Great discussion, as ever. I wish I understood (I’m English, so forgive me…) what the DNC chairman’s role actually is. Whilst there is not yet a presidential nominee, is the DNC chairman the Democratic leader? That’s what I assume, but is that right? It’s hard to tell, when that person seems not to be in any way visible, at least to the outside world, as a leader. If Ken Martin is NOT the leader, how on earth does a party function without one until the presidential nominee is chosen? And if indeed he IS the leader, why isn’t he visibly leading on any kind of global stage? I realise that this is an entirely naive question, but I just don’t understand why the Democrats seem, at least to me, to be without someone leading a concerted effort to be a concerted opposition.
The DNC chairman is not a politician that leads the party in a "public facing" sense, their job is more management with duties like coordinating all the state party's activities, e.g. setting goals, organizing (meetings, the conventions, etc), finding candidates to run, and raising money from donors.
There is no official leader of the party when the party doesn't hold the presidency, someone may be acknowledged as the unofficial leader if they are dominant in intra-party politics (like Trump was the last 4 years for the Republicans). When there's no clear leader, often after a presidential defeat, the party will regroup and make general plans until a leader emerges.
So we're in the worst position to combat Trumpism, no clear leader nationally with and no unified plan. The Democratic congressional leaders aren't accomplishing much (IMO) and any blocking of Trumpism is slowly happening in the courts. Meanwhile every day has a new set of disasters, Trump's dropping in the polls is the only good news I can see.
That’s so helpful, E.K. Hornbeck, thanks for taking the time to explain. It’s still a mystery to me how you can have an effective opposition party that has no leader; I guess I’m used to a UK system where even in opposition, a party votes for and elects someone to be in charge. Kemi Badenoch is the leader of the Conservative opposition party in the UK although Keir Starmer is prime minister. I can’t see how an opposition party can cohere and act effectively without someone to lead them, although I guess it must work if that’s always been so in the US. Perhaps Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have roles for which we have no UK equivalent?
I love you man... the darker the better. But you gotta lose that insurance salesman / 5 easy steps to wealth / send $10 today to save your soul photo for this podcast.
To answer JVLs question, If dems should run a demagogue light in the 2028 election to win some anti-vaxers back, I predict they will lose because many centrist voters will simply stay home. Reason is that a large swat of centrist dem voters believe in science and progress and not in this shit.
Thanks so much for closed captioning the whole thing!
Thank you JVL! That was a great discussion. Thank you for doing this hard work!
Two of my favorites Dan and JVL, together at last! 💞
Let us know when JVL gets on PSA!
PS These WTF's are great, we want them to continue after the 100 days!
mark cuban also already has his hand in the medical pharmacy world and could bring
prescription drug prices down and universal health care he can help usher into place....
Great discussion, as ever. I wish I understood (I’m English, so forgive me…) what the DNC chairman’s role actually is. Whilst there is not yet a presidential nominee, is the DNC chairman the Democratic leader? That’s what I assume, but is that right? It’s hard to tell, when that person seems not to be in any way visible, at least to the outside world, as a leader. If Ken Martin is NOT the leader, how on earth does a party function without one until the presidential nominee is chosen? And if indeed he IS the leader, why isn’t he visibly leading on any kind of global stage? I realise that this is an entirely naive question, but I just don’t understand why the Democrats seem, at least to me, to be without someone leading a concerted effort to be a concerted opposition.
I'll take a whack at it for you!
The DNC chairman is not a politician that leads the party in a "public facing" sense, their job is more management with duties like coordinating all the state party's activities, e.g. setting goals, organizing (meetings, the conventions, etc), finding candidates to run, and raising money from donors.
There is no official leader of the party when the party doesn't hold the presidency, someone may be acknowledged as the unofficial leader if they are dominant in intra-party politics (like Trump was the last 4 years for the Republicans). When there's no clear leader, often after a presidential defeat, the party will regroup and make general plans until a leader emerges.
So we're in the worst position to combat Trumpism, no clear leader nationally with and no unified plan. The Democratic congressional leaders aren't accomplishing much (IMO) and any blocking of Trumpism is slowly happening in the courts. Meanwhile every day has a new set of disasters, Trump's dropping in the polls is the only good news I can see.
That’s so helpful, E.K. Hornbeck, thanks for taking the time to explain. It’s still a mystery to me how you can have an effective opposition party that has no leader; I guess I’m used to a UK system where even in opposition, a party votes for and elects someone to be in charge. Kemi Badenoch is the leader of the Conservative opposition party in the UK although Keir Starmer is prime minister. I can’t see how an opposition party can cohere and act effectively without someone to lead them, although I guess it must work if that’s always been so in the US. Perhaps Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have roles for which we have no UK equivalent?
I love you man... the darker the better. But you gotta lose that insurance salesman / 5 easy steps to wealth / send $10 today to save your soul photo for this podcast.
Yes!!!🙌
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows TB does. Smart, informative, and surprisingly fun.
Congress needs to ban Elon from anything to do with the federal government!
JVL. Loving WTF 2.0!!
I’d vote for Sarah!!!!!!!!
That was great. I really loved the Friends schools stories and "my best friend Sarah" story. Precious.
Dems need a vision to listen to the American people—acknowledging how grossly they failed.
Gotta go big, Dan! The House in '26 ain't enough.
LLM: Large Language Model (associated with AI).
To answer JVLs question, If dems should run a demagogue light in the 2028 election to win some anti-vaxers back, I predict they will lose because many centrist voters will simply stay home. Reason is that a large swat of centrist dem voters believe in science and progress and not in this shit.
Good show.
Definitely right that 4 years is too long to predict. Under these conditions, 4 months is too long.
But kinda cool that we've come back around to non-career politicians for high office. Wasn't that more the founders' idea?
Not great that they have to be billionaires though.