WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.800 I'm staring at this headline for Monday, and 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:03.660 I honestly had to check if I was reading a parody 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:07.219 site. You have the leader of the Republican parter, 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:10.839 the party whose entire brand for, what, 50 years 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.300 has been states' rights. Right. Keep the feds 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.880 out. Exactly. And now he's suddenly proposing 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:17.559 that the federal government should nationalize 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:22.839 elections. But, and here's the kicker, only in 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:25.739 the blue states. It does feel like a glitch in 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:27.980 the matrix, doesn't it? But if you look at the 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:30.199 whole stack of research we have for this week, 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:34.200 it's early February 2026. This isn't just some 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:38.000 random outburst. It's part of a much larger stress 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.640 test on the American political system. We're 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.140 seeing a total scramble for control because the 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:45.579 ground is moving under everyone's feet way faster 00:00:45.579 --> 00:00:47.619 than they expected. That's exactly what we need 00:00:47.619 --> 00:00:51.000 to figure out today. We have this just... bizarre 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.679 flip -flop on election control. We have a special 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.179 election result in Texas that is objectively 00:00:56.179 --> 00:00:58.380 mind -blowing. Oh yeah, we have to get to that. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:00.619 And then just to confuse matters, we have the 00:01:00.619 --> 00:01:02.299 financial markets doing something completely 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:04.799 different than the political world. Right. While 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:06.939 the politics are getting, I mean, more chaotic 00:01:06.939 --> 00:01:10.219 and polarized, the economy is actually stabilizing. 00:01:10.459 --> 00:01:12.180 But in a way, most people aren't really noticing 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:14.319 yet because they're just so focused on the noise 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:16.760 out of Washington. OK, let's start with the state's 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:19.219 rights reversal then. Donald Trump wants the 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:22.819 feds to run elections. What's the actual logic 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:27.719 here? Or is there one? The stated logic is to 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:30.920 save money and to ensure that, and I'm quoting 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:33.280 the source directly here, illegal immigrants, 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:35.959 Democrats, and other riffraff don't vote. Riffraff. 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:38.239 But functionally, what he's suggesting is that 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:40.280 the federal government seize control of election 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.920 machinery, but specifically excluding states 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:46.239 that voted for him. Which seems... legally impossible. 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:48.120 I mean, I am not a constitutional scholar, but 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:49.739 I'm pretty sure the president doesn't run elections. 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:51.799 You are absolutely correct. He has zero role. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.140 In fact, the Constitution is, well, it's very 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:56.680 specific that powers not granted to the feds 00:01:56.680 --> 00:01:59.000 belong to the states. We've been running decentralized 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.920 elections for 250 years for a reason. Right. 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:04.060 Ironically, the only person in the executive 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.280 branch with any role in counting votes is actually 00:02:06.280 --> 00:02:08.460 the vice president. Who presides over the Senate 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:10.520 count. Exactly. The president is basically just 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:12.979 a spectator in the mechanics of the vote. So 00:02:12.979 --> 00:02:15.340 if it's unconstitutional, and let's be honest, 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:17.659 obviously for critical, why is it making such 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:20.340 waves? Because the reaction from Republicans 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:23.360 hasn't been that... You know, unified applause 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.020 Trump usually gets. No, and that's the key insight 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:28.360 here. You've got Senate Majority Leader John 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.539 Poon pushing back and pushing back hard. He's 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:33.680 arguing that decentralized systems are safer. 