WEBVTT - Radicalism on the Ballot

0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>We're listening to Boomberg Opinion. I'm Vonnie Quinn. Well, the

0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.959
<v Speaker 1>midterms are finally upon us. I spoke with Bloomberg Opinions

0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.480
<v Speaker 1>Jonathan Bernstein to get the state of play just a

0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.760
<v Speaker 1>few days out. Jonathan, let's start with the Senates. Obviously,

0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.599
<v Speaker 1>polls changing by the day, by the hour, but it

0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:20.560
<v Speaker 1>looks a lot closer than it did just a couple

0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.080
<v Speaker 1>of weeks ago. Well, it's look close the whole time.

0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.759
<v Speaker 1>It was sort of close with a little tilt of

0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.880
<v Speaker 1>the Democrats six weeks ago. Six weeks before that, it

0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.479
<v Speaker 1>was close with little tilts of the Republicans. Now it

0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.480
<v Speaker 1>looks like we just don't know. And it's seat by seat.

0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.360
<v Speaker 1>There's several seats that could go either way, and so

0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.800
<v Speaker 1>we can't even say, ah, well, if Pennsylvania goes to

0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.760
<v Speaker 1>the Republicans, then we don't know the answer. There's about

0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.800
<v Speaker 1>five or so seats that are still up for grabs,

0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.280
<v Speaker 1>which means that even though it's sort of a dead

0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.239
<v Speaker 1>heat in terms of what the polls say about who

0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.560
<v Speaker 1>will have the majority, we still could have fifty three Republicans.

0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.880
<v Speaker 1>We could still have fifty two Democrats, three Democrats, even

0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.480
<v Speaker 1>perhaps even more so, there's a lot of them. Certainty,

0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.360
<v Speaker 1>we just have to wait. Now, do we know yet

0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.440
<v Speaker 1>what voters are going to vote upon? Oh? I think

0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.400
<v Speaker 1>that it looks more or less like what we thought

0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.000
<v Speaker 1>from the beginning, which is that it's going to be

0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.760
<v Speaker 1>a good year for Republicans because there's a Democrat in

0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.160
<v Speaker 1>the White House. In mid terms, the normal reaction is

0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.440
<v Speaker 1>to vote against the party that has the presidency, and

0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.640
<v Speaker 1>in particular, if the president is unpopular, which Biden remains,

0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.120
<v Speaker 1>then that puts the Democrats even farther behind the eight ball.

0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:30.679
<v Speaker 1>Part of that has to do with the economy. Part

0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.280
<v Speaker 1>of why Biden is unpopular is because people have a

0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.960
<v Speaker 1>perception the economy is terrible. The perception is even worse

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 1>than the reality based on the statistics. If you look

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.959
<v Speaker 1>sort of at the formula for what's supposed to happen,

0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.600
<v Speaker 1>if we have a president at around approval, you would

0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.480
<v Speaker 1>expect the Republicans to win a large number of House

0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.800
<v Speaker 1>seats and certainly take at least the one seat they

0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.840
<v Speaker 1>need to get the Senate majority. It looks right now

0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.040
<v Speaker 1>possible that Republicans will get the sort of forty to

0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.400
<v Speaker 1>forty five seats that the fundamentals would predict, but more

0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:04.080
<v Speaker 1>likely they're going to fall short of that, and they

0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.280
<v Speaker 1>could follow quite a bit short of it. So why

0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.920
<v Speaker 1>is that happening? I think it still seems likely that

0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.040
<v Speaker 1>abortion is the thing that's driving Democrats to have only

0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.240
<v Speaker 1>a bad year instead of a terrible year. And we

0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 1>have to wait and see just how many young people

0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.040
<v Speaker 1>and suburban women come out and vote as well. We

0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.600
<v Speaker 1>don't know what those are exactly. Pennsylvania, it's an interesting

0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.600
<v Speaker 1>Senate race, has been all along. Is there anything that

0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.880
<v Speaker 1>can go wrong for either Candida between now and the

0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.320
<v Speaker 1>actual election day? You know, probably not. Probably At this point,

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.560
<v Speaker 1>it's just a question of you know, they all have

0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.800
<v Speaker 1>their turnout machines working their best to get voters to

0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:42.400
<v Speaker 1>the polls at the last minute, and they'll do their

0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.640
<v Speaker 1>best at that. You know, every candidate who has a

0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.080
<v Speaker 1>decent chance is advertising now, whether it's directly or through

0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.200
<v Speaker 1>support from one of the party committees or from a

0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.440
<v Speaker 1>superpack or something like that, so that tends to sort

0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.200
<v Speaker 1>of cancel each other out. So, you know, at this

0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.640
<v Speaker 1>point it seems pretty unlikely that the last minute event

0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>could really make much of a difference. And yet President

0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.080
<v Speaker 1>Biden is dumping their old day Saturday along with Barack Obama.

