MAGA Has Repulsed Young Women

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of “The David Frum Show,” The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts about the impending end to the government shutdown. David argues that the fight within the Democratic Party about ending the shutdown isn’t about the shutdown itself; rather, it’s about the future face of the party. David argues that now is a good moment to make a deal and that the Democrats have accomplished all they could hope to from the shutdown. He also cautions that allowing the left wing of the Democrats’ base to use any potential deal as a means to push the party down a more confrontational, more radical path must be avoided. Then David is joined by The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell. David and Sarah discuss the exit polls from this year’s elections and the current state of play within the American electorate. Sarah discusses how the increasing gender gap in voting patterns reflects a broader polarization between higher- and lower-information voters. Sarah also discusses how Donald Trump has upended everything we thought we knew about voting patterns and the uneasy position Republicans find themselves in once he’s off the ballot. Finally, David closes with a talk about “The Emergency,” a new novel by The Atlantic’s George Packer. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, and welcome back to the David Fromm show. I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
0:16.5	My guest this week will be Sarah Longwell, known to so many of you from her many TV appearances discussing her focus groups.
0:22.6	We're going to be talking about the recent 2025 November elections, what they tell us about the American electorate,
0:28.6	and especially what they tell us about the enormous gender gap that is open between the voting patterns of women and men,
0:34.4	and especially the youngest women and the youngest men.
0:36.9	What is going on
0:37.8	with the young voters who turned out the women so overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in 2025?
0:43.9	So I'll be talking to Sarah about that. My book this week will be a new novel by my Atlantic
0:49.2	colleague George Packer. The novel is called The Emergency. And it's a haunting portrait of a world in decline that bears
0:56.8	important resemblances to our own, well, clearly not being our own. It is a disturbing but
1:02.3	beautiful work, and I strongly recommend it, and I'll talk about at the end of this podcast,
1:06.6	about why the book so spoke to me. But before any of that, I want to offer some thoughts about
1:12.0	the ending of the government shutdown. I'm recording this podcast on Monday, November 10th. So the deal
1:16.8	to end the government shutdown has not quite been concluded as I speak, but a conclusion of some
1:21.8	kind is imminent, accelerated perhaps by the havoc of this past weekend of air travel, one of the
1:26.9	worst weekends for air travel, one of the worst weekends
1:27.6	for air travel in the United States since 9-11, that has left many people delayed or outright stranded,
1:32.7	flights canceled. And as the government shutdown has come to an end, there's been an upsurge
1:37.4	of protest and outright anger from some of the most active and committed Democrats that they
1:41.9	have been sold out by their party, which having led the
1:45.4	longest shutdown in American history, and many on the Democratic side think there's been a kind of
1:50.1	sellout or disappointment. I want to put some context on this because I don't agree with any of that.
	...

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