Whiskey & Donuts
Whiskey & Donuts is where sharp analysis - and maybe a shot or two of speculation - meets unfiltered conversation, tackling politics, culture, and the issues that matter with a mix of logic, humor, and straight talk. No echo chambers, no nonsense -just real discussions with a side of wit and a strong pour of common sense.
Whiskey & Donuts
Democrats Aren't Listening As Young Voters Shift Right
We explore the Democratic Party's strategic challenges following their 2024 election defeat and examine how demographic shifts might reshape American politics between now and 2032.
• Democrats must honestly assess why they lost rather than doubling down on failed strategies
• Migration from blue states to red states is reshaping the electoral map in Republicans' favor
• Young voters are shifting rightward with a more balanced approach to masculinity and identity
• Tre' again declares America may never elect a California Democrat unless they break from the coastal progressive mold
• Blue cities in red states like Austin are often more effective at addressing issues like housing than blue cities in blue states
• Future Democratic success requires candidates who can appeal beyond coastal states and progressive bases
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um, can we talk about the democrats really quickly? Because, man, I am. I've been on one the last several days, since our last conversation and I just just I can't believe it. I'm sitting here trying to connect the dots for these people and I don't want to say it in such a condescending sounding way, but my baseline is that I just can't help it. They're just not listening and I wish that they would.
Speaker 1:I'm arguing with this one guy on my Facebook there and he's like why are you telling us to do all this stuff, us being Democrats? Why don't you go ask the GOP for it? And I'm thinking to myself okay, you do understand that you can't just show up in summer of 2028, run a candidate and hope to win the next national election. You're going to have to start laying some groundwork now. So I'm giving you guys the playbook on how to make your message more appealing to more Americans, and you start by getting out of your feelings and examining and being honest about the reasons that you lost the last election. You lost. You know you're not going to win by doubling down on what you did before. That's not the way forward, and one of the big things that I want to touch on really quickly that I went and listened to another podcast from Ezra Klein, who is with New York Times. I don't want to call him one of the, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't want to call him necessarily a liberal thought leader, but he is a pretty intelligent liberal Democrat who has the ability to be honest about where Dems stand nationally right now, which is kind of rudderless nationally right now which is kind of rudderless you know Right, to say the least Right and he said and I think I pointed this out on some of my thing previously, which is that there had been a change from 2016 to 2024 in the electorate because you now had the map redrawn after the census, and I want to say that red states had gained one or two electoral votes I can't remember the exact number since the prior census.
Speaker 1:And if you are looking at migration trends within the US, people are leaving places like New York, california, illinois and moving to places like Georgia, florida, texas and North Carolina. So, if the current trends hold, what will happen in the 2020, excuse me in the 2032 election is that by then, the Democrats could potentially win, could hold Kamala's map and win hear me out Pennsylvania, wisconsin and Michigan, which today would have gotten the Democrat to 270, which is what they need, of course.
Speaker 2:But you're not talking the next presidential election, you're talking the two presidential elections from now. So you're saying we're going to get another Republican in 2028, correct, yeah, 2028. Right? So then that then, at the end of that term, you're saying a Democrat, if they play their cards right, could possibly be elected president again.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying the exact opposite. I'm saying that in 2028, they have a shot, because in 2028,.
Speaker 2:Huh, I thought you said 2032.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about 2032 because you're going to have the census in 2030. And by then you're going to have even more of a population shift to the red states, Meaning that the best case scenario today would have been Kamala's map plus Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin In 2032,. If that were to hold, they would still lose.
Speaker 2:Do you see a trend in young voters leaning more right right now than left? I guess that would be a huge deciding factor, because that's our upcoming voters, right?
Speaker 1:That's a good question, john. That's our upcoming voters, right? That's a good question, john. I think that what we saw with this particular election was that the Dems really underperformed among younger voters. They thought they kind of had it on lock but then discovered oh, we actually did not. So that's a really good question.
