 Welcome to American Issues Take One. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. And today the title of our show is the 2022 election. Change is the only constant. Well, we're in day two now of the midterm elections and it appears that the Republicans will most likely get the House of Representatives to swing their way, they'll be in control of that. Not 100% sure, but it's most likely they will get the House. The Senate and control for the Senate is up to three states, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Chances are Arizona does swing to Mark Kelly, the incumbent Senator. And so that leaves Nevada and Georgia. Georgia will now have an official runoff in December because no candidate got 50% plus one vote. And Nevada is as tight as it gets. Hard to say how that swings. So we don't know the entire outcome of our election yet, but we do know two things. And one is there was no red wave. And secondly, the election deniers that there was over 300 of them and a lot of them didn't get elected. So those election deniers that were falling and locked up with Donald Trump didn't make the grade for this election. I'd like to talk about this and many, many more things. So I'd like to introduce the guests today. Today we have our special esteemed guests, Vicky Cayetano, our special esteemed guests, Chuck Crumpton and our contributor today, Cynthia Lee Sinclair, Jay Fidel is on assignment. I'm sure it's post-election assignment and he's busy at work doing on the street interviews and post-election polling, maybe. All right, good morning, everyone. Good morning. I mean, that's the same question to everybody around the table here today. And that is a two-part question. So Vicky, to you first. One is what are your general thoughts about what you saw last night? And secondly, did the polls and predictions of a red wave have the motivation effect to draw out more Democrats to vote or were the polls wrong? Just wrong as many times they have been in the past. What do you think? Well, like most things, I think it's a combination of things. I definitely believe that the Democrats were very energized and knew what's at stake and came out in full force. So I think that's very encouraging. But to me, the biggest takeaway is that Donald Trump is not what he thinks he is. I think there was a lot of talk that the candidates that he endorsed were going to sweep into power. And I'm encouraged by that because I think that although he's overly conservative for my liking, I think at least Governor DeSantis of Florida is at least a little bit more mentally balanced, shall we say. So to me, that was a big takeaway that Trump isn't what he thinks he is and that there could be another leader in the making for the Republican Party that I think anyone will be better than Donald Trump. All right. Chuck, your thoughts about the election and same question about the red wave and did that actually motivate Democrats to come out or where the polls off? Yeah, I think if he's insights are spot on, one of my want to pick up on whether Governor DeSantis is more balanced than Trump is sort of like saying, well, Jerry Lewis seemed a little bit less silly than Supey sales. You got to remember where on the spectrum you are. But hey, no. I think I just gave away my age by laughing at the named Supey sales. Go ahead. But DeSantis's win and the command in Florida is really going to create an interesting national picture. There's no question that he is the leading opponent to Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. And he may be the stronger candidate as he demonstrated last night and may be able to again. Couple of things that we look at. Oh, one is, I agree with Vicki on to say it a little bit different way. I think people were really afraid that either party would take predominant control and the way they came out essentially prevented that. The Republicans may have a very, very small minority in the house. They may or may not get one in the Senate. But as we've seen the last two years, that small a minority with the filibuster rule in the Senate and with other things going on in the house is not a workable control factor. Let me focus on that last point you just made. You know, if the Biden administration had the Senate in the house and really very few things got done. I mean, we looked at, you know, we had the COVID act that got done and the infrastructure act got done and the inflation reduction bill measure was passed. But a lot of things that Joe Biden wanted in his first two years just wouldn't happen or didn't happen because Republicans said, we're taking the ball and we're not gonna play. So they all voted in lockstep, no against everything that was on the floor. Does it really make a difference that Joe McCarthy now is the speaker of the house and it's a Republican controlled, does it matter? Hey, it may not. McCarthy has not demonstrated the level of control of his block that for example, McConnell has over in the Senate. And if you look at McConnell's concerns and inferences about this election, pretty hard to argue with. Candidate quality cost the Republicans in some really important races. They only needed to swing five, a net five to get control of the house and only one to get control of the Senate. They're not gonna get five apparently and they may or may not get the one in the Senate. So if you're looking for- Wait, you mean they are gonna get five for the house? Wait, you're talking about the Democrats, right? Or the Republicans, I'm sorry. No, well, the Republicans, yeah, they may get five but they're