STREAMING JOHN-BATCHELOR-SHOW W/THADDEUS MCCOTTER 10-20-26

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So so.
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And a good day to you. This is the making
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of the John Batchelor Show. I am he. We begin
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this morning with the news that oil prices have reached
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a five-month high. I start there with a dry remark
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about high because the Middle East, to my certain understanding,
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is in chaos, agents of chaos everywhere. As I I'm
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told by my colleague, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for
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Defense of Democracies, we're looking at the remaking of the
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Middle Eastern map, remade in 1945 when FDR, on his
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way back from Yalta, leaving Yalta early to Churchill's surprise,
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stopped to greet Ibn Saud, the father, grandfather, great-grandfather of
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the Saudi princes. And that meeting began the relationship between
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the U.S. and Riyadh that we see today as determinative
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of the strength of the Middle East, of Europe, the
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Mediterranean Basin, etc. And the question is, what is to
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be done right now if that map that FDR and
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Ibn Saud made is to be recast entirely, with or without,
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and I'm chiefly entertaining without, the United States of America.
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I welcome my colleague Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness, from the
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great city of Detroit, to comment on my general observation
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that what we have is a brave new world, not
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the 20th century map that we grew up with, with
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Saudi Arabia producing oil that was critical to the development
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of the world after the catastrophe of the Second War. Instead,
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multiple sources of energy all very expensive, and multiple threats
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to the Middle East, to the Mediterranean Basin, to Europe,
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and to the United States and continental North America. A
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new world, maybe. That is a very good day to you.
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I've been looking at the map of the Middle East,
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and I have so far this. Riyadh is desperately looking
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for assistance to fend off the advance of the Houthis.
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And the undermining of the confidence in the kingdom is obvious.
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It's appealed to Egypt that will vote later as to
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whether they commit troops or not to defending Saudi Arabia.
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It's appealed to Syria, to Al-Shara and Damascus, and they
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will decide on the basis of what's in it for
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us to send troops, former al-Qaeda cutthroats, to fend off
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the Yemen advance towards Aden to the south and peppering
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missiles down on the Riyadh airport. They've appealed to Pakistan
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and Turkey recently in a defense pact. They've appealed to
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everyone in the region and outside the region. We have
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the unusual report this morning that the RAF is sending
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aircraft to support Saudi Arabia. All of this extends to
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the mystery of the Straits of Hormuz, of the Bab al-Mandeb,
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and to the ambitions of the Houthis. If declared accurately...
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The Houthis mean to take possession of the holy cities
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as their thousand-year-old guardians disrupted by the Ibn Sa'd family
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in 1925. I could go on with all the connections here.
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It's all in the minds of the people moving around
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in capitals. I give you one fact, however, for you
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to comment on, which is that I'm told in the
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private conversations in Cairo, in Jerusalem, in Beirut, in Damascus,
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in Riyadh, in Tehran, in Ankara, in Moscow, the private conversations.
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They're entertaining the future without the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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That is strikingly a fact right now. It doesn't mean
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it's coming. It means that Saudi Arabia is caught without
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a reliable ally. And I believe that extends to the
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United States. Good day to you, Thaddeus. Hey, John.
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What's going on? Yeah.
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Just a little bit. I feel like I'm playing a
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game of risk, except for every time I roll the die,
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somebody dies. We're looking at a map that doesn't make
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any sense to our childhood. You're in a state that
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is being asked questions about the responsibility of Muslims here
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and there, both in the United States and overseas. Their
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faith under Assault here, if the holy cities are at risk,
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and we're told they are. Mecca and Medina are at
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risk from the war fighting. I don't see it in
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our conversation about our midterms, maybe even our presidential elections,
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but certainly the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become one
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of the institutions that the U.S. relies upon, and relies
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upon in terms of energy, in terms of relationships, in
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terms of the defense of the state of Israel, all that.
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Are we entertaining for it to go away here? I
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can't tell. Is that entertaining? Are those conversations about the kingdom,
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life without the kingdom, are they happening in Washington? Can
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you tell?
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There are always contingency plans for any eventuality, so it
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should be right to have contingency plans in place if
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it's there. If it's not, how to deal with it,
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how to deal with the people threatening it, how to
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deal with the people who are allied with it, so.
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You know, I grew up, I was born in 65,
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so I remember vaguely the OPEC crisis. I remember violence
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in the Middle East is still going on. This is
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nothing new. What you're seeing is the Houthis are probably
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causing problems for Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia is trying
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to see if they can help insource some of their
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national defense. And they're raising the alarm to get people
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invested in it, to scare people, to scare Muslims that
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the holy sites are endangered by the Houthis. et cetera,
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et cetera. So we'll see if the facts on the
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ground merit the alarm and the inflamed headlines.
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Egypt's voting whether to commit combat troops to the region.
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Well, that would make sense, then, that the Saudi Arabian
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government would be issuing these clarion calls to help defend
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the holy cities, to try to influence that vote, to
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get a favorable vote out of them to send troops.
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Al-Shar is entertaining the inducement, the cash inducement for his
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Syria to send former al-Qaeda cutthroats to defend the holy
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cities and attack Yemen. At the same time, Muneer, the
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commander-in-chief of the Pakistani forces, is visiting Tehran in these
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next 24 hours. To what end is unknown. Turkey stands
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back only a step because it has a defense pact
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with Saudi Arabia. I love this game, Thaddeus, but I
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get lost sometimes. And I want to look at it
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from the point of view of the United States, which
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is wonderfully parochial at this moment because of the midterms.
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So I'm going to stop the game of risk that
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plays out. We know just roll the dice and somebody
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eventually is going to take Asia. And we turn to
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the domestic affairs because Thaddeus.
