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00:00:00

Nathan Brady: All right, here we go. Hey everyone and welcome to a very special edition of the Blue Sedition Podcast. The commies have taken over the United States. It's over. It's red town. What's up, Mike? How you doing?
Mike Smith: I wish we had that clip of the the singing of the old Soviet Union while while you did that intro. That would have been great, man.
Nathan Brady: Oh, maybe I can cut that in. No, I'm not going to put that uh day after the election.
Mike Smith: Amazing. Yeah, man. It's going it's going well. I think uh we got a lot to talk about today. Uh it's November 5th. It's the day after the election in 2025. We got a lot to talk about.
Nathan Brady: Several elections to talk about. I think the first one um that we probably want to talk about is Zoron Lamdani wins. He is now mayor of America. Uh we don't make the rules.
Mike Smith: America's new mayor.

00:00:57

Nathan Brady: Um you know, you you voted and here we are.
Mike Smith: We don't. And here we are.
Nathan Brady: Um so I Let's talk about some takeaways from last night's uh exciting election night. It wasn't as it wasn't as exciting or as nailbiting as I thought it would be. Um, you know, pretty much polls closed and then it was like, "All right, good game.
Mike Smith: Yeah, it was it was funny. There were a couple of like a decision desk obviously is is sort of left-leaning and and they had a couple where they were like and the polls have closed. We're calling in from Mundon and you're like you have no results outside of you know polling exit or exit polling. So I mean that that plays man. And then as the night went on we we got it got more and more clear that he was going to win.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I thought one of the funniest things that happened in the night was uh there was a point where Cuomo started picking up the lead.

00:01:54

Mike Smith: It was like a 10-point margin. It was like 40 to 50 thereabouts. And Cuomo started closing that lead point by point by point. And then they stopped counting all of the votes in in Staten Island because they ran out.
Nathan Brady: Island. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: And then they were like, "And then we have the rest of of New York State to go." And it was just, well, now he's pulling back ahead by quite a bit.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: At the end of the night, I think he ended up the final was uh basically 50 to 41, 42, something like that.
Nathan Brady: Um, so we're calling that a mandate, correct?
Mike Smith: That's amazing. I mean, if I'm to understand, yes, when Trump won with a 50%, it was a mandate by Americans.
Nathan Brady: I mean, when whenever a Republican wins, it's a mandate. Yeah.
Mike Smith: So, this must be a mandate by New York City.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Here it is right here.

00:02:36

Mike Smith: Uh, there you go.
Nathan Brady: Um, and even if you took all of SWA's votes um, and and threw them behind Cuomo.
Mike Smith: Yeah, even if you had runoff, it's it's not it doesn't change the outcome.
Nathan Brady: Um, yeah.
Mike Smith: It's pretty amazing.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um, my dad still is Yeah,
Mike Smith: And in fact, I think in the few states that do uh rank choice or runoff voting like that, you you must have a candidate above 50% for it to be a valid outcome, right? So, I mean, even in runoff elections here, even if all the the silver voters end up going to Quuomo, he still loses in Mandani's mayor elect. I love it.
Nathan Brady: but they don't that's not ranked choice for the final.
Mike Smith: Not No, they don't do that in the in in the general in the Democrats in the primary in New York City.
Nathan Brady: Uh, no. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it was only the primary. Yeah. Right.
Mike Smith: Uh I'm sorry, in New York, uh they they do that.

00:03:22

Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: But I was just I was commenting on the fact that even if they had done that like holistically in the general, he still wins. There's no spoiler effect.
Nathan Brady: Right. Right.
Mike Smith: Can't even can't even put that in Cuomo's hat where he's like, "Well, if it weren't for the other guy not dropping out of the race, I would have won." Like, you know, you lost. You in all circumstances, you lost.
Nathan Brady: So, what was what was uh what were the establishment's um uh reaction to Mdani winning?
Mike Smith: Oh, they they were very very excited, but but not about that.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, sure.
Mike Smith: No, that I I think that the uh you know, we harp on two guys in particular obviously in in Jeff and and Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer still hasn't come around to Mandami being elected.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: I don't even think he's done like a congratulations on the win fellow Democrat thing. Like he doesn't, you know, but Jeff, he reluctantly, it seems, threw in his support behind Mdani a few a day or two ago.

00:04:21

Mike Smith: Like he was like, "Well, we need him to win." So, and he went out publicly about it and and you know, he's uh doing all of the all the shows last night as the polls were closing and they called it and stuff and and basically his statement was now he needs to come he needs to, you know, it's time to put up, right? Because he he talked a lot of talk. Now he's got to walk that walk and there's only so much you can do as the mayor of a city. But one of the things that he campaigned on is rent freezes and that is in his purview and he doesn't need a ton of support to do it. So, it'll be interesting if he can just follow through on one or two things and uh keep, you know, keep that support.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. And I think, you know, with with um that much support backing from the people of New York City, I think that um you know, the governor is is going going to have to pay attention, right?