not getting a sufficient majority that they're gonna have a reliable- So the question is, Chuck, do we still have gridlock in Congress? I don't think there's any question of that. I think we definitely have gridlock in Congress. And do they have enough to override presidential veto power? Okay, good point. Unlikely. Okay, thank you, Chuck. Cynthia, your thoughts about the election and the second part of that question. Well, for the first part, I think I wanna say something completely different than what I've been hearing anywhere. And that is, so many people are just absolutely overwhelmed with all of this fighting back and forth lives. Who do you believe? Who don't you believe? Who's right? Who's not? Terrified some of us, you know? And I personally couldn't watch all of the tick here or tick there. We got one over here. We had one over there. It was making me crazy. I can't understand the pressure. And it made me wonder how many other people are like that. So that I felt like I just wanted to turn it all off and wait till it's all over and then find out from there and then go forward. And I wonder how that kind of mentality is going to affect the final outcome? And will it? And that leads me to the second part of my question. And that is, okay, five, no, six states. And I'm gonna name them Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma have nine interference laws, voter interference laws that are already on the books. That means that the legislature, the partisan legislature in those states has the power to decide which ones to count, which ones not to count, which ones to throw out, which ones to keep. That to me puts into question those six states. And that was just, this is all information from the Brennan Law Center. And so if those six states are the only states cause there were a number of other states that were in process of passing more of those interference laws, how does that affect like what's happened in Georgia? You know, things like that, that the closeness of some of these races could come down to what does the legislature say? And that to me is what's terrifying. Well, let me run something past you because what Democrats call interference laws, Republicans call voting integrity laws. Yeah. You know, so let me give you an example. I think Arizona, and I think it passed by 73% was that a state identification is required prior to vote. It might have not been Arizona, maybe it was another state, but what's wrong with that? Is that an interference or is that an integrity? That's not an interference law. There's voter suppression laws and there's voter interference laws. And there are two different things. The voter suppression laws are the ones that require more IDs to get in to close down some of the polling places, to limit this or that, can't give them water while they're standing in line for 10 hours. Things like that. Those are the voter suppression laws. That's completely different than the voter interference laws. The voter interference laws are the ones that literally give the final decisions and even the administration of the elections to the partisan legislatures. These are only in Republican states. There's no Democratic states that have done this. It's all just the Republican states. Well, you know, I appreciate you making that clarification and distinction. That helps. Thank you. Vicki, to you, a big message that we had before the election is, get out there and vote. Your democracy depends on it. And that was a strong message. And I think that was a big motivation for why a lot of Democrats did turnout or at least mailed in their ballots if they didn't go to the polling site directly. It seems that we have one state in particular right now, Kerry Lake, the candidate for governor of Arizona. She was recently, was on the news, making a brief comment. And it seemed to me that she was basically the same because there's a delay in counting the votes that correlated to incompetence. And then she made that rhetorical technique of winding in competence into, we have to ensure that there's honest elections, indicating that they weren't honest. So we have Bill Gates, the supervisor of all elections in Arizona, say there is no history or there's no evidence of shenanigans here in this election or the last one. Is it gonna work? We did, fortunately last night, we didn't see a lot of accusations about rigged elections or fake elections. And other than Kerry Lake in Arizona, do we think we hear or see any more of this as the vote count continues, particularly in these close races? You know, Tim, that's just a good summation. And I agree with Cynthia and that I think people are very concerned and make sure that their vote counts, that it matters. I can't help but think of these people who are setting up this message would do so if they in fact won the race. I think that talk would go away. I think they're just bad losers who can't accept the fact that the people did not elect them. What Cynthia, I wanna go back to what you said about voter interference, loss. You know, and I would assume that these laws being placed in these states is to ensure the integrity of our ballot system. But what I'm hearing from you is a concern that it may in fact be used to undermine the outcome of an election or to skew the results to what a partisan legislature wants it to be. Is that correct, Cynthia? If I may, I'm gonna read you on a right straight from the Brennan Law Center. The nine enacted election interference laws in the six states permit partisan actors to interfere with elections, operations or