Monday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon discuss the rapid politicization of deadly flooding in Texas, a possible hope for peace in the Mideast, the Democratic Party’s reckoning on immigration policy, and how the Kennedy Center is doing under new management. After that, Greg Swanson, the chairman of Republican Overseas UK, talks about the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings, and RCP contributor Greg Orman discusses Elon Musk’s “America Party.” *** First, Democrats are asking whether cuts to the National Weather Service budget impacted preparedness for a deadly flash flood this weekend in Texas. Aside from being too soon, is it fair to blame MAGA? “Quickly jumping to conclusions, making these statements with this disordered thinking because your partisanship overcomes your humanity,” Cannon lamented. “Hyper-partisanship is kind of a disease, like a mental thing you let happen to yourself.” “One of the tragedies of this, at least based on what the National Weather Service people are saying, is that everything kind of worked. There had been cuts, there were a few open positions, but they had all hands on deck and put out the warnings. But if you’re out camping without your phone, there’s just nothing you can do,” Andrew Walworth commented. “But this storm seems to have gone beyond the scope of what science can exactly predict. How far do we go? How much can we spend to avoid every tragedy or disaster?” *** Next, around minute 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House today to discuss a possible ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas. Also, the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend a possible peace proposal from Palestinians in the West Bank. Dare we be hopeful? “The stagnant Middle East is showing some flexibility, this is an opportunity to try something new. We’ll see. It could be nothing, or it could be something very interesting and new and exciting that could lead to a more peaceful Middle East,” Tom Bevan commented. *** In the next segment, at minute 12, the New York Times had a piece on Sunday reviewing how the Democrats can “find their way” on immigration policy. Should Democrats expect to ride a backlash against Trump to victory, or should they reevaluate why they lost the election? “Democrats seemed to align themselves with policies that most Americans would consider open borders that were never popular, even with the Democratic rank-and-file,” Cannon said. “But they were popular with their base, with the donors, with the progressive activists… and that’s where the energy is within the party.” “By the way, we wouldn’t be here if Trump’s policies weren’t a reaction to four years of Biden and open borders,” Bevan added. “It’s one of the laws of physics: for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction… The question is, are we trapped in this swinging pendulum, or can we settle on some sort of rational immigration policy?” *** After that, around minute 20, a quick look at RCP White House correspondent Phil Wegmann’s new article on how Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center is going: “Kennedy Center Breaks Fundraising Records as Trump Overhaul Continues” “It received $ 250 million for renovation in the Big Beautiful Bill, and the president is out there sort of leaning on all his friends to pony up big money. And they’re now in better financial shape than they’ve been in years. This is not what people predicted, I guess,” Walworth commented. *** In the next segment, starting at minute 21:30, Tom Bevan talks to Greg Swanson, the chairman of Republican Overseas UK, about the 20th anniversary of the July 7, 2005, London terrorist attacks, in which al-Qaeda killed 52 people and injured 800 more. “This is a city that’s really global in nature. It’s a melting pot, much like America-but even more so,” he said. “The big difference between 9/11 and 7/7 was that these were homegrown terrorists. And that was really unsettling for people in the UK,” Swanson explained. “There’s that British mindset: keep calm and carry on. But I also think they’re very sensitive to the racial implications of this. They’ve gone through other traumas, like the grooming gang scandals, which have been a big topic in recent months, even though they began 20 years ago. I think that oversensitivity to offending makes them hesitant to focus too much on 7/7.” “Because of political correctness, this went on too long. Justice wasn’t served. Now, 20 years later, you have people going to jail for ‘dangerous’ tweets, but many of those gang members served short sentences, and the whole thing was dusted under the rug.” *** Finally, at minute 33, Carl Cannon and RCP contributor Greg Orman discuss Elon Musk’s announcement that he is starting a new political party called the “America Party.” Orman wrote: “Elon Musk the Problem-Solver Tackles the Two-Party System” “I always support and encourage any effort to disrupt the duopoly,” Orman said. “I believe the problem with our politics today is a broken and corrupt system that really exists for the benefit of insiders. And the political parties are at the heart of that. Until we create real competition in our politics-and a real third force-we’ll keep getting the kind of governance we have now.” “Musk has described this as a party for the ‘80% in the middle.’ It’s not clear to me that 80% of people are actually in the middle. And it’s even less clear how you define what ‘the middle’ really is. But that’s how Musk is framing it. I’ve always said the problem with independents is-they’re independent. They don’t work together,” Orman said. “Elon Musk has a history of busting myths. With Tesla, he proved EVs aren’t clunky, low-range, low-quality cars. With SpaceX, he proved rockets could be reused. If he can bring that myth-busting mindset to independent politics, he could have a real impact.” “And that’s why I hope his interest here is grounded in a belief that the two-party system is irreparably broken-and not just in short-term political vendettas or personal feuds.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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