Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
The problems we have in the country are solvable, but not solvable the way we’re approaching them today, because of partisan politics. Richard Helppie, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist seeks to find a place in the middle where common sense discussions can bridge the current great divide.
Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
Episode 58: The Morning After- Digesting the Virtual Political Conventions
Rich takes a look at both the Democratic and Republican virtual conventions and talks about what worked, what didn't, and the road to Election Day...and a warning about what comes after.
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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 Bruger and from time to time, I'll be the moderator and host of this podcast.
Speaker 2:Richard, it's great to have you back. This is our 58th episode, and we're excited about that, but more excited if you remember, on the 53rd episode, we had just reached 50,000 downloads and not five episodes later, we're over 71,000 as of today. So congratulations on that. Your appeal is growing, which is great. Well, I'm humbled. It's interesting to me and I hope that we can all just have conversations. I am concerned that we could degenerate into civil war versus civil discussion. I hope it's not out of reach yet. And what I've really been pleased about is how many people are eager to find common ground and how often we can reach policy conclusions by discussion. So I agree. Look, I agree with that. Um, and you've seemed to have done that for almost a whole year now, which has been great. I think that's been the appeal of the show. So kudos for you on that. Um, I want to jump into the show because we have a lot to cover and last week things got off the rails even more than they did from the week before. Um, do you want to go on it then? Some of these things are tragedies. I mean, starting with Kenosha and kind of working back, um, what are your thoughts about the unrest? You talk about civil war. How do we stay out of it? Well, I think we still have a civil war by substituting civil discussion and we need to listen to all voices. You know, the police shooting in Kenosha quickly became action. Before all the information was known, we took a bad situation with a severely injured man. We took a situation with a severely injured man, probably permanently disabled, and converted that into a destruction of the town of Kenosha topped off by three victims of a 17 year old vigilante and 17 year old, his brains, not all the way form, but his mother drove him to the scene where she knew he had a rifle. Rich, I'm no lawyer, but does that make her an accomplice on some level? And I'm not joking. I don't know the law, but I would think it's interstate transport of a, somebody that is not going to do any good. I just can't imagine what she was thinking. If this indeed is true. Look, this is not the beginning of the story. Something happened before. And something happened before that. That's what I'd counsel people all the time on all of these incidents, very astute lawyer told me one time that she always asked the question what happened right before that. And she actually did it with her children. She had got a complaint that this child did X and she was so great. What happened right before that? It's a great question. And I think we need to keep asking ourselves those questions to get to the bottom of these things. You remember in recent weeks, we had a situation on the near West side of Detroit where a young man was shot to death by the police force. And before this story was out, there were protest or saying a unarm 20 year old man had been killed by the police
Speaker 1:That started on social media. And within like five minutes, riots had started on the other side of Detroit. You finish that story,
Speaker 2:Right. You know what happened right before that was the young man had pulled a weapon out and fired on officers and they returned fire. And you know, right before that, what happened? The police arrived to arrest a friend of the young man who shot at the police and was then killed. So it's always what happened right before that. Um, how did the police get on the scene in these situations and, and so forth?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and I said riot, but to Detroit police, chief James Craig's credit, he got the body cam out like within an hour and showed what had really happened. And it quelled that social on arrest. So I, I misspoke when I said riot. Detroit has amazingly done this incredibly well through this horrible summer.
Speaker 2:This is getting to the point where hopefully people can begin to agree that there's boundaries.
Speaker 1:I agree. It does seem that Detroit's handling of social unrest, which as we said before is really been amazing. Um, it was getting very little coverage, but it's also not newsworthy because there are no fires and Detroit's not burning down like some of the other cities, but that Detroit story has really just kind of disappeared from the news,
Speaker 2:Right? Some other things that are dropping out of the news this week alone, 39 missing children were recovered in Georgia. And another 26 in Ohio saw that by the United States marshals. And we hear about child sex trafficking, and we all want that to come to an immediate halt. And this sounds like a step in the right direction. Uh, I would hope that we can agree on those kinds of things. I agree.
