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Speaker 1: On this episode of Newsworld. My guest today is someone

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Speaker 1: who The Washington Post is called, quote a driving force

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Speaker 1: in American politics. I think of him as a personal friend,

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Speaker 1: somebody who is an entrepreneurial genius. As the president of

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Speaker 1: RMG Research, Scott Rasmussen has been polling Americans for their

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Speaker 1: opinions for more than thirty five years. He provides political

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Speaker 1: and business leaders with insights from his trademarked counter polling platform.

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Speaker 1: Through a Gold Circle membership program, members got a better

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Speaker 1: understanding of the public mood through access to Scott's data

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Speaker 1: and analysis, along with customized briefings. I recently received a

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Speaker 1: briefing from Scott on his research defining the quote elite

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Speaker 1: one percent. He did the research with the support of

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Speaker 1: the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. The results are so intriguing

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Speaker 1: that I asked him to share his findings with all

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Speaker 1: of us that I am really pleased to welcome my

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Speaker 1: guest to my friend, somebody I admire so deeply, Scott

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Speaker 1: wrestless On. Scott, welcome and thank you for joining me

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Speaker 1: on Newtsworld.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's great to be here, you know. I love

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Speaker 2: talking about this study and about just the world that

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Speaker 2: we live in. There's so much in politics where people

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Speaker 2: just kind of go with the flow. They say the

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Speaker 2: same things they've been saying for decades, and we live

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Speaker 2: in an ever changing world, so you have to keep

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Speaker 2: looking at it differently.

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Speaker 1: When you go back to your early years, it will

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Speaker 1: do later on. There was no reason to believe you'd

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Speaker 1: become a sort of national polling guru. What drew you

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Speaker 1: into this fascination with public opinion?

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Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, I sold the business and there

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Speaker 2: was that Reagan Mondale campaign. I was a little bit

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Speaker 2: disturbed with the lack of seria discussion on federal budget issues.

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Speaker 2: Wrote a book on the federal budget. Connie Mack, who

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Speaker 2: you knew well, wrote the forward to it, and that

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Speaker 2: got me into the political world. And I started noting

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Speaker 2: that the questions that were being asked by pollsters didn't

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Speaker 2: sound like anybody I ever talked to outside of DC.

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Speaker 2: So I did my very first poll back in the

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Speaker 2: late eighties. It was on social security, so few people

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Speaker 2: talked about it back then. At the Wall Street Journal

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Speaker 2: asked me to write something about it, and it just

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Speaker 2: took off from there, and I think it was a

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Speaker 2: different way of looking at the world. I was always

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Speaker 2: pretty good with numbers. What I think you may even

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Speaker 2: forget is how much the world has changed of polling.

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Speaker 2: Tip O'Neil, who was one of your predecessors as Speaker,

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Speaker 2: was Speaker for a very long time, and if you

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Speaker 2: look at the national databases, I'll bet there aren't a

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Speaker 2: dozen national polls on his job approval ratings or favorability ratings.

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Speaker 2: Now you have polls on the Speaker coming out just

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Speaker 2: about every day. But it was a different world back then.

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Speaker 1: So you entered that world, and then you decided to

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Speaker 1: launch your first website in the year I remember very

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Speaker 1: fondly nineteen ninety four when we were doing the contract

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Speaker 1: with America. What led you to decide to create a website?

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Speaker 2: Well, because I was too stupid to really know what

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Speaker 2: the Internet was all about. It was the new thing.

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Speaker 2: Everybody was talking about it, and I had a media background,

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Speaker 2: so it did strike me that it was a media platform,

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Speaker 2: and I thought it was a place that I could

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Speaker 2: put some of my data and that would attract me

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Speaker 2: some clients. And what I didn't understand was really how

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Speaker 2: revolutionary the Internet was going to be. I was startled

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Speaker 2: by the attention that we got. I was startled by

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Speaker 2: the response to the online world, and ultimately Rush Limbaugh

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Speaker 2: would start talking about our work, or Fox News came

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Speaker 2: on the air and began talking about it. We were

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Speaker 2: the very first people who ever put polling data directly

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Speaker 2: to the consumers online, and that became a great success.

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Speaker 1: It certainly made you a household name, at least among

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Speaker 1: the politically aware. You now produce both counterpolling and the

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Speaker 1: Gold Membership Program. Talk just briefly about that.

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Speaker 2: Well, counterpolling is something I've actually been doing forever. I

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Speaker 2: finally came up with a name for it. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's what I said earlier, the way I put it today.

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Speaker 2: Most pollsters ask questions in the language of a Georgetown

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Speaker 2: cocktail party, and again, most voters don't talk that way.

