Episode 3- Election Analysis 2.0

In Episode 3 of Richard Helppie's Common Bridge, Rich continues to break down the 2020 election, and teases a future discussion on the student debt crisis.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the podcast, the common bridge with Richard helpy. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology, health and finance space. He and his wife, Leslie, are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors, but with a primary focus on medically and educationally underserved children. My name is Brian Kruger. And from time to time I'll be the moderator and host of this podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:32

So welcome. Uh, today we're doing episode three of Richard healthy's common bridge. And, um, although this is a really, uh, a middle of the road conversation on just about every topic, we are hitting in, into an election cycle. So we're going to have to talk about the big white elephant in the room, and that's the election process. And that's the both parties. And we're going to talk a little bit about today about, uh, the Democrats because I think we understand who the Republican, um, uh, candidate will be. We do have some news items this week that might change that a bit. I don't think so. So let's talk a little bit about the election and rich. Um, thanks for sitting down with us again. Tell me a little bit about what you see on the horizon, uh, anywhere from the multitude of candidates that are out there. And who do you sort of, uh, like isn't the word or if it is the word or what do you see happening as this develops in the next year?

Speaker 3: 1:27

Well, Brian, uh, the a really good question and, uh, if anybody's ever a hundred percent right on this, um, you know, we should get to pick our lottery numbers or something, um, that, you know, first of all, uh, we need to examine how we got here, uh, before we can figure out where we're headed from here. Um, but you're right, my thrust in life, my, my fervent desire is that we can drop the partisanship yet to a common bridge. And the way I picked the name common bridge is this. If we want to build a supportable span over a chasm or a river, and all we do is build up the pillar on one side, that span is never going to reach the other side. It's gonna fall. So whether you're on the right bank or the left bank, um, they can't succeed on their own. And so we need to have a government again that actually responds to issues instead of responding to personalities. Um, I think 2016 presidential election, uh, was really a pivotal for a number of reasons, but not the reasons most people think. Um, but I think Americans were pretty well fed up with the two major parties. And I said at that time that the only good thing about the nomination of Donald Trump was it would destroy the establishment of the Republican party. And if you watch what's transpired since then, um, that did occur. I also said, you know, the election of Donald Trump would destroy the establishment of the democratic party. And, um, it is certainly, uh, created, uh, uh, rifts in that party, although their establishment is fighting back very, very hard. Um, you can't hardly access media or read a so-called journalistic piece without people saying what a horrible state mistake the country made in 2016 electing Donald Trump. And, uh, we're going to purge ourselves of that. And I thought to myself, okay, if it was such a horrible mistake, why isn't the other major party bringing forth the nominee they had in 2016 and giving America a chance to pick Hillary Clinton again? She's perfectly healthy to do it again. If she could. Indeed. Yeah. And which shows you how empty that argument really is. And we've all seen the behavior of our president. And look, whether you like the economy, whether you like the destruction of ISIS, whether you like the, uh, action on the border and so forth. You have to admit, every American cringes not knowing what's going to get tweeted out at three in the morning. All right. Or the constantly changing positions and so forth. All right. It's an uncomfortable time. At best. Trump has been a disruptor. Yes, indeed. Um, and all the opposition party had to do was act like adults. Get a platform that America likes and present a reasonable candidate. In fact, two of the three, it'd be a landslide. And yet what have they done? They've acted like children from the, uh, street marches, the property destruction after an election, um, to, uh, the horrible behavior at the Supreme court. Uh, nomination. All right, to the, uh, hoax investigations that are going on to the yes, this time we've got him on impeachment. It's like, give it a rest for Pete's sake. Think about a platform that America wants and come up with a candidate and everybody would get behind that. People are hunger for that. So the answer's not going to be in partisan politics. All right? I don't believe, um, you know, no matter what the outcome of the election is going to be, that people are going to go, okay, great. We've got that behind us. Um, and the really sad thing is that when you look at the people that are struggling in the Democrat primary, like John Hickenlooper, who's out well qualified to be president of the United States, um, uh, Delaney, Bennett, uh, Tulsa Gabard maybe a little early for Tulsi, but, um, these voices of reason that are not ideologues and know how to operate a government, uh, there are long out of the process at this point. And so what, and I don't think Biden will get the nomination, uh, but we've got Joe Biden who has served his country in many capacities, um, who is a, I've never met him, but apparently is a very likable guy, but he has a decades long history of making racist remarks, which he's still doing and saying things that are just inane. All right. And yet we have a, a media structure that wants to try to cover that, spin it and all. That's Joe being Joe. Well, you know, people are onto that. There's just too many media outlets, right? Um, so that, this is where we stand today. Now, I will say that, um, I think that Senator Warren from Massachusetts is running a very, very smart campaign, right? That she has focused on issues, um, to the point that's become a tagline. Um, and why I admire that because it's the only way that you can really challenge Donald Trump if you get into a personality war or try to talk about his behavior or your talk about his personality deficiencies. You know, we've seen many, many people come at that and lose and he's got 50 years of media savvy behind him. He's