WTH are Democrats Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Midterms? Ruy Teixeira on How MAGA is Masking the Democrats' Failures with Women, Minorities and the Working Class

What the Hell Is Going On

AEI Podcasts

News, History, Government, Politics

4.4 • 633 Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 2022 midterms came as a shock to Ds and Rs alike: the Democrats did better than expected, and the Republicans did worse. Much worse. Last week, covered the reasons behind the Red Fail. But what about Democrats? The left ran a shrewd, if cynical, anti-MAGA campaign, and capitalized on weak GOP candidates. But it the aftermath, President Biden and his party seem to be learning the wrong lessons. Despite losing ground with women and minorities, the Democrats’ short-term vindication has encouraged Biden to announce he would make no changes. None at all. What he and his party don’t get is that the Democrats didn’t win, the Republicans lost.

Our guest this week is Ruy Teixeira. Teixeria is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on the transformation of party coalitions and future of American electoral politics. He is the co-editor of the Substack The Liberal Patriot, and he previously was a scholar at the Center for American Progress and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute.
0:03.0	If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on?
0:01.1	Who in God's name knows what it's all about.
0:35.0	Hi, I'm Danielle Peck.
0:37.1	Welcome to our podcast.
0:38.6	What the hell is going on?
0:41.0	Election, what the hell, part two.
0:43.1	So, Mark?
0:44.0	So part two is the Democrats.
0:46.4	They're really part one.
0:47.9	Yeah.
0:48.3	But here, I mean, the Democrats did better than expected.
0:51.5	And as a result, they're as expected, taking all the wrong lessons
0:55.3	from their ability to survive what should have been a red wave and ended up being a red trickle,
1:01.2	except in Florida, where it was indeed a red wave. And so they're starting to think,
1:05.5	we're doing everything right. And Joe Biden, he's been vindicated and he's going to run for re-election possibly. And I certainly think that if they had suffered a devastating defeat on Tuesday that the open calls for him to step aside would have started. And now not only are those calls not happening, but I think Joe Biden's going to run again. Oh, I do too. I agree. Because that man is one of the least self-aware people I've ever met. And there was a great Saturday Night Live sketch a couple weeks ago before the Democrats did so unexpectedly well, or we could say the Republicans did so unexpectedly badly. I think that's a better way to say it. Better way and more accurate way to say it in the midterm.
2:01.5	And it was, you know, all of these, we'll hyperlink it in the transcript. But it was all of these young people going, oh, Joe Biden, he's too, you know, old and gross. And he can't run again. He's so out of touch. Do you see him fall off that bike? And then they start going through all of the alternatives and they're like, Camilla, no way. Amy Gloverjard?
2:03.1	Oh, my God, no.
2:06.5	And they go through the list and they're like, you know who looks really good?
2:07.4	Joe Biden.
2:12.5	Well, it's true because so, you know, if you look at, why did they nominate him in the first place?
2:12.9	Right.
	...

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