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Speaker 2: So I consciously look at the mainstream polls that come

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Speaker 2: out and I try to think, how would I translate

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Speaker 2: that so a normal person would understand it. When NPR

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Speaker 2: asks about gender affirming care, I've done research the show.

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Speaker 2: Nobody knows what that means. So if I ask about

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Speaker 2: puberty blockers and gender transition surgery, you get wildly different results.

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Speaker 2: Very few Americans really have an understanding of what woke means.

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Speaker 2: So if you ask a question about what it means,

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Speaker 2: what is you know woke or is it good or bad?

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Speaker 2: The results aren't very meaningful unless you translate a little bit.

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Speaker 2: So that's the counterpolling. And the Gold Circle membership, which

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Speaker 2: I'm very pleased to your organization, is one of our members.

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Speaker 2: It's a membership program that we give access to our

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Speaker 2: data and our insights, and we hold fun webinars like

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Speaker 2: we did recently on the Elite one percent.

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Speaker 1: Can people who are said join the Gold Membership program.

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Speaker 2: They sure can, but it's a high dollar entry fee.

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Speaker 2: It's not a twenty nine to ninety five subscription.

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Speaker 1: I have to say, the quality of the information you

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Speaker 1: provide is extraordinary. In frankly, when I go on Fox

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Speaker 1: News fairly often, between the program we run on America's

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Speaker 1: New Majority Project and the program you run, I feel

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Speaker 1: like I'm reasonably confident talking about the values of the

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Speaker 1: American people. I'm a big advocate of Lincoln's admonition that

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Speaker 1: with public sentiment, anything as possible, and without public centiment

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Speaker 1: nothing as possible. And I'm appalled at Washington's isolation from

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Speaker 1: public sentiment. I mean, there's a major reason why we

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Speaker 1: have the current political eruption that we have is that

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Speaker 1: this city has become a fortress of lobbyist interest groups

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Speaker 1: and bureaucracies against the rest of the country. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of amazing.

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Speaker 2: I just want to jump in there on something. You know,

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Speaker 2: I was really fortunate as a high school student. My

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Speaker 2: best friend's father went to school with a guy named

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Speaker 2: Joanapolitan who was legendary. He polled on John F. Kennedy's campaign,

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Speaker 2: and Lyndon Johnson was the first person known as a

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Speaker 2: political consultant. He gave me an hour of his time

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Speaker 2: as a high school student to talk about the way

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Speaker 2: he saw the world, and one of the things that

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Speaker 2: he said was that you should never underestimate the intelligence

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Speaker 2: of the American people, but you should never overestimate their

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Speaker 2: level of political knowledge. And I believe official Washington these

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Speaker 2: days does the opposite. They underestimate their intelligence and they

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Speaker 2: overestimate how much they pay attention to politics.

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Speaker 1: Neapolitan wrote a book called The Election Game and How

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Speaker 1: to Win It, which I used as a bible for years.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the ninety four cam Pain was in part

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Speaker 1: designed based on Joseph Neapolitan's insights. It's very very so

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Speaker 1: I had no idea you had that relationship.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I still am amazed the role that he had

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Speaker 2: in the world, that he gave me that time as

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Speaker 2: a kid who really didn't appreciate how special it was.

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Speaker 1: I'm intrigued because you do so many polls and you

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Speaker 1: have such a depth of experience that the story we

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Speaker 1: were talking about earlier before we began this tape was

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Speaker 1: that you noticed an anomaly of only three or four

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Speaker 1: people out of a thousand person sample, and then you

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Speaker 1: began looking for it. Talk through how you came to

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Speaker 1: the elite one percent.

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Speaker 2: Well, the first thing, you know, I look at poles

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Speaker 2: all the time. We do a minimum of two national

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Speaker 2: surveys a week. I look at our data and other data,

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Speaker 2: and one of the things that first caught my eye

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Speaker 2: was there was a huge gap between the views of

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Speaker 2: postgraduate Americans and everybody else. There's a lot of talk

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Speaker 2: in the political world about the diploma divide those with

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Speaker 2: and without a college degree, but in act, the gap

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Speaker 2: between those with a postgraduate degree and a bachelor's degree

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Speaker 2: is often bigger than the gap between those with a

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Speaker 2: bachelor's degree and no degree, so I began looking at that.

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Speaker 2: I also noticed that people who lived in very heavily

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Speaker 2: densely populated urban areas more than ten thousand people per

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Speaker 2: square mile, were also way out of touch with the

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Speaker 2: American people, and not surprisingly, upper income people were as well.