00:05:15

Nathan Brady: Like, you know, uh so there are there are certain things um free uh free bus rides for instance is one of the things he can't just do.
Mike Smith: Right. Right.
Nathan Brady: He has to get the mass transit authority behind it.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: And though he can appoint people to the mass transit authority, so can the governor. So there has to be coordination there.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, you know, I I think there's a couple of other things that were big on his platform that he would obviously needs support from uh the governor on. And I think uh it would be a good idea.
Mike Smith: Well, and and they've got some easy avenues to explore.
Nathan Brady: Um Right, right, right.
Mike Smith: So, if we recall, I want to say like eight months ago, they were doing that um that that rate or price uh rising. I don't even know what it's called. Like they they rose the tolls based on usage. Basically, if it was the busiest times of day, they raised the tolls to keep people incentivized to not going into the city if they didn't have to.

00:06:13

Mike Smith: And then eventually, it's it's Hershel, right? Or how do you pronounce her name? Hokll eventually Hokll, you know, bowed down when when Trump and his cronies were like, "You can't do this," and blah blah blah blah. She entirely has the right to do that. And with the support of the mayor in New York City, we may see that come back to try and help offset some of the costs that might go along with, like you said, like like free busing or, you
Nathan Brady: Well, one of the, you know, one of the things that he wants to do to back all of the programs that he's um pushing for like free prek and child care and things like that is raising existing taxes
Mike Smith: know, right, right, right, All right.
Nathan Brady: on high-income earners. And you can't just do that as mayor. You need the state legislature and the governor to um to do that. So, you know, most tax policy.
Mike Smith: Some somewhat. Yes. I mean, there are other knobs you can turn because as as I understand it, the the You're right though, like like property taxes is like a statewide issue that's controlled by the governor and the legislature, but like zoning implications and like Yeah.

00:07:18

Mike Smith: like but but you have a lot of knobs to turn as the mayor of of of a city where you can say we've changed the zoning of this building now you have to be you know nonprofit only or
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: something to a guy like bar stool sports and you just get them kicked out of that building and then you can use it for whatever you want and off also if you don't have tenants I think cities can can impose uh taxes on top of state taxes so they can just make they can just kick you know do that to make it more profitable for companies to use those spaces.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um, so I and and I agree with you though. I think that he is he is one of those um he's one of those politicians that isn't just going to get into office and sit back and be like, "Nah, never mind." you know, we couldn't really we couldn't really do it because we didn't have the, you know, the support of the state or the backing of this and all these excuses that we hear from most Dem establishment candidates.

00:08:13

Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, I think he's going to push all the buttons that he can and he's going to find creative ways to enact some of his very popular policies.
Mike Smith: And and frankly, I think that establishment Dems kind of have to play by that because they're they're painted into this strange corner where he ran as a populist, as populist as you can, as a Democratic socialist, and he got overwhelming support from the populace. And so now he's like, I need to I need to land my initiatives to prove to the people that I can do it to prove to the people that their votes weren't weren't wasted.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: But also, Democrats that ran against him couldn't beat him. So, they kind of have to help him or they lose seats, right? Because if you don't help him, that means that the when the pendulum swings, it'll go back to a Republican instead of instead of some incumbent Democrat like Chuck Schumer wants. You would put some 89year-old and you run them for the mayor of New York City in, you know, whenever it is.

00:09:22

Mike Smith: And they'd lose to some 30-year-old Republican who's like, "We need to set fire to all the schools, right? they
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: have to start taking seriously what they call the fringe left where they're just like this is a popular position and you either help it or we sync the party with you or you sync the party with us whichever way you want to do that. We're tied together now and and you have to just come to terms with it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, I mean I uh listen, he's 34 years old. I think he has a long political career ahead of him. I hope hopefully he spends a lot of time in New York. Hopefully he does some some great things.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I I hope so.
Nathan Brady: And I think that we're going to see a Mongdani effect kind of come through in the midterms. I I'm hopeful.
Mike Smith: I mean, you know, and and I we we should mentioned this that our midterm candidates for 2026, he doesn't technically count as a midterm candidate, but I'm still chalking him up as a win because we backed him.

00:10:28

Mike Smith: So
Nathan Brady: Right. There you go. Um so we're we're one for one so far, right? Yeah. Um, so speaking of I want to go to I want to go to another um kind of big uh win here, right? That is uh Spanberger who on on the flip side of the Democrats was very critical of Zoran Mani for whatever reason she decided like two days before the election to come out and and say all you know all
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: this nonsense. She's not even she she's not even running in New York. There's no reason to do this, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah. I don't understand like s******* on your party this way because she had that she had that quote of being like if he's going to win he should, you know, switch to be a Democrat. And we're like, what are you talking about? He won the Democrat primary. He's he won as a Democrat. He didn't run as an independent or anything. Like you're just you're being kind of a b**** for no reason.

00:11:26

Nathan Brady: Right. I'm just going to kill that.
Mike Smith: and he's and he's on your team like what are we doing?
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. It It doesn't make any sense. Um, but anyway, she won uh an a overwhelming uh victory. I would say flipped the governorship from red to blue in Virginia.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: So, that was huge.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Defeated Jay Jones, right? Oh, no. I'm I'm sorry. I have the wrong one. Uh but yeah, flipped it.
Nathan Brady: No. Well, no. Uh, uh, Jay Jones.
Mike Smith: It's a different one. We'll talk about it.
Nathan Brady: Well, the Well, well, I mean, we can go right into it because I don't think there's a lot more to say on Spanberger.
Mike Smith: That's my bad. Okay.
Nathan Brady: Historic win. uh first female governor of Virginia. Um so so also huge defeated the Republican lieutenant governor. Um some there was some already uh argument about well you know the Republican governor uh gubernatorial candidate was black.