Speaker 2:Do you think that young voters are just as tired of the bullshit as us older voters are? Because there's an age gap, I would say, between us and the 18-year-olds, of 2028, right, we're talking about my grandson now that's going to be voting in those two elections. Possibly so is there? Well, the 2032 for sure, and I know how he's being raised and I know how his friends are being raised, and it's a lot different than the snowflakes that were just produced in the last two voting cycle.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean yeah and I'm and I'm just curious because I see I see a shift in. You know we talked about the toxic masculinity of podcasts, but I I see a shift in that. Like you know, the things that I'm teaching my grandson and the things that my son is teaching his son are different than the things that were taught to the last two election cycles for children, and I see it. Going back to being masculine is OK. We don't have to be over masculine, we don't have to dominate every single thing, and it's OK for for women to have a voice and it's OK for the LBGTQ to have a voice and it's okay for the lbgtq to have a voice. It's and and my grandson's super accepting of all of that, but he also knows there's, you know, like hey, it's okay for me to be the way that I am also you know what I mean and that's what he and that's the way he's being raised to, where I think the last two election cycles it was.
Speaker 2:If you were a straight male, you were like oh, I have to, kind of sorry, guys, I can't, I'll just leave the room so the rest of you guys could have your say so, and I think that that's kind of going away that's a very good point.
Speaker 1:I think that you know we're seeing a men are taking a stand right, well, and women too.
Speaker 2:I see the way. I see the way that there's a ton of women out there that are like, hey, I like my men to be strong and I like it when they take care of me, and I like it when my man opens the door and I like it when he does the things that males just should be doing to just be polite.
Speaker 2:That's it, you know and that goes back to what we're saying. How about if we just raised our men and women to be different? How about if we just went back to respecting one another? Absolutely no-transcript. They better listen to me if they want to have any shot. Well, I hope they don't listen. I mean, I've never when it comes to that. I've never wanted this podcast to fail more.
Speaker 1:It was crazy, and that's John, a lot me out there on my horse talking about you have to put Gavin Newsom back in the box. Republicans want him to run, so bad, don't they? Well, I don't I don't.
Speaker 2:It's.
Speaker 2:That's kind of scary to me because I believe the same way that you believe, but I also believe that you know oh, you guys will toast him but you know, I believe that uh, weird things happen when it comes to shit like that, and elections can be won at 4 am in the morning in some backwoods place that has a water leak. You know what I mean and you just never know. Honestly, you never know what's going to happen. I mean, the powers that be are going to make what happened happen, whether we like it or whether we don't. So you can believe that it was a stolen election or not a stolen election, or you can believe all the evidence or not all the evidence. You can say it was one ferret square and Trump just sucked. Either way, you everybody thought that Kamala Harris was going to beat Donald Trump. Hands down.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not, john. You made that up, kamala.
Speaker 2:Harris was going to beat Donald Trump hands down. Absolutely not, john, you made that up. No, no. If you were listening to the CNNs and the MSNBCs and all of the pollsters, they were like, ooh, kamala Harris, she's the best thing that's ever happened to this country. You got people on your Facebook today that if you ask the question because I've read some of the questions over the last couple of days they truly believe that Kamala Harris was the best thing that's ever happened to this country.
Speaker 1:You know what? There were a lot of people who thought that she was a great candidate. And I'm like John, tell me this because you've lived in. You've lived in a few places around the country. You've lived in a few places around the country. One of the points that I've made and I actually did a whole podcast on it a minute ago was that I'm saying the United States will never elect a California Democrat. What is your belief just about that statement alone? Do you agree or disagree with that, that the US will never elect a California Democrat?
Speaker 2:man, I'd like to say no, I. But I don't know. I honestly I don't know. It's hard to say what this country is going to do. I know the rest of the country doesn't like California much.
Speaker 1:Right, john, pennsylvania. You've spent some time there. I've been some time in Michigan, wisconsin, those they don't like California.