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Turns out to.
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Be domestic risk. You turn out to be in one
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of the states that is a major story for the
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control of the Senate. The contest between someone you know
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very well, you served with him for many years, Mike Rogers,
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for the open Senate seat, and the young man, al-Sayed,
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who is campaigning vigorously and gaining headlines, especially this headline
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I see most recently about challenging to his faith he's
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a Muslim, in an open contest. I think it was
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a town hall. And the question was asked by a professional,
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someone who's worked for Republican candidates in the past. But nonetheless,
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it was asked. And the day after, the day after
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this question, I'm reading that this is similar to something
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that happened to John Kennedy in the 1960 campaign, which is,
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to my mind, something I did not know, even though
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I was there. In other words, I could consume the
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news in 1960. I had no idea about this argument
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about Catholics in the White House. That seems ancient history,
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but here we are with the question about Muslims in
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the Senate, and my reading from outside Michigan is not important.
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Your understanding of how this is playing in Michigan, in
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the Michigan vote, is it influential, this question of that
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challenged the candidate's faith?
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Well, do we know who asked the question? Had they
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been identified?
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I don't have the name, but he was identified as
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someone who has served as a professional staffer for candidates
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in the past, Republican candidates.
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You mean like a consultant type? Because it's incredibly interesting because, Dr. Ebb,
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Abdul Syed has been questioned repeatedly, including on NBC and
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other places, about his family's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
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It's interesting that this comes up now, where he can
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then pretend that his faith is being questioned, whereas it's
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really his association, his family's association with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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It's different than John F. Kennedy as a Catholic, as
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an Irish Catholic myself. I understand those arguments. I read
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about those arguments. So you knew it was a matter
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of time if he continued to be pressed on the
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Muslim Brotherhood connection. or his statements that he did not
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know whether Iran or Israel was a greater threat to
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the United States, that at some point he was going
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to play the they're attacking my Muslim faith card to
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try to insulate himself and protect himself from legitimate questions
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regarding where he came from, who he supports, things like that,
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that any candidate has to be asked and answered. If
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the Republicans did this, it's stupid because they're playing into
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his hands. If it was a setup for some other reason,
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eventually this was going to happen. But it would have
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been better if he had been forced, compelled to do
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so himself. Now, I don't know that this is going
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to be the big issue. The big issue remains pocketbook issues.
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But we've also had an interesting development where our new senator,
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freshman Senator Alyssa Slotkin, has talked about making working for
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the Trump administration radioactive, especially with college kids. Apparently, she's
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not heard of the freedom of association and how government
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should not interfere with people who are freely associated with
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legitimate or legal entities, political entities, such as the Democratic
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or the Republican Party. So she's added fuel to the fire.
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What's very interesting is that with the case of Abdul
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El-Sayed and others, Slotkin, Republicans, the Republican consultant, all of
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these people seem to think that they can make their
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point and there'll be no pushback or reaction from the
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other side or from independent voters, especially in a highly
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competitive election like we're facing. It becomes an issue Where
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if you want to say something extreme like making college
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kids think twice about helping a Republican administration, even though
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they've done nothing wrong, you're going to get pushback from
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the Republican side. And we saw that with Senator Lee
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responding to Senator Slotkin. If you see this Republican, this
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alleged Republican consultant asking a stupid question like this and
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playing into the Democrats' hands, that's going to get Democrats
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excited and want to go vote. They're going to. They're
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going to be more energized. So for every stupid, stupid action,
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there's going to be an equal and opposite reaction, which
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may not be stupid, which may actually be a very
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rational response to something that these people have done. And
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that's kind of where we are in Michigan. We're heading
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into the closing days. It's just going to get crazier.
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I want to begin our comments about the midterm with
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days to go. on the basis not of individuals or
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faith matters, but the price of heating oil. I want
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to begin there, because that unites here in New England
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with you in the Midwest. You might note, Thaddeus and I,
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over the years, I ask him his weather.
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Why?
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Because it will be with me in 13 hours. And
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so we are tied intimately by the winds, the winds
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of change, the high centers and the low centers and
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that Siberian climate expressed coming out of Canada once upon
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a time. So we'll begin with the price of heating
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oil and the midterms of 2023, and then we'll move
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to the specifics of the election from the House and
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the Senate point of view. We're not touts. We're not
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sitting around with a horse race. We're talking about things
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that we know. I already have seen the bill, the
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heating oil bill for September, and that was not a
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cold month here in New England And so I can
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imagine all across New England, all across the Midwest, into
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the plains, everybody's anxious about a wood fire this year.
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Is the chimney clear? Have we got enough wood stacked up?
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What about February? Here we go. Five, four, three, two.
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I'm John Batchelor. I welcome my colleague of many years, decades,
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Thaddeus McCotter, a recovering politician. He writes at American Greatness.
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He is In the great city of Detroit, in the
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great state of Michigan, which experiences the same weather I
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get here in New England, except for they experience it
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13 to 14 hours before, and I'm talking about winter.
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Winter is in the minds of everyone living in the
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northern parts of the country. Because last year, as I recall,
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we had a February with a lot of snow and
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seven degrees below zero before dawn when I was getting
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up with the puppies. I'm expecting the same, if not wetter,
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because of the Super El Nino in the Pacific. What
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is to be done, however, is to prepare the snowblowers
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and the shovels and make plans to deal with the
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mornings when it's just impossible to get up to drive.
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And then there's the price of heating oil. That is,
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I report to you a very good day. Heating oil,
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if I read correctly, two years ago was $ 3. 25 a gallon.