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Speaker 2: I had a theory that if you combined all three

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Speaker 2: of these you might find something unique. And the logic

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Speaker 2: of it was, if you get a postgraduate degree and

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Speaker 2: go to live in Manhattan or Washington, you might have

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Speaker 2: different attitudes than if you have a postgraduate degree and

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Speaker 2: go to live in Cedar Rapids or McKinney, Texas or something.

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Speaker 2: There's only about eight or ten people in our normal

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Speaker 2: samples that have all three of those attributes. So I

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Speaker 2: combined about twenty five surveys, got a sample of a

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Speaker 2: few hundred people in the elite world, and I was stunned.

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Speaker 2: The entire population and all those surveys, Joe Biden's job

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Speaker 2: approval rating was forty one percent. Among the elite group,

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Speaker 2: it was eighty two percent. So even with a small sample,

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Speaker 2: I knew this was something worth pursuing. It's very expensive

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Speaker 2: to pull these people. I did a couple of pilot

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Speaker 2: studies just to see if I was onto something. And

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Speaker 2: then fortunately the Committee to Unleashed Prosperity was interested, and

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Speaker 2: we did two surveys of this elite one percent and

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Speaker 2: the results, I don't know whether to describe them as

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Speaker 2: fascinating or terrifying or a little of both.

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Speaker 1: It is terrifying. You begin to realize how deep the

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Speaker 1: cultural divide is. And these are the people who run

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Speaker 1: the universities, run the news media, run much of the government,

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Speaker 1: serve as judges and prosecutors. I mean, it is the

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Speaker 1: power center of the United States, and they are totally

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Speaker 1: different from the rest of us.

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Speaker 2: That's right. The first thing we did every question that

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Speaker 2: we asked when we surveyed this elite one percent group,

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Speaker 2: we did a companion survey of one thousand voters just

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Speaker 2: to see where the gaps were. The first question that

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Speaker 2: caught my attention was among the elite one percent, forty

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Speaker 2: seven percent believe there is too much individual freedom in America.

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Speaker 2: Among most voters, fifty seven percent say there's not enough freedom.

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Speaker 2: So we were having wildly different views. And we also

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Speaker 2: then noticed there were a couple of key subgroups. One

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Speaker 2: that's not a surprise given the current news cycle. There

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Speaker 2: were people who went to about a dozen elite universities.

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Speaker 2: They make up about half of this elite world, and

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Speaker 2: their views were even further out of touch with the

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Speaker 2: American people and the other subgroup where there's people who

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Speaker 2: talk politics every day. So if you can picture the

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Speaker 2: elite one percent, some of them are out doing business

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Speaker 2: or doing other things. Some of them are obsessed with politics.

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Speaker 2: And among that politically obsessed group, sixty nine percent say

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Speaker 2: there is too much individual freedom in America. It's hard

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Speaker 2: to imagine that, but that is the view of the people.

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Speaker 1: When the elite one percent tell you that there's too

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Speaker 1: much freedom in America? What do you think they mean

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Speaker 1: by that?

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Speaker 2: First of all, I know what they answered. The question

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Speaker 2: they answered was we asked, very straightforward, is there too

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Speaker 2: much individual freedom, too much government control? Or is the

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Speaker 2: balance about right. We know that voters and the elite

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Speaker 2: one percent gave wildly different answers, and it's kind of

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Speaker 2: a mind boggling stat What I think they mean is

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Speaker 2: a little bit of we need to restore order in

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Speaker 2: the country. We need rules for everybody to play by.

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Speaker 2: The elites know what the rules are, and we're frustrated

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Speaker 2: that the American people aren't following. They were frustrated that

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Speaker 2: a lot of people didn't want to follow advice during

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Speaker 2: the pandemic. They're frustrated when parents go to complain to

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Speaker 2: their school boards. I think that's where the elites see

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Speaker 2: that is a real threat.

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Speaker 1: These are the people who would force you to buy

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Speaker 1: an electric car, and would force you to give up

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Speaker 1: your gas stove, and would feel that you were being

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Speaker 1: selfish if you didn't do what you were told.

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Speaker 2: Well, and actually they're probably disappointed that you don't thank

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Speaker 2: them for it, because they're busy saving the world on

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Speaker 2: your behalf. You know. Sometimes I say that their view

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Speaker 2: is they don't want government of buying for the people.

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Speaker 2: They want government of and buy the elites, and they

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Speaker 2: think it's good for the people. I mean, that's sort

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Speaker 2: of the mindset here.

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Speaker 1: So you described a dirty dozen of league universities. Can

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Speaker 1: you describe that detriment? Because I thought it was fascinating.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the dirty universities. I didn't come up with

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Speaker 2: the list. Actually, there were some academic research done back

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Speaker 2: in the Obama years and it's been updated ever since.

