November 3, 2022 • 49 mins
Jeremy Hobson takes calls from around the country with Kansas-based journalist and author Sarah Smarsh, syndicated columnist and Kansas City PBS Senior Reporter Mary Sanchez and DJ Anthony Valadez. The topic: what is an issue where you disagree with the political party you affiliate with?
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Middle of Jeremy Hobson Live this evening
from Ksey. You are in Kansas City, Missouri, right on
the border of Missouri and Kansas. Kansas, of course, the
state that sent political shockwaves from coast to coast a
few months back when voters overwhelmingly supported abortion rights in
a ballot referendum, showing the power of the middle. You
(00:25):
might say, this is our third show, and as he
has been each week, DJ Anthony Balades is with us,
he is our house. DJ hy Anthony, Hey, Jeremy, good
to be back with you. Great to have you. And
for the listeners who are new to this show, what
we're trying to do is bring voices from the vast
middle of the country into the national conversation. The millions
of Americans who live in the middle are so important
(00:48):
to the political process, but so often ignored by the media. Now,
two weeks ago, we were in my hometown of Urbana, Illinois,
and last week we were in Fort Myers on the
Gulf coast of Florida, and we were taking your calls
last week about climate change and how it's affecting you
and what if anything, you want the government to do
about it, and we got hundreds of calls from all
(01:09):
over the country. Hi, Jan here in Kansas City, Missouri. Hey,
this is Jacob in Hampshire, Illinois. Hi. My name's Kay.
I'm in rural Oklahoma. Hey, this is Mike. I live
in Maine. I just wanted to comment. My wife and
I have decided not to have children, particularly because of
climate change. I would love to be able to afford,
(01:31):
you know, different sources of power from my little home.
But I'm retired and living on so scary so unless
the government or someone wants to buy me that electric car.
That's how I am frustrated when the government subsidizes people's
decisions to live in a floodplane. I'm very concerned about water,
(01:53):
and there's always flooding some places and draw other places.
Thank you very much, Take care, Thanks all rights. So
many calls, Anthony. And for listeners who can't get through
at eight four four the middle, eight four four four middle,
rather because the lines are jammed, you can just leave
a message for us. We are listening to all of them. Okay,
here's what we're asking you this hour. What's an issue
(02:15):
where you disagree with the political party you affiliate with,
You can tell us, don't be shy, Anthony. What is
our number? Absolutely, the fall number is eight four four
four Middle once again it is eight four four four
six four three three five three. And remember, as we
have this conversation, I want to hear from you, whatever
your point of view, Democrat, Republican, there is no condescension here.
(02:35):
We are going to have respect for one another, have
a civil conversation even when we disagree. Now joining me
tonight here in the studio are two great guests. Sarah Smarsh,
a Kansas based journalist and author of the book Heartland,
a memoir of working hard and being broke in the
richest country on Earth. Sarah, welcome to you. Thanks Jeremy.
Now you are a fifth generation Kanzen. What has kept
(02:56):
you here in the middle all these years. That's a
great question, because I would say my decision to be
based in the place I come from as a journalist
who writes for national outlets, is one of the more
controversial decisions of my life. I suppose you know feedback
I got from colleagues early on in my career, and
uh and and I did move away, I should say
(03:18):
early on. I lived in New York for a few years.
I've lived in other major metropolitan areas around the country,
and you know, so I've been a reporter for about
twenty years, and at the dawn of my career, news
outlets in the middle as you call it, were struggling
and increasingly failing, just due to the dawn of the
(03:38):
digital era, basically and scrambling to keep up with those
new business models and and the shift to the what
your show is addressing this situation where our media centers
are so so coalesced on the coasts in such a
powerful way that sort of distorts our picture of ourselves
as a country. I sensed that early on, and you know,
(04:00):
it might have been at some economic cost to myself,
perhaps in career terms, but I wanted to. I felt
like I could be a best service to my profession
by being in the place that I came from, having
a lens, knowing the place on the ground that I
was writing about, and so I came back. Well, Sarah,
it's great to have you here. Our other guests in
the studio with me is Mary Sanchez, a longtime columnist
(04:21):
for the Kansas City Star, now a nationally syndicated columnist
and senior reporter for Kansas City PBS. Mary, welcome to you,
Thank you, thank you for having me. Now, it says
in your bio that, as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant,
you believe that true culture is so much deeper than
language or location. What do you mean by that? It's everything.
(04:41):
I mean people just look at those top points, but
how people think about time, how they speak, the cadence
that they speak with their reference points, everything is just
so much deeper and richer, and frankly, I've been able
to make a career out of looking at those things. Well,
it's great to have you both here again. Our number
is four Middle. I want to go straight to our
(05:02):
first caller here. Danne is on with us from Iowa City. Danne,
welcome to the Middle. Hi. Thanks. The issue that I've
been concerned about recently is immigration, and I didn't like
how it was presented when they came to when they
(05:25):
went to Massachusetts and New York. But I do think
that all the states should share in the distribution of
our fellow fellow humans that are coming to the border
and want a better life. So you're talking about that.
(05:47):
The governors in Texas and Florida, Republican governors who sent
bus loads and are sending in some cases bus loads
of immigrants to northern states, including Massachusetts and New York.
But you're saying, even if you don't agree with the
way they're doing that, that you think that democrats I
assume you're you identify as a Democrat. Yes, and you
think democrats ought to be welcoming people who have come
(06:11):
into the country, undocumented immigrants into their states as well. Yes,
I think every state should take a share, you know,
proportionally to help with the issue. It's a national issue.
It shouldn't rely, you know, primarily with the states that
(06:33):
are at our southern border. Dan, thank you so much
for that call. Mary, let me go to you on that.
This is this is something that you know, people really
have split into their parties on this issue. What do
you think about what Dan just had to say there.
I actually wrote a column that somewhat advocated that in
that most migrants when they first enter the country have
(06:56):
aspirations of going elsewhere, or they often have, particularly some
of the people at the border right now, at the
southern border, have other family and friends and connections, and
they were they were wanting to go throughout the United States.
My problem with it was that it wasn't done orderly,
a press, wasn't even done legally, you know, and people
(07:16):
were kind of in a mishimatch of where they were
being sent. Was more of a political message. But actually
what the caller is saying is part of what immigration
does and has always done in the US. I mean
my own family, my grandmother crossed the southern border with
my father and they ended up I mean they were
in Texas, they were in Nebraska, they were near Illinois.
(07:40):
I mean, they were all over before they ended up
in Kansas City, Kansas. But Republican governors in the case
of DeSantis in Florida and Abbot in Texas, are also
doing this as a way to just draw attention to
the situation at the border. Absolutely, they were trying to
make a political point, and I think it is true
that some states perhaps don't realize how congregated and how
(08:03):
many the numbers. I mean, there's issues of humanity and
how do you house people, how do you safely house people,
how do you take care of their needs, how do
you see them through what is basically a refugee asylum process.
You know that just numbers, sheer numbers. Think about if
you were going to have a dinner party and you
plan for six and then five hundred showed up. That's
(08:26):
a little bit like with a lot of the border
cities deal with because of issues outside of our country,
in Venezuela, in Haiti, that's where people are coming from. Sarah,
let me ask you somebody here, as we said a
fifth generation Kanzen, if hundreds or thousands of migrants were
(08:48):
to suddenly arrive in Kansas, would they be welcomed? Well, first,
let me point out that actually Kansas, like many states
in the Midwest where agriculture is a strong feature of industry,
are already brimming with you know, diverse populations by way
of immigration, including recent migrants. The meat packing industry in
(09:11):
western Kansas is located in some you know, relatively small
towns that are nonetheless now what we might call minority
majority in racial terms, and those communities you know, have
all you know, shifted and adapted in various ways, the good,
the bad, and the ugly. I think that you know,
(09:31):
their assumptions about a place like Kansas because it goes
red on a presidential election map, or that it would
be unwelcoming. But we can get down to the granular
level on the ground. Often it's much more complicated at
the community level, and some of those small towns actually
need human beings for population to survive. It might be
more welcoming than folks would assume. Let's go to another call.
(09:51):
Kelly is calling from Scottsdale, Arizona. Kelly, welcome to the
Middle Hello. What's an air where you disagree with your party? Well,
I am. I'm a Republican, and I do not appreciate
Trump being the head of our party at this point,
or the representation or other Republican candidates siding with him.
(10:17):
So does that mean you're in Arizona? Does that mean
you're not going to vote for Carry Lake, who is
a big ally of President Trump. Absolutely not, I will not.
Why do you think so many people in your party
have stood by Trump? I think there actually are a
lot more people who are not. But Trump has been
(10:38):
such a force for so long that people are afraid
to not side with him. For the people who are
very outspoken and loud. Kelly, thank you for that call. Sarah,
what do you think about that? Well? I grew up
in what I would describe as kind of a moderately
conservative environment. I was a child during the Reagan era,
and so really kind of the core of my life
(11:00):
tracks with the right word shift of the Republican Party
toward the conservatism we see today, and I hear and
see a lot of that same sentiment that the Coller
just shared, this sort of discontent with the direction of
the party and yet a kind of not quite having
found a way to articulate that what whether you want
(11:23):
to look at it as the more traditional form of
conservatism or something new that's post Trump. I think it
does seem that the party's still in the throes of
finding a way to name, define, and given name to
whatever that is. We're also getting some comments online. You
can reach out to us on social media or at
Listen to the Middle dot com. Tricia in Ohio says,
(11:45):
I'm a Republican, but I do not agree with the
abortion stance, the stance against it. It is simply to
be between a doctor and their patient. Government is not
to be in this at all. In Dennis in Berwin, Pennsylvania,
I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I don't agree with my
party on abortion rights. And we'll be right back with
(12:06):
more on the middle. This is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
If you're just tuning in, we are live and we
are a new national call in show focused on bringing
voices from the middle of the country into the national conversation.
