Two Drinks In Again
Dave and Jeff have (at least) two drinks and talk about the goings-on in the Knoxville metro area. Sports, music, restaurants, movies, and really anything is up for discussion. Join us for some information and a lot of laughs.
Two Drinks In Again
Episode 41 - A VERY SPECIAL INDEPENDENCE DAY
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Jeff goes rogue and records a solo episode for this "very special episode." (Makes one think of the TV show "Blossom", doesn't it?)
The fabric of America seems to be unraveling before our eyes. As we mark the 249th anniversary of our nation's founding, this raw, unfiltered episode captures one citizen's heartbreak and concern over recent political developments that threaten the very foundations of our democratic experiment.
Recorded on July 4th, 2025, just days after the passage of the controversial "Big Beautiful Bill," this deeply personal reflection examines the widening gap between America's founding principles and its current trajectory. Drawing from the Declaration of Independence's timeless words about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we confront uncomfortable questions: What happens when elected officials prioritize power over people? What responsibilities do we bear as citizens when our leaders abandon their duty to represent all Americans?
The conversation doesn't shy away from difficult topics - from healthcare cuts that threaten the most vulnerable among us to the normalized political violence that would have been unthinkable just years ago. For anyone working in healthcare or dependent on Medicaid, the potential impacts of these policy changes create real, human consequences that extend far beyond partisan talking points.
Yet amid this critical examination of America's challenges, a stubborn optimism persists. Throughout our history, we've weathered dark periods before - from civil war to economic depression to civil rights struggles - and emerged stronger for having faced them. This episode seeks not just to identify problems but to inspire the collective action needed to reclaim America's promise.
Whether you lean left, right, or center, this thought-provoking discussion invites you to look beyond partisan divides and consider what kind of country we want to build for future generations. Join us for this special Independence Day episode that reminds us why, despite everything, America's story isn't finished yet.
Independence Day Reflections
Speaker 1Two Drinks and Again was not taped before a live studio audience. Hey friends, this is Jeff. I'm doing this as a solo effort. Today it's July 4th 2025.
Speaker 1And I just kind of wanted to send a happy Independence Day message and talk about some of the events that have been going on in our country over the last few weeks, more specifically what we have dealt with this past week with the passing of the big, beautiful bill. I want to read to you something from the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these hands, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Likely to affect their safety and happiness. So that's a bit to digest what Thomas Jefferson and his compatriots wrote 249 years ago.
Speaker 1I have spent a lot of time thinking about this great experiment that has been the United States of America. Where do we go from here, united States of America? Where do we go from here? And you know it leaves me just at a loss. I am, you know I've made this very clear on other episodes. You know I'm left of center, david is right of center and that's fine. You know we can still be friends and we still have a wonderful relationship. You know there are people in my corner who just refuse to talk to anyone on the right or they think that all Republicans are evil. I think that's counterproductive. I deal with this within the circle of my own family and my extended family that you know Republicans suck, and you know, and they pick and choose what information they want to hear. So if I try to talk with a family member about Jake Tapper's book on the cover up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline, well, I don't care what Jake Tapper has to say. Well, I do I, because that's a problem and this is why the Democrats lost last year.
Speaker 1You know I try to talk about Ezra Klein's book, abundance and how it is that we pass great things with the Inflation Reduction Act, but you know carrying out all of that and I said this in a previous episode you know we talked about how to get the rural broadband. They divided the country up into like 56 regions and you know there were like a 14 step process of everything you have to go through. That's completely overregulated. You have to deal with questions as what's your diversity of your contractors? You know their hiring of their workers and everything like that, which, look, that's great and I'm all for it. I'm all for diversity and everyone getting an equal chance, but I'm not for it to the point where it completely derails forward progress of this nation. And I think that's where at least the left tends to lose a little bit. They get so focused on the identity politics that they tend to lose sight of the big, big picture.
Declaration of Independence: Where Are We Now?
Speaker 1Week with the big beautiful bill that Trump and the Republicans have put together, that they have postured it mostly as well. It's about, you know, cutting taxes to the rich, increasing but also cutting, you know, benefits to the less rich, and I guess for me me I don't take the path, like I was saying, of well, you all suck and everything like that. I guess I want to understand the mindset of the people that voted for this in the first place. That most. You know quite a few people, particularly in my area of the woods here in East Tennessee. You know quite a few people, particularly in my area of the woods here in East Tennessee. You know who are not economically fortunate but yet went ahead and for some reason thought this guy was going to have their back, and it's just so clear that he doesn't. They are the first people that I feel are going to be hurt and there's a part of me that wants to be sympathetic for when they have that realization moment. But then there's another part of me that says Well, dude, what do you want? You know you hated people of color enough to vote for this guy and now it's kind of blown up in your face. So you know my practice. We take a lot of Medicaid. We're about 50%. Medicaid is what my practice is 40 to 40 to 50%, something along those lines, and I'm kind of.
