Partisan Shirts Vs. Skins: David Drucker Talks to A&G

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's welcome to the show to talk a little more
politics of variety of flavors. David Drucker. He's the senior
political correspondent of The Washington Examiner and a longtime guest
on the program. David, how are you today? I'm great?
How are you? What do you think of that that
the majority of voters now say character, health, whatever. I
just want to have, you know, an extra number on

(00:21):
my side. It's true. I mean, if politics has really
become a shurts and skins game. You know, partisanship has
always been a big part of American politics, especially their
two party system, but you know, over the past that's
tended twenty years. UM. Voters on both sides of the
aisle have made a calculation that it doesn't matter what
kind of person they send to Washington. Uh, and I

(00:44):
say Washington in particular, there's much more nuance and much
more I think, uh, a willingness to cross the aisle
in in state and local races, UM, but especially in
congressional races and in presidential contest, it's simply about how
will you vote, which side will you vote with? In fact,

(01:06):
I don't even know if you'll do anything I like
but you say you're for my side, you'll support that majority.
You hate the people I hate, and that's good enough
for me, And in fact, that's the most important thing
to me. Yeah, you said the key phrase, and I've
seen polling on this. That is what it's more about
than anything else. You hate the people I hate. Yeah. Um, Look,

(01:28):
if you're a Republican running for office, you're a Democrat
running for office. I've seen this in particularly more acute
ways on the Republican side. I think it's sometimes it's
completely immaterial whether or not you're a reliable fiscal conservative
or reliable reliable conservative on other issues. It just matters

(01:52):
that you are willing to mix it up with Democrats,
mix it up with you know, goats like me in
the media. And if you can do that, I'm not
even going to pay that close attention to how you're
voting on particular legislation. Now, obviously, UM, as a Republican
or Democrat, UM, you have to tow the line or
believe in certain things to survive in a primary right,

(02:14):
you have to oppose abortion rights. If you're a Republican,
you have to be four abortion rights. If you're a Democrat,
there are other issues in there that are important, but
all things being equal, as long as you're not uh
contradictory on the biggest issues gun rights is a huge
issue on the Republican side, then we just want to
see you throw punches at the people that I think

(02:36):
are trying to kill me and destroy my life. And
you know the language that he's used now in politics
where people UH constantly believed the other side wants to,
you know, pour gasoline on the country, lighting on fire,
and I guess we're you know, move everybody to China
or something. And this is you know, this is the
atmosphere that we're dealing with. I talked to voters all

(02:58):
the time, and you know, they are they are insistent
that the other side, by the way, they're insistent that
the other side plays dirty. They're regretful that their own
side won't play as dirty as the other side. I
run into that all the time. They're also insistent that
the other side always wins and we always lose, and
that we don't win this time, even though there's a

(03:21):
regularly scheduled election coming two years from now and two
years after that and two years after that. Nope, this
is it. It's either now or never, or we're all
going to end up subjugated by you know, g or
you know, name your authoritarian at the moment. Yeah, you're
either gonna have to answer to AOC or Trump, depending
on who wins. Well to that point, Yeah, and I

(03:45):
want to get to one of your columns here in
a second moment. One my favorite poll number of the day.
This is from NBC News. Percentage of Americans who say
the opposite party's agenda poses a threat that, if not stopped,
will destroy America as we know it. Four out of
five Democrats, four out of five Republicans say that four
out of five. Yeah. And not only that, they think

(04:06):
that the other side is doing it on purpose. They
don't even think it's you know, just you know, dumb
luck that the other side's ideas are no good. They
think the other side is in the room conspiring to
ruin everything on purpose for the soul, a purpose of
claiming power and subjugating them, as if we're all going

(04:28):
to be serfs again. You know, it's funny because we've
listened to this every two years, and then every two
years life goes on pretty much as normal. I get this,
you know, I've still got the Constitution and the First
Amendment and the Second Amendment, and I can say what
I want, do what I want, travel where I want,
protest the government, and you know what I mean. Obviously
the economy. Um, you know, there's a business cycle. Sometimes

(04:49):
some policies are good for the economy, some are bad.
I'm not saying the government has no impact on things,
but these are policy debates. Are are general. American way
of life has basically continued. And you know, if you
look at it, the grand scheme of history only gotten
better for more people, you know, and yet people are

(05:09):
looking over their shoulder now convinced that their neighbor wants
to boss them over and over the head of the
baseball bad on purpose. And you know that's the stunt
of where we are. Yeah, I don't know how we
move forward if if of people think the other side
is out to destroy the country. But anyway, I want
to get to this because I think it's one of
the most fascinating thing things that's happening in politics. Democrats

(05:31):
have believed for a very long time that the growing
Hispanic population could give them a permanent majority, because clearly,
as more Hispanic people come here, they're going to vote
Democrat and that's just a good thing. Well, that's turning
out not to be the case. And a number of
places around the country, and according to you, Nevada has
become ground zero for Republican efforts to court Latino voters.

