The Midterms: The Impact of Disaffected Voters

there's a few things I'd like to say before we start the questions and one is that Seattle University does not support or oppose the position of the speakers the views expressed are those of the speakers only the Institute public service is sponsoring this event along with Seattle University and of course the College of Arts and Sciences another thing I'd like to mention is if you didn't see the book stand out there this is a wonderful book both Joni and I have read it everything Trump touches dies so please pick up a copy I guess we'll just start with the questions I'll just start with a question oh wait there's one thing I was going to mention and that is the next conversation in our series is going to occur in February 28th as can be on the issue of corporate social responsibility and we're fortunate enough to have the president of Microsoft Brad Smith will be here and we hope to hope to also have somebody from another major corporation here in Seattle so please put that on your calendar February 28th you'll be here in this auditorium thank you so much for coming really appreciate it we'll start with you governor Locke just the big broad question here what do you what are you thinking about the coming midterms wave no wave regular midterm and as you know in midterms frequently the party opposing the president usually does pick up a couple seats but what do you think we're looking at well I think that there will be substantial gains by the Democrats in the house at least I don't know that people are expecting any change in the absolute control of the Senate but I don't you know I've always believed that politics is very very local and and while a lot of the forecasters are going district-by-district race by race and handicapping it there's they're all within the margin of error in many of those races and so I am I'm always fearful of predicting making broad broad predictions and saying one party will either control the house or regain control of the house etcetera etcetera so we're just have to wait and see there are a lot of races here in the state of Washington that are very very competitive and conflicting polls and I've always been wary and leery of polls and so I guess as a politician I've always just tried to keep battling and campaigning to the very very end and never letting up well go to you you have to do this what on CNN MSNBC and just everyday sort of come up with what you think what the numbers will look like do you what do you think big wave well I think one thing we have to realize right away is that the Senate landscape this year was always favorable for the GOP there were only eight seats up for the GOP to defend and the Democrats were having the bad year so the fact that they're competitive in a few of these places the Republicans thought they were gonna take like West Virginia the fact that they're competitive in Texas which is astounding I mean they beta or work may not win but the fact that he's in the fight at all in the state of Texas it's Texas I should tell you a lot about where the where the political map looks like you know you've got a couple of places the Democrats could pick up North Dakota is one one of the reddest of the red states in Florida it looked for a while like Governor Scott was gonna be able to be very competitive in the race he and Bill Nelson are tied even though Rick Scott is spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave but the the Senate landscape is it was always gonna be at least a net neutral for the GOP with a possibility of one possibly two pickups right now I think they're probably gonna end up as at plus one at best but a lot of the Senate seats are contingent on one thing and that's Donald Trump's Twitter feed these are close races and if Donald Trump wakes up one morning on the wrong side of the bed and decides to nuke Belgium or or you know or accuse Hillary Clinton of being a cannibal you know the the landscape may change a little bit between between those two moments now if you're looking at a situation in the house the numbers in the house there's one magic number that's 24 you get to 24 Dancy Pelosi speaker and you get to 24 and Devin Nunez and Dana Rohrabacher and Jim Jordan and all this crew of jackasses who've been a 1 you know a one-party obstruction of justice effort to block the Moller investigation and to stop any probes of the in the Trump administration if you end up in that situation well guess what the whole chemistry of Washington changes they need one seat in the majority to do it I think the Democrats are probably gonna end up somewhere in the 30 to 37 range just with some math I've done the numbers and again a lot of this comes down to what happens on Election Day 15 days from now and what happens every day between now and then because every day is Election Day there's early voting going on in 44 states as of right now so that early voting process is going to be something that every day you know Donald Trump is tweeting about the the migrant horde of the caravan approaching to you know to steal your jobs and rape your women and eat your dog and and you know those things are gonna affect voter turnout every day this is gonna affect the electoral chemistry every day I think the Democrats have a very very good chance of taking back the house and I think that that number is probably gonna be somewhere in the mid to high 30s and I do want to emphasize there are still two weeks to go before the election so anything can happen absolutely anything can happen and could be local it could be national it could be international well Rick we got a question for you you're a self acknowledged conservative you seem to be a man without a party now I mean who do you want to win in this midterm election I want people to win who will do their damn jobs I want people to lose I want the people I want to see in office are the ones who act like the Congress is a co-equal branch of government and not like a bunch of junior managers at a Trump casino sucking up to the boss I may not have a great deal of love for Nancy Pelosi her politics or her policies but I know one thing she's not gonna wake up every morning and go may I shine your shoes mr. Trump which appears to be the modus operandi pretty much everyone in the Republican leadership right now so what do you meet what do you think this is a possibility the New York Times had an interesting piece yesterday it is possible the governor Locke that the Republicans could retain control of everything what message would that send well I really think that would be disastrous for our country and I guess it's really it would be disastrous for the future in terms of our standing in the world and what we're saying to the people of America I think there was a who was that it was wrote the column in the New York Times this morning crystal Nick Kristof who really argued on behalf of a strong Republican Party and having served in Olympia and having worked with Republicans I do believe that we need a strong two-party system or even a multi-party system in which ideas on on both sides are constantly challenged and when you have that challenge of ideas and debate you're able to come up with better policy neither party has a monopoly on all the great ideas or the different perspectives that that reflect the the views of the population and so I I really want a strong Republican Party of course as a Democrat I want the Democrats prevail but at the same time I don't like what's happening in terms of the lack of leadership from the Republicans to stand up for what is right what is in terms of our American values in terms of morality in terms of jurisprudence thoughtful judges in terms of international leadership I think that we're really being damaged by everything that's happening and we need someone to stand up and more people like John McCain and others to stand up to really call out the truth and just as I would expect Democrats to call out the truth if there was a democratic administration I'm gonna call you ambassador for one minute here because that's one of your other titles you you do know something about our actual standing in the world and you travel a lot what have you heard that sort of made you you know from another country perhaps in China or something made you so worried about this issue of our standing in the world well I I sense from the entire Asia Pacific that many of our traditional allies are gravitating and forming alliances and trade agreements and other treaties with China and they're they don't feel that the United States has their back anymore I mean they don't want the United States meddling in their affairs but they always kind of like the assurance or the reassurance that American forces American power American interest the American government was just over the horizon just just over the horizon and that America could be called on to protect them and to help them but now they don't really see that anymore and so they're feeling that they're having to form agreements with China not that they really want to but out of necessity and I see that happening all around the world under the trump administration the budgets for the State Department for aid have been cut drastically and now the president has proposed beefing up some new corporation a new initiative but pales in comparison to all the cuts that have made to that been made to the State Department in terms of soft diplomacy there was a time in which America went around helping people helping farmers of other countries building hospitals and roads helping eradicate disease and bringing sanitation that created so much goodwill for America which then made it easier for the generals in our military to to try to form alliances and that's why you have so many people in the military top military officials calling for more funding in the soft power portions of the State Department you just cannot rely on guns Rick you've already commented on the few of the elections but I'd like to probe a few more that are interest to our audience I'm sure with Texas race look as I said earlier I think bitter or work is an absolutely remarkable candidate I'm