Speaker 1:Well, rich. Um, I don't, I don't want to let this topic cool. So I'm sorry if I'm going to jump you off track here, but I need to know what your thoughts were about the conventions last week and the week before. And if you'd like, we can start with, uh, your overall view of them, but, uh, but then go back a week to the, to the Democrats and let's go to the Republicans and I'd love to hear what your thoughts were about how that went from virtual to policy, to everything.
Speaker 2:This is why you're such a great producer because you're going to make sure we keep our brand promise that every episode there will be something for everyone to not like we're, we're not, I don't think we're going to miss today. So look, both of the major parties, the Republicans or the Democrats cannot back the top of their ticket and they put up a brave front, but for different reasons, the Republicans, you know, what's left of the Republican party has virtually no choice, but to watch the Trump train Corinne through four days of very crafty showmanship, it looks slick. Yeah. To the inevitable nomination and a 70 minute exception speaker, right?
Speaker 1:It was like a three X soliloquy.
Speaker 2:The Democrats who in their private moments will say, they don't think Joe Biden is a great candidate, but they want off the Trump era so bad that they will back him and won't criticize him.
Speaker 1:I think they would vote for a hand puppet if they could.
Speaker 2:Uh, don't tell me, cause I had a good comeback for that.
Speaker 1:Alright.
Speaker 2:You asked about the Democrats. Okay. First of all, they did a lot of good things. I thought the biography they did on Joe Biden was outstanding. I thought that the explanation of his stutter was a really good way to mute his history of gaps that maybe he's struggling to express himself. And obviously a heartwarming what he did for the young man who similarly had a stutter. Yeah. Um, I was really happy to hear that he pledges to be president to those who didn't vote for him as well as those that did back him. And I think that's a really good step in the right direction for the Democrats. After their 2016, they just failed to apologize to Michigan and Wisconsin and other places they ignored. I thought it was very good that he said he wants to tax companies who pay no tax. I specifically said Amazon among others. And that's something that I think the left and the right should be able to unite around when you have these companies going into establish facilities and whatever type they're going to consume, public resources for police and fire and sanitation parks, cetera. They need to be taxed to fund those, not consume those public resources and yet get a tax break. It doesn't make any sense,
Speaker 1:Very rich. And, uh, and there's an assumption that they will get that if they show up. So I think that's a really good articulation of why it's important that they pay. And I think it's shortsighted on some of those companies, uh, to just request the tax break and not look at it from a standpoint of how they can help the community. I think it was a great point.
Speaker 2:Right. And then when you looked at the other speakers that I concluded, I wrote this down where I was watching the Democrat convention, that we, the United States, that we are a great and horribly racist nation. Um, at the same time, the irony was not lost on me at least. And you know, it was typical Democrats, the usual suspects of promises, you know, made in America, uh, lower healthcare premiums and not forgetting what the impact was on those that pay for their own insurance from the affordable care act, um, promises around student debt, childcare, immigration system equal pay for women raises for everyone, knows social security cuts, uh, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Right. T typical Democrat flare that they stayed on on their own points on that.
Speaker 2:Right? No, not really any policy behind that, but they, you know, we're trying to cover the waterfront. Right. Um, but the other big takeaway I got it. It just sounds like the running against a virus, kind of hoping they're going to get a pass for their own early inactions and wrong decisions.
Speaker 1:And did, do you think that they're framing that just for that, because I happen to agree with you, do you think they're getting ahead of that argument? So nobody looks back to say that everybody missed the boat on this back in January.
Speaker 2:Well, it's, this should be the unifying issue in America that the virus doesn't discriminate and it is something that we need to take seriously, but like everything else it's become politically weaponized. You've heard my criticism of the Trump administration in the way that they've approached crisis management. But I actually wrote this down when listing to the Democrat convention that Joe Biden seems to have a magic being. That's going to cure us all from coronavirus. And now you're living here in a swing state. We are getting hit with one Corona virus is Trump after another. It literally made me pine for the days when we heard the Billy Bush tapes every five minutes, which was what happened four years ago,
Speaker 1:Forgotten about the Billy Bush tapes.
Speaker 2:A good reset and look, I don't know where they're getting their polling and whether they think it's working, but right now there are no States or hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID cases. Not, and I've been checking
Speaker 1:Well, right? I mean, here in Michigan, all of the cases that have been reported really in the last month or so are not hospitalization cases. They're just cases that you're you test positive, but they're not in the hospitals. These people aren't going to the hospitals.
