The State of the Midterms with Majority 54's Ravi Gupta

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And welcome to this edition of the Mighty. Ben Meiselas here, joined by Brett Meiselas, Jordy Meiselas, and a friend of the pod, Ravi Gupta, the managing partner of arena, an organization dedicated to convening, training, and supporting the next generation of candidates and campaign staff. Ravi Gupta also worked on Barack Obama's campaign back in 2008 and is the host of Majority 54 podcast. Ravi Gupta, welcome to the mighty.

Well, thank you for for having me back here. Love you guys. Avid listener Ravi, what's going on?

We're heading into the midterms. January 6th committee just held its last hearing. Likely will be its last hearing. Incredibly compelling voters paying attention.

Yeah, I wish that January 6th was resonating more as an issue. I think certain Candidates are better at messaging it than others. Like there was the. Earlier this week, Tim Ryan was in his debate with Vance and you know, all these Republican candidates now are pushing the crime message that they, the messages come from on high that they're trying to kick up hysteria over like a so called crime wave that doesn't exist. And instead of playing defense, I thought Ryan was really smart and he pushed Vance to be like, hey, you can't claim to be pro cop and then, you know, raise money for the insurrectionists. Right. So I think certain candidates are smarter than others about injecting it into their races. I think unfortunately it hasn't quite broke it through in a lot of the races that I'm watching, with the exception of certain really talented candidates. But nonetheless, whether it breaks through or not, it's like a really important, you know, it's a really important step for us holding accountable people who don't believe in democracy and who broke the law. And I think it just adds to Trump's legal. What was, this was not a good week for him. You know, with the Supreme Court rejecting his appeal on the Mar a Lago search with. There's a lot going on here in New York around that case. So, you know, I think this, this is just, you know, one step forward. You know, we got to continue to be patient and do everything we can to hold him and his people accountable for breaking the law.

Yeah.

Also, I mean, you know, with Tim Bryan, you know, you know, didn't say though, but which, which he could have. And I think what a lot of Democrats can say at these debates is, well, last time I checked, Ohio has a Republican governor. The last time I checked the re. There's a Republican legis legislative branch. And in all of the, you know, by and large, crime is actually the highest in Republican states. Poverty rates are the highest in Republican states. Shooting deaths are the highest in Republican led states. Like it's not even a close call yet. Democrats often don't use that messaging as well. It's obviously an effective messaging. I mean there's a reason, but the scare tactic that they're using, it's, dude, Ohio's run by Republican. What are you talking about? This, this, this state is run by. So yeah, maybe what that means we should change the governor also.

Yeah. And who was president? You know, when was the largest increase in our lifetime in crime? It was in 2020. You know, like who was president during that year? You know, it's like. And you also, what are people using to kill each other with? You know, they're, they're using guns. And I think, you know, we've got to put these people on the defensive because, you know, I think Democrats feel like they have to constantly explain themselves on crime. You know, they say like if you're explaining, you're losing. And, and I, I love so much about the messaging that we're putting out this cycle. But if there were one, if there's one thing I would love to change. There was this message that the DCCC sent out, this memo about like using validators to push back against the, the crime hits. Like inv, meaning like a sheriff who gets on your ad and says, you know, John Fetterman is actually really good on crime. Like that's fine. And some of that, sometimes that's really necessary. But if you're explaining, you're losing, you don't. We don't want to be on their terrain. Right. So we have to be careful not to just end this election talking about crime only. And if we are going to be talking about crime, we should be making them explain themselves like why it is that you support insurrectionists, why it is that you don't want to do anything about gun reform.

Right.

Why it is you want to, you know, dismantle the FBI because it has inconvenient things to say about you. That's, you know, if we're going to be talking crime, let's make them explain.

Themselves and you know, the, the issue. And tell me if you think it's resonating though that these MAGA Republicans want to take away freedom and they have taken away freedom. I mean.

Right. No.

Are people focused still on the fact that the Supreme Court has literally now treats women as second class citizens and has taken away the right to choose? Or is in Americans consciousness that decision somehow in the goldfish mine like we've moved on to the next thing or are people focused?