just going to say one word though and that word is Texas you got to keep this in perspective I know everybody's very enthusiastic about him and he is a remarkable candidate he would not be in the hunt if he wasn't a remarkable candidate and and there's a lot of enthusiasm to turn bado into the next Obama I get that enthusiasm I understand it he has poise he has confidence he has charisma he's quick on his feet but it's also Texas and I want you to recall one thing about Texas they love guns they love guns a lot they love guns so much the the y'all in Washington don't get it and I tell Democrats this a lot I love y'all but I tell you this a lot the miscue socially on guns no matter what you think about gun control policy when you go to a state like Texas or Alabama or Florida or Georgia or North Carolina or South Carolina a Wayne about 45 states and Republicans hear you say we want to do this with gun control they shut off they stop listening whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is not relevant it's the political behavior so invader or work comes out guys I want to ban ar-15s and semi-automatic weapons 70% of Texans go nope so he would probably be ahead of Ted Cruz right now if he just managed to keep his mouth shut now will he still will he win it's almost certain that Ted Cruz will be a US senator and he will grace us with his handsome figure his smoldering sexual chemistry and his charming rhetoric for the next six years but bitter work is the kind of candidate the Democrats need any people who are alive and kicking and engaging and smart and willing to talk to people and I will give the guy credit for one thing and over almost anything else that guy has hustle you know there was a there's for the early voting in Texas this week Boehner work was out at 4:00 in the morning this morning sitting in a tent deck that some fan of his had decorated with bitter work stickers outside an early voting place and the guy went out and did a Facebook live he went out and talked to people he's knocked on doors he's gone everywhere including the reddest parts of Texas to go pitch that sort of thing is where Democrats have fallen down for years and years where they don't go to places they think they're they don't go to places they think they're not gonna win oh my god will you know IIIi don't agree with Donald Trump on a lot but no worry Clinton could have got off her ass and gone to Wisconsin a couple times they took it for granted when you take things for granted to politics they get taken away from you so Bader work is a huge work ethic he's got a great future I don't know if he's gonna you know fall behind Ted Cruz by two points or three points or ten points but that's that's the kind of candidate Republic or the Republicans should be afraid of even in red states okay how about the Arizona seat the open seat that John McCain vacated cinema threw Democrat and mcsalley the Republican cinema has a tremendous amount of charisma mcsalley has a tremendous mcsalley has a tremendous background a tremendous narrative of criminis a story of service she hurt herself by getting a little too far in the into the Trump bed during the primary but cinema also has had some foot-and-mouth scenarios so that's a tie ballgame right now I think you're gonna end up with my gut in that race tells me that cinema is gonna squeak it out but I don't think it's gonna be easy until the very end and I think Mick Sallie could end up with blowback on Trump with Hispanics in the state very easily that we haven't quite mapped yet in the terms of the tournament and just one more is Heidi Heitkamp did in North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp is dead and the vultures are circling if the public polling is to be believed I think she's kind of checked out and we're looking at double digits and again why are were you surprised by this that's a bad year for the Democrats in one of the reddest States Donald Trump won the state by something like 9,000 percent so everybody's been trying to predict all these recent weeks the impact of the Cavanaugh hearings supposedly Women Voters suburban women voters are really riled up no that's not it it's the men who were riled up if you had to guess which those hearings what impact they bring to the races in Washington state and nationally what would you say who's more I saw the the cook Political Report folks that's the Bible on some of this stuff this morning they had a tweet about the year of the fired up female college graduate well I think that the women are more fired up in favor of the Democrats so I think that that will benefit the Democrats the question though is is will they being fired up is one thing will they actually go out and vote and we're seeing a lot more participation by women in terms of canvassing and the Democrats have really done a great great job getting people registered canvassing door to door and sending people out and especially after the the Kavanagh hearings but whether or not the individual all comes down finally to the individual candidate and whether or not side by side you know does the Democratic candidate still outweigh all the the negatives and and Trump factor in those particular races I've seen some data and one of the reasons that the Republican Party's polling keeps showing 90% approval for Donald Trump is because educated women have largely said Chuck yeah they're out they're done you know they sort of got a trial separation in November of 2016 and since then the divorces turned ugly there are restraining orders it's like War of the Roses cuckoo pants so I think women voters are very much less likely on the Republican side to be there this fall Democratic women we've seen in all the special elections of 2017 and 2018 will crawl over broken glass to vote against anyone who even has even acknowledged that Donald Trump is a sapien human being so I think you're gonna end up with an awful lot an awful lot of turnout in the suburbs and one of the things we studied very closely was at Gillespie's race in Virginia and as an old friend he's a moderate Republican of every kind he's the perfect fit for Virginia on paper well in Northern Virginia Republican women decided that they hated Donald Trump so much that they were just going to go ahead and stay home so I think we may see that replicated out in ways that we haven't predicted yet governor Locke we have a hotly contested race in the 8th district between kim Schreyer and Dino Rossi it's attracted the second-highest spending for a house race in the country where do you think it's going to come out well various polls show that either Dino Rossi is leading or it's a virtually a dead heat so that's why I say anything could happen in the next two weeks I think well I have my own personal views on that particular race I'm not a fan of Dino Rossi having worked with him in Olympia and is there anything specific you wonder well first of all he's been going doing a lot of commercials saying he's taking credit for this no tax increased budget and protecting vulnerable children and adults etcetera etcetera actually when he unveiled that budget and it was a tough budget there was a budget that I actually unveiled several months earlier and when he unveiled it he basically had a presentation says following the governor's lead and he had several tweaks to our proposed budget but he had several draconian tweaks buried in that budget one of which was cutting off forty one thousand forty over forty thousand children of working families from medical assistance under the so-called s chip program which is very very popular among both Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress and why he would do that I have absolutely no idea he also made cuts in nursing home that affected middle-income families people who are not who are privately paid patients and so their nursing home rates had to go up under his budget proposal and so I mean there were some tough choices in there but for him to say it was a budget that was you know that he came up with number one because he was kind of it was a tough budget and so he hid behind us and said it was I'm just following the governor's lead and then now he's claiming that it was a very very but he but he's ignoring his tweaks that were very very draconian and there were other parts in the button that budget proposal that he came out with that really show that here on to eliminate healthcare for children families with children and that was very very distressing I'm supposed to hold up you mean the number one New York Times bestseller let me go back to to the the Schreyer Rossi race if we're concerned about and and for instance the Seattle Times came out with an endorsement of Rossi in the last few days and said that they very much feel that Trump needs to be stopped and there needs to be a check on on his policies and his and his programs and and what he stands for and yet they endorse a Republican candidate that I don't really think is all that great but they feel that on balance he's gonna be more pragmatic and more bipartisan well if you look at crystals commentary and and column in The New York Times today in which many conservative Republicans including George will say that the only way that we can bring the Republican Party back to being a true opposition party and having values you have to tear it all down and you cannot allow Trump to prevail in the United States Congress so electing more Republicans to the Congress is actually embolden Trump and and so that's why I think it's all the more important that we if we have decent Democratic candidates and Kim Schreyer is a fantastic candidate with her background as a pediatrician then we need to have the Seattle time should have been endorsing her for that position instead of Dino Rossi so I want to ask you Rick so as I said you're pretty tough critic of the president how much do you think Donald Trump is at play in this 8th district that we have here one of the hottest races in the whole country there's another race in eastern Washington between cathy McMorris Rodgers and lisa brown and then in the third district in Southwest Washington near Vancouver including 35 district up