1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:24,480 Hello everyone. 2 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:29,680 Welcome back to Policies, Problems and Progress with Alex Hopper. 3 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,720 I am your host, Alex Hopper. 4 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:37,840 And I tell you what folks, I apologize for being gone so long, but I have had a heck 5 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,660 of a time getting back to the microphone. 6 00:00:40,660 --> 00:00:46,240 Since the last time you heard from me, I have had three major surgeries, two of which I 7 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:52,720 had to be put under for, one of which was to reattach six pieces of bone back to my 8 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,160 tibial plateau in my knee. 9 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,720 I missed seven weeks of class. 10 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,000 I had to do everything I could to catch up in college. 11 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,880 I had to move in the middle of all of it because my roommates made a hostile living situation 12 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,880 where I wasn't able to feed or water myself. 13 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,080 Just all sorts of fun things going on. 14 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:13,320 And then the holidays came on. 15 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:18,120 So I've been busier than I care to be, but I am very happy to be back. 16 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaking of which, happy new year everyone. 17 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:24,080 Welcome to 2024. 18 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:33,080 Now those of you who are able to divide know that four is divisible by four, just as 2016, 19 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:38,700 2020, 2024, and 2028 are. 20 00:01:38,700 --> 00:01:41,880 So you know what that means. 21 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:43,600 Presidential election year. 22 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:49,840 And for someone who is political, there is nothing more stressful and more exhausting 23 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:52,140 than dealing with an election year. 24 00:01:52,140 --> 00:01:58,320 This year, you're going to see all sorts of things going on, shady and loud in the media, 25 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,680 things being blown out of proportion to try to motivate you one way or the other. 26 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:07,000 Not to mention all the candidates who are going to either be groveling at your feet 27 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:12,360 and sucking at your toes to get your vote or standing eight miles above you, calling 28 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,680 you worthless and demanding your allegiance. 29 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,780 There is no in between. 30 00:02:18,780 --> 00:02:21,400 It is that kind of year. 31 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,880 And so that's what we're going to talk about in this episode. 32 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:30,160 Sort of getting ready to deal with what comes this year and what to expect and the important 33 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:36,120 dates for you and possibly your state if you happen to be in a swing state. 34 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:40,880 If you aren't in a swing state, I mean, it's controversial, but your vote really doesn't 35 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,880 matter. 36 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:45,700 That's unfortunately just how it goes. 37 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:52,200 If you notice about where politicians decide to go and campaign in, you kind of get left 38 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:56,900 out because you are taken for granted, but take that as you will. 39 00:02:56,900 --> 00:03:03,260 So the first thing that just came to a close that is on everybody's mind is the first thing 40 00:03:03,260 --> 00:03:06,600 that you see in election year is the Iowa caucus. 41 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:09,880 Just drawn to a close, Donald Trump has projected to be the winner. 42 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:17,560 There is zero surprise there, despite the effort put in by opposition such as DeSantis 43 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:18,760 and Haley. 44 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:21,440 There was really no question about him winning that. 45 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:26,720 Going forward, it's projected that he'll most likely be the pick for the primary as well 46 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:30,200 as possibly the actual election. 47 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:36,560 But this is due to a lot of liberal cities starting to share sentiments that are on the 48 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:38,000 conservative dock. 49 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,280 And with that being mentioned, we move into the issues of 2024, what people will be voting 50 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:49,400 on, possibly what will change them to switch parties in some states and what people are 51 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:53,800 ingrained to keep supporting in their own parties. 52 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:59,800 My top four are abortion, for policy, immigration and crime. 53 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:05,000 Not my top four as in what's going to make me choose, but what is the projection I think 54 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,640 for what is going to drive people's selections this year. 55 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:15,280 Covering the first one, abortion, we just had the Broe v Wade overturned and abortion 56 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:21,320 has gone out to the states with a lot of outcry from left leaning groups to make a federal 57 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:27,800 mandate to allow abortion, while the Supreme Court has ruled that there is not an existing 58 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:28,960 one. 59 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:33,640 Many states took the opportunity to outlaw abortion altogether and other states have 60 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:39,880 taken the opportunity to outlaw abortion, say for a few special cases such as rape and 61 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:40,880 incest. 62 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:46,840 However, left leaning states have taken the opportunity to make laws in allowing abortion 63 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:50,780 and making sure that it is ingrained in their state's constitution. 64 00:04:50,780 --> 00:04:55,820 One way or another, whichever way a person leans on this is very much going to be deciding 65 00:04:55,820 --> 00:04:58,800 how they vote this time around. 66 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:00,760 Next up is foreign policy. 67 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:04,960 Now this has been a controversial subject that I have talked about on this show before, 68 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:11,700 but with recent wars in the Ukraine and Israel and the US's support for them both financially 69 00:05:11,700 --> 00:05:18,020 and politically, foreign policy is going to be a large part of the 2024 election. 70 00:05:18,020 --> 00:05:22,480 Now this isn't something that can be pinned to one side or the other, or can even be pinned 71 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,080 to both sides. 72 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:29,360 Both sides have people who support Ukraine and Israel and both sides have people who 73 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:30,880 support neither. 74 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:35,600 And then one side will have people who support Israel but not Ukraine and then the other 75 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,600 side will have people who support Ukraine but not Israel. 