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It's now quoting six to seven a gallon here in
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New England, and we're just beginning to get cooler. We
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will get very much cooler, as you will in the Midwest.
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My reading of this is based upon a very critical
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vote in Maine. That's the item I read this morning.
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A man named Troy Jackson is running for the Senate seat,
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now held by Susan Collins. The price of heating oil
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in Maine is critical because they They will ice up
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very soon, definitely by Thanksgiving. Here in New England, we'll
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be delayed until mid-December before we ice up. Is heating
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oil part of the conversation now in the cafes of Michigan?
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Can we project that it being a quiet part of
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the campaign that must be answered? Good day to you. Hey, John.
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Now, heating oil, home heating oil is largely a Northeastern issue.
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Energy prices obviously are important here in the midterms. We've
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had increases in our energy prices here in Michigan, not
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just merely because of the Iran conflict, but we've had
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them due to some of the policies that were taken
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here by the Democratic administration up in Lansing over the years.
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So it's energy, the cost of everything, including heating one's homes,
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It's going to be an issue, pocketbook issues are going
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to clearly be number one in terms of what's on
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the mind of the voters when they enter the booths
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or they cast their ballots early. So energy prices in general,
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inflation in general, the cost of everything, and the weak
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jobs report did not help. So we're looking at the
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same types of issues people in the Northeast are, even
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though there may be certain aspects of it that are
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a little different, such as home heating oil. Although people
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who rely on home heating oil, to a lesser degree
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in Michigan, obviously are going to be affected by it.
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And your source of energy is oil, electric, nuclear?
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Generally electric, largely electric, shifting. Detroit Edison, consumers, gas. Yeah,
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we're not home heating oil.
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You're natural gas.
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And electricity, coal-generated electricity, natural gas, things like that. We
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made cars, man, so. We needed to power those factories.
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So the price of energy in general is the concern
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in Michigan as it is in the rest of the country?
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Well, it's one of them. It's one of them. The
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Democrats did an amazing job by calling it affordability, which
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then took the whole inflation that they caused with their
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trillion-dollar spending bills and put it right on Trump as
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if it was a brand-new idea. And then Trump played
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into it with the Iran war, which drove the price
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of gas to the roof, which is a manifestation every
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single day the cost of everything going up. It was very, politically,
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it was very, very effective, and we are still, the
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polls continue to show that it's effective even as we speak.
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I want to go to the polls, but not horse
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race polls. Gallup printed a poll this morning, or a
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result this morning, that struck me as unusual, but I
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can't tell. You're the recovering pro here.
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Exactly.
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In 2025, I believe that it goes, the Republicans and
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Democrats were roughly equal at 27% and the independents were
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everything else. Now the independents dominate the map. 45% of
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the voters identify as independent. I believe 25% Republican, 30% Democrat.
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What is the significance of this rising independence.
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Vote?
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Is it long-lasting? Is it fresh? Is it something you've
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seen before?
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Well, there are two ways to look at it. One
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is the immediate political aspect of it and people who
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are unhappy with the president who consider themselves Republicans. We've
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seen some of them changing over the years. You've also
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seen an exodus and it's going to increase with the
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DSA influence in the Democratic Party where people are going
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to say, well, I don't like the DSA, so I'm
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going to go independent. They may continue to vote Democratic,
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but they'll vote for different Democrats as independents. You'll see
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that with Republicans where I'm a Republican, but I'm not MAGA.
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Some of those people have left the party. They may
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continue to vote for certain Republicans, but That doesn't mean
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that they're going to start voting Democratic. When you look
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at it, then you can start to see some of
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the immediate reasons why people are becoming more and more independent.
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I think there are larger cultural issues where I come from, again,
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from the Detroit area where people used to be able
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to leave high school, get a job and work there
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for 30, 40 years, retire with a pension that no
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longer happens. The question of loyalty and the intermediating institutions.
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Separating the individual from government are increasingly getting smaller. Those
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opportunities are becoming more scarce. And so the loyalty to
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any type of organization is being diminished over time. The
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rise of social media actually helps to lead to more
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connections and virtual connections, but they're not really connecting you
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to anything other than an actual flesh and blood political party.
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If you look at it as I grew up and
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as I worked within the Republican Party, the opportunities to participate,
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the opportunities to volunteer are becoming less and less. The
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local organizations are smaller and smaller. It's maybe one of
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the reasons why the DSA, with their person-to-person organization, has
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actually proven very, very effective. It's because it's actually giving
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a flesh-and-blood sense of community to some of the kids,
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especially in the urban areas where they may not have that.
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So I think over time, you're going to continue to
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see the parties, people, the support of the parties continue
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to stay, to continue to erode, erode either more rapidly
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or less rapidly, depending on who's in power and whether
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they have an immediate appeal to people that want to join.
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But that's, unless you actually can invest your time and
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energy and a person-to-person contact within the party and feel
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that you're making a difference, eventually you're, you're, Your affinity
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for that party will erode over time, and that's what
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we're seeing. And I think that when the personalities come
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into play, it can either slow it or it can
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accelerate it, but it continues nonetheless.
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I want to speak to the local election here for
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state senate and state assembly, where they hand out oversized postcards,
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they look like. They're not pamphlets, they're not quite calendars,
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but they're somewhere in between. with printed matter on both
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sides addressed to the resident. Invariably, the local candidate for
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the Assembly, and there are lawn signs everywhere, does not
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say Democrat or Republican. And the candidate for the state
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Senate here in Connecticut does not say Republican or Democrat.