there Donald Trump is on the ballot in every single one that's my question Donald Trump is a this is in large measure a referendum on donald trump and trumpism and trump is nationalism and his flirtation with authoritarianism his flirtation with white supremacy and and that is one of the reasons why in an ordinary climate let's just hypothesize to do do a counterfactual for a moment and its president Jeb Bush right now you know might not like that but it was president Jeb Bush and the economy was doing what the economy is doing the Republicans would gain seats in the house right now they are fighting for their lives in 70 of those districts of which who knows which thirty-five are going to be that the are gonna you know spin the right chamber when they're playing trumpian roulette but he's on the ballot everywhere and Republicans have made this fundamental decision that we can run elections that are based only on turning out the GOP base and Democrats do this in a lot of places too so you end up appealing to the edge cases of your party and not looking inward and not trying to reach into people who aren't activated partisan voters all the time and the problem with trumpism is it's not really an ideology it's more of an effect it's more about can I be the biggest loudest jackass in the room can I be the guy who pones the libs every day and who bases my campaign not on jobs economics health care education public safety but instead on this whole menu of varying you know racially coded and socially coded anxieties and angers so I think that's why Republicans are having such a steep hill to climb this year governor lark I want to talk about millennial voters I've seen a whole bunch of different numbers so forgive me if these numbers aren't perfect but I read somewhere that turn out for these midterms could be as high as 28% along among Millennials and that's supposedly a big deal because in 2014 the last midterms the turnout was something like 23% what is your take on on this group of voters do you think it is going to be any different this time will they actually vote and what what could be done to bring in these voters who are sometimes called a little bit disaffected well i'm i think the turnout will be high among the millennials and the younger generation what excites them what captivates them I think a lot of the deals with social justice issues income inequality climate change and and all the things that really that many people are worried about but quite frankly not many of the not many politicians on either side of the party are really addressing that's why I think that Bernie Sanders was was so attractive and that's why Trump and the very conservatives were have been able to attract well consent candidates on the very right including Trump have been able to attract followers because they don't feel that either party is really addressing a lot of their core issues you know and and Rick was talking about you know the the Republicans trying to appeal to their base Democrat elections are won and lost in the middle they're won and lost in the middle and the candidate that can really capture and resonate with the deep-seated concerns worries anxieties fears frustrations of of the voters will win and the one who can almost give them hope will win no you can have demagogues like Trump that promise everything and and none of those promises will come true but at least he's articulating issues and promising things on issues that the middle is concerned about and and that's why I really felt that he won especially in those battleground states traditional blue-collar states like Michigan and Pennsylvania and and and other places and so I really think that Millennials also have some of these concerns they may not be some of the core mental issues that their parents are concerned about but they are concerned about the future of our planet they're very concerned about social justice and incoming and growing income inequality police brutality and the end and the list goes on and on Rick I'd like to ask you a question about turnout generally in presidential elections we have about sixty percent of eligible voters or turnout and in midterm elections is about 40 percent keep on hearing stories about a lot of early voting do you think it's going to be different this year in terms of turnout I think we've seen in some of the early voting stuff that's come out at North Carolina in Florida and in Texas as of today that the early voting you know it used to be that Republicans turn their people out with absentee ballots and early voting and Democrats showed up on Election Day because they were organized in the field operation stuff well it looks like the Democrats have finally gotten off their tails and figured out how to do early voting and abia and absentee ballot voting in a lot of these places so in Florida for instance democratic absentee ballot and early voting numbers are up about 14% over 2014 which should make republicans take a moment and go hmm but I do think you're gonna see the the fact that there's early voting in that every day is election day between now and and the actual day you're gonna see the importance of early voting and in motivating your base every single day and doing the operational things I say this to Democrats a lot the Democrats are great at certain things in politics but they're holistically mad at politics and Republicans are mediocre but we're really good at all being mediocre across a whole bunch of different areas so the fact that you know Democrats are learning how to turn out voters finally beforehand and locking in banking votes we call it is is relevant and I do think this is a year where both parties Democrats with a slight advantage in the latest CNN poll annoyed as pupil in terms of enthusiasm and interest in the election it's it's higher and I do think a lot of the Trump vote that came out for the first time ever in 2016 they are interested in Trump they are part of the spectacle Oh Trump I don't necessarily think that means that the guy with the red Mogga had who showed up at the rally and voted because he wanted to quit get make sure that the Kenyan Muslim was not replaced by the Satanic devil worshiper Hillary I don't think that guy necessarily gets out and says hmm I'd better cast my vote for Dino Rossi because he will help you know I don't think that logic flows as naturally as the Republican national congressional the the NRCC would like Ric Republicans seem to be today especially zooming in on immigration and the caravan from Honduras well Democrats are pretty heavily focused on health care you see that in a lot of the ads what do you think of these strategies for each party I hate saying this in some ways because the Democrats for once are doing the right thing and I've lectured them about being bad at politics so many times that when they do the right thing I'm sort of a bounded staying focused on health care especially pre-existing conditions it's always been the killer app of Obamacare it's always been the thing and we sat in focus groups in 2009 before the during the Obamacare fight I was working for a couple of interest groups with some brothers who you may know and we were studying Obamacare and how to stop it and in every one of these focus groups we'd sit in we'd get the data back and the one thing that would absolutely end the argument in favor of Obamacare was pre-existing it did not matter Republican Democrat blast because everybody knows somebody that has a sex trade okay it didn't matter everybody had a cousin a brother a mom a dad a sister someone in their life had been screwed by an insurance company and we wrote our reports up and said if they get this to be the subject you will lose well so what did Republicans do when Donald Trump took office and their great brilliant scheme to repeal Obamacare came out front and center right first day we're gonna get rid of this pre-existing condition coverage because my god that'll be popular with our friends in the insurance industry oh and everyone in America hates it you know why Republicans haven't done a town hall meeting while your republican congressmen have it done a town hall meeting since this spring of 2017 because they got their tails handed to them over and over again they got beat like rented mules by people who came up and stood at the microphone and said hey my daughter has cancer what are you doing about it oh you're taking away her coverage great thanks so the Democrats focusing on this right now is absolutely spot-on now what is the caravan do the caravan you know then the president by the time they get up to the border it's gonna be all of bin Laden's family or trying to sneak over the border that Caravan story is is fodder for the Fox News audience that's what they want to be that's what they want the the Red Hat Yahoo crowd focused on because they took our jobs and they're coming to kill us and I'm I've sent a couple notes this afternoon to some producers at CNN MSNBC saying yeah you guys are playing Trump's game right now you're playing their game bye-bye-bye showing this and saying this army of the poor is coming these people in Trump's base want that they want it they want to feel threatened there so they they feel so socially inferior that they always look for somebody else to urinate down on and it's it's it's a terrible commentary on what a part of the base of my party and it's it's infuriating because I know an awful lot of people who are smarter than this and they love this crack they love this game what do you think so I think that that'll that'll help mobilize the Republican base or some of the core Trump supporters and Trump will just keep talking about the caravan and saying this is why he needs that wall which is why we need to kick out illegals and it justifies all the principles and all the policies that he's been putting in places this is the visual image a visual image of everything that he says he is trying to do for the American people surprise you know anything can happen between now and and now in an election day and and as Rick was saying depends on when they get to the border governor like I like your put on your ambassador real