00:02:33.979 --> 00:02:36.400 His line is that it's harder to hack 50 separate 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.879 servers than one central mainframe. But his real 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:42.479 worry is strategic. He's thinking about H .R. 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:45.180 1. The For the People Act, the one the Democrats 00:02:45.180 --> 00:02:48.539 tried to pass back in 2021. That's the one. Thune 00:02:48.539 --> 00:02:50.939 knows that if Republicans set the precedent that 00:02:50.939 --> 00:02:53.800 the feds can control elections, just to help 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.639 Trump today, the second Democrats get power back, 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.479 they will use that exact same precedent to pass 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:02.300 H .R. 1. And that bill would, what, mandate early 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.360 voting, same day registration? And end partisan 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:08.080 gerrymandering nationwide. Thune is trying to 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.680 keep that door locked, even if it means disagreeing 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:12.620 with Trump right now. So he's playing defense 00:03:12.620 --> 00:03:14.419 against his own team's offense because he sees 00:03:14.419 --> 00:03:17.560 the long game. But not everyone agrees with him. 00:03:17.710 --> 00:03:21.030 The source says Brad Raffensperger in Georgia 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:25.069 is shifting. This is a fascinating pivot. Raffensperger 00:03:25.069 --> 00:03:27.949 made his name standing up to Trump in 2020, right? 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:30.990 Refusing to find those votes. Of course. Now 00:03:30.990 --> 00:03:33.210 he's running for governor and suddenly he's open 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:36.750 to federal intervention, specifically to ban 00:03:36.750 --> 00:03:39.370 ballot harvesting. That term gets thrown around 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:41.990 so much, harvesting. It just implies someone 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:44.250 running around stealing votes in a sack. But 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:46.620 in practice, What are we actually talking about? 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:48.740 Well, the source gives a really sobering example. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:51.979 Nursing homes. OK. You have disabled or elderly 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:54.219 people who fill out a ballot but literally cannot 00:03:54.219 --> 00:03:56.979 walk to a mailbox or drive to a drop box. So 00:03:56.979 --> 00:03:59.139 a staff member collects those five or six ballots 00:03:59.139 --> 00:04:02.180 and drops them off. Technically, under some definitions, 00:04:02.259 --> 00:04:04.340 that's harvesting. And Raffensperger wants to 00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:06.800 ban that. His new stance is that the voter must 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.520 deliver it personally. The source points out 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:11.659 that for a bedridden person, that effectively 00:04:11.659 --> 00:04:14.300 deletes their right to vote. It's a mechanic 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:16.970 that sounds tough on fraud in a sound bite. But 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:19.670 in reality, it just purges vulnerable voters 00:04:19.670 --> 00:04:22.149 from the rolls. Exactly. It really seems like 00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:23.689 they're fighting over the machinery of voting 00:04:23.689 --> 00:04:25.889 because they are terrified of the actual voters. 00:04:25.889 --> 00:04:29.509 Yeah. Which I guess brings us to Texas. Ah, yes. 00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:32.910 The Texas shock. I saw the numbers for this special 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:35.149 election in Senate District 9, and I had to check 00:04:35.149 --> 00:04:38.209 the math twice. Republicans are absolutely reeling 00:04:38.209 --> 00:04:41.089 from this one. So just to frame this for you, 00:04:41.269 --> 00:04:44.500 this is a district near Fort Worth. In 2022, 00:04:44.740 --> 00:04:47.519 the Republican won this seat by 20 points. 20 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.600 points, a safe seat. Very safe. Two years ago, 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:53.920 Trump won it by 17, last week. The Democrat, 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.180 Taylor Remit, won by 14 .4 points. Wait, won 00:04:57.180 --> 00:04:59.980 by 14? That's a swing of over 30 points in less 00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:03.579 than 24 months. It's a 32 point swing. It's unprecedented. 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:06.060 Usually a wave election is a five or eight point 00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:08.779 shift. 30 points is a total collapse. What on 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:10.920 earth caused it? Did the Democrat just run an 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.399 incredible campaign? It appears to be almost 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:16.420 entirely demographic and frankly, reactionary. 