And by the way, if you miss any of the
show or you want to hear more, you can check
out our podcast, The Middle with Jeremy Hobson wherever you
(12:26):
get your podcasts. You can also go to Listen to
the Middle dot com and we'll link you to it there.
My guest this hour are Mary Sanchez of Kansas City
PBS and Sarah smrsh, author of Heartland. Our question, what
is an issue where you disagree with the political party
you affiliate with? Our number eight four four four Middle.
That's eight four four four six four three three five three.
(12:48):
Let's go to Kathy in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hi. Kathy, Hi.
I am a Democrat and the Democrats have taken the
position the transgender women are identical to women legally and socially,
and when it comes down to it in practice, there
are ways that things need to be worked out about
(13:09):
that because the way that it gets handled is that
that imposes on the rights of women and girls. And
what's happening is that it's really frustrating that we're not
really allowed to speak about that. The idea is that
the Democrats have that line on it, and the more
liberal you are, the more you believe that, and we're not.
(13:32):
We get kicked off social media sites for talking about that.
All the popular liberal people that are out there speaking
speak in favor of always catering to the transgender rights,
which impose on some of the rights. Well, let me
ask you this, Kathy, why does that bother you? What
what upsets you about that as an issue? I assume,
just based on your call, you're not transgender yourself. Why
(13:56):
does it bother you? Right? It? It bothers me because
because of the women's issues and women's rights and that
we're we are expected to go ahead and just go
along and accept men into our bathrooms and including for
teenage girls who should really have some bathroom time alone
(14:18):
without without having that to deal with that, and it
bothers me that that biological biological men, men, male born
people end up in women's prisons and that is not
fair at all. Well, I think we've got your point there, Kathy.
Thank you so much for that call. Let me go
(14:40):
to you on that, Mary, this is you know, it's
not something She's right that it's not something people want
to talk about because it does you know, on the
on the side of people who are transgender or who
know people who are transgender, uh, this this is about
their own personal rights and freedom to be who they
believe that they are who they are. And then there
(15:00):
are other people who think this is a lot of change,
you know, And what do you think about that? Well,
I think it's it's a conversation that needs to be
had in not quiet moments, but in moments of thoughtfulness
and truly informed science. And you almost have to allow
people to say things in an awkward way that someone
(15:22):
else might assume is offensive without calling them out so
much that you shut them down. And I do think
that the you know, issues with transgender are new for
some people. They don't understand gender identity as opposed to
sexual orientation, and it's it's just a process of education.
(15:45):
And then unfortunately, you know, as we do, have so
much rhetoric around it, and the call is right from
both sides, Oftentimes those questions aren't answered for people and
they're not walked through in really a very reasonable and
help full way. It's interesting, Sarah, because it has become
a very partisan issue. Even when you see somebody who
(16:07):
puts he him or she her on their signature on
their email, you can make assumptions about what party they
identify with. Sure, yeah, there's all. There's the host a
host of topics in the current discourse that have become
sort of signals or symbols for each side to kind
of flash their colors and understand which category they belong to.
(16:28):
One of the reasons the question tonight is so important
about dissent within a given political category or group. And
and I totally agree with Mary that, you know, as
someone who who dramatically changed my views over the course
of my particularly my early young life, the reason was
my information source has changed, and also my environment, my
social group changed. And often I think we're you know,
(16:52):
you know, hateful rhetoric, that that's one thing that that
deserves no permission slip or pass. But when someone was
just earnestly trying to understand something in a way that,
as Mary said, maybe awkward, you know, often it's a
failure of conversation or our ability to get together and
find a shared language without it breaking down along political
(17:14):
fault lines rather than you know, ill intend Let's go
to a call from Boise, Idaho. Mark is on the line. Hi, Mark,
welcome to the middle. All right, glad to glad to
take my call. Well, my concern is a twofold I
identify with neither party have for thirty years. I'm a
(17:38):
guy in the middle looking for candidates who have character.
But all I've been able to find our candidates who
are characters, and I have a really difficult time voting
for those individuals. I think probably the two reasons. Number one,
most current setting politicians, I think are more interested in
their political careers and the future for the opportunity opportunities
(18:02):
for them. And the other big part is the way
money plays. This a tremendous role in what we do
over the last twenty or thirty years. I get turned off.
So what are you gonna do that? What are you
going to do on election day? Oh? Well, I'm going
to look at my ballot and I will look for
(18:22):
people with character. Sometimes it'll be Democrats, sometimes there'll be
a Republicans, and oftentimes they're blank. I can't tell you
how many times I'd voted for ALFREDY Newman. Well, let
me ask you. Let me ask you one more thing, though,
what did you do back in twenty twenty in the
presidential election, I voted for ALFREDY Newman. Oh no, I
didn't either. In the twenty election, I voted for Libertarian Party,
(18:46):
the governor from New Mexico and the Republican governor from Massachusetts.
I don't recollect your names. Well, Mark, thank you for
thank you for making that call into the Middle. We
appreciate your call. And I have to say, Sarah, I
imagine there are a lot of people who don't really
like either party right now. It's going to be interesting
to hear if we get more calls like that from
(19:07):
people who just don't identify with either one. Thirty percent
of registered voters in the state of Kansas are Independence
in fact. Yeah, and actually that's probably about the same
in a lot of states around this country. Let's go
to Caroline, who is calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Caroline, Welcome
to the Middle. Hi, Jeremy, thank you for having me.
(19:29):
I'm stoked beyond. It's great to have you tell us
how you identify politically and what problem you have with
your party. So I would say that I vote Democratic
more often than not. But I would like to see
much more progression from my party, especially in Wisconsin. We're
(19:49):
not going to see the probably anytime soon. But I
think it's really important to recognize how in about one
hundred years ago, when the country was going through a
lot of the same kind of problems that we sorry,
I'm a little bit nervous, a lot a lot of
a lot of the same problems that we are going
through right now, that we ended up actually electing three
(20:15):
socialist mayors in Milwaukee. And throughout that time, it was
it was over thirty years. I know that Daniel Hone
had mayorship for about twenty four years. But you think,
I think that you think that the Democratic Party, Caroline
already interrupt, but you think that the Democratic Party is
not getting progressive enough right now? Correct? Yeah? And and
(20:38):
during the time when there were socialists in power in Milwaukee,
we saw the life expectancy jump up, we saw people
getting happier, people getting richer. I mean, like all in all,
I don't see why we can't see more of a
democratic kind of socialist movement in this country, especially when
looking at history. Thank you for that call, Caroline. Now
(21:02):
I'm going to go to our guests here who are
in a place where Earlier today here in Kansas City,
I was watching TV and I saw two ads for
the Democratic candidates, one Trudy Bush Valentine, who is in
Missouri running for Senate Democrat. One for Laura Kelly, who's
the Democratic governor of Kansas running for reelection. Both of
(21:22):
them looked like they were Republicans in the ads because
of the things they were talking about, cut taxes, you know,
and then one of them opposing They're accusing their opponent
of helping out communist China was the wording there. When
you hear that call from Caroline talking about we want
the Democratic Party to be more socialist, How would that
(21:43):
play here depends on who you're speaking to and how
much they know about what socialism is. You know. The
caller had some specific examples, you know, so that's kind
of a lived experience things that she was sighting. They
are an awful lot of people who don't have that socialism.
I mean, it's become one of those dog whistles, frankly,
(22:04):
So you know, depending on what they know. That's almost
true for everything. You know, What do people really know
about that term or are they using it are they
latching to how it's being used in political ads, which
can swing both ways? Sarah, What about the idea though,
of Democrats who want the party to move further to
the left when Republicans are already calling them out for
(22:25):
being too far to the left. Yeah, it's a challenge
for sure in a state like Kansas where we have
it's the only state to have elected three Democratic female governors,
and one of them's in office right now, and she
faces that challenge that you're getting out where she needs
Republicans and independents to vote for her, and tracking far
(22:46):
left probably wouldn't get that done. That said, the history
referenced by the caller in her place is true in
this part of the country as well. There was about
one hundred years ago in the early twentieth century movement
called Prairie populism. It's basically Eugene Deb's era socialism that
was rife among farmers and working class folks. And I
(23:11):
got a lot of traction in this part of the country.
It's kind of like in the character and the blood
and the dirt here. But yet it's not necessarily on
the conscious mind, if that makes sense, in part because
of the weaponization of the term that Mary was alluding to.
So I do hear, you know, their ideas that would
fall under the category of socialism, but there might be,
(23:33):
you know, reticence for embracing that term for fair reasons.
Let's go to Liam in Denver, Colorado. Liam, Welcome to
the Middle Hi, thanks for having me, Thanks for being here.
