The news media loves to tell us that the country is more divided than ever, and in some ways that’s true. Plus, President Biden is still struggling in the polls, and he’s got an approval rating of around 33%, causing some serious concerns with Democratic strategists who feel that Biden may have already lost the election. Mike Papantonio is joined by Independent newspaper publisher Rick Outzen to explain more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The news media loves to tell us that this country is more divided than ever, in some ways that is true, but it’s not because of political differences. It’s because of our tribalism. The team sports mentality that we’ve attached to politics. It’s gotten to where we dislike people if they’re on the other side, Rick. It’s got to where we won’t even hang out with people if they’re on the other side. I call it a caveman mentality because we come from caves. Right? And in cave days, with that mentality, the people in the other cave were our enemies. That’s where we’ve gotten with this. Right?
Rick Outzen: Well, and you used to have to feel like you needed to get along. We need to figure, maybe we can accept when we had differences, but we would tolerate each other. Where now you can get in, the caves have become bubbles. You’re in a bubble now in social media. You’re in a bubble where, the clubs you go to, the places you want to be. You know, Thanksgiving dinner, there are certain members of the family aren’t invited to the dinner because y’all are gonna disagree.
Mike Papantonio: You can’t marry somebody if they’re Republican or a Democrat.
Rick Outzen: Right, right.
Mike Papantonio: So, I’m looking at words that psychologists have used to describe this kind of, it’s childlike thinking, inability to critically think, lack of information and depth. Same people who burned the witches. These are phrases that come from people that say, what the hell’s happened? I love this one, celebrity thinking. Okay. Celebrity gets on the TV and they say, this is what I think about politics. Well, most of these actors in California, hell, while they were studying theater, they were studying how do I develop a theater personality, everybody else was studying science and history and economics and real courses. But nevertheless, you’ll have these Chelsea Handler types come out and say, this is what I think the politics should be. Do you know the story about Chelsea Handler? Look this up. Chelsea Handler, this is not part of her act, her sister said, she literally did not know the difference that there was a sun and a moon. She did not know they were, I’m not making it, take a look at it.
Rick Outzen: Alright.
Mike Papantonio: This was not part of her routine. This is her sister saying this is real. But nevertheless, Chelsea Handler, who doesn’t know the difference, that there’s a difference between a moon and a sun, that she’s out there advising the celebrity followers about politics. And so if you look at this, this is what the psychologists say are going on right now. These are the factors. This is how they describe it.
Rick Outzen: Well, and there’s money in it. The reason the tribalism works, it’s how campaigns done, campaign fundraising is done up and down the ladder. Both sides of the party, they’re gonna raise by demonize the other side, demonize whoever they can, and they’re gonna be the savior. I’m the one who’s got the right idea and you should believe me. And so, it is happening in the news area. It’s happening around us. People are figuring out the money that can be made by being in the right tribe.
Mike Papantonio:But it’s become vicious. They just came out with a book that I think you and I might have, we did a segment on it. It was the book about stupid white trash people in the, basically that.
Rick Outzen: That got me a lot. That went viral.
Mike Papantonio: That wasn’t the name of it. But basically it was about the writers calling voters who disagree with what he believed, whatever his Democratic principles were, calling them basically stupid white trash rural types that don’t have enough sense. It was almost a takeoff on Hillary Clinton calling ’em deplorables. But the division is that bad. I mean, how do you get back from that?
Rick Outzen: That’s the struggle. It’s scary that we had the January 6th insurrection and that was so divisive. And now we’re heading towards an election and we’re seeing people openly talking about violence.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. It’s almost civil war mentality.
Rick Outzen: Right, right.
Mike Papantonio: I mean, like January 6th, those people were there to change government. Now, I would love to say that it’s only the Republicans that are doing that. But the Democrats are just as bad. Right. I mean, the hate, the hate that they spew from both sides is so divisive. Bill Maher, by the way, great example of somebody who has been a progressive voice for so long is saying we’re in real trouble, because I can’t even do, I saw the other day, he doesn’t do college campus routines anymore. He won’t go onto a college campus because he says they’re unable to critically think. That they’re so divided by their politics that he doesn’t, he can’t even go on a college campus and do a comedy routine. And if you think about it, that’s kind of where we are because we’re just so divided.
Rick Outzen: Well, and we’ve lost that ability to explore a new idea.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, for sure.