00:12:19

Nathan Brady: Um so that clearly clearly hurt uh you know because of how racist of course uh Virginia is.
Mike Smith: Oh, come on.
Nathan Brady: that was their that that was uh a talking point that I saw. But then on the flip side, Jay Jones uh ends up winning in a in a very close race, the um the attorney general race in Virginia. And I think that's important because um not only is is Jay Jung's black, but he also was involved in a text message scandal uh where some text messages were leaked where he had made violent comments or about Republican lawmakers or something something to that effect. Um anyone anyway
Mike Smith: Yeah, they they made him go out and apologize for something that they said was about Charlie Kirk, even though it he had posted it like two years before Kirk's assassination. So, I don't I don't really buy into I wouldn't have apologized. I just would have gone out and won anyway because I'm just like, you guys are barking up the wrong tree here. You have no idea what you're talking about.

00:13:29

Mike Smith: But he he did the political thing and he's like, "Look, I understand there's been political violence on both sides recently and my rhetoric is not acceptable and I apologize for that."
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Basically, it's it's milk toast. Nobody cares, but whatever. And in fact, he won handily as well. He he he's won by almost 200,000 votes in in a two million or I'm sorry, a four million person election, basically four million elector. So, not nothing, you know, it's like a six-point swing or a Yeah, almost a six-point swing.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Okay, that's that's Yeah, that's fair.
Mike Smith: It's it's and against an incumbent and in an off year and I mean there's there was a lot stacked against the Democrats there and you win this AG in, you know, it was Virginia, right?
Nathan Brady: Um yeah, Virginia.
Mike Smith: Where where was he? Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I just I didn't expect any of the Dems to win that one. I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't think we were going to take it.

00:14:29

Mike Smith: I I seen the polling. I just didn't think it was going to happen.
Nathan Brady: Uh Dems flipped two seats in uh Mississippi, I believe, as well. Um flipping a a super majority in in Mississippi. So that's a huge one. Um Dems flipped two seats in Georgia's statewide public service commission by very large margins. So all these, you know, blue states, right? Uh Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, Pennsylvania, H Okay.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Well, some of these would be blue states if not for some ownerous voter suppression, but we'll get to that.
Nathan Brady: So, Pennsylvania, yeah, that's a good point on that. But, yeah, Pennsylvania reelects uh Supreme Court justices. So, that extended a Democratic majority uh there. Maine voters rejecting the new GOPbacked voter ID requirement. I think that's that's that's pretty huge.
Mike Smith: Voter suppression. Yeah. Rejecting voter suppression.
Nathan Brady: Um we we still have um a big uh Supreme Court case though uh coming around that.
Mike Smith: It is pretty huge.
Nathan Brady: So we'll see around voter suppression.

00:15:38

Mike Smith: Coming around. What? Sorry.
Nathan Brady: So um the you know and I don't know when it's on the docket. Let me uh let's see. Let's let's find this because I don't have it in the show notes.
Mike Smith: All right.
Nathan Brady: uh a landmark case uh on the the Voting Rights Act.
Mike Smith: Oh, right.
Nathan Brady: Ah, right.
Mike Smith: Yeah. So, they're going to they're they're the hearing is going to try and water down the Voting Rights Act again. And in particular, as I understand it, it has to do with the argument around representation at the state level in the House of Representatives. And what they're, this is really just highleveling it to try and simplify, but they're basically saying like if you live in a state that's 50% black people and you only have white representatives chosen by white people, that's fine. That that's what they're going for because they want voter suppression.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Right. Um, so do you mean like uh like a like a question that asks if we can like redraw the maps in California?

00:16:40

Mike Smith: But now is there any news on representation of the states outside of that? I mean hypothetically Yeah, that's it.
Nathan Brady: So, I think I don't know. I may I may have heard something about that. There was a Proposition 50 campaign in California. I voted yesterday. I don't remember. Looking at my ballot. Oh, yeah. There was only one thing on it. Yeah, I think it was that.
Mike Smith: It was that one.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Uh yes.
Mike Smith: You're right.
Nathan Brady: Yes. On Prop 50 that has passed, the the people of California have decided um it's time to redraw the maps.
Mike Smith: Not only that, and this is hilarious to me because I called this I said this I don't know six months ago on the pod where I likened it to the the GOP's attempt to recall Gavin Newsome in California.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: And they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on that campaign trying to recall Gavin Newsome because they didn't like him.

00:17:46

Mike Smith: And he's a Democrat and it's California. And he won it in an obvious like twothirds of the votes came out to not recall him. And I said Gavin Newsome is going to come out and he's going to champion this this Prop 50 and he's going to get similar results.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And lo and behold, with 75% of the votes in as of like an hour ago, he's got it locked up. Yes. On Prop 50 is two to three in favor. I mean, it's it's 5 million votes for and three million votes against.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: It's it doesn't get easier than that.
Nathan Brady: I think I think there's uh some things that we need to talk about from all this. There's some takeaways from this, right? I think one, whether whether we like it or not, this puts Gavin Newsome as the front runner uh in 2028 for the Democrats.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I mean it's I if if even if you're the old guard that you're politically savvy enough to understand that he's at the very least got enough steam behind him to make it there.

