Overcoming the Divide: Nonpartisan Politics
Fostering insightful political discourse and debate.
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Overcoming the Divide: Nonpartisan Politics
Who Will Decide the 2024 Presidential Election? (Hidden Insights Shared)
Join us for an insightful discussion with Corey Nathan as we delve into the shifting political landscape leading up to the 2024 election. With a keen focus on the realignment of political ideologies, Corey brings to light the challenges faced by America's independent voters. Discover why a significant portion of the electorate is breaking away from traditional party lines and explore the impact of political outliers on the national discourse.
In this episode, we examine the intricate dynamics of political coalitions and their unintended consequences, shedding light on how they may alienate those they aim to represent. Drawing parallels to everyday experiences, we underscore the importance of heeding diverse perspectives to avoid inevitable repercussions, much like neglecting the laws of gravity.
From the pivotal role of key demographics like suburban women and Latinos to the nuanced decision-making process of independents, we navigate through the complexities of voter sentiment in today's polarized climate. Join us for a compelling dialogue that challenges conventional wisdom and advocates for a more inclusive political discourse, one that acknowledges and respects the diversity of voices within the electorate.
Recorded: 3/9/24
Outro: Powerful Beat-Oleksandr Stepanov
Today we're discussing the rise of independent voters in American society, who the loud minority in politics are, the realignment among suburban women and Latinos, and the respect owed to being obsessed with one's craft. Welcome to Overcoming the Divide, a platform dedicated to insightful political discourse and debate. Today we're speaking with Corey Nathan, a creative businessman and entrepreneur who works and collaborates with people across political, religious and social divides to help better understand and mend some of those fractures that currently exist among our society. This segment is part of a larger conversation that will be released March 26, 2024.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this conversation and want to hear the rest of it, hit that subscribe button and throw a like. Do not miss a beat and always stay updated with Overcoming the Divide. Thank you. I'm curious to your thoughts because a Gallup poll back in April found that record breaking of Americans view themselves as independent. It was 49%. The other two parties were around 20-something percent each. What do you think just turns people off about the contemporary modern political parties the Democrats and the Republicans? You have a lot of experience talking to people across the political spectrum.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot there. First of all, there's been a lot of studies over the last 10 years at least that kind of lead to the same conclusion you will find. A lot of folks will identify as independence. Right now, I think the number is hovering somewhere around 42%, depending on which survey you're getting. I think a lot of the reason is that there was another study, a really broad study that included tens of thousands of people. There was a lot of data feeding into this study. I'm going to say it's a common ground committee, but it's not that it's related to the common ground committee, but it was a really broad study.
Speaker 2:The conclusion that they came to was, at the end of the day, I think they called it highly engaged, meaning what we would think of as extremists. So guys who get up every morning and are thinking about it first thing in the morning and are tweeting last thing before they go to bed. They're watching the programs, listening to the podcast All day, every day. They're really super engaged and what we would think of as like the extremists. What they found was there was something along the lines of 5% or 6% on. I hate the right left, but for shorthand we'll just say about 5% or 6% on the right and about 7% or 8% on the left are extremists. Everybody else about 85% of us are somewhere in the middle, but the narratives are being defined by that 5% or 6% and 7% right. They're being defined by the screamers, by the extremists, and they're taking all the oxygen out of the room.
Speaker 2:So, number one, it's important for the rest of us to know that. It's important for the rest of us. There's another term called the exhausted majority. David French has been talking a lot about this and it means that, like, oh man, I just don't have time for this and that person's screaming. They must know what they're talking about. So let them take over, let them take all the space in the village square, if you will. Number one, it's important for us in the middle not to fall prey to just being the exhausted and then we seed the ground to the extremists. We need to be engaged because the truth is a vast, vast majority of us are somewhere in the middle and have a lot more in common than the extremists on this side or that side. So, yeah, it's true, a lot of us, you know, with the thing that you were talking about, the independence, the truth is most of us. There's an organization called Braver Angels that I've been talking about.
Speaker 2:I'm involved with and Braver Angels. When you come to their I forgot what they call it, but when you come as a delegate last year it was in Gettysburg they do great work and they ask you are you a little bit more red, a little bit more blue? I said I'm an independent and they had a follow-up questionnaire because they're like no, you're not. Because for the most part, they're usually right. Usually somebody says I'm an independent. At the end of the day, they vote all Republican, all Democrat. There's really a very, very small percentage of people who are purple, wearing purple, yeah, and so there is that. That folks, you know, veer a little right, a little left, but still, like, I still think, even if at the end of the day, they're what we would call a traditional democrat to traditional republican, there's still some possibility of persuasion there. You know, and there is like that.
