Beyond Politics

Congressman John Yarmuth has served as Chairman of the House Budget Committee since 2019, and was one of the key architects of the $1.9  American Rescue Plan that is lifting 5 million American children out of poverty, saving millions from losing their homes, and saving lives every day by getting people vaccines. He's also the hidden force behind trying to wrangle Democrats together on Build Back Better.  In this fascinating interview before his retirement from Congress next year, Chairman Yarmuth shares what it was like trying to herd cats between moderates and progressives in the negotiations over the Build Back Better bill, what Mitch McConnell is really like, and what the unseen physical demands of being a member of Congress are. 

Do Democrats actually have a chance to hold on to their majorities in the US House and Senate in the midterm elections in 2022? History is not on their side. Since 1946, the average number of seats in the US House of Representative lost by the president's party in the midterm elections is 46. Projections by our recent guest David Shor show that in 2022, if Senate Democrats somehow manage to beat Republicans by a stunning four percentage points they’d only have about a 50-50 chance of holding onto the majority. If they win only 51 percent of the vote, they’ll likely lose a seat — and the Senate.

But our guest today says the Democrats can give themselves a fighting chance by employing the right strategy and focusing on the right places. Colleen Loper is the Senior Director of Political Strategy at Way to Win, an organization founded after the 2016 election to channel more funding from Democratic donors into organizations and campaigns that focus on voters of color.  They’ve raised $165 million to do just that, and they recently posted an in-depth study called How 2020 Shapes 2022. Colleen breaks down where the best opportunities for Democrats lie, and also shares insights from her time as a Texas-based strategist on whether Democrats can finally win a major race in the Lone Star State.

In recent weeks, there's been one person driving the discussion in Democratic circles: David Shor.  Big profiles in the New York Times and Politico have further elevated this rising political star, along with his stark warning that if Democrats think they're sitting pretty for the coming years having beaten back the forces of Trump in 2020, they're deluding themselves.  Three months ago, we interviewed David on this show, and today, we bring you a re-release of that terrific episode, in which David explained his argument, his evidence, and his interpretation of what we're seeing around us. 

The discussion included this summary from David of his outlook: "We actually aren't winning the war of ideas as much as we think...and the Republican Party is more popular relative to the Democratic Party than people think.  The Democratic Party brand and agenda has shifted a lot in the last four to five years, and it's gone  in a direction that a lot of voters aren't comfortable with.  People can easily overestimate how much support there is for the Democratic Party."

Check out the whole show for more from this fascinating interview.  Shor is a data scientist who consults with progressive groups around the country and is one of the most trusted and  widely respected voices on what’s actually happening with the American electorate. He's the Head of Data Science at OpenLabs R&D, and previously was the director of Political Data Science at Civis Analytics, overseeing a research and development program that  interviewed millions of people for hundreds of individual campaigns and electoral organizations.

One year ago today, political scientist EJ Fagan published an article called "End the Algorithm" on Tech Policy Press in which he identified the basic problem with Facebook: that it is powered by machine learning algorithms which favor outrageous, inflammatory, and degrading content.  Now, new revelations from Facebook product manager-turned-whistle-blower Frances Haugen have rocked the company, drawn the attention of the world, and completely confirmed everything that Professor Fagan wrote. The algorithm --  which feeds Facebook's basic business model built around maximizing engagement from users -- is a one-way ticket to warping our brains and shaking the foundations of democracy. Dr. Fagan joins us to discuss what we have learned, how deep the problem goes, and whether anything can be done to fix it. 

Is something fundamentally wrong with American journalism? On the right, we know that there’s all of the “fake news” propaganda: Fox, the New York Post, and right-wing radio. But on the left, a growing number of experts believe that something has also gone badly off track. Our guest today says that what’s happened is that mainstream news is not liberal anymore; it’s woke: propagating radical ideas that were fringe as recently as a decade ago. So is this actually real? And how big a problem is it?

BATYA UNGAR-SARGON is the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek. Before that, she was the opinion editor of the Forward, the largest Jewish media outlet in America. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, the New York Review of Books Daily, and other publications. She has appeared numerous times on MSNBC, NBC, the Brian Lehrer Show, NPR, and at other media outlets. She holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Her new book is Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy.

Author Magdi Semrau recently wrote an article for The Editorial Board arguing that the media is badly misleading the public on Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, and explaining some of the massive political consequences that we could see.  And the Democrats have not only let it happen, they've actively seeded their own problems.  Magdi joins the show to walk us through a major media distortion happening right before our eyes, and what Democrats can do to salvage the situation.

Every four years, political analysts obsess about the Virginia governor's race, the first and usually closest big election after we elect a President.  This year, the race is balanced on a knife's edge. Operatives around the country will be poring over data in the coming weeks to understand what is happening, what's working, what's not working, and where the 2022 midterms could be headed.  One of the very top experts on the state is Mark Bergman, a political consultant who has worked around the country but has his deepest roots in Virginia.  He explains how the pros are watching the race, what it could turn on, how to judge which way it's going in the next month, and why the results are such a good barometer for politics in America. We also cover why Ralph Northam survived the photo scandal, how to navigate a media firestorm, and why things have gotten so much harder for campaigns in the last ten years. 

All paths have led to this day. The Biden agenda. Infrastructure.  Child Care. Health Care. Funding for our entire government. Our entire country's credit.  The biggest issues have all converged in Congress today, and everything is hanging by a thread.  Our Senate insider, former Chuck Schumer right-hand man on policy and legislation Ryan McConaghy, walks us through the standoff...what are people thinking, what are people doing, and where all of this could be going. 

Shenna Bellows is Secretary of State of the State of Maine, the very first woman to hold that position, and she joins us on Beyond Politics during a crisis of American democracy.  Two-thirds of Republican voters say in surveys but they don't believe the 2020 election was legitimate. We have seen 350+ bills introduced in legislatures around the country over the past year that in one way or another restrict access to voting. And new Pew Research Center survey finds that a depressingly low number of Americans, only 57%, say voting is “a fundamental right for every adult U.S. citizen and should not be restricted in any way.” 42% now say that “voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited if adult U.S. citizens don’t meet some requirements.” 

It’s not going too far to say that in 2020, Secretaries of State like Republican Brad Raffensberger of Georgia were part of the very thin line of courage and integrity that saved American democracy. So we ask Secretary of State Bellows about her efforts to protect the right to vote, how Maine's groundbreaking ranked-choice voting system works, and what we can do to get people to reaffirm their faith in our basic system of government.

Cliff Schecter just hosted Donald Trump's niece and clinical psychologist Mary Trump on the Unpresidented Podcast to talk about the roots of his psychopathology.  Cliff joins Matt to discuss the biggest takeaways from that interview, and how they relate to recent revelations about the Trump plot to overthrow our democratic system and stay in power.