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No party affiliation at all. I'm not even sure that
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they ever had one. I could guess on the basis
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of the haircuts and the smiles. Which way they might
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be looking, but I can't tell. Is that a phenomenon
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that's fresh, that you don't use the party even for
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local elections? Does that happen in Michigan?
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That's been happening for decades, Sean. People have been doing
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that for decades, and it will depend on how the
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party is perceived. One of the things in defense of
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both the Democratic and the Republican parties is we've seen–
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hundreds of years of reforms, doing everything they can to
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diminish the role of the parties within the selection of nominees,
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within the election of candidates. But I want you to
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remember who will wind up deciding who your nominees are,
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who will be creating your nominees, who will be grooming
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your nominees, and putting them in front of you. If
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the parties do not play a significant role in that,
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it's just going to be the people with a whole
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lot of money. People with a whole lot of money
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are going to decide who you get to vote on.
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You can use a jungle primary. You can use an
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open primary. You can do whatever you want. I'll bet
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you sooner or later they're just going to want to
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do away with primaries and the political parties altogether so
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that the rich people can decide who are going to
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be your candidates and who you're going to be governed
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by because that's who will run it if you do
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not have the opportunity for grassroots, normal people to enter
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into political parties and participate in that manner. Otherwise, again,
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it's just you're just going to be awash in money
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and your voice will be drowned out.
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The Democratic Party and the Republican Party have an opportunity
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to organize at the state assembly and state senate level
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and do not are outspent and are a fear affiliation.
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Why is it that they hold back? There's certainly the
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apparatus here in rural America for someone to be the
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head of the Democratic Party of Connecticut.
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Why?
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Could not he or she impress upon candidates the Democratic
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Party stands for something? Use it.
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Well, because the money. You have all the moneyed interests.
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And if you look at places like Michigan, we have
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ballot proposals. You look at Washington. Every time they try
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to get out of the quote-unquote smoke-filled rooms, what you
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wind up is a set of political people who come
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from all walks of life playing and participating in conventions
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and participating in local county conventions, things like that. What
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you wind up is a smoke-filled apartment. There'll be no
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smoke in these ritzy, ritzy rooms where all the rich
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people of 1% make these decisions for you. And that's
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what will happen. We're seeing that now. Now, you ask
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yourself about your original question, why would you? If you're
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running for, let's say you're running for something in Rhode Island,
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you're running for dog catcher in Rhode Island.
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A deeply blue state.
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Would you put I'm a Republican running for dog catcher
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on your literature?
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No, I would presume that you would not. But if
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you were a Democrat, you would. You would say.
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Yes, you would. And they do. And they do. So
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it just depends where you are and what the district
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is and whether you want to tell the voters, look,
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they're going to know one way or the other. If
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you run in a partisan election, they're going to figure
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it out. People are smart. If you're not the Republican,
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you must be the Democrat.
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You came up through the Michigan State Party.
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Well, I came up through the local. I was a
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precinct delegate. That's how I started. That's the lowest rung
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on the ball.
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Did you experience the guidance not to list that you
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were a Republican on your literature?
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Certainly not. No, because these were neighbors. These were just
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normal people who lived in Livonia and they just, it
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was their avocation and they would hang out and we
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would run the headquarters. It was, it was, no, you
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were a Republican. That's what you did. That's why you
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were there. Because it was, it was about the, it
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was about the overarching principles the Republican Party were trying
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to promote. And that's what united you and that's what
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got you forward. So you were proud of that and
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you wanted to put that on your literature, as the
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Democrats were as well.
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And that is lifted? That has gone away, that identity?
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Nothing's changed. Individual candidates will make their own decisions as
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to whether they do that. It's becoming increasingly different. common
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for people to do that, not merely because they're worried
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about being identified as a Republican or Democrat. They just
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don't want the baggage of either party. So if you're
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looking for independent voters, a reason that people are becoming
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more independent is because they can't stand either party and
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they can't stand the public faces on either party. So
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there's like a pox on both your houses. So if
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you're identifying as a strong Democrat and they will say
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to themselves, oh, no, They might be as crazy as AOC. No, thanks.
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If I'm an independent voter or if they see a Republican,
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I'm a Republican. Oh, no, that's as crazy as Meg
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and Donald Trump. I don't want that either. So if
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you look at it and people get fooled sometimes. Remember,
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we talked about prior to this conversation, Senator Slotkin talking
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about making it.
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Oh, let's do that again. Hold on. Hold on. We'll
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touch that issue because it's a lead editorial in The
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Wall Street Journal this morning. Thaddeus McCotter of American Greatness.
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I'm John Batchelor. I'm John Batchelor with my colleague of
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many decades, Thaddeus McCotter of the great state of Michigan,
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and the senator from Michigan, not the contest for the
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open seat, but Senator Slotkin, gains the attention of the
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Wall Street Journal editorial page. Slotkin promises endless lawfare, goes
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the headline.
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Ms.
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Slotkin warns young people that working for Trump could harm
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their careers. And here is an example of don't do
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it warning by the deeply blue senator from Michigan, warning
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Republicans not to identify what their families are. Does that
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make sense, Thaddeus? We have a couple of minutes.
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Look, Senator Slotkin is a reason people become independent, because
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they get tired and disgusted with the way that people
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have handled the other party. their relations with each other.
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So Senator Slotkin came in. She won a highly competitive seat.
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She said that she was pragmatic. She said that she
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was going to put country ahead of party. And the
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minute that she got, she beat Mike Rogers by 14,000
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votes at a time when Donald Trump won the state
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by about 100,000 votes.
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This is in 24.
