On this episode of The Tudor Dixon Podcast, Tudor sits down with top pollster Nick Weinstein of Cygnal to break down what Americans are really thinking about the biggest political and economic issues shaping the country ahead of the 2026 midterms. From rising grocery and gas prices to the war with Iran, the MAHA movement, immigration enforcement, and growing distrust in institutions, Tudor and Nick dive into the polling data behind today’s headlines.
They also discuss the political fallout from the Farm Bill, the debate over pesticides and food safety, why voters are frustrated with both parties, the future of Trump’s coalition, and how Democrats are navigating issues like ICE, crime, and progressive economic policies. Plus, they examine why cities like Seattle are losing major corporations, what the workforce of the future could look like in the AI era, and whether Republicans are on track to lose the House in 2026.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, we are going
to go over all the crazy things that are happening
in the political world right now. So we decided we
needed a good pollster to tell us how do people feel,
because if you are on Twitter or you're on social media,
you think you know how people feel, but that's not
exactly how everybody feels. Like we always say, Twitter is
(00:22):
not real life. Do not assume that everything that you
see on the Internet is how the whole country feels.
But Nick Weinstein is with us today. He is with Signal.
It is a polling firm that is one of the
most accurate private polling firms in the country. Nick, thank
you for joining me today. Yeah, it's great to be here.
Thanks Juter. I'm really excited about this because it's something
(00:44):
that we talk about all the time. But we are
kind of focused on the trends on social media and
we are seeing obviously high prices. We're seeing high prices
at the grocery store. We're seeing high prices for gas,
We're seeing kind of this Maha fight right now. I
wanted to get into some of these subjects with you,
and right now, the farm bill just passed there was
(01:05):
a bit of well, we've seen Alex Clark going after
some of these politicians pretty hard because she's saying that
there were some protections in there for the pesticide companies.
Give us your breakdown on that.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, I mean the Farm Bill is usually not as interesting.
I feel like it was this past year. And you
know it's because of Maha. It's also because you know,
in our most recent survey, the number one issue for
families right now, it's as far as you know, cost
of living is at the grocery store, which directly ties
back to our agriculture industry. But we actually explored at
(01:42):
the beginning of this month voters attitudes when it comes
to major institutions, institutions like Congress, the federal government, and corporations.
And there's a lot of distrust on both sides of
the isle. And as President Trump has remade the Republican
Party and to the party of you know, working class Americans,
(02:03):
I think it's really important that are elected Republican representatives
in Congress remember that that's the voters that they need
to be speaking to. And if they can't articulate to
the American people, why the policy that they're supporting in
Congress is going to help the average American on main Street,
not the average boardroom on Wall Street. We maybe need
(02:24):
to reconsider whether that's a policy worth pushing. And certainly
when it comes to, you know, liability for these pesticide
manufacturers that have, you know, potentially negatively impacted communities, it
shouldn't be a surprise that that's not popular with everyday Americans.
And it's kind of the old school Republican Party that
a lot of voters still feel like is kind of
(02:45):
laying in the weeds here in Washington, d C. And
it's good that folks are calling it out.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, you watch this, I mean literally you're watching messaging
every day. If you were able to sit down with
these folks and tell them, this is what you're going
to get hammered with, and this should be your response,
what would you say? Because I've seen a lot of
a lot of these congresswomen and men. I think more
women are being called out because there does feel like
there's kind of a mom uprising against this because as
(03:13):
mothers were going what are our kids eating? And I
think the most disturbing part about these pesticides is that
they're in the foods that every food that we're buying
and we don't even know, we're just finding this out.
So there's there is a bit of rage about this.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, and we tested earlier this year some of these
MAHA messages and they were some of the only messages
that in this like hyper polarized political environment actually break
through with both Republicans and with Democrats. And when we
talk about challenging the status quo, eighty eight percent of
Republicans want legislators to challenge the status quo when it
comes to policies around health and food safety. Sixty five
(03:51):
percent of Democrats. That's as close to a consensus issue
as we're going to find out there. And I think,
you know, there are some legitimate concern is about you know,
trial lawyers in the trial bar, you know, using the
court system to drive up prices for consumers. And I
think that that's maybe a root of some of the
(04:11):
concerns when it comes to, you know, does litigating this
for billions and billions of dollars year over year over
year actually help work in class Americans? I think that's
a debate that we can have. But if we're couching
this argument on the right and among some of these
conservative lawmakers is saying, hey, we're going to protect corporations
from being sued when they damage communities. That's just not
a winning argument. We've got to always make it about
(04:31):
the people. And if we can't explain how the policy
benefits the people, like I said, we should probably reconsider.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's interesting. I just as I was walking in here,
and I'm not even one hundred percent sure what the
case is, but I saw that the acting Attorney General
is bringing a case against like the big meat houses
because he says that there's not an it's not fair competition.
It's something that we've heard for years. Actually, I think
it was like the Prime Act that Congressman Massey actually
(04:59):
brought to the to the table back in like I
think it was twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, saying
that a lot of these mom and pop shops had
been put out of business. And I think that people
don't necessarily understand that the lobbying that happens in Washington
allows big corporations to take over, and then big corporations
(05:22):
when they're producing in mass they want to make sure
that they have these quick fixes, and maybe sometimes that
is the pesticides. Maybe it's something else, but ultimately it
also shuts down the smaller farms, the smaller meat packing plants.
It shuts people down, and those people who were maybe
taking different levels of care with things. It's a manipulation
(05:45):
because they go to Washington, they say, oh, they're not
careful enough. What do you think it means to have
the Attorney general kind of go after this? Is this
a good message to support those MAHA moms in this
moment where we're going into the midterms.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, I think so right. And my experience before coming
to signal was in the state attorney general space, and
for a while there it was always the Democrats that
were doing the better job than Republicans of messaging around
issues like consumer protection because Republicans were, right or wrong,
perceived as the party of big business, and we were
always very cautious to do anything that, you know, might
(06:23):
you know, affect job creators. And this is a winning issue.
And you just look at the bureaucracy around agriculture here
in the United States, and you look, whether it's anecdotal
or you know, in studies, at the health outcomes here
versus what we see in Europe. And there's there's there's
something happening here and it merits government intervention here. And
(06:47):
I think, you know, RFK Junior and the Department of
Justice are well positioned to ask the tough questions. And
you know, I think, as you know, as politicians and
those advising politicians, if we're not if we're not asking
tough questions of people in power, the American people are
going to see right through us and say that, you know,
(07:09):
we're not doing our jobs. And I can report it's
no surprise. Approval of Congress is it its lowest level
in generations. I think we're at, you know, fifteen percent
approval of the job that Congress is doing. So encouraging
all of our members of Congress ask the tough questions,
try to do something different because the American people don't
like what we're selling.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
What are the American people feeling now about this war?
