Beyond Politics

In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a landslide re-election as President on a message of economic recovery, despite prices and unemployment being higher than when he took office. This year, President Biden and Congressional Democrats have a record of achievements that absolutely dwarfs Reagan's, and not just on the economy -- though the greatest one year job growth in history is a good start. Yet, you probably haven't heard anything about it. Based on Matt Robison's article for The Editorial Board, former Biden ad-maker Cliff Schecter and Matt go through what that record is, and why the accomplishments that should make this election a slam dunk have been absent from the political conversation.

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains why Facebook is spiraling, and where that situation may be headed. Also, a big week for the big economic picture; a rough week for Big Tech Companies Not Named Apple; and Amazon has a bold but slightly confusing new offering.

Also, Elon Musk fuels the online dumpster fire, how a quirk in polling may have caught the Democrats, and is John Fetterman's auditory issue really an impediment to him doing the job of US Senator?

Mark Bergman, a top Dem political consultant working on some of the biggest races around the country, joins Matt to look at which factors have really been shaping the midterm elections, where things stand now, and how the dynamics are looking in each of the biggest races on the map.

Doug Thornell, a top strategic communications partner, highlights the Democratic Party's image problem and the need for toughness. He discusses the evolving media landscape, societal polarization, and the impact of social media on political communication strategies.

Also, are debates uniformly terrible? And is Kanye too crazy for Tucker Carlson?

Andrew Heaton is a comedian, author, and political satirist. He’s also the host of “The Political Orphanage” comedy and news podcast.  As a couple of passionate moderates, Matt and Andrew dive in to some of the goings-on in politics recently that are driving us the most nuts.  Then we get into some of the really good ideas we've heard on our shows recently, from why multi member congressional districts might fix some our partisanship to how to survive a nuclear war. 

Something is wrong in America, and we’ve gotten so used to it, we don’t really talk about about, or not enough anyway. We are in a major happiness recession, and we have been for a long time. The highest proportion of Americans ever (80%) say they are satisfied with their family’s financial situation, while an all-time low reports being “very happy” in their lives (14%). Over the last 40 years, a median of 66% of Americans have told Gallup they were “dissatisfied.” In the decade or so before the pandemic sent our despair into overdrive, major depression was rapidly rising, the suicide rate was up 35%, drug use and death were skyrocketing, birth rates were down 23%, and Americans told Pew researchers that they had become deeply pessimistic about the future. Our guest today, Catherine Sanderson, has become a widely cited author for her contributions on positive thinking and achieving better parenting, happier aging, and more courage in our lives. Dr. Sanderson is the POLER Family Professor and Chair of Psychology at Amherst College. In 2012, she was named one of the country's top 300 professors by the Princeton Review. Her talks have been featured in numerous mainstream media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, The Atlantic, CNN, and CBS Sunday Morning.

Did the January 6 hearings accomplish anything? Did Democrats actually botch the impeachments? Is inflation taking center stage again and killing Dems' ability to talk economic accomplishments?  And are we about to start eating...congressmen?

Matt joins legendary West Virginia radio host Howard Monroe to talk about what going "beyond politics" means, and also to dive into whether Trump will actually testify, where Trump's latest scandal rates in the all-time list, and whether Marjorie Taylor Greene is actually about to be in charge in Washington DC.