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Speaker 2: And if you look at the politically influential elites, or

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Speaker 2: if you look at the corporate board elites, or if

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Speaker 2: you were to go to the philanthropic world and the

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Speaker 2: charitable world, about half of the people that are dominating

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Speaker 2: those institutions went to one of twelve schools, either graduate

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Speaker 2: or undergraduate. Most of them are the Ivy League, but

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Speaker 2: you've also got Stanford in Chicago and a few others

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Speaker 2: in there, and you know, these are schools that do

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Speaker 2: produce most of the leadership. In fact, just to give

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Speaker 2: you a sense of scale, before Amy Coney Barrett was

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Speaker 2: lifted up to the Supreme Court, the last justice who

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Speaker 2: did not go to one of these twelve elite schools

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Speaker 2: was Thirdgode Marshall in nineteen sixty seven. And that's a

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Speaker 2: vast change. In the forties and fifties, there was a

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Speaker 2: lot more diversity about where people came from. If you're dirty.

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Speaker 1: Dozen are Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, Cornell, MIT,

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Speaker 1: and the University of Chicago.

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Speaker 2: And some of those have been in the news lately.

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Speaker 1: In a sense, you know, maybe the advice the next

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Speaker 1: administration is, if they come from one of these, don't

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Speaker 1: appoint them.

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Speaker 2: That would be a good start.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing.

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Speaker 2: I want to be very clear in this. I'm not

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Speaker 2: anti education or even anti elite or anti expert. We

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Speaker 2: need expertise, but it's got to be accountable. If I

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Speaker 2: have a cold and I go to the doctor, the

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Speaker 2: doctor has expertise that I don't have, but I make

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Speaker 2: the final decisions. And when we have a government, we

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Speaker 2: do need experts to handle a lot of tasks, but

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Speaker 2: there still needs to be accountability to the voters.

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Speaker 1: I noticed you surveyed Harvard freshman class, and I was

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Speaker 1: actually startled by your numbers.

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Speaker 2: First off, I didn't do that survey. Harvard did that.

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Speaker 2: Harvard Crimson released it. But the numbers are absolutely stunning. Again,

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Speaker 2: only six percent of the entering class at Harvard are Protestant.

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Speaker 2: Basically half are either agnostic or atheists. So if you

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Speaker 2: want to talk about values and faith, it doesn't look

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Speaker 2: anything like America.

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Speaker 1: It's like eight to one agnostic or atheist over Protestant.

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Speaker 2: Right, and it's also about eight to one progressive over conservative.

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Speaker 2: And at a time when most Americans are saying we

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Speaker 2: don't want affirmative action to determine college admissions, these freshmen

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Speaker 2: overwhelmingly support it. You know what troubles me about this

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Speaker 2: is if our leadership funnel is being narrowed down to

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Speaker 2: these schools and their student body and their teachings are

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Speaker 2: so out of touch with America, that's problematic for our

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Speaker 2: system of government. You know, during the tea party era,

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Speaker 2: I spoke at Harvard and had a brown bag lunch

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Speaker 2: afterwards with some of the faculty members, and one of them,

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Speaker 2: she was very sincere and very frustrated, said why won't

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Speaker 2: the American people let us lead? That's what we were

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Speaker 2: trained to do. And my first comment was, they don't

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Speaker 2: like where you're leading. But the second point, it really

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Speaker 2: the big issue here is what an arrogant, entitled attitude

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Speaker 2: that reflects that the rest of us are too stupid

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Speaker 2: to play a part in the leadership of our nation.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's part of the problem.

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Speaker 1: The Crimson survey point out that one point forty six

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Speaker 1: percent of the faculty think they're conservatives. One point forty

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Speaker 1: six percent. This is virtually insane. But there's a number

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Speaker 1: in here which I was very struck by that you

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Speaker 1: said was the most frightening number you'd seen in polling. Ironically,

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Speaker 1: it is the opposite of the message we're told over

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Speaker 1: and over by the establishment talk testament about the willingness

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Speaker 1: to steal elections.

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Speaker 2: So this is one of those questions you put out

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Speaker 2: you're never quite sure what to expect. We asked a

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Speaker 2: thousand voters, what if your favorite candidate lost a close

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Speaker 2: election but their campaign team knew they could cheat and

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Speaker 2: get away with it. Would you rather have them cheat

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Speaker 2: and win or basically play fair and lose the election?