Because I'm going to the grocery store, prices are skyrocketing.
I was honestly not this past week, but the week
before I was stunned with my grocery bill, the gas
bill same. I mean, you go to the gas tank
and you are like, are you kidding me? This is ridiculous.
So how does how does the administration get through that?
(07:52):
And what's the what's the opinion of the war right now?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, so we are in the field every month. At
the beginning of this month, the war was about a
fifty to fifty issue, which as far as issues go
for President Trump, a fifty to fifty issue as in
a particularly bad one. But it had moved in the
wrong direction from the very early days of the war
to now. And I think the problem that the Trump
administration has is we asked voters, we said, what do
(08:18):
you think the positive outcome of the war is? Like,
what is victory in this war in Iran? And there's
there's no consensus. We let people pick as many issues
as they thought could be considered victory in Iran, and
not a single issue got over fifty percent. Even when
we talk about things like, you know, stopping terrorism, you know,
denying Iran, you know, a nuclear weapon. There's just there's
(08:41):
no consensus around what winning this war looks like. And
if I'm President Trump and I'm thinking about, you know,
whether we restart you know, kinetic operations against the Iranians,
if we start striking Iran again, I think it's a.
The administration needs to do a better job with the
American people of explaining what we're trying to accomplish, because
(09:01):
even if they achieve all of their goals, given that
there's no consensus about what those goals are, they're never
going to be able to declare victory. And that's a
major political problem. They also just need to keep in
the back of their mind that, you know, if this
continues to November, voters are telling us that it's going
to make them more likely to vote Democrat than Republican
by about a two to one margin. And there's just
(09:21):
not a lot of appetite for higher prices. I think
people are already feeling squeezed. Inflation and the economy is
the number one issue this month for voters, and there's
just no appetite among the American people to pay higher
prices for any extended period of time, whether it's the
result of war anything else.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Is there a way to explain the war that they
haven't done already. I mean, I have heard criticisms. I
think that there is a challenge when you're dealing with
this type of media where the media is constantly agreeing
with these radical leftists like Oh this is Netanyahoo's bad,
this is an Israel thing, This has nothing to do
with the United States. And they administration is kind of
(10:01):
pushing back on that and saying, look, America has got
to be safe. We have people that are being killed
over there, we have allies there at risk. But it
doesn't seem like they've been able to achieve that actual
message getting through as to the why.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, and I think you hit the nail on the head.
And some of this is because of the strikes last year,
where we, you know, significantly set back the Iranian nuclear program.
And I think in the eyes of the American people,
the number one issue in Iran is a nuclear program
and then everything else kind of falls in after that.
But let's just be clear. I mean, there's there's no
(10:37):
groundswell of support for Iran here. Only ten percent of
Americans have, you know, a favorable opinion of Iran, and
unfortunately those voices are getting outsized attention in the mainstream
media and particularly among the folks on the radical left.
So the problem isn't that Iran's popular or that the
United States shouldn't potentially be intervening over there, us that
(11:01):
Trump and the administration hasn't done the best job of
setting a clear expectation for what the goal is and
how long Loogle is going to take to achieve, and
what victory is going to look like. And you know,
you hear a lot of negative comparisons about what we're
doing over there to you know, the First Golf War,
which I think many people saw, was you know this
massive you know, military success, and the difference between what
(11:23):
we're seeing now and what we saw back in the
First Golf Wars. We made it very clear before the
First Golf War what our goal was. Our goal was
to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and once we achieved
that goal, we declared victory and we got out. But
people don't remember that over three hundred Americans lost their
lives in the First Golf War. I think over forty
five aircraft were shot down. So the idea that we're
(11:45):
in a quagmire or that you know, what's happening in
Iran right now is some you know, major military disaster
for the United States is you know, complete democrat in
Iranian propaganda. We just got to do a better job
of messaging on it so that the American people are
able to celebrate the victory when we've achieved it.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I think back then you also had a more united country,
but a more united Republican party. There was also more
support in the media. Right now, we talk a lot
about the fractures in the Democrat Party because obviously they
have this extremist left that seems to be taking over.
I mean, you just saw Janet Mills drop out of
(12:24):
the race in Maine. You've got Graham Plattner, who has
a Nazi tattoo. The guy has said terrible things about women.
I mean, his comments are just horrendous, regarding rape and
all these different things. But he's a radical leftist and
they're lifting him up. I mean she stepped out of
the race. You've got the same thing in Michigan where
you have the two leftists US Senator Senate candidates are
(12:48):
kind of battling it out for the hearts and minds
of the people in Michigan right now. So we do
look at that as like, oh, they have this big
kind of split in their party. However, when you talk
about out the golf War and you talk about those Republicans,
I do think that there is a Republican party from
the past that is much different than the MAGA Republican Party.
(13:10):
How do you see that playing out? Because we've heard
behind the scenes that there are some of those people
that feel like they're not I guess, for lack of
a better term, Trump Republican, and they don't want to
be with that group. Do you see those people splitting off?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I still don't think that the Democrats have a home
for those people yet. And we're we're in a two
party system, right, so, you know, we asked voters, you know,
what do you see is the priority of Democratic Party?
And for forty five percent of people of a plurality,
it's just opposing President Trump. And I think because the
Democrats are going through their own sort of you know,
(13:48):
civil war at the grassroots level, you know, those more
moderate voices in the Democratic Party that could be a
home for like disaffected Republicans. I just don't see the
Democratic Party being a welcoming place for those type of voters.
So I don't think there's a place for those those
people to go. And I just I also think that
when we look at the coalition that supports the war
(14:10):
in Iran, Republicans are fairly unified on the war in
Iran and in fact, Maga Republicans are more supportive of
the War of Iran than Republicans overall. So I think
it's a bit of a misnomer, probably driven largely as
you let off the show with sort of the echo
chamber of social media and some of these kind of loud,
vocal anti war voices that are either on the right
or claimed to be on the right, that are, you know,
(14:33):
driving the share of the conversation that just isn't really
actually reflective of, you know, where the base of the
Republican Party is today. But I would just come back
to there's a populist maybe not a revolt, maybe it
revolt's too strong of a word, but there's major, major
populist anxiety and anger underpinning both the Republican Party and
(14:55):
the Democratic Party, and those voters are solely focused on
the economy and they're just incredibly frustrated with incumbent politicians
and both political establishments. So it's not a surprise to
me that we see what's happening in Maine and in
Michigan and across the country on the left. We'll probably
see more of it on the right as well, but
(15:16):
that anger is still out there And if you're running
for elected office on either side of the aisle this
year and you're not speaking to those voters and talking
to those voters and hearing those voters' concerns and making
that a part of your party's platform, you're probably going
to be behind the eight ball.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, I think we're hearing a lot, especially on the
Democrat side, We're hearing a lot of ice talk. And
you've got that from ground Platner. You've got that from
both Malorie McMorrow and Abdul Alsaiad. You have Penny flanneg
or Peggy Flanagan talking about this in Minnesota. I mean
she even came out and started to say that we
should celebrate the people who were against the Lake and
(15:55):
Riley Act and going full blown anti Lake and Riley Act.