been on, he's been in front of the camera forever. He knows how to do this. Indeed. And, and, um, you know, there's a, there's a saying about, Oh, the only fight on the ground you can win on you. Nobody can win on that ground. And they've tried and he's just stopped everybody. Right? And there's a huge part of the population that loves watching that. So it's that immovable base they talk about. Right. Well, I think that's a little overplayed, um, because when you hear people talk about the immovable base, um, that's where the whole notion of clinging to your guns and religion come from. Where it was a planned line. It was an applause line in speeches that his supporters were deplorables. It was used twice before the national media picked it up. I remember it. Yeah. That, um, we were told that people here in the upper Midwest were too stupid to vote for Hillary Clinton. And I'm thinking, you know, why not come and hear what the people are saying? All right. And to date there has not been an apology. There's not been a, an admission that they messed up. It's been, uh, you guys are so stupid that we're just gonna change the rules, the electoral college, so we don't have to deal with your opinions. Alright. That's, you know, that's kind of the reaction that we've, we've gotten. And you think that, that, that was one of the chief results and, um, the Democrats not, not caring Wisconsin and Michigan like they normally would. Well, Hillary Clinton never went to a union hall in state of Michigan and insane. It's the birthplace of organized labor. The home of Walter Ruth or the UAW where people need to appreciate that real blood was spilled and real sacrifice were made for, to create working conditions that many of us enjoy today. Right. It's a proud history. Absolutely created our childhood. Yes, it did. And, and, uh, to not understand that. All right. And to instead spend your time in New York or on the other coast, raising money from wealthy donors and then not even going to the state of Wisconsin. Are you kidding me? So, so not only not understanding it, but taking it for granted, like we've got that we don't need to go to Michigan. We don't need to go to Wisconsin. They, they'll fall in line. Well, they didn't, they never addressed it. Th that and that's, and they still haven't come back. Now I should, in fairness say, um, and I've, uh, I've been a regular voter since I'm 18. I don't know that I've ever missed an election. Um, I voted in 2016 but I could not bring myself to vote for either major party candidates, Emir. Right. I just couldn't do it. It was, uh, someone not qualified to be in the office. Um, and someone with such a history of corruption that, um, I just didn't want to see you're taking the next step in government. A lot of people thought that way. So we need choices. And, and when I look at today, um, the Democrats process today is eliminating their best, most electable candidates. Um, that, you know, I think they're the best chance for the Democrats would be to nominate Senator Warren. Um, and then, uh, she would need to make a couple of pivots. Um, the first thing would be to have the vice president choice be a, a pro business person. Um, that would balance the ticket. She would also need to, does that person have to be minority? Um, could, could she run on a, on a dual female ticket? Oh, sure. Oh, sure. She could run on a dual female ticket. I think it's, uh, less important, uh, the, the gender or the, um, ethnic characteristics. Um, as more of it is the best thing that Trump can do today to get reelection is to look at people and say, if you like the fact that you're working, if you like the fact that your wages are going up, if you like the fact that more Americans have left support programs and food stamp programs and such boat for me because they were going to mess it up. Senator Warren, if she gets the nomination, needs to first step, say, I'm not going to undo anything that you've benefited from. And here's where we go next. Cause this is steamrolling ahead. Well indeed. And so fear of loss is a great motivator and that's what the president in his reelection bid will be selling will be fear of loss and so to, for the Democrats to try to convince the country that they're in despair and they're not doing well is just a bad argument. They should what? And again, a lot of the, if you look at the agenda of Senator Warren, that gender's quite good. Um, I don't agree with much of the proposals, but it's an idea at least. And through the legislative process, perhaps some progress can be made around consumer protections around getting past the subprime crisis known as student debt. All right. That, uh, can we spin off for a second on that? I, I haven't asked you about that before. Um, do you want to talk a bit about student debt? I mean, it's massive. And is it started something we want to cover in another podcast sometime? Oh, let me, I'm going to give you the teaser on this. Look, what's the definition of a subprime loan? It's loaning money to people that don't have the means to pay it back. Should it be a red flag? Yeah. So loans were made to people with no assets, no income, no job. Right? And they took on thousands of debt and also no accountability. Student loans is a bigger subprime scandal. Loaning money to people, students that have no assets cause they either they're young, they have no income, all right? Because they don't have jobs because they have to go to college first and then expecting them to pay it back. How was this supposed to work? So now we grow and, and not even accountability that the money actually got spent in education person could drop out. And I know a couple of personal friends that did that are children of friends that did that. So you're now burned a generation that when they graduate should be out buying homes and refrigerators and cars and things like that are coming home to try to work off a debt equivalent of what a mortgage on a first home would be with no asset to backup with no assets to back it up. And I mean, it's, it's criminal that, that we've done that and that the, uh, you know, the other part of people that were responsible and figured out a way to finance their education, do we, you know, what would be fair with them? Okay. That's a huge, I don't know the answer to that by the way. Um, but the, the, the what, what happened because of this, uh, student loans being fundamentally subprime lending, it just flooded colleges and universities with, with money of making them develop their offerings at a price point that people could afford.