Tell us what party do you identify with and what
issue do you have a problem with them on. I
don't really identify too strongly with either party, but I
(23:56):
tend to be more conservative, okay, And and what do
you not like about the Republicans. I feel like gun
control in this country needs to be more of a
topic that Republicans are willing to at least entertain. You know,
with the number of mass shootings we've had in this country,
with school shootings, etc. There's so little Republican support for
(24:18):
any kind of gun control that would make any sense
in this country. I feel like for many Republicans that
almost seems like political suicide for them to talk about
that because they lose so much of their constituents. But
Republicans aren't really willing to reconcile with how much of
a problem it's becoming in this country, Mary, what do
you think about that you're not in your head, well,
because I'm thinking about what you know. Even the research shows,
(24:41):
and that's say perhaps coming to the middle that is
occurring from both ends of Democrat and Republican on issues
with guns. The fastest growing groups of gun owners are
African Americans and women, and a lot of them are
in urban areas. They take gun classes, they you go
out and shoot on the range, and they have an
(25:03):
affinity for firearms that you don't normally think of within
urban populations in terms of ownership. At the same time,
they'll also have those references where they'll know about stolen
guns and gun violence. So when I hear the caller,
I'm like, well, that's another version from another end of
something that he's looking at, and his party is too
(25:25):
extreme on the reality of what's happening on the ground
is people are experiencing gun violence or gun ownership in
ways that doesn't always play out in the rhetoric of
either party. Sarah, just the other day, there was a
murder here in this area in Kansas City. It's all
over the news in many cities in this country. This
(25:48):
is something in fact, we heard in even Urbana, Illinois,
my hometown where we did the show from two weeks ago,
the mayor said that gun violence had been up recently.
Does the message from the parties on guns relate much,
do you think to the crime that people are seeing
right now as we head into the selection. I think that,
you know, you have to parse kind of what Mary
(26:09):
was getting at the gulf between what's happening on the
ground in terms of the hearts and minds of voters
and the message coming from the party that may be
you know, like in the pocket of the NRA, and
then this issue of what is causing gun violence, and
I think that those might those are those are kind
of like two separate issues. Society is at a breaking
point in many ways, and historically you see violence escalate
(26:32):
at such moments in history. And then meanwhile, there are
you know, very profit driven interests involved in of you know,
perpetuating a very a very strong message about threats to
the Second Amendment, when most of the gun owners that
I know are actually quite moderate on the topics. So
it's one of you. It's one of those things where
(26:52):
if everything you're hearing on the news or out of
the mouth of a politician is like, somehow dissonant with
everything you're hearing on the ground with people is like
who where are those people? I know they're out there,
but I think it's a it's it's a very loud minority.
And that is so much of the political discourse today.
Let's go to Ethan in Carlisle, Kentucky High Ethan welcome.
(27:12):
Tell us. What party are you in and what do
you think that what's an issue where you differ? Hello.
Up until very recently, I would say Republican, but that
changing horribly. But I've always believed that God and religious
ideology should be kept out of politic legislation. All right,
(27:36):
So you think that that maybe the Republican Party is
getting a little too far on the church side of
church and state. What do you think about that? Mary, Well,
that leads me to, you know, studying more about when
evangelical was kind of adopted within the Republican Party, and
that seems extreme for some people. I mean one of
(27:58):
the things that you you look about religion and faith
in America and more people are unchurched than they ever were.
So that's sort of a kind of attachment of the
GOP to the evangelical movement is going to be more dissonant.
Jus what Sarah had just mentioned in another call with
(28:18):
what's happening on the ground. So where is that going
to play out long term? Well, do you think that,
especially with Latinos making up a bigger share of the population,
that we're going to see more religion in politics rather
than less. Latinos are not very are just like everyone else.
I mean, they're an awful lot of the evangelical Latinos frankly,
(28:42):
and even lot of Catholics though right coming from Lala
Catholics as well. But you know, a lot of immigrants
are more indigenous, and you know they don't have quite
the same attachment to the Catholic Church. You know, it's
just it's more of a mix than what people assume.
I don't think that, you know, Latino vote for one thing.
You can't always count on them to be Democrat. That's
(29:03):
an assumption that you'll hear from the platform of many
Republican candidates, but it's not always true. And they're getting
less and less so it seems like, according to the polls,
less and less. So I mean, part of that is
a disconnect with immigration, and part of it is, frankly,
just economic conditions. You know, when people prosper or when
they don't. Immigration is never the top issue for Latinos
and they can vote, they're really kind of splintered. We're
(29:25):
kind of like the big giant vote out there for
either party that needs to grab. You can reach out
to us at eight four four four Middle that is
eight four four six four three three five three or
at Listen to the Middle dot com. Let's take a
look at some of the comments that are coming in online.
Karen and South Carolina says, I was a Republican until
Trump was elected. He unleashed something horrific in our country
(29:47):
and made it acceptable to certain people to be fascist, homophobic, sexist,
and violent. Lyndon and Rhode Island says, I'm a Republican
who disagrees with my party about the twenty twenty election.
If there was any fraud, it was far from enough
to change the course of the election. And Mandy in
Atlanta says, I affiliate with the Democratic Party, but I
don't think abortion should be legal in the third trimester.
(30:09):
And we'll be right back with the middle. This is
the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson We're live from Casey. You
are in Kansas City, Missouri, right on the border of
Missouri and Kansas. In Missouri, there is a Republican governor
who is not up for reelection. In Kansas a Democratic
governor who is. Now we are asking you this hour,
(30:30):
what is an issue where you disagree with the political
party you affiliate with? Our number eight four four four Middle,
our website Listen to the Middle dot com. Our guests
Mary Sanchez, a longtime newspaper columnist and reporter for Kansas
City PBS, and Sarah Smrsch, a journalist and author of Heartland,
a memoir of working hard and being broke in the
richest country on Earth. Let's go to the phones again
(30:51):
because we are getting a lot of calls right now.
Let's go to Dwight, who is joining us from Mission Kansas. Dwight,
Welcome to the Middle. Hi. I am a lifelong Republican
and the thing that I am the most disappointed about
with the Republican Party today is that it seems to
(31:13):
no longer value the truth. And how do you see that? Yeah,
go ahead, continue, go ahead with your question. Well, how
do you see that playing out? Dwight? What give me
an example of something that really stands out to you
where they don't value the truth. Are you talking about
election denialism, particularly election denialism all of the proceedings around
(31:35):
the January sixth event, it's become so obvious that the
truth is right there in front of us. We saw
what happened that day. We've heard all the testimony with
the committee that's been investigating. But yet there are still
people willing to say right out loud, and if you
say something often enough and loud enough, some people come
(31:58):
to believe it. They keep saying that it just didn't
happen that way when we all saw that he did.
Did you watch the January six hearings, Dwight. I've watched
parts of them. I've listened to more on NPR. I've
heard a lot of commentators, especially on the coasts, during
those hearings, say things like, everybody's already made up their mind.
(32:20):
These hearings aren't going to change any minds. Do you
think that that's true. I think if people will listen
with an open mind, that their minds will be changed.
That there are not enough open minds left, Dwight. Thank
you so much. Too many election deniers who are running
for office today, and it makes the decision very difficult.
(32:42):
I'm not voting a straight party ticket this year. Well, Dwight,
thank you so much for calling in Another call there
sort of about the Trump wing of the Republican Party
upsetting Republicans. Sarah, Yeah, I think that Dwight's call is
a good point to discuss propaganda and disinformation in this
(33:03):
political moment. How can it be that the facts are
right before our eyes and yet we seem to be
in this post fact reality there. It's probably not a coincidence.
We know it's not a coincidence that that tracks with
the era of social media, and it's algorithms that are
designed to put people in their silos, keep feeding them
(33:24):
a loop of what they already believe until that calcifies
to such dangerous levels that one can be shown the
facts and refuse to believe them. Let's go to Janice
in Berwin, Illinois. Janis welcome to the middle. Hi, Jeremy,
thanks for having me. Thanks for me so. I wanted
to call because I'm a very liberal Democrat. I've been
(33:46):
a loyal Democrat since I started voting at eighteen years old,
and I really believe in abortion, healthcare, and it's just
a struggle for me that my party doesn't continue that
my body might voice. When it comes to vaccines and
vaccination mandates, we don't have universal health care, so we
(34:07):
have people vaccinating themselves and then getting adverse reactions and
now they have to carry that bill and miss time
from work. And it's just really sad because I feel
like they're trying to do the right thing for society,
but then with us not having the services in place
to really support them, they end up your shouldering that burden.
(34:29):
So and so sorry, just so I understand, janis just
so I understand what you're saying. You're saying that you're
upset that your party has been wanting mandatory vaccines the
Democratic Party, Yes, and yeah, I'm pushing for vaccine mandates
and also taking away exemption from parents because ultimately the
(34:52):
parent or the person has to make that choice, and
they're the ones who are going to be solely responsible
for the outcome if they have to miss work because
they get flu like symptoms for three days, that could
threaten their employment. We have so many people living paycheck
to paycheck with you know, safety nut and we're not
providing that safety net for them, but we're pushing them
(35:12):
to make this choice. Did you get vaccinated for COVID nineteen, Jennie,
I did not. I actually had a previous adverse reaction
to the vaccine, not to COVID to another one, and
looking at the ingredients there were enough similarities and unfortunately
there's no way for me to find out what I
was originally reacting to. Well, Jannis, thank you for your call.
(35:34):
I have to say, Mary, it's interesting that forty five
minutes into this hour is the first time we hear
about COVID nineteen, which obviously consumed everything in all of
our lives in the last couple of years, and now
for some in this country it's starting to fade into
the background, but obviously not for Jennie. No. And actually
(35:54):
some of the people that I report with here in
Kansas City keep saying recently, these are more people who
work in street work, some women that you know their
COVID is very real. One of the things though, about
how COVID was rolled out and the vaccines that there
was a really missed moment. Frankly, four Democrats, and this
(36:15):
goes to what the caller is saying, is that there
was already so much vaccine hesitancy in the United States,
within many, many populations, and they really didn't address that
from the forefront, not knowing, you know. It was kind
of brought out like, well, here is COVID is so devastating,
was killing people, But they didn't allow for that that
(36:38):
there was already a hesitancy that was here, you know,
and the science could have told them that, but that
wasn't built into how the vaccine mandates and things were
rolled out, so that resistance was already there. But that's
a misstep, that's a political misstep. It's been interesting, Sarah,
as we've traveled with this show to different states the
(36:58):
last few weeks, we've seen different levels of COVID precautions
in different places. I will say, last week in Florida,
not a lot of people on the west coast of
Florida wearing masks. Here in Kansas City, more of a
mixed bag. Yeah, I think that that's one of the
interesting phenomena of the pandemic is how it revealed. While
(37:18):
we're living in a globalized, digitized realm, it's it's still
there's something about the local character of a place that
shows up in human behavior, and the pandemic certainly revealed
it in some interesting ways. And I also find this
area to be sort of a mixed bag, and sometimes
(37:38):
even crossing county lines changes how many masks you see.