And this is after we've had these raids in Minnesota.
But if you look at the people that were taking
out of Minnesota, I mean, there was a really good
chance that you would end up with a situation very
similar to Lake and Riley's there had these people not
been we're talking about child rapists, and some of them
(16:15):
already happened. I mean, we're talking murderers, child rapists, we're
talking about like the worst of the worst people. Is
that message resonating with Democrats? Do they have this feeling
that ice doesn't isn't necessary.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, So it's it's a party of contradictions because if
you ask voters, do you believe that we should deport
criminal illegal aliens? An overwhelming majority of Republicans, as you
would expect, but a majority of Democrats also want to
see criminal illegal aliens deported. And it's an incredibly popular
issue with Independence as well. And I think this is
(16:52):
maybe one of the missteps of the early Trump administration
was we let too much of the focus shift away
from those criminal illegal aliens, and we kind of fell
into the Democrats trap of you know, making this about
you know, the sheer number of people deported, and it
allowed them to you know, put a bunch of you know,
(17:12):
faces on camera that were you know, not those you know,
high level criminals that the Trump administration has been just
so efficient at deporting and allowed them to be the
face of this immigration enforcement. And so look, I it's
the political situation is almost exactly the same as it
was I think when Trump took office, Like the Democratic
(17:34):
Party is far far to the left of where the
average American is on this issue. Just unfortunately, because Trump
has just been so successful at closing the southern border
and tackling immigration in a really like public and forward
facing way, it's just not resonating at the top of
people's minds the same way that it was sort of
the number two issue behind the economy heading into November
(17:57):
of twenty twenty four. Ppublicans could still definitely take advantage
when the Democrats put themselves far out of whack and
start defending you know, these rapists and these you know,
criminal illegal aliens that are here and are going about
for those folks, but it's just not going to have
the same impact on election day because it's just not
as big an issue for the people that aren't really
(18:17):
tuned into the election at all, the sort of independent
voters that pay attention at the last minute and actually
can be swull one way or the other.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
How effective are Mom Donnie politics today? Though? You see
a lot of these people that are following his lead
of like tax the rich, We'll get all of the
money from them, there will be all these free things,
And obviously we're seeing that play out and in kind
of a negative way in New York City right now.
So is that going to carry across the country where
people are going to look at New York and say,
(18:47):
maybe texting the rich is not the best idea or
are they still there?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, I mean it's always the problem, right as you know,
our wealthiest Americans in the eyes of the average person,
they're not a very yet they're not some and that
folks feel like they need to rally around, right And
you know, part of the disaster of New York City
is that we, as Republicans, and I'm a native Western
New Yorker, we did an awful job in that New
York City mayor's race. We didn't put forth a credible
(19:13):
Republican alternative, right, We gave voters a choice between all
of the stuff that I just told you that people
are fed up with and they hate Andrew Cuomo, a former,
disgraced former governor, an establishment politician who represents everything that
voters on both sides of the aisle despise about the
Democratic Party, against someone in Mom Donnie who has a
(19:35):
bunch of abysmal policy ideas, but at the very least
as a young fresh face and is someone who is
speaking to the anger that average New Yorkers were feeling
about the political establishment, and now it The first few
months of his term have been a complete disaster. I
think that honeymoon, if it's not already it over, is
coming to a close as the rubber meets the road
(19:57):
and he's got to run this city and voters start
to realize that all of this talk about, you know,
taxing the rich and you know, holding the rich accountable
when you know, there's already been a massive outflow of
wealthy individuals and job creators from New York City, and
you know, Wall Street is waking up and realizing, you know,
we don't have to physically be on Wall Street in
order to trade, and is expanding in Texas and other places.
(20:19):
I mean, eventually the voters are going to wake up.
But the Mam Donnie problem is going to be a
problem going forward, just because voters are deeply distrustful of corporations.
They're distrustful of establishment politicians. And so if the you know,
establishment media and if the establishment politicians and the establishment
business interests are out there saying mom Donnie is dangerous,
(20:40):
particularly in a city as liberal as New York City,
that doesn't have the same effect that it may have
you know, ten or fifteen years ago, when there was
more trust in those institutions.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Now we're seeing Starbucks leaving Seattle. Obviously they're they're going
to have some portion of their headquarters still there, but
they're leaving. I mean, they're they're headed to Nashville, right, yes,
but that is a big change. You're going from one
of the most liberal cities in the country to a
pretty conservative place where we have a lot of our
(21:10):
biggest conservative voices speaking out and working hard to keep
Nashville to be one of the more conservative areas. We've recently,
I've recently seen some I guess it would be pulling
saying that employers are actually looking at Christian colleges to
hire people because they're saying those students are more reliable.
(21:32):
It's kind of this more Christian conservative viewpoint also seems
to be working out in the workplace as well. It
sort of begs the question, is that what Starbucks is saying,
You know what, We're going to go someplace where we
feel like there's going to be that strong community there,
going to show up to work, going to take work seriously,
and not going to picket outside of our office building,
(21:55):
and we're going to be able to walk through the
streets that aren't covered in drug addicts and feces. You know,
there's I mean, there's a real it's to me, it's
a real statement. When Starbucks leave Seattle.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, I mean Starbucks is Seattle. When you think about
Seattle in companies, the first company that comes to mind
is Starbucks. And I think you nail hit the nail
on the head, right. I mean, some of this just
comes down to, you know, what does effective government look like,
And in Republican parts of the country, it means that
your cities are safe, that your streets are clean, and
(22:32):
that anti social behavior isn't tolerated. Right in major American cities,
whether it's Seattle or Washington, DC or New York, we've
just course corrected so far in the wrong direction. And
the idea that you know, the justice system is you know,
disproportionately impacting people, that the entire city government is basically
(22:53):
bending at the back and whim of people whose behavior
is anti social and who you know, are really themselves victims. Here.
You know, we're letting people live on streets and abuse
drugs and you know, waste away and there's just there's
no mandate for that anywhere outside of the far extremes
(23:15):
of the Democratic Party. And it's more corporations wake up
to what it's like and you know, the red parts
of the country. I think we're going to kind of
continue to see this this outflow until cities get serious
about addressing addressing crime, addressing public safety, and tackling the
cost of living.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But what happens when these big corporations go someplace like Nashville.