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Don't fall for that, Okay, do well? And Donald Trump

0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.000
<v Speaker 1>is also going to be in the state. They're obviously

0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.320
<v Speaker 1>putting a lot of time and effort into Pennsylvania. Will

0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.240
<v Speaker 1>it be a disaster for the party that doesn't win.

0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.840
<v Speaker 1>You know, each seat matters a lot, and Pennsylvania matters

0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.400
<v Speaker 1>a lot because it has both a very contested Senate

0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.160
<v Speaker 1>seat and also has a very contested gumatorial seat. It's true,

0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.720
<v Speaker 1>on the one hand, we don't expect the last minute

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.560
<v Speaker 1>campaigning to shift vote very much, but that's because both

0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.760
<v Speaker 1>parties do the last minute campaigning. If only Republicans campaigned

0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.360
<v Speaker 1>in Pennsylvania over the last forty eight hours, then perhaps

0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.200
<v Speaker 1>that would help them a lot. But it's sort of

0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.080
<v Speaker 1>a zero sum game because both parties go full out,

0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:53.960
<v Speaker 1>and they both go full out in all of the

0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.720
<v Speaker 1>relevant districts. They all have their internal polling, and in

0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 1>addition of the external bowling, they know which races are closed,

0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.440
<v Speaker 1>you know where to put their resources in at the end,

0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.520
<v Speaker 1>and they come up with the same answer, whether it's

0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:08.800
<v Speaker 1>seats that originally leaned one way or the other. At

0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.600
<v Speaker 1>this point, they know which close races are, and all

0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.000
<v Speaker 1>of those are going to be fully funded and have

0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.920
<v Speaker 1>surrogates and have all the other resources that a party

0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.480
<v Speaker 1>can put into it. And that's why the last minute

0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.159
<v Speaker 1>stuff sort of canceled each other out because there's so

0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.200
<v Speaker 1>much of it on both sides. Michigan is a fascinating

0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.400
<v Speaker 1>I mean, there's so many fascinating ones, but Michigan is

0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.359
<v Speaker 1>particularly fascinating. I guess because a it's so close and

0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.400
<v Speaker 1>be yours and know of Liz Cheney endorsing Elisa's Latkin,

0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.200
<v Speaker 1>does that make a difference to her? You know, I

0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.560
<v Speaker 1>think that there's very few endorsements that make a big

0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.279
<v Speaker 1>difference in the end. Liz Cheney also endorsed the Democrat

0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.360
<v Speaker 1>in the Ohio Senate race. The only endorsement that I've

0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.200
<v Speaker 1>seen that might move a few votes because of so

0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.480
<v Speaker 1>unexpected is in Oklahoma, where there's a surprisingly competitive race.

0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.400
<v Speaker 1>Former Republican and Sooner football star J. C. Watts has

0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.800
<v Speaker 1>endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor in expected to be

0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.200
<v Speaker 1>a surprisingly close race. So maybe because that was sort

0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.000
<v Speaker 1>of unexpected and you know, it would make some difference.

0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.560
<v Speaker 1>But the truth is, in a Michigan House race in

0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.920
<v Speaker 1>Ohio Senate race. People who would be listening to Liz

0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.080
<v Speaker 1>Cheney have already made up their minds long ago. Yeah,

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.360
<v Speaker 1>that's such a good point. Georgia, does it go to

0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.760
<v Speaker 1>a runoff? My bet and I don't bet on politics

0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:29.560
<v Speaker 1>and bet on horses. Um, I would guess that Georgia

0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.360
<v Speaker 1>certainly seems like it's headed for a runoff. And that's

0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.880
<v Speaker 1>very interesting because, just as we had two years ago,

0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.480
<v Speaker 1>it's very possible that control of the Senate could come

0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.160
<v Speaker 1>down to a runoff in Georgia. And even if it doesn't,