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Yeah, in 24. So then so she's only been there
476
00:29:34.849 --> 00:29:37.309
less than two years. So what happens is now that
477
00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:39.890
she's been elected, all of a sudden the I'm a
478
00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:43.740
pragmatic problem solver gets that mask gets ripped off. And
479
00:29:43.779 --> 00:29:46.299
now you're down to the deep blue former CIA agent
480
00:29:46.420 --> 00:29:49.809
warning people that if you work for the administration that
481
00:29:49.849 --> 00:29:54.799
your state voted to put into office, that your career
482
00:29:54.859 --> 00:29:56.900
could be damaged and that she will do everything she
483
00:29:56.920 --> 00:29:59.460
can to make sure that you do not afford yourself
484
00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:01.859
the opportunity to participate in the civic life of your
485
00:30:01.900 --> 00:30:05.500
country with the Republican administration. And believe me, over time,
486
00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:08.380
it will become all Republican administrations because that's how the
487
00:30:08.420 --> 00:30:12.730
Democrats talk about Republicans. So what she did was she
488
00:30:12.769 --> 00:30:15.410
appealed to independence. And the minute that she got in,
489
00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:17.730
she decided that she's going to be a rabid partisan
490
00:30:17.890 --> 00:30:22.230
and violate the old freedom of association constitutional clause in
491
00:30:22.250 --> 00:30:25.549
the First Amendment. Yeah, it's great work. Less than two
492
00:30:25.589 --> 00:30:28.069
years didn't take her even two years to rip that
493
00:30:28.109 --> 00:30:28.549
mask off.
494
00:30:28.750 --> 00:30:31.809
And the audience for her, because you clearly are.
495
00:30:32.809 --> 00:30:36.069
The audience for her is really the DSA types, because
496
00:30:36.130 --> 00:30:38.380
when you got elected as a moderate, she saw what
497
00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:40.880
happened to Haley Stevens, who just ran as a moderate,
498
00:30:40.900 --> 00:30:44.660
who lost to Abdul El-Sayed. So what she's clearly doing
499
00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.940
is trying to insulate herself on the right. She's also
500
00:30:48.069 --> 00:30:50.950
sending the message to Democratic voters that if you send
501
00:30:51.029 --> 00:30:53.710
Abdul El-Sayed here, he'll help me do this very thing
502
00:30:54.170 --> 00:30:56.410
without him having to say it. Well, he pretends to
503
00:30:56.450 --> 00:30:59.710
run as a moderate after running to the hard left
504
00:30:59.829 --> 00:31:03.390
to win the primary. So it's it's a multi it's
505
00:31:03.430 --> 00:31:07.210
a multifaceted duplicity that we're seeing at work here. Senator
506
00:31:07.230 --> 00:31:10.130
Slotkin and her Michigan Democratic friends, again, in a state
507
00:31:10.150 --> 00:31:12.779
that Donald Trump won in 2024.
508
00:31:12.779 --> 00:31:15.720
Mike Rogers, say, is it is he countering it? We
509
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:16.519
have 30 seconds.
510
00:31:17.750 --> 00:31:19.869
Well, I think Mike Rogers, I think Ray Sips will
511
00:31:19.890 --> 00:31:22.410
look with her. The thing speaks for itself. The senator
512
00:31:22.450 --> 00:31:25.690
speaks for herself. And her statements are in the Wall
513
00:31:25.710 --> 00:31:27.670
Street Journal. I think Mike Rogers has to keep his
514
00:31:27.730 --> 00:31:29.410
eye on the ball and not be distracted by her.
515
00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:32.859
Everybody knows what will happen if Dr. Abdul El-Sayed gets here.
516
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:36.380
He'll be two people that will be trying to vitiate
517
00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:38.980
our constitutional right to the freedom of association.
518
00:31:39.720 --> 00:31:43.740
Thaddeus McCarter, writing at American Greatness, recovering politician from the
519
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:47.579
great state of Michigan. a podcast of our conversation about
520
00:31:47.619 --> 00:31:51.940
the upcoming midterms available at Amazon, at Apple, at Spotify,
521
00:31:51.980 --> 00:31:58.839
at Spreaker, and other distinguished venues. I'm John Batchelor. Wow,
522
00:31:59.019 --> 00:32:02.220
suck and made that number. You know, number one, I
523
00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:05.039
didn't even open it up until we started talking. The
524
00:32:05.079 --> 00:32:10.519
Northeast Climate Revolt. Anti-fossil fuel policies that raise utility bills
525
00:32:10.579 --> 00:32:15.240
have Democrats in the region playing defense this election year. Well,
526
00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:17.859
Of course, it's going to be the Democrats playing defense
527
00:32:17.880 --> 00:32:20.750
because there are no Republicans. I think the New England
528
00:32:21.589 --> 00:32:24.089
is all blue except for Susan Collins.
529
00:32:24.210 --> 00:32:29.910
That's it. Yes, the Democrats hate gerrymandering unless it's Massachusetts
530
00:32:30.170 --> 00:32:31.079
and things like that.
531
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:37.160
Well, every district from New York's border until Canada's border
532
00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:38.019
is blue.
533
00:32:38.599 --> 00:32:43.779
They hate gerrymandering unless it's yours to their benefit. Political
534
00:32:43.819 --> 00:32:45.160
people will be political people.
535
00:32:45.180 --> 00:32:47.140
There might be an exception in Maine, but I don't
536
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:53.160
think so. Susan Collins votes pretty much as a Democratic associated.
537
00:32:53.539 --> 00:32:56.940
Senator Collins votes like somebody who's a Republican from Maine.