Does that corporation change over time? Are they bringing some
of those policies, Because even the anti social behavior that
you're talking about, I mean, we've all seen this happening
in certain workplaces where people are coming in and there
you can't speak to me a certain way, you can't
(23:54):
say certain things, you're triggering me. If you trigger me,
I have to take the rest of the day off.
Becoming an employer. Being an employer today is much harder
than it was even ten years ago. There's this entitlement.
We're seeing this entitlement type of behavior coming out of
some of our top universities, where these students are still
coming out of universities and saying, well, I can only
(24:15):
work four days. I can't work before ten o'clock. I mean,
the workforce has become very demanding and difficult to work with.
How does that affect politics? Is there going to suddenly
be a shift where people go, we want to go
back to the olden days where we kind of understood
it was nine to five. We're all going to show up,
We're going to treat each other respectfully, and we're going
(24:36):
to get through the day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I mean, certainly. I think the one place where if
you're a Starbucks and you're going to Tennessee, it's the
court system is going to be way more forgiving and
the laws are going to be way more common sense
when it comes to, you know, what is workplace discrimination
and like how are these you know now contents going
to be treated should they try to bring action against
the company. I've got to think Tennessee's a much better
(24:59):
climate for that than than than Seattle, Washington. But I
think kind of more globally, this malaise you talk about
in the workforce, I mean, it's not going away, and
if anything, I think it's going to be turbocharged by
this you know, artificial intelligence explosion. Right it we're sort
of on the precipice of what feels like maybe not
(25:20):
another industrial revolution, but kind of similar to the introduction
of you know, the computer into the workforce where jobs
are disappearing and are changing really really quickly. And I know,
if I was a young person entering the workforce, I
would feel a lot better about entering the workforce and
a job that had me in the office nine am
to five pm, day in, day out, interacting with other
(25:42):
people and doing the things that humans do really well
versus you know, sitting on the computer at home. You know,
a square on a computer screen, you know, because maybe
one day the artificial intelligence replaces that square.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Right. So that's interesting because we still have a situation
and in the state of Michigan, where state workers are
still more than fifty percent are working from home. It's
a significant problem for state government just people feel like
they can't get an actual person. So you would think that, oh,
that would be an opportunity for somebody to come in
and say, wow, we can actually reduce the size of
(26:18):
government because people aren't in their offices anyway. Let me
just say before we go, what do you think the
big issues are on the Republican side and the Democrat side.
Obviously both are going to be the economy for the
state of Michigan. I'll say there's been some media manipulation.
In twenty four the governor was big on I'm passing
(26:42):
this free lunch and breakfast for all students across the state.
At the time, there were a lot of Republicans who
were saying, wait a minute, if you need a free
lunch or a free breakfast, you're already getting it. They
kind of manipulated this with like, oh, well, we don't
want kids to feel like they are being singled out,
does it. That's not how lunch works today. You're in
(27:02):
the system, nobody knows whether you're getting it free or not.
But they used this as kind of this, oh, we're
doing such great work. Every kid is going to be
well fed and not have to worry about whether or
not they can they're distracted by having a you know,
growling stomach during the school day. This was two years
(27:23):
of just praise from the media. Today, Monday morning, a
drop on the media comes out saying, you know, turns
out that the education dollars are now actually going to
the richest districts. The kids in the districts that were
in Detroit and Flint, some of the districts that were
(27:45):
one hundred percent free and reduced lunch before that from
the federal government. There's they're not getting any state dollars.
So you're only sending state dollars now to the richest
communities in the entire state. So your dollars that have
been taken away from other places are going there. I
say that because there's a lot of defense of bad
(28:05):
decisions when it comes to the Democrat side. If you
can make it look like you're helping people even though
you're actually not. So going into this midterm, what will
Democrats get the most benefit from? What message will Democrats
get the most benefit from, and what message will Republicans
get the most reaction from?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Sure? Yeah, so, I mean, look, I think you hit
the nail on the head, and there's a lot of
dissatisfaction across both parties with government spending, and I think
everybody recognizes that it's a problem. Ninety one percent of
voters told us last month that they were concerned about
federal government spending. So spending is a concern. But to
your point, the Democrats do a good job of making
(28:46):
it about, you know, taking the school lunch away from
the needy child. So if look, if I'm the Democrats,
I've got two goals. Right. My base is being animated
solely by opposition to Trump. So we're going to have
this sort of Trump is Bad message that they've run
with every single election since President Trump was on the
ballot in twenty sixteen, and that's going to be the
(29:07):
animating message for the Democratic base. But you know where
Republicans and Democrats are going to be battling is going
to be this referendum on the economy. And we've done
focused groups in swing congressional districts across the country, and
I think Republicans just have to be aware that there's
a lot of anger and frustration and that the average
(29:31):
voter doesn't believe us if we say things are going
to get cheaper, because for the last four years, things
have gotten more expensive every single year. So we've got
to be really specific about what we are going to
do and how that's going to impact either slowing the
rate of growth of prices or bringing prices down maybe
(29:52):
in the case of gasoline or something like that, where
there's an actual path to do that. But we've got
to bring back every debate to how is this impacting
everyday Americans. I know that there was a lot of
excitement about the One Big Beautiful Bill, some of the
changes to the tax policy. The only thing that people
are that is resonating with people about the One Big
Beautiful Bill. Trump's signature economic policy is no taxes on
(30:16):
tips in overtime, right because, I mean, shoot, I don't
know what I pay every year in taxes, and if
my marginal tax rate goes down a little bit or
goes up a little bit. He is a pretty plugged
in guy. I don't know what the impact of that
is at the end of the year, really until I
start to do my taxes. Whereas I drive by the
gas station every day, I see that the gas prices
are up. I go to the grocery store and get groceries,
(30:37):
I know that my grocery prices are up. And that's
the lens through which the average American is, you know,
evaluating this economy. And you know, as Republicans are going
home and doing town hall meetings and then transition me
into you know, that election season here, they've got to
meet that anger, meet that frustration, and be prepared with
some concrete things that they're going to do if they're
(30:58):
given another two years in Congress to get those things
moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
If the election is tomorrow, to do Republicans lose the House.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I think so. We've got it right now at
d plus six. It's probably three or four points too
far in the wrong direction for Republicans right now, but
there's a ton of redistricting and a ton of time
between now and November to get things back on the
right track.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We've got some work to do, but we can do it.
Thank you so much, Nick Weinstein, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Thanks to tell people where they can follow Signal polling.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, you can find us on Twitter, Signal or at
our website cygn dot Al Signal.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Awesome. Thank you so much. Yep, thanks and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon Podcast as always.