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Speaker 2: Only seven percent of voters said they wanted to cheat

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Speaker 2: and win, which, you know, I wish it was one percent,

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Speaker 2: but still seven percent means that the overwhelming majority of

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Speaker 2: Americans are still on board with fair elections. When we

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Speaker 2: asked the elite one percent that same question, thirty five

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Speaker 2: percent of them said they would rather cheat and win.

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Speaker 2: But what was really terrifying in that most terrifying result

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Speaker 2: I've ever seen the elite one percent who were talking

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Speaker 2: politics every day, that politically obsessed elite, sixty nine percent

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Speaker 2: of them would rather cheat than follow what the voters decided.

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Speaker 2: That's a win at all cost mentality, that's we know

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Speaker 2: best and we don't want voters to get in our

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Speaker 2: way mentality, And it speaks of the fact that they

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Speaker 2: trust the government and they don't trust the voters.

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Speaker 1: I was very struck with how willing the elites are

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Speaker 1: to impose on us. You point out that seventy seven

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Speaker 1: percent of the elite one percent would impose strict restrictions

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Speaker 1: in rationing on the private use of gas, meat, and electricity.

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Speaker 1: If there was a straight up election with that as

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Speaker 1: the referendum issue, these people would be crushed by popular

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Speaker 1: will right absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And you know, there are a lot of individual things

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Speaker 2: they would like to ban SUVs and gas powered vehicles.

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Speaker 2: Some of that can be attributed to the fact that

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Speaker 2: if you're in those urban areas, you don't try very much.

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Speaker 2: But I think a lot of it can be attributed

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Speaker 2: to the fact that the elites know the rules won't

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Speaker 2: apply to them. That is a factor in all of this.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's very easy to talk about these

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Speaker 2: issues without really thinking about how big that cultural divide is.

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Speaker 2: But when you've got a bunch of people who are

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Speaker 2: in power, who believe they should overturn elections, they should

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Speaker 2: do what they think is right, and that the American

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Speaker 2: people have too much individual freedom, what happens when they

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Speaker 2: leave their bubble and go home for the holidays and

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Speaker 2: talk to regular voters who don't share that view.

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Speaker 1: I suspect they don't. They would be too painful. And

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Speaker 1: I notice, for example, one of the places it's rapidly

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Speaker 1: moving towards a real crescendo, seventy two percent of the

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Speaker 1: elite one percent would ban gas powered vehicles, and I

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Speaker 1: just saw a poll that said six percent of the

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Speaker 1: country wants to buy electric vehicles. Now, the idea that

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Speaker 1: the government's going to impose on ninety four percent of

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Speaker 1: the country has to be as anti democracy, an anti

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Speaker 1: popular government as anything I've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: Yes, And I think the good news in this is

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Speaker 2: that voters are pushing back, that there is a reluctance

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Speaker 2: to embrace all of this. It's a chilling mindset that

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Speaker 2: we have. One of the things we want to do

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Speaker 2: at our MG research with our continued focus on this,

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Speaker 2: is to shine a light on just how far out

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Speaker 2: of touch these people are, because it is just beyond comprehension.

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Speaker 2: It is something. By the way, you love history, probably

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Speaker 2: even more than I do. But Woodrow Wilson dreamed of

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Speaker 2: this scenario back in the nineteenth century. This was the

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Speaker 2: founding of the progressive movement was to have a specially

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Speaker 2: educated group of civil servants who would be insulated from

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Speaker 2: voters and do what's best for the country. So that's

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Speaker 2: what we're heading towards, and voters, fortunately are people.

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Speaker 1: It always somehow involves the elite themselves not being affected.

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Speaker 1: I noticed that fifty five percent of the elite one

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Speaker 1: percent favor banning non essential air travel, which they would define.

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Speaker 2: Of course, on the.

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Speaker 1: Other hand, carry has to fly by private plane absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And look, we see this all the time in all

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Speaker 2: kinds of survey results, that people like to impose rules

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Speaker 2: on others. That's just when you have to apply it

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Speaker 2: to yourself, it gets a little challenging.

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Speaker 1: Having been a congressman from Georgia, fifty three percent of

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Speaker 1: the elite one percent would ban private air conditioning. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you have to wonder what climate they live in. It

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Speaker 1: would be like banning heat in the Northeast exactly.

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Speaker 2: We all get caught in our bubbles, and we all

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Speaker 2: have a circle of people. We begin to listen and

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Speaker 2: things begin to make sense, And all I can really

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Speaker 2: believe is that you know, in this world there are

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Speaker 2: so many people talking about climate change is going to

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Speaker 2: end humanity within twelve years unless we do something that

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Speaker 2: nothing seems extreme compared to that.