You know, I'm, I will. Time will tell. I think obviously if I could, if I could have held the election in the middle of the summer, I would have because, you know, by all accounts our numbers were better over the summer. Right. If you look at any poll, pretty much I was just doing with Jason on majority 54, we were doing a tour around the country of the polling numbers and pretty much there's almost to a race. We were doing better in the middle of summer. There's some exceptions like Herschel Walker where like there are certain major problems with candidates that came out recently that are causing havoc for the Republicans. But like a good example is this Oz Fetterman race. You know, that. That race is narrowing by all accounts. And it's narrowing in part because the Republicans do what they do. They change the message. Like, when it gets close to election Day, they want to talk about crime, and they want to talk. They want to. You know, I used to say blow the dog whistle, but it's, you know, dog whistle, I think, is a metaphor that's meant that you can't really hear it right as. But, like, I think we're. Whatever. The more it's a blowhorn thing is now. Yeah, they're just straight up doing it now. And, you know, they do these rallies, like, in Arizona where, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene and these folks are. Are explicitly being racist now. Like, it's not like. It's not like they're. They're coding their messages anymore. And, you know, you had Tommy Tuberville in one of these rallies talking about, you know, like, we want. You know, he's bringing in reparations, saying, we want reparations for the people doing the crime. Like, I mean, it's not. They're not even hiding it anymore, like, how they truly feel. And this is as.

This is.

I know every election's high stakes, man, but, like, some of these people, like Carrie Lake in Arizona, like, we have. We've got to do everything possible to stop these people from getting into office.

You know, I've thought that Democrats have done a great job, though, at the debates that have taken place so far. I mean, Mandela Barnes, I mean, was just incredible. I mean, crushing Ron Johnson. And I give you my view on these debates. I think if you're running for political office, even if you're running against a MAGA extremist who will spread conspiracy, you have to do the debate. You have to show it. You have to stand up to it. And so I disagree with the decision by Katie Hobbs. I think it was a really wrong decision not to debate Kari Lake. And I think regardless of all of the things Kari Lake will say, that's false. Going and standing on a debate next to a MAGA person is not. They're still going to be able to spread their message with how horrible our media is. So you got to look that MAGA person in the face the same way Tim Bryan's done, the same way Mandela Barnes done, the same way Gretchen Whitmer did, and basically say, you are a dangerous person. Like, Gretchen Whitmer is the example. I just. I think it was a real missed opportunity and a scary concept.

100%. Yeah. And, you know, Fetterman is going to show up to a debate on October 25 after suffering a stroke.

Yes.

You have to read off of a prompter text to speech, you know, and he knows that you've got to show up. Like, I mean, he's, he's got to show people. I mean, I was telling Jason, like, I think that's so much of the future of the Senate and our control will be decided on October 25th. Because if Fetterman shows up, as I know he will, and is humanizing and shows that he can do the job and exposes Oz for who he is, like a fraudulent medical practitioner, then I think then that goes a long way in helping us seal the deal. Because I think if we're trending in the right way in Georgia, if Fetterman could hold on in Pennsylvania, it makes the map really difficult for Republicans. But so much, I mean, voters, I think, have questions about Fetterman that going to answer on October 25th. But if he could show up, you know, Katie Hobbs, I mean, I, it's mind blowing. I don't want to be negative about it because there's nothing we could do. But I hope we don't look back and say that was what cost us that one, because that one is a nail better.

You're so right, though, about Fetterman and the tightening of this race. You know, I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I've seen it firsthand. You know, there are members of my extended family here who are definitely creeping into that maga, you know, Republican territory. And when, when the campaign first launched, they were genuinely pro Fetterman, and I was surprised by that. But when you actually dig into the politics here, you know, when, when Fetterman was the mayor of Braddock, there wasn't a single homicide there for five and a half years. I mean, he was really tough on crime. People liked his story. He was working with kids. There was a tragedy. He got into politics. He, you know, wanted to do his civic duty. But somehow, in some way, again, not to get too negative, though, you know, Oz's message over the last few weeks has really started to resonate with those ultra MAGA Republicans. And maybe it's just the election is coming back up who really, you can't really pinpoint it, but I think you're right. I think the debate on the 25th is going to be such a monumental day. Can you speak more to how you think this race is going to play out?

