And so he can speak to the youth. He's, he's on the same vibe. He, he, he pictures himself, according to one of his old tweets,

[00:05:43] so that he pictures himself as the fun uncle that'll, you know, sit and hang out with you and talk with you about all sorts of stuff. And because he's not having any kids of his own, he says on, uh, by, by choice, because, you know, climate change. And so, uh, he'll just be the fun uncle, a teacher kid had a skateboard, you know, whatever. So he's going to be the, he's going to be the, the, the bridge to the youth vote.

[00:06:10] Which I think that the defund the police messaging probably didn't. I don't think that went, I don't think that went well for you guys as Democrats. But apparently they're going to, they're going to keep some of them around. Um, this is from the independent journal review, but it's actually daily caller news foundation article, uh, talking about a historic November loss that Democrats suffered and it plunged them into an identity crisis.

[00:06:37] I was actually, we had friends over from out of town this weekend. And, uh, one of them was saying like that he doesn't know like who's in charge of the Democrats now. Like who is the person he's very frustrated. He was, you know, left of center and he was saying like a frustration that he has is that there isn't somebody there that is like leading the, the Democrat movement. And I said, yeah, it's a real problem. The best you got right now is Chuck Schumer.

[00:07:08] And I just like, I feel sorry for you guys. If that's your, that's your guy, you're relying on Chuck Schumer to be the one that motivates people around a cause. Yikes. Guy can't even grill a cheeseburger. Anyway, Democrats have split over the reasons behind their loss with voters. They don't know why they, they, they, they don't know why they are not doing well with voters.

[00:07:36] In a recent report, the New York times revealed that after more than 50 interviews with Democrats, the party, this is the New York times. They found the party is divided on how to mount a successful defense to Trump's policies and still doesn't know what its platform should actually be about. But DNC members gathered Saturday to finalize their selection of the new DNC chairman.

[00:08:05] And they chose Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor, Farmer Labor Party chairman, Ken Martin. In an interview with the New York times, after his win, Martin stated that the issue was not the policies themselves, but rather a messaging and brand problem. Quote, the policies that we support and the message that we have is not wrong.

[00:08:34] It is a messaging problem and a brand problem. Those voters are not connecting our policies with their lives. So, in other words, you're stupid. See, you just don't understand all the good stuff we do for you. All the stuff we have done for you. Our policies are for you. Why won't you understand it? Like, this is what they're going with.

[00:09:04] The policies we support and the message we have is not wrong. I find it interesting. He says the message is not wrong, but it's the messaging. So, it's not even your message. So, the things that you're saying is not wrong. You're totally right on how you're saying, what your policies are, what you stand for, what you believe in, what you've done, what you're going to do. All of that message is perfect. The problem is that when people hear it, they don't realize it's perfect. This is...

[00:09:35] Oh, my goodness. I completely agree with him. I completely agree. He should continue down this path. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News.

[00:09:57] It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news.com.

[00:10:39] I put the link in the podcast description, too. Which then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. All righty. So where was I? The Daily Caller News Foundation reporting on the Democrat National Convention that occurred... Or, yeah, the Democrat National Committee meeting that occurred where they elected their leadership.

[00:11:04] And they named a guy named Ken Martin as the new DNC chair. He has served as the DFL chairman, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party out of Minnesota, the DFL chair, for several terms. And said after his win that he would conduct a post-election review focusing mainly on tactics and messaging. Which, again, it's not the problem.

[00:11:33] Well, he did not define... By the way, when he says that voters are not connecting Democrat policies with their lives, and so it's a messaging problem. See, I would submit that voters are, in fact, connecting policies with their lives. And that is the actual problem. That's the actual problem. Is that they are doing that. And Democrats are in denial.

[00:12:00] Which is, like, that is the first stage of grief. You know, they're working through it. November was not that long ago. Martin said that he would conduct a post-election review focusing mainly on tactics and messaging while he did not define the parameters of the review.