Speaker 1You know people have asked me well, do you get concerned how this is going to affect your world and whatnot? Honestly, not overly, it appears that, based on what things will be gone after, first it will be the elderly and the adults that take the hit. I think kids will be further down the rung of the ladder. These cuts in funding don't really take place until 2029. I'm looking at retiring at the end of 2031, beginning of 2032, if all goes according to my plan. So, yes, in a in a you know, moment of self centeredness doesn't affect me or my practice very much.
Speaker 1I do worry about how it's going to affect, though, the people that rely on these uh benefits, entitlements, whatever it is you want to call them uh in order to survive. Um, I don't know what it is. The people behind project 2025? People in the trump administration, president trump, stephen miller I don't know what it is. Their vision is for America, because to me it just seems like it's all very cruel. They want to kick people off their health care, meanwhile polluting the rivers, polluting the air, deforesting national parks I don't know what their plan is put. What condominiums there or apartment complexes defund any research that might cure some of these illnesses, cure cancer? It's very frustrating for me. I'm very puzzled by what is the outcome that they are seeking, and is that outcome that they just truly don't give a shit about you and me? And really, it's just about how well they can line their pockets. Donald Trump, I totally see that being the case.
Speaker 1I have a harder time envisioning JD Vance as being someone like that. I want to think that he's smarter than that, and he has let me down at every turn every turn to the Congress, people in Congress, in the Republican party, both senators and congressmen. I guess I'm just curious as to why you fold like a cheap card table Whenever he says something like what does he have on you? What are you so afraid of, what that he's going to primary somebody against you? They couldn't. They spent tens and tens of millions of dollars up in Wisconsin for a Supreme Court judge election and they failed. So why is it you feel he's going to be able to put some person up against you that's going to take you out of your of being the Republican nominee? I mean, then you still have to answer to your opponent on the Democratic side, and that's what I'm confused with.
Speaker 1I'm confused with what is it that you're afraid of? And why can't you just be honorable about it, throw yourself on your sword and saying sweet Jesus, no, I'm not going to let this happen, but you're more concerned about holding on to your seat in Congress than you are about doing good for the very people that you represent. Frankly, to be honest, for all the Republicans and I guess that's every single one of you who voted for the big, beautiful bill I really hope you get voted out of your seat. I hope you can live with yourselves. I'm not going to try to prognosticate how this is going to play out next year. I'm hopeful that this means that we'll at least get the House when I say we, I mean Democrats. We'll get the House back, and that will then put some guardrails up into what can happen going forward.
Speaker 1But there's also a part of me that fears that the damage has been done. You know, I'm on the verge of retirement, about six years out from that, and so, yes, there is this selfish part of me that's like, well, this is not my problem, but I do think about my kids and I think about my future grandkids and I think about everyone else who gets to stay behind and be affected by this. I don't know. I wish I knew how everyone, the people that feel good about this how do you feel good about this? There's nothing good that has happened here. Medicaid is going to be gutted. There are people that are going to die.
Speaker 1For those of you who saw the video clip of Joni Ernst talking to her um constituency and someone in the back of the room yells we're all going to die. And she just, I mean that whole condescending, well, we're all going to die. How do you live with yourself for even talking to someone like that, people that are just, you know, god forbid. They get a serious illness and now they don't have any way to be treated and, yes, they're just going to die. So what, fuck them? Is that where we are? Is that where this country's culture has become? And that's on a macro level where I really start to take a bigger step back and say what's happened to our country.
The Big Beautiful Bill and Its Consequences
Speaker 1Why is it that half of our country is just so hateful and so violent? And how is it they're okay with everything that's gone on around here? We had a representative I'm just going off memory here of the news from Minnesota who was shot and her husband was killed as well. And then another legislator was shot and his wife was shot, and they're okay now. But like this is where we're at, like we're just going to shoot people that disagree with us. I'm sorry, that's not how this country works, that that's not how this world works, and if this, if this is indeed how people want the country to be, then I'm out, I'm done. I I will try to wrap up my time here and I will get the hell out of here. I can't.
Speaker 1I don't know how people on the other side who call themselves Christians go to church every Sunday, knowing the way they feel about people that may have a different skin color than they, that may have different socioeconomic status than they, and they don't think about the lessons of Christ. You know the very least of what you did to them. You did to me. I mean, I keep going back to, I've seen that posted all over social media and, yeah, you know the least of what you did for them. You did to me, and that's where we're at. I mean, I don't know. I don't know where it's at at this point. It's saddening. I don't know what our future is going to hold.