Let's go to Tim in Madison Heights, Michigan. Tim, Welcome
to the Middle. Thanks Jeremy tell us about yeah, what
part of yeah? I've been a lifelong Republican since I
was old enough to vote, and that amounts to roughly
(38:01):
forty six years, and I am just tired of the
hyperbole from the party, their inability to commit, and their
inability to directly address any kind of realistic issue. For instance,
when Kevin McCarthy recently came out with his commitment to America,
(38:25):
you know, I look at that, and I read a
good article in the Post recently about that in contrast
to Nut you know, Gingrich and what he did back
in the nineties. I mean, it just seems like the
party leadership, they're they're going after the wrong constituent base.
They're they're really insulting the intelligence of you know what
(38:47):
to this point I thought was the Republican constituency. And
they're just missing on a lot of a lot of
strengths that they used to have. Have you heard Republicans
talk about what they planned to do on the issue
of inflation, because this has been one of the big
issues that many Republican candidates have been running on. But
(39:10):
Democrats have been pointing out that we haven't heard a
lot of details about what exactly they would do to,
for example, bring down gas prices. No, no, there's there's
been nothing about that. You know, the four pillars that
McCarthy came out with recently, you know, they talk about
freedom and financial you know, stability, you know, and and
(39:32):
and security of the nation and everything. But but they
didn't outline anything and and it's almost like they're they're
waiting for the big surprise, you know, elect us in
the mid terms and we're gonna you know, we're gonna
give you all this. But they haven't put down facts.
They have no they have no score list. So what
are you going to do in this upcoming election? You're
(39:53):
in Michigan where there is a governor's race going on.
What are you gonna do? There's a yeah, there's a
there's hot governor's race right now. And you know, we've
had some good Republican governors We've had some you know,
pretty good Democratic governors, and right now, I just I'm
just not liking what I'm seeing here. You know, the
Republican Committee here in Michigan just has not put out
(40:16):
candidates that I think are capable of carrying on the
you know, the the Republican agenda. So you're going to
vote for Gretchen Whitmer, Well, we might do that, all right,
We'll just have to do that. Well, Tim, thank you,
Thank you for calling in. Sarah, what do you think
about that that this is a Republican who says he's
(40:38):
been a lifelong Republican, but he's not hearing the details
from the candidates. Yeah. I think that the polarization of
this moment being so extreme leaves both parties or both sides,
if you like, in this sort of uh, you know,
vicious cycle of reacting to the other and saying we're
not doing that and vilifying the other, and uh, there's
(40:59):
less owners frankly on politicians to define and differentiate their
own very specific policy views when politics have become so
identity based and leaning into that is problematic for the
country and certainly for voters like that caller Mary would
Lacking details work here in either Missouri or Kansas with
(41:20):
a candidate if they're just going to run by attacking
the other side, not with many people. I mean, Missouri's
a show me state. The reason is, you know, show me,
show me the facts, tell me more. We're also the
area where you know Bob Dole senator from Kansas, and
you know Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jack
(41:40):
dan Forth has been politically active asking for that civility
to return, you know, and just common sense, which is
often you know, related to the Midwest in the middle
So I think I think more people are in line
with what the caller is saying. And frankly, they're not
all older people. You know sometimes you hear that, and
(42:03):
they're older people who remember the Bob Dole era and
the John McCain and the reaching across the aisle when
it actually was reaching across the aisle, when DC politicians,
you know, they golfed together, they had dinner together, that
sort of thing. Well, we have had on this show
at least one caller who has come in from the coast.
(42:24):
Last week we had a caller from Philadelphia, which is fine.
So let's go to central Maine. Let's get another coastal
state on here, Lola in central Maine. Welcome to the middle.
Hey there, Hi, go ahead us. I was raised and
a very conservative family. I am queer and grew up
(42:49):
in central Maine, which is pretty conservative. So I feel
a bit on that reaching across the aisle in the
sense that I am now like quite far left of liberal.
But I am still very pro common sense gun control.
I don't believe in outlawing all guns, and I am
(43:09):
pro death penalty in situations where there is no question
of the person's innocence or guilt. For example, like the
Parkland shooter. I am pro death penalty in that situation
and other very specific instances like that. Well, it's interesting, actually,
after that, I guess you would call it a verdict
(43:30):
or sentencing came down not giving the Parkland shooter the
death penalty. Both the Democrat and Republican running for governor
in Florida that Charlie christ and Ron De Santis both
said that they were upset about that. Mary Yeah, well,
which I think some of that was perhaps a political Frankly,
the caller is just a perfect example of how complicated
(43:53):
most people's views are. Particularly as a age. You know,
how they were raised, what they were told when they
were raised by their family or their church or their
peers often becomes different with their own lived experience later.
And here she has some very you know, it sounds
like they're conflicted views in terms of painting how politics
(44:15):
looks at those issues, But they're not. I mean, for
the caller's life, everything makes perfect sense. You know, She's reasons, Sarah,
why do so many issues do you think this is
a this is the million dollar question. Why do so
many issues become so political where the parties decide this
is our stance and this is where we're going to
be and we're not moving on this one. And if
(44:36):
you're with us, then you have to believe this as well. Yeah,
I think that the sort of toxic nature of that
approach to American politics has a lot to do with
our two party system, which frankly just can't contain the
nuance and complexity of what is in that you know,
the reality. In perfect example, the caller who just shared
(45:00):
you know, a bit of her identity, her place, her background,
where she is now and nowhere in her her The
sentiments that she shared was that that I detected a
sense of anger or vitriol toward anyone. And yet there
are so many aspects of what she shared that would
be plucked by the various parties and weaponized and leveraged
(45:20):
for uh, you know, just the specific purpose of defeating
the one side across the aisle. But she represents she
contains multitudes, you know, so like we need a politics
that contains multitudes. And I think that's what we're we're
facing again and again in the modern political era, is
that largely we have become more liberal and progressive as
(45:42):
a society on social issues. Frankly, that just bears out
in numbers. And meanwhile there's a you know, like economic crisis,
and then you have these two parties that are vying
for votes by way of you know, these very hardline
definitions what it means to be a Republican or a Democrat.
(46:03):
Most people don't fit into those boxes. We're hearing from
some listeners on our website Listen to the Middle dot com.
John and Louisiana says, none of our Republican delegation we'll
even talk about climate change. They only defend the oil industry.
And somebody in Arizona, mister sir, I don't think that's
a real name, says, Perhaps politics could benefit from operating
(46:24):
in a way like sports does. Every player in basketball
is tracked relentlessly on their playing and performance record their
career stats. Thanks to everybody for calling it at eight
four four Middle, We'll keep checking your voicemails if you
didn't make it through to the show, and it listened
to the Middle dot com as well. But right now
it is time for what is now since it's the
third time we've done this, notorious Anthony, this is notorious
(46:46):
what we have coming up here, it is. It is
the pinnacle of civility. We are talking about the needle drop. Okay, Sarah,
Jeremy and Mary, this is what's going to happen. I'm
gonna pull out this record from a Kennett, Missouri born
songstress who sold more than already got it let him finish,
thought continue, No, let's hear it, let's keep going. Okay,
(47:09):
so you have to identify who this artist is. All right,
play too good? Here we go. Cheryl Crowe booms, all right, congratulations,
that was really good. Sarah, that was fast. I will say, Anthony, Okay,
challenge for you, Anthony next week. It's gonna be really hard.
(47:30):
I know I told you I didn't want people to
not be able to get it, but now we have
to make it. You know, you've been talking about issues
that affect people for the past hour and let you loose.
But I didn't know that you were going to come
like that with that knowledge to ask questions back. Not
anymore because we're out of time, But DJ Anthony Valadez,
Kansas City PBS senior reporter Mary Sanchez, and journalists and
(47:52):
author Sarah Smarsh. Thanks to all of you. Thank you,
Thanks Jeremy, thank you. And next week we'll be live
from kJ ZZ and Phoenix, Arizona. It's going to be
the day the election. We're going to be asking you
what the results mean for your community and what your
hopes are for the work that can get done by
your elected officials. Call us at eight four four four Middle,
or reach out at Listen to the Middle dot com.
(48:13):
If you love the show, By the way, to tell
your public radio station and subscribe to our podcasts. It
is called The Middle with Jeremy Hobson. The Middle is
brought to you by Longnook Media and produced by Alex Ashlock,
John Barth Sam Burmas, Dawes, Ccfatope, Lisa Napoli, and Harrison Patino.
Our technical director is Steven Steigman here at Casey You Are,
and we couldn't do the show without the help of
(48:33):
the team here Chris Pruett, Ron Jones, Sarah Morris and
Danny Alexander. Our theme music was composed by Andrew Hague.
