What The Media Got Wrong (And Right) About The Midterms | Dave Weigel | TMR

Sam and Emma host Dave Weigel, author of the “Americana” newsletter at Semafor, to discuss the state of play less than 2 weeks out from the midterm elections. Dave Weigel dives right into the disconnect between polling and the actual state of democratic candidates heading into the midterms, exploring how the last few weeks have slowly revealed failures in the democratic messaging leading up to November. Stepping back, Dave, Emma, and Sam explore the particular failures of letting Republicans pretend the future of abortion isn’t actually at risk (when Roe was actually overturned) while also allowing them to fearmonger around crime (when no major police departments were actually defunded). Parsing through the house races in New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Dave looks at where and against whom the GOP was able to successfully center crime, before they shift the conversation to the Democrats’ failure to consistently hit on any of their inflation talking points. Wrapping up the interview, Dave walks through the Democratic House seats that are seriously endangered, and why beyond losing the House, they’re likely to drop the Senate as well.

#SamSeder #EmmaVigeland #MajorityReport #politics #midterms

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It is a pleasure to welcome back to the program Dave Weigel. Last time you were with us Dave and by us I mean of course Emma and I thank you you were working for the Washington Post and now you're working for this organization called semaphore. What's that all about? Is this the Illuminati? I mean come on Dave. well they're all the Illuminati. It's all the media. We have the same meeting every Tuesday at noon. Just the All Hands to figure out the narrative this week. But no , it's a startup with a bunch of journalists who have worked at other places and thought okay there's some issues here where people don't trust the media. not just for Republicans ginning it up. but for hey this coverage is awful. and we kind of have a different sort of format where we break down like our analysis from the reporting. which has been pretty fun. we're very Scoops focused. I mean I've been the last couple weeks doing the same thing I've been doing for like a decade which is just going to places talking to candidates writing stories. so I have more that is coming but it is good and like the post is fine everyone everyone should keep reading it. we're just trying to try something new. but I have found there're Republicans who didn't want to talk to me at the post who will talk to me now. Which I feel is unfair to the post but yeah good. for me right well I do enjoy the little David's view thing at the end of I mean I I like that I like the explicitness. it gives you guys license to be explicit about your perspective on this. all right well let's start with I mean you brought it up let's start with this this whole question of like the The Narrative that you guys get together with on Tuesdays to determine as a. and there's like a lot of controversy around this nate cohn assessment piece I guess that was a function of four house races. which ostensibly has gone from showing that Democrats are in trouble to showing that Democrats have some hope. he points out Pennsylvania's eighth and Kansas is third New Mexico's second in Nevada's first. Broadly speaking, let's just start with this and then we can go into this. where are we relative to the polls because the narrative has been Democrats are in increasingly bad shape. but the polls don't seem to reflect that in terms of generic polls. or maybe you know specific polls around the country.

[LinkRocks]

I'll admit I was shocked at how well Dems did this midterm. I'm very happy sanity won.

[lettersnstuff]

always happy to see Dave Weigel show up

[greenguyo]

Crime follows prosperity rates in every metric. When there is more poverty there is more crime. It follows economic trends.

[terriej]

They should bring Weigel back on now that the election is over

[waynetables]

it is a pleasure as always to welcome back to the show, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, dave weigal

[JiggityJack]

What's happening here is Trump is good at waking up the silent majority and getting them to come out and vote blue

[michaelpawlak]

I understand that the midterms are huge news, but I'm surprised that there's not more coverage on things like the blocked student loan forgiveness, the drought affecting the Mississippi River which will impact grain transport, or anything else that isn't just about the horse race that is the political elections.

[BladeoftheImmortal]

We need to thank the youngest generation for this, by the way. Without them voting, it would have been a red wave.

[ethancole]

I dont say this very often, but i like his mustache. I also like his vioce and opinions. I hope he does well with his new reporting job

[xipietotec]

Blink infinity if they’re holding you hostage.

[sammcbride]

Let Emma talk more! You guys never let her talk. Jeez.

[johnadams]

Why is this getting uploaded now?? This is two weeks old, y'all!

[nunyabiznez]

It's not what's Semaphore, it's What's Emma For?

[charisma-hornum-fries]

Well. He was wrong about The Senate. Though it can feel like they lost because of Manchin and Sinemas reelections. Warlock has got the fight for his lifetime right now.

[Silverfang]

Thumbs up and an additional comment to beat the algorithm. Thanks for the video! 👍🔥👍

[AlanRichie]

Now the dems need to act. They need to do the things that will make them be more than just the option that's marginally better than the republicans.

[TheMorbidoutlook]

I get that y'all need to make money from ads, and honestly, I need to find the funds to become a member, but ads every few minutes is insane.

[samuelrosander]

When your governmental system is set up where the role of the people is to merely elect their rulers, and not to participate in the decision-making process in any meaningful way (ballot measures are easily thwarted, whether by diverting attention from issues or other means) with any regularity, then it should be expected by literally every citizen under that system that their government will work in the interests of the ruling class. Even in social democracies, where concessions are given to the masses, the governments still work to benefit the elite as much as possible, including slipping more and more into neoliberal norms while the people are complacent.

If you want your government to work for you, consistently and as its primary mandate, then you can't have a top-down governmental system like a dictatorship or a monarchy or feudalism....or a republic. You need bottom-up democracy to attain that goal, which means you need to be both willing and able to participate in community-level discussions and decision-making processes on a regular basis (not "endless meetings, " but also not once every 2-4 years), which also means that your economy has to be one that is built on filling need rather than pursuing greed (greed-based systems leave most people unable to participate because they're too busy trying to survive).

That's if you want your government to work for you, constantly and as its primary mandate. If that's not what you want, then carry on. Maybe if enough of you complain enough, the elite will fear the consequences of not throwing you crumbs now and then, and direct the government to run interference with temporary concessions that they'll say are the reason for all of your problems (along with immigrants, minorities, etc) a year or two later...and which the reactionaries will believe before you can finish saying "the [insert minority group here. Or anyone of a 'progressive' leaning] did this to you." At which time they'll start to take back the concession they gave you and make you believe that you didn't need it in the first place, at least until reality hits you in the nuts and you decide you did need it, but because they've also been working to undermine your ability to organize, it'll be too late.

[KGtoTH]

Dave Weigel answering the question, "Whats a sema for?"

[Kostly]

The dollar is shockingly strong over the past 2 years vs the other currencies in it's class. But, it's literally pumping up the entire, worldwide corporate syphon from draining the life from the labor that powers it.