Latest pitch: MAGA... but for Democrats! (08-21-20250--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio and 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 thepeakclendarshow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So I have a pitch. I'd like to make a pitch for the Democrats because look, you know me, I am all about solutions and I am a giver. So I know Democrats are having some problems right now. The loss of the voter registration numbers and such. It really really bad. I went over at last hour. If you didn't hear it, you can hear it on the podcast the peapod dot com. But I want to help. Them, just like they are always interested in helping Republicans, you know, come back in from the wilderness. Whenever the Republicans lose a bunch of elections, we always get the very helpful guidance from media and Democrats. But I repeat myself about how the Republicans can come back in from the wilderness what they need to do to be better and detract more voters and stuff. So here's my pitch, MAGA Democrat maga, but without actually making America great again and just stuffed with a bunch of leftist anti American commies. How about that? Oh, what's that you say? That idea has already been pitched. Well darn it. Okay, so Axios has the piece here It is headlined behind the curtain Rising Democratic MAGA movement. Yeah, so here's the thing. MAGA means, make America great again. Right, but if you don't like America and you didn't think it ever was great, it's not going to work because it's right there in the m A G A. That's what that means. And you don't want America. If you believe America is the source of all of the world's problems, then you're not going to want to empower it. You're wanting to tear down the systemically racist, homophobic, islamophobic, xenophobic institutions upon which the Western society was built. Right. But yeah, but this is this is an idea, and as I always say, there are no bad ideas under the cone of creativity. Okay, so if we're just spitballing out here, we're just throwing stuff up against the wall seeing what sticks. Let's let's hear the pitch from Jim Van de High and Mike Allen. Democrats are tortured by what they should stand for now and heading into the twenty twenty eight elections, they don't know what to stand for. I don't believe you, axios. I don't believe you. I think they do know what to stand for. They just know that it's not popular. That's why they always say that their message isn't getting out. It's just the messaging problem. It's not the actual message. It's not the it's not the ideology or the policies. It's you know, it's not their fault for coming up with bad ideas. No, no, it's their fault because they just haven't been able to communicate with you, knuckle dragging baskets of deplorables. But Democrats are tortured by what they should stand for. A number of current trends suggest a likely answer, their own version of a populist anti establishment maga like makeover. Yeah, so here's the problem. And I know some Trump supporters get mad when I say this, But Donald Trump was a lifelong Democrat. Donald Trump's not a conservative. Donald Trump is like a nineteen eighties Democrat. Okay, these are things. The stuff that he is saying now put him squarely in the old Democrat party ranks. The fact that you guys now hate him so much is indicative not of him. For anything. It's indicative of your slide further away from what y'all used to believe in and where most Americans actually still are. So they talk about the four mega trends that are shaping Democrats' efforts to remake their image and rewrite their agenda. They talk about the media. So they're like, you know, the legacy media is fading in its mesmerizing hold over liberals. So wait a minute, So liberals are mesmerized by the mainstream media, what does that mean? Does that mean like you could just tell them anything and they'll believe you, because that does actually make a lot of sense. Right, But now you've got this thing called podcasting. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's a new. Thing, and they're like, we need our own Joe Rogan, you've heard of this laughable line like, you guys used to have Joe Rogan. You had him and then you went moon back crazy, and now he doesn't want to. Be associated with you guys, because you're like, no, it's. Totally fine to have this dude beaten the tar out of a chick, right, No, can't do that. Don't care if you put him in a boxing ring or not. Men and women are different sort of stuff, but they also talk about ai. They talk about attention, how to get attention. And that's why Zorn mam Dani right. The attention economy favors the bold, and he is bold, and so you want to be like the kami right. And then the other one, the fourth Megatren, they said, is mood mood. And here's what they say. You see it every day. From California Governor Gavin Newsom's foul mouthed declarations of redistricting wars to Representative Jasmine Crockett mocking her state's Republican governor Greg Abbott for using a wheelchair. No, okay, okay, Axios, Hang on a second, Jim Mike, Guys, she didn't mock him for using a wheelchair. She mocked him because he's paralyzed. See that's the difference. She like, because that makes it sound like you're mocking him for