Speaker 2:No, nobody really likes California, not even the people that are from California.
Speaker 1:Right, carolina, I haven't been to Georgia so I can't I can't really speak on that but I can tell you, in North Carolina they're not supporting a candidate from California.
Speaker 2:Hold on, I just want to go back to that one statement you just said you did a podcast before you got on this podcast.
Speaker 1:No, no, we talked about. Our last thing was I hammered.
Speaker 2:I thought you were cheating on me already.
Speaker 1:No, not yet, buddy, not yet.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know. Honestly, I guess it would depend on what kind of Democrat. I think if a Robert F Kennedy type Democrat or a Tulsi Gabbard type Democrat came out of California, you might get a Democrat elected from California. It's possible, but I don't see a Democrat like that in California. I wish we had Democrats like that in California, but I don't see them.
Speaker 1:Right, you know it's interesting I brought up that thing about Austin, texas having approved so much more housing than San Francisco, like 10x. The housing starts right. And someone's like, oh well, you can't compare the two. I'm like, well, no, what we're comparing is the fact that Texas, which is a very red state, has a blue city that's getting shit done, and that California, san Francisco, which is a blue city and a blue state, isn't getting shit done, right. Why is that? It's the red tape, right, and so those comparisons are absolutely valid.
Speaker 1:And let's talk about where Gavin came from. Wasn't he mayor of SF? Yeah, before he became governor of California. And so all the problems of California, from San Francisco on down to LA, we're going to lay at his feet. He's got an answer for that. And even no matter what his answer is, we've already decided that it's your fault, and not only is this your fault.
Speaker 1:Not only is this your fault, not only is this your fault, but you also, you know you did what you did during covid and that wasn't right you encouraged this bad behavior. People are not going to forgive him for that he's never being forgiven for that.
Speaker 2:It'll be rough, but people will forget. I mean people like my sister-in-law. I love her to death, um, and I and I've asked her about the, you know, the gavin newsom thing and she flat out said that she would vote for him because he's handsome. Oh gosh, and that, and that's. That's straight from her and I'm like well, but tell me what he's like, what there has to be something more than that, right? If we're, just if we're voting on looks, I don't know if any of the elected officials would be there.
Speaker 1:I look at.
Speaker 2:I look at some of them on both sides of the aisle and I'm like, Ooh, you guys missed that one.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, it's scary.
Speaker 2:I think that, uh think that, like I said, I think if California could produce a worthwhile Democrat, a Tulsi Gabbard, a Robert F Kennedy, an Elon Musk, somebody that has that type of persona or that type of appearance or appeal to both sides, I think that a Democrat from California could be elected. That would be my. That's my final answer. I don't want it to happen, but I think that it could.
Speaker 1:That's quite the mic, drop my friend. Well, everyone. On that note, John, I want to thank you again for your time today. Buddy, this is another fascinating conversation.
Speaker 2:We got into it like, literally, my niece is going to appreciate that Make sure you give her a shout out for us.
Speaker 1:Tell her I said thanks for those notes for sure Everyone. Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2:Any final words. Can't wait for snow white, super excited about that. Can't wait to talk to you more on that one, and then, uh, no, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Next time we're gonna have to do this to where I can have a whiskey with you, though, absolutely um, so, everyone, I want to thank you once again for tuning in, for whiskey and donuts Uh, I am your host, trey. And thanks to always John Mack for providing all the things that everyone wants to say but feel they can't. Uh, so you can say it on this show and I'm thanking you, as as always, for for doing so. Oh, that's an interesting name, as always for doing so. Oh, that's an interesting name. I asked my internet to give me a new name for Snow White, and they came up with Blanca Noir.
Speaker 2:Your paid assistant.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love this thing. All right, my man, hey, been a great one. Go eat some dinner here. Everyone, take care, we'll see you next time on Whiskey and Donuts.