overturn election results, direct new resources towards prosecuting election crimes and threaten election officials with criminal penalties. Seven of these laws will be in place for the 22 midterm elections. Unbelievable. Yeah, kinda scary. That is scary, yeah. But you know, I think that voter integrity that is so important. And I personally think that the outcome could have been much more radical. So I think that hopefully a lot of people get the message that we need to come out and we need to find balance. It cannot be extreme left or right. This is what creates revolutions. We need to come together. And it seems like the word compromise doesn't even exist anymore. I'm not gonna change your mind how you feel on certain things any more than you will change mine. But we all need to acknowledge that we want the greater good to be done for our country. So how do we come together to do that? I think is what's missing. That civility and respect is what we need in order to get through the gridlock that we're seeing where nothing gets done. You know, Vicky, we talked about election integrity and it seems like we dodged a big bullet other than Kerry Lake. No one's really screaming about it. Out of 370 GOP election deniers to one extent or another or skeptics of a free and clean 2020 election. Of those 370, about 210 actually looked like they've been placed and won their elections either from the House of Representatives, senators, governors, attorney generals, or secretary of states. All these various positions across the country that's still a fairly significant number. Does that concern you at all? It does concern me. I just hope that they understand that the majority of the people of this country want to move on. There's so many other things to address, inflation, women's reproductive rights, the war, how that impacts us. You know, there's so many other things that we need to address and do the work of the people. I think that's really key. This is just more disruption and distraction. And when you think about it, what does it do? We need to move forward. I hope they understand and really start getting to the... Do you think that they talk less about these things now that they've been placed and Donald Trump's not really there to hyperventilate and keep going on about his denial of the election of 2020? Yeah, that's very important because to me that's what leadership is all about. There's no question in my mind that Trump is the one rallying this message because he lost such a narcissistic person that cannot accept that, that the people don't love him enough. So I definitely think that different leadership will craft a different narrative that hopefully brings us closer together. Okay, thank you. Hey, Chuck, we didn't see a red wave. We saw more of a ripple. And the wave, as I said last night was left on shore. What do you think that was? Well, a couple of things. The Democrats may feel that they've kind of dodged a bullet and they've kept things close enough and evenly divided enough that the next two years won't be a disaster and they'll have a chance in 2024. But realistically, as a number of commentators pointed out last night, there are people who are in positions that either came very, very close or could still win their election. Herschel Walker, Kerry Lake, give me a break. If you put either of those people in Hawaii, they would, without question, do very, very poorly because they're not confident or they're not responsible or they're offensive to people or all of the above. So for Republicans to be able to put people out there like that and still marshal enough of a voter base in important swing states, it's still a very, very scary terrain. There's still more quicksand than mud out there. And we all need to be aware of that. The strategies for the next two years will be critically important for the 2024 position. Did the criticism of Joe Biden and his economic record, particularly inflation right now and his low job, well, his job approval is about 48%. Did that fail, the Republicans? Did they put too much emphasis and weight that tying any candidate to Joe Biden would ensure a GOP victory? That's for you, Chuck. Well, one of the things that you got to remember is if you're gonna make it a very personal ad hominem attack, Biden beat Trump in 2020 decisively by the popular vote and pretty decisively by the electoral vote, even though overall in the swing states, there were very close elections that wound up making a big difference. So if there's anything that if I were a Republican I'd wanna learn from this election, it would be stop the personalized ad hominem stuff. And if issues are working for you, come up with plans to accompany those issues that give people something to hold on to and a reason to vote. The Republicans attacked on inflation but offered no alternative. They attacked on prime but offered no alternative. And in fact, they've been the unrestricted gun rights supporters. So how many people can you sell on that? Yeah, good point. Cynthia, if it wasn't the economy that was really the main focus, then it had to be the social issues. To what degree do you think social issues was a big part of blunting a red wave here in this country for this election? I think it was young people. They don't really poll young people. So the polls may have showed something completely different and then all these young people came out. And for the young people, it was abortion and gun rights. As they're tired of having to do shooter drills at school, in the grammar schools and the high schools it's crazy to think that our kids are at this much risk and Republicans answer is just put more guns in the schools. And that just really, I think for me was incredible. So, but you know, we had abortion rights score victories across on the state ballots on the initiatives, right? They really did well. They were in Kentucky even and a bunch of other heavily red states. It was voted down either not to put anti-abortion language in their state constitution or it was to solidify that and to put it on there. And look at two different angles. Let me give you a number on that because you're spot on of the exit polling that took place yesterday. 