using a wheelchair. What's implied there is that when he otherwise wouldn't need to write like he's exaggerating or something. He didn't need to be in the wheelchair, or maybe he's like obese or something he needs to use a wheelchair. No, no, no, the man is paralyzed. He's in a wheelchair. He cannot get out of the wheelchair to walk or anything. It's not his choice. He's paralyzed. And she called him hot wheels. That's mocking a man for his disability. But it's different when Democrats. Do that sort of thing. So that's why there hasn't been the kind of cancelation or outrage from Usually the people that have the suicidal empathy. They apparently don't see Greg Abbott as some sort of oppressed victim being in a wheelchair. So it's okay because she's a Democrat. He's a Republican, you know, white guy, even paralyzed, doesn't matter. He's been so she gets to say that sort of thing and they hoot and holler and yuck it up though they think it's hilarious. I also think it's interesting that they noted Gavin Newsom's cussin, which I've been noticing as well, among not just Gavin Newsom, but a great many Democrats who have now adopted the curse word as some sort of a signal to their base that I'm fighting. Ooh, I'm gonna fight, fight, fight for you. Look at me. I'm gonna use a word that I'm not allowed to say, but I'm gonna say the word, and that shows I'm ready to fight. The problem is, these people don't seem like they've actually ever uttered the word. It just doesn't flow right, you know. It looks like one of the It looks like a third grader who just learned a curse word from like their older cousin at the family reunion, and they don't really know what it means, and so they just start dropping it everywhere and it doesn't make any sense. Like that's the kind of vibe get from a lot of these Democrats. But they say the Democrats are tired of looking and feeling like chumps. Well, guys, there's a reason why you're feeling like that and looking like that. It's because you are. And that's not Donald Trump didn't make you a chump. You did that to yourselves. Y'all have done that to yourselves by taking these positions and saying the things you say, you know, being soft on criminals and crime and the like, and being harsh on people who say something that triggers you or something no. No Democrats want to brawl politically and verbally, fight fight, fight. The problem is you need somebody that's believable, authentic. You might say in the language of the young kids, you want authentic. Do they have that? I don't know. They're faux leads. So here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath, taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their Cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabinsofashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Style over substance is the problem with the Democrat Party. They think that it's all just style. They think that it's not the substance. They keep telling themselves that if we just say things better, then people will vote for us in the ways that they used to, without recognizing that they have tacked further and further and further to the left over the last fifteen years, and people are rejecting it. It's not the way you're saying things. It's what you're saying. We understand what you're saying. From the Act CEOs article, Democrats look at the GOPS twenty twenty four gains and realize they will be left behind if they don't abruptly change how they communicate. Suddenly everybody's a brawler and talks about, you know, the dropping of various vulgarities and such, peppering your speech with it, or maybe hosting a bunch of fleeing Democrats from Texas. And then there's this quote from Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat from Michigan, who told The New York Times that her party needs quote alpha energy like Tim Walls, for example. I suspect that's what they mean. Think about that. This is the crowd that put Tim Walls in front of you and said this is the archetypal alpha male that we think dude should emulate. They thought that we heard them, and we disagree. We disagree. I'm not going to take my physical pantomime cues from a guy doing jazz hands. Not going to do it. Most dudes are not going to do it. You can dress them up in all the camo you want. Not going to do it. Dudes are raging kami. I don't care. Even if he was giving off WWE alpha energy doesn't matter. Dude's akami not going to follow him. So she says her party needs alpha energy. Speaking about your gut and your emotion, she really has her finger on the pulse of dudes. We love talking about our emotions. Love it. Oh my gosh, there's nothing I'm doing jazz hands right now. As a matter of fact, sign me up as a Minnesota Vikings cheerleader. Holy cow, I think Democrats have lost that. She says. We respond to people's pain with a long list of wonky policies. No, you don't, No, you don't like this, this idea that Democrats are unable to tap into their emotion note coming from an awful, affluent white liberal woman. Right, Oh my gosh, you have no idea how to get out of this circling of the dream. You have no clue. This is somebody that actually believes this enough to give a quote to The New York Times and say this kind of dumb assery. Democrats have lost the ability to