538
00:32:59.150 --> 00:33:04.250
That's what people have to understand. One of the reasons
539
00:33:04.269 --> 00:33:09.650
that people become independent, because Americans are very practical people,
540
00:33:10.670 --> 00:33:14.329
is that The Constitution, one of the geniuses of the
541
00:33:14.369 --> 00:33:17.460
founding was you get elected by district, a community of interest.
542
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:20.960
You get elected by state, a community of interest. When
543
00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:24.220
you start putting ideology ahead of your community of interest
544
00:33:24.940 --> 00:33:28.099
and start transgressing the trust the voters place in you
545
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:29.900
that you will work for them as opposed to work
546
00:33:29.940 --> 00:33:32.960
for the party, they get disaffected. They get alienated and
547
00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:35.740
they say a pox on both your houses. I'm an independent.
548
00:33:36.349 --> 00:33:37.930
Come prove to me you're going to work for me.
549
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:42.390
So when you forget the fact that Susan Collins is
550
00:33:42.509 --> 00:33:46.410
someone from Maine that shares and has grown up in Maine,
551
00:33:46.450 --> 00:33:49.690
that has the affiliation and the attitudes of somebody from Maine,
552
00:33:50.109 --> 00:33:52.529
whether she's Republican or Democrat, there are certain things that
553
00:33:52.589 --> 00:33:55.130
she will do being a Republican from Maine, just as
554
00:33:55.190 --> 00:33:57.490
a Democrat from Maine would do certain things different than
555
00:33:57.509 --> 00:34:01.690
perhaps a Democrat from California. So when you start to
556
00:34:01.730 --> 00:34:04.410
blur the lines and you start to erase the lines
557
00:34:04.529 --> 00:34:06.450
where there is a community of interest for a state
558
00:34:06.470 --> 00:34:08.900
or a community of interest for a district, What you
559
00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:11.480
wind up is you have people really starting to disengage
560
00:34:11.500 --> 00:34:14.619
from the process, feeling betrayed and then alienated and they
561
00:34:14.769 --> 00:34:19.170
just become independents. And sooner or later, if this continues,
562
00:34:19.210 --> 00:34:21.730
they stop voting altogether and we continue to see the
563
00:34:21.789 --> 00:34:23.829
diminishing turnouts in a lot of these elections.
564
00:34:24.829 --> 00:34:30.889
Well, as a Republican voter, my limited life, I have
565
00:34:30.929 --> 00:34:32.710
no one to vote for here in Connecticut.
566
00:34:33.010 --> 00:34:37.760
There's, there's, it, You have people to vote for, you
567
00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:38.710
just don't think they're going to win.
568
00:34:39.219 --> 00:34:42.179
Well, they're not even listed as Republicans.
569
00:34:43.389 --> 00:34:44.630
They are on the ballot, aren't they?
570
00:34:46.650 --> 00:34:49.590
I'm not sure. I'm absolutely not sure.
571
00:34:49.610 --> 00:34:52.469
When you vote your ballot, take a look and see
572
00:34:52.610 --> 00:34:55.289
if they have their party designation.
573
00:34:56.880 --> 00:35:00.519
It might be true. I've often looked for the column
574
00:35:00.579 --> 00:35:04.559
that's Republican. My grandfather said, vote straight Republican. You don't
575
00:35:04.599 --> 00:35:05.280
have to remember.
576
00:35:06.409 --> 00:35:09.730
Some states don't have that. Some states, they try to
577
00:35:09.769 --> 00:35:12.230
get rid of the straight party voting. I think in Michigan,
578
00:35:12.250 --> 00:35:14.010
we try to get rid of straight party voting because
579
00:35:14.090 --> 00:35:17.590
it was considered to help the Democrats. And in California,
580
00:35:17.610 --> 00:35:21.539
they like straight party voting because they believe it helps them. So,
581
00:35:22.059 --> 00:35:26.500
you know, there's certain partisan games both sides play. Straight
582
00:35:26.519 --> 00:35:27.260
party voting.
583
00:35:27.059 --> 00:35:27.460
Is one of them.
584
00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:30.780
But I think that on the Michigan ballot, we still
585
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.320
have straight party voting. They still list the nominee of
586
00:35:34.449 --> 00:35:39.539
the 10th National Taxpayers Party, nominee of the Democratic Party,
587
00:35:39.579 --> 00:35:43.320
things like that. They don't do it for our nonpartisan section.
588
00:35:45.219 --> 00:35:47.599
Well, I can speak to the Republican Party here in
589
00:35:47.659 --> 00:35:51.260
rural Connecticut, and it doesn't exist to my understanding. It
590
00:35:51.320 --> 00:35:53.880
doesn't come to the door. It doesn't email me anything.
591
00:35:54.550 --> 00:35:59.070
I get emails from the National Party, the MAGA people,
592
00:35:59.949 --> 00:36:01.329
but I don't get local emails.
593
00:36:01.730 --> 00:36:03.989
Well, that's another interesting thing that I would have liked
594
00:36:04.010 --> 00:36:10.809
to see in the Gallup poll. was they talked about Democrats,
595
00:36:10.849 --> 00:36:14.110
they talked about Republicans, but did they talk about DSA,
596
00:36:14.130 --> 00:36:18.130
that people identify as DSA, not Democrat now, or they
597
00:36:18.190 --> 00:36:22.329
identify as both, or with the MAGA instance, a lot
598
00:36:22.349 --> 00:36:25.250
of people would identify with MAGA, but not as Republicans.
599
00:36:26.010 --> 00:36:27.750
So I wonder if that was part of it or not,
600
00:36:27.789 --> 00:36:32.170
because to a certain extent, MAGA, just like the DSA, Lowe's,
601
00:36:32.630 --> 00:36:35.440
the DSA does not like the Democratic Party. Certainly not
602
00:36:35.460 --> 00:36:38.440
the Democratic establishment. It's just a vehicle that they're taking over,
603
00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:40.300
just like MAGA did the same to the Republicans.