0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.960
<v Speaker 1>one would suspect that, you know, it could change the

0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.760
<v Speaker 1>race in all kinds of different ways to have it

0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.760
<v Speaker 1>coming once the rest of the Senate is already set,

0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.120
<v Speaker 1>assuming that it is, it could take weeks to decide

0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.120
<v Speaker 1>some of these races. Well, that's the other question. I mean,

0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.480
<v Speaker 1>Nevada is also both condidates pulling identically. Now, so whoever

0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.200
<v Speaker 1>comes into the runoff with the lead traditionally has had

0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.400
<v Speaker 1>an advantage, especially if it's a challenger. But whether that's

0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.080
<v Speaker 1>true in a situation where you know, all of a sudden,

0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.760
<v Speaker 1>the race would be even more nationalized than it is,

0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.840
<v Speaker 1>especially if we know the control of the Senate is

0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.360
<v Speaker 1>at stake More next on Boomberg opinion. I'm Vonnie Quinn.

0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.200
<v Speaker 1>What are your thoughts, Jonathan on whether the pol's button

0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.240
<v Speaker 1>is hit after Tuesday night and we have to wait

0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.839
<v Speaker 1>many days, many weeks for many of the outcomes. Yeah,

0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.280
<v Speaker 1>I think that's how the system is set up, and

0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.880
<v Speaker 1>we should all be very aware of it that depending

0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.040
<v Speaker 1>on which state it is, even sometimes within the state,

0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.320
<v Speaker 1>it takes longer to do the votes for sometimes for

0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.960
<v Speaker 1>very good reasons, sometimes for reasons that one of the

0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.960
<v Speaker 1>parties wanted it to be that way. But you know

0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.720
<v Speaker 1>in some states they accept ballots that are postmarked by

0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.520
<v Speaker 1>election day, Well, that takes some time. In Pennsylvania, notoriously,

0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.840
<v Speaker 1>the Republican legislature has not allowed pre opening and pre

0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.919
<v Speaker 1>preparing ballots that come in the absolute ballots to be

0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.320
<v Speaker 1>ready to be counted in advance, and so that means

0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.440
<v Speaker 1>that they have to start sorting them in all that

0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.400
<v Speaker 1>which takes time not until after the polls closed, which

0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.520
<v Speaker 1>means we won't find out about Pennsylvania right away because

0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.120
<v Speaker 1>the ballots take time. So, and this is in the

0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.360
<v Speaker 1>normal proceedings. Do you imagine that there will be people

0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.160
<v Speaker 1>contesting results, and that there might be you know, sort

0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.760
<v Speaker 1>of election denial going on. Again, it seems likely. I

0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:27.040
<v Speaker 1>think Bloomberg counted something like two sixty five Republican candidates

0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:32.440
<v Speaker 1>who are supporting the false idea that election was decided

0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.640
<v Speaker 1>by fraud. Presumably some of them are going to yell

0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.680
<v Speaker 1>fraud if they lose, even if they lose by quite

0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:39.080
<v Speaker 1>a bit. We saw that in the primaries. We saw

0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.880
<v Speaker 1>some Republican candidates lose Republican primaries in Republican states and

0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.720
<v Speaker 1>still refused to concede it. It used to be you

0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.360
<v Speaker 1>needed something, some kind of irregularity, something that looked funny

0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.880
<v Speaker 1>at least, and now that's not true. They are ready

0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.600
<v Speaker 1>to say that normal procedures and because Donald Trump pioneered this,

0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.960
<v Speaker 1>that normal, regular counting procedures must have been fraudulent if

0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.320
<v Speaker 1>you lose. And we also should be careful because we're

0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.920
<v Speaker 1>also going to see from both sides legitimate election challenges,

0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.840
<v Speaker 1>because that happens also not because of terrible fraud or

0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.840
<v Speaker 1>anything like that, but because sometimes there are things that

0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.760
<v Speaker 1>the parties can legitimately claim went wrong and they can

0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.360
<v Speaker 1>go to court and try to determine it. And one

0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.600
<v Speaker 1>of the things for us as observers to do is

0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.680
<v Speaker 1>to make sure we can say, oh, yes, that's normal,

0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.320
<v Speaker 1>going to court the way you do it normally, a

0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.560
<v Speaker 1>little aggressive maybe, but then others are, Wow, this is