Speaker 1I am not doom and gloom negative about it. Like I do believe that this is just a dark moment in our country's history and that this too shall pass and we will come out the other side, hopefully having learned from some things Do. I think there needs to be a reckoning for some of the people that were so complicit in allowing this to happen. Yes, I do. I, you, you don't. I think people of the world like Stephen Miller, christy Noem, um, even people a little further down the chain like John Thune, definitely, mike Johnson, I think you need to be held accountable for what you've done here and you've deliberately hurt Americans and you laugh about it and you think that it's funny, and I think it's really sad, I think it's tragic. Even I never thought in a million years this is where our country would be here on our 249th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 1Every year, on the 4th of July, I take the opportunity to watch the movie of the musical 1776. Back in 2014, I had the benefit of playing the role of John Adams in that play at the Oak Ridge Playhouse. And there are. You know, it's it. It's. It's interesting to watch even the politics of what had to be dealt with during that time in terms to get everyone to sign off on writing this document that told king george the third to fuck right off.
Speaker 1Um, I don't know if, if we're made of that kind of substance anymore. Um, if enough people can get together and say no, no hell if we're made of that kind of substance anymore. If enough people can get together and say no, no, hell, no, we're not going to let this happen to our country. I don't know what leader has to emerge from this wreckage to guide us forward, or if it's just this, is it, it's over. We played our hand, we did what we could. And to the Republicans, I mean look, you guys know how to play the long game. I have to tip my hat to you for that. You do it better.
Speaker 1To the Democrats, just kind of, they get to that moment where they've won and then they take their foot off the gas and they don't realize that there's still work to be done. No, republicans, even when they lose, they regroup things. They're going to have to get rid of this gerontocracy that exists, because those guys aren't helping you. And I apologize to any people you know, 65 years and older, but I'm sorry in the Democratic Party, but you are the problem and this notion that we just need to listen to you and that you get to tell us how it is. We have to believe yeah, no, that's not happening here. We will tell you what needs to be, what's important in this country. We will tell you what our platform needs to be and you're just going to step aside and you're going to let it happen, because that's the only way we're going to get this country back Economically.
Speaker 1Well, it's frustrating when you see this big, beautiful bill pass and on the flip side you see that the market has largely recovered. I guess we'll see. He's got some things about tariffs that he wants to talk about in the near future, so we'll see what that does to the market. But to watch the market creep back to where we were during the Biden era okay, I didn't see that coming it confounds me to think that this is. You know, his economic policies are actually going to work and if they do, then they do, and we just have to live with that. I'm not going to say it's any genius on his part, I'm not. I don't want to give him that much credit, but it's again, it's all very head scratching a Supreme court that you never know how they're going to rule on anything.
Healthcare Cuts, Politics, and Personal Impact
Speaker 1And one minute. You know you feel like Amy Coney Barrett has gotten, you know, has seen a little, gotten a little religion, and she's seen some of the policies and how harmful they are, but then rolls over for the big ones and and just just says, no, you get to do whatever the hell you want. I don't like that. That's not what our country was founded on, and both SCOTUS and Congress have just completely abdicated their responsibilities as checks and balances in our form of government, and this is what our founding fathers originally feared, what they wrote about. You know, when a tyrant arises, that we, you know that we are to stand up and say, no, we're not going to have this. So, friends, I don't know, I, you know, kind of, just I was going to write down notes and talk about things that were on my mind about this and then I just decided well, screw it, I'll wing it. I will also tell you that I'm more than two drinks in again.
Speaker 1I've been out all day on the boat with my wife and and you know, some friends who are visiting. It was a beautiful day, we had a lovely time out. We, you know, we got to enjoy each other's company. Take our minds off what's going on nationwide at the macro level. But it's sad there's been a part of me.
Speaker 1This morning, as I drove to the gym I just thought about everything that's happened over the last week or two and my you know my eyes got a little misty over that. I was very sad. I'm sad that this is where we're at. For those of you who think what's happened is a good thing, you're going to have to talk me through that. I just don't get it. I don't understand it at all.
Speaker 1So I did this as a solo gig, mostly because David's work schedule is such that you know it's hard for us to find time to get together and do this, you know, and I don't want there to be too many gaps between episodes, but I thought it'd be nice just to do a deep episode that's sadly less laughter, but and but and more serious topics of what's going on in the country. And so here I am today, more than two drinks in and just kind of ruminating on where our country has been, where it is gone, on where our country has been, where it has gone, and that you know I'm trying not to be despondent about it and I hope many of you out there aren't as despondent about it. I'm interested in there being, just on social media, the lack of outrage at the bill passing and probably to be signed later today. I just on my Facebook feed, I don't see any outrage whatsoever. And is that just where we're? Also where we're at? Are we just that numb to what he has done in our social media atmosphere, in our, you know, media atmosphere? Is it just we're so exhausted? I know I'm exhausted by him and I really just would love it if he would go away.