604
00:36:40.539 --> 00:36:43.820
Yes, the DSA regards the Democrats as sellouts, I think.
605
00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:49.639
So I wonder if the diminishment of... You would think
606
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:53.150
that the diminishment of Republicans, you could understand that. But
607
00:36:53.230 --> 00:36:55.710
how many of those are people who identify as MAGA,
608
00:36:56.050 --> 00:36:59.010
now not Republican? And for the DSA, you would think
609
00:36:59.050 --> 00:37:02.690
that 30% of Democrat number would go higher because the
610
00:37:02.730 --> 00:37:07.750
DSA is... is now infiltrating the Democratic Party, you would
611
00:37:07.769 --> 00:37:09.889
think that all those younger people and all those new
612
00:37:09.949 --> 00:37:14.730
voters would identify as Democrats. So unless you start, unless
613
00:37:14.750 --> 00:37:18.119
you break it down one more level to here are
614
00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:22.059
the MAGA, here's the right wing that identify as MAGA,
615
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.420
here's the right wing that identify as Republican, here is
616
00:37:25.539 --> 00:37:28.219
the left wing that identifies as DSA, here's the left
617
00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:30.800
wing that identifies as Democrats, that kind of polling is
618
00:37:30.820 --> 00:37:34.230
really kind of useless at this juncture. It doesn't really
619
00:37:34.309 --> 00:37:34.670
mean anything.
620
00:37:36.489 --> 00:37:40.309
I get emails from an organization called Turning Point.
621
00:37:40.590 --> 00:37:43.289
I believe that's... I think that's Charlie Kirk. Right. The
622
00:37:43.329 --> 00:37:43.929
late Charlie Kirk.
623
00:37:44.070 --> 00:37:45.969
And I don't know whether that's MAGA or not.
624
00:37:46.489 --> 00:37:48.380
That's MAGA. Okay. Yeah, that's MAGA.
625
00:37:48.500 --> 00:37:50.940
It doesn't identify itself even as party.
626
00:37:51.340 --> 00:37:56.239
Well, it can't. I think it's a 501c3, 501c4, something
627
00:37:56.280 --> 00:37:56.679
like that.
628
00:37:57.579 --> 00:38:00.489
And then I get emails from what appears to be MAGA,
629
00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:04.309
but they have different names, different packs. And.
630
00:38:04.329 --> 00:38:05.050
Oh, yeah.
631
00:38:05.070 --> 00:38:05.170
Yeah.
632
00:38:05.550 --> 00:38:07.820
Remember, I talked about how the money people will just
633
00:38:08.119 --> 00:38:11.840
influence everything. So that's one of the dark money things.
634
00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:14.300
So even if you get things, you may not even
635
00:38:14.340 --> 00:38:16.099
know who they are. One of the things the Democrats
636
00:38:16.139 --> 00:38:18.239
did that was very interesting is they started to put
637
00:38:18.340 --> 00:38:21.800
out ads to appeal to MAGA voters, especially in primaries,
638
00:38:21.860 --> 00:38:26.139
to beat people by claiming that individual Republicans were not
639
00:38:26.199 --> 00:38:29.480
MAGA enough because they didn't want them becoming the nominee.
640
00:38:29.639 --> 00:38:32.000
It was very, very deceitful and very effective.
641
00:38:33.099 --> 00:38:36.800
Do you get emails from the MAGA people in Washington?
642
00:38:37.639 --> 00:38:41.519
I get a lot of political stuff. I get texts.
643
00:38:41.679 --> 00:38:44.719
I get basically a lot of the things that I'm
644
00:38:44.739 --> 00:38:48.530
getting now are, hey, we're conducting a poll, that kind
645
00:38:48.570 --> 00:38:51.989
of thing. I get polled a lot. There's this thing
646
00:38:52.070 --> 00:38:56.429
I've discovered, and it's really, really cool. It's called a
647
00:38:56.489 --> 00:38:59.889
delete button. I just delete all this garbage.
648
00:39:00.210 --> 00:39:02.949
Right, and you're allowed to say spam too. I always
649
00:39:02.989 --> 00:39:05.980
think if you say delete and this is spam, it
650
00:39:06.019 --> 00:39:07.420
won't come back, but it comes back.
651
00:39:08.139 --> 00:39:12.019
This is why the only radio show that I listen to,
652
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:16.920
the only podcast that deals with politics, is this one. Otherwise,
653
00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:19.719
I'm just listening to sports radio because I have less
654
00:39:19.780 --> 00:39:22.489
chance of encountering political stuff.
655
00:39:23.289 --> 00:39:27.030
Oh yes, I'm told that the advertising is overwhelming sports radio.
656
00:39:27.869 --> 00:39:32.380
It's horrible. I feel like my sanctuary has been violated.
657
00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:35.900
And that was the other day someone who loves football
658
00:39:35.940 --> 00:39:39.730
games to relax was telling me how he can't go.
659
00:39:39.789 --> 00:39:42.949
Can't do it. He can't find a place as a
660
00:39:43.090 --> 00:39:44.329
refuge because.
661
00:39:44.050 --> 00:39:49.489
Of the advertising. Oh, I have found one, John. I
662
00:39:49.530 --> 00:39:54.409
have just finished two books about Bismarck. I'm now moving
663
00:39:54.469 --> 00:39:57.869
into The Guns of August and then the post-World War
664
00:39:58.289 --> 00:40:01.230
I resettlement. And then I'm moving on to Conrad Adenau.