You can get it at the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Rumble,
or YouTube at Tutor Dixon. Just make sure you join
us and right now. Have a blessing.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, we are going
to go over all the crazy things that are happening
in the political world right now. So we decided we
needed a good pollster to tell us how do people feel,
because if you are on Twitter or you're on social media,
you think you know how people feel, but that's not
exactly how everybody feels. Like we always say, Twitter is
(00:22):
not real life. Do not assume that everything that you
see on the Internet is how the whole country feels.
But Nick Weinstein is with us today. He is with Signal.
It is a polling firm that is one of the
most accurate private polling firms in the country. Nick, thank
you for joining me today. Yeah, it's great to be here.
Thanks Juter. I'm really excited about this because it's something
(00:44):
that we talk about all the time. But we are
kind of focused on the trends on social media and
we are seeing obviously high prices. We're seeing high prices
at the grocery store. We're seeing high prices for gas,
We're seeing kind of this Maha fight right now. I
wanted to get into some of these subjects with you,
and right now, the farm bill just passed there was
(01:05):
a bit of well, we've seen Alex Clark going after
some of these politicians pretty hard because she's saying that
there were some protections in there for the pesticide companies.
Give us your breakdown on that.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, I mean the Farm Bill is usually not as interesting.
I feel like it was this past year. And you
know it's because of Maha. It's also because you know,
in our most recent survey, the number one issue for
families right now, it's as far as you know, cost
of living is at the grocery store, which directly ties
back to our agriculture industry. But we actually explored at
(01:42):
the beginning of this month voters attitudes when it comes
to major institutions, institutions like Congress, the federal government, and corporations.
And there's a lot of distrust on both sides of
the isle. And as President Trump has remade the Republican
Party and to the party of you know, working class Americans,
(02:03):
I think it's really important that are elected Republican representatives
in Congress remember that that's the voters that they need
to be speaking to. And if they can't articulate to
the American people, why the policy that they're supporting in
Congress is going to help the average American on main Street,
not the average boardroom on Wall Street. We maybe need
(02:24):
to reconsider whether that's a policy worth pushing. And certainly
when it comes to, you know, liability for these pesticide
manufacturers that have, you know, potentially negatively impacted communities, it
shouldn't be a surprise that that's not popular with everyday Americans.
And it's kind of the old school Republican Party that
a lot of voters still feel like is kind of
(02:45):
laying in the weeds here in Washington, d C. And
it's good that folks are calling it out.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, you watch this, I mean literally you're watching messaging
every day. If you were able to sit down with
these folks and tell them, this is what you're going
to get hammered with, and this should be your response,
what would you say? Because I've seen a lot of
a lot of these congresswomen and men. I think more
women are being called out because there does feel like
there's kind of a mom uprising against this because as
(03:13):
mothers were going what are our kids eating? And I
think the most disturbing part about these pesticides is that
they're in the foods that every food that we're buying
and we don't even know, we're just finding this out.
So there's there is a bit of rage about this.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, and we tested earlier this year some of these
MAHA messages and they were some of the only messages
that in this like hyper polarized political environment actually break
through with both Republicans and with Democrats. And when we
talk about challenging the status quo, eighty eight percent of
Republicans want legislators to challenge the status quo when it
comes to policies around health and food safety. Sixty five
(03:51):
percent of Democrats. That's as close to a consensus issue
as we're going to find out there. And I think,
you know, there are some legitimate concern is about you know,
trial lawyers in the trial bar, you know, using the
court system to drive up prices for consumers. And I
think that that's maybe a root of some of the
(04:11):
concerns when it comes to, you know, does litigating this
for billions and billions of dollars year over year over
year actually help work in class Americans? I think that's
a debate that we can have. But if we're couching
this argument on the right and among some of these
conservative lawmakers is saying, hey, we're going to protect corporations
from being sued when they damage communities. That's just not
a winning argument. We've got to always make it about
(04:31):
the people. And if we can't explain how the policy
benefits the people, like I said, we should probably reconsider.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's interesting. I just as I was walking in here,
and I'm not even one hundred percent sure what the
case is, but I saw that the acting Attorney General
is bringing a case against like the big meat houses
because he says that there's not an it's not fair competition.
It's something that we've heard for years. Actually, I think
it was like the Prime Act that Congressman Massey actually
(04:59):
brought to the to the table back in like I
think it was twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, saying
that a lot of these mom and pop shops had
been put out of business. And I think that people
don't necessarily understand that the lobbying that happens in Washington
allows big corporations to take over, and then big corporations
(05:22):
when they're producing in mass they want to make sure
that they have these quick fixes, and maybe sometimes that
is the pesticides. Maybe it's something else, but ultimately it
also shuts down the smaller farms, the smaller meat packing plants.
It shuts people down, and those people who were maybe
taking different levels of care with things. It's a manipulation
(05:45):
because they go to Washington, they say, oh, they're not
careful enough. What do you think it means to have
the Attorney general kind of go after this? Is this
a good message to support those MAHA moms in this
moment where we're going into the midterms.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, I think so right. And my experience before coming
to signal was in the state attorney general space, and
for a while there it was always the Democrats that
were doing the better job than Republicans of messaging around
issues like consumer protection because Republicans were, right or wrong,
perceived as the party of big business, and we were
always very cautious to do anything that, you know, might
(06:23):
you know, affect job creators. And this is a winning issue.
And you just look at the bureaucracy around agriculture here
in the United States, and you look, whether it's anecdotal
or you know, in studies, at the health outcomes here
versus what we see in Europe. And there's there's there's
something happening here and it merits government intervention here. And
(06:47):
I think, you know, RFK Junior and the Department of
Justice are well positioned to ask the tough questions. And
you know, I think, as you know, as politicians and
those advising politicians, if we're not if we're not asking
tough questions of people in power, the American people are
going to see right through us and say that, you know,
(07:09):
we're not doing our jobs. And I can report it's
no surprise. Approval of Congress is it its lowest level
in generations. I think we're at, you know, fifteen percent
approval of the job that Congress is doing. So encouraging
all of our members of Congress ask the tough questions,
try to do something different because the American people don't
like what we're selling.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
What are the American people feeling now about this war?
Because I'm going to the grocery store, prices are skyrocketing.
I was honestly not this past week, but the week
before I was stunned with my grocery bill, the gas
bill same. I mean, you go to the gas tank
and you are like, are you kidding me? This is ridiculous.
So how does how does the administration get through that?