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Speaker 1: One of the things I'm struck with that you really

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Speaker 1: bring to life is that the rise of the administrative state,

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Speaker 1: the power of the bureaucracy, has also been matched by

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Speaker 1: the rise of distrust of that very state by the

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Speaker 1: average person. So it's a real tension between we the

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Speaker 1: people and we the bureaucrats.

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Speaker 2: You know, one of the things I mentioned in the

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Speaker 2: presentation on this there are three times as many government

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Speaker 2: regulators today as there were in nineteen seventy two, So

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Speaker 2: the administrative state has grown tremendously, and with things like

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Speaker 2: the Chevron decision, they were given evermore authority. Interestingly, from

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Speaker 2: that same time, from nineteen seventy two until now, a

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Speaker 2: majority of Americans have never trusted the federal government to

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Speaker 2: do the right thing most of the time. So you've

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Speaker 2: got this growth in the administrative state combined with a

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Speaker 2: declining trust in the government, and that creates not just

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Speaker 2: a tension between bureaucrats and voters, but it creates real

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Speaker 2: questions about the legitimacy of the government.

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Speaker 1: You point out that eighty nine percent of the voters

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Speaker 1: still believe in America's founding ideas. That's a much bigger

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Speaker 1: number than I would have guessed after all these years

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Speaker 1: of brainwashing by the left.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have done a lot of research on this,

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Speaker 2: and even on things like so if you talk to

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Speaker 2: people who say they like socialism, who a lot of

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Speaker 2: Americans would instinctively say, Wow, they don't like America's founding ideals.

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Speaker 2: Turns out their definition of socialism isn't what some of

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Speaker 2: us older folks remember it to be. Most people who

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Speaker 2: say they like socialism define it ultimately as decision making

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Speaker 2: closer to home. They don't think of it as an

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Speaker 2: economic system. So the words change along the way. But

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Speaker 2: people have a very strong distrust of centralized power, and

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Speaker 2: the ideals of freedom, equality and self governance are really important.

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Speaker 2: We did a survey years back on hate speech. We

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Speaker 2: read a dozen really horrific statements, you know, about all

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Speaker 2: Mexicans coming into our country, our rapist type of things,

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Speaker 2: I mean, really bad stuff, and not single one of

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Speaker 2: those statements did most people think should be banned. They

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Speaker 2: thought they were atrocious, they thought they would run away

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Speaker 2: from anybody talking like that, but they didn't think they

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Speaker 2: should be banned. And the reason was they didn't trust

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Speaker 2: the government to make those decisions.

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Speaker 1: What additional polling do you plan to do on the

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Speaker 1: lead one percent?

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Speaker 2: Oh, we have great plans. We're looking for support for

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Speaker 2: it right now. But one of the things we're going

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Speaker 2: to do is a survey on what they believe that

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Speaker 2: voters think. We have some indications already that they actually

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Speaker 2: think voters don't disagree with them as much as they think.

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Speaker 2: The survey we did so so far was mostly regulatory

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Speaker 2: and finance and economic things. We want to get into

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Speaker 2: some cultural issues, whether it's guns or trans policies or

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Speaker 2: anything else. We want to begin to understand really who

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Speaker 2: they are and where they're coming from a better definition.

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Speaker 2: So we'll do a lot of research on that. And

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Speaker 2: then we also want to do some research on the

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00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 2: people who are managing the federal government today, what are

439
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 2: their views, and so that's going to be an ongoing

440
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,480
Speaker 2: project as we begin to roll this out. I'll tell

441
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 2: you one thing that struck me very recently. We took

442
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 2: a look at our data in the month leading up

443
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 2: to October seventh, and then we compared it to the

444
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 2: same results in December, So a couple of months later,

445
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 2: after the horrific attack on Israel. Among most Americans, their

446
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 2: opinion of Joe Biden never changed, but among those with

447
00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 2: a postgraduate degree it fell by eighteen points. I think

448
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 2: that's because they were more supportive of Hamas than the

449
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 2: rest of the country. It just speaks to how out

450
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 2: of touch they are, and that's why I want to

451
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 2: keep researching this group to learn more about them.

452
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: If you do a similar pattern of senior bureaucrats, you

453
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: will really do the country a great service because I

454
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 1: have a hunch that they are, in their own unique way,

455
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: as arrogant and as willing to impose and as indifferent

456
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:27,679
Speaker 1: to the American people as the elite one percent.

457
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 2: I would probably guess, and I don't have any data

458
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,239
Speaker 2: on this, so it's just a guess right now that

459
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 2: they seek the consent of the one percent rather than

460
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 2: the consent of the government.