Thanks also Jason Croft and Lilly Duncanson at our partner
station will Illinois Public Media, and of course the more
than five hundred public radio stations that are making it
possible for the whole country to listen to the Middle
I'm Jeremy Hobson. Talk to you next Wednesday from Phoenix
(49:00):
one differen
Welcome to the Middle of Jeremy Hobson Live this evening
from Ksey. You are in Kansas City, Missouri, right on
the border of Missouri and Kansas. Kansas, of course, the
state that sent political shockwaves from coast to coast a
few months back when voters overwhelmingly supported abortion rights in
a ballot referendum, showing the power of the middle. You
(00:25):
might say, this is our third show, and as he
has been each week, DJ Anthony Balades is with us,
he is our house. DJ hy Anthony, Hey, Jeremy, good
to be back with you. Great to have you. And
for the listeners who are new to this show, what
we're trying to do is bring voices from the vast
middle of the country into the national conversation. The millions
of Americans who live in the middle are so important
(00:48):
to the political process, but so often ignored by the media. Now,
two weeks ago, we were in my hometown of Urbana, Illinois,
and last week we were in Fort Myers on the
Gulf coast of Florida, and we were taking your calls
last week about climate change and how it's affecting you
and what if anything, you want the government to do
about it, and we got hundreds of calls from all
(01:09):
over the country. Hi, Jan here in Kansas City, Missouri. Hey,
this is Jacob in Hampshire, Illinois. Hi. My name's Kay.
I'm in rural Oklahoma. Hey, this is Mike. I live
in Maine. I just wanted to comment. My wife and
I have decided not to have children, particularly because of
climate change. I would love to be able to afford,
(01:31):
you know, different sources of power from my little home.
But I'm retired and living on so scary so unless
the government or someone wants to buy me that electric car.
That's how I am frustrated when the government subsidizes people's
decisions to live in a floodplane. I'm very concerned about water,
(01:53):
and there's always flooding some places and draw other places.
Thank you very much, Take care, Thanks all rights. So
many calls, Anthony. And for listeners who can't get through
at eight four four the middle, eight four four four middle,
rather because the lines are jammed, you can just leave
a message for us. We are listening to all of them. Okay,
here's what we're asking you this hour. What's an issue
(02:15):
where you disagree with the political party you affiliate with,
You can tell us, don't be shy, Anthony. What is
our number? Absolutely, the fall number is eight four four
four Middle once again it is eight four four four
six four three three five three. And remember, as we
have this conversation, I want to hear from you, whatever
your point of view, Democrat, Republican, there is no condescension here.
(02:35):
We are going to have respect for one another, have
a civil conversation even when we disagree. Now joining me
tonight here in the studio are two great guests. Sarah Smarsh,
a Kansas based journalist and author of the book Heartland,
a memoir of working hard and being broke in the
richest country on Earth. Sarah, welcome to you. Thanks Jeremy.
Now you are a fifth generation Kanzen. What has kept
(02:56):
you here in the middle all these years. That's a
great question, because I would say my decision to be
based in the place I come from as a journalist
who writes for national outlets, is one of the more
controversial decisions of my life. I suppose you know feedback
I got from colleagues early on in my career, and
uh and and I did move away, I should say
(03:18):
early on. I lived in New York for a few years.
I've lived in other major metropolitan areas around the country,
and you know, so I've been a reporter for about
twenty years, and at the dawn of my career, news
outlets in the middle as you call it, were struggling
and increasingly failing, just due to the dawn of the
(03:38):
digital era, basically and scrambling to keep up with those
new business models and and the shift to the what
your show is addressing this situation where our media centers
are so so coalesced on the coasts in such a
powerful way that sort of distorts our picture of ourselves
as a country. I sensed that early on, and you know,
(04:00):
it might have been at some economic cost to myself,
perhaps in career terms, but I wanted to. I felt
like I could be a best service to my profession
by being in the place that I came from, having
a lens, knowing the place on the ground that I
was writing about, and so I came back. Well, Sarah,
it's great to have you here. Our other guests in
the studio with me is Mary Sanchez, a longtime columnist
(04:21):
for the Kansas City Star, now a nationally syndicated columnist
and senior reporter for Kansas City PBS. Mary, welcome to you,
Thank you, thank you for having me. Now, it says
in your bio that, as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant,
you believe that true culture is so much deeper than
language or location. What do you mean by that? It's everything.
(04:41):
I mean people just look at those top points, but
how people think about time, how they speak, the cadence
that they speak with their reference points, everything is just
so much deeper and richer, and frankly, I've been able
to make a career out of looking at those things. Well,
it's great to have you both here again. Our number
is four Middle. I want to go straight to our
(05:02):
first caller here. Danne is on with us from Iowa City. Danne,
welcome to the Middle. Hi. Thanks. The issue that I've
been concerned about recently is immigration, and I didn't like
how it was presented when they came to when they
(05:25):
went to Massachusetts and New York. But I do think
that all the states should share in the distribution of
our fellow fellow humans that are coming to the border
and want a better life. So you're talking about that.
(05:47):
The governors in Texas and Florida, Republican governors who sent
bus loads and are sending in some cases bus loads
of immigrants to northern states, including Massachusetts and New York.
But you're saying, even if you don't agree with the
way they're doing that, that you think that democrats I
assume you're you identify as a Democrat. Yes, and you
think democrats ought to be welcoming people who have come
(06:11):
into the country, undocumented immigrants into their states as well. Yes,
I think every state should take a share, you know,
proportionally to help with the issue. It's a national issue.
It shouldn't rely, you know, primarily with the states that
(06:33):
are at our southern border. Dan, thank you so much
for that call. Mary, let me go to you on that.
This is this is something that you know, people really
have split into their parties on this issue. What do
you think about what Dan just had to say there.
I actually wrote a column that somewhat advocated that in
that most migrants when they first enter the country have
(06:56):
aspirations of going elsewhere, or they often have, particularly some
of the people at the border right now, at the
southern border, have other family and friends and connections, and
they were they were wanting to go throughout the United States.
My problem with it was that it wasn't done orderly,
a press, wasn't even done legally, you know, and people
(07:16):
were kind of in a mishimatch of where they were
being sent. Was more of a political message. But actually
what the caller is saying is part of what immigration
does and has always done in the US. I mean
my own family, my grandmother crossed the southern border with
my father and they ended up I mean they were
in Texas, they were in Nebraska, they were near Illinois.
(07:40):
I mean, they were all over before they ended up
in Kansas City, Kansas. But Republican governors in the case
of DeSantis in Florida and Abbot in Texas, are also
doing this as a way to just draw attention to
the situation at the border. Absolutely, they were trying to
make a political point, and I think it is true
that some states perhaps don't realize how congregated and how
(08:03):
many the numbers. I mean, there's issues of humanity and
how do you house people, how do you safely house people,
how do you take care of their needs, how do
you see them through what is basically a refugee asylum process.
You know that just numbers, sheer numbers. Think about if
you were going to have a dinner party and you
plan for six and then five hundred showed up. That's
(08:26):
a little bit like with a lot of the border
cities deal with because of issues outside of our country,
in Venezuela, in Haiti, that's where people are coming from. Sarah,
let me ask you somebody here, as we said a
fifth generation Kanzen, if hundreds or thousands of migrants were
(08:48):
to suddenly arrive in Kansas, would they be welcomed? Well, first,
let me point out that actually Kansas, like many states
in the Midwest where agriculture is a strong feature of industry,
are already brimming with you know, diverse populations by way
of immigration, including recent migrants. The meat packing industry in
(09:11):
western Kansas is located in some you know, relatively small
towns that are nonetheless now what we might call minority
majority in racial terms, and those communities you know, have
all you know, shifted and adapted in various ways, the good,
the bad, and the ugly. I think that you know,
(09:31):
their assumptions about a place like Kansas because it goes
red on a presidential election map, or that it would
be unwelcoming. But we can get down to the granular
level on the ground. Often it's much more complicated at
the community level, and some of those small towns actually
need human beings for population to survive. It might be
more welcoming than folks would assume. Let's go to another call.
(09:51):
Kelly is calling from Scottsdale, Arizona. Kelly, welcome to the
Middle Hello. What's an air where you disagree with your party? Well,
I am. I'm a Republican, and I do not appreciate
Trump being the head of our party at this point,
or the representation or other Republican candidates siding with him.
(10:17):
So does that mean you're in Arizona? Does that mean
you're not going to vote for Carry Lake, who is
a big ally of President Trump. Absolutely not, I will not.
Why do you think so many people in your party
have stood by Trump? I think there actually are a
lot more people who are not. But Trump has been
(10:38):
such a force for so long that people are afraid
to not side with him. For the people who are
very outspoken and loud. Kelly, thank you for that call. Sarah,
what do you think about that? Well? I grew up
in what I would describe as kind of a moderately
conservative environment. I was a child during the Reagan era,
and so really kind of the core of my life
(11:00):
tracks with the right word shift of the Republican Party
toward the conservatism we see today, and I hear and
see a lot of that same sentiment that the Coller
just shared, this sort of discontent with the direction of
the party and yet a kind of not quite having
found a way to articulate that what whether you want
(11:23):
to look at it as the more traditional form of
conservatism or something new that's post Trump. I think it
does seem that the party's still in the throes of
finding a way to name, define, and given name to
whatever that is. We're also getting some comments online. You
can reach out to us on social media or at
Listen to the Middle dot com. Tricia in Ohio says,
(11:45):
I'm a Republican, but I do not agree with the
abortion stance, the stance against it. It is simply to
be between a doctor and their patient. Government is not
to be in this at all. In Dennis in Berwin, Pennsylvania,
I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I don't agree with my
party on abortion rights. And we'll be right back with
(12:06):
more on the middle. This is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
If you're just tuning in, we are live and we
are a new national call in show focused on bringing
voices from the middle of the country into the national conversation.
