Can Republicans and Democrats truly navigate the choppy seas of American politics together? This week's conversation with Melissa Thompson, a staunch Republican to my Democrat, proves it's possible. Embark on a journey with us as we dissect political echo chambers amplified by technology, the alarming rise of fear-based campaigning, and take a wild detour into the "Mitch McConnell Clone Theory."
Can Republicans and Democrats truly navigate the choppy seas of American politics together? This week's conversation with Melissa Thompson, a staunch Republican to my Democrat, proves it's possible. Embark on a journey with us as we dissect political echo chambers amplified by technology, the alarming rise of fear-based campaigning, and take a wild detour into the "Mitch McConnell Clone Theory."
What's up, gang? It's Trenisha English and you are listening to the Things you Should Know podcast. I never thought I would say this, but I long for the George Bush of it all right, when Republicans and Democrats would say the Dick Lugers, yes, the Orrin Hatches, the like yeah, the yeah the. It was like okay and like okay, before he went crazy, yeah, before yeah, hmm, we've got.
Speaker 2:I mean, we can always talk about politics, but we can always you know what?
Speaker 1:can we, let's, let's do. Uh, what is the?
Speaker 2:an ebony and ivory that's not really what I want to call it um differing opinions. So, but not not, not really just just on different sides well, actually.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, let's talk about this. So we mentioned this earlier, um, that melissa and I, I think we said we have different opinions, but I don't think that's true. I think we just classify ourselves in different ways. Um, and I think the biggest way that we classify ourselves, that comes into and this is the thing. Like it actually doesn't come into conflict. So, melissa, I'm gonna out you on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Melissa is a republican, that is true today born and raised currently in this moment at this moment I'm still a republican um, and I get in three months.
Speaker 1:She may not be teetering. Teetering, that's right. Um, I actually have, uh we have a mutual friend that often refers to you as a bad republican, which I tell her like. I don't think that that's true. I think melissa is just an actual republican, and what the republican party is becoming is not quite that but it's not the same.
Speaker 1:It's true um, I classify myself as a democrat. Uh, we are living in a very contentious time where usually people who classify themselves as Republicans or Democrats have decided that they cannot coexist, and we are literally an example about how that doesn't actually have to be. It's true. It's very true, I was actually thinking about this the other day, like how do we get here? Do you? Do you remember? Do you recall? Like I remember, like donald j.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, okay, yeah great signal you're right like 2016.
Speaker 1:2016, that's when it happened well and I think I I was saying this to someone earlier like at some point, politics has become less about governing right and more about it's become. The death of american politics is american competition, because it's more it's politics are gearing more towards sports than they are the, the more you talk, the more thoughts I have.
Speaker 1:Just so you know yeah, it's all gonna come out in a second. Yeah, the tension I feel like it is. It is easier for me to be in a room with a boilermaker that's a true indiana hoosier and like then it is to like really talk about what do we need to do to help our society advance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think there's. It is competition, but it's more than that too. It's about control, yeah, and it's about controlling a narrative, but I also think we've been done a disservice by how smart we've gotten from a technology standpoint, because so many don't get me wrong I love my father, um, but my father, based on what he reads on Facebook, is then fed more of what he reads on Facebook, and so that just starts to create a narrative in his head that all people are like this. He's not getting multiple opinions, and I believe that that's a big part of where this divide has happened, because all you're seeing is the same information being fed to you and not all of the information. And so what has, to some degree, both parties have done is dove right into that, and if we continue to play on that like you can watch the watch the commercials right now for the guys running for governor eric doden, playing right into the fact that he is a christian and that god told him to run and that he's the only one that's going to bring his faith to to the, that is playing into a narrative. Mike braun, playing right into the fact that the southern border is a mess and that those people are coming to Indiana and harming our people. I saw another one today for Susan Crouch, who's gotten all in on fentanyl and how it's killing, and so what we're doing is playing to the fear of Americans instead of actually saying this is what I can, instead of actually saying this is what I can do for the country. This is why I'm good, and I mean to take it one step further.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was having this conversation last week with my sister and brother and their spouses and we were talking about why is why? Why are these our options? And 330, 350 million people, and over half of those people are age that they could be president, and this is what we've got. And so how do we? Why are we here? And I I looked at, I looked at my parents and my sister-in-law's parents and I said because they are looking at their bottom line and financially, they were in a better spot four years ago than they are today.
Speaker 2:Is that Donald Trump's fault? Is that Joe Biden's fault? Maybe, maybe not, but that's what they're looking at and they're being, then they're being fed lines of fear that it was. It is Joe Biden that you aren't doing. You aren't. You don't have this much money anymore, and so I think we've spent so much time feeding into the fear of Americans, and then, and then, we've told everybody it's okay to have these conversations where you're attacking people and that they're wrong, instead of looking at people as a whole person, that they could be um, you know they could. They, all these other pieces, there are multiple facets to them and but no, they're a republican, they're a democrat.