Speaker 2: 14:57

And so it's, it's the, um, um, uh, the observation that you always hear. I, I was at XYZ college, I was in Madison, Wisconsin, that's a gorgeous campus. And, um, and everybody kinda melts like, yeah, it really is nice, isn't it? Well, it should be. I mean, the amount of money that does go here, they better make it look at least make it look beautiful. And the same is true with any college campus. And there you have it, right? It's all the money flows in and there's no accountability to say, look, you know, we're going to make our product better.

Speaker 3: 15:22

I, but I, but again, I was getting off of what Senator Warren at least has an agenda. She at least has a plan. Um, will, will people embrace her as a leader. Um, but I think one of the things, if she gets a nomination, she's going to have to give people a surety that the progress they've seen in their own lives over the last four years, that she's not going to mess it up.

Speaker 2: 15:45

So we're in this space and, and, and I wanna uh, I want to ask you about this because I think your opinion is really interesting in some of this, if you, if you got placed into the camp of uh,

Speaker 3: 15:54

Oh, uh,

Speaker 2: 15:56

Elizabeth Warren, you know, rich healthy, we need you to give us some advice on how to run this. Don't you think her biggest battle is going to be going against that hard, hard left socialist side of the democratic party? And how did she come out on that? Or do you think that there's enough on that on the left that would elevate her enough to get her that and then to get the votes, get enough of the people to vote that were way down the socialistic

Speaker 3: 16:18

side of the macro? What you've just spoken to is really the polarization that is damaging the country so badly. And the Republicans went through this with the tea party and trying to manage to the, um, an ideological purity on the right. And they didn't do that well with it. And the lesson of history would go to Senator Warren or whoever gets the nomination and say, this is where I'm going with the country because this is practicable. And then contrast that with what is, is the other major party offering. Right. But that's the issue and that's why we have to get to a common ground through a common bridge. And that, um, you know, the wall street is very afraid of Senator Warren. Um, I mean some of the policies are things that could hamper the economy. Um, but that's not law are, these are proposals to try to move the needle.

Speaker 2: 17:27

And you think between now and election time, she can move that a little bit to draw in a little bit more of

Speaker 3: 17:33

a good democratic base. If she doesn't sh it'll be a landslide of proportions for in favor of Trump. It'll be,

Speaker 2: 17:41

and I think it's looking like that. And here's the thing. So, so Elizabeth Warren gets the nomination. How do you get a historical of people, let's say, under the, under, under 30 a group to get out and vote because they just don't, they get, they get mad and they can, they, uh, they tend to burn things and get, you know, ride on the streets before they vote to make sure that their candidate wins.