Speaker 1There's been nothing good about anything he's done here and I guess some of you want to look upon him with hero worship that he, you know, oh, let's have a businessman run this country as a business. Well, government is not business, and you can't, you know? I mean, he's trying. He's certainly trying with the. You're fired across the board, but it's problematic when he doesn't have a plan for, well, what's next? And then that's just it. He just thinks he can make these blanket decisions and there's no follow-up. Well, what are you going to do about this? Now that you've done away with this? How are we supposed to manage this? How are we supposed to manage that? And it's clear to me that he and his inner circle don't have anything laid out at all and I just don't feel that they care about you. They laid out at all, and they, I just don't feel that they care about you. They don't care about any of us. They just want to make as much money as they can, and the minute we're kind of onto what they're doing, they'll do a distraction.
Speaker 1The bombs that they dropped in Iran, I think they were just something that was to take some of the focus off our government for what they were doing with the big beautiful bill, among other things. There's a lot of things going on that our government's involved in. We have, you know, the big beautiful bill. We have all the social injustice that's going on around here towards black and brown people. We have people being just taken off the streets and deported to countries that they have no fucking idea where they're at. And even if they were to be freed in one of these countries, how the hell are they going to get home? I think it would be best served if it were on Prozac, you know and again, I don't know how anybody is, anybody who voted for this. I don't know how you're okay with it. This is not the country that I envisioned.
The Future of America: Concerns and Hopes
Speaker 1On my Facebook page, I posted a clip to the Queen song Is this the World we Created? And that's kind of how I feel like. Is this where our country's at? Are we just this hateful and this angry at each other that we just want finger pointing and blame and we're willing to just forego the law, due process to get these people who we're trying to blame out of our country? And that's not what we're based on. The line from Hamilton immigrants, we get things done. That's exactly it.
Speaker 1I don't think this is going to go well for the people who are sitting on the sidelines rooting for all of this, on the sidelines rooting for all of this. So where do we go from here? I don't again. I kind of don't know. I I'm hoping that you know, assuming we have elections in 2026, that you know the Democrats will regain the house and there will be some guardrails and speed bumps in the way now of any further damage that can be done. But, like I said earlier, I think the damage has already been done. That's, if there's elections and if there aren't, to those of you who voted for him, you don't have any right to go. Well, that's not what I thought he meant.
Speaker 1They gave you the playbook. The playbook was in the wide open and none of you decided to read. None of you wanted to listen to legacy media, although I will say that legacy media has failed us. And now that cbs uh, you know and paramount have collapsed like a you you know house of cards to Donald Trump's bullshit lawsuit over the Kamala Harris interview on 60 Minutes, it, just it. Just. It's about, like the you were the guys who stood up to the tobacco industry back in the day is the movie Insider so well, documents like what happened, because what some of the owners want to this merger to take place and they could give a shit about truth and getting the news, the correct news, out to the people so they can make a billion dollar, billions of dollars in a deal, in a merger. Again, I don't know how these people live with themselves. Again, I don't know how these people live with themselves. So, yeah, that's where we are, fourth of July 2025.
Speaker 1For me, a little depressing, but I, you know, there's a little bit of Nellie Forbush in me in that I'm a cockeyed optimist and, you know, I hope that this will all pass Again, this is just a moment that we're having, and we've had these moments in our country's history, and we seem to come out the other side a lot better at the end of the day and I'm hoping that's what we're at here lot better at the end of the day and I'm hoping that's what we're at here. My, my character of John Adams. Well, he, he opens the play with a long monologue. That pretty much sums up my current feelings about Congress and really how I felt about Congress for the last decade or so. In fact, I remember when I opened the play, one of the performances with this speech, that the audience then applauded in the middle of my speech and it really kind of took me back a little bit.
Speaker 1It goes like this they say that one useless man is a disgrace little bit. It goes like this they say that one useless man is a disgrace. The two are called a law firm and three or more become a Congress, and by God I've had this Congress. Well, yes, by God I've had this Congress. Happy Independence Day, friends. We'll come through this together. Stay vigilant, stay strong. God bless America.
Finding Optimism in Dark Times
Speaker 2The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun. Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow till there's none. When I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, I just stick out my chin and grin and say, oh, the sun will come out tomorrow. So you've got to hang on till tomorrow, come what may. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you. Tomorrow, you're always a day away. The sun will come out tomorrow, so you gotta hang on to tomorrow. Come with me Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you. Tomorrow, you're always a day away. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you. Tomorrow, you're always a day away.