(05:52):
Tell us about that, Well, look, I mean, if you
look at all of the polling this election cycle, Republicans
UM could do very well with Hispanics or Latinos on
the West Coast uh different terminologies on election day, right,
and they could do well at historic levels, and they
might even sweep some house seats in the Rio Grand

(06:13):
Valley along the Mexican border in Texas, UM districts that
they haven't won uh for eons. And what you're seeing
is that a lot of the Republican Party's appeal with
blue collar voters is expending past the white working class
into the Hispanic working class. I talked to people in

(06:34):
Nevada about this, UM. You know, I think one of
the reasons this may be happening. If it happens is
as Hispanics, the majority of Hispanics will still vote for Democrats.
They will still be a major part of the Democratic coalition.
One of the reasons though, lately they may be shedding
these voters. Not only are Republicans playing the identity politics
game and just making a much stronger ever effort to

(06:57):
court Latino voters, actually opening offices in their neighborhoods uh
firing you know, people who speak fluent Spanish to appeal
to Latino voters, advertising and mormally in Spanish language media. Uh.
You know. But Democrats at the moment a cultural agenda
that is more left of center than it used to be.

(07:19):
It is making some Hispanish uncomfortable with the coalition, part
of the same way that we got suburban Republicans uncomfortable
with the Republican coalition during Trump's frantancy and moved towards
the Democrats. So these, you know, these things happen and
can happen over time. Interestingly enough, as much as Republicans

(07:40):
out the gains that they think they're gonna make with Hispanics,
they also constantly talked about the idea that Democrats opened
and border because they want more voters. So on the
one hand they brag about the support they're gaining with Hispanics,
on the other hand, they keep insisting that Hispanics are
more likely to vote for Democrats. It's an interesting contradiction.

(08:01):
I don't think, um all kidding aside that, although I
wasn't kidding, this is what's happening. But aside from that,
I don't know if Democrats are fully appreciated yet that
if they believe it's interesting polish more to the left
on some of these hot button cultural issues, they're going
to have to there that not as many. It was
such a big deal when I was a kid, but

(08:23):
you know, the way the way things change. But I
don't know where this is going to lead our politics.
It's it's always seemed weird to me that because I
live in an area where there are a lot of
Hispanic families lined up to go to church on you know,
every Sunday, and uh, you know, the Democratic Party is
not exactly church going friendly. So I've never understood how

(08:43):
that fit together. Well. Look, I mean, when you know,
voters of all stripes make decisions about where they feel
most at home. I mean, there are plenty of Republicans
in the suburbs that have been a part of the
GOP coalition. They're not a part of the coalition because
us they're fixated on trying to reduce abortions, or because

(09:05):
they embrace the Second Amendment to what other Republicans do
in other um parts of the country or in rural
neighborhoods or ex Serman neighborhoods. But you know, for reasons
of taxes and regulations, how small businesses are treated by
the government, uh, for issues of foreign policy. They're part
of the Republican coalition. So it's it's natural to find

(09:28):
voters in a coalition. They don't agree on a lot
of things. That they agree on the things that matter
to them and um so that and that's where they are.
But when things change too much, it can cause you
on particular issues, it can cause them to reconsider. Hey,
I gotta ask you this before we let you go.
I ask your colleague Sarah Westward about it, and I'm
wondering what your take is. She seemed to feel like

(09:49):
the zeitgeist in d C was that Joe Biden will
will at some point give a speech where he says
he's stepping aside for the next generation or something like that,
will not finish out his first term. What do you
think will not finish out his first term? No, no, no,
no, no no, no, no, He's finished, well, I'm sorry, not
not run again. He'll finish his term, but not run again.

(10:11):
So I don't have reporting to give you. What I
can tell you is that the man wanted to be
president for fifty years and you just don't just walk
away from that. I think he wants to run again.
I think that he intends to run again. I'm just
not convinced he's actually going to run again when they
have to sit down and game out a re election

(10:32):
campaign where he's gonna have to be much more aggressively
public and on the road because there will not be
knock on what a raging pandemic that forces everybody to
be inside. Does he turn to come, does he turn
to Kamala, or does he say we should open it
up to all comers. It really doesn't matter what he does,
because all comers are going to come after it. Vice

(10:54):
President Harris has not established herself as a political figure
with a base of power or report within the party
that is sufficient to keep other ambitious Democrats out of
an open sea bris. I know you don't have reporting
on it, but do you think that's the most likely scenario,
just based on your reading of the tea leaves? I
just think it's a toss up. You know. Some days, honestly,

(11:17):
I just I'm convinced he's gonna run Another days. I
think to myself, when you're eighty two headed toward eighty six,
if you could finish the second term, the you know,
the presidency ages everybody. Right, you go into the presidency
in your mid foties or mid fifties, and if you're
not gray yet, you come out gray. Most of the reason,
two term presidents are happy to be done with everything.

(11:38):
In fact, one term presidents usually because as much as
you want the job, as ambitious as you are, it's
so taxing that once you're done, you're just done. And
so you know, that's I think what Joe Biden and
his family I unfortunately about a second term. I have to, unfortunately,
have to let you go. I appreciate you answering that question,

(11:58):
because I know reporters don't like to speculate. But David Rucker,
we'll have you on again soon. It's going to be
a spicy couple of years, no doubt about that. Armstrong
and Jetti