Speaker 2:Exactly. That I've checked with a number of very, very good sources. And yes, the answer is we have flattened the curve. Now the other thing people need to understand there's data flying all over the place. The Democrats cited were 4% of the world population and 22% of the deaths. But if you look at the worldwide data, which I've spent a lot of time, and it's obvious, it's very incomplete. It's obvious that all the data collection standards are different just by way of example, you have to trust China and Venezuela, uh, amongst other places. Good luck with that. Right? Right. And um, some things that just leap off the page, like the testing rates of the United States, Russia and Australia are all the same, but my perception is that that's probably not accurate, but here are some facts that are undeniable, that we have five States, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, that still today represent over 34% of the deaths in the United States. And that represents less than 17% of the United States population. And a large portion of those deaths is directly related to policies in those States about elderly people and where they put them in the longterm care facilities to subject them to the Corona virus look, governor Como of New York, trying to say he did a great job. Boy, that was a miss, right. It's completely indefensible.
Speaker 1:Same here in Michigan. Right? Last week, the DOJ came in and subpoenaed governor Witmer's records on what she did to put the COVID patients and the nursing homes. And it's been a disaster, no matter how you look at it, this doesn't come out looking good at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Look, our governor and I watched her pressure this week, keep citing facts and data. And then doesn't say what facts and data she's signing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. She's been doing that all along too. From the beginning.
Speaker 2:I think it would be a lot better if she just stepped in and said, we made some horrible mistakes. And that way we could put this behind us and quit weaponizing the stupid virus. And you know, we have flattened the curve. We now know social distancing, masking hand sanitation is a good way to keep it from rising. And if you're going site that you're relying on facts and data, please tell us what it is because I think we have reached that point now where we've aired in today's world, not going playing Monday morning quarterback, but today that we need to loosen up a little bit, at least in this state. Oh, I agree. I agree. And again, we're only, we're only on the virus because of the way that, again, my perception coming out of watching the Democrat convention was that they're running against a virus and that Joe had a magic bean. I think more effective for them is that they are running against the person of Donald Trump. And I thought a great line by Joe Biden was Trump will be the same person for the next four years. And the Democrats compare that with the person that Joe Biden is, or at least once was. So that was really well done. I thought the Democrats were smart about bringing across Republicans who backed Joe Biden. But my view on that is this in 2016, I said, the only good thing about Donald Trump being nominated is that it would blow up the establishment of the Republican party. And the only thing good about him getting elected president would be, it would blow up the establishment of the Democrat party. And I think both parties have failed so bad that people were looking for a change. So those Republicans that are coming in to back Joe Biden, that's just the establishment all coalescing around a very establishment candidate. And they're, they don't have one on the Republican side of the house. So they're over there with Joe Biden. They're very comfortable with that. Go along to get along pace. That's left so many of the issues in the country on a dressed
Speaker 1:And so rich, how do you think Kamala Harris did in, um, in that virtual convention?
Speaker 2:I think she did really well. I totally agree. She's going to be tough. As I said, last time we had one of these chats. She's going to have to ask vice president Pence to defend his president. That's not an enviable position to be in. If you're Mike Pence, it's a tall order. She did. She took on some of the typical targets of the Democrats, the gun lobby and the big banks. Although both of those things, when you start unwrapping the policies, tell quite a different story, but I thought she did really well. And you know, she's clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with whether or not she becomes a vice president.
Speaker 1:So rich, why do you think it's taken Biden and Harris so long to come out against the rioting in the cities, not the protest, but the rioting, because it seems, and polls are showing that people are really tired of that, and this could be working against the democratic ticket. Why do you think it took so long?
Speaker 2:Why they waited is an unknown. They probably had to thread the needle on whether it looked like it was an attack on Donald Trump versus an attack on mayors and governors that are largely Democrat or perhaps groups that are more sympathetic to them. But I, I do think they had to pivot off that and they did. And, and I'm going get this,
Speaker 1:But before you do, I want to go over to the Republican side. Now that refresh, how do you think they did in their virtual convention? Just 50,000 foot view.