00:18:38

Nathan Brady: I guess.
Mike Smith: The problem that I think we're gonna keep running into is that non-blue states and even some purple states hate him. And with good reason. He's he's bad dude. I don't like him either, but he's political and he and he knows which buttons to push with his voters.
Nathan Brady: I mean, he he is a Joe Biden uhesque candidate, though. I think that he uh Yeah.
Mike Smith: Yeah. I I hate that you said that, but yeah. I mean, he's, you know, if if the middle's here, he's just he's this close to being on the right, you know what I mean?
Nathan Brady: And people people don't really think of him that way because of how progressive they think California is. But those of us that follow closely, we understand he hates homeless people.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yes, he does.
Nathan Brady: You know, he hates, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of things that Gavin Newsome doesn't do right. But Prop 50, the way that he uh reacted very quickly to what was going on in Texas, may honestly have just saved the midterms.

00:19:50

Mike Smith: Yeah, maybe we'll we'll we'll see.
Nathan Brady: Um maybe I'm
Mike Smith: But the one thing that that that will be interesting is to see which map they end up going with because I've seen a number of of pundits sort of like they're hiring people who do these maps for like that that's their business. And I've seen four or five drafts of them where it's basically California picks up uh five Democrat seats and loses five Republican seats, which would offset them doing that in Texas obviously, but there are yet more states that
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: are going to end up trying to do these shenanigans.
Nathan Brady: Well, so there are and some some maybe I think only one other state has actually gotten that approved and and will likely do it while all the other ones are being held up with legal battles, etc. Um, but I think the one of the other one of one of the things I found interesting is I I was watching an interview with Newsome where they asked him, you know, okay, Prop 50 passes. Is this integral to flipping the house in uh 2026?

00:21:03

Nathan Brady: And he said, no. He said, I think the house flips without it. Uh, but we're go we're go That's what he said.
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: But we're I I I mean well listen if if last night is any indication of what's to come and we can keep building building the steam I think there actually will be every side it says red tsunami blue
Mike Smith: He's wrong. He's wrong. I would love for him to be right, but he's wrong. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: wave blah blah blah last night was a blue tsunami. I mean I don't think there's any question about it.
Mike Smith: Yeah. I I mean, okay, realistically, and we So, just full disclosure, Nate and I talked about doing another live show last night to go over these things, and I think that we were both kind of like, and I just can't sit and talk to people while we're getting crushed.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Like, that that hurts too much.
Nathan Brady: Right. We've been in that we've been in that boat before.

00:21:52

Mike Smith: we've done that enough.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: We're like, so we pushed it off. We're like, we'll talk about it tomorrow. And then we started seeing the results coming in. I'm like, oh my god, we have to talk about this. But I mean, I agree.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: It's it's they're going to spin in a lot of ways. I think it's exactly what you said. It's a referendum on Trump and his policies and his positions. And there was there was a poll came out uh today, I want to say, and it basically shows again that he's underwater and going deeper on every single issue except for like the border and immigration policy.
Nathan Brady: inflation.
Mike Smith: That's the only thing keeping him afloat. He's not even keeping him afloat. It's the only thing he's not underwater in the economy. He's underwater, you know, prices on on commodities, housing, everything.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. All everything.
Mike Smith: Everything. He's just completely underwater.
Nathan Brady: Tariffs.
Mike Smith: They think that he's completely down.

00:22:46

Nathan Brady: Yeah. Right.
Mike Smith: And I have to say that it's interesting, like you're saying about this blue wave, right? So, one of the things that we took away when we started looking at the results uh of the 24 general when when Harris lost is that we were surprised at the Latino vote coming out so hard for Trump.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: I I think everybody was shocked. I don't know about everybody, but you and I at the very least were shocked that the messaging of I'm going to deport you and your families won their votes over.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Like I think that they we've seen a lot of interviews where they're like they're not talking about me. They were talking about, you know, the violent criminals who are illegals and they're not talking about me or my family or my neighbors or my community. And then when Trump actually went through with all this, no, he's talking about you and your community and your neighbors and your family. And so last night we saw the Latino vote swing like 20 points on nearly every single one of these things and it gave the Democrats their win.

00:23:52

Mike Smith: And you need to like really understand that moving into the next elections. Like yeah, this is a blue wave, but don't just keep doing the same thing. You got to speak to your voter base. Your voter base now more than ever needs the Latino vote to win. So, you need to speak to them about how immigration or specifically Trump's immigration policies affects them and how you're going to fix that.
Nathan Brady: I think. Yeah.
Mike Smith: Like a governor coming out and saying, "I'm not going to work with ICE. I'm not going to support them in this thing." Like one in a landslide. It's very simple messaging.
Nathan Brady: And I think I think that might send a message and hopefully sends a message to the Democratic party ahead of the primary in Maine. I think that's going to be a really important one where Janet Mills has coordinated with ICE.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: She has state police coordinating with ICE and she's up against a progressive in Graham Platner um that has vowed to do the exact opposite of that.