hat I've got a question about both Russian influence in the election and the president's recent allegation that there may be Chinese influence in the election what's your view about that well clearly it's it's clear that there's Russian influence in the election and and all of America Democrats and Republicans should be very very concerned about that period now in terms of the Chinese they're just retaliating on the Trump tariffs and most of the exports from the United States to China are agricultural so that's the only way they could that's the only place they can really go and they can impose these tariffs on agricultural goods knowing that they also have substitutes that they can get from other countries I mean they don't have to buy American soybeans they can get soybeans from Brazil which actually and there's a surplus of soybeans in in Latin America they can get so many other commodities from pork from other countries they don't have to buy US pork and so unfortunately it is the Chinese retaliatory tariffs are primarily aimed at agriculture which coincidentally happens to be Trump's base supporters I don't think it's really by design because there are several you know agricultural areas that are also Democratic especially in California inserting the California economy but nonetheless agriculture is an easy place for the Chinese to seek retaliation on our tariffs on Chinese goods but for what I heard Trump say seem to think that there was some kind of nefarious influence that the Chinese were exercising in the 2018 elections do you see that at all well he's talking about the concern about American and including Washington state farmers over the tariffs on on their exports of agricultural goods and so you know but it was Trump who started these tariffs first and had it not been for these tariffs there would not have been counter tariffs and there would there would not have been an issue for 2018 the Russians sought to manipulate our elections by part by engaging in a massive intelligence and propaganda effort against us the Chinese have sought to respond in kind to an economic trade war that Donald Trump has launched in his in his effort to win the you know World Olympic champion of stupid economic policies because trade wars are easy to win show was absolutely dedicated to exploiting and and and corrupting our democracy the China is fighting back on the trade front in a way that is what nation-states do in the in a spectrum of diplomatic activities you know that are to the left of the boom as they say it's not where you're shooting at each other and it's not really using a massive intelligence and propaganda program to try to subvert American democracy governor Locke is it a mistake or a plus for the Democratic Party to move to the left for the 2018 or 2020 well I think they're really trying to address the issues that they think resonate with with with first their base and with middle America health care preexisting conditions climate change I think a lot of these issues are are of concern to the American people of varying degrees and so but I think that at the same time we shouldn't Democrats need to be very careful that they don't vilify some of their centrist candidates who come from very different populations I mean not everybody in Washington State that's a Democrat comes from Seattle and so you Democrats have to be a little bit more forgiving of their candidates and understand that it's a spectrum and to require complete adherence to the far left or the very very progressive agenda is actually going to kill us because if we start you know refusing to endorse our own candidates because they're not pure enough we're not going to ever win elections and we're gonna have the Republicans and Trump in power forever and so the question is are we willing to you know bide our time look for a little bit more gradual progress in a whole host of issues of issues or are we gonna say it's all or nothing because if we take that all-or-nothing approach we're gonna get nothing I think political Mott it's an outstanding point governor that's an outstanding point I think political monocultures are always dangerous and and political ideological tests are always dangerous I mean this map up here Ocasio Cortez scales to about 20 districts on that whole map 29 african-american districts in the whole country where you can get in Ocasio Cortez elected Connor Lam in Pennsylvania is significantly to the right vocation Cortez is about a hundred districts up there out of 435 where you can go and compete as a Democrat so you know you've got to ask yourself do I want the 80% guy who can compete almost everywhere or do I want the 100% guy who can compete almost nowhere and Republicans have that same thing look I hope to like Rudy Giuliani in New York before he was in well before he was Donald Trump's crazy person and before he was America's mayor and then hero of 9/11 all that's up and guess what I had Republicans who were saying things like I can't believe you're working for that guy he's pro-choice what do you want me to do it's freaking New York I mean come on people I helped elect a Republican governor four times in Vermont you know how he did it he wasn't ideologically pure and I had people like evangelicals who would say I can't believe you're working for a guy who's not absolutely against gay marriage well we are it's too bad it works for him he's right on the issue here we go so if you want to win you can't always check off every single box and and live it like I said ideological monocultures are politically deadly they make you stupid and they make you ineffective so in your book you are very critical of the president so my first question for you is do you have any future at all in the Republican Party [Laughter] yeah one has at some point and it may be a smaller party it may be a broken party the fever will break and I think that I think there are two major forces in American politics right now that are driving changes in the in the in both parties the Democratic Party is feeling a very strong fracture between the super progressive part of it and the part that wins elections because Bill Clinton for all his faults one two national elections walking away a second time and Barack Obama who unlike what Republicans said he was the Kenyan progressive secret communist sleeper agent Muslim Sharia law candidate turned out to be a pretty moderate technocratic Democrat anyone to elections walking away and so the Democratic Party is feeling that pressure and the Republican Party is feeling the pressure between people like me who believe in the rule of law and the Constitution and an adherence to economic principles of free markets and individual liberty and raging nationalist populist who you know want to show up with tiki torches and white polo shirts and have special night time ceremonies where African Americans are told where they need to go I don't believe in that party I think that party's gonna die I think that part of that party is in a demographic and ideological dead end and it's evil and frankly I argue in the book it must be destroyed but I think there's gonna be a future in where we're where people who believe in limited government and individual liberty and rule of law and then here it's the Constitution and an economic and fiscal discipline will have a voice in our politics again it's not going to be for a while yet so there in the future sometime this this guy should change my question to be when will we see Republicans on the ballot or who are more like John McCain the Romney I'm gonna say something's gonna be in trouble you guys ready the rest of the stuff you said it's not gonna get you in trouble oh hell I'm pretty far down in the ditch on that side I'm gonna give you the answer it's gonna shock people and I guarantee they're gonna I guarantee you there's gonna be a Breitbart store when I say this Republican politics will change when Rupert Murdoch dies because Fox News is the single source of normative behaviors now in the Republican Party it is the one thing that causes the coherence effect inside the GOP in its post ideological structure and that that situation at Fox where there have been able to monetize this nationalism and this nationalist rumpus populism is enormous ly impressive and Rupert loves to make money and he's really really good at TV I mean the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes is that they figured out there was an underserved audience then they a starved audience an audience of conservatives who were desperate desperate for anything that wasn't the traditional you know mainstream media perspective well that starved audience that that emaciated audience is now gigantically fat and sitting on its Barcalounger shoving Cheez doodles down its throat every day and they're feeding them the same thing that they want they they they they indulge them every single day and so until Fox's programming model changes or its audience ages out which it's you know when Fox were kicked off in in 1997 its audience was 45 in 2007 its audience was 55 now it's 65 the audience is not expanding it's just growing older and it's a big audience 90 million households do not underestimate the power of thoughts to have to control and shape the behavior of the GOP and every day what do they do Donald Trump is king Donald Trump is love Donald Trump is the cult leader the God the Son so all those things that's when the Republican Party will change is when Rupert Murdoch passes in them and and and Fox looks at its business model and says can we sustain this after this audience dies out governor luck many Democrats have been outraged by Trump and do you think that the candidates have focused too much of their outrage on Trump rather than making maybe a strong - winning a vital constituency which they've been losing which is the white working-class I actually went into Olympia a few years before the 2016 election and I said to the House Democrats I said you guys are in for a rude awakening you're passing all these bills on climate change and labor issues labor union issues whether state employees or health care workers homeless mental illness issues and and