61% were angry or dissatisfied about the Roe v. Wade reversal. And of that 61%, 71% voted for Democrats and 27% voted for GOP. So there's a real disparity over one specific wedgie issue. Do we move, do the Democrats move forward with the same kind of strategy in the next two years to try to govern and trying to bolster the presidency for 2024? Do they stay with that strategy or do they make a dramatic shift from it? Well, if we know that economy is the number one thing sort of across the board, even above that abortion issue. And of course, economy, probably not the kids aren't gonna be voting on that one, right? And they were a big block in this midterm. So if it's still one of the big overarching things then that means it's across the board. Everyone's worried about it. My big problem with that is all the media pundits, all the journalists, everybody, say all the Republicans saying the economy, the economy, the economy, it's terrible, it's terrible. And it's all Joe Biden's fault. And we didn't hear the Democrats or Joe Biden talking about the fact that the economy is terrible everywhere in the world right now. It's not just Joe Biden's fault. And we didn't really hear that. We heard it a little bit, but we didn't hear it enough, enough to squash maybe the independent voters or the moderate Republicans that were like, well, I can't vote Democrat because the economy's so bad because all they heard from those Republican people was the economy's terrible, terrible, terrible. Okay, well, let's admit that Joe Biden did kind of moonwalk away from talking about the economy because it wasn't Rosie. It wasn't a good picture for him. So rightly so, he talked about democracy and he talked about the Roe v. Wade and he talked about gun issues. So that strategy actually worked for the Democrats even though they're gonna lose the House most likely. Question is, does Joe Biden stay with that strategy moving forward? Well, I think not because I think the reason that it's not already a blue wave is because of that economy that was not addressed. Like, yes, we would have been able to have better economy if my Build Back Better plan had passed. We didn't hear that a lot. And I believe the media has a huge role in this, not even so much what Joe Biden did or didn't do, but what the media did just absolutely, every time you turn on the TV, well, the economy's bad. So, you know, it's gonna be a problem for the Democrats because the economy's so bad, not continuing to say it's not the Democrats fault, it's everywhere in the world. Every once in a while, you'd hear somebody say that. So his messaging probably needs to change about that specific issue then. Just about that specific issue, but I think he still needs to continue to hammer about democracy because it is still on the ballot, right? Okay. So five states that we were just talking about, if you look at the races that are super close, like the Kerry Lake one we were just talking about, that one is super close. It's what, 49, four and 50 something. So it's very close. That's one of the states that has all Republicans everywhere in their state houses and they are the ones with those voter interference laws that could say, well, it's so close, we're gonna, you know, swift things around a little bit and make it so that Kerry Lake wins. Same with Florida, same with Georgia, same with, you know, so in the case of all of these counting of the ballots, that's all done by these same people, these same partisan legislatures appointing, remember they took away all kinds of election officials and put in their own people. Okay. Let me get to Vicki on, I want to thank you for your answer on the economy. I want to talk, speak with Vicki about this as well. Vicki, 1992, James Carville, the Rage and Cajun, coined the term, if the economy's stupid. Does Joe Biden, does he change his messaging more towards the economy and trying to explain how he's not in control and how he's made things better? Or does he continue on as Cynthia suggested, there's other things that he still needs to talk about. How does Joe Biden move forward with his messaging? You know, I think the president has to address the economy and the Democrats have to take a hold on that to not talk about it really gives for me anyway, an impression like we're clueless, you know, and we're not, we need to address it. People are hurting. I mean, if you've gone to the market recently, you walk out four items, $30, who can afford that? And nobody is talking about it. So I do think that needs to be discussed. And I think it's interesting, one thing I wanted to point out, I think sometimes people vote for a candidate, not so much because they like them, but it's a vote against the opponent. It's better this devil than that devil. It's not like anything. But I think economy is going to be very critical in the 2024 election. And I think, you know, there's no question, Cynthia, you're right, it's worldwide, but you've got