00:24:47

Nathan Brady: Um um we we saw exit polling last night out of um New Jersey, out of Virginia.
Mike Smith: I I think it's simple messaging to say I will not support this administration's attempt to harass, you know, Latinos who are here illegally. That's a simple message that you can get voters on.
Nathan Brady: Like you said, you know, we already know what Trump's approval uh ratings were like, but he was underwater in the exit polls big time. huge anti-Trump sentiment in Virginia. Um big time in New Jersey as well. Um you know, nearing 60%. And of course, Republicans attempted to downplay um you know, oh well, it was because Trump wasn't on the ballot. And no, we disagree.
Mike Smith: Well, he he said that.
Nathan Brady: Trump was on the ballot.
Mike Smith: He said that.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, we Well, well, and well, Mike Johnson said it today, too, but Trump said it Trump said it in his, you know, what whatever 1:00 am, you know, true social rants.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Oh, okay. Truth Social thingy.

00:25:40

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Um and and I think he also said something about reopening the government.
Mike Smith: screed. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Um basically blaming Republicans which as as we saw Go ahead.
Mike Smith: Yeah. So, I I was just going to say you were talking about a lot of points that that played in favor of the Democrats, and I think one of them very largely is that the government is still shut down.
Nathan Brady: Go ahead.
Mike Smith: It's the second longest shutdown in history.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Uh and second was the one during his first term.
Nathan Brady: first year.
Mike Smith: So, I mean, he loves shutting the government down anyway.
Nathan Brady: In fact, I think they might already be uh yeah,
Mike Smith: Oh, it's it's it's past that. It's this is the longest shutdown ever. Um, but what I was going to say is that the optics on that, and you and I have talked about this on the pod before are not good. It clearly looks like the Republicans and them updating all of the like USDA websites and things like to just like ancillary websites that nobody actually visits to be like this is the Democrat shutdown just looks petty and dumb

00:26:36

Nathan Brady: right? that fake my MySpace thing.
Mike Smith: and and nobody's buying it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Yeah, nobody's buying it. Everybody who was pulled, I mean, you know, it's a de it's a huge Democratic win, so everybody who's going to be pulled is going to probably vote that way anyway. But of the voters who showed up, it's clearly on the Republicans head that the government is still shut down. And that had to hurt them last night.
Nathan Brady: So, so I wanna I wanna to your point, um, here's the USDA SNAP uh website and right here on the top is a huge banner that basically is blaming Democrats for the shutdown. And it's absolute nonsense. I mean, it's it's insane that they're even doing this. Um well there right right um so point point being that nobody is buying
Mike Smith: voted 14 times against. There's no vote. That's not how this works. Like you either have a quorum or you don't. You have one person show up and they they do the minutes bang in twice and then they walk out.

00:27:32

Mike Smith: Like that's not there's no voting.
Nathan Brady: this anymore and it was clear it was very very clear last night that the messaging that this is Democrat's fault
Mike Smith: No. And I and I I've brought this we and I have talked about this a lot, but one thing that I think that has played to the favor of Republicans in the fa in the past, particularly the last, you know, uh 12 years, is that the optics cannot stick to Trump. I don't know why, but before this election, optics never stuck to Trump. Like, he nearly beat Joe Biden when he was in the middle of a recession and a pandemic and unreasonable joblessness. And it's just like he almost won that. So, it was like optics don't really bother him. Unfortunately for him and outside of the cult of Trump, every other Republican's optics mattered. And they've been treating it after the win in 24 like optics don't matter. I can say whatever I want because I got Daddy Trump on me.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And no, you're not Trump.

00:28:44

Mike Smith: Optics matter to you.
Nathan Brady: And you know, I think I think people have been saying this for a while and maybe you and I have said it on the show before, but I think that once Trump is gone, the that nobody can carry
Mike Smith: And and they and like you just put it on them here. You were like the shutdown is your team's fault. And people were like, "Yes, it was. I'm gonna vote for the blue person.
Nathan Brady: the torch of the of the of the nonsense that that Trump and this quote unquote MAGA movement uh has has carried. I mean, they can't do it. I don't think there's another person that can that can quite pull it off the way that Trump did. And it ends
Mike Smith: It's it's a really interesting thought experiment to go through because uh I I've read some books that talk about the type of the original MAGA movement of Ronald Reagan and this populous, you know, rebranding of America first and all this stuff, the same same shtick that Trump is doing and being basically a celebrity more than a politician and how nobody could come out of that.

00:29:50

Mike Smith: But then there was, you know, a period of years after that where there were quote unquote normal Republicans who, you know, obviously won the presidency and who have done all these things. But I would argue that outside of campaigning, Ronald Reagan was a normal Republican president. Whereas Donald Trump is this MAGA psychopath president who seems so far gone versus the normal Republic like a George W. Bush that we've seen in the past. You know what I'm saying?
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: And so I'm with you in that the following of Trump, I don't know what it'll bring. I expect to see something different. Um, and I think it's interesting if you follow some of the interviews that that um, Marjorie Taylor Green has been doing lately, she has been throwing MAGA under the bus and she's been she was quoted yesterday, I think, or maybe it was this morning as saying like, I was duped just like the rest of you. I got I fell into this online, you know, hatefueled blah blah blah and like now I'm trying to work for my people and blah.