[00:12:23] The one issue Martin will avoid is questioning whether Biden should have run for re-election. That is off the table. We are not going to take a look at whether Joe should have or should not have, and whether everybody that knew he was in cognitive decline should have or should not have. We're not going to look at any of our culpability in any of that. We're not going to talk about it.

[00:12:52] We're probably not even going to talk about Kamala Harris. We're not going to talk about the coup that put her in place. We are not going to talk about any of that. It's just about branding. More key chains. Bumper stickers. That's what we need to do. Yeah. Get that messaging out there. Ooh, maybe they'll go on to more podcasts like Call Her Daddy and such.

[00:13:22] Martin's sentiments mirror those of Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. This is the best they've got for a party leader right now who said in a January 5th interview on NBC, all too often we talk about the mechanics of the legislation and the details of the legislation,

[00:13:40] and we really didn't show the kind of empathy and concern to average or show enough of it to average working families who didn't realize how much we had done and how much we care for them. Yeah, see, they got wrapped up in the details of policy. That's what happened.

[00:14:02] When they were calling everybody Nazis, see, that's like, that was them focusing too much on policy and the mechanics of the legislation. Yeah, they were very interested in explaining to us how these votes move through committees and caucuses, and they were too tactical. We got into the weeds on policy too much. They, like, surely, surely you don't believe this.

[00:14:31] You cannot possibly believe this is the case. No. You saw the electoral wipeout that you saw because people disagreed with the way you were governing. They don't like what you were offering. We knew very well what you were offering because we got to see it for the last four years. That your party pushed for four years, going back actually longer than that. People got burnt out on you.

[00:15:01] They did not want what you were selling. They knew what you were selling, and they don't want any more of it. They don't, it's not that they didn't hear how much you care about them. They want you to stop caring about them. Just leave us alone. All right, I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says,

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[00:16:22] The Daily Caller News Foundation covering the Democrats' annual meeting where they, or not, well, I guess it's an annual meeting, but this is the one where they elected their new leader. And they picked a guy from the leftist Democrat Farmer Labor Party out of Minnesota. And Chuck Schumer, who has kind of been the de facto leader of the Democrat Party, my condolences, telling the New York Times, we're not going to go after every single issue.

[00:16:51] Schumer had already been pressured by half a dozen Democrat governors to be more aggressive in challenging the president's policies. So he's talking about how they're going to fight back against Trump, because that's what the Democrats are telling us. How do we fight back against Trump? How do we fight back against Trump? That's what they're all focused on. And so Schumer had said, we're not going to go after every single issue.

[00:17:16] But he's being pressured by Democrat governors, half a dozen of them, a whole half a dozen. So six, six governors out of like 20 to 30 governors across the country. I don't even know how many Democrat governors there are now. But six of them saying, you need to be more aggressive. And so now I got to wonder, is Chuck Schumer a short timer?

[00:17:40] Heading into the polls, voters held chief concerns over the administration's unbridled illegal immigration, the economy and rampant inflation. No, no, no, no. It's the messaging, people. It's not these issues. It's the messaging that Democrats failed at. See, immigration was fine. Which, by the way, have you noticed all the things that the Trump administration is able to do without new laws passed?

[00:18:11] I mean, talk about laying bare the lie. Wow. Right? We were told that you couldn't do immigration enforcement, the kind of which we're seeing right now. You couldn't do that unless Congress passed some new law. And then Donald Trump made some phone calls and stopped everybody. We had a bipartisan deal and all of that crap. When it turns out, you actually did have the power to do this stuff. You just didn't want to. Right?

[00:18:40] Failure is a choice here. It has been. Democrat Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett told the New York Times that the Democrat Party has, quote, no coherent message saying that everything that underlines Trump. I don't know what. Everything that underlines Trump. You mean like everything he does is rooted in, I think is what she's trying to say there.

[00:19:07] Everything that underlines Trump is white supremacy and hate. This is a perfect example of the Democrats problem. That is your coherent message. Democrats, that is your message. That's been your message. It hasn't changed. It's been that for eight years. We are all aware of what your message is.

