How Low Can They Go: Plumbing the Depths of GOP Depravity
DSR: Politics and Law
The episode features a deep dive into the current state of American politics, focusing on the contrasting campaign styles of Kamala Harris a
Key takeaways
- Kamala Harris is described as a disciplined, 'post-Boomer' candidate who avoids identity politics to focus on policy nuance.
- The Republican platform is increasingly characterized by divisive rhetoric regarding immigrants and social issues like abortion.
Main topics
- 2024 Presidential Election
- Republican Party Decline
Notable quotes
The greatest privilege in the world is that of being an American citizen.
Conclusion
The conversation serves as a stark warning about the erosion of politi
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:01) November is getting close, and that means that the election is right around the corner. For quality coverage of all aspects of the election and expert analysis on top stories from around the world, there's no better place than the DSR Network. Members of the DSR Network get exclusive access to members-only segments of our podcasts, an ad-free listening experience, and access to our Slack and Discord communities where you can connect with fellow members and us. For the month of September, Use code SNARK for 30 % off your subscription at thedsrnetwork.com slash buy. That's code SNARK at thedsrnetwork.com slash buy. Now please enjoy the show. Speaker 2 (1:11) This is Deep State Radio, coming to you direct from our super-secret studio in the third sub-basement of the Ministry of SNARK in Washington, D.C., and from other undisclosed locations across America and around the world. Speaker 1 (1:28) Hi, it's Speaker 2 (1:29) Thursday, and it's a day we talk about politics here on the podcast, and I thought we could use a dose of sanity. So we turn to our friend Jen Rubin of the Washington Post, who's as sane as they come, right? You're as sane as they come, right? Speaker 2 (1:53) That's your test Speaker 3 (1:55) that we are in deep, deep trouble, my friend. Speaker 2 (1:59) Well, you know, relatively speaking, compared to our usual guests, you're very sane. And, you know, we're at a pretty fraught moment, as we always are here in political season, although the stakes seem much, much higher right now. But before we sort of dive in and get to some of the specifics of some of the stories, I'd just like to get your sense of where we are. You know, like, are you eating and sleeping normally? Speaker 2 (2:35) How are you handling this moment? I'm Speaker 3 (2:39) doing a lot Speaker 2 (2:40) better Speaker 3 (2:40) than I was a couple months ago. Put it that way. Speaker 2 (2:42) I think Speaker 3 (2:45) those of us, you and I, are in a small group of people who liked Kamala Harris and thought well of her before she assumed the Speaker 2 (2:54) role. Yeah, there was a period there where it was just you and I. I Speaker 3 (2:57) think that's right. So I can't say I'm in... entirely surprised, but I am somewhat in awe that she has run a campaign really without flaw and has performed so, so well. The media is now reduced to whining that she doesn't give enough interviews. That's the point of the campaign that we're at. So I think she's running very strongly. It still bothers me for more than one reason that it's as close as it apparently is. But I think she's on a trajectory that unless something else happens, she's in a good position to win. What I want her to do, though, is to win by a convincing margin, which will diminish Trump's ability to claim that was stolen, cause trouble, put the whole country through another spasm of violence and upset. And also, if she has a good... Margin of victory, that probably speaks well for the House and the Senate. But, you know, we have been down this road before, and we should know that polls within the margin of error are within the margin of error. And stuff does change. Speaker 2 (4:16) Yeah, although for the past couple of years, when polls are in the margin of error, that means they tend to trend three, four, five points towards Democrats. better than they have. Now, that wasn't true in 2016, but since Roe v. Wade, because turnout commitment is a big deal. There's a bunch of polls that talk about registered voters. They're useless. There are a bunch of polls that are sort of cooked up to make Donald Trump feel good about himself. They're useless. But when you look at sort of the granular, the nitty gritty stuff, Voter registrations, donations, volunteering, the amount of money that they've got on hand. Oh, yes, crowd size. You and Barack Obama are not giving him any room on that one. But it does seem like the... I don't know, the tea leaves, you paint a better picture than just the polls. Speaker 3 (5:26) Yeah. And you can tell by the way the candidates are behaving, who is doing well and who's not doing well. Trump is decompensating, decomposing, whatever kind of description you want to use. He still hasn't gotten over the psychic injury of losing to Kamala Harris so badly in the debate. So they are kind of spinning out of control. And they have a fundamental problem, which is the more Americans see of the two candidates, the less they like them. And the more they hear about what they want to do, the less they like them. So what do you do when your candidates are unlikable and their policies are unlikable? You create a fuss about, you know, bizarre other things. And that's the stage that they're kind of at. We do have one debate that, at least for now, is still on the books, and that is Tim Waltz and J.D. Vance on October 1st. And what I love about this debate is it's