Speaker 2:I know Mike Madrid. In 2020, he was like one of the most brilliant numbers, politician politics campaign guys in the country and he identified what's called the ban in line. So, within different constituencies, there's that middle, there's that persuadable voter and the ban in line. He kind of hijacked it from Steve Bannon, but he said he identified certain constituencies that were in fact, that were in that purple area, that were persuadable, and at that, in that election it was five or six percent. So for him, what he was targeting was not just independence, but also registered republicans that would either Leave it blank, do a write in or actually vote for Biden in 2020. And it was five or six percent. It's the same thing. This time. It's just a matter of figuring out who they are, I think those constituencies.
Speaker 2:Now for talking large groups of people, I think that I was just talking to a woman named Rachel Venman, who's one of the co-hosts of the suburban women problem podcast is a great podcast and part of it is, I think, that is the hinge upon which the twenty twenty four election is going to swing. Suburban women who, if they're old enough, they would have been voting for Reagan in the first bush, probably the second bush, but sometime around 2008, 2012 and definitely by 2016, that college educated suburban woman she was, she might still been registered republican, but she ain't having, you know, today's version of the republican party that she grew up with, you know. So, yeah, forty two percent, forty nine percent I've heard those numbers to, but that's that's where. That's where all the action really is. We think it's from the extremes, but that's just because they're loud, you know. But we gotta take some space back for the rest of us, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, you brought up a good point, though I think place true, which is you use the word obsessed and someone who's obsessed with their quote craft is gonna be better than someone who is not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sport someone who leisurely place tennis would not be as good as a pro athlete who wakes up at six am and place tennis every day, and so on and so forth. So I think it like it intuitively makes sense that the people who are most quickly active or engaged, as you said there, be obsessed and they're kind of dominate the discourse or dominate politics, because they're the ones whose jobs are, revolve around it, their livelihoods revolve around it families, friends, networks. And that just adds up to me and to your point. The exhausted majority. It's like it's been exhausted from like not feeling you have a say, but I hate, I never want like blame the voter, the American, for where we are. But it's like well, if someone who's playing in the like the work or is involved in is engaged, like it just makes sense that this is gonna be how it is and till people say, no, I am good, no, run for that seat on the city council or even lower on like a no commissioners board or something. You're just getting involved, more involved. In my community Things are just kind of run its course by these people who are hyper politically engaged because they are obsessed with the craft and you know props and never be obsessed, even though I don't really appreciate their positions, but nonetheless, like anyone who's really going after it's okay. Well, I know why this is happening, if that makes sense. I don't know why they're so extreme. Maybe that's there's a lot of reasons for that, but just to understand why they're kind of dominating the discourse is more intuitive.
Speaker 1:I want to play into another thing you said which was education point. College education, education, college educated women, because you're seeing that as being this almost litmus test for whether someone's gonna be more conservative or liberal, which is whether they received a college education. No, that's, the polling kind of indicates that now and you see more men who are not going to college trending more towards conservative Leaders and thinking, and then, on opposite side, women who are training more in rolling college more than men, trending more liberal. So that's that's. That's an interesting line that crosses a number of Categories and topics, but yeah, I mean it's interesting. It's interesting how, like, the realignment in both parties and on political spectrum affects both gender education. It's very involved, but nonetheless, I mean it intrigues me and I got other people to.
Speaker 2:And listen, it's the job of a large coalition to be aware of that stuff. You know, if, what you, if, if you, your message is alienating large chunks of the population of the constituency that you're supposed to serve. You gotta be aware of that, you know, because your job is not just to represent the extreme fringe of your, your constituency, the loudest of your constituency, what, your entire constituency. So, yeah, like there's, there's a lot of people. Like you know, my Madrid also has this. The guy was referring to about that that he focused on the band in line and he was a large part of getting that band in line north of six, five or six percent, especially in those swing states in 2020.
Speaker 2:He's also been writing op eds and trying to educate the democratic party actually grew up as a republican. I think he still identifies as a republican, but he's not. He's not a magi guy. So he's been trying to educate his democratic friends. Like, hey, listen, you have a latino problem and we first started saying it at least two years ago, if not longer. They were they, a lot of his friends and people who commented on the. You know, you wrote in new york times peace.
Speaker 2:A lot of people commenting reacted not to the substance of what he was saying, but as people who just didn't like what he was saying and responding whether it was ad hominem or attacks or just kind of temper tantrum throwing and my slag say what you want, do what you want to all the time tantrums you want. But this thing is real. You can either yell at me for I don't know, not looking the way you want me to look or we can deal with this problem. It exists. It's kind of like throwing a temper tantrum about gravity. You know, you, you can throw a temper tantrum about gravity. It exists, regardless of what your reaction to it is. But you better get used to it, because if you test whether gravity exists or not from twenty, twenty story building, it's not gonna work out well for you.