[00:19:34] And while it may have felt good for a while and it may have gotten you some wins in the short term, it's not built to last. It burns itself out. Also, it's not terribly believable. We've been through four years of Trump. And people then went through four years of you and they said, bring back Trump. Yeah, we want that guy back. And so you calling him white supremacy and hate and all of that,

[00:20:04] and like that's the root of all things Trump. It's not believable. And it alienates. It alienates the very people that you're trying to persuade that you're not insane. And when you keep saying the same thing you've been saying for eight years and people have come to believe you are insane, they're not going to be disabused of that opinion when you keep saying the same thing.

[00:20:32] Social justice and climate change have not been top priorities for voters, with a majority in 2022 stating that they did not believe systemic racism exists. In an October Center Square's Voters Voice poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, 59% of voters supported a federal ban on sex change procedures, including puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgeries, from minors.

[00:20:59] 59% support a federal ban on those things for kids, despite Democrats advocating for kids to have access to that stuff. Like, it's not your messaging. It's you. It's you. Right? I don't... Like, I'm trying to be helpful here. You know me. I am a giver. Over at the Wall Street Journal, Molly Ball had an article. All the candidates could agree that the situation facing the party is dire.

[00:21:29] The Democratic brand is in the toilet, with a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing 60% of Americans view the Democrats unfavorably. 30, 60%, 36% say it favorably. Democrats lost ground with nearly every demographic group last November, including minorities, women, low-income voters, and those without college degrees. 20 big cities. This is a quote from former congressional candidate Adam Frisch.

[00:21:59] All right? Adam Frisch. He said, 20 big cities, Aspen and Martha's Vineyard, that's what's left of the Democratic Party. And I'm not exactly sure those 20 big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party. So said Frisch. Who lives in Aspen? He said, he lives in one of the places he just named.

[00:22:26] And he ran against Lauren Boebert. And he lost. But he overperformed the top of the ticket. But he still fell short in that race. And Democrats passed him over. He ran in a red rural district in Colorado. Overperformed. Barely lost. And Democrats were like, oh no, not you. Take a seat. We want the socialist from Minnesota to lead us. Yet.

[00:22:57] As the would-be leaders bickered over party mechanics, the very pathologies that many critics argue have alienated Democrats from the American heartland were on full display. A party captive to leftist activists, obsessed with divisive litmus tests, out of touch with regular people's concerns, and in thrall to a patronizing identity politics that alienates many of the very minorities it is meant to attract. Nor did anyone dare to argue that the prior administration's failures

[00:23:26] might have contributed to voters' sour view of Democrats, that Biden dragged the party down, or that Harris was a mediocre candidate. The party's outgoing chairman, Jamie Harrison, has been giving interviews, standing by his view, that Biden should not have dropped out of the presidential race. That's what the current DNC leader said, that Biden would have won. He shouldn't have dropped out, I guess. His would-be successors had nothing but praise for Biden's tenure.

[00:23:56] The party's leaders were vowing to turn the page, but it was clear many things have yet to change. That's from the Wall Street Journal. The new chairman of the DNC, Ken Martin, said, this is a new Democratic Party. We're taking the gloves off. Wait, did you put them on at some point? Did I miss that? I was unaware that you actually put gloves on. Well, like, now you're going to fight? Is that, like,

[00:24:23] what we have been seeing for the last eight years against Trump? That's, like, now you're going to get nasty. Now you're going to duke it out. We've been holding fire all this time. Like, just, like, they hold themselves up as, like, so morally superior. Like, guys, you weaponized the whole freaking federal intelligence agencies in community against, against Trump and his supporters. Like, we don't believe you. We don't believe

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[00:26:21] If anybody is interested, townhall.com is hiring a ton of positions. Kurt Schlichter noted that our new president is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, appropriately, since the Democrats are almost as mad about him deporting their illegal alien serfs as they were about us freeing their slaves. He says,

[00:26:50] we have gotten inside of their OODA loop. You know what an OODA loop is? Observe, orient, decide, act. Right? Observe, orient, orient. It's like, get oriented, look around, observe what's going on, look around, get oriented, and then decide what to do and then act on it. OODA loop. Okay? And Trump is all up in there. He is disrupting

[00:27:20] their OODA loop. And he asks a question later on in this piece, who's in charge of the Democrats right now? Who's the boss, the kingpin, the shot caller? Who is it? Is it Schuma? He said, they have no leader and that means they have no agenda. They have no coordinated response because they have nobody at the front of their symphony conducting. Trump is hitting them so fast and furious with so many things that so many people want, they don't know what to react to and by the time they decide on something like, oh, Elon lifted his arm, he must love Hitler.