speak with emotion. And when people tell them their pain, the Democrats respond with a long list of wonky policies. Yeah, that's what happens. When they're not screaming that you're a Nazi, they're Yeah, they're talking about all their policies, right, of course. The Axios piece concludes with this from Matt Bennett, co founder of the center left think tank called Third Way, who said Democrats need combative centrists and said it would be a huge mistake for the party to overread the attention that the left is currently getting. Quote, the very online left are the only ones who actually believe that kind of politics can flip seats and win the House. We've got to appeal to the gigantic group of voters who have left Democrats in the last ten years. Those people are not looking for socialism, They're looking for fighters, but only ones who share their values. And Axios concludes a little thing they called the bottom line. Trump's suit fits Trump uniquely. Others who try to don it can wind up looking like clowns, precisely because Donald Trump is very. Tall and he's a big guy. Okay, that's not a weight joke, although he has put on some pounds over the years. But like he's he's a big dude. You put on his suit, you're gonna you're gonna like a child, right, And this is like this whole idea that we need to be maga. It's not even your own idea. And you can't even do it because what he's talking about in making America great again are things that the vast majority of Americans agree with, but you don't, so you can't. You can't be maga. It's just it's style over substance or lying. It's lying. You just haven't found the right bumper sticker or slogan like hope and Change something like that. You just haven't figured out how to brand your socialism. You just hadn't figured that out yet. But once we get that focus group testing just right, then we're gonna come in and we're gonna drop a bunch of f bombs. We're gonna give you that Hope and Change slogan, and then we're gonna win. It's like, you guys didn't just have the White House for four years. You had the house as well, right, you had In recent times, you have had the trifecta, and you have made people's lives worse by the way. Have you seen the crime stats out of DC the first time, the first time I think since March of last year. I want to say I've got the story. Washington, DC went one week without a murder first time. People want safe neighborhoods. People don't want open borders, the things you guys have pushed for most Americans do not want. And until you change the policies and alienate some of your left wing moon bat base, you're not going to find a way out of the wilderness. All right, You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, Well, let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up and reward their teams. You own a business or you work somewhere that offers these incentive trips. First off, good for you, but also there is a custom app that's a game changer for these trips. It's called Incentive Tripkit. Private group messaging, shared photos, your itinerary, travel details, all built into a single, easy to use app. There's even a traveler locator, so Carl from Accounting doesn't get left behind. The best part about Incentive trip Kit it's totally private, no email captures, no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure, and when the trip is over, Incentive trip Kit turns those highlights into a professional storytelling video. So think about it. When you launch next year's incentive trip campaign, that video becomes your greatest motivator. Talk about a. Return on investment, right, You got to check out Incentive trip Kit for your business. Visit Incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even better returns. So here's the piece. This is from David Marcus at Fox News. As of yesterday afternoon, the nation's capital has had no murders for seven days, something that had not been achieved since March and something that Marcus can find no recent record of in the summer months. And that's important the summer months if you're comparing, you know, same time last year, because summer usually sees a lot more murders because it's hot, it's sticky, it's the swamp, and people get all agitated because they're hot and sticky, and then they murder each other. I think that's why that happens. So no record of a week without murders in Washington, DC. Last Monday, when a man was tragically gunned down in Logan Circle. Just hours after the Trump takeover, Congressman Eric Swallwell, the flatulator fang fan Naylor, took to social media to say that Trump owns this. Remember that as Trump said, We're gonna take over the DC Police Department, We're going to bring law and order back, and then somebody was murdered and then immediately swallows like this is on you. Yet no word if the congressman agrees that Trump also owns all of the lives that haven't been lost in the week since he actually got troops on the ground. And it's not just murder. According to the local police union, robbery down forty six percent over the week, carjackings down eighty three percent, violent crime down twenty two percent. Turns out you didn't need more laws, you just needed somebody to actually enforce them. As I keep saying, this is. A choice, but