And by the way, if you miss any of the
show or you want to hear more, you can check
out our podcast, The Middle with Jeremy Hobson wherever you
(12:26):
get your podcasts. You can also go to Listen to
the Middle dot com and we'll link you to it there.
My guest this hour are Mary Sanchez of Kansas City
PBS and Sarah smrsh, author of Heartland. Our question, what
is an issue where you disagree with the political party
you affiliate with? Our number eight four four four Middle.
That's eight four four four six four three three five three.
(12:48):
Let's go to Kathy in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hi. Kathy, Hi.
I am a Democrat and the Democrats have taken the
position the transgender women are identical to women legally and socially,
and when it comes down to it in practice, there
are ways that things need to be worked out about
(13:09):
that because the way that it gets handled is that
that imposes on the rights of women and girls. And
what's happening is that it's really frustrating that we're not
really allowed to speak about that. The idea is that
the Democrats have that line on it, and the more
liberal you are, the more you believe that, and we're not.
(13:32):
We get kicked off social media sites for talking about that.
All the popular liberal people that are out there speaking
speak in favor of always catering to the transgender rights,
which impose on some of the rights. Well, let me
ask you this, Kathy, why does that bother you? What
what upsets you about that as an issue? I assume,
just based on your call, you're not transgender yourself. Why
(13:56):
does it bother you? Right? It? It bothers me because
because of the women's issues and women's rights and that
we're we are expected to go ahead and just go
along and accept men into our bathrooms and including for
teenage girls who should really have some bathroom time alone
(14:18):
without without having that to deal with that, and it
bothers me that that biological biological men, men, male born
people end up in women's prisons and that is not
fair at all. Well, I think we've got your point there, Kathy.
Thank you so much for that call. Let me go
(14:40):
to you on that, Mary, this is you know, it's
not something She's right that it's not something people want
to talk about because it does you know, on the
on the side of people who are transgender or who
know people who are transgender, uh, this this is about
their own personal rights and freedom to be who they
believe that they are who they are. And then there
(15:00):
are other people who think this is a lot of change,
you know, And what do you think about that? Well,
I think it's it's a conversation that needs to be
had in not quiet moments, but in moments of thoughtfulness
and truly informed science. And you almost have to allow
people to say things in an awkward way that someone
(15:22):
else might assume is offensive without calling them out so
much that you shut them down. And I do think
that the you know, issues with transgender are new for
some people. They don't understand gender identity as opposed to
sexual orientation, and it's it's just a process of education.
(15:45):
And then unfortunately, you know, as we do, have so
much rhetoric around it, and the call is right from
both sides, Oftentimes those questions aren't answered for people and
they're not walked through in really a very reasonable and
help full way. It's interesting, Sarah, because it has become
a very partisan issue. Even when you see somebody who
(16:07):
puts he him or she her on their signature on
their email, you can make assumptions about what party they
identify with. Sure, yeah, there's all. There's the host a
host of topics in the current discourse that have become
sort of signals or symbols for each side to kind
of flash their colors and understand which category they belong to.
(16:28):
One of the reasons the question tonight is so important
about dissent within a given political category or group. And
and I totally agree with Mary that, you know, as
someone who who dramatically changed my views over the course
of my particularly my early young life, the reason was
my information source has changed, and also my environment, my
social group changed. And often I think we're you know,
(16:52):
you know, hateful rhetoric, that that's one thing that that
deserves no permission slip or pass. But when someone was
just earnestly trying to understand something in a way that,
as Mary said, maybe awkward, you know, often it's a
failure of conversation or our ability to get together and
find a shared language without it breaking down along political
(17:14):
fault lines rather than you know, ill intend Let's go
to a call from Boise, Idaho. Mark is on the line. Hi, Mark,
welcome to the middle. All right, glad to glad to
take my call. Well, my concern is a twofold I
identify with neither party have for thirty years. I'm a
(17:38):
guy in the middle looking for candidates who have character.
But all I've been able to find our candidates who
are characters, and I have a really difficult time voting
for those individuals. I think probably the two reasons. Number one,
most current setting politicians, I think are more interested in
their political careers and the future for the opportunity opportunities
(18:02):
for them. And the other big part is the way
money plays. This a tremendous role in what we do
over the last twenty or thirty years. I get turned off.
So what are you gonna do that? What are you
going to do on election day? Oh? Well, I'm going
to look at my ballot and I will look for
(18:22):
people with character. Sometimes it'll be Democrats, sometimes there'll be
a Republicans, and oftentimes they're blank. I can't tell you
how many times I'd voted for ALFREDY Newman. Well, let
me ask you. Let me ask you one more thing, though,
what did you do back in twenty twenty in the
presidential election, I voted for ALFREDY Newman. Oh no, I
didn't either. In the twenty election, I voted for Libertarian Party,
(18:46):
the governor from New Mexico and the Republican governor from Massachusetts.
I don't recollect your names. Well, Mark, thank you for
thank you for making that call into the Middle. We
appreciate your call. And I have to say, Sarah, I
imagine there are a lot of people who don't really
like either party right now. It's going to be interesting
to hear if we get more calls like that from
(19:07):
people who just don't identify with either one. Thirty percent
of registered voters in the state of Kansas are Independence
in fact. Yeah, and actually that's probably about the same
in a lot of states around this country. Let's go
to Caroline, who is calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Caroline, Welcome
to the Middle. Hi, Jeremy, thank you for having me.
(19:29):
I'm stoked beyond. It's great to have you tell us
how you identify politically and what problem you have with
your party. So I would say that I vote Democratic
more often than not. But I would like to see
much more progression from my party, especially in Wisconsin. We're
(19:49):
not going to see the probably anytime soon. But I
think it's really important to recognize how in about one
hundred years ago, when the country was going through a
lot of the same kind of problems that we sorry,
I'm a little bit nervous, a lot a lot of
a lot of the same problems that we are going
through right now, that we ended up actually electing three
(20:15):
socialist mayors in Milwaukee. And throughout that time, it was
it was over thirty years. I know that Daniel Hone
had mayorship for about twenty four years. But you think,
I think that you think that the Democratic Party, Caroline
already interrupt, but you think that the Democratic Party is
not getting progressive enough right now? Correct? Yeah? And and
(20:38):
during the time when there were socialists in power in Milwaukee,
we saw the life expectancy jump up, we saw people
getting happier, people getting richer. I mean, like all in all,
I don't see why we can't see more of a
democratic kind of socialist movement in this country, especially when
looking at history. Thank you for that call, Caroline. Now
(21:02):
I'm going to go to our guests here who are
in a place where Earlier today here in Kansas City,
I was watching TV and I saw two ads for
the Democratic candidates, one Trudy Bush Valentine, who is in
Missouri running for Senate Democrat. One for Laura Kelly, who's
the Democratic governor of Kansas running for reelection. Both of
(21:22):
them looked like they were Republicans in the ads because
of the things they were talking about, cut taxes, you know,
and then one of them opposing They're accusing their opponent
of helping out communist China was the wording there. When
you hear that call from Caroline talking about we want
the Democratic Party to be more socialist, How would that
(21:43):
play here depends on who you're speaking to and how
much they know about what socialism is. You know. The
caller had some specific examples, you know, so that's kind
of a lived experience things that she was sighting. They
are an awful lot of people who don't have that socialism.
I mean, it's become one of those dog whistles, frankly,
(22:04):
So you know, depending on what they know. That's almost
true for everything. You know, What do people really know
about that term or are they using it are they
latching to how it's being used in political ads, which
can swing both ways? Sarah, What about the idea though,
of Democrats who want the party to move further to
the left when Republicans are already calling them out for
(22:25):
being too far to the left. Yeah, it's a challenge
for sure in a state like Kansas where we have
it's the only state to have elected three Democratic female governors,
and one of them's in office right now, and she
faces that challenge that you're getting out where she needs
Republicans and independents to vote for her, and tracking far
(22:46):
left probably wouldn't get that done. That said, the history
referenced by the caller in her place is true in
this part of the country as well. There was about
one hundred years ago in the early twentieth century movement
called Prairie populism. It's basically Eugene Deb's era socialism that
was rife among farmers and working class folks. And I
(23:11):
got a lot of traction in this part of the country.
It's kind of like in the character and the blood
and the dirt here. But yet it's not necessarily on
the conscious mind, if that makes sense, in part because
of the weaponization of the term that Mary was alluding to.
So I do hear, you know, their ideas that would
fall under the category of socialism, but there might be,
(23:33):
you know, reticence for embracing that term for fair reasons.
Let's go to Liam in Denver, Colorado. Liam, Welcome to
the Middle Hi, thanks for having me, Thanks for being here.
Tell us what party do you identify with and what
issue do you have a problem with them on. I
don't really identify too strongly with either party, but I
(23:56):
tend to be more conservative, okay, And and what do
you not like about the Republicans. I feel like gun
control in this country needs to be more of a
topic that Republicans are willing to at least entertain. You know,
with the number of mass shootings we've had in this country,
with school shootings, etc. There's so little Republican support for
(24:18):
any kind of gun control that would make any sense
in this country. I feel like for many Republicans that
almost seems like political suicide for them to talk about
that because they lose so much of their constituents. But
Republicans aren't really willing to reconcile with how much of
a problem it's becoming in this country, Mary, what do
you think about that you're not in your head, well,
because I'm thinking about what you know. Even the research shows,
(24:41):
and that's say perhaps coming to the middle that is
occurring from both ends of Democrat and Republican on issues
with guns. The fastest growing groups of gun owners are
African Americans and women, and a lot of them are
in urban areas. They take gun classes, they you go
out and shoot on the range, and they have an
(25:03):
affinity for firearms that you don't normally think of within
urban populations in terms of ownership. At the same time,
they'll also have those references where they'll know about stolen
guns and gun violence. So when I hear the caller,
I'm like, well, that's another version from another end of
something that he's looking at, and his party is too
(25:25):
extreme on the reality of what's happening on the ground
is people are experiencing gun violence or gun ownership in
ways that doesn't always play out in the rhetoric of
either party. Sarah, just the other day, there was a
murder here in this area in Kansas City. It's all
over the news in many cities in this country. This
(25:48):
is something in fact, we heard in even Urbana, Illinois,
my hometown where we did the show from two weeks ago,
the mayor said that gun violence had been up recently.