Speaker 2:I wrote this note down, they're flooding the zone. What do you mean by that? They're overwhelming the behavior of the president and his poor leadership during a national crisis with a litany of things. Other than the virus response trade changes talked about the military, talked about the terrorist groups that were defeated, talked about NATO, paying more for their share, talked about crime in the streets, which you know, was, uh, an issue handed to the president. I do believe that the president and the Republicans were running as hard against China as their opponents are running against the virus. Right?
Speaker 1:So they're trying to frame their argument on safety and silent majority of stuff that they're not willing to talk about the virus
Speaker 2:So much. Right. And also talking about law and order law and order. And I remember, you know, president Nixon talking about that as we were having very serious unrest in our streets back in 1968, I know it gives everybody an uneasy feeling. It gives me an uneasy feeling to seed so much power to the government versus us behaving as the majority of Americans of all persuasions want to behave. I thought, by the way, I thought that the Republicans that the production value was amazingly good.
Speaker 1:You know, I thought so too, they were lagging, but what they were able to pull off in the last four weeks prior to this was amazing. They made an incredible looking TV show. Well,
Speaker 2:And, and part of that, think about it, the president, what was his job before this making TV shows? Yeah, exactly. But I will say this. I was trying to find the right word here. You know, actually I keep forgetting, this is my show. I can use word like puked and disgusted.
Speaker 1:And you just did
Speaker 2:The Marines playing hail to the chief and the white house for a stage naturalization ceremony.
Speaker 1:Mm Hmm.
Speaker 2:If you want to talk about immigration in some way and naturalization and why the country is so attractive to people from all over the world, there were a lot of ways to do that. I can't think of a worse way than the way that he did it. And that to me, again, shows a guy that doesn't really understand the job. I don't know who he was getting advice from, but if he was he wasn't listening,
Speaker 1:I agree. Now go with me on this. Uh, let's go back to the Democrats for a minute and we'll do the same thing with Republicans. And we'll do this kind of quickly, but how did the Democrats, how would you think that they might've messed up their chance two weeks ago? And we'll do the same thing with the Republicans afterwards, but let's start with the Democrats. Tell me what they missed.
Speaker 2:You're framing the question as what didn't get talked about. As I like to say, what were the dogs that didn't bark.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Perfect. Let's go there.
Speaker 2:Not saying that she's canine in any way at all, but no Tulsi. Gabby.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Where the heck was she? I thought she was,
Speaker 2:She wasn't invited and there, I thought it was a great panel that the Democrats did of the candidates in the primary that lost a Joe Biden, all saying good things about them. I thought that was really smart the way they did that. But then it occurred to me, the person I voted for Tulsa Gabard wasn't even at the convention.
Speaker 1:You think it has anything to do with the few that, uh, that Hillary Clinton has with Gobert? I mean, Clinton called her a Russian spy at some point, I think. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If Piller could be sued for calling people rushing assets, it could probably qualify as a class action.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't Chelsea never did Sue Hillary and don't forget it was Tulsa Gabard that really took down Camila Harris about her record versus Rick, as it pertains to the prosecution of black men and the incarceration of them.
Speaker 1:That makes a lot more sense, actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, but who knows? I mean, you know, she wasn't there other things, there was no mention of China at all. There were, and you brought this up earlier. There were no mention of the riots and the anarchy and the arson in the streets. And to your point earlier, this has changed post convention. And at least one left-leaning talking head on TV said, well, things were polling badly. We better say we don't like this other things that weren't covered. We heard nothing about Robert Mueller and the Russian probes. And remember, this has been in the news from the day Donald Trump was elected president and it was about 10, 12 days ago that the Senate intelligence committee issued their final report. And I quote absolutely no evidence that then candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to metal in the 2016 election. So it's not surprising. It didn't get mentioned, but the fact that it had mentioned ad nauseum for three years.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, that was a drum beat for three years.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And similarly, no mention of the FBI or the DOJ or the intelligence community in the 2016 election, even though in recent weeks, we've had a, an FBI lawyer admit that he modified criminally modified email communications. And it turns out to James Colby knew that the information he was relying on was fake as of January, 2017. And here's another thing that wasn't brought up, nothing about the impeachment claims. First of all, we still haven't seen a whistleblower that's right. Yeah. And if there one does exist, but remember this country was split around the impeachment and we heard it day and night, and that was a bitter partisan fight, which the Democrats ultimately lost. You think the courage of their convictions would be to bring it up again and remind the American people of the allegations of Donald Trump, strong arming leaders of other countries. In this case, the Ukraine, they didn't mention it the whole time.