moderated by two women. So I think we have the potential for another really disastrous outing by J.D. Vance. who clearly has spared Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle, and all the other hapless vice presidents the ignominy of being considered the worst vice president in history. He clearly is the worst vice presidential candidate. So I guess I do agree. And I think, you know, there is something to be said about momentum. And if you back away from all the polls for a minute. Connolly Harris is a very likable candidate. And the more people get to know her, the more comfortable they feel, the more they like her. And Trump is just the opposite. So you combine that with, as you say, the enthusiasm factor and the ballot propositions in a number of states that involve abortion that will potentially drive Democrats to the polls. You have a pretty good formula. We got time to go. Speaker 2 (7:37) 47 days. I don't recall an election where the countdown was so, you know, sort of requisite to every discussion as it is nowadays. But now we have to say 47 days all the time, 46, whatever it is. You know, I think let's go back to, you know, congratulating ourselves on having been right about Kamala Harris for a second. Speaker 2 (8:06) At every turn in this campaign, Kamala Harris has not only risen to the occasion, met the do or die test, but actually exceeded expectations and not by a little, by a lot. And at a certain point, I do think it's fair to ask, you know, it's not that she's likable. It's not that she's not Biden. It's not that she can necessarily, you know, just beat Trump. This is an extraordinary campaign. She is actually, you know, showing herself to be a remarkable talent. And I don't just mean it in the visible ways. So, you know, yes, good speech at the convention, good debate performance. But every time behind the scenes, she had to make a choice about whether or not to keep on some of the Biden staff, about whether or not to let some of them go. about picking Tim Walz, about identifying which policy issues to move up to the front, about identifying how to handle the media, about identifying where to go on the road. She's made excellent decisions. And at a certain point, don't we have to say, well, maybe she's actually a great candidate. Speaker 3 (9:25) Yeah, maybe she's really super disciplined and maybe she works. really hard. And maybe she's, you know, as you say, a real talent. I'll point to a couple examples of what you just said. One is she does not dwell on her gender and race. That was purely her call. And when an interviewer or a debate moderator asks her about the latest racist, horrible thing that Trump has said, Rather than becoming indignant and angry and kind of repeating the mantra that he's a racist and sexist, she said, same old playbook, move on. And I think that takes incredible discipline and an awareness that she doesn't have to say it. Everybody can see that she's not a white candidate and everybody can see that Trump is a racist. And by not doing that, she doesn't hit. people over the head with it. And she allows, frankly, the more deadly issues to come to the forefront, which is Trump is a miserable human being with scary ideas. And she is a decent, honorable person with very good ideas. And the other thing that I find that is Speaker 3 (10:50) quite, I think, an achievement is that she has chosen to mix progressive policies with open and free market policies. And in a very deliberate way to leave the door open to independents and Republicans. When she talks about incentives for housing developers, that's kind of a Republican playbook sort of thing. She doesn't talk about price controls on food and housing the way she was accused of mulling over. Her foreign policy is right out of the Reagan handbook. And that's why you see so many Republican foreign policy gurus coming out to endorse her. So these are evidence of someone who has thought about these issues, makes good decisions, does not act. impulsively and moreover has kind of a political nose for what it takes to win. And those sorts of talents coupled with her personal appeal make her a formidable candidate. Speaker 2 (12:04) Yeah, you know, just two more points on that. One is Speaker 2 (12:11) You know, a lot of people are like, well, you know, she's just, you know, Biden plus or and some other people are like, well, she's like Obama. And I have to say, she's not. She's Kamala Harris. She's different. She is much more centrist than Biden is on a lot of things. and willing to be more outspokenly progressive than Biden is on some things. She shows a lot more courage in her approach to things, even the nuance in how she addresses things like Gaza and Palestine, or with which she sort of is willing to grapple with things like corporate price gouging. It's very different, and it's a lot bolder. in some respects, than we even saw from Obama. And, you know, I look at all of that, and also this point that you make, which I agree with, about her not running on her gender, not running on her race, being who she is and letting that speak for itself. And I think, you know... This is somebody who entered the workforce in 1990. She entered the workforce. She has never worked in a Cold War world. That's behind her, right? She... grew up, lived her life, worked her career in Silicon Valley, you know, in the heart of the reinvention of the U.S. economy. She's not a Rust Belt person. She's not seeking to restore the manufacturing base. I mean, Biden's from a different place and a different era. Yes. Speaker 3 (13:53) I agree with that observation. It's Scranton versus Silicon Valley. It's a very