to frame a narrative. So it doesn't look like you're just copying out. You need to address, to educate, to communicate so that the people, and give people the hope. So what does this mean? Where are we? What will it look like? I think that's the kind of narrative I would like to see President Biden lead. Okay, thank you, Vicki. Chuck, we're almost out of time, but I want to get this question out to you. You know, DeSantis did very well. And you can almost say that now Florida is no longer a purple state, it's a red state. You know, when you get 57% and Charlie-Chris gets 42% and plus many of the other positions went GOP. He now has wind in his sails. To what degree does that diminish Donald Trump? Clearly DeSantis has the presidency in mind. He has not provided any assurance that he's gonna fulfill his full term as governor. Trump knows that, DeSantis knows that. What's gonna be interesting is McConnell knows it and whoever winds up being Speaker of the House also knows it. That's gonna be an area where a lot of pitch battles are gonna be important. The Democrats need to anticipate that and develop not just a strategy, but leadership that can offer exactly as Vicki says. Reasons for problems with the economy and strategies that are going to deal with those effectively. And that may include governors out of states who have managed to get through the inflation period pretty well and come out of it well. Has Trump, the Trump fever broken by this election? The fact that the election deniers, a lot of them didn't make it and DeSantis did so well in Florida. Has Trump fever broken? I think the question is more, is Trump's monopoly eroded? Same. Because his control over the money on the donors was so extensive that even McConnell was deferential. And those who spoke out against him during the January 6th and aftermath backpedaled as quickly as they could out of deference to that control. I don't think we're gonna see that for the next two years. We're gonna look at internal struggles for control over the money and the donors and the influence. In that area of the Republican party and what they do with it. Alrighty. Well, we've run out of time so I do wanna go around the table and get last thoughts. Cynthia, we'll start with you. Okay, it's sort of a random thing that I thought was really interesting that was on the ballots for people in their initiatives. Five states, Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont and Oregon, but Louisiana did not remove the loophole. And this loophole was for a involuntary servitude, slavery as punishment. And there are several states that still have that in their constitution. At any rate, it was already in part, when they outlawed slavery, they kept it on in the sense of this involuntary servitude thing. Basically, if you commit a crime, you can go to jail and you are forced to work whether you want to or not. And so that has been taken out of five states. It was voted down. Louisiana did not vote it down, which means they can still do it. And there's a several other states that they never even voted on it yet. But I thought that was an interesting thing. All right. Think of it, voting on slavery in 2022, right? 140 some odd years later, wow. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Cynthia, for that perspective that that is odd. Chuck, you get the next thought. So one of the things that President Obama did very effectively when he came into the office after the 0708 crash and recession had taken place was he did focus on the economy. He got really knowledgeable brain trust leaders in there. They came up with plans and strategies and they put those through. And they essentially worked well enough that he had no trouble winning again in 2012. And he didn't do as badly in the midterms as most other presidents have done. That's gonna be a challenge. Do you think he runs 2024, Joe Biden? I don't think that's the best strategy for Democrats. They need to come up with economic leadership that's going to capture some level of support in the independent voters and the moderate voters. All right. Thank you, Chuck, very much. Vicki, you get the final word today on the election and your thoughts. Well, I think that the American people understood clearly what's at stake. I think that's why so many voters turned out. And I think for that it's very encouraging. While some states are still very extreme, I think in their selection of who they elected, I think by and large, especially on the Republican party, I think that they're looking for a different kind of leadership. And I think that itself is encouraging. And I think that Donald Trump was the biggest loser, because the people that he put up were ideology, Trump competency. They didn't necessarily make it through. So I think that's a victory for Democrats and for our country. So I'm overall happy with the way things turned out nationally. I'd like to thank you very much for that last comment because I think Donald Trump is the biggest loser out of these election results, regardless if the House goes to the Republicans. And I couldn't agree with you more and I'm really appreciative that you've made that comment. So I'd like to thank my guests today, Chuck Crumpton, Vicky Cayetano, and Cynthia Leeson-Clair. Thank you for joining us on American Issues Take One. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. Tune in tomorrow for American Issues Take Two where Jay Fidel will further talk about where does this country go now after this election. And until then, aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.