Speaker 1:You really think that would have come up. I mean, that happened in this calendar year that he was being emptied.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So we like, like, did we forget already that the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi waited a month to deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate?
Speaker 1:It didn't get mentioned at all. Okay. Now let's move to the Republican convention and to use your phrase, what were the dogs that didn't bark in that convention? Things that you didn't hear.
Speaker 2:Okay. Here's a big one. Climate change, nothing about the environment with a few exceptions boasting about pulling out of the Paris climate court. You heard a lot about energy independence, which includes fracking, but none of the environmental considerations that are emerging, you heard talk about California and they made their own wildfire.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I thought that was really, it really ill-advised
Speaker 2:Right without substantiation. So while trying to live on this planet, we're the biggest economy on the planet. And it doesn't get mentioned, not even the, we are going to have prosperity and a good economy. Didn't, didn't say that. And other things, no talk at all about police reform would have been a great opportunity to acknowledge that the job that we've asked our frontline law enforcement officers to do is too broad and too difficult. And we've had too many instances where that gap between the service we need to deliver all our citizens and the tools and techniques that we, those people out there to protect and serve. There's such a gap there. What an opportunity, Republicans, Donald Trump missed that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I agree. That was a total miss. Uh, they had a great opportunity to get in front of that, but they just missed it. Right?
Speaker 2:No. Another thing not mentioned is president Trump's character and his, you know, frankly, juvenile behavior, you didn't see anybody coming out and justifying that he needs to get in a Twitter war with people or a tweet storm. They did bring out a lot of character witnesses, which, you know, I think that was largely effective. And they got some really articulate people talking, but they didn't want to address how this president has conducted himself and his obsession about ratings and his self centeredness at all. They could have done a much better job there. And that kind of leads me to the other thing that's that's missing is that why is the bench so thin? My sense is that Trump has repelled way more Republicans than he is one over there. There's a lot of folks that have left the scene. You see groups that are forming a former Republicans to oppose him in the next election coming up. And it's just getting to be a smaller band. It seems I maybe wrong about that, but that's
Speaker 1:Oh, no. I think you hit that right on the head. I think you're right. Um, but anyway, the conventions are over and so where do we stand now?
Speaker 2:Uh, it was same place. I mean, we have massive dysfunction in the major political parties. Uh, they're mostly trying to beat each other. If Joe Biden wins, this will be the last leg of the Democrat establishment that is, unless someone like a Cory Booker can ascend. Cause I'm looking for the moderate 40 something year old Democrat. If Biden loses, I think the Democrats are going to be in a death match for control of a splintering party. Trying to control that left wing is going to be hard enough in a victory. That's going to be impossible in a situation where Biden has lost the election.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But conversely, what happens to the Republican party of Trump wins?
Speaker 2:Well, there effectively isn't a Republican party. I don't know where Trump leaves the Republican party because of all his failings. He's not the kind of person that's going to build a strong cadre behind him. I think there's going to be an extreme vacuum in 2024. If he does win.
Speaker 1:Ironically, it could be the house cleaning that both parties need.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, the housecleaning for both parties, I think would be a good thing because as we talked before in the show that if both parties are dysfunctional and they've also cemented their own survival into ballot access and other rules, we're not going to get a third party to come in and supplant them that we need those two parties to act better and we need the reporting industry to do a better job.
Speaker 1:Okay. So now we're down to the last sprint before election day. How do you see this playing out? Is this going to be, or do you think it's going to come down to a battle for the black vote? Is it something else out there that we're not seeing?