the things I said hey don't get me wrong I would vote 100 percent on all of those issues as well but what are you doing for working blue-collar families what are you doing for working blue-collar families who Wow mental illness is really in everyone's family and homelessness is just a you know a sickness or a job loss away from from people also being homeless for most people whether it's in Aberdeen or Grays Harbor or Centralia or Bellingham they don't identify those as the most important issues and that's why I said that they need to really focus on the issues they ank's that concerns the worries of those blue-collar workers and rude awakening Trump a Republican won for the first time since FDR since Franklin Roosevelt in on the Pacific or Grays Harbor area you look at the map in the state of Washington it's becoming much more Republican even in traditional Democratic blue-collar areas like Peirce County and des comas and Democratic statewide candidates have only been winning in just a few counties out of the 39 in the state of Washington and that's actually beginning to happen throughout the West Coast I think was right after was it two thousand five two thousand two thousand eight election in which jay Inslee won the governor's race they were talking about the number of counties that he carried but also all the other Democrats statewide up and down the west coast and it's becoming more and more just the urban areas that's a recipe for disaster for the Democrats and it says that blue-collar families who obviously have these other issues that they they should be aware of and and how all these issues whether its climate change or mental illness and homelessness also affect them and labor rights also affects them but they don't see that direct connection and that's why I think Democrats have to not just criticize Trump it's not enough just to criticize the president you have to give people a reason a motivating buy-in to vote for the Democratic candidate it's not enough just to criticize and and I don't see from the Democratic candidates nationally an agenda of what the Democrats really stand for I've got a somewhat related question for you Rick in my study of politics as a professor and even before I was a professor I've always been amazed by how Republicans have outdueled Democrats in terms of identity politics do you agree there's a dirty little secret and harks back to what the governor just said was an awful lot of the time Democratic candidates do not come across as the guy you want to have a beer with now if you look at a George HW Bush patrician preppy New Englander he came across as a guy who was more likeable and approachable than Mike Dukakis because you know that Mike Dukakis could talk to you about the actuarial tables of the Massachusetts retirement fund until your eyes glazed over but George W Bush would HW Bush would talk about baseball and very frequently when Republican candidates have done well it's because they are Moore's they are more personally engaging I mean you guys may think George W Bush had a lot of faults I'm sure you all are big fans around here but let me tell you something George W Bush in person understands people and you feel like you were with somebody who gets you likes you wants to talk to you with Al Gore it's like yeah we let's talk about particulate carbon numbers or say it just it came across differently and that is a q on the identity politics that comes down not about race or gender or ethnicity or any other things but are you a regular person do you come across as more of a regular human being you know and for all his flaws george w bush comes across as a regular guy who just happened to be you know the son of a famous guy and who happened to be president you know I used to sit with George W Bush as governor city governors conventions and in our table we would be just rolling in laughter rolling in laughter and I obviously I was campaigning for Vice President Al Gore a lot and but on the presidential debates George W Bush came off as the guy like your next-door neighbor he didn't talk he didn't speak perfect English none of us do all right so he came across as that average guy and and you want to know that the person that you're voting for you want to have this sense that the person you're voting for understands your worries your concerns has kind of a similar background and life story that you might have now obviously George W Bush did not have that life story but he had that image had that image of just being one of the regular old guy it's the common touch question that really is and that's where people in this country there's a as many vicissitudes as we have faced as a people in the last couple of years there was always a sense that there was a broad political balance in the country and the left never had too much control for too long either right never had too much control for too long but if you look at the guy in most elections the avuncular friendly guy Bill Clinton was enormous ly approachable he seemed like he seemed like a great person that you would have the proverbial beer with so that sense of of connection with ordinary people beats all the identity politics things at the end of the day so we're gonna go to audience questions here in a minute I have one last question before we take stretch and just about voter participation governor Locke how do you explain to young people Millennials disaffected voters how much every vote counts and I will use the example of the special election back in March you alluded to it as well in Pennsylvania 18 where the Democrat that he was describing as sort of an ideal Democratic could win in a lot of places Connor land 755 votes to convey to folks that every vote really does count it we have to do is talk about the Dino Rossi christine Gregoire race in 2004 in which she won by basically a hundred and fifty votes a hundred and fifty votes out of millions and millions cast statewide that really says every vote counts and then of course there are always those stories in which it ends up being a tie and they end up flipping a coin so you know I just I just say that to folks if you really care about these issues if you really care whether its climate change or homelessness or student debt the deficit or pre-existing conditions or just moral authority moral authority an example for our kids to look up to and to follow in terms of conducting their own lives you got a vote and if you don't you have no no excuse you don't you you know you can't you have no right to be complaining about the results afterwards as a Florida guy I can tell you we're pretty experienced with closed elections where every vote counts and you know there's no excuse the governor said he's absolutely right you know people tell us in surveys all the time oh I'm absolutely gonna vote you know what that absolute number turns out to be in big elections somewhere 60% but they tell us ninety-five percent of people say oh I'm absolutely gonna vote positively gonna vote and that's where we always chase absentee ballots and voters try to identify which of those voters are lying to us and which of them are actually going to go out and do it and and people who don't understand the elections there's only two things you'll never get back an election okay you will never get back a single day and you will never get back a voter you didn't turn out on Election Day you didn't do it it's done it doesn't matter so pushing your friends to vote pushing your your your co-workers to vote you know doing all the things beating the drum if you want to win these elections you got to go out and kick people in the tail so let's take a stretch we these questions are from Oh dr. Rashmi tortillas class citizenship and society they go over there so whether the students ask what is a strategy that you found successful for having a productive and respectful conversation regarding political candidates and campaigns with someone of opposite political beliefs in today's political climate alcohol [Laughter] [Music] you think I'm kidding okay I've got another question from that class I'm not how can students who are already involved get their peers to become more involved in the political process governor Locke I think we've kind of covered that I mean the students that want more of their fellow students involved have to I suppose talk about what the first group of students really care about and what they're passionate about and why they need to expand to their friends expand their friends or expand the group to include their friends to be involved in those similar issues obviously you can't be kind of abstract about it you got to make it real really real down-to-earth and what it means to your own community your own City your own school your own neighborhood now we've got some other questions from rich Knapp sugar is standing right here at telling helping cuz the microphones on it who by the way used to work for governor Locke and question from his policy analysis class and it is I guess I should direct this towards Rick this is once we vote Trump out of office in 2020 how long will it take to turn America around well at some point the Sun will cool and earth will freeze now I suspect that like a lot of things for a while I thought it was gonna be the morning after Tijuana thing where you wake up and go that was a bad idea you know takes a couple days to cook all the tequila out of your system I actually think he's done more lasting damage to our institutions both political and and in terms of the rule of law in particular and I think he's infected a lot of our political class and frankly it's on the right and the left with this idea that expedience and and and you know momentary fights are existential and so it justifies every lie and every tactic I think that is something that's gonna take a lot longer to cook out of a system and I'm sort of I don't want to be flippant about it I think that may take decades I think that the the infection is very serious okay now we'll throw it off to our general audience and we have Katherine up here and and also rich Katherine do you want to start it then we'll alternate the media the press by the president