461
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: I think that's right. That's why I think this is

462
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: a brilliant study. Now I have to take just a

463
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: minute because your background is so astonishing and very few

464
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: people know about it. I mean, you grew up in

465
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 1: a very entrepreneurial environment. Can you talk about the early

466
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 1: days of entrepreneurship.

467
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 2: It's funny when you put it like that, because I

468
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 2: can't remember any other days. My father was into broadcasting.

469
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 2: I did my first commercial, my first radio commercial when

470
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 2: I was seven years old. We got involved with the

471
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,400
Speaker 2: New England Whalers and the World Hockey Association. I did

472
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 2: some announcing there. We always had side projects going on.

473
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 2: That was just the world we lived in. You couldn't

474
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 2: get the Whalers on TV. We kept looking for ways

475
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 2: to make that happen. And along the way, my father

476
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:26,199
Speaker 2: and I learned about this crazy new thing called the

477
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 2: satellite and satellite transmission. And people don't understand how different

478
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 2: that was. In nineteen seventy eight. You know, there's only

479
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 2: one college football game on a week. College basketball had

480
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,479
Speaker 2: a couple of national games a year. That was it.

481
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 2: Most sports teams weren't on. That was the environment we

482
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 2: were in. And to send a signal around the country

483
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,119
Speaker 2: you had to go to AT and T and they

484
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 2: would just charge you by the mile. The satellite came along.

485
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 2: RCA put Satcom one into orbit. We could send a

486
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 2: signal around the US for less than a cost to

487
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 2: send the same signal around the state of Connecticut via

488
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 2: traditional landlines. And when we learned that we thought, Wow,

489
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 2: there's something big here, and we ended up creating a

490
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,880
Speaker 2: little network called ESPN and it's done pretty well since then.

491
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,399
Speaker 1: That's wild. So it really started though around a particular

492
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: hockey team and how do you build an audience for

493
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: that hockey team?

494
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 2: Right? And we were doing everything you could imagine to

495
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,200
Speaker 2: try and get them on TV. We actually had a proposal.

496
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 2: We met with all the cable operators in Connecticut and said,

497
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,600
Speaker 2: we're going to get the Whalers Yukon basketball and Bristol

498
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 2: Red Sox baseball and we're going to produce it for

499
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 2: you guys. And they laughed us out of the room,

500
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 2: but they did tell us about the satellite. And you

501
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 2: know when we found out about the satellite, Al Parnello

502
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 2: was the guy who was selling that for our CAAI

503
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 2: still keep in touch with him. He was telling us

504
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 2: how different the world was going to be, and we

505
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 2: knew there was something there. We couldn't put our finger

506
00:28:58,240 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 2: on it. And the day that we actually came up

507
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 2: up with the idea, it was August sixteenth, nineteen seventy eight,

508
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 2: my little sister's sixteenth birthday. She was with my grandparents

509
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 2: of the Jersey Shore. We're going to drive down and

510
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 2: visit her, and my father and I got stuck on

511
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 2: a traffic jam in Waterbury, Connecticut. We were arguing about

512
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 2: what to do with this satellite, and at one point

513
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: I just said, I don't care what you do with it.

514
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 2: Show football all weekend, see if I care, And for

515
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 2: the first time all day, he didn't yell back at me.

516
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 2: He's like, what's show sports all weekend long? That's great?

517
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 2: And then about an hour later we figured out not

518
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 2: just on the weekend, but all sports all day every day.

519
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 2: And you know what, I tell that in the twenty

520
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 2: first century you lose a little of flavor. But you

521
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 2: remember in the seventies there were only three networks. Not

522
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 2: everybody had remote control. The most important factor in determining

523
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 2: your ratings was the lead in show. If you came

524
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 2: in after a top rated show, you had an audience.

525
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 2: And we said we will beat the in. A sports

526
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 2: fan will turn on our network before turning on one

527
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 2: of the other three. And that's just what happened.

528
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: Well, and I think I saw it the other day.

529
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: I think ninety six of the top one hundred shows

530
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: on TV last year were NFL games. Sports have become

531
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: sort of the American focus.

532
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 2: They've become the American focus, but also the rest of

533
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 2: the media landscape has become so fragmented. The term we

534
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 2: used in nineteen seventy nine was narrow casting. The idea

535
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 2: was you had these three networks were broadcasting, and we

536
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 2: were going to be for a narrow target audience. We've

537
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 2: lost that distinction.

538
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: I had a parallel story. I talked to Ted Turner

539
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 1: one time. He owned Channel seventeen, which was showing old reruns,

540
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: and he read this article in the trade journal that

541
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: time Warner was looking at a nationwide system and he thought,

542
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: you know, they're really smart, so he actually put Channel

543
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: seventeen on satellite faster than time Warner could study putting

544
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: HBO up, and then he bought the Braves because he

545
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: needed filler for Channel seventeen.