(07:52):
And what's the what's the opinion of the war right now?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, so we are in the field every month. At
the beginning of this month, the war was about a
fifty to fifty issue, which as far as issues go
for President Trump, a fifty to fifty issue as in
a particularly bad one. But it had moved in the
wrong direction from the very early days of the war
to now. And I think the problem that the Trump
administration has is we asked voters, we said, what do
(08:18):
you think the positive outcome of the war is? Like,
what is victory in this war in Iran? And there's
there's no consensus. We let people pick as many issues
as they thought could be considered victory in Iran, and
not a single issue got over fifty percent. Even when
we talk about things like, you know, stopping terrorism, you know,
denying Iran, you know, a nuclear weapon. There's just there's
(08:41):
no consensus around what winning this war looks like. And
if I'm President Trump and I'm thinking about, you know,
whether we restart you know, kinetic operations against the Iranians,
if we start striking Iran again, I think it's a.
The administration needs to do a better job with the
American people of explaining what we're trying to accomplish, because
(09:01):
even if they achieve all of their goals, given that
there's no consensus about what those goals are, they're never
going to be able to declare victory. And that's a
major political problem. They also just need to keep in
the back of their mind that, you know, if this
continues to November, voters are telling us that it's going
to make them more likely to vote Democrat than Republican
by about a two to one margin. And there's just
(09:21):
not a lot of appetite for higher prices. I think
people are already feeling squeezed. Inflation and the economy is
the number one issue this month for voters, and there's
just no appetite among the American people to pay higher
prices for any extended period of time, whether it's the
result of war anything else.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Is there a way to explain the war that they
haven't done already. I mean, I have heard criticisms. I
think that there is a challenge when you're dealing with
this type of media where the media is constantly agreeing
with these radical leftists like Oh this is Netanyahoo's bad,
this is an Israel thing, This has nothing to do
with the United States. And they administration is kind of
(10:01):
pushing back on that and saying, look, America has got
to be safe. We have people that are being killed
over there, we have allies there at risk. But it
doesn't seem like they've been able to achieve that actual
message getting through as to the why.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, and I think you hit the nail on the head.
And some of this is because of the strikes last year,
where we, you know, significantly set back the Iranian nuclear program.
And I think in the eyes of the American people,
the number one issue in Iran is a nuclear program
and then everything else kind of falls in after that.
But let's just be clear. I mean, there's there's no
(10:37):
groundswell of support for Iran here. Only ten percent of
Americans have, you know, a favorable opinion of Iran, and
unfortunately those voices are getting outsized attention in the mainstream
media and particularly among the folks on the radical left.
So the problem isn't that Iran's popular or that the
United States shouldn't potentially be intervening over there, us that
(11:01):
Trump and the administration hasn't done the best job of
setting a clear expectation for what the goal is and
how long Loogle is going to take to achieve, and
what victory is going to look like. And you know,
you hear a lot of negative comparisons about what we're
doing over there to you know, the First Golf War,
which I think many people saw, was you know this
massive you know, military success, and the difference between what
(11:23):
we're seeing now and what we saw back in the
First Golf Wars. We made it very clear before the
First Golf War what our goal was. Our goal was
to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and once we achieved
that goal, we declared victory and we got out. But
people don't remember that over three hundred Americans lost their
lives in the First Golf War. I think over forty
five aircraft were shot down. So the idea that we're
(11:45):
in a quagmire or that you know, what's happening in
Iran right now is some you know, major military disaster
for the United States is you know, complete democrat in
Iranian propaganda. We just got to do a better job
of messaging on it so that the American people are
able to celebrate the victory when we've achieved it.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I think back then you also had a more united country,
but a more united Republican party. There was also more
support in the media. Right now, we talk a lot
about the fractures in the Democrat Party because obviously they
have this extremist left that seems to be taking over.
I mean, you just saw Janet Mills drop out of
(12:24):
the race in Maine. You've got Graham Plattner, who has
a Nazi tattoo. The guy has said terrible things about women.
I mean, his comments are just horrendous, regarding rape and
all these different things. But he's a radical leftist and
they're lifting him up. I mean she stepped out of
the race. You've got the same thing in Michigan where
you have the two leftists US Senator Senate candidates are
(12:48):
kind of battling it out for the hearts and minds
of the people in Michigan right now. So we do
look at that as like, oh, they have this big
kind of split in their party. However, when you talk
about out the golf War and you talk about those Republicans,
I do think that there is a Republican party from
the past that is much different than the MAGA Republican Party.
(13:10):
How do you see that playing out? Because we've heard
behind the scenes that there are some of those people
that feel like they're not I guess, for lack of
a better term, Trump Republican, and they don't want to
be with that group. Do you see those people splitting off?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I still don't think that the Democrats have a home
for those people yet. And we're we're in a two
party system, right, so, you know, we asked voters, you know,
what do you see is the priority of Democratic Party?
And for forty five percent of people of a plurality,
it's just opposing President Trump. And I think because the
Democrats are going through their own sort of you know,
(13:48):
civil war at the grassroots level, you know, those more
moderate voices in the Democratic Party that could be a
home for like disaffected Republicans. I just don't see the
Democratic Party being a welcoming place for those type of voters.
So I don't think there's a place for those those
people to go. And I just I also think that
when we look at the coalition that supports the war
(14:10):
in Iran, Republicans are fairly unified on the war in
Iran and in fact, Maga Republicans are more supportive of
the War of Iran than Republicans overall. So I think
it's a bit of a misnomer, probably driven largely as
you let off the show with sort of the echo
chamber of social media and some of these kind of loud,
vocal anti war voices that are either on the right
or claimed to be on the right, that are, you know,
(14:33):
driving the share of the conversation that just isn't really
actually reflective of, you know, where the base of the
Republican Party is today. But I would just come back
to there's a populist maybe not a revolt, maybe it
revolt's too strong of a word, but there's major, major
populist anxiety and anger underpinning both the Republican Party and
(14:55):
the Democratic Party, and those voters are solely focused on
the economy and they're just incredibly frustrated with incumbent politicians
and both political establishments. So it's not a surprise to
me that we see what's happening in Maine and in
Michigan and across the country on the left. We'll probably
see more of it on the right as well, but
(15:16):
that anger is still out there And if you're running
for elected office on either side of the aisle this
year and you're not speaking to those voters and talking
to those voters and hearing those voters' concerns and making
that a part of your party's platform, you're probably going
to be behind the eight ball.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, I think we're hearing a lot, especially on the
Democrat side, We're hearing a lot of ice talk. And
you've got that from ground Platner. You've got that from
both Malorie McMorrow and Abdul Alsaiad. You have Penny flanneg
or Peggy Flanagan talking about this in Minnesota. I mean
she even came out and started to say that we
should celebrate the people who were against the Lake and
(15:55):
Riley Act and going full blown anti Lake and Riley Act.
And this is after we've had these raids in Minnesota.
