Charles Duhigg: What MAGA Can Teach Democrats
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Apart from all the lies MAGA is forced to say in defense of Donald Trump, the movement is actually better at political organizing than Democrats. So while the Dems can pull off the massive No Kings rallies, the protests are just one day and the energy can fizzle away. But MAGA is really focused on turning out the vote so they can win. And they got the idea from the big tent campaign tactics that Obama deployed in 2008 and 2012. Plus, some advice on how Dem candidates can turn their communications into a superpower—like stop proposing solutions when voters are mad and just want to vent.
The New Yorker’s Charles Duhigg joins Tim Miller.
show notes
-
Charles's piece, "What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting"
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Charles's book, "Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection"
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm your host Tim Miller. |
| 0:16.4 | Okay, here's the deal. |
| 0:17.1 | Today is the state of the union, as you guys know. |
| 0:19.5 | I hate the state of the union. |
| 0:21.8 | Hate it. I hated it even when I liked the president just fine it's antiquated it's stupid uh it's all the puffery |
| 0:28.9 | it's all the reasons why i left dc but you know i got a job to do i'm going to suffer for y'all |
| 0:35.6 | it is my lenten obligation so here's our content plan for the state of the union I'm going to suffer for y'all. It is my Lenton obligation. So here's our content |
| 0:38.9 | plan for the state of the union. I'm going to give myself and you a brief respite from the speech fund to trade this morning. So we have a very fun off the news guest. I've been wanting to bring in for a while. We're going to get to him in a second. Over on T&L with Sarah and JVL, we're going to cover everything news politics campaigns besides the speech. |
| 0:55.5 | So you can go get your campaign fix on the next level feed. |
| 0:59.1 | And then tonight, it's the only way I can tolerate it. |
| 1:02.2 | I'm going to be mystery science theatering through the speech on YouTube. |
| 1:05.2 | So you can come hang out with me on YouTube. |
| 1:07.1 | And then after we have a very special guest coming. |
| 1:10.4 | He's a very good talker. |
| 1:12.2 | And so hopefully that will ease the pain of having to have watched Donald Trump for three hours or however long he's going to go. |
| 1:20.1 | And then if you're hearing this on Wednesday morning, you can get the State of the Union reaction stuff over on the bulwark takes feed. |
| 1:26.1 | So that's the schedule. It's a content marathon. I'm your humble servant. Soke it all in. Today's show, we've got a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter at The New Yorker. His latest book, I'm like a year and a half ago now, that book is called Super Communicators. It's Charles Deweig. How you doing? How are you? |
| 1:45.3 | Thanks for having me on. |
| 1:46.5 | And I'm looking forward to the Mystery Science Theater 3,000 state of the union of tonight. |
| 1:50.7 | If I had to watch it anyway, why would I sit on the couch and subject my husband to it? |
| 1:56.8 | Exactly. |
... |
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