Yeah, it just occurred to me we should potentially think about doing something that night because I feel like there's so much. So much around that debate that we'll. We'll probably have to say that's almost like an opportunity, I think, to do something live. But I think, like, if I were. This is. This is the danger on that debate night is if I were advising Oz, what I would do is I would say, all right, you know, people have short memories. It's like Dory, you know, and finding Nemo. Like, voters will forget certain things. And I think we, as practitioners, media personalities, we remember so much, we're so steeped in this, but we forget that the average person is just going about their day and they make their decision really late, right? So if they may tune in or they get a clip of a debate and Oz is. Oprah Oz, he's on that stage, he's super humanizing and warm and generous towards Fetterman, who with, by all accounts, is still recovering, then that will help us overcome what has been pretty low favorabilities in state of Pennsylvania. So the stakes couldn't be higher. And, man, I know there's a lot of good people on that Fetterman campaign, and I know that this is. This is the super bowl for them, and I am just so anxious about it all. I really just want to get to election night. You. It's. It's just one of those things. Like, I felt this way about 2020. I just wanted it to be election night so bad. I just could. It's like as we get closer, the stakes are just so freaking high.

What did you make, Ravi? I'm not sure if you saw any of this, but it seemed like the media coverage of Fetterman's interview the other night was just blown very out of proportion. And personally, I even found it pretty offensive to disability people, people with disabilities, disability activists, because tried to make it seem like somebody who needs to use an assistive device or needs to use a teleprompter is unfit for the job. Meanwhile, they. These media personalities themselves, as they are making these criticisms, are doing them off a teleprompter themselves. So, I mean, what did you think of that kind of reaction? Do you think that's just the media's kind of their desire to try to find something to balance out the coverage, which has been overall pretty negative on the Dr. Oz side?

Yeah, I'm of two minds of this, which is like the media side of me, which, like, you know, when I. When we're. When you and I are in conversation and yada, yada versus the practitioner in me. Whereas if I were in that campaign, the media side of me is like, let's work the refs. Let's pressure the media to be more responsible on this. At least the ones who are up for grabs, right? Like, obviously you're not going to get like the Daily Wire or something to, like, have like, even handed coverage, but the people, the Morning Joe, the yada, yada, like, whatever is going on there, let's pressure them, let's work the refs, get them to have a more humane frame. When it comes to Fetterman, the practitioner side of me is like, all right, like, you know, to use the sports metaphor, like, you just got to play the game and just, like, let somebody else worry about the refereeing, right? And to me, the playing the game on the Fetterman side of things is preparing Showing up on October 25th the best you can. Because if he shows up on the 25th and he kills it, then it will go a long way in erasing that narrative. In many ways, it could be turned into an advantage. Now, it's our job as people who support him to make sure that the frame is correct as we head towards that election, which means that we got to do everything possible in all of our appearances and communications with members of the media and anybody who's listening. To the extent you're in the media or you've been, you live in Pennsylvania and have local media, we've got to push the people covering this to have a fair standard, which is, it's not that it's weird or different that he's reading texts. It's like, does he understand the questions that are being asked of him and is he communicating answers that make sense? That's the standard, right? Like, and if he. If he requires text to speech, if he requires things to be repeated, etc. That's fine. You know, like, FDR needed assistance to just get from A to B physically, right? Like, we, like, this is, you know, this is not the first time we've had to deal with politicians who've had a disability. And in his case, if it were a permanent disability, it still should be fine. But this is recovery, right? Like, and anybody who's had family members who go through strokes knows that it's not a point on a. Like a single static point, but it's actually a process that he's going through that unfortunately is playing out in the middle of a campaign.

One of the interesting things that I've felt lately is that a lot of the campaigns that are really crushing it are not the ones that are of the focus of the media as much. And I'm thinking of, just off the top of my head, I think Mark Kelly is running an incredible campaign. I think on the governor's side, you see Gretchen Whitmer running an incredible campaign. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania running an incredible campaign. And we've touched on this a little bit. But with your organization, arena, you specialize in training and supporting the next generation of Democratic candidates and campaign staff. So who do you see out there? And it doesn't have to be somebody who is like a major player who's all over the media, but who do you see out there who is like the epitome of this is a well run campaign? They are absolutely kicking ass. And you know what, on the flip side of that, is there anybody who you think, you know, they are.

You are under the bus. Yeah.

You don't have to if you don't want to, but, you know, could be doing a little better maybe.

Yeah. And shout out to Lauren Baer, who's taken over now as leader. I'm now on the board now. And she's actually was a candidate herself in Florida, career Congress, who's a law school classmate of mine who's been running our campaign work this cycle. So she's amazing. I would think of some candidates who I love at the more local level, or at least the congressional level. Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan has so much to say. She's such an incredible leader. Max Rose in Staten island continues to fight. That's where I grew up. And he's close in that race. I mean, this was a redistricted seat that was made harder for him. And there's only one poll that's been done and it had him down six in a race that people think is. Is impossible for Democrats to win. So I think it's like solidly are or very likely are in the Cook Political Report. And, you know, being down 6 is excellent in that race, especially since he's got a lot of money to. To. To push the abortion message. In addition.