Speaker 2:Well, I think there's going to be a lot of realignment in recent days, several mirrors on the iron range in Minnesota, an area that I'm familiar with, traditionally Democrats stronghold, all came out to support Donald Trump. That was a more quiet story, but something of a game changer. And yes, I do think there's a battle for the black vote and frankly good. It's an, and it's about time. I don't like to see any party assuming the vote of any voting block. And I actually liked what the NBA and the NFL are doing in offering their places as voting centers and, and getting the vote out and speaking up. And I may be in the minority for that, but I believe that they have a role and a voice and I'm glad they're doing it.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to move this along too. So I apologize if I'm jumping topics on here, but, um, let's talk a little bit about the violence and crime that we're seeing in cities in the last five days. There's been polling that are showing not the hard, right? Not the hard left it's, it's the people in the middle of the independence that there's a lot of independence. A lot of them that are tired of it and it doesn't play well for the democratic party. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Well, a couple of things. So one of the stories that went by in recent days is that Seattle mayor Durkan vetoed a 2020 budget that would cut funding for the police force. Portland arrested a 25 year old who kicked a defenseless man in the head. You're starting to get the biographies out. Finally, some of these people that are doing the protesting, the feds have quietly arrested 74 people associated with the mayhem in Portland. And I think this latest set of episodes and Kenosha is really demonstrating this. Isn't a video game. And let me explain that when I watched Portland for three months and I'm saying, who keeps coming out? Well, it's not like it's new people. It's the same folks are going out there committing crimes, intimidating people, destroying property, setting fires. If they get arrested, they're processed out. They're back there the next day. It's kind of like a game. Hey, I get 50 lives. It's not like if I have one life to give, let me give it for this. Cause it just get to keep playing. And then you think about that misguided 17 year old in Kenosha, I wonder what his entertainment was like. Did he understand what it really means to go out into the streets and United States of America with a lethal weapon and then use it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. What is that rich? I mean, you and I have both raised 17 year old boys and not patting each other on the back, but what is that? I mean, the kid's mom drove him to that protest where he shot people.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I can't take the bait because I don't even know that I want to ask my own kids. If I was going to make the parenting hall of fame, they may not have the same view. I've got, they've all turned into good people though.
Speaker 1:All right, well, let's just keep moving on now. Um, so going forward, what would you advise or where do we go from here?
Speaker 2:Well, I was talking with a friend of mine on Thursday and he said, if you were gonna coach the candidates on what to do from this point forward, what would you do? I remember and yes, indeed. So here's what I say to Joe Biden and the Democrats. Okay. Got to do a few things, right? Number one, get off the fake narrative that the street riots are Trump's America. I do believe that's playing well to the most devoted Democrats, but it's not convincing anybody. And it demonstrates that you're out of touch, you know, a way better strategy, admit you're late. Okay. But ask people to stop the destruction and the violence and Joe Biden's and calmly Harris are in a perfect position to promise summits and dialogue or whatever, something that this president can't do. So that's the first thing I advise them to do. Number two, uh, I promised to add bi-partisan oversight to the FBI, the CIA, you know, all the intelligence agencies and the department of justice. That's something we've done before in our past. And again, calling on the senatorial experience of both Joe Biden and calmly Harris, that would be a great thing to give people something to hope, for find a place to go other than the Corona virus. Uh, you know, I've said enough about that, you know, Nancy Pelosi standing up in Chinatown and saying, don't listen to the president in late February. That was just not good, good facts that you've exhausted people with. That next thing I would tell you, and this is gonna surprise your Brian, but get your candidate out there. Look, it's a risk that you're dealing with. Vice president. Biden's long history of, you know, frankly inane statements and racist remarks and things that he just refreshed. The last time he was allowed out. Just accept that it's going to be like walking a minefield, but the more he gets out in these free form settings, he can, first of all, give people the assurance that he has the mental acuity for the job. And when he does say the next dumb thing, which he will, it's going to be diluted by some sayings of wisdom, including some of the points I gave above.
Speaker 1:But rich, there are people in his party that don't even want them to debate, let alone have them out there giving comments.
Speaker 2:That would be a colossal mistake. I mean, that would, I can't even look at if they do get there, we'll bring, we'll bring it up because that could be a podcast in and of itself.