0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.760
<v Speaker 1>something that is really a threat to democracy. What happens, Jonathan,

0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.480
<v Speaker 1>If Republicans have their best case scenario, what do they

0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.720
<v Speaker 1>get to do for the next two years? You know,

0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:44.199
<v Speaker 1>it's a great question. Republicans are post policy party. They

0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.000
<v Speaker 1>have been running, for example, on inflation. They don't have

0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.520
<v Speaker 1>a policy agenda on inflation. They've been running on crime,

0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.719
<v Speaker 1>which is mostly a state and local issue anyway, but

0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.560
<v Speaker 1>a lot of federal candidates have been running a crime

0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.079
<v Speaker 1>They don't have an agenda on crime. Their main agenda

0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.200
<v Speaker 1>on crime appears to be, if you look at their

0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.199
<v Speaker 1>commercials and a rhetoric, that they are against the funding

0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.560
<v Speaker 1>the police forces. But Democrats, except for a handful of them,

0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.280
<v Speaker 1>aren't for defundings. In fact, Democrats at the congressional level

0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.160
<v Speaker 1>have sent tons of money to local police forces in

0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.439
<v Speaker 1>the last two years. So you know exactly what Republicans

0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.000
<v Speaker 1>would do differently is very hard to tell. The main

0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:23.360
<v Speaker 1>things we have to worry about are that Republicans would

0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.640
<v Speaker 1>take anti democratic measures and would promote chaos. So, you know,

0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.360
<v Speaker 1>we have to worry about the possibility of a government

0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.760
<v Speaker 1>default over the debt limit. We have to worry about

0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:37.200
<v Speaker 1>a shutdown once it's time to pass new appropriations bills,

0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.400
<v Speaker 1>So that kind of thing we have to worry about.

0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.560
<v Speaker 1>We have to worry about the possibility they're going to

0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:46.400
<v Speaker 1>start impeaching the president, the vice president, cabinet members over nothing.

0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.960
<v Speaker 1>So that's a concern. Other than that, you know, the

0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.720
<v Speaker 1>parties have proved time and again that they are capable

0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.800
<v Speaker 1>sometimes of getting a lot done during divided government, but

0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.560
<v Speaker 1>this Republican Party, I'm not so sure. It doesn't seem

0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.520
<v Speaker 1>very likely. Do we need to be worried about violence

0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:07.400
<v Speaker 1>at all, Jonathan, You know, you hope not. You also

0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.400
<v Speaker 1>hope that police forces, that the FBI are working on it.

0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.480
<v Speaker 1>There was a warning earlier about the possibility domestic terrorism.

0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.360
<v Speaker 1>You know, we had the attack on Nancy Closi's house

0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.600
<v Speaker 1>just recently, We've had other situations and we've seen, you know,

0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.480
<v Speaker 1>some very inflammatory rhetoric coming almost not i wouldn't say

0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.839
<v Speaker 1>exclusively from Republicans, but mainly from Republicans, And you know,

0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.080
<v Speaker 1>we do have to worry about that, certainly after what

0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.480
<v Speaker 1>we went through in the last general action. Yeah, Jonathan,

0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.480
<v Speaker 1>So that the day comes and the results start rolling in,

0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.200
<v Speaker 1>or at least the early returns. What states are you

0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:42.920
<v Speaker 1>watching most closely? Obviously you're watching all of them, I

0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.960
<v Speaker 1>know that, But what once mostly be forward to watching. Well,

0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.600
<v Speaker 1>I guess the thing that that I'll try to keep

0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.520
<v Speaker 1>an eye on. In particular, in addition to majorities in

0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.440
<v Speaker 1>Congress and the governor's is some of these lower profile

0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.800
<v Speaker 1>races that could be very important, including the secretary of

0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.640
<v Speaker 1>state races in states where we have some you know,

0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:07.040
<v Speaker 1>election deniers UM who have made some very extreme comments

0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.439
<v Speaker 1>may have been nominated by Republicans, and it's just not

0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.840
<v Speaker 1>clear if we could guarantee free and fer elections going forward.