00:30:57

Mike Smith: She's clearly trying to position herself as a bigger than she is. She's a House of Representatives bigger than that.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. I mean, let's be clear about what Margaret Green is doing.
Mike Smith: But yeah, I mean, I think that the writing's on the wall. I think the writing's on the wall where the MAGA crazies are like, I need a job once daddy's gone.
Nathan Brady: She She sees Yeah. Yeah. She sees the rejection of the MAGA movement coming and she wants to make sure she still has that job.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Um, so everything that comes out of her mouth, it's a calculated grift, you know, it's it's obvious, but yeah, you're totally right.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Even she sees um the MAGA movement, I think, has it's I mean, what what has it produced? What has it produced?
Mike Smith: terrorists taxes on American people.
Nathan Brady: Terror I mean today it's going on right now.
Mike Smith: That's another one that's going to be up against the Supreme Court coming up soon. And I've been reading mumblings that a lot of is it today?

00:31:50

Mike Smith: A lot of legal scholars sort of expect that that Scotas may shoot it down because like Gorsuch hates uh taxes generally and he's very much against them and he's not he isn't an an imbecile.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: He understands how tariffs are taxes as well as Roberts. So I don't know man. I can't tell you what this administration has brought aside from paying to brown people. And that'll play that'll play with a lot of the Republican base and I get it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: But outside of that, like, okay, I want to take it back to something you said a moment ago, right? Because you were talking about like the fervor of the MAGA movement, right?
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And I think that's the right way to frame it because I I sort of suspect that we're not going to see team switching or anything in a postTrump democracy. What I expect is voter fall off on the right. I expect that a lot of these people who are like ideologically aligned with the idea of Trump winning are just that they're they're rooting for a team.

00:32:55

Mike Smith: You know, imagine you're rooting for uh you know a baseball team and your best player just retires the next year, right?
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: And you're just a fair weather follower.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: You're happy when the team wins, but as soon as that best player's gone, you have it in your head like they're not going to win next year.
Nathan Brady: Right. You have it in you have it in your head, but you're also probably not watching every game, right?
Mike Smith: I don't need to. But you're not watching. Exactly. You're not showing up and you're not ex So I sort of expect that after after Trump, you're going to have a lot of people disenfranchised.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. So, so I will give you I'll give you some of that.
Mike Smith: They're not going to show up to vote on the right because they don't have, you know, that star pitcher anymore or whatever.
Nathan Brady: Um I I do think that the MAGA movement unfortunately brought a lot of new terrible people in permanently.
Mike Smith: Uh, sure.

00:33:40

Nathan Brady: Uh you know, probably. Um but but I do agree that I think we're going to see a fall-off. But the other things I'm seeing is the the obviously when when things like MAGA happen, we've seen this throughout history, the pendulum swings back and it swings back hard and I think we've just seen that in New York,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: but I think that swing is is is going to be there to stay. I'm being really optimistic right now.
Mike Smith: I don't get it.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: I I folks, I've never seen him like this.
Nathan Brady: But I listen, last night was really inspiring.
Mike Smith: I don't know what this is.
Nathan Brady: I think that I think that we're seeing campaigns now um where people are tired of being angry and they just want help, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah. I I think personally I think that what we have right now is a ruling class that is completely out of touch with actual voters and actual Americans.
Nathan Brady: Trump doesn't know what a grocery store is.
Mike Smith: The president doesn't know what a grocery store is and and he is going to defy a court order that he funds SNAP and you're going to see millions of people basically going hungry because the president didn't want to

00:34:39

Nathan Brady: The president doesn't know what a grocery store is.
Mike Smith: follow the law. And I think that I don't care what side of this of the political aisle you actually vote for. If you're one of those people, I would never forgive that. I'd be like, "My kids, my kid gets no food because you want to piss off the the Democrats and I never vote Republican again."
Nathan Brady: Yeah. And the and the optics of that as well are the I don't think you can get away from now the fact that this is this is insane when you really think about this.
Mike Smith: And those optics, those will stick to him. I know I said that nothing sticks to him, but that was I don't think you can come away from that.
Nathan Brady: When you lay this all out right now the government is shut down. Okay. People are losing their SNAP benefits. People are are going hungry. People are going to go hungry.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: The White House East Wing has been demolished.

00:35:38

Nathan Brady: Okay? So, like you look at the White House, it's demolished.
Mike Smith: So, build a ballroom.
Nathan Brady: And the man wants to build a $300 million golden ballroom. And now yesterday, um I don't know if you saw the images, there's now these weird gold, you know, uh designs.
Mike Smith: Yeah. The calligraphy on the wall with the West Wing.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: starting to come up over the windows and on the outside. I mean, truly just out of touch.
Mike Smith: outofouch goddy nonsense and it and the optics are playing really bad for him. I mean now so turning that a bit what would it take for the Democrats to come back to the table and open the the uh the government right now because there's no incentive to at the moment. Everything bad happening at least at present is polling against the Republicans more than the Democrats. So, the Democrats have no pressure to come back to the table. But what would it take to get them back to the table?

00:36:34

Nathan Brady: I mean, I think it would just take their initial ask, but but if I but if we're being honest, I think you're totally right. If I were the Democrats, I'd be like, it's all off the table now. You're all losing your jobs. So, here's what we want if you want the government reopened.
Mike Smith: Yeah. So, that's what I'm asking.
Nathan Brady: Um, I don't know.
Mike Smith: Like, what do you if you were Chuck Schumer, I mean, don't be Chuck Schumer, but if you were going to be Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Okay. Yeah. If you were Chuck Schumer, I'd open it right now because Yeah.
Mike Smith: I would have already bent over, but if I'm in leadership, like I'm using this opportunity to win something.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: What am I going to win? I I would love an updated Voting Rights Act. Like, I would like to pass into law that vote by mail is, you know, the law of the land, but I would I would I would get so loud about it.