Yeah. Max Rose is going against Nicole Maliatakis for mal.

Yeah. Completely fraudulent individual. You know, very much of the least Stefanic mold of like somebody who appeared to be moderate and tried to present herself as moderate and then when the wind shifted, became totally maga. Right. In a district that has traditionally been moderate. Right. A district that has swung back and forth in my lifetime like six or seven times between Democrats and Republicans. I love Lauren underwood in Illinois 14. You know, these are just candidates who are really tuned into their districts. Right. Who are just Saying, all right, what does my district need? How am I going to communicate with people locally? And how do I drown out the noise about what the national party and you know, sort of grass tops movement, the blue check marks on Twitter. What do they want? They ignore that stuff and they just get right into, you know, constituent work and, you know, hitting the doors and I don't know, I mean, it could, we could go over for three in those races. We go three for three. I really don't know, but I know that they're doing everything, everything possible to win. I would say races that are bad. Well, I mean, Hobbs is an example. I mean, I don't want to pile on. It's probably not helpful at this point. But that was like, we should never repeat that mistake of, of not debating. Like, and I also think that it misunderstands like this above the fray nature of that campaign that she's not going to engage because Kari Lake is in bad faith is just such a bad strategy, like an absolutely terrible strategy that we should never, ever repeat again. But I would say in general, the big thing I'm seeing out there that we should learn from this cycle is when it comes to the Hispanic community and when it comes to the black community, they're not monoliths. And I think, like at the Hispanic community and we're seeing this in Nevada a little bit, it's not. The immigration is not their only issue. And I think we've got to dig in. I, like, I took a trip, like, speaking of Pennsylvania, I took a trip down to Lehigh Valley, Lehigh county, like a month and a half ago, and there's a lot of Hispanic voters in and around that area. And what I was hearing from people is they care about taxes, they care about crime, they care about inflation. Right. And I was sensing a frustration and sometimes explicitly stated to me that, hey, like, there's like a diversity of opinions on immigration within the Hispanic community and they're very up for grabs. And the Republicans are very tuned into that. And there's a frustration that Democrats think that these voters are single issue and we got to avoid that.

Right.

And Robbie, one of the things that I wanted to get your opinion on, you know, we've had the pleasure of working with Dr. Stephen Hassan. He's a cult deprogrammer and he very much speaks openly about how MAGA is its own cult. And you know, you look at these Qanon rallies and things like that, and it's very unfortunate. Dr. Stephen Hassan was also a former Mooney, so he's Got a bit of expertise on this subject, and he dedicated his whole life to culti programming coming out of the moonies in the 80s.

Oh, I've spoken to this guy before. I don't remember for what he might have come on. Majority of him being a guest on.

One of your pods.

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

One of the great things that he says to us when we speak with him is, like, when you're trying to pull someone out of the MAGA cult, you know, you really got to do it with understanding, you know, love, care. You can't just outright mock, you know, folks who are so deeply enthralled in that universe, because all that's going to do is push them further and further apart. You know, I spoke openly here about how, you know, I have some extended family who are, you know, pretty close to MAGA adjacent. And so when I meet with these folks, you know, I really try and understand just where they're coming from with, you know, their perspectives, what news sources they're reading. Do you have any advice out there to folks sort of, about that and how you've handled conversations with people who are in that sort of Magaverse?

Yeah, my dad is a huge Trump Republican. My brother is, too. And I grew up in Staten island, and I would say more of my friends I grew up with are Trump supporters than not. And I also spent a big part of my career down south running schools in Mississippi and Tennessee, where I was collaborating with Republicans often to just pass sensible education policies and to support my schools. So I have a ton of Trump people in my life, and it makes it doubly hard because I have often been. I host a podcast that's very critical of Trump. I work in politics and support candidates that are critical of Trump. And so it's harder for me than the average listener because it's not like I can assume, escape the label. Right. Like, I think our listeners have an added benefit because you don't have to lead with your label. Right. When people ask you. Like, often when I'm on vacation, somebody will ask me what I do for a living, and I just say I'm a lawyer because I don't like to lead with what my politics are. Right. Because it just divides you. Right. Like, I was just up in Buffalo for the Bills game and a lot of Trump supporters up there, and I want to get along with people for the game. I don't want them ask me about my politics, and then you can get to the politics over time. Now, my advice is, first of all, don't Let people know you're getting to them. I think this is the number one thing. So much of the Magaverse right now is about trolling. And so do not appear that you're agitated, even though we're all agitated. I'm agitated every day. But do everything you possibly can to, no matter how crazy things are. People say to let people know that it bothers you. Like, the more that you're a cheerful warrior, the more. First of all, like, it diffuses the bad faith elements out there, but it also, it, it allows you to bring a little bit of finesse to the conversation. It's like almost like, yeah, like, it's.