and sort of senior politicians you have Sinclair broadcasting who's essentially a propaganda outlet and then this last week we see the cold-blooded murder of a journalist from The Washington Post in Saudi Arabia and sort of the cover-up impossibly not being worse than the crime but pretty awful and I'm just wondering you know what your thoughts are about how the media landscape is changing and what the impact of that is going forward from here I think that the president's behavior and toward the media has been absolutely one of the most offensive and significant contraventions of not only our founding principles but of something that should be wired of the DNA of any Republic and that is a free and unintimidating press our founders recognized that they were taking their lives in their hands by speaking against the tyrannical British government right now Donald Trump wants the media to shut up he wants them cowed intimidated frightened and and I think that the the the killing of khashoggi is something that does not disappoint him in the slightest I think he's perfectly fine with it I think he's perfectly fine that his allies have taken a step that he would love to be able to do in his heart of hearts because I think that these people are I think these people are motivated with some very dark impulses and and while I don't think Donald Trump has a as a kill list of reporters I think that if reporters feel intimidated and frightened he's perfectly contented okay this this question is gerd a little bit more towards Rick when we find ourselves in places that are hyperpolarized like you know Capitol Hill Seattle on the left or like an Odessa Texas on the right what are your ideas or suggestions for candidates or would-be candidates that are more moderate or centrist to actually have a sticking point a message there so that they can win and second part is the bar around the corner makes a hell of a Pimm's Cup and I'd be happy to buy you one well I do love me a Pimm's Cup I think one of the things that moderate interest candidates need to do is be relevant I mean don't go in just on the idea of saying I'm gonna be simple and I'm gonna be nice that doesn't sell you have to go out and be relevant to people so we touched on and the governor touched on is one of the reasons that the the the guy who's accessible tends to win is that they're not talking about boutique issues as important as people in Washington want to think things like climate change and social justice for the average voter for the regular guy who's turning a wrench over at Boeing or the regular guy who's you know getting up in the morning to drive a garbage truck he's not thinking about that he's like he's focused on how am I gonna get my kids through college how am I gonna pay my my rent how am I gonna pay my electric bill these things are much more reduced down to fundamentals than people really give it credit for and personality can overcome a lot of politics but you got to have the right policy and you got to have something that moves people and the other part of it is don't be afraid to go to the to the zone that's a different color don't be afraid if you're a Democrat to go campaign and I mean that's why give Bay to a lot of props in Texas he's out there hustling in very democratic areas when I worked for Rudy Giuliani we used to go in campaign in the in the most democratic parts of the Bronx in part because it was a big you know we decide that we wouldn't get we weren't gonna be intimidated by any political landscape we were gonna go and talk and get deliver the message so we have a question for hearing a lot over here so can we just take the people in order that's fine that's fine I'd like to listen to Rick to from Bellingham now but he can probably tell him originally from Australia so first of all apologies for Rupert one of the things you to compare and contrast the political situations in two countries but specifically the gerrymandering issue that really stands out to me as an Australian but I'll be interested to know your opinions with regards to where where that my going-out could be changed there's an interest most states were where redistricting gets put on the ballot people will vote for a nonpartisan redistricting system and I will tell you something about redistricting both sides play this game to the hilt you know I've got a lot of experience in redistricting of states like Florida and Vermont and Wisconsin and I will tell you in Wisconsin and Florida I couldn't tell you the first calls to the Republicans who controlled the process weren't from other Republicans they were from the african-american candidates who would say protect my district and I'll vote for the plan people always do the thing that is absolutely in their personal political interest to preserve the best district they can so nonpartisan redistricting could really reshape a lot of things now what would that mean in this country it would mean fewer deep red seats for Democrats it would also mean many fewer african-american and minority candidates will be elected to office a lot fewer because right now those candidates are especially under voting right of tax cases those tend to be compressed African American districts in Florida that the African American districts the five African American health seats in Florida average sixty-two percent democratic and about 57 percent African American that math doesn't work in non partisan and non non racially weighted redistricting so you have fewer conservative seats fewer liberal seats you have a lot more seats where a big ole mess and in contention every cycle so but redistricting is is is the devil's workshop in all from both parties except for Washington stare right at Washington say we actually have an independent commission that does it and I think they do a fairly decent job they know where the toss-up districts are and they try to keep some of those you know toss-up districts in place but if it's a solid democratic district they'll try to keep it solidly democratic and solid Republican but without drawing these boundaries that make absolutely no sense and that's what you see you think the 8th makes no sense the drawing of well that's like a terrier that was the one oddball district that we had in order to also make it somewhat competitive and and evenly balanced but you know when you try to preserve some of the districts that you have in the urban Puget Sound area and keeping the parties in control of that and and then allowing a few toss-up districts then you're going to get some anomalies but when you have some of these weird weird weird I mean blatantly blatantly gerrymandered districts in other state that I mean it's so embarrassing it and I would unfortunately in so many states it's controlled by the state legislatures there's a district in North Carolina where seventeen miles of the district runs down a power easement there are no people living there and and there are states where where districts are as they used to say a modern art masterpiece I'm all for putting the artificial intelligence in charge of it and throw the dice see whatever goes so I very much support nonpartisan or a citizen's Commission doing these things agree and taking it out of the hands of partisan legislatures we've had that for some time here we have had it for at least thirty years and that's why it's so important to also be concerned about who you're voting for in your local legislative races and which party controls ambassador Locke to your presidential campaign is that ever going to be possible no that's not possible [Music] [Laughter] you know you know governor pjo work once said that the average American voter equates a denial with a full confession of guilt I think he's running y'all let me let me just say about running for president I think it takes a very special person and maybe it takes a person with a lot of hutzpah to be able to subject himself or herself out there every single day to be traveling every single day raising god-awful amounts of money and being rejected and now he just running for state legislature and then running for County Executive and running for a governor was hard enough as it was trying to raise money even asking for a hundred dollar donation and being rejected or you know you you you you ask five hundred dollars from people who are very very wealthy and they give you a hundred and fifty dollars and you know they can afford more and then you have an elderly retired person who gives you $300 a and you guilty taking that $300 or $100 from a very low income or retiree and saying oh my gosh no no want you to take that back but you know you don't want to offend them either so it's it's really hard that's the worst part I think of campaigning is the fund raising the fund raising any time a candidate asked me you know what's the hardest thing I'm gonna do I will tell them the hardest thing you're gonna do is get on the phone every day for 300 days and call strangers and say give me five thousand dollars twenty five hundred from you 25 from your wife get me this money give it to me give me that money where's that check give me that grip I want it give it to me it's so hard it's so miserable it's so humiliating it's like I mean I would rat it you know people joke with me wreck you should run for office absolutely not I would sooner put a drill through my foot then call people every day and say can I have $1,000 can I have $5,000 it's it's utter misery and and that's I mean if you're gonna run for president it gets on Trump you're a Democrat you gotta raise 300 million dollars at the minimum that's the low boundary what you can raise that math is really hard and you got to hopefully be a decent candidate at the same time cuz Hillary was great at raising money but her ROI was terrible because she was you know she was she was an indifferent candidate in terms of connecting with people great at raising money raised a gazillion dollars but a Democrat running against Trump needs to be able to raise three hundred million dollars and that is the low end of the spectrum so Ronald Reagan said the most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the government I'm