Speaker 3: 18:04

Well, I think there's a lot of responsible people under 30 and in their thirties that don't do that. But, um, there is a theory that, um, the Democrats have to fall in love with their candidate. Um, and, and there is more of appeal to the emotion on that side versus the pragmatism. And that's the nature of the beast for both sides. Indeed. And it may be more about appealing to the pragmatism. And so if I was advising Senator Warren and if she gets a nomination, I would really stress where do we go from here, um, and acknowledge that, you know, at the pocket book issues, things are pretty good right now. Um, and then move to the, you know, how do we invoke more fairness into the system and so forth. Um, and again, I think she's doing a brilliant job with the campaign. I think she's treading a fine line between the, uh, Medicare for all, um, that now that people have seen the bill, they go, well, wait a minute. That's not really what we want. So the, the kind of, you know, a catchphrase is off. Um, and she's very, she's a hardworking person. She's a, uh, you know, good economist and such. Um, but she's going, but she's going to have very difficult time separating herself from what people fear about the Democrats that they've moved too far left and there's a lot of ammunition out there for those years.

Speaker 2: 19:31

And you think that that's her biggest Hill to climb? Or do you think that maybe he'll decline was wrong one or do you think the next biggest thing she needs to worry about is that running mate, how can she, how can that running mate then bring in a bunch more? Right.

Speaker 3: 19:43

The running mate is the ticket to being competitive in November of 2020. All right. That's, that's going to be, I mean, if you think about it, if I'm playing the hand of the president, right, I would point at her and say all of the unemployment numbers, which are impressive, no matter how you want to call them, the increase in wages, the fact that the taxes on the, um, coastal elites is starting to get balanced a little bit, which is a aspect of the tax system that's long been overdue that, that this current president Trump fixed, um, pointed all those and say they want to go backward. Okay. And if she plays into that, she loses. She has to acknowledge that those gains have been made and then point to the future and say, this is where I'm going and I'm the adult leader to take you there. And that's where I give her really high marks is that she has behaved like an adult. And that is one of the, to me, the three elements for the Democrats act like adults platform that America wants reasonable candidate.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Now, do you think that's because of our age? Is it our, uh, our generation that longs for that? Or do you really think that there's a group that's under 40 or under 30 that said, no, I, I want something bigger and rat more radical and more change. And do you think that will be the demise of the Democrats and next election cycle? Well, if they have enough people for that, do they,

Speaker 3: 21:19

I think it's great to have a vision and great to be bold and it's easier to do when you're young. All right. And you have more time to recover from your mistakes. Um, but I think when you deal with people and they start to unwrap, what does it really mean and what does it really mean to me? Um, that's when you start to get folks to the point of being reasonable, which kind of takes us back full circle around our media. Um, it's really, it's fear tactics and it's joined my team and the other people, the others are evil. So don't listen or talk to them. Cut them off your social media. Don't invite them for Thanksgiving dinner. Um, be loud and proud that you have. You don't listen to anybody that doesn't agree with you, which is what they need to spew. Um, those people I don't think you can reach. Yeah. Well, and again, I think people are more media savvy today. Um, and not to endorse or steer people away from particular program. But you mentioned Hannity when it was Hannani and Combs. I enjoyed watching a show. It was a point counter point. Um, although I often like an Allen Combs to the Washington generals of the store. If you understand that reference

Speaker 2: 22:41

as our first globe Trotters referenced today, hopefully it won't be the last

Speaker 3: 22:47

interesting. I haven't watched Kennedy, you know, since then because it's predictable what he's going to say.

Speaker 2: 22:53

And it's a CDEC. It does as a CDEC as the other side, I, it gets back to what,

Speaker 3: 22:58

yeah. And so, so there's, there's, there's a market for that. There's a taste for that. But you know, for me personally, um, I like to hear it all. I like to weigh the pros and cons and nobody has all the right answers.

Speaker 1: 23:14

You have been listening to Richard healthy's common bridge podcast recording and post-production provided by stunt three multimedia. All rights are reserved by Richard[inaudible]. For more information, visit Richard helpy.com.