[00:27:49] Trump is already driving a stake through the heart of one of their other beloved commie initiatives. Like USAID. Right? Hearing a lot about that over the last couple of, well, last day or so. Democrats have a real problem because Trump is doing what he promised to do. There are no surprises here. I said this last week. I said, when limited government conservative types say that they want to reduce the federal government,

[00:28:18] they want to cut federal spending, they want to cut federal government programs, when conservatives have said this, and I'm not talking about, you know, conservative elected officials, Republican elected officials, because they all say that too, but do they actually do it? Eh, not so much. Right? But when you talk to the actual voters, people who are not in elected office, but a lot of the people that work really hard and give their money

[00:28:47] to get those people into the elected offices, that's what they want. And so, when those people, the base, the party faithful, right, limited government types, when we see this stuff happening and he's ripping apart USAID and the left is freaking out and the GOP quote unquote establishment types

[00:29:17] are freaking out, we have no problem with it at all because that's what we wanted. And we thought you wanted that too because when we said we wanted it and you were like, oh, I concur. Do you concur? Oh, I concur. Okay, well then we all concur and then you got in there and you didn't do anything. Oh, and by the way, this whole idea that USAID, he can't, Trump can't rip that thing apart because he doesn't have that power as president. Yeah, that thing was created by a president, okay? An executive order created that thing that the more

[00:29:46] I learn about USAID, the more it becomes very apparent that it is a money laundering operation. This is what people were talking about with regard to the deep state. Money is extracted from taxpayers, it is then funneled through USAID and it goes to these NGOs, non-governmental organizations, these non-profits and all you got to do is throw the word democracy in the name of your non-profit and you too can get millions of dollars in funding from USAID

[00:30:15] as long as you're fighting Trump. And it creates this sort of green room, a waiting room if you will, for the next Democrat administration. So all these people go to work in the NGOs, they live off of taxpayer funds, don't really do a whole lot, but, you know, preserve democracy and then as soon as the Democrat wins, the White House, then they all just pick up and move and they're right in. It's like a plug and play operation and Trump is ripping that

[00:30:45] out root and branch. They're trying to gin up outrage, Schlichter says, and nobody cares. Trump is doing the things he said he would do, the things we elected him to do. It's hard to get people upset at a politician for doing what he promised. That's another part of their problem here. Trump said he was going to do this, he's doing this, and you're like, I can't believe he's doing this. I can't, that's what he said he was going to do. Schlichter says, it's amusing that when the left spins itself up

[00:31:15] about the things he does, they end up publicizing how Trump is actually keeping his word. We keep being told he's being too aggressive, too mean, and he's a bully. Okay? What else you got? Do they imagine Donald Trump is going to stop because his success is aesthetically displeasing to people who literally want to see him locked up forever or dead? No. That's not going to happen.

[00:31:44] What's going to happen? Trump's going to keep going. He's going to keep driving on. And there are plenty of spineless Republicans in the House and the Senate who are getting nervous at the prospect of not failing. Oh my gosh. This is success? Is this what it looks like? Success is outside their comfort zone. But pain, Schlichter says, is an outstanding teacher. And by the way, Quinnipiac University poll

[00:32:13] finds that Americans are about evenly split on their views of the Republican Party. 43 favorable, 45 unfavorable. Negative views of the Democrat Party, they are 26 points underwater. 57% unfavorable. That is catastrophic for the Democrat Party. It is also unprecedented. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them

[00:32:43] you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepcalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone. Thank you.