Speaker 1:Therefore, I have to hate you one or the other yeah, or like we can't work together, there can't be compromised, right? Like I think about, like what happened to coming to the middle. Like what happened to realizing not everyone's going to be happy. We just have to make the choice is going to be the best. Like I agree and I, you really talked about how it's happening on the Republican side and again, all of this is happening on the Democratic side. Right, the news that you're fed the narratives. Right, you're never seeing the other side. No one's ever bringing up the positive. It's you're wrong. You're wrong, you're wrong. What can I do to be right? And this is not about selecting someone who not even has your best interest in in mind or really truly aligns with your values. Right, or will create the space that we all can thrive. It's about the d on my chest and you've got one there and so I vote for you.
Speaker 1:Like it's extremism on both sides. It's fear mongering on both sides. It's they're wrong. They're trying to take us back in time. They're trying to. And like I love that you're talking about. Like the multifacets of people and their perspectives. Like your perspective truly colors how you feel about these things, how you show up. Right, like as someone who is a part of a minority group. It's really easy for me to say the government should be doing X, y and Z to make sure that I can succeed. That's really easy to say and it's also really easy to sell that my success will only like hinder someone else's right that is easy to sell and if we don't, I love that.
Speaker 1:You said that we got too smart. But if we don't engage, if we don't have those conversations, if we, if we don't say, hey, you feel differently than me, help me understand or talk to me about why you feel this way, instead of saying no, you're wrong and here's why no one wants to hear that, in the same way that we got too smart, we got dumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, because now, because we are allowing, we created, we got smart and created these algorithms that can feed us the information we want to see. But we also got dumb in the sense that we stopped reading differing opinions. Yeah, and we're only this, and we're not smart enough to realize that we're only being fed one opinion, and the more I read about one opinion, the more it's going to give me that same opinion or try to take me down a different path.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you're reinforcing, but we've created echo chambers Like we've really created. This is what I feel, and I only want to be with people who feel, think and believe just like I do. It's comforting. Maybe I don't know, I think that's kind of scary, but I think, in an effort to get to that, to surround yourself with people that you that look, think, feel the same way you do people are missing the opportunities to open the world, like the world has gotten so much bigger with technology and gotten so much smaller in the way that we like our mindsets.
Speaker 2:And I think you and I were, you and I were privileged in the fact that we grew up with parents who wanted us to see all opinions.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, Like I'm. I'm as white as you want to get, and yet I grew up in a very black neighborhood and I was forced and yet I grew up in a very black neighborhood and I was forced to figure out how to have relationships with people that didn't look like me. Otherwise I wasn't going to have any friends, Right and so. But I think situations like that force us to then listen to different opinions and to your point of we have to. You stop growing if all you're doing is is hanging out with people that look like you and think like you. Yeah, right, and so you have to be willing and be open to all of those perspectives and those ideas yeah, pushing people challenging, like having someone who's going to challenge your thinking, I think is the best and it's okay to be able to stand there and say this is what I believe.
Speaker 2:That's fine. This is how I feel. But I've also heard what you believe and I can respect you for the fact that you believe that, as long as you respect me for what I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, 100. And that, honestly what we're talking about, melissa, which feels so natural, feels so common to us, somehow in our country has become a very heavy lift.
Speaker 2:I can't have this conversation with my dad and we're both republicans like I can't well.
Speaker 1:And there are democrats that I can't have this conversation with right. There are democrats that will be like, oh my god, she's a republican. Yeah, it's not a curse.
Speaker 2:Like I mean like, let's talk about, let's talk about my birthday party, right. Like there's gonna be republicans and democrats. There's some that are way far right, and then there's, you know, we're starting to grow the democrat into the table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and yes, there are a lot of folks that are. Well, I wouldn't call any of those ladies that come far right, because that's not really the crowd, but they are definitely conservatives.
Speaker 1:They are what I would call a traditional conservative and definitely some very liberal democrats, and something about crestinis and alcohol makes all of that go away and some and some really good prime rib yeah, it's just like there's commonality, commonality and everything, and I think if folks maybe started there, instead of saying where are we different this is about to sound so, barney Instead of saying where we're different, we can come back to saying like where are we the same? What are the things that we can agree on? And, at the end of the day, I think all Americans can agree on that we want to live in a place where we can thrive, where we can reach the goals that we've set and that our children.
Speaker 2:That mean you don't have but kids right, but that everybody can thrive, I think, is where you're going. Right is that everybody can thrive and everybody has that opportunity and it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is or what language you speak or what you know, where you came from. And yeah, don't even get me started immigration, because I'm not a republican at all.