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:19.079 The district is heavily Latino. OK, that makes 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:22.060 sense. And the reporting suggests this is a direct, 00:05:22.459 --> 00:05:25.560 just a visceral reaction to the current administration's 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:28.240 enforcement policies, specifically the images 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:32.040 of masked government thugs and detention centers. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:34.600 So the tough on immigration rhetoric isn't just 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.319 energizing the base anymore. It's actively driving 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.639 away a demographic that Republicans thought they 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.959 were making inroads with. It is backfiring spectacularly. 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:45.160 You have Ted Cruz calling it very concerning. 00:05:45.699 --> 00:05:47.649 Rhonda Sanders. says it's a wake -up call, they 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:49.529 can read the census data better than anyone. 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:53.810 Latinos are 40 % of Texas. And 20 % of the entire 00:05:53.810 --> 00:05:56.509 US population. So if you apply a 30 -point swing 00:05:56.509 --> 00:05:59.660 to the national map... The GOP gets wiped out, 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:02.019 right? Completely. I mean, the source highlights 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:04.579 the stakes for 2026. You're talking about Senate 00:06:04.579 --> 00:06:07.300 seats in Texas, Florida, Colorado. Plus, there 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:09.459 are 38 congressional districts that are majority 00:06:09.459 --> 00:06:11.899 Latino. If those flip, the House is gone. Wow. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:13.939 We're talking about a potential realignment that 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.079 could end the current Republican majority just 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:18.540 instantly. It's amazing how fast political capital 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:21.029 can evaporate. And speaking of capital, let's 00:06:21.029 --> 00:06:23.389 talk about campaign money. The Republicans have 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:25.069 raised a fortune for the midterms. Can't they 00:06:25.069 --> 00:06:27.230 just buy their way out of this with ads? History 00:06:27.230 --> 00:06:30.529 says no. The source did a deep analysis of wave 00:06:30.529 --> 00:06:34.689 elections, 2006, 2010, 2018. The data is pretty 00:06:34.689 --> 00:06:37.329 consistent. When the national mood shifts, money 00:06:37.329 --> 00:06:41.490 just stops working. Really? Yeah. In 2010, 43 00:06:41.490 --> 00:06:43.490 Democrats lost their seats, even though they 00:06:43.490 --> 00:06:45.509 outspent their Republican challengers. So if 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:48.430 a voter is angry about their grandmother in a 00:06:48.430 --> 00:06:50.889 nursing home not being able to vote or about 00:06:50.889 --> 00:06:53.709 raids in their neighborhood, a slick TV commercial, 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:56.800 it doesn't fix it. There's a point of diminishing 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.819 returns. If this Texas shock is real, all that 00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:02.259 cash is just papering over a dam that's about 00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:05.160 to burst. Meanwhile, JD Vance seems to be trying 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.839 to build his own life raft. He's doing this weird 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.579 dance where he's attacking elites, but specifically 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:13.920 focusing on. Prince Andrew. It's a very specific 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.560 bank shot, isn't it? Vance is in a bind. He needs 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.540 to separate himself from Trump to have a future, 00:07:18.579 --> 00:07:21.079 but he can't alienate the Maggier base. It's 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:23.500 a tightrope. So he keeps bringing up the Jeffrey 00:07:23.500 --> 00:07:26.759 Epstein scandal and incestuous elites, but he 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.319 targets Prince Andrew because he's a safe foreign 00:07:29.319 --> 00:07:31.670 target. It feels like he's trying to channel 00:07:31.670 --> 00:07:35.009 that populist anger about corruption without 00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:37.470 pointing the finger at the guy in the Oval Office 00:07:37.470 --> 00:07:41.089 who also has, let's say, connections to that 00:07:41.089 --> 00:07:43.949 world. That's it, exactly. He calls the elites 00:07:43.949 --> 00:07:47.389 gross and incestuous. It allows the voters to 00:07:47.389 --> 00:07:49.189 fill in the blanks about who he really means 00:07:49.189 --> 00:07:51.189 without Vance having to go on record attacking 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:54.629 his boss. It's pure survival instinct. He's looking 00:07:54.629 --> 00:07:58.310 at 2028 while trying to survive 2026. OK, so 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:00.500 the political world is on fire. Usually that 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:02.959 means the markets are crashing. But I'm looking 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.199 at the February financial newsletter in our stack 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.300 and the economy looks fine. Better than fine 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.139 actually. It's resilient. GDP is forecast to 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:12.199 grow over 2 percent. Unemployment is staying 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.040 low under 4 .6 percent. But the really interesting 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.439 story for anyone with a 401k is where the money 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:19.319 is going. It's not just the tech show anymore. 