00:37:13

Nathan Brady: No. Yeah.
Mike Smith: I'd be like, "We're willing to open. We're we're conceding everything that they want to get done for this one bill.
Nathan Brady: I mean, just look at Trump's Truth Social right now. I mean, like, that's the that's the one thing you're you're definitely not you're not going to get any codifying of any additional voting rights.
Mike Smith: Right. Right.
Nathan Brady: You're not going to get anything like that. But I do agree. You can probably get funding more funding for more programs and sneak it in, you know. Um, well
Mike Smith: That might even be better honestly because you can if you're the Democrats, you can get super loud about it and be like, "We will only go to the table with the Republicans if they like fund SNAP, which they which they were required to by a court order and Trump is now illegally blah blah blah." Like those should be the optics. They're like, "I'm willing to talk. fun snap and we'll talk and we'll open the government.

00:38:09

Mike Smith: Like that's how that's what you do.
Nathan Brady: yeah.
Mike Smith: Easy wins. Make them do the thing that everybody wants and be loud about how I did it. I did it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um, they're in so I think the the the Dems right now are insisting on a $ 1.5 trillion package that includes far-left I don't I like where this source came from. Uh, legislative priorities uh extension of uh the Affordable Care Act. We're talking um we we've already talked about SNAP funding.
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: Um I mean so there's there's already a lot that there they they refuse to come back to the table until these these things are met and frankly it's working out like you said it's working out for them. Um, so yeah.
Mike Smith: Dems are rarely handed such wins. I hope they they do it they do something useful with it and we got a lot.
Nathan Brady: Um, what else we got, man?
Mike Smith: I mean basically it was a lot of wins last night. The Democrats did a ton.

00:39:20

Mike Smith: We we really went over the high levels on that sort of stuff. I just kind of wanted to talk about like let's do a vibe check like because because we've been talking about it now right this second we're in the afterlow it feels good and we have hope right that's the
Nathan Brady: Okay. Okay. Right. That's that's the current vibe. I mean it will be Yep.
Mike Smith: current vibe so like you know California needs to get its redistricting plan in place before 26 obviously and have that map drawn it will be but that means that there's going to be new represent representatives sent to the hill as well because those elections need to happen. So if like you lose a seat in this red district because the red district goes away, that representative goes home and there's this new district that's blue now. Well, you have to have an election.
Nathan Brady: I'm very excited about that because my district uh my area is going to be one of them.
Mike Smith: So they need to do Yeah.

00:40:10

Nathan Brady: Ken Calbertt is a longtime Republican representative um unfortunately in my area and man it's making me like Yeah.
Mike Smith: Who would they group you with is the problem. Like you you need to come up with a district that that eats up some of that that red that you're in and and uh dilutes it with blue. So again, I'm excited to see the maps. We'll talk about that when we see them on the pod. Check back with us for that.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Special California edition maybe.
Mike Smith: And and I'm I think it's also something that I think is going to provide fuel for the already burning fires for these these uh grassroots and and progressive candidates that are running for midterm uh spots. Cat in particular comes to mind where she can run off of this win from Mani and being like, you know, grassroots in like, you know, culturally and and society like in here. Here's who I am. And um what's the space for Maine? Like I am a resident of this place.

00:41:13

Nathan Brady: Y
Mike Smith: I lived here my entire life. I want to see it get better. Here's my plans. I have this grassroots campaign. I'm doing the same thing. You just run the Mandani campaign and and just show the Democrats how it's done. I'm excited to see that. I think they got a big, you know, gust of wind in their sales last night. I think it really does sort of hit in the face of the the Schoovers and the and and and the likes of the the old guard because we're doing it differently now.
Nathan Brady: And I I will say I don't know if we're in a new era of polling.
Mike Smith: And it's Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I think, you know, for the last several years, several cycles, there's been a shift in the polls haven't really represented um the results. And I think that's because of of the the ways that polls have been done. We've talked about it, you know, landlines hitting the wrong people. Um and I think a lot of these polling uh places have corrected, right?

00:42:12

Nathan Brady: Because they want to be relevant, right? you can't be taken seriously if you keep missing the mark. And uh it the polls got a lot of it right last night.
Mike Smith: Heat.
Nathan Brady: Jones plus two, Spanberger plus 10, Manny plus five, plus six. Um, and so if these polls that we're seeing are any indication of what's to come, I mean, Trump disapproval at plus 10, plus 11, you know, um, 2020, 2026, early midterm stuff showing Democrats taking the House by three or four seats. And that's again um before the redistricting um you know so I I I think definitely we have to uh uh Mikey Cheryl by the way I don't think we talked about in New Jersey uh New Jersey governor beating
Mike Smith: before the redistricting stuff. No, I know.
Nathan Brady: the trumpedback Republican candidate. She was also ahead by a few points in the polls. Um but also another rebuke of Trump uh that that's that's important to talk about.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Um so yeah, I think I think we are um we are seeing what is possibly a blue wave if we can keep up the momentum and we don't step on each other's toes.