Such a good point, Ravi. And sorry to interrupt, but like, it just, it brings me back to like, you know, when the let's go, Brandon stuff was first happening and I saw everybody, like, freaking out and I'm like, why are you freaking out? I'm like, it's really not that, like, let them have their little stupid joke, just laugh and brush it off. But everybody was like, what a disgrace. How do you say that to our president? I'm like, calm down.

Because if we f you to the.

President all the fucking time, don't code it. Like, like, who care? Like, who cares? At the end of the day, let's just take it. That's why it might as touch. We're like, yeah, let's go, Brandon. Let's look at.

Let's. Let's flip the script on him. Who cares? Yeah, we have to have a sense of humor. So I think that's number one. I think number two is, I think this is a wider point about the Democratic Party right now is we have to be a big tent. And what it means to be a big tent is we have to be welcoming to the imperfect. We're all imperfect. And I had a conversation at the Texas Tribune Fest a couple weeks ago with Tim Miller and Liz Smith for the festival and, you know, one former Republican strategist, one Democratic strategist, and what we all agreed on is that there's this ufc, barstool, sports Rogan element of the Republican Party that has been relatively new. And I know you guys have a relationship with barstool and they. My sense is like, these used to be Clinton voters. They used to be the anti PC types who are pro choice. You know, they. They're like kind of more libertarian speech issues and things like that. And the Republicans used to be the bow tie wearing, stodgy, we're going to tell you how to live your life type of people. And I think it's really important for us both at the micro level, all the way up to the macro to not be the finger wagging. I'm gonna like, try to like, be a heat seeking missile for people's imperfections, right? And so I think of that on the local level to be like, look, like, just be patient with people and don't, don't wait for every moment to be a gotcha. To be like, oh, you said something offensive or you said this thing, I need to call you out. Like, you're not performing for anybody, right? Like, you're there to win the long game with people and you can get around to helping change people's mindsets if you're, if you consistently show up, right, Spend the time with people, don't stiff arm them, and you could let some pitches go by in the service of building trust. And I know this is hard for people because, like, if, if I, you know what I said, I tweeted that out tomorrow, I'd get piled on by people saying that's, you know, that's like using your privilege to let people say X, Y and Z. And I'm like, look, everybody knows. Anybody who's got family members who are Republican or Trump or whatever knows that for every hundred things they say, you may correct one of them, right? It's just the nature of the game. And so those are two things, I think. The third is don't fact check in real time. One thing I do is like, if somebody makes claims that I think are crazy, I literally will pull out my phone and won't show any judgment. I'll be like, oh, you're saying Bill Gates is like injecting robots into our body? Let me just write that down. Tell me more about where you heard that. I'd love to just, just like, try to find out, you know, and like, the more you just like net, you seem like you're naturally interested in where they get the information from and then you follow up is better than being like, trying to, like, it's nearly impossible to just be like, oh, hey, no, it's not robots. It's this chemical compound and it was tested on this day. I mean, it's ridiculous. Like, you can't do that in real time, you know?

No, absolutely. And, and even if you do fact check, like, if you fact check them in real time, it's not going to process with them in that moment because they're so hyped up that they think Bill Gates is inject whatever into what was, was the beyond Meat I mean, it's so, it's so.

But who has that memory? Like I, when I talk to my brother, who's a very smart guy, he has a pretty good memory, the stuff he comes out with, I'm like, I would need three hours to fact check this, right?

So it's like, you know, it's always so intricate, right? All the theories are so intricate that it does take so long to come back with like all the, all the data to say this is completely wrong.

That's where it gets so dangerous as we live in this current media landscape where folks are getting their news from the newsmaxes or the Fox News or the One America, whatever it is. And it's become so divisive. So, you know, what are you seeing out there when you are having those conversations at least like how, how much is. And are those like radical media establishments really piercing through to this Republican Party?