Democrats, they raced to be on the unpopular side of this issue. Oh you're taking over DC, fascist orange hitler. Right when I saw videos of people driving around and they're like, I can actually drive through my town, my hometown of Washington, I can drive through my neighborhood with my windows down because they aren't able to do that. Haven't been able to do that. See, this is why Democrats can't adopt a MAGA movement as their guide out of the wilderness here, because they fundamentally disagree with the things most Americans want. So you're gonna have to lie. You guys are going to have to just rely on some slick marketing to lie to people and sell them something that they don't actually want. Noah Rothman at National Review talking about the democrats depression here. That was in that Axios article. He talks about Democrats are deploying gratuitous profanity, an obvious consultant driven contrivance designed to convey authenticity on the cheap. But who is that for? Exactly likely the Democrats who are responding to what studies have determined is the emotional catharsis that profanity provides those who suffer from stress, anxiety, and depression. Right, This is why they go out into the woods and scream at the trees, right or yell at the ocean. They're literally doing this. They hate Trump. They're so demented they go out and yell at nature in these primordial yaps. It's not exactly reckless armchair psychologizing rather to speculate that a movement currently calling on its elected representatives to literally make a bullet for their cause is in desperate need of catharsis right. The Democrats' depression is pronounced, and it is less transient. In other words, it's embedded. Why well, The left's general unhappiness relative to their counterparts on the right has been the subject of psychological study for well over a decade. Indeed, the General Social Survey has found a measurable happiness gap between conservatives and liberals for over half a century. Half a century right, the so called wellness gap has widened in recent years. Self described progressives and liberals consistently report higher rates of depression and are more likely to say they struggle with mental health. These are persistent phenomena. Last year, New York Times columnist Thomas Edsel asked Notre Dame scholar Timothy Judge if the left's problem wasn't its own politics, That a barrage of negative reinforcement surrounding the illegitimacy of the American founding, the rise of fascism, the loss of the democracy, the imminence of climatological apocalypse, so on, and so forth, like maybe these things are having a deleterious effect on the true believer's mental health, and Judge said quote, I do share the perspective that a focus on status hierarchies and institutions that reinforce privilege contributes to an external locus of control. What does that mean? An external locus of control means somebody else is doing this to you, which is what oppressor oppressed dynamics, power dynamics, Marxism. It makes people mentally unwell, It makes you anxious, it makes you sad, it makes you depressed. It makes you generally not pleasant to be around, which then also makes you depressed. He observed that a conventionally conservative philosophy, one that is antithetical to populist excuse making and emphasizes the exercise of individual agency to improve your lot in life, that this is less disempowering than the progressive outlook. In other words, people who take personal responsibility for their own actions and to make their way and say, if I failed, it's not because there's some whole system out to get me. It's because I just didn't do something correctly, and so I'm going to figure out what I didn't do correctly. Fix that, and then I will be able to succeed. Democratic partisans are rather attached, though, to their negative feedback loop. Rothman says, they are responding to incentives. The politicians are responding to incentives from their base, the members of which only want to see their peak mirrored by their representatives. They don't have time for delayed gratification. They don't want discretion in picking fights, just fight them all. They don't want anything reflective of strategic thought here. These voters want external validation, a change in their environmental conditions that might might maybe relieve the existential panic that they are wrestling with. One day, the left may conclude that politics does not provide the inner piece that they are seeking. But that day is not today, 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. 