Does the message from the parties on guns relate much,
do you think to the crime that people are seeing
right now as we head into the selection. I think that,
you know, you have to parse kind of what Mary
(26:09):
was getting at the gulf between what's happening on the
ground in terms of the hearts and minds of voters
and the message coming from the party that may be
you know, like in the pocket of the NRA, and
then this issue of what is causing gun violence, and
I think that those might those are those are kind
of like two separate issues. Society is at a breaking
point in many ways, and historically you see violence escalate
(26:32):
at such moments in history. And then meanwhile, there are
you know, very profit driven interests involved in of you know,
perpetuating a very a very strong message about threats to
the Second Amendment, when most of the gun owners that
I know are actually quite moderate on the topics. So
it's one of you. It's one of those things where
(26:52):
if everything you're hearing on the news or out of
the mouth of a politician is like, somehow dissonant with
everything you're hearing on the ground with people is like
who where are those people? I know they're out there,
but I think it's a it's it's a very loud minority.
And that is so much of the political discourse today.
Let's go to Ethan in Carlisle, Kentucky High Ethan welcome.
(27:12):
Tell us. What party are you in and what do
you think that what's an issue where you differ? Hello.
Up until very recently, I would say Republican, but that
changing horribly. But I've always believed that God and religious
ideology should be kept out of politic legislation. All right,
(27:36):
So you think that that maybe the Republican Party is
getting a little too far on the church side of
church and state. What do you think about that? Mary, Well,
that leads me to, you know, studying more about when
evangelical was kind of adopted within the Republican Party, and
that seems extreme for some people. I mean one of
(27:58):
the things that you you look about religion and faith
in America and more people are unchurched than they ever were.
So that's sort of a kind of attachment of the
GOP to the evangelical movement is going to be more dissonant.
Jus what Sarah had just mentioned in another call with
(28:18):
what's happening on the ground. So where is that going
to play out long term? Well, do you think that,
especially with Latinos making up a bigger share of the population,
that we're going to see more religion in politics rather
than less. Latinos are not very are just like everyone else.
I mean, they're an awful lot of the evangelical Latinos frankly,
(28:42):
and even lot of Catholics though right coming from Lala
Catholics as well. But you know, a lot of immigrants
are more indigenous, and you know they don't have quite
the same attachment to the Catholic Church. You know, it's
just it's more of a mix than what people assume.
I don't think that, you know, Latino vote for one thing.
You can't always count on them to be Democrat. That's
(29:03):
an assumption that you'll hear from the platform of many
Republican candidates, but it's not always true. And they're getting
less and less so it seems like, according to the polls,
less and less. So I mean, part of that is
a disconnect with immigration, and part of it is, frankly,
just economic conditions. You know, when people prosper or when
they don't. Immigration is never the top issue for Latinos
and they can vote, they're really kind of splintered. We're
(29:25):
kind of like the big giant vote out there for
either party that needs to grab. You can reach out
to us at eight four four four Middle that is
eight four four six four three three five three or
at Listen to the Middle dot com. Let's take a
look at some of the comments that are coming in online.
Karen and South Carolina says, I was a Republican until
Trump was elected. He unleashed something horrific in our country
(29:47):
and made it acceptable to certain people to be fascist, homophobic, sexist,
and violent. Lyndon and Rhode Island says, I'm a Republican
who disagrees with my party about the twenty twenty election.
If there was any fraud, it was far from enough
to change the course of the election. And Mandy in
Atlanta says, I affiliate with the Democratic Party, but I
don't think abortion should be legal in the third trimester.
(30:09):
And we'll be right back with the middle. This is
the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson We're live from Casey. You
are in Kansas City, Missouri, right on the border of
Missouri and Kansas. In Missouri, there is a Republican governor
who is not up for reelection. In Kansas a Democratic
governor who is. Now we are asking you this hour,
(30:30):
what is an issue where you disagree with the political
party you affiliate with? Our number eight four four four Middle,
our website Listen to the Middle dot com. Our guests
Mary Sanchez, a longtime newspaper columnist and reporter for Kansas
City PBS, and Sarah Smrsch, a journalist and author of Heartland,
a memoir of working hard and being broke in the
richest country on Earth. Let's go to the phones again
(30:51):
because we are getting a lot of calls right now.
Let's go to Dwight, who is joining us from Mission Kansas. Dwight,
Welcome to the Middle. Hi. I am a lifelong Republican
and the thing that I am the most disappointed about
with the Republican Party today is that it seems to
(31:13):
no longer value the truth. And how do you see that? Yeah,
go ahead, continue, go ahead with your question. Well, how
do you see that playing out? Dwight? What give me
an example of something that really stands out to you
where they don't value the truth. Are you talking about
election denialism, particularly election denialism all of the proceedings around
(31:35):
the January sixth event, it's become so obvious that the
truth is right there in front of us. We saw
what happened that day. We've heard all the testimony with
the committee that's been investigating. But yet there are still
people willing to say right out loud, and if you
say something often enough and loud enough, some people come
(31:58):
to believe it. They keep saying that it just didn't
happen that way when we all saw that he did.
Did you watch the January six hearings, Dwight. I've watched
parts of them. I've listened to more on NPR. I've
heard a lot of commentators, especially on the coasts, during
those hearings, say things like, everybody's already made up their mind.
(32:20):
These hearings aren't going to change any minds. Do you
think that that's true. I think if people will listen
with an open mind, that their minds will be changed.
That there are not enough open minds left, Dwight. Thank
you so much. Too many election deniers who are running
for office today, and it makes the decision very difficult.
(32:42):
I'm not voting a straight party ticket this year. Well, Dwight,
thank you so much for calling in Another call there
sort of about the Trump wing of the Republican Party
upsetting Republicans. Sarah, Yeah, I think that Dwight's call is
a good point to discuss propaganda and disinformation in this
(33:03):
political moment. How can it be that the facts are
right before our eyes and yet we seem to be
in this post fact reality there. It's probably not a coincidence.
We know it's not a coincidence that that tracks with
the era of social media, and it's algorithms that are
designed to put people in their silos, keep feeding them
(33:24):
a loop of what they already believe until that calcifies
to such dangerous levels that one can be shown the
facts and refuse to believe them. Let's go to Janice
in Berwin, Illinois. Janis welcome to the middle. Hi, Jeremy,
thanks for having me. Thanks for me so. I wanted
to call because I'm a very liberal Democrat. I've been
(33:46):
a loyal Democrat since I started voting at eighteen years old,
and I really believe in abortion, healthcare, and it's just
a struggle for me that my party doesn't continue that
my body might voice. When it comes to vaccines and
vaccination mandates, we don't have universal health care, so we
(34:07):
have people vaccinating themselves and then getting adverse reactions and
now they have to carry that bill and miss time
from work. And it's just really sad because I feel
like they're trying to do the right thing for society,
but then with us not having the services in place
to really support them, they end up your shouldering that burden.
(34:29):
So and so sorry, just so I understand, janis just
so I understand what you're saying. You're saying that you're
upset that your party has been wanting mandatory vaccines the
Democratic Party, Yes, and yeah, I'm pushing for vaccine mandates
and also taking away exemption from parents because ultimately the
(34:52):
parent or the person has to make that choice, and
they're the ones who are going to be solely responsible
for the outcome if they have to miss work because
they get flu like symptoms for three days, that could
threaten their employment. We have so many people living paycheck
to paycheck with you know, safety nut and we're not
providing that safety net for them, but we're pushing them
(35:12):
to make this choice. Did you get vaccinated for COVID nineteen, Jennie,
I did not. I actually had a previous adverse reaction
to the vaccine, not to COVID to another one, and
looking at the ingredients there were enough similarities and unfortunately
there's no way for me to find out what I
was originally reacting to. Well, Jannis, thank you for your call.
(35:34):
I have to say, Mary, it's interesting that forty five
minutes into this hour is the first time we hear
about COVID nineteen, which obviously consumed everything in all of
our lives in the last couple of years, and now
for some in this country it's starting to fade into
the background, but obviously not for Jennie. No. And actually
(35:54):
some of the people that I report with here in
Kansas City keep saying recently, these are more people who
work in street work, some women that you know their
COVID is very real. One of the things though, about
how COVID was rolled out and the vaccines that there
was a really missed moment. Frankly, four Democrats, and this
(36:15):
goes to what the caller is saying, is that there
was already so much vaccine hesitancy in the United States,
within many, many populations, and they really didn't address that
from the forefront, not knowing, you know. It was kind
of brought out like, well, here is COVID is so devastating,
was killing people, But they didn't allow for that that
(36:38):
there was already a hesitancy that was here, you know,
and the science could have told them that, but that
wasn't built into how the vaccine mandates and things were
rolled out, so that resistance was already there. But that's
a misstep, that's a political misstep. It's been interesting, Sarah,
as we've traveled with this show to different states the
(36:58):
last few weeks, we've seen different levels of COVID precautions
in different places. I will say, last week in Florida,
not a lot of people on the west coast of
Florida wearing masks. Here in Kansas City, more of a
mixed bag. Yeah, I think that that's one of the
interesting phenomena of the pandemic is how it revealed. While
(37:18):
we're living in a globalized, digitized realm, it's it's still
there's something about the local character of a place that
shows up in human behavior, and the pandemic certainly revealed
it in some interesting ways. And I also find this
area to be sort of a mixed bag, and sometimes
(37:38):
even crossing county lines changes how many masks you see.