Oh, they absolutely are. I think that they're piercing through. And then there are other media organization that are selling themselves as more moderate. I would think of Breaking Points as an example if you guys are familiar with Breaking Points, who, who are selling themselves as more moderate, but who are actually disingenuous populists who try to prey on the emotions and paranoia of their audiences. And I think Breaking Points is a good example of people who.

It's such a good example. It's such a good example because they and so many others try to portray themselves as like, we're right in the middle of things, like we, we. And meanwhile they are basically laundering these right wing talking points to people under the guise of. We're not right wing.

Their January 6 coverage is a good example. It's picture take January 6 and Ukraine right now, January 6, they're running segments implying that it's an inside job for the FBI. No evidence whatsoever, right? And their evidence for it is like, oh, part of their evidence is that, that they were unindicted conspirators. And they're talking about like the different ways in which the FBI got people to cooperate and all that. Like, no follow up on this, right? Like they're running these stories and it's like they're these types of people who, they'll throw 10 darts at the board and if one of them hits the right thing, they'll be like, look how smart I am, you know, and these are also organizations that were saying like Ukraine invasion wasn't going to happen. It was the US hyping it up. It's the war machine and all this kind of stuff. And they had to apologize for that. But like, for every one thing they actually apologize for, there's like 20 theories that they throw out there that they don't prove. But then. And they have audiences who are like well intentioned people. I have tons of friends of mine who listen to this kind of stuff. And there, there's like a sort of a cabal of these people who call themselves populists. Like, these are not populists. I am an unpopulist. I am anti populist. I believe that populists, whether it's Bolsonaro or Modi or Trump or the breaking points of the world, these are people even who are in ways more dangerous than the newsmaxes because they, they will, your reasonable friend will listen to them. And all they do is prey on the emotions of people and manipulate them and simplify every story to make it be like, oh yeah, like it's just some conspiracy against you. Or I'm like, here's another example, Robbie.

Here's another example. Tim Pool. Tim Pool, yes. Who likes to call himself a liberal. And meanwhile, like, he's never agreed with any liberal policy on the planet. Like, never is. He's always against whatever the democratic position is against, you know, the war in Ukraine, pro Russia, you know, against everything Biden does. Anti, you know, January 6th, hearing all of it, like 100 of it. But then you go, oh, that's a right wing commentator.

Right?

There he goes, what do you mean? I'm a liberal? Yeah, I'm a liberal. You can't just say that.

Yeah, I mean, it's what Crystal Ball does too. And it's like, and, and they do these moves. Shapiro does this too, where they'll, they'll literally say things where if you got their transcript, it'll be like a throwaway line and be like, oh, yeah, of course Trump is irresponsible and blank. But if you look at it as a pie chart, it's like 1% of what they talk about. And so they literally are right, that every now and then they'll say, oh yeah, like, and Trump, this is what they did with January 6th. Like Saigar, like the, the breaking points. The other host is like, he's like, well. And it's not to say Trump doesn't bear some responsibility here. I'm like, and those aren't his exact words. But. And then he goes into this FBI, you know, like tinfoil hat bullshit. And, and I'm like, come on. Like, like, but these are the things we gotta point out, right?

Exactly.

And, and they have very loyal followers who may even watch this and come after me and be like, we're like, you know, who's this guy? Neoliberal, shill, charter school leader, whatever. And I'm like, like, I am who I am. You know, like, I don't know, come at me like, you know, I've got. Like, we just need to be more for. This is why I like our alliance. Like, people like us, right? Like, I don't know what we all believe, but we believe in democracy, right? We probably have different views on 20 different things, but we're all here to protect our democracy and we don't manipulate our audience. You know, like, I come at this.

Exactly what I was about to get into, Ravi, is like, we here on, on the Midas Touch podcast, I mean, we bank ourselves on just letting folks know the truth. Like, we're not going to pretend that, that we lean like we're right down the middle. We're centrist. We're not, you know, we obviously have political leanings and we let our folks know that. But at the end of it, like, we'll call a Democrat out if they aren't doing the right thing.

And right.

We ultimately just want the listeners and the viewers to know, like, hey, this is the truth. And that's what I respect the hell out of what you guys do at the Lost Debate. I mean, it's a phenomenal show. And I think that's kind of the root and sort of, sort of the mission of the show is just to let folks know, like, hey, this is what's going on in the world. These are the facts. Can you talk more about the show that you host and why people need to listen?