00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:22.420 No not at all. For years the S &P 500 was basically 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:24.899 five tech companies in a trench coat. If big 00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:27.199 tech was up the market was up. But in January 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:29.420 tech and financials were actually negative. So 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:32.039 what was up? The winner was the Russell 2000. 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:35.000 It was up over 5%. Okay, for people who don't 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.799 day trade, explain why the Russell 2000 mattering 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.419 is a big deal. The Russell 2000 tracks small 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:42.940 cap companies. These are domestic manufacturers, 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:45.460 regional banks, construction firms, you know, 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:47.659 real companies making real stuff in America, 00:08:47.779 --> 00:08:50.799 not just AI software or ad algorithms. The real 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:54.409 economy. Exactly. When investors rotate money 00:08:54.409 --> 00:08:56.970 there, it means they have confidence in the actual 00:08:56.970 --> 00:09:00.649 broad economy, not just in a tech bubble. It's 00:09:00.649 --> 00:09:03.710 arguably a much healthier signal than, say, Nvidia 00:09:03.710 --> 00:09:05.830 going up another 10 percent. So the underlying 00:09:05.830 --> 00:09:07.669 economy is broadening out. That's good news. 00:09:08.230 --> 00:09:10.350 But then we hit the bureaucratic wall. It is 00:09:10.350 --> 00:09:12.370 tax season. And it sounds like some of those 00:09:12.370 --> 00:09:15.750 shiny campaign promises like no tax on tips are 00:09:15.750 --> 00:09:17.730 colliding with reality. Collision is putting 00:09:17.730 --> 00:09:20.330 it mildly. It's a train wreck. The House budget 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:22.250 hawks added so many conditions to these laws 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:24.649 that they are basically unworkable for the average 00:09:24.649 --> 00:09:27.190 person. I laughed out loud at the overtime rule. 00:09:27.909 --> 00:09:29.870 Apparently, to get the tax break, you have to 00:09:29.870 --> 00:09:32.730 be covered by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:36.139 Right. And when people call the IRS to ask, am 00:09:36.139 --> 00:09:38.980 I covered, the IRS lawyers are saying, we don't 00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:41.200 know, call the Department of Labor. You're kidding. 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:44.879 Nope. You literally have one federal agency telling 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:47.419 tax debtors to call a different agency to figure 00:09:47.419 --> 00:09:49.779 out how to file a form. It sounds like a Kafka 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:52.860 novel. Mm. And the no tax on tips thing. Yeah. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.179 Reading the source, it sounds like an actual 00:09:55.179 --> 00:09:58.399 trap. It is. Here's the catch. Income tax is 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.720 different from payroll tax FICA, which funds 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.539 Social Security and Medicare. Okay. Many service 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:05.379 workers haven't been reporting all their cash 00:10:05.379 --> 00:10:07.580 tips. If they start reporting them now to claim 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:10.379 the income tax exemption, they suddenly owe 15 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:13.899 .3 % in FICA taxes on that money. So you file 00:10:13.899 --> 00:10:16.399 the form to save money on income tax, and you 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:17.960 end up writing a check to the government for 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:20.059 Social Security taxes you didn't know you owed. 00:10:20.179 --> 00:10:22.539 That's it! You might actually end up with less 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:24.700 take -home pay than if you had just done nothing. 00:10:25.259 --> 00:10:27.100 The only people winning here are the accountants 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:29.120 who get to charge you to navigate this mess. 00:10:29.539 --> 00:10:31.820 And speaking of mess, there's this one weird 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:34.059 detail about the car loan interest deduction. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.299 You can deduct the interest, but only if the 00:10:37.299 --> 00:10:39.840 car was final assembled in the U .S. And nobody 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.740 knows what final assembly means. The source jokes 00:10:42.740 --> 00:10:44.799 about whether hanging a foxtail in the rearview 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:47.399 mirror counts. It sounds funny, but if you're 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:50.679 banking on a $2 ,000 refund and you get denied 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:53.460 because your Ford was assembled in Canada, you're 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:55.600 going to be furious. It creates this huge gap 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:58.200 between the promise I'll lower your taxes and 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:00.679 the reality, which is I'll make your taxes so 00:11:00.679 --> 00:11:03.059 complicated you need a lawyer. And that frustration 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:05.600 matters. When voters get their tax returns in 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.080 April and the refund isn't there, that feeds 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.240 right back into the anger we saw in that Texas 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:12.279 election. Before we wrap up, we have to look 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:14.559 at the media landscape. There's a grim update 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.200 about The Washington Post. It's brutal. Jeff 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:19.659 Bezos's team fired a third of the staff. They 00:11:19.659 --> 00:11:22.279 killed the entire sports section and gutted the 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:24.899 foreign bureaus. No sports section. In a national 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:28.450 paper, that feels drastic. Gone. The theory discussed 00:11:28.450 --> 00:11:30.789 in the source is that Bezos is gutting the paper 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:33.629 to appease Trump, hoping it helps his space company, 00:11:33.789 --> 00:11:36.629 Blue Origin, get government contracts. But the 00:11:36.629 --> 00:11:39.470 source points out that Trump doesn't do gratitude. 00:11:40.210 --> 00:11:43.149 So Bezos might be destroying a journalistic institution 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:45.990 for a favor he will never receive. That's the 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:48.450 fear. It's a heavy note on the state of accountability. 00:11:49.009 --> 00:11:52.049 But we do have one actual bright spot to close 00:11:52.049 --> 00:11:55.080 on. The oceans. Right. The High Seas Treaty. 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:57.500 Yes, it's officially in effect. Before this, 00:11:58.100 --> 00:11:59.820 international waters were basically the Wild 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:03.919 West. Less than 1 % was protected. Now, 84 countries 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:05.919 have signed on to create marine sanctuaries in 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:08.379 the open ocean. That's a rare moment of global 00:12:08.379 --> 00:12:10.399 cooperation working while everything else feels 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:13.179 fractured. It really is. So, pulling this all 00:12:13.179 --> 00:12:15.539 together. We have a political system that's fighting 00:12:15.539 --> 00:12:17.759 over the basic rules of the game. Who counts 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:20.299 the votes? Who gets to vote? We have a massive 00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:22.759 demographic shift in Texas that suggests the 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:25.320 old strategies are just failing. And we have 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:27.820 an economy that is quietly getting stronger and 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.500 broader, even while the tax code becomes a nightmare. 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:33.000 It really does highlight a disconnect. You have 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.820 these top -down decrees, nationalized elections, 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:39.320 no tax on tips that are messy and just completely 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:41.000 disconnected from reality. And then you have 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.259 the reality on the ground, like the voters in 00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:45.480 Fort Worth are the investors buying small construction 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:48.240 companies. The source mentioned a new Democratic 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.480 pilot program. It's called Local Listeners. I 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:53.440 loved this detail. Instead of sending people 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:56.320 out to preach or hand out pamphlets, they train 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:59.220 volunteers just to listen, to ask their neighbors 00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:01.399 what they care about and then just shut up. It's 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:04.080 such a contrast. One side is trying to rewrite 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.080 the Constitution and the tax code from the top 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:09.659 down. The other side is testing out. Listening. 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:11.940 It raises a pretty big question for the midterms, 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.820 you know? Are we entering an era where the party 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:17.440 that focuses on those micro interactions, simply 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.059 hearing people, beats the party relying on grand 00:13:21.059 --> 00:13:24.159 structural machinery? If that Texas swing is 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.720 real, the answer might be yes. Something to chew 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:28.879 on. Thanks for listening to this Deep Dive. See 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:29.399 you next time.