Let's go to Tim in Madison Heights, Michigan. Tim, Welcome
to the Middle. Thanks Jeremy tell us about yeah, what
part of yeah? I've been a lifelong Republican since I
was old enough to vote, and that amounts to roughly
(38:01):
forty six years, and I am just tired of the
hyperbole from the party, their inability to commit, and their
inability to directly address any kind of realistic issue. For instance,
when Kevin McCarthy recently came out with his commitment to America,
(38:25):
you know, I look at that, and I read a
good article in the Post recently about that in contrast
to Nut you know, Gingrich and what he did back
in the nineties. I mean, it just seems like the
party leadership, they're they're going after the wrong constituent base.
They're they're really insulting the intelligence of you know what
(38:47):
to this point I thought was the Republican constituency. And
they're just missing on a lot of a lot of
strengths that they used to have. Have you heard Republicans
talk about what they planned to do on the issue
of inflation, because this has been one of the big
issues that many Republican candidates have been running on. But
(39:10):
Democrats have been pointing out that we haven't heard a
lot of details about what exactly they would do to,
for example, bring down gas prices. No, no, there's there's
been nothing about that. You know, the four pillars that
McCarthy came out with recently, you know, they talk about
freedom and financial you know, stability, you know, and and
(39:32):
and security of the nation and everything. But but they
didn't outline anything and and it's almost like they're they're
waiting for the big surprise, you know, elect us in
the mid terms and we're gonna you know, we're gonna
give you all this. But they haven't put down facts.
They have no they have no score list. So what
are you going to do in this upcoming election? You're
(39:53):
in Michigan where there is a governor's race going on.
What are you gonna do? There's a yeah, there's a
there's hot governor's race right now. And you know, we've
had some good Republican governors We've had some you know,
pretty good Democratic governors, and right now, I just I'm
just not liking what I'm seeing here. You know, the
Republican Committee here in Michigan just has not put out
(40:16):
candidates that I think are capable of carrying on the
you know, the the Republican agenda. So you're going to
vote for Gretchen Whitmer, Well, we might do that, all right,
We'll just have to do that. Well, Tim, thank you,
Thank you for calling in. Sarah, what do you think
about that that this is a Republican who says he's
(40:38):
been a lifelong Republican, but he's not hearing the details
from the candidates. Yeah. I think that the polarization of
this moment being so extreme leaves both parties or both sides,
if you like, in this sort of uh, you know,
vicious cycle of reacting to the other and saying we're
not doing that and vilifying the other, and uh, there's
(40:59):
less owners frankly on politicians to define and differentiate their
own very specific policy views when politics have become so
identity based and leaning into that is problematic for the
country and certainly for voters like that caller Mary would
Lacking details work here in either Missouri or Kansas with
(41:20):
a candidate if they're just going to run by attacking
the other side, not with many people. I mean, Missouri's
a show me state. The reason is, you know, show me,
show me the facts, tell me more. We're also the
area where you know Bob Dole senator from Kansas, and
you know Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jack
(41:40):
dan Forth has been politically active asking for that civility
to return, you know, and just common sense, which is
often you know, related to the Midwest in the middle
So I think I think more people are in line
with what the caller is saying. And frankly, they're not
all older people. You know sometimes you hear that, and
(42:03):
they're older people who remember the Bob Dole era and
the John McCain and the reaching across the aisle when
it actually was reaching across the aisle, when DC politicians,
you know, they golfed together, they had dinner together, that
sort of thing. Well, we have had on this show
at least one caller who has come in from the coast.
(42:24):
Last week we had a caller from Philadelphia, which is fine.
So let's go to central Maine. Let's get another coastal
state on here, Lola in central Maine. Welcome to the middle.
Hey there, Hi, go ahead us. I was raised and
a very conservative family. I am queer and grew up
(42:49):
in central Maine, which is pretty conservative. So I feel
a bit on that reaching across the aisle in the
sense that I am now like quite far left of liberal.
But I am still very pro common sense gun control.
I don't believe in outlawing all guns, and I am
(43:09):
pro death penalty in situations where there is no question
of the person's innocence or guilt. For example, like the
Parkland shooter. I am pro death penalty in that situation
and other very specific instances like that. Well, it's interesting, actually,
after that, I guess you would call it a verdict
(43:30):
or sentencing came down not giving the Parkland shooter the
death penalty. Both the Democrat and Republican running for governor
in Florida that Charlie christ and Ron De Santis both
said that they were upset about that. Mary Yeah, well,
which I think some of that was perhaps a political Frankly,
the caller is just a perfect example of how complicated
(43:53):
most people's views are. Particularly as a age. You know,
how they were raised, what they were told when they
were raised by their family or their church or their
peers often becomes different with their own lived experience later.
And here she has some very you know, it sounds
like they're conflicted views in terms of painting how politics
(44:15):
looks at those issues, But they're not. I mean, for
the caller's life, everything makes perfect sense. You know, She's reasons, Sarah,
why do so many issues do you think this is
a this is the million dollar question. Why do so
many issues become so political where the parties decide this
is our stance and this is where we're going to
be and we're not moving on this one. And if
(44:36):
you're with us, then you have to believe this as well. Yeah,
I think that the sort of toxic nature of that
approach to American politics has a lot to do with
our two party system, which frankly just can't contain the
nuance and complexity of what is in that you know,
the reality. In perfect example, the caller who just shared
(45:00):
you know, a bit of her identity, her place, her background,
where she is now and nowhere in her her The
sentiments that she shared was that that I detected a
sense of anger or vitriol toward anyone. And yet there
are so many aspects of what she shared that would
be plucked by the various parties and weaponized and leveraged
(45:20):
for uh, you know, just the specific purpose of defeating
the one side across the aisle. But she represents she
contains multitudes, you know, so like we need a politics
that contains multitudes. And I think that's what we're we're
facing again and again in the modern political era, is
that largely we have become more liberal and progressive as
(45:42):
a society on social issues. Frankly, that just bears out
in numbers. And meanwhile there's a you know, like economic crisis,
and then you have these two parties that are vying
for votes by way of you know, these very hardline
definitions what it means to be a Republican or a Democrat.
(46:03):
Most people don't fit into those boxes. We're hearing from
some listeners on our website Listen to the Middle dot com.
John and Louisiana says, none of our Republican delegation we'll
even talk about climate change. They only defend the oil industry.
And somebody in Arizona, mister sir, I don't think that's
a real name, says, Perhaps politics could benefit from operating
(46:24):
in a way like sports does. Every player in basketball
is tracked relentlessly on their playing and performance record their
career stats. Thanks to everybody for calling it at eight
four four Middle, We'll keep checking your voicemails if you
didn't make it through to the show, and it listened
to the Middle dot com as well. But right now
it is time for what is now since it's the
third time we've done this, notorious Anthony, this is notorious
(46:46):
what we have coming up here, it is. It is
the pinnacle of civility. We are talking about the needle drop. Okay, Sarah,
Jeremy and Mary, this is what's going to happen. I'm
gonna pull out this record from a Kennett, Missouri born
songstress who sold more than already got it let him finish,
thought continue, No, let's hear it, let's keep going. Okay,
(47:09):
so you have to identify who this artist is. All right,
play too good? Here we go. Cheryl Crowe booms, all right, congratulations,
that was really good. Sarah, that was fast. I will say, Anthony, Okay,
challenge for you, Anthony next week. It's gonna be really hard.
(47:30):
I know I told you I didn't want people to
not be able to get it, but now we have
to make it. You know, you've been talking about issues
that affect people for the past hour and let you loose.
But I didn't know that you were going to come
like that with that knowledge to ask questions back. Not
anymore because we're out of time, But DJ Anthony Valadez,
Kansas City PBS senior reporter Mary Sanchez, and journalists and
(47:52):
author Sarah Smarsh. Thanks to all of you. Thank you,
Thanks Jeremy, thank you. And next week we'll be live
from kJ ZZ and Phoenix, Arizona. It's going to be
the day the election. We're going to be asking you
what the results mean for your community and what your
hopes are for the work that can get done by
your elected officials. Call us at eight four four four Middle,
or reach out at Listen to the Middle dot com.
(48:13):
If you love the show, By the way, to tell
your public radio station and subscribe to our podcasts. It
is called The Middle with Jeremy Hobson. The Middle is
brought to you by Longnook Media and produced by Alex Ashlock,
John Barth Sam Burmas, Dawes, Ccfatope, Lisa Napoli, and Harrison Patino.
Our technical director is Steven Steigman here at Casey You Are,
and we couldn't do the show without the help of
(48:33):
the team here Chris Pruett, Ron Jones, Sarah Morris and
Danny Alexander. Our theme music was composed by Andrew Hague.
Thanks also Jason Croft and Lilly Duncanson at our partner
station will Illinois Public Media, and of course the more
than five hundred public radio stations that are making it
possible for the whole country to listen to the Middle
I'm Jeremy Hobson. Talk to you next Wednesday from Phoenix
(49:00):
one differen
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