here to help so why the Republicans run for governments the worst thing on earth well in the old days there was this theory that we were going to get the government into the bathtub and drown it that's a Grover Norquist special and that and that the idea that the state needed to be restrained and controlled and that the only way you can do it inside of a constitutional system is by seeking like the office and passing legislation to reduce the size and scope of government now all that went right out the window in 2016 because Donald Trump has expanded the power of government expanded the power of the state because it's catching the Mexicans and that's what he wants that's what his people love they love their they you know the the the former theory that we're gonna shrink the size of government and the power of the of the of the wicked bureaucratic state goes right out the window when it's you know let's hire a hundred thousand more ice agents those things you know display a certain contradiction inside the current iteration of the GOP but you know the the idea was always you know you could reduce the power of the state two ways you can be elected passed laws that control the bureaucracy and the power of government or you could you know have a revolution from the outside the latter is so messy and causes so many problems that you know you'll want to actually run for office and do it inside the system declare himself a nationalist oh did we yes in Houston at the Trump at the Cruz rally and but this isn't this isn't the only place we see nationalism rising we see it in Brazil we even see signs of it like with Ford and Canada you certainly see it in Europe do both and this is a question for both of you do you see Trump as an example of America catching a bit of the populism nationalism flu that seems to be going around or do you see this as part of a more fundamental realignment where the Republican is party will eventually emerge as a populist Nationalist Party and the Democratic Party becoming more of a cosmopolitan globalist party I always hesitate when we use the phrase cosmopolitan that has some historical antecedents I'm not really comfortable with but I will say this nationalism as a political tool is like a chainsaw chainsaws are great I love chainsaws I break them a lot but I love them but that very powerful tool in the wrong hands gets out of control very quickly and a lot of the nationalist movements that are emerging in the world are very thinly veiled authoritarian movements and nationalism is a tool of authoritarianism and statism and as an actual conservative not one of the Trump era conservatives I've seen the historical precedence for nationalism quickly and terribly going off the rails and I think that that the Nationalists that come out is that word reduces with a workingman this is a song we've heard before in the last century a number of times it ends badly it ends in camps it ends in death it ends in oppression and and so while these things may may rise as a political force because of their utility I think that that the arc of history is already too far you know advanced for it to be unresisted and I think it's vital for people to resist the power of authoritarian state ISM with all their might and it's one of the reasons that I oppose Donald Trump because I'm not I'm look Trump as a man as a person he's a clown he's a joke but Trump as a symbol manipulated by Steve Bannon and and the Steven Miller's of this world you know Adolf Hitler was what now I I hesitate to make a comparison between Trump and Hitler because Hitler had normal sized hands but authoritarian leaders in the past have always had a bunch of smart guys around them who understood how to exploit their charisma and so Goering and Goebbels and Himmler understood how to play Hitler's charisma and bannin and Miller and the and the rest of the the smarter set around Trump understand how to play his charisma it is a dangerous tool and again like I said I think all people of goodwill regardless of party having an obligation to reject authoritarian sadism in all its forms and Trump is certainly the latest iteration of that obviously there are forms of nationalism and there's the simple nationalism of just having pride in your country and your community but as as Rick was saying I mean there's the very dangerous element and and extreme of nationalism which really is authoritarianism and I see that really that's the thing that troubles me most about Trump and how he's giving voice to that and encouraging that and expanding that and in some ways he's applauding other authoritarian nationalist leaders whether it's in Europe or in the Philippines and elsewhere around the world and he loves these strongman rulers he loves those strongman rulers whether even even if it's the head of Turkey all right and and he gravitates toward that I think it's because of he wants a lot of that power himself as as Rick was saying I would he'd look he probably doesn't care what happened to to the journalist that was killed in in the consulate or in the embassy in in Istanbul because of his loathing Trump's loathing of the press but I I very am very concerned about this growing nationalism as we see it or authoritarianism in America this scapegoating of ethnic minorities and and other groups and income groups and and political groups and the media it's it's a danger that we saw during World War two or leading up to World War and Hitler and it's we're seeing that playing out throughout Europe and and I hope that we're not having a repeat of some of the dark ages of of the 1940s playing out in Europe and let me just say that for me I think the strength of America is our diversity I mean we are a land of foreigners except for the Native Americans were all foreigners whether our ancestors came on the Mayflower on a slave ship or on a vessel from China and it's that wave after wave of foreigners immigrants that with new ideas new cultures new values new you know just a drive and energy that has really propelled America and led to our innovation and our greatness as a country and so for Trump to deny our legacy and so many people in the Congress and the Republican Party to deny the essence of America I keep saying they are the ones who don't understand what it truly what it truly what we truly need to make America great and I couldn't agree more I couldn't agree more and one of the things that disturbs me the most about this particular flavor of nationalism the Trump is embraced is that America is a propositional nation we are not a Volk as the Germans would say or a Rodina as the Russians would say we are not a race we are not a single ethnic group in this country you know what you show up here you play by the rules you become a citizen you're an American you are allowed to be from anywhere from any circumstance high or low from any continent from any background from any tribe any religion doesn't matter if we don't continue to embrace that as a central pillar of this Republic we are lost if we think that it's only about white Protestants in this country we are lost as the governor said you know generation after generation came here and maybe they were the hated ones than that in that in that generation you know when your ancestors came from China or my answers came from Germany there was a period where we were the ones were like oh my god I can't believe those people they're awful right now those people are that are walking up here from Central America that in 50 years will be pillars of their communities and that's because of this propositional nature of the American Republic and if we if we lose that I think we've lost everything [Applause] so this question is probably geared more towards governor Locke but both you can jump in there's obviously a battle going on right now between the Trump Republicans and the more intellectually consistent Republicans but on the other hand there is another battle between there's like six of us so you on the other hand what do you think is going to be the effect of the current and future battle between the moderate Democrats and the Democratic Socialist branch of the Democratic Party III think they're they'll sort it out in with Rick's question answer to a previous question about what does it take for it let's say a centrist or a moderate to win in Capitol Hill it's not - it's it each candidate has to reflect the values of their particular community and whether it's the entire state of Washington if they're running statewide or if they're running just in a legislative district or a city council race just their neighborhoods but I think that to be successful the Democrats have to also look beyond and so for the the progressives the the the very progressives in Seattle that's okay to focus on those issues but don't ignore the other issues that are of concern to other people whether they're moderate Democrats or just unaffiliated independent voters we have a responsibility to look for the out for an entire society and while we may have pressing you know some of us may have very pressing priorities that that really fuel our passion that's great that's okay just don't ignore the other issues that perhaps are more paramount to people within the party or outside the party micro time for two more quick will go fast hi so I'm a junior and my questions more towards climate change we've been talking a lot about different issues different parts and issues and this I've held this philosophy for the past couple years that like we can debate partisanship all we want but if you can't breathe the air drink the water it doesn't really matter and so given the context of the recent UN climate report mr. Wilson you talked about relevancy a little bit ago I wanted to know how can we shift the social perception of climate change and its dangers to something is more relevant because I feel like it is just such a backburner issue even now I'm gonna tell you I importance but right now every time I go if I go in the field with a survey anywhere in this country okay and I ask what we don't think about the MIP most important problem panel okay we asked that question all the time we can do it two ways we can