00:43:33

Nathan Brady: Can you imagine for a second?
Mike Smith: No. Oh, it would have been it would have been a hilarious landslide.
Nathan Brady: Can you imagine if Jeff Schumer and the entire establishment um as well as the progressive grassroots movement was got behind Mandani what an absolute blowout it would have been. I mean, so you know, if if people like Abazala, if if Platiner manages to win the primary against Mills, um, you know, if if these things can happen and then the Dem establishment can get behind it, I can
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: see taking back the Senate and the House, I can see impeachment. I can see some some pretty serious things happening. Um, and and let's do it.
Mike Smith: I I agree. I I just I have to couch that in. We impeached him twice. s*** didn't matter. So, it's a political statement.
Nathan Brady: Okay. Well, you have to remember No, you have to remember we impeached him twice when we didn't have the Senate as well.
Mike Smith: It's It's probably worth doing if you So you think you think that there's there is some reality in 26 where we get a majority in both houses?

00:44:38

Nathan Brady: Um, yes, I do.
Mike Smith: Oh, D. If you have the stomach for it and you're willing to do this Mandani style campaign,
Nathan Brady: Yeah, I do. And if you look at the seats that are up, Collins is a perfect example. That is a super vulnerable um seat. If Yeah. If you can take a platiner who who if he wins the primary instead of the Dem establishment being like, "Wait, have you guys seen his Nazi tattoo?" Like, I don't know. Maybe Collins is better right now for Maine. Like if we can if we can overcome that, I think that there's a good chance. I really do.
Mike Smith: I have some last minute breaking news for you.
Nathan Brady: Oh, okay. Give me the breaking news, please.
Mike Smith: Uh Gerald Golden, he represents Maine's second congressional district in the US House of Representatives, has just announced that he has decided not to seek re-election in 26. He's a Democrat.
Nathan Brady: Okay. Okay.
Mike Smith: He's been 11 years a legislature legislator, and he's basically said that it's it's too scary.

00:45:54

Mike Smith: He's uh what with the political violence and all that, he's decided not to run for reelection. his his daughters have been harassed and he's uh he's you know they they basically forced him out and he was a fairly uh you know leftist uh uh legislator.
Nathan Brady: How?
Mike Smith: But the point that I'll make is that it's another seat that's open and it's probably going to go blue no matter who. But it would be nice to have another progressive voice in there to, you know, get with the chorus, right? You're gonna have a bunch of progressives championing these things together is better than like you're saying of like you got one or two progressives and then Chuck Schumer going just don't don't don't worry about don't even vote. Don't even don't care.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Don't matter.
Nathan Brady: We're they they didn't even want to talk about I mean every we saw yesterday. Okay, before we leave, just got to say this. We saw uh uh uh Dick Cheney dead, hilarious.
Mike Smith: Okay, I heard her.

00:46:54

Nathan Brady: Uh there was more talk. There was more Oh, perfect example. Kamala Harris posted a tweet praising the life of Dick Cheney and nothing about Mumani, which is par for the course about the about the Dem establishment. Okay, that day.
Mike Smith: Why not the other way around? Why not talk about the Democrat who's running that day and then you can later in the week you can be like, "And also Dick Cheney died and I know that nobody liked him, but I met him a couple
Nathan Brady: And don't you don't have to.
Mike Smith: times and he was okay." Like you can post that later.
Nathan Brady: How about just don't f****** say anything. You know that you you know that that is an option.
Mike Smith: You can just shut up. You just shut up, man.
Nathan Brady: You know that there's a choice to just not say anything. That is there there is a choice. Also, uh Rudy Giuliani is having an absolutely insane day today and I am loving it.
Mike Smith: What really?

00:47:47

Nathan Brady: He's just he's just posting I mean non-stop on all of his socials about 911. You forgot.
Mike Smith: I I don't know anything about it. Tell me about it.
Nathan Brady: You forgot. And pictures of Mandani side by side with Giuliani with uh with the towers burning. I can't believe New York forgot. Um and then all the comments under it are hilarious. It's like we didn't forget you trying to get a b****** from a 16-year-old in in you know Borat 2 or whatever.
Mike Smith: Yeah, what a fun guy.
Nathan Brady: So, so no, don't worry. We didn't forget. Um, anyway, so he's having a day. Um, and not the mushroom.
Mike Smith: I hope he uh I hope he has a lot of fun with his, you know, race baiting.
Nathan Brady: Not the mushroom kind. Yeah. Uh, okay. That's it for us today. I think we have a lot to be excited about. I think um we're hopefully we can ride this momentum. Uh, if you're in line, stay in line.
Mike Smith: If you're in line, stay in line.
Nathan Brady: Uh, thanks to everyone who went out and voted yesterday.
Mike Smith: Yeah, great job.
Nathan Brady: Um, that's that I got my I voted sticker.
Mike Smith: Way to do your civic duty.
Nathan Brady: I was excited to go to the polls in person. I know you voted like eight months early. Um, yeah, six or seven times allegedly.
Mike Smith: Six or seven times.
Nathan Brady: Um, so we're waiting to get our Soros checks in. We'll see how that goes. Uh, thanks everybody for tuning in. We'll see you next week with maybe some more positive news. Um because I like those episodes better than the better than the bad ones. So until next time, I'm Nate Brady. That's Mike Smith. See you everyone. All
Mike Smith: on time and under budget. Stop taking notes.