Hey, everybody. Welcome to a special edition of the Weekender episode of the Muckrick

podcast. I'm Jared Y. Sexton. Nick Houseman is still out of commission for the week.

Hopefully we will be joined by Nick starting on Tuesday. I say a special edition for a couple of reasons. And I just

want to go ahead and give a heads up about a couple things before the episode starts.

I had a conversation, a really, I think, important conversation this week. And you're going to hear that in just a little bit.

I had mentioned on the podcast and on my live streams that I, in the past couple of weeks,

have had a lot of Democratic strategists and consultants reaching out to voice their frustration ahead of the November midterms.

And this happens sometimes, most of the time right before an election.

I've talked about this on the show before.

There are these moments of what some of us refer to us to as the fleeing of a sinking

ship by a bunch of rats.

That happens because people want to get out ahead of like losing campaigns and, you know,

they want to go ahead and ship the blame around other people.

But this was different.

What I have noticed from this outpouring has been of a different tone.

And what I've been hearing from a lot of these people within the strategist and consultant class, it isn't blame for losing

elections.

It's a loss of faith in the party and the direction of the party and how this party is

handling the growth of authoritarianism.

So I was talking to one of these people, and we agreed to have a conversation.

And so what you will hear in just a little bit is a conversation with an anonymous Democratic consultant and strategist, who we're calling James.

But I have to tell you, this is a really special conversation.

...