Monday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Tom Bevan, Andrew Walworth, and Carl Cannon discussed the return of celebrity activism at the Grammys, where they denounced ICE, and whether the Democratic Party is now more focused on this than “affordability.” After that, UniteAmerica executive director Nick Troiano joins the program to talk about a new poll from the Unite America Institute and RealClear Opinion Research showing widespread dissatisfaction with American democracy, and how open primaries could help clean up politics. They also check in on New York City’s new Mayor Zohran Mamdani, facing blowback for the city’s catastrophically bad response to last week’s snowstorm, and trouble at the Washington Post for its new owner, Jeff Bezos. You can listen to the show live, weekdays at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111, and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The show opens with the parade of celebrities speaking out against ICE and the president’s deportation agenda at the Grammys last night, and whether immigration enforcement has eclipsed affordability as the Democratic Party’s core message heading into the midterms. “When someone says abolish ICE, the obvious question is: What do you want to replace it with?” Cannon added. “And you heard last night from these people that they don’t want to replace it with anything. So that is worth talking about.” Tom Bevan pointed to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s new Senate primary ad as a signal of which way the wind is blowing in the Democratic Party. “His early ads were all about how when he was young, his family was on food stamps, we need a safety net — until the other day. Now it’s abolish ICE, Donald Trump is out of control, we gotta fight,” he said. “In a Democratic primary this year, if you are not for abolishing ICE, you are going nowhere.” *** And then, at minute 17, UniteAmerica executive director Nick Troiano joins the program to make the case for open primaries and talk about the results of a new poll from the Unite America Institute and RealClear Opinion Research, including how dissatisfied Americans are with the state of our democracy. “Two-thirds of voters believe that Congress does not do a good job of representing them. And over 70% of voters – including Democrats, Republicans, and independents – believe that opening party primaries would be a solution to our democratic dysfunction today,” Troiano reported. One interesting result is that younger voters seem to have a better view of Congress than older voters. “I would speculate by saying they’ve really never experienced a Congress that was functional. So what are they comparing it to?” he said. “There are still 16 states with fully closed party primaries. That means if you’re an independent or unaffiliated voter – and by the way, a majority of young people are registering outside the two parties now – you’re effectively disenfranchised.” “There’s no silver bullet. But fixing primaries can disrupt the self-reinforcing cycle of polarization. Closed primaries produce extreme candidates, who then amplify polarization through niche media, which leads to more extreme candidates. If we disrupt that cycle at the primary level, it can have compounding effects across the system.” *** After that, at minute 33, the group turns to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, appearing to fail his first big test, leading New York City’s botched response to a larger-than-average winter storm, which has reportedly led to the deaths of 14 homeless people who were no longer required to get off the streets. “We were all speculating about how long it would take him to wreck New York – turns out he did it in six weeks,” Bevan joked. “But then you see these pictures of trash piled up on sidewalks and streets that are still a mess eight days after the last snowflake fell. At that point, it falls on the mayor.” “I’m in no position to criticize New York over the snow; Arlington’s schools are still closed. But the homelessness issue is different. That was a calculated decision,” Cannon said. “He clearly was troubled by the deaths. He talked about it publicly and said the city had to do better. But he’s trapped by his ideology. He talks about homelessness as if it’s purely the result of high rent, without acknowledging that most of these people are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or both.” “He talked about the ‘warm embrace of collectivism’ and now you have people freezing to death,” Bevan added. “He said there’s no problem too small for government, and five weeks into his tenure, they can’t plow the streets or pick up garbage.” *** Finally, at minute 41, the group looks at former columnist Margaret Sullivan’s warning that the Washington Post is dying under its new owner, Jeff Bezos. “She admits the paper is losing about $ 100 million a year, but she thinks he can afford it and should just keep writing that check,” Walworth commented. “You might think, ‘The richest man in the world owns this paper, so I shouldn’t be laid off.’ I understand that instinct, but Bezos didn’t get to be a billionaire by throwing away money,” Cannon explained. “I’ll disclose myriad conflicts of interest: the person Bezos brought in, Adam O’Neal, worked for us at RealClearPolitics. He’s smart, principled, and more libertarian in outlook. That shift is part of what’s upsetting people at the Post. It has always been a traditional liberal, Democratic newspaper. They’re not used to the owner asserting influence over the editorial page.” “She’s treating the Post like a museum or a library – a civic jewel. The problem is, being compared to a museum implies you belong to the past,” Cannon added. *** 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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