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 dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. So, again, because I am a giver and I am all about solutions, here's another pitch for Democrats looking to make your way out of the wilderness and become a beloved party political party among Americans. How about this, Rather than try to have your own Democrat Maga movement, how about this. Love America. Just do that. I know it sounds pretty simple, maybe a little bit icky, you know, maybe go to you know, a July fourth parade. I know, like I know you know how to go to parades. You go to different parades, but maybe go to one that honors and celebrates the nation that you were born into. That represents the idea that all people are created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. Those are yours, and the government is simply there to protect them. It doesn't give them to you. You have those rights. That's the idea, property ownership, liberty, and the ability to govern ourselves. That's these are very simple concepts. That's not the same America's perfect. No nation is, because all nations are made up of people, and no person is perfect, right, So just start there, Just start by loving America. And the reason I offer that is because looking at this polling from Signal, you guys don't like America very much. That's what you're saying, and that's a problem if you're trying to get Americans to vote for you. Ben Dominic at the Spectator dot com has the This the polling from Signal. It's a survey of fifteen hundred likely voters, margin of error just two and a half percent. With the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America's founding approaching, next year. The majority of Americans are happy to applaud their country. Sixty three percent say yes, the birthday of the United States is a moment to celebrate. Just sixty three percent say the two hundred and fiftieth birthday of America is worthy to celebrate. Unfortunately for those who would like such an event to be bipartisan and unifying, which, by the way, I want that to be. I want Americans to love America. I want Americans to identify as Americans. That's a much better way to live in a nation. And unless you don't believe in the concept of nation states, which I understand is a pretty new thing in the course of human development, but this is a good way to order a society, come up with the principles that are as we have them, and then unify under that banner. But the majority is overwhelmed that this sixty three percent is overwhelmingly driven by Republicans, which this number is actually kind of surprising too to me. Just eighty nine percent of America of Republicans. Rather, eighty nine percent of Republicans say that this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary is a moment of triumph. On the other side of the aisle. Only thirty seven percent of Democrats say that there's something to celebrate, so two thirds say no. Fifty eight percent of Democrats say no, not much to celebrate or there's nothing to celebrate. Fifty eight percent of Democrats see this is what Trump derangement syndrome does to one. Also critical consciousness, right, that's what this does to your brain. Sixty four percent of single female Democrats say there isn't anything to celebrate. Rate after two and a half centuries of America, sixty four percent say there's nothing to celebrate. Nothing. What about women's right to vote? Can't you celebrate that you still have that right to vote? We didn't take all your rights away under Project twenty twenty five. Right, I mean. This catastrophism, It has broken your brains, Like this is not normal. America is not the norm in human development. Okay, the explosion of growth, innovation, wealth, longer life spans, all of this stuff started with us. Why Because it let loose, It unleashed the potential of the individual. It allowed liberty to flurish, and people then came up with all sorts of ideas that in the past would have been repressed. Or they never even would have had time to go, you know, tinker in the word in the workshop and try to invent, you know, the next computer or something. There's a lot to celebrate. You should celebrate it. You can't tell me that every single thing in America's history, everything about the country, is terrible and not worth celebrating. You can't say that that's because it's wrong. I mean, I guess you could say it, and then we would know that you are anti American. And maybe that's really at the heart of this is that they've been trained up in Marxism through their education through K twelve and into college. They've been radicalized, and so they believe that America is the source of all evil in the world, that we are responsible for all of the problems on the planet. In which case then I would say, why are you still here, Why would you want to be a part of that? Why would you still identify that? My goodness, you believe you can change your own sex and gender, so why not change your nationality. That's something that you actually can do. Twenty eight percent of single female Democrats said they do like the country they live in. Just twenty eight percent White Democrats are much more pessimistic. Than Black Democrats. Is that surprising? Overall, fifty eight percent of Americans fifty eight percent say that after two hundred and fifty years, the United States remains a force for good in the world. I am in that fifty eight percent. Thirty six percent disagree. And once again it breaks along party lines. Eighty six percent of Republicans say we're a force for good, thirty one percent of Democrats say we're a force for good. Once again, white leftists are the drivers of the anti American sentiment. Hispanic Democrats say America is a force for good thirty three percent and forty one percent of Black Democrats think that. It's the awfuls. 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 you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.