665
00:40:01.650 --> 00:40:03.679
Now, that's not football, Thaddeus.
666
00:40:03.719 --> 00:40:08.000
That's reading. It's the ancient art of reading.
667
00:40:08.260 --> 00:40:11.219
No, no. This was a remark about finding a refuge
668
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:14.219
in a football game and it having been taken away,
669
00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:18.900
I think even. And it was despair. As in, why
670
00:40:18.920 --> 00:40:19.679
are they doing this?
671
00:40:20.039 --> 00:40:24.340
Why are they doing this to me? Why are they doing.
672
00:40:24.139 --> 00:40:30.469
This to me? But I listen to Audible now. That's
673
00:40:30.510 --> 00:40:31.869
a refuge too, that is.
674
00:40:32.429 --> 00:40:36.750
In my defense, when I was running, only in my
675
00:40:36.829 --> 00:40:40.070
first run for Congress in 2002 did I ever run
676
00:40:40.190 --> 00:40:44.170
TV ads. The last four times I did not run
677
00:40:44.289 --> 00:40:48.280
any TV ads and rarely radio ads. Generally, it was
678
00:40:48.360 --> 00:40:53.139
just mail. So I was not violating the sanctuary of
679
00:40:53.219 --> 00:40:55.219
football in October.
680
00:40:56.239 --> 00:41:00.449
Is the advertising on football games on TV worse than
681
00:41:00.530 --> 00:41:01.010
on radio?
682
00:41:03.250 --> 00:41:04.150
It's all bad.
683
00:41:04.889 --> 00:41:05.210
I see.
684
00:41:08.909 --> 00:41:13.449
It's just incessant. The onslaught of advertising.
685
00:41:13.650 --> 00:41:16.190
Is it repetitive? In other words, are they showing this?
686
00:41:16.210 --> 00:41:18.719
Well, they try to drive a message. There are certain themes,
687
00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:21.530
and they try to drive them. And if they think
688
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:24.480
it's working, they'll keep running them. If not, they'll run
689
00:41:24.519 --> 00:41:27.360
different ads. And you also have the outside dark money.
690
00:41:27.400 --> 00:41:31.159
You don't even know who's messaging for who anymore. So,
691
00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:34.900
you know, people for X, Y, and Z. And then
692
00:41:34.920 --> 00:41:36.960
there's people for A, B, and C, or the people
693
00:41:36.980 --> 00:41:39.820
for L and M. And you don't know who the
694
00:41:39.860 --> 00:41:42.559
money is behind it. They don't have to identify themselves,
695
00:41:43.159 --> 00:41:46.940
which makes it even nastier. when they get up on the.
696
00:41:48.519 --> 00:41:53.010
Air. And you're seeing the polling questions that are dominating
697
00:41:53.030 --> 00:41:53.829
the conversation.
698
00:41:53.889 --> 00:41:56.809
Well, I'm not seeing any of that. The minute I
699
00:41:56.869 --> 00:41:58.710
see it in my text stream, I get mad that
700
00:41:58.889 --> 00:42:01.780
it didn't get blocked as spam, and I delete it.
701
00:42:01.789 --> 00:42:05.780
It says, hello, we're doing click, delete, bye-bye. Right.
702
00:42:06.840 --> 00:42:13.679
Good advice. That is Mikado spamming. What is it called
703
00:42:13.719 --> 00:42:18.119
when you tell me? Is it called spamming them? No,
704
00:42:18.139 --> 00:42:19.639
they're spamming us. That's right.
705
00:42:20.590 --> 00:42:21.590
Who's spamming who?
706
00:42:21.909 --> 00:42:22.170
Yeah.
707
00:42:22.190 --> 00:42:24.690
Kind of like that Aretha Franklin song.
708
00:42:25.530 --> 00:42:28.349
If there's anybody in charge who's listening to us in Washington.
709
00:42:28.929 --> 00:42:29.289
Stop.
710
00:42:29.650 --> 00:42:31.159
It doesn't help your candidate.
711
00:42:31.659 --> 00:42:32.739
Stop.
712
00:42:33.559 --> 00:42:34.400
Why are you doing this?
713
00:42:37.059 --> 00:42:37.420
Stop.
714
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:39.199
Yes.
715
00:42:39.300 --> 00:42:40.039
Stop. Stop.
716
00:42:41.400 --> 00:42:44.829
Well, just a little advice. Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness of
717
00:42:44.849 --> 00:42:49.389
the Great State of Michigan. And this is a sunny
718
00:42:50.349 --> 00:42:54.449
and then mild and then wintry New England. And I'm
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John Batchelor. I'll see you all in 23 hours. Thaddeus,
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we have an appointment in Berlin in a few minutes.
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I'll be back to you on this. You might have
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heard that there's some trouble in Europe. Good heavens. Oh, yeah.
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They're burning French cities.
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No, it's a mild scuffle was my understanding from reading
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the papers.
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I was told by a young French woman I know
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that the French protest differently. They mean to kill people
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when they protest.
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00:43:26.869 --> 00:43:29.710
How'd 1789 go? That didn't go too well. Have they
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started to move the guillotines out there yet?
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They do seem to put their shoulder into it, but
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it's also, Italy has a problem now, and I see
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it spreading. So we'll be back to Berlin in a
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few minutes' time. Thank you. This is Friends of History. No,
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00:43:46.300 --> 00:43:48.480
this is the making of the John Baxter Show, all
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done for the day. Thank you all for listening. We'll
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00:43:50.480 --> 00:43:53.739
see you in 23 hours. And the Roman Orchestra, please.
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Thank you.