546
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 2: So the very first cable convention I ever went to

547
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 2: when we were exploring this was in New Hampshire and

548
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 2: Superstation TBS was going to come up and make a

549
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 2: presentation and Turner had this pitch where he said, you

550
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 2: can get NHL hockey and he showed a Bruins game,

551
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 2: and you can get you know, Major League Baseball, and

552
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 2: he showed the Red Sox or something. Really, it was

553
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 2: all Atlanta teams. It was all he'd get on his network,

554
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 2: but he was selling it perstantly.

555
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: Then I talked years ago to Jay Rockefeller, who when

556
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 1: he was governor of West Virginia became a fan of

557
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: the Braves because it was the only team that was

558
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,479
Speaker 1: being sent in by satellite for him to watch.

559
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 2: Well. In the seventies, UCLA was the best college basketball team,

560
00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 2: best college basketball program ever. There are people who argue

561
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 2: that because of the satellite revolution in ESPN, that shifted

562
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 2: the balance of power back to the East Coast, and

563
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 2: the reason being the kids on the East Coast couldn't

564
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 2: stay up late enough to watch the other games when

565
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 2: everybody could watch the East Coast games. I look back

566
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 2: on that story and how much, and first of all,

567
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 2: you know, it's just it's forever ago. You can't really

568
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 2: appreciate how much the world has changed. But little shifts

569
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 2: began to have a big change. In nineteen seventy nine,

570
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 2: when we went on the air, if the President of

571
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 2: the United States gave a speech, all other broadcasting stopped

572
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:41,280
Speaker 2: because the networks all showed his speech. By nineteen eighty eight,

573
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 2: the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I lived

574
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 2: at the time, was preempting the President's speech to show

575
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 2: an acc basketball game. Once people began to have an option,

576
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 2: the interest it changed. And think about the political implications.

577
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 2: When Jimmy Carter or Richard Nixon spoke to the nation,

578
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,840
Speaker 2: almost half or more than half of the TV sets

579
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 2: in the nation were watching them. You don't have anything

580
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 2: like that.

581
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: Today, given your own personal lifetime. Does it make you

582
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 1: an optimist about the future.

583
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I have no doubt that America's best days are

584
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 2: still to come. We probably will get worse before it

585
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 2: gets better. But the reason I'm optimistic one We've been

586
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 2: through this before. Nineteen sixty eight was a terrible year.

587
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 2: You know, there were talks about the end of America

588
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 2: the Cold War. People were thought we could never win it.

589
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,720
Speaker 2: But the real reason I'm optimistic is something you mentioned earlier.

590
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 2: Eighty nine percent of America still believe our founding ideals

591
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,240
Speaker 2: are worth fighting for free speech, freedom, equality, and self

592
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 2: governance as long as we remain committed to those things.

593
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 2: And we have to fight the elite one percent to

594
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,800
Speaker 2: make sure that we carry the day. But that will

595
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 2: ensure a bright future, for our kids, for our children

596
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 2: and grandchildren.

597
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 1: Scott, I want to thank you for joining me. You're

598
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,719
Speaker 1: truly one of the exceptional leaders on conveying public opinion,

599
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: but also on conveying a buoyant, optimistic sense of an

600
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 1: American future, something which Ronald Reagan would have treasured. And

601
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,360
Speaker 1: I want to let our listeners know they can visit

602
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:21,720
Speaker 1: your website at rmgresearch dot com to learn more about

603
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 1: what your public opinion research firm does to help leaders

604
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,400
Speaker 1: understand more about key issues. And I think this has

605
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,480
Speaker 1: been a great conversation and I'm very grateful to you

606
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:31,959
Speaker 1: take the time well.

607
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 2: I've enjoyed it. And by the way, anytime you put

608
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 2: my name in the same sentence as Ronald Reagan, I

609
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 2: consider that a good day.

610
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: Thank you to my guest, Scott Rasmussen. You can get

611
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,319
Speaker 1: a link to view his report on the Elite one

612
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: Percent on our show page at Newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld

613
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: is produced by Ganglis three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive

614
00:34:56,480 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: producer is Guarnsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The

615
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special

616
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,839
Speaker 1: thanks to the team at Gingrich three sixty. If you've

617
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 1: been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts

618
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: and both rate us with five stars and give us

619
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: a review so others can learn what it's all about.

620
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,799
Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of Newtsworld can sign up for my

621
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: three freeweekly columns at gingrishtree sixty dot com slash newsletter.

622
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,239
Speaker 1: I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Newtsworld