76 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:44,640 And then there is the group that is very passionate about Palestine, although I've not seen anybody 77 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:49,440 carrying flags supporting Russia on the Capitol Hill. 78 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:57,120 It is a very complicated issue and is really yet to be seen how it will affect these elections 79 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:03,880 they were going into, but you can clearly see each politician's stance on these issues 80 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:09,320 and how it could influence these people who do or do not agree with them. 81 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:14,000 Immigration is a very large one that we've been facing recently with the border basically 82 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:21,000 falling out and Governor Abbott from Texas has been making sure that the northern states 83 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,720 feel the same rush and surge that they have been feeling by busing and flying immigrants 84 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,400 to these northern states. 85 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:32,760 A lot of people who live in these cities have now began to change their mind and become 86 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:36,760 hostile to these immigrants that are coming from the southern border. 87 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:41,520 These immigrants have been placed in cities where they're not able to take care of them 88 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,480 due to just not having enough money. 89 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:51,080 Schools have been shut down to allow homeless immigrants to sleep there as well as hotels 90 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:58,040 completely taking up and social services having to be shut down in cities and states like 91 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:04,720 New York and New York, New York, New York, that will never not be goofy, but also Chicago 92 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:06,960 facing these issues as well. 93 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:13,440 We're now due to a lack of social services being provided such as EBT and food stamps. 94 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:19,020 People who are relying on these services are now spitting and harassing and even attacking 95 00:07:19,020 --> 00:07:22,000 immigrants in the places where they're being housed. 96 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,640 Now their views are starting to change on this while most of the states that are along 97 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,640 the southern border have not changed their views. 98 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:35,220 They still hold the same views that it is unattainable to have this many people come 99 00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:40,880 over the border and still hold a positive and stable economy. 100 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:48,160 Many have even drawn comparisons to the treatment of homeless veterans as well as homeless citizens 101 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:54,120 of the United States and how these immigrants have been put up in five star hotels or even 102 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:59,800 just better living situations than many, many homeless shelters throughout the US. 103 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:05,880 This has turned many people against the Biden administration as any action taken by the 104 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:12,560 states to secure their borders with Mexico have been met with federal resistance and 105 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:20,160 as well as a large amount of silence from the White House on any sort of plan or idea 106 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:25,160 on how to deal with these things that are coming into effect in the cities. 107 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:30,760 Even prominent Democratic figures are now turning against the Biden administration such 108 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:36,400 as Mayor Johnson of Chicago saying it's the entire country that is now at stake due to 109 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:41,360 the silence coming from the White House and the ignoring of the issue. 110 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,680 And the fourth and final issue of course is crime, something that I went into depth on 111 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:50,720 the police issue in this country and you can go and watch that video on this channel where 112 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:58,000 a lot of places are facing record highs for crime as well as police being neutered in 113 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:04,880 responses as well as police being over empowered in responses and shown to be negligent in 114 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:09,840 their responses where crime has become this thing where we're not able to fight it properly 115 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:15,560 because we are having a fight between distrust and trust in our police force and between 116 00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:17,820 funding and unfunding it. 117 00:09:17,820 --> 00:09:22,320 Not to mention the federal judges that are appointed have been doing a very poor job 118 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:28,080 at managing the crimes and sentences in this country and a lot of people are going to be 119 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,440 swinging based off of being victims. 120 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:36,720 People who may have voted for Biden before and his administration may now be seeing or 121 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:43,200 feeling differently due to their victimization from these lack of ruling on crimes. 122 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:48,280 The next thing you're going to be hearing about this year is approval ratings. 123 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:55,360 Now more specifically, the Biden administration's approval ratings reaching a 40% approval rating 124 00:09:55,360 --> 00:10:02,340 and a 53% disapproval rating, which is a new record for the Biden administration with motivating 125 00:10:02,340 --> 00:10:10,720 factors such as a doubt of his medical state and mental ability to just how the economy 126 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:16,120 has been performing underneath his administration's rule during these years. 127 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:21,920 Many are comparing this to how Trump is now mounting so far above his opponents in the 128 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:25,960 primary while Biden is losing approval. 129 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:30,840 This has even led to speculation that the Democratic Party might put up someone else 130 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,440 while Biden still wants to be incumbent. 131 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:39,100 And so folks, for the most part, that's what we have to look forward to this year. 132 00:10:39,100 --> 00:10:44,200 This is a shorter than average episode, but that's just because there's not as much to 133 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:49,640 talk about, but it is a short cover of what we should look forward to this year and I 134 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:56,280 will cover these things more in depth later as they come more relevant in the coming months. 135 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:57,620 Thank you all for listening. 136 00:10:57,620 --> 00:11:02,240 This has been Policy, Problems and Progress with Alex Hopper. 137 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:03,640 Have a happy new year, y'all. 138 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,800 I look forward to the shit show that is going to be this year. 139 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:20,800 Good night. 140 00:11:20,800 --> 00:12:50,480 "Policy, Problems, and Progress with Alex Hopper" was brought to you by Algid Productions LLC. 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