ask the people to just give us their random list of what that comes to their mind or we can give them a set of choices in every single most important problem panel you will always see jobs economy education those things are way up there in the double digits climate change generally falls somewhere around 2 to 4 percent no one cares no one gives a damn no one believes it is gonna be something that they're gonna vote on that day and and for Democrats to keep trying to ram it down people's throats it's led to a certain resistance level to talk about it and engage on it and so climate change may be a big important issue but it is not an issue that American voters give a damn about and it's just a hard fact that's not that's not weighing in on saying it's real not real I think it's really happening but you know voters don't base their behavior at the ballot box on climate change and there is not yes given how much has been spent to talk about it there is not yet been a message the Democrats have been able to come across with let's change the political landscape on climate changes as a cutting voting issue I really think that I'm very worried about climate change I'm very very worried and I see the effects in China I see it in so many other parts of the world and I'm seeing it here in the Pacific Northwest in terms of hotter summers and more forest fires less cold really severe cold winters that will kill a lot of the beetles that are that then are able to infest our our force and you're seeing so many dead trees in the forests of the Pacific Northwest which then are very very ripe for forest fires I agree with Rick unfortunately that it it's not paramount because unfortunately most Americans and most people only focus on the immediacy what's really staring them in the face and we procrastinate like crazy you know we in our own individual behaviors we procrastinate like crazy we say okay yeah well we can put that off there's time to work on that tomorrow or day after tomorrow when there really isn't time according to the UN report I actually think that Democrats need to start smaller and maybe with student-led initiatives on climate on environmental issues because you get the power of students whether it's high school students with an initiative whether it's to ban styrofoam and all this kind of plastic in the environment and then you keep going on and so I mean I just think Democrats need to rethink their strategy on how to address climate change and they also need to look at it from a job creation standpoint retrofitting insulation you know energy efficiency those are job creation initiatives so think of it from the standpoint of what is it that most people are concerned about in families whether it's in Grays Harbor or Bellingham they want jobs okay then make it tie that to climate change [Applause] okay this question is directed more towards Rick's oh I identify center-right moderate Republican like yourself I support a Kasich in the primary there's about four of us it was a fun time but didn't go anywhere what do you recommend for someone like me who sits here and I think you do the same thing and you're like okay we have jokers on the Left Joker's on the right who do I vote for when I want to you know still participate and do my civic duty you got to stay involved with candidates that you believe in and you don't need to compromise and they don't have to be perfect for you but if you step out of the arena completely then the extremes win if you if you I mean it's like it's why a lot of people badger me like why are you so a Republican if I quit the party I lose my standing to put up my middle finger and say to my co party members hey you're being a bunch of jackasses don't just say oh he got disgruntled and left so leaving the arena is always a loss stay in the fight find people you can support it may be harder it may be more difficult try to persuade people that you are working with that you know that the traditional path of limited government conservatism of optimistic conservatism that isn't dark and exclusionary is is is it is a winner across the broad spectrum and not and that trumpism doesn't reflect everything that you believe in and so should should he and other Republicans help them elect Democrats the way that Christoph was saying in the column today in the New York Times to tear down the Republican Party immediately so that the Republican Party can rebuild I think they've got a case by case that because look III will tell you if I was if I was in Devin Nunez's district I'd sure as hell vote for the Democrat okay [Applause] because Devon Nunez is essentially committing obstructions reason trying to protect this president but look if you if you've got a guy like Dino Rossi who by the way in the in the spectrum of Trumpets Republicans Dino Rossi is basically Ted Kennedy maybe more like Bernie Sanders even but but you've gotta find people you can work with and you've got a and you know we if you're a volunteer your level you're playing smaller ball then try to do a massive sort of national realignment of ensuring that you have accountability in Congress so you know if you find a Democrat look there are some Democrats this year running for office I'll give you an example in North Carolina and nine Dan McReady is a Democrat from Marine Corps officer combat veteran he's to the right of his Republican can't opponent on trade deficits and and and the budget it's crazy time I mean you look at that you're the heck how's that happening so it's something to look at you know there's a case-by-case basis you can make decisions where and look I've worked against two Republicans in my thirty years career in politics one of them was Donald Trump pretty proud of that the other was against Roy Moore and let me tell you something I will never lose a single night of sleep for big making some of the the negative TV ads that I'm infamous for against a child molesting creepy scumbag sometimes the moral test is that bright sometimes a little more difficult good luck stay in the fight we were gonna make that the last question but we notice you make the fort will take those we head to Rick's book in your hand there's for governor lock okay I would like to talk to Rick though um you makes happy if you bought the book so that's exactly you mentioned about you know the the purity test but how do you enforce some kind of ideological rigor in the Democratic Party and I'm thinking of yo Joe Lieberman who spent pretty much last four years of his terms just stabbing President Obama and the Democrats in the back you on ACA on the stimulus package or Joe Manchin in West Virginia who you could say okay he's not with the Democrat on the climate issues but that's because coal mining is an industry that's a local issue but you know he just turned around and stabbed the Democrats in the back on Brett Kavanaugh and you know looks like a total chump now because Trump came out and mocked him for voting or Donald Trump jr. came out and mocked him for voting for Cavanaugh you know what do you what do you you know what can you do to kind of you don't want to be too pure but you know even in Washington State I remember you know looking at what Lieberman did and being really angry at this guy and kind of wishing that President Obama had some more of the killer instincts that Lyndon Baines Johnson had who would have really dropped the hammer you know if you don't read Karos books you know I mean Joe Lieberman would have been in a world of hurt if you tried that stuff so I mean it's a hard thing but you know how can you you know because I think it frustrates a lot of Democrats to see you know somebody like President Obama come along and I you know canvassed for President Obama then you see somebody else who's supposedly in his party just okay what's your what's your question hey you know how do you how do you draw that line you like where do you like to say okay you've gone beyond the pale like i think joe Manchin's gone beyond the pale with this Kavanagh thing I can't believe okay well if I if I care about the future appointments of the United States Supreme Court and a rule of law then I guess I would still support Manchin holding my breath because I really want to make sure that we have a check on the judicial appointments like time appointments that Trump will be making and it's really up to whether it's President Obama to decide whether or not he can still tolerate and and sit down with Joe Lieberman despite all the darts that Lieberman may have made and the votes that he made of cast against Obama's policies but that's gonna be an individual choice and and you need as Rick was saying you need to decide on the candidates that you favor and that you can work with and it's gonna be on a case by case basis the party as an as a nation sometimes may have to you know make some adjustments and and be more accommodating in order to get part of their net their their overall agenda through but let me just say one thing you got to have you have to have values and you got to stand by your principles and I guess what's really disconcerting with some of the Republicans like Ted Cruz is for Trump to have attacked Ted Cruz the way he did to attacked life to attacked his father and then for Ted Cruz than to suddenly turn around and say I love the man and I'm gonna support you because I need to get reelected I think that's going too far I mean you have to have personal honor and and I think that's most important whether you're a Democrat or Republican you have to have personal honor and I I'm dismayed at the lack of personal honor that many of our office holders have especially in fulfilling their constitutional responsibility to be an independent branch of government I'm gonna wrap it up right there that was such a good discussion so many great questions we thank you all for coming that was a inadvertent mic drop there on my part and the book tables outside thank you both thanks so much [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Seattle Channel

Views: 19,171

Keywords: Seattle Channel, Seattle

Id: 0ELn4r90p4I

Length: 89min 16sec (5356 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 30 2018