Rick Outzen: You know, and what happens with Maher, is he brings on a guest that his certain part of his fan base don’t want to have them on the air. So you don’t have the.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Don’t want, don’t want to listen to ’em. You see, that’s where this comes in where the psychologist said it’s childlike thinking. It’s inability to think critically. It’s a lack of depth of education and world experience. It’s the same people who burned witches. I mean, these are the descriptions when you try to say, well, what’s going on out there? That’s what’s happening. The other day, I think on MSNBC, a friend of mine, I’ve known, Rachel Maddow and I used to do a show together years ago. We did a show together with, radio show for a couple years with Air America. Right?
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: And she comes out and says on the air that if Trump is elected, that she’s gonna be targeted like some kind of political prisoner, you know, some type of political target. But that’s where we’ve gotten. That’s where our thinking has gotten us today. I don’t know how we turn it around.
Rick Outzen: I don’t either.
Mike Papantonio: President Biden is still struggling in the polls, and he’s got an approval rating of around 33%. This is causing serious concerns with Democratic strategists who feel that Biden may already have lost the election. Okay. Here it is. This is not me. This is, if you look at what all the polls are showing, here’s what’s killing him, immigration, high inflation, his age, Kamala Harris, killing him. And to a lesser degree, third party candidates like Robert Kennedy. Donors are leaving the party, just over, if you take a look at what’s happening with Gaza. Okay. Jewish donors who have pumped up the Democratic Party for decades are saying, really? You got Kamala Harris out there attacking us, and you want our money? Because of that, even the money raising is taking a different turn, hasn’t it?
Rick Outzen: Well, it’s a slow slog summer. There’s no excitement there. There’s no joy. And it is everything, all the trials are not having the impact that they thought that it would. It’s not a big factor. It’s boiling down to the economy over and over again. And people do not have confidence in the Biden economy and I think that’s the other big issue that keeps resonating. I think they’re hoping that abortion will rescue the campaign.
Mike Papantonio: I don’t think it does. I don’t think the numbers are there.
Rick Outzen: It might. I mean, it’s still among women it’s a huge issue.
Mike Papantonio: Of course it is. It should be.
Rick Outzen: But I don’t know. The minority vote is not going the way that they think it was gonna go.
Mike Papantonio: Well, you’ve got Hamas, the Israel, Hamas issue. You’ve got the Ukraine issue. You have inflation. You have all these things that everybody seems to be ignoring in the Democratic Party and the critics are saying, really? Your campaign is that we have to elect him because democracy is at risk with Trump. That’s their argument.
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: You think that resonates with the average American? They don’t even understand the intricacies of that argument. And so I think the Democrats are running out of ideas as to what is going to propel him. I don’t know if you saw this number, I was startled by it, but they were talking about his approval rating, what it was.
Rick Outzen: It’s about the same, somewhere around 34.
Mike Papantonio: Well, yeah. And I mean, at 31. And that was at the time, I guess a year ago and now it’s 30, 31, 4 or something like that.
Rick Outzen: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: So I’m not seeing any change. I don’t know. Do you get rid of him? The freeze that he had the other day was startling. I don’t know if you saw it, the Juneteenth celebration. But even corporate media who protects him left and right, they’re up showing this freeze that takes place where he literally for a minute and a half stood frozen, incapable. His eyes were fixed. He was frozen. People look at that and they go, this scares the hell out of me. And then you, so what’s your other side? A lunatic.
Rick Outzen: That’s ranting.
Mike Papantonio: You’ve got this ranting lunatic out there on the other side and people say, my God, give us a candidate.
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: You know, give us a candidate.
Rick Outzen: Yeah. It’s a dismal feeling. I think that what happens in the polling booth is gonna be interesting.
Mike Papantonio: I’m kind of tired of hearing that the only numbers where it comes to what we ought to be looking at, that the polls, I don’t believe much in polls unless it’s in a 3% kinda range, most of them are ridiculous.
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: But you hear that argument, well, we’re gonna find out on the election day. We’ll see what the numbers are. You can’t just wait for that. You have to take some action ahead of time. And all this stuff is pointing towards, we need a new Republican candidate and we need a new Democratic candidate. Give the American people something to choose from. Rick, that’s all for this week.
Rick Outzen: Alright, I think we did enough damage.
Mike Papantonio: All these segments are gonna be posted right here on this channel in the coming week. So make sure you’re subscribed. I’m Mike Papantonio, and this has been America’s Lawyer, where we tell you stories every week that corporate media won’t tell you because their advertisers don’t allow for it. If they tell the story, they’re gonna lose advertising dollars or their political connections are so Democrat or so Republican that the media can’t color outside the lines. We don’t have that problem here, as you can tell. Hope to see you next week.
