Raw & Uncut - Our Takeaways from the ‘22 Mid-Term Election PT 2

“Growing up, there was an idea that some people just were not going to serve in public office,” says Sam Jean, who returns to resume the discussion about the results of the US midterm elections. This week, he and Michael discuss the “celebrification” of American politics. It’s evident in candidates like former football player and recent Republican candidate for the state of Georgia, Herschel Walker, and former news anchor Kari Lake who recently ran on the Republican ticket for Governor of Arizona. Taking leaves out of Donald Trump’s playbook, these candidates trade charisma for competency.

This is only successful, Sam and Michael point out, because Republican voters like candidates who behave in a mean, mocking manner toward the Democratic party. This voter base sees themselves as victims under the thumb of liberal policy and conspiratorial liberal media. So, they prioritize the satisfaction they feel in seeing liberals “get owned” over sound policy and practices. They present Florida governor Ron DeSantis as another example of this, a figure whom, Sam points out, has never actually had to prove his mettle.

Also part of the discussion is the state of Louisiana which is the only state to vote to maintain slavery and involuntary servitude as a means of punishing criminals. This brings up issues of privatized prisons and for-profit incarceration. Michael’s closing statement analyzes the new lines along which voters are divided.

Quotes

• “The problem that Republicans ran into is when people are accustomed to having a right, and having that right taken away in the way that it was taken away, the real life ramifications don’t play out well.” (4:43-5:05 | Sam)
• “When we were growing up, there was an idea that some people just were not going to serve in public office. ‘Oh, this guy can't run for public office, because he's not smart enough, or this guy can't run for public office because he's got too many scandals.” (19:00-19:21 | Sam)
• “There's a significant portion of the Republican base, who feel that conservatives are victims. That conservatives are being victimized by this wild, lawless, liberal society, and its agents in the media. And so they say that they're victims. Kari Lake speaks to that.” (22:14-22:39 | Sam)
• “All he's doing is smacking liberals around, they need a good smacking. And Republican voters love that. My thing about Ron DeSantis, however, is you don't know a candidate until the candidate has to deal with an adverse situation, something they're not prepared for, some crisis. How does the candidate deal with that? How does he or she handle that? And I have not seen Ron DeSantis be put in a position to do that.” (32:26-32:57 | Sam)
• “As we know, they call it the prison industrial complex because private prisons were being fabricated or created, in order to incarcerate more people in order to go to the nearest bidder as far as to make goods.” (38:13-38:29 | Michael)
• “In short, the people have spoken and Americans prefer a divided government. However, the division seems to transition not just from left or the right. It's becoming literally more black and white, female versus male, and those who have a higher college education versus those who reach a certain level in education.” (49:04-49:25 | Michael)

Links

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