Yeah, I almost keep two sets of books in my life if it's funny. Like, I have my show at Jason Kander called Majority 54, which is where I get to be partisan and where I'm just like, all right, I'm a Democrat on that show. Like, and I don't have any obligation, legally or whatsoever. I mean, I obviously don't want to contradict myself from one show to the other. And I, and I, and I don't. And if I do, there are definitely people who listen to both who point it out. And I have a different show called Lost Debate and a company that we're building that we're about to announce a lot more that we're doing. We have a Spanish language show and we have India's number one podcast, which is a true crime show that we use to expose gender based and Political violence. And our whole mission in LOST debate is almost like global anti populism and fighting misinformation and polarization. And it has much more of a coming together ethos to it. So my co host on the last debate show is this woman named Ricky Schlott. She's 22, she's a Gen Z New York Post columnist who is way more conservative and libertarian than I am. But we come at it in good faith, right? And I think both of us have major critiques of, of like the worlds that we come from. But we come together and are like, hey, let's talk about issues like crime, let's talk about issues like education, et cetera. And, and part of our theory is we want to do a non populist version of what these other people are pretending to do. And they do it very successfully. But for us, we want to bring nuance. We want to bring a sense of kindness and humility, admitting when we're wrong, persuading each other, et cetera. And she's a star. She's libertarian. Different politics in me, in many ways. She was just on Bill Maher. She was the youngest person ever to appear on Bill Maher. And our audience there is very different than majority 54. Majority 54 is, is like majority women, majority progressive, very hinterland. US lost debate is more Rogan esque sort of audience, more male audience, way more libertarian conservative. And I'm like, that's great. I get to communicate with those people. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to persuade anybody, you know.

Yeah, well, it's good that you're having those, you know, kind of tough conversations, but in a way that isn't just full of noise and bluster like we hear on all these other, you know, on just all these other shows, which honestly most of them are just such, such a disaster. Have you learned anything or has anything enlightened you about working with Ricky that you were like, oh, you know what, I never thought of it that way.

Well, she constantly. I have more of a, I'm more of a Jared Polis Democrat. So I have a little bit more of a libertarian streak than a lot of people. Like, my sort of theory on government is I probably wanted to do fewer things, but do them extremely well and ambitiously and add on as time goes on, right? Because I live in New York where I'm like very frustrated by this sort of disease of more that happens here where people just promise a lot of things. And there are a lot of my candidates, by the way, who do this and they Just run. And they're like, let's do this, let's do that. And then they don't follow through. And then it kind of actually sets us back as Democrats. So I'm, I'm a little bit like in that direction anyway. You know, I was a charter school leader, so I'm like a little bit more of a libertarian streak. So. So she really pushes me to think of things from that more Reason magazine style like libertarianism. And she also, like, she knows what the right is talking about so often, like whether it's the Hunter Biden laptop theory or whatever. It's such a good companion for me to majority 54 because I can't serve our majority 54 audience in terms of debunking conspiracy theories if I don't even know what's circulating.

She's like the right wing whisperer.

Yeah. But she does bring things to my table that like, I call it right for the wrong reasons sometimes or often just like the liberal media does miss things. Like, a good example is what happened with PayPal this past week where PayPal was announcing like very restrictive policies to, to, to basically kick people off of the platform. And I thought it was poorly rolled out. The right wing media went crazy about it.

Yep.

The left wing media didn't talk about it a lot. And so we talk about it on Lost Debate Show. And it's good because then if you're like a person who's a little bit right leaning and you're listening to that show and you're hearing somebody meet like me, a Democrat, validating your concerns about something that is real, maybe I can get you to listen to me when I talk about January 6th. That's the theory of that show. Right. So, and vice versa, like for, for Ricky, it's like, maybe if you're coming to Hear me on January 6th, maybe you'll hear her out on paper now. Right. That's the hope of that show.

You know, I mean, it's, it's such a great show. And we've spoken about both your shows, both Majority 54 and the Lost Debate here on the Midas Touch podcast. Plenty. We are all huge fans, Ravi. Just want to thank you for coming on this episode, the Mighty. And I'd like to encourage all of our listeners to go right now and make sure you are subscribed to majority 54. Make sure you're subscribed to the Lost Debate. Ravi Gupta, thanks so much. Always a pleasure.

Peace out, guys.