Speaker 1:I think you're a Republican. I think your party has been co-opted and we've talked about this Listen. Being a Republican is about being in a tax bracket. I'd love to be in that tax bracket. A quick thing you should know, if you haven't already. Subscribe to the things you should know podcast, wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I mean it just. I I'm with you, bill. I long, for long for that day when people just were civil.
Speaker 1:My word, we're civil yeah, we're like, listen I this is about doing what my constituents need, right well, and it's creating a place, what's best for the country, the country right like this is what's going to move the country forward, and not, oh no, we draw this.
Speaker 1:We've drawn this line in the sand like, right, like you've got donald trump calling lawmakers and saying don't sign this bipartisan bill that y'all worked on, that y'all did that, y'all got everything that y'all wanted. Don't sign it because it's not good for my political career. What? When do we get there? When this is sport, this is sports. This is sports. Don't sub him in. That's not what we need to do, like it's essentially it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's, you know, and you've got. Oh, don't, just, I can't. I mean you've got him the day that, the day that nikki haley steps out, he's called her bird brain three times in his press conference, like I mean this, just the, the vitriol that comes out of him in in the narcissism, it's just yeah, and. And we got hundreds of millions of people signing up for this again again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and don't get me wrong, we haven't talked about our homeboy sleepy joe, my homeboy sleepy joe back to my point 350 million people in this country, and those are our two options, and not only that, there are two options this is also sitting with me four years ago, when we did this, we didn't want them to be our two options.
Speaker 2:Then, like we still haven't even grown to like these options no, they're still just as bad, and yet we can't get it together enough to find different ones damn he's not gonna quit.
Speaker 1:No, he's not. So we there has to be a way to make him quit. I know that there are all of these legal issues that he has around him. I know that there are a lot of liberals who have a lot of faith and hope don't okay, do you remember?
Speaker 2:I just want to remind them who appointed those judges exactly.
Speaker 1:I don't, I have, no, I don't think that this yeah, I don't think this is gonna happen.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's, I have, an outside hope that that something happens. I I do, but I don't think it will because, he appointed those judges. Look exactly what happened this week with the supreme court and putting him back on the ballot in colorado. Now was now. Was colorado correct in taking him off where they could, they legally do it?
Speaker 1:there are some issues, yeah, but he appointed every single one of those, not every one of them, but he reported the last like yeah, the significant amount, a significant amount of them right, right with your homie Mitch McConnell, who prevented Barack Obama from filling one of the slots right and held it for when Donald Trump became president. So, yeah, I don't have a lot of faith in it. I do will say I think everyone's right in this. Colorado is right he shouldn't be allowed to be on the ballot and the Supreme Court is right that Colorado can't make that decision, like states can't make that decision.
Speaker 2:And you see that because it was a unanimous decision. So even the people that weren't appointed by him, that are more left-leaning, understand the Constitution, and that's the way they voted, which is the right way to vote.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But so many of these judges were appointed by him yeah or his administration.
Speaker 1:Well, and what. And we're just like even the supreme court. We're also talking about lower court judges, like they like mitch mcconnell when we, when it's all said and done, mitch mcconnell's legacy will be the number of judges that he were appointed under his leadership.
Speaker 2:Like it's insane, the amount of judges that were and they're clearly willing to they're clearly willing to fight dirty too right, like look at what they're doing to the, to the da and in georgia, where they're just literally destroying this woman's life in order to find any little loophole, in order to get the charges dropped. Like they will stop at nothing. Nothing, yeah, nothing.
Speaker 2:So I just I don't think, go to my conspiracy theory, which is jeffrey epstein didn't kill himself, so I don't know if that I feel like that's a well-held belief which goes back to other people, and another, maybe president and wife, who would stop at nothing too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Listen, it's all, it's all dirty. It's all about power, right.
Speaker 2:It's all about power.
Speaker 1:Oh, Melissa, thank you so much for enjoying my conspiracy theories and never judging me. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Um, really appreciate you. Uh, thank you all for listening. Like, subscribe, share um, and I will see you next time. Okay, bye. You think that's still really the original mitch mcconnell, or you think it's a clone? You think you got switched out? You think that's why he said the glitches?
Speaker 2:I forgot how much of a conspiracy theorist you were I love a good, I know you do.
Speaker 1:That's a that's a great question I don't know. I don't know if I think it's the original mitch mcconnell. I think the original mitch mcconnell actually probably died already. I mean, you might not be wrong. And the and now the the uh clone mcconnell is having so many glitches that they're like we got to pull you out of the public spotlight.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting I'm. That's an interesting theory.
Speaker 1:Can't say I'm wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got, I mean yeah.