0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.120
<v Speaker 1>So that's something that obviously it is a little bit

0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:18.679
<v Speaker 1>is quite a bit scary, I would say, and I'll

0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.040
<v Speaker 1>be watching that in particular. When the history books are

0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.840
<v Speaker 1>written eventually, do we look back at this period as

0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.520
<v Speaker 1>a turning point? Do these mid terms change anything about

0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.560
<v Speaker 1>the nature of politics and how it's conducted in the

0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.959
<v Speaker 1>United States? You know, I think that we have to wait.

0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.640
<v Speaker 1>You know, I've been listening a bunch of things that

0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.480
<v Speaker 1>are quite frightening, and they are legitimately frightening. It's also

0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.160
<v Speaker 1>possible that candidates can back off. It's possible that some

0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.439
<v Speaker 1>of the candidates who have been saying the most extreme

0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.840
<v Speaker 1>things once they're in office, um may calm down and

0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.840
<v Speaker 1>basically behave themselves as normal conservative politicians. Nothing wrong with

0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.319
<v Speaker 1>conservative politicians, not a threat to democracy. It's the radicalism

0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.559
<v Speaker 1>that is. And we don't know yet to what extent

0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.560
<v Speaker 1>we could be sating against radicalism at multiple state and

0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.760
<v Speaker 1>local and federal levels, and to what extent that we'll

0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.360
<v Speaker 1>just get Republican policy, which you know was normal regular

0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.560
<v Speaker 1>parts in politics again as opposed to sort of crazy

0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.839
<v Speaker 1>partis in politics. But I guess it's it goes in

0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.240
<v Speaker 1>psychos right, Other than I we've had this throughout history

0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.800
<v Speaker 1>where things get whipped up and suddenly there's a period

0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.080
<v Speaker 1>of normalcy or quote unquote normalcy, and then suddenly there's

0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.839
<v Speaker 1>a period of insanity again. It just it happens a lot. Well,

0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:27.160
<v Speaker 1>if you look at the history of it. You know,

0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.680
<v Speaker 1>violence in American policies is nothing new. You know, we

0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.240
<v Speaker 1>had up through the Civil War, slavery was inherently violent,

0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.320
<v Speaker 1>in the full century after the Civil War, we had

0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.360
<v Speaker 1>a violent white supremacy aligned with a political party, the

0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.640
<v Speaker 1>Southern Democrats, with the agreement from other Democrats and from

0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.400
<v Speaker 1>Republicans in most cases to look the other way. And

0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.960
<v Speaker 1>historians and political scientists looking at America through nineteen often say,

0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.079
<v Speaker 1>we think of it as a democracy, but really was it,

0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.200
<v Speaker 1>especially in parts of the country. Maybe somewhat in some

0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.880
<v Speaker 1>parts and some whatnot in others. And we'll say, well,

0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.920
<v Speaker 1>you know, American doxy really only dates back to the sixties.

0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.000
<v Speaker 1>And then we had a wave of left wing violence

0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.479
<v Speaker 1>in the late sixties and early seventies which was very destructive,

0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.920
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people killed, um and that did not

0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.000
<v Speaker 1>have the sport of political party. Now, this wave of

0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.760
<v Speaker 1>violence very well, maybe alive with a political party. And

0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.520
<v Speaker 1>that seems to be what the January syst Commission is

0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.360
<v Speaker 1>telling us about what happened on January six. We don't

0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:26.840
<v Speaker 1>know yet how close the ties were, but ties between

0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.960
<v Speaker 1>the Republican Party, the White House, Donald Trump, and some

0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:35.000
<v Speaker 1>of these paramilitary groups and so you know, yeah, that's

0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.240
<v Speaker 1>very scary, and we don't know how it would turn out.

0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.160
<v Speaker 1>It's tempting to think, well, it's cyclical. We'll go through

0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.280
<v Speaker 1>a bad phase and the land again like Captains in

0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.440
<v Speaker 1>the early seventies, but we don't know that it could

0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.200
<v Speaker 1>get worse. Noomberg Opinions Jonathan Bernstein. Catch Boomberg Opinion with

0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.480
<v Speaker 1>me Bonnie Quinn on Boomberg Radio weekends and every Friday

0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.040
<v Speaker 1>as a podcast on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform,

0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.079
<v Speaker 1>and do join in. Comments and opinions always welcome. I'm

0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.079
<v Speaker 1>at Bonnie Quinn on Twitter or email a vic In

0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.120
<v Speaker 1>at Bloomberg dot net. Until next time on Bloomberg Opinion,

0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:08.360
<v Speaker 1>h