Speaker 1:Fair enough. We'll do that. So
Speaker 2:Lastly, I'd say be Joe Biden, you know, in his first Senate bid. And I think this was part of the biography of the Democrat convention. You know, he said, let me tell you about me and if you don't like it, vote for the other guy. And I think that's a great thing for him to come home to sure. To say, I'm not perfect. Here's what I would do. And if you don't like that, then you know, go ahead and vote for the other guy. I think that's a great thing for him to do. All right. Let's shift over to the right
Speaker 1:Publicans what did Trump and the Republican national committee, what do they need to do? Well,
Speaker 2:Obviously they need to change their campaign slogan. It needs to be person, man, woman, television camera. Sorry, just kidding.
Speaker 1:Me and rich. He got me hooked line and sinker on that one.
Speaker 2:The Republicans have to accept that the dyes cast a good deal of this election is going to be a referendum on president Trump. His conduct has not improved. Okay. If I was them, I'd use an old software salesman's trick. It's not a glitch. It's a feature that sir sell Trump as different. You know, he's not to our taste, a buddy's effective. And similarly, I would be offering olive branches. I mean, Trump could go to places and say where I failed you. I intend to do a better job the next time
Speaker 1:Again. I totally agree with that. Totally agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Stay on the economy and such, which I think is actually a pretty good thing for a place for him to be
Speaker 1:All right. So let's play crystal ball. Now tell me what you think is going to happen between election day on November, the third and integration day on January 20th. Do you see alarms? I'm a little worried myself. What do you see,
Speaker 2:Brian? I'm really glad that you brought this up and you think we went for many years. We never thought about it. We'd have the election. The election would be over, uh, there'd be a meeting of the electoral college. Most people wouldn't even know that it would be a small story in the bottom columns of then print newspapers and a new president would be sworn in, or, uh, re-integrated uh, in January, today, we're worried about who's going to accept defeat. Uh, I think we need to expect turmoil. Uh, I think everyone saw Hillary Clinton's remarks of don't concede to Joe Biden. These are not a one off commentary.
Speaker 1:Right? And I think that's born out of a lot of things that you've talked to me about in the past, where if you ask the, uh, the common Democrat on the street about the 2000 election, they think the U S Supreme court gave that election to Bush. When in reality, as you pointed out, um, history shows that that wasn't the case at all, that the Supreme court just was acting on the results. So, you know, that is what it is. But do you see turmoil coming on November 4th or on an inauguration day? Uh, January 20th, like we saw four years ago when Trump won and there was rioting in, in some major cities,
Speaker 2:We're going to have a fight after the election, no matter what happens, because I don't know anyone that doesn't think this is going to be a very, very close election this time around,
Speaker 1:You know, rich, I think you're right. And that's unfortunate in some ways I kind of hope it's a landslide either way. So maybe a deters that I don't think it's going to happen, but I don't know if the Republicans went again, as we saw four years ago, there's rioting in the streets in some major cities. And, um, I hope that doesn't repeat itself. Although I think the precedent has now been set anyway beyond all that. Do you have any final thoughts on today's podcast? Anything else you want to talk about before we sign off?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for this episode. I think this is always fun to do. Um, Americans do agree. We're not being allowed to agree by the political parties and by the way that the news programming is designed. Um, but we do agree. We don't want racism and we don't want riots and that this is a country of compassionate and generous people. And if we can have a civil discussion, we're not only going to get to good policy solutions that work for all Americans. Uh, but we're going to avoid a civil war and it's, it's up to us. Uh, we're not going to get it coming from Washington that's
Speaker 1:For sure. Great rich and thanks for doing this again, and we'll do it again next week. Um, this has been fantastic. And for everyone out there that continues to download this podcast, as we said earlier, we're over 71 or 2000 downloads. Now thank you. And come to the website, Richard help you.com and you can read transcripts from previous podcast or listen to them again. You can look at some of the links that the guest or rich has suggested. It's really cool. So make sure you check in on Richard helpy.com and rich. Thanks a whole bunch. And like I said, let's do this again next week. Oh, it's always a pleasure. Brian, take care. You have been listening to Richard healthy's common bridge podcast recording and postproduction provided by stunt three. Multimedia. All rights are reserved by Richard helpy for more information, visit Richard helpy.com.