But if you look at the people that were taking
out of Minnesota, I mean, there was a really good
chance that you would end up with a situation very
similar to Lake and Riley's there had these people not
been we're talking about child rapists, and some of them
(16:15):
already happened. I mean, we're talking murderers, child rapists, we're
talking about like the worst of the worst people. Is
that message resonating with Democrats? Do they have this feeling
that ice doesn't isn't necessary.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, So it's it's a party of contradictions because if
you ask voters, do you believe that we should deport
criminal illegal aliens? An overwhelming majority of Republicans, as you
would expect, but a majority of Democrats also want to
see criminal illegal aliens deported. And it's an incredibly popular
issue with Independence as well. And I think this is
(16:52):
maybe one of the missteps of the early Trump administration
was we let too much of the focus shift away
from those criminal illegal aliens, and we kind of fell
into the Democrats trap of you know, making this about
you know, the sheer number of people deported, and it
allowed them to you know, put a bunch of you know,
(17:12):
faces on camera that were you know, not those you know,
high level criminals that the Trump administration has been just
so efficient at deporting and allowed them to be the
face of this immigration enforcement. And so look, I it's
the political situation is almost exactly the same as it
was I think when Trump took office, Like the Democratic
(17:34):
Party is far far to the left of where the
average American is on this issue. Just unfortunately, because Trump
has just been so successful at closing the southern border
and tackling immigration in a really like public and forward
facing way, it's just not resonating at the top of
people's minds the same way that it was sort of
the number two issue behind the economy heading into November
(17:57):
of twenty twenty four. Ppublicans could still definitely take advantage
when the Democrats put themselves far out of whack and
start defending you know, these rapists and these you know,
criminal illegal aliens that are here and are going about
for those folks, but it's just not going to have
the same impact on election day because it's just not
as big an issue for the people that aren't really
(18:17):
tuned into the election at all, the sort of independent
voters that pay attention at the last minute and actually
can be swull one way or the other.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
How effective are Mom Donnie politics today? Though? You see
a lot of these people that are following his lead
of like tax the rich, We'll get all of the
money from them, there will be all these free things,
And obviously we're seeing that play out and in kind
of a negative way in New York City right now.
So is that going to carry across the country where
people are going to look at New York and say,
(18:47):
maybe texting the rich is not the best idea or
are they still there?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, I mean it's always the problem, right as you know,
our wealthiest Americans in the eyes of the average person,
they're not a very yet they're not some and that
folks feel like they need to rally around, right And
you know, part of the disaster of New York City
is that we, as Republicans, and I'm a native Western
New Yorker, we did an awful job in that New
York City mayor's race. We didn't put forth a credible
(19:13):
Republican alternative, right, We gave voters a choice between all
of the stuff that I just told you that people
are fed up with and they hate Andrew Cuomo, a former,
disgraced former governor, an establishment politician who represents everything that
voters on both sides of the aisle despise about the
Democratic Party, against someone in Mom Donnie who has a
(19:35):
bunch of abysmal policy ideas, but at the very least
as a young fresh face and is someone who is
speaking to the anger that average New Yorkers were feeling
about the political establishment, and now it The first few
months of his term have been a complete disaster. I
think that honeymoon, if it's not already it over, is
coming to a close as the rubber meets the road
(19:57):
and he's got to run this city and voters start
to realize that all of this talk about, you know,
taxing the rich and you know, holding the rich accountable
when you know, there's already been a massive outflow of
wealthy individuals and job creators from New York City, and
you know, Wall Street is waking up and realizing, you know,
we don't have to physically be on Wall Street in
order to trade, and is expanding in Texas and other places.
(20:19):
I mean, eventually the voters are going to wake up.
But the Mam Donnie problem is going to be a
problem going forward, just because voters are deeply distrustful of corporations.
They're distrustful of establishment politicians. And so if the you know,
establishment media and if the establishment politicians and the establishment
business interests are out there saying mom Donnie is dangerous,
(20:40):
particularly in a city as liberal as New York City,
that doesn't have the same effect that it may have
you know, ten or fifteen years ago, when there was
more trust in those institutions.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Now we're seeing Starbucks leaving Seattle. Obviously they're they're going
to have some portion of their headquarters still there, but
they're leaving. I mean, they're they're headed to Nashville, right, yes,
but that is a big change. You're going from one
of the most liberal cities in the country to a
pretty conservative place where we have a lot of our
(21:10):
biggest conservative voices speaking out and working hard to keep
Nashville to be one of the more conservative areas. We've recently,
I've recently seen some I guess it would be pulling
saying that employers are actually looking at Christian colleges to
hire people because they're saying those students are more reliable.
(21:32):
It's kind of this more Christian conservative viewpoint also seems
to be working out in the workplace as well. It
sort of begs the question, is that what Starbucks is saying,
You know what, We're going to go someplace where we
feel like there's going to be that strong community there,
going to show up to work, going to take work seriously,
and not going to picket outside of our office building,
(21:55):
and we're going to be able to walk through the
streets that aren't covered in drug addicts and feces. You know,
there's I mean, there's a real it's to me, it's
a real statement. When Starbucks leave Seattle.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, I mean Starbucks is Seattle. When you think about
Seattle in companies, the first company that comes to mind
is Starbucks. And I think you nail hit the nail
on the head, right. I mean, some of this just
comes down to, you know, what does effective government look like,
And in Republican parts of the country, it means that
your cities are safe, that your streets are clean, and
(22:32):
that anti social behavior isn't tolerated. Right in major American cities,
whether it's Seattle or Washington, DC or New York, we've
just course corrected so far in the wrong direction. And
the idea that you know, the justice system is you know,
disproportionately impacting people, that the entire city government is basically
(22:53):
bending at the back and whim of people whose behavior
is anti social and who you know, are really themselves victims. Here.
You know, we're letting people live on streets and abuse
drugs and you know, waste away and there's just there's
no mandate for that anywhere outside of the far extremes
(23:15):
of the Democratic Party. And it's more corporations wake up
to what it's like and you know, the red parts
of the country. I think we're going to kind of
continue to see this this outflow until cities get serious
about addressing addressing crime, addressing public safety, and tackling the
cost of living.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But what happens when these big corporations go someplace like Nashville.
Does that corporation change over time? Are they bringing some
of those policies, Because even the anti social behavior that
you're talking about, I mean, we've all seen this happening
in certain workplaces where people are coming in and there
you can't speak to me a certain way, you can't
(23:54):
say certain things, you're triggering me. If you trigger me,
I have to take the rest of the day off.
Becoming an employer. Being an employer today is much harder
than it was even ten years ago. There's this entitlement.
We're seeing this entitlement type of behavior coming out of
some of our top universities, where these students are still
coming out of universities and saying, well, I can only
(24:15):
work four days. I can't work before ten o'clock. I mean,
the workforce has become very demanding and difficult to work with.
How does that affect politics? Is there going to suddenly
be a shift where people go, we want to go
back to the olden days where we kind of understood
it was nine to five. We're all going to show up,
We're going to treat each other respectfully, and we're going
(24:36):
to get through the day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I mean, certainly. I think the one place where if
you're a Starbucks and you're going to Tennessee, it's the
court system is going to be way more forgiving and
the laws are going to be way more common sense
when it comes to, you know, what is workplace discrimination
and like how are these you know now contents going
to be treated should they try to bring action against
the company. I've got to think Tennessee's a much better
(24:59):
climate for that than than than Seattle, Washington. But I
think kind of more globally, this malaise you talk about
in the workforce, I mean, it's not going away, and
if anything, I think it's going to be turbocharged by
this you know, artificial intelligence explosion. Right it we're sort
of on the precipice of what feels like maybe not
(25:20):
another industrial revolution, but kind of similar to the introduction
of you know, the computer into the workforce where jobs
are disappearing and are changing really really quickly. And I know,
if I was a young person entering the workforce, I
would feel a lot better about entering the workforce and
a job that had me in the office nine am
to five pm, day in, day out, interacting with other
(25:42):
people and doing the things that humans do really well
versus you know, sitting on the computer at home. You know,
a square on a computer screen, you know, because maybe
one day the artificial intelligence replaces that square.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Right. So that's interesting because we still have a situation
and in the state of Michigan, where state workers are
still more than fifty percent are working from home. It's
a significant problem for state government just people feel like
they can't get an actual person. So you would think that, oh,
that would be an opportunity for somebody to come in
and say, wow, we can actually reduce the size of
(26:18):
government because people aren't in their offices anyway. Let me
just say before we go, what do you think the
big issues are on the Republican side and the Democrat side.
Obviously both are going to be the economy for the
state of Michigan. I'll say there's been some media manipulation.
In twenty four the governor was big on I'm passing
(26:42):
this free lunch and breakfast for all students across the state.
At the time, there were a lot of Republicans who
were saying, wait a minute, if you need a free
lunch or a free breakfast, you're already getting it. They
kind of manipulated this with like, oh, well, we don't
want kids to feel like they are being singled out,
does it. That's not how lunch works today. You're in
(27:02):
the system, nobody knows whether you're getting it free or not.
But they used this as kind of this, oh, we're
doing such great work. Every kid is going to be
well fed and not have to worry about whether or
not they can they're distracted by having a you know,
growling stomach during the school day. This was two years
(27:23):
of just praise from the media. Today, Monday morning, a
drop on the media comes out saying, you know, turns
out that the education dollars are now actually going to
the richest districts. The kids in the districts that were
in Detroit and Flint, some of the districts that were
(27:45):
one hundred percent free and reduced lunch before that from
the federal government. There's they're not getting any state dollars.
So you're only sending state dollars now to the richest
communities in the entire state. So your dollars that have
been taken away from other places are going there. I
say that because there's a lot of defense of bad
(28:05):
decisions when it comes to the Democrat side. If you
can make it look like you're helping people even though
you're actually not. So going into this midterm, what will
Democrats get the most benefit from? What message will Democrats
get the most benefit from, and what message will Republicans
get the most reaction from?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Sure? Yeah, so, I mean, look, I think you hit
the nail on the head, and there's a lot of
dissatisfaction across both parties with government spending, and I think
everybody recognizes that it's a problem. Ninety one percent of
voters told us last month that they were concerned about
federal government spending. So spending is a concern. But to
your point, the Democrats do a good job of making
(28:46):
it about, you know, taking the school lunch away from
the needy child. So if look, if I'm the Democrats,
I've got two goals. Right. My base is being animated
solely by opposition to Trump. So we're going to have
this sort of Trump is Bad message that they've run
with every single election since President Trump was on the
ballot in twenty sixteen, and that's going to be the
(29:07):
animating message for the Democratic base. But you know where
Republicans and Democrats are going to be battling is going
to be this referendum on the economy. And we've done
focused groups in swing congressional districts across the country, and
I think Republicans just have to be aware that there's
a lot of anger and frustration and that the average
(29:31):
voter doesn't believe us if we say things are going
to get cheaper, because for the last four years, things
have gotten more expensive every single year. So we've got
to be really specific about what we are going to
do and how that's going to impact either slowing the
rate of growth of prices or bringing prices down maybe
(29:52):
in the case of gasoline or something like that, where
there's an actual path to do that. But we've got
to bring back every debate to how is this impacting
everyday Americans. I know that there was a lot of
excitement about the One Big Beautiful Bill, some of the
changes to the tax policy. The only thing that people
are that is resonating with people about the One Big
Beautiful Bill. Trump's signature economic policy is no taxes on
(30:16):
tips in overtime, right because, I mean, shoot, I don't
know what I pay every year in taxes, and if
my marginal tax rate goes down a little bit or
goes up a little bit. He is a pretty plugged
in guy. I don't know what the impact of that
is at the end of the year, really until I
start to do my taxes. Whereas I drive by the
gas station every day, I see that the gas prices
are up. I go to the grocery store and get groceries,
(30:37):
I know that my grocery prices are up. And that's
the lens through which the average American is, you know,
evaluating this economy. And you know, as Republicans are going
home and doing town hall meetings and then transition me
into you know, that election season here, they've got to
meet that anger, meet that frustration, and be prepared with
some concrete things that they're going to do if they're
(30:58):
given another two years in Congress to get those things
moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
If the election is tomorrow, to do Republicans lose the House.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I think so. We've got it right now at
d plus six. It's probably three or four points too
far in the wrong direction for Republicans right now, but
there's a ton of redistricting and a ton of time
between now and November to get things back on the
right track.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We've got some work to do, but we can do it.
Thank you so much, Nick Weinstein, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Thanks to tell people where they can follow Signal polling.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, you can find us on Twitter, Signal or at
our website cygn dot Al Signal.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Awesome. Thank you so much. Yep, thanks and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon Podcast as always.
You can get it at the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Rumble,
or YouTube at Tutor Dixon. Just make sure you join
us and right now. Have a blessing.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Kingdom of Fraud
It’s the unlikeliest of criminal partnerships: a devout polygamist from an insular Utah sect joining forces with a shadowy Armenian tycoon from LA. The result - a billion dollar fraud conspiracy. In Kingdom of Fraud, investigative reporter Michele McPhee traces the origins of the extraordinary alliance between Jacob Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan. Together, the two men trigger the largest tax investigation in American history and weave around themselves a web of dirty cops, influential political relationships and transnational money laundering. All this is set against the backdrop of Jacob Kingston’s clan – The Order. A powerful and secretive polygamist organization in Salt Lake City. To whom Jacob is desperate to prove his worth. Kingdom of Fraud is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. You